Scotus Academicus, Tomus quartus: De Angelis

Although the angels, by their nature, have no commerce with corporeal things — since they are not concreted with a body, nor do they coalesce from matter and spirit, nor are they, finally, substantial forms destined by their nature for the animation and actuation of a body — it is nevertheless certain that they sometimes produce effects toward bodily things that are altogether stupendous, whether they move bodies of any kind so that what lies hidden in them may appear to us, or work various effects in them and bring forth things wonderful and unusual. Of all these matters, that we may at least taste something of them, we here propose three especially to be determined: First, whether, and what bodies the angels assume in order to appear to men in them: Second, whether, and what vital acts they are able to perform in those bodies: Third, whether, and in what way they are able to produce or alter certain corporeal things.

Note 1. From the Seraphic Doctor, in the second book, dist. 8, art. 1, qu. 2: that there is in the angels a twofold power, namely the Contemplative and the Administrative.

According to the Contemplative, he says, they are turned toward God, and thus they do not need the solace of an assumed body. According to the Administrative they descend to us and condescend to us, and in order to condescend to us more fittingly they need the solace of an assumed body. They need it, I say, 1. for exercising certain operations; 2. they need it for manifesting themselves; 3. they need it for gladdening or comforting us ourselves, and therefore they assume bodies as instruments, or organs for operating, as signs for manifesting, as coverings, or dwellings for conversing. Hence the assumed body is joined to them as instrument to mover, as sign to what is signified, as dwelling to inhabitant. Now this need on our part requires it more than their need does on their own: and because the end imposes necessity upon those things which are toward the end, and a body figured or organized with human figure especially befits the operations of a rational spirit, and signifies them more expressively, and in some way adorns them as a beautiful garment; therefore the angel assumes a body, not just any kind, but one marked with human figure.

Note 2. From the same place, art. 2, question 1: although the angels sometimes assume human bodies, yet they do not fashion for themselves perfectly organized ones,

because, he says, the angel cannot bring a natural form into being except when aided by the power of nature; now it belongs to the power of nature to produce the bodies of all animals; nevertheless in one way and in another. For to bring forth certain things the universal cause suffices without the help of a particular agent similar in species of nature, such as those animals which are generated by putrefaction; but there are certain things for which it does not suffice unless it is aided by an agent of similar species, such as the bodies of animals, which are produced only by propagation, and this is plain to sense. But if the reason for this is asked, the first is the divine institution according to which there is a limitation in the powers and natures of things: and this according to the law which he implanted in them from the beginning. Hence just as he said, Let the earth bring forth green herbs: he did not say that it should bring forth man; but to man he said that he should multiply himself; so the earth brings forth herb, and man generates man. Now this law, or institution, is not without reason; because certain animals are imperfect both in organization and in duration, while others are perfect in both ways; but since certain animal bodies are imperfect both in organization and in completion, they do not need an agent of such great power; rather the productive power of them could have been given to the earth, as to a mother, and to the Sun as to a father, with the help of other simple bodies, both elemental and celestial; but because they are imperfect in duration and at times perish, this had to be communicated to an agent of another nature, because for this the generative power was given to things, as the Philosopher says, that they might perdure in being. Contrariwise it is with animals perfect in both ways: and therefore their productive power demands a greater actuality, and the seminal ratio is brought into act with greater difficulty: therefore it needs greater help. Those animals, then, which belong to the first kind can be brought forth by the angels, by means of nature's help, quickly and almost suddenly; truly nonetheless, because by the force of nature. But animals and their bodies belonging to the second kind cannot be brought forth truly except with the aid of nature, and with long delay and time. And since the assumption of bodies by the angels is quick and almost sudden, they do not assume true human bodies, because they cannot form them of themselves truly, nor can they bring them into being quickly with the aid of another: and even if they were brought forth, they still would not befit, partly because of the appetite they would have for a rational soul, partly because of gravity: both of which are repugnant to the end of that body. For if it had a rational soul, it would not be a fitting sign for appearing: > if it had gravity, it would not be a fitting instrument for operating, especially for motion, nor would it even be a fitting habitation for inhabiting.

Note 3. From the same place, question 2: that there was variety of opinion among the weightier Authors concerning the resolution of the present question:

for some wished to say that the angels assume bodies from elemental nature, yet so that not from one only, but from all mixed together at once, though one of them predominating: hence they say that body assumed by the angel is truly a mixed body, although it is not truly a human body. And they say that that form of mixture is from the angel as from one preparing the ground, but from the Lord as from one giving — giving, I say, not by creation or infusion, but by intrinsic operation, inasmuch as he implanted in things nature and seminal powers, according to which all natural forms are produced into being with God cooperating.

— But since that body is formed and destroyed almost suddenly, it does not seem probable to others that it is mixed by full mixture: especially since in its resolution no length of time appears, nor corruption of putrefaction: and therefore they said that that body is of simple elemental nature, from which they say that assumed body is formed in this way. For the elemental nature from which the angel forms a body for itself is the element of air, which by its nature is capable of rarefaction and condensation, if there be a power able to do this. Hence just as we now see water solidify into crystal or ice in cold: if it happens that by some hidden power — which does not escape the angels — air can be condensed, but this according to more or less at the will of the angel operating: while this body is condensed it can take on figure and effigy: and thus become conformable to an organic body. Nevertheless it can be condensed more in one part, less in another, not at all in another, and thus be conformed to nerve, bone, and flesh. It can also intercept more of light in one of its parts, less in another, none in another, and thereby have various colors in itself: and thus become almost in all respects conformable to a human body, although it is not multiform in its principles; and thus be fit as instrument, sign, and habitation, to be assumed by an angel.

— But still, because it is difficult to understand how from air, without the admixture of another element, a solid body colored with diverse colors comes to be, since to produce colors is not within art's power except through nature's assistance, therefore the third way seems still more probable, namely that the body assumed by the angel is an elementary body, not because it is compounded of four elements mixed with full mixture, like a complexioned body, nor because it is formed of pure and simple element; but because it is formed principally from air, with some admixture of another element, as we see in a cloud, which is not a fully mixed body, yet has in itself the natures of several elements: in this way the body assumed by the angel is understood to be formed principally from air, with the nature of some vapor of earth or water concurring, which indeed contributes both to variety of condensation and to multiformity of color; and the angel has no need to beg this from afar, since air is for the most part mingled with vapors.

These things prenoted, four points remain here chiefly to be determined and proved: First, that in truth the angels sometimes assume bodies in which they appear sensibly to men, so that the apparition is not an illusion and mockery of the senses, but truly an outward sensible manifestation of a body. Second, that that assumed body is sometimes fashioned by the angels from sensible matter. Third, that that assumed body is sometimes a human cadaver delineated and moved in the manner of a living being. Fourth, that the angel is in that body only as an extrinsic mover and director.

First conclusion. — Truly the angels appear at times to men in bodies visible and perceptible to sense.

This is common opinion, against William of Paris, part two of the second part of De Universo, chapter 34 and following, where he proves that the angels do not assume bodies but only alter the imagination of those to whom they appear.

Proof of the Conclusion. by all those texts of Scripture in which such sensible apparitions of angels are related; for they were most frequent in the Old Testament. For Genesis 3: the demon appeared to Eve under the appearance of a serpent, and spoke; and ch. 18: three men appeared to Abraham; and ch. 19: two angels came to Sodom in the figure of pilgrims; and ch. 32: angels came to meet Jacob, whom when he had seen he said, These are the camps of God; and afterwards one of them wrestled with Jacob in the figure of a man until morning. And finally Raphael appeared to Tobias not only in passing, if I may so speak, but accompanied him through many days and over varied journeys. In the New Testament too the angel Gabriel appeared visibly and spoke to the Virgin Mary, and the Devil appeared visibly to Christ to tempt him: and in the Acts of the Apostles, ch. 5, and more clearly in ch. 12, similar apparitions of angels are narrated. Therefore this truth is certain, and taken generally no doubt or difficulty arises about it: but in the manner of explaining such apparitions there can be some.

The holy Fathers prove this same thing, Augustine above all lib. 15. De Civit. Dei, cap. 23. That angels, says he, appeared to men in such bodies that they could not only be seen but even touched, the same most true Scripture testifies. In which words he is little short of teaching that this is a matter of faith. The same Damascene openly holds in lib. 2 De Fide, cap. 3, speaking of the holy Angels: To upright men outstanding in virtue, to whom God has willed to grant the opportunity of seeing them, they appear not as they are, but assume now one form, now another, as he may be seen by men: and therefore further below, when he had said that the angels do not consist of three dimensions, nor are circumscribed in a bodily way, nor figured, he adds, as regards their nature, indicating that in assumed bodies they can receive those three things. Indeed even in cap. 4, On the evil Angels, he says: By power granted from God they prevail with forces, and are changed, and pass, as indeed appears, into whatever form they will; wherein, as Suarez says lib. 4 cap. 33, the phrase as indeed appears does not exclude a sensible, if I may so say, manifestation; but denotes either that they do not appear as regards their proper nature, but only as regards the assumed body; or denotes that those bodies in which they appear are not of that nature or species which they display, although they are truly sensible and external.

Hence St. Gregory, Homily 34 on the Gospels, distinguishes a twofold mission of the angels, namely invisible and visible, after the manner in which Theologians are accustomed to distinguish them in the divine Persons: and he refers that distinction in the angels back to Dionysius.

Finally Cyprian, lib. De cardinalibus Christi operibus, in the Prefatione: if, he says, the Angelic Spirits who are about him, although of invisible nature, make themselves manifest to hearing and sight in their embassies, we most often experience them as ministers of our salvation.

It is proved also by the arguments of the Seraphic Doctor praised above, qu. 2. First indeed: hospitality's lodging can be extended to no one unless he has a body naturally united or assumed: but these offices have at times been rendered to angels, as is said in the last chapter of Hebrews, that some pleased God, receiving angels to hospitality: therefore they either had bodies united or assumed: but they did not have naturally united ones: therefore assumed. Second, no spiritual substance offers solace to sense from its companionship unless it becomes visible through the indwelling of a body: but angels frequently offer solaces, not only according to spirit but also according to sense, as is plain in the angel of Tobias: therefore they inhabit bodies: but they do not always have them united: therefore voluntarily assumed. Third, no spirit can be visibly pointed out in demonstration of a body unless it be somehow joined to that body: but the angel who spoke to Tobias could be visibly pointed out, and truly called "this is Raphael," or "this is an angel": therefore he had that body joined to himself in some way: but not by natural conjunction: therefore by voluntary assumption.

You will say 1. There ought to be proportion of the assumer to the assumed: but angelic spirit is wholly incorporeal: therefore it has no proportion to a body: therefore it never assumes it. It is confirmed. the rational soul has greater conveniency to a body than angelic spirit has: but a separate soul does not assume a body: therefore neither does angelic spirit.

The Seraphic Doctor answers that that proportion must be attended to according to the mode of assumption: whence since assumption is not into unity of nature, it is not required that there be proportion there as of perfective to perfectible, but it suffices that there be proportion as of mover to movable.

To the confirmation. he answers that there is no parity between an angel and a separate soul, because it has not administrative power, nor the use of administering, and therefore neither assumes a body nor ought to have the power of assuming.

You will say 2. A body is assumed either on account of something, or on account of nothing: if on account of nothing: then in vain: if on account of something, it is either good or evil: if good: then by the assumed body he merits: if evil: then by the assumed body he demerits: therefore the angel must be able to be punished and rewarded together with the assumed body, which is inconvenient and plainly false.

The same Seraphic Doctor answers that that assumption takes place, not in vain, but on account of the reasons assigned in the first Notable. That for which he assumes, however, he says, he does not perfect through the body as the soul through its own body; but as an artisan through an instrument, and therefore just as an instrument through which one merited is not rewarded, so neither is the body assumed by an angel.

You will say 3. Wherever there is assumption, there is some union, either in person, or in nature, as is plain in the assumption of human nature by the Son of God: therefore if the angel assumes a body, he unites it to himself either in person or in nature: but he does not unite it to himself in nature: because no third thing results: nor in person, because there is no communication of idioms: therefore in no way is there union there: therefore no assumption.

The same Seraphic Doctor answers, denying the antecedent: for it does not comprehend every mode of assumption, because, he says, a man assumes clothing when he puts it on, yet he does not unite it to himself in person, nor in nature: therefore the antecedent is true only of that assumption in which there is perfect union, such as was the assumption of human nature by the divine Word. But that other similar objections of this sort may be solved, he cleverly admonishes in the same place, that when an angel is said to assume a body, this assumption is not to be so understood as if he merely moved it, or operated something upon the body; but because he takes it to himself, that in it he may operate, that in it he may be manifested, that in it he may converse: and because in that conjunction or reception the body follows rather the mode of the spirit than conversely, since it is formed, preserved, and ruled by it, therefore the angel holds the role of assumer and possessor; the body truly the role of assumed and possessed.

You will say 4. The angels sometimes appear to men by mere alteration of the interior senses and of the imagination, namely when they address sleeping men: thus e.g. an angel appeared to Joseph in dreams, saying: arise, and take the child and his mother, etc. Why then shall we not affirm that they always appear thus?

I answer. that this indeed truly happens at times, but I deny that it is always done in that manner. I acknowledge therefore that apparitions of angels are accustomed to take place in one or other of these three ways: First by mere alteration of the imaginative faculty: Second by a certain disturbance of the external sense, as happens in prestiges: Third by the external representation of a sensible object, whether meanwhile what appears is true or merely fictitious. It is indeed true that angels sometimes appear to men in the first way; they are also seen in the second way, namely when demons mock men with their prestiges: yet it must also be confessed that they are sometimes perceived in the third way, namely in assumed bodies duly presented to the visual faculty rightly disposed for operating.

You will say finally. with the aforesaid William of Paris, at the beginning of the Conclusion: if the angels appeared in bodies, they would either fashion those bodies or assume them formed elsewhere: but neither can be said. Not indeed the first, for the fabrication of such bodies would be either sudden or successive; if it were done suddenly: then by the mere nod and command of the assumers: but this belongs to the virtue of the omnipotent Creator alone: but if it were not done suddenly, but successively, part namely after part, then this fabrication would be generation, wherefore it would be from something which would be corrupted into the generated; since therefore it must be visible, it is necessary that such generation take place elsewhere than before the men before whom such apparition is made: since therefore it has never been seen anywhere in the whole world either taking place, or the matter from which it is made, it is necessary that it be made outside the dwelling of men: how then do they arrive into the sight of men with such velocity, and depart likewise with no less? and where do they lay down and store away those bodies of which no trace appears after their disappearance? Such are his words.

He confirms it from the fact that the angels sometimes appear in greatest number,

for, he says, their army seems greater than all the armies of all the Kings and Princes of the earth: whence then would the matter be assumed from which so great a numerosity of human bodies, and of new horses, shields, lances, helmets, and other things appearing was fabricated, when whole mountains and all other parts of the earth persist?

— Nor yet secondly, for if they were true bodies, he says in the same place, of the kind they appear, they would be truly tangible, truly palpable, and truly passible with every kind of passion: but nothing of this is found in them. Moreover, to be corrupted suddenly and reduced to nothing is not possible; for the corruption of a body, or its generation, does not seem possible to happen suddenly, as it is manifest of creation that it is instantaneous, and not done in any way by parts or succession: where then would that corruption take place, if not where also their apparition and disappearance? There therefore it is necessary that in truth appear and be that in which the corruption or resolution of such bodies is made; but it is manifest, since they leave nothing behind them that is body or corporeal.

He answers, that the angels sometimes appear in bodies fashioned by themselves, but sometimes in bodies formed elsewhere; how however, and from what matter, they can fashion or dismiss bodies with so easy and so sudden formation or resolution, will be opened up

Second conclusion. — The angels sometimes appear in bodies which they fashion out of matter, not celestial, nor purely elementary, but mixed.

This is the common view, according to the truth of the matter, among almost all Theologians, although some vary in the mode of explaining and proving the same; and the Subtle Doctor openly defends it, dist. 8, n. 3, whose words, since they lucidly explain the truth and proof of this resolution, I am glad to transcribe here.

I say, he says, that he does not assume a celestial body, nor an elementary body in which he may appear, because in the elementary he would not appear visibly, nor is an elementary body receptive of those accidents in which he appears. Mixed bodies, however, already generated by nature, he can assume, such as the corpse of the dead, or a stone, or something of that kind. And when he assumes some one which does not seem previously caused or formed by natural causes, but seems to be formed then and suddenly, and, the operation complete, to disappear, as happened with Raphael and Samuel; then it seems probable that it is a mixed body on account of the accidents which appear in the body; but not mixed with full mixture: both because from generation such a mixture could not be formed so suddenly, for it would not be born to generate except according to a determinate process of nature, which is not there, namely if he appear in the body of a man not previously generated by nature, that body would not be born, or apt to be generated, except in matter. It cannot be said that the angel suddenly induces that form into matter, because he cannot induce a natural form, but only the active and passive elements can he fittingly apply together, and approximate to bodies in a fitting situation, so that the particular form may be induced which is born to be induced by such particular agents.

Therefore the body which is thus so suddenly formed and resolved is mixed with imperfect mixture, such as can be induced by natural agents, the approximation of the elements having been made almost suddenly; so that such a body is more assimilated to an impression which is imperfectly mixed, and the sign of this is, that when such a body disappears, there does not remain anything of such a body into which the assumed body would naturally be resolvable by means thereof, if it had been perfectly mixed; for a human body, if it were a perfect mixture, is not born to return except to a cadaver: but such an imperfectly mixed one is resolved at once into the elements, just as it could at once be generated from them on account of their imperfect mixture.

By these arguments the Doctor concludes chiefly three things. First, that angels do not assume a heavenly body, because they would either assume a heavenly body already generated or produced before, that is, some part of the heavenly bodies, e.g., of the heavens or of the stars; but this would be stupid to think, since it would follow that those superior bodies would not remain intact, either, in place of the part assumed by the angel, another part would have to be produced anew; or there would be some body of the same species as the heavenly body; but this also would be absurd, since, bearing as it does the species of a sublunary body, it ought rather to be called sublunary than heavenly. Add that a heavenly body would not be a proportionate subject for those accidents which appear in bodies of this kind when assumed.

The Doctor concludes secondly that that body figured and assumed by angels is not formed out of any one of the four elements. For if any pure element served for this, especially air: yet air is not a proportionate subject of those accidents which are in bodies assumed by an angel, namely such solidity and density as there is in bones, or in those parts which appear as bones in those bodies. Then, too, since that body appears as a mixed body distinct from the elemental ones, and it would not seem easier for an angel to produce those external accidents which appear than a mixed body, it ought rather to be said that it is a mixed body than air, or some other element.

Hence I cannot assent to Alexander of Hales, q. 34, member 4, where, having said that there is a twofold part of air, namely the upper, which is purer and properly called air, and another lower, which is named Aether, and that on this basis two heavens are distinguished, the ethereal and the aerial, he concludes that good angels assume bodies from the ether, but evil ones rather from the air. This, I say, I can hardly prove, seeing that neither portion of air seems capable of being so condensed and compacted into a body as to display the softness of flesh and the hardness of bones.

Whence the Doctor concludes thirdly, that the body formed by angels should have as its matter some mixture, namely vapor, or a cloud: as St. Thomas also grants, affirming that angels sometimes fashion for themselves bodies out of a cloud, which Maro too was not ignorant of when he sang of the Devil disguised: Then the goddess in a hollow cloud, a slender shadow without strength, a marvel wondrous to behold, fashioned into the face of Aeneas, adorned with Dardanian arms, etc. The reason of this is that a mixed body can easily be condensed, and take on thickness and shape, as is evident in clouds, vapors, exhalations, and other meteors, some of which are so compacted by cold, or hardened by ethereal fire, that they can scarcely be dissolved, as appears in lightning and hail. I confess, however, that it can hardly be explained how bodies formed by angels out of vapors and clouds can be so hardened as to be felt or touched, so that to the touch they appear either solid or soft;

for who could explain, says St. Augustine in the Enchiridion, chapter 59, with what kind of bodies they appeared to men, so that they were not only seen but even touched? And a little later he adds, And they raise a most difficult question, how the Patriarchs washed their feet, how Jacob wrestled with the angel in so solid a contest; and in the same place he concludes:

When these things are inquired into, and each one handles them as best he can, minds are not unprofitably exercised, provided the discussion be moderate, and the error of those who think they know what they do not know be far away; for what need is there that this and the like be affirmed or denied or defined with risk, when they can be left unknown without fault?

and although Augustine said this about bodies in which he thought angels naturally subsist, the same judgment must be held, with stronger reason, of those which angels assume by will alone.

Nevertheless we can affirm that an angel, by the same power by which he assumes the body, can make it appear solid to the touch although in itself it is not solid; namely, by his own power resisting, lest the parts of such a body yield or be divided easily. Hence he can bring it about that some softer parts appear like flesh, and others denser like bone; for he can resist the touch more or less, yielding not at all in some places, somewhat in others; not so as to be divided, but so as to be somehow compressed.

I confess, however, that if the man with whom the angel converses in an assumed body considers attentively what he touches while the angel handles the body, he will easily judge that it is not true hardness, nor true softness such as is found in bones and flesh: for if he attended carefully, he would easily perceive that his touch is not affected by those bodies as by others which live and have real flesh and bones.

The opposite happens, however, when a man is persuaded that this is a true man with whom he converses and whom he sees; for then, since he judges with his eyes that he is a man, and touches his body with his mind, he thinks he is touching flesh and bones, nor does he discern whether it is a true body or only an apparent one. Thus I think it happened to Abraham and Lot when in Genesis 18 and 19 they washed the feet of the angels: for then they did not know that they were angels appearing in assumed bodies.

As for the colors which are fashioned by angels in assumed bodies, very many hold them to be merely apparent, like those which are repeatedly seen in clouds, or on the neck of a dove: but this seems difficult, since the same colors appear to many beholders and in different places, even when the sun is not shining, which does not happen with the rainbow, clouds, and other merely apparent colors: therefore they are real, arising partly from the blending of the elements and primary qualities, partly disposed by the work of the angel as though painting them with art.

Concerning the power by which these bodies are assumed and prepared, St. Thomas holds, question 51, that it is done by the power of God. But Alexander of Hales, question 34, member 5, says that the angel prepares the assumed body, while the ultimate formation is done by God himself. Yet I judge it more probable, with

the Doctor, that those bodies are made by the angel by his own power: for the Doctor holds, as we said above, that those bodies are shaped by condensation; and since condensation is brought about solely by a motion of compression, which the angel can effect by his own power, it follows that a body can be assumed by the angel by his own power. And although this is not always done by condensation alone, yet the angel can sometimes accomplish such bodies by applying other natural causes, so that they may be assumed. This I think more probable, for since evil angels also assume bodies for the worst ends, it is not likely that God forms them by his own power, using only the demon himself as instrument.

Moreover, it must be noted that when angels, especially demons, appear in a body figured by themselves and assumed, they can insert it into the body of the man with whom they speak, and also surround that man with their assumed body; so that the man thus surrounded and clothed with such a body may either bear the likeness of another man, or put on some other form: for this the subtlety of the aerial substance urges, being easy to dilate or rarefy, and to thicken and condense. Which Psellus rightly hands down as the cause why specters seem to grow and shrink in so short a space: for sometimes those specters represent a giant, at other times a dwarf or a pygmy; because the matter out of which they compacted the assumed body, being thin and soft, can easily be rarefied and condensed.

Third conclusion. — Demons for the most part appear in bodies either of men or of animals that have died.

This also is the common view among Theologians, as is proved by well-nigh countless examples, whereby it is established that demons have for the most part deluded men in assumed corpses of the dead: many examples of this kind Caesarius, Monk of Heisterbach, adduces in book 12 of his Miracles, chapter 3, where he relates above all that a demon bore about the body of a certain German Prince who had died, for a whole year before he was buried, as though quickening it: so that he truly seemed to have risen from the dead. He adds in the same place that similar things are read in the life of St. Patrick, Apostle of the Irish, concerning a certain man in whose body the Devil dwelling for many years as though he were the man's soul at length went forth at the nod of the holy man, and the body collapsed and was reduced to dust. And in chapter 4 he writes that a certain Clerk had so sweet a voice that to hear him seemed a delight, until a certain Religious conjured him; at whose word the corpse fell down flat, stenching horribly.

— So also clad in a corpse the Devil, whether incubus or succubus, has dealings with witches and fortune-tellers. Whence also in that kind of men a certain cadaverous stench of foulness is discerned.

So William of Paris, in the last part of De Universo, relates that once, having assumed the carcass of a beast, the Devil deluded a soldier who, thinking he had possessed a beautiful maiden, found himself lying in the embrace of a beastly carcass dissolved in corruption, stenching most foully.

So finally the demon at times raises up bodies already buried, and agitates them as though they were living, so that they may seem to have risen again; a thing of this stupendous kind Phlegon relates in the book On Marvels and Long-lived Persons, whose authority Origen uses in tractate 29 on Matthew, to prove the eclipse which had occurred at Christ's dying. That Phlegon, I say, testifies that he knew a certain man named Machates, who had loved Philinnium, the daughter of his host, against the will of her parents, and desired to lead her as his bride; during Machates' absence she, wasting away with grief, died, and was publicly buried. But when Machates returned six months later, Philinnium entered to him by night, and after long conversation with him passed the night there; which when her parents had heard, and had caught sight of their daughter sleeping with her guest, they rush into his embraces as though she were alive; but she, regarding them with fierce eyes,

O cruel parents toward your daughter! she said: could you not have grudged me, my Machates, even three full days of enjoyment in my father's house? Will this curiosity or hardness cost you great grief? You will renew past sorrows, and bury your daughter a second time.

These words spoken, she grew pale, and fell down, a corpse again like unto death, or rather truly dead: for when, at the command of the Magistrate, the tomb of that Philinnius had been opened, it was found empty of the corpse, and in it were only an iron ring and a gilded cup, which Machates had given as presents to her as though returned to life.

— It happens also that the daemon, enticed by the works of Magicians, at times steals living persons, and substitutes in their place dead corpses fashioned to the likeness of those persons, exhibiting them as though languishing, at length sickening unto death, then dying, and to be buried as dead, so that the persons withdrawn by him may be accounted truly dead. Two stupendous examples of this kind Thomas of Brabant relates in book 2 De Bono Universali, chapter 51, where he writes that in a village of Brabant named Gunerchena, a certain youth loved a virgin maiden; and when her parents anxiously pressed him for her marriage, and they refused, meanwhile the girl fell into an acute fever, under which growing worse, she seemed to all to die, and mourning being made, the bells were tolled as for one dead. Without delay, the young lover of the girl was passing at twilight from that village to another, and as he went through the thickets he heard a voice as of a woman lamenting anxiously: so running hither and thither, and seeking her whom he had heard, he found the girl whom he had judged dead; to whom he said, Your people mourn you as dead, and whence do you come here? Behold, she said, a man goes before me who led me here. Astonished at this, since he saw no one else but the girl, the youth boldly seizes her, and straightway hides her in a house outside the village. Thence entering the village he speaks with his friends, and with them comes upon the father of the girl sitting with his household at the funeral; he asks him whether he would give him his daughter, whom he was bewailing as dead? To whom the father answered in wonder, Are you God's envoy to me, that you should raise the dead and take her to wife? To whom the youth said: Only promise me willingly that I may have your daughter to wife, if I restore her alive and healed. To him the father consenting confirmed the word before all; presently the youth, lifting the linen with which the daughter was thought covered, they found a marvelous figment such as no man could make. It is said moreover by those who inspected these diabolical figments that they were inwardly like rotten wood, and outwardly wrapped in a thin skin: hence the girl restored...

But if you ask, how could the daemon accomplish these things? I shall answer that it is indeed done, God permitting, by magical power, which perhaps that youth had used, that he might lead the foresaid daughter to himself in marriage. Other things like these we shall relate in the last Disputation, when we speak of Magi and Witches.

It must be noted, moreover, first of all, that the daemon cannot truly organize those assumed corpses, nor restore life to them, since the vivification of the dead is the work of God alone. Yet he can, if permitted, render himself tangible in the assumed body of the deceased with true hardness and softness on the part of the body, external causes also conjoined, heat, and other sufficient qualities, so that it appears alive to the touch.

It must be noted likewise, that it must without doubt be believed that this is never permitted to the daemon with regard to the bodies of those who died just; because it is unfitting, nor is it consonant with divine friendship: but of others perhaps it sometimes happens; yet I think it rarely permitted to the daemon, because so great license is not given him, especially in the Church of Christ, for deceiving men.

However much he may wish to represent the fairest likeness of a man, which is of God's goodness, he is wont to assume only as much, and such, as God permits, as St. Chrysostom testifies, Homily 4 on Lazarus; and therefore we see it happen even against his will, that those who are not too dull of mind can always, if attentive, detect the fraud: for either the demons show themselves in a human body black, filthy, squalid, stinking, hideous, and dreadful, at least dark, black, and foul of face, with nostrils either deformedly flat or monstrously aquiline, with jaws gaping wide and deep, with eyes deeply sunken yet flaming, with hands and feet crooked and vulturine, arms and legs shaggy and exceedingly hairy, with calves goat-like or ass-like, one or both feet cloven and horny; sometimes solid-hoofed, sometimes maimed in one foot or both: finally, of a stature never comely and graceful, but always bearing something of unusual mark, betraying the deformity and perversity of the demon.

You will say. If the daemon could assume a true human body, it would follow that there was no argument of Christ the Lord, whereby in Luke 24, when the Disciples doubted of his true resurrection, he wished to persuade them that he was not a phantom, saying: Handle, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have; by which words he invited them to handle and see that he himself had flesh and bones, such as spirits have not even when they assume bodies: therefore he implies that a spirit cannot assume for itself a body that is palpable, and has the softness of flesh and the hardness of bones: but such would be a human body assumed by a daemon: therefore it cannot assume it, or else the argument of Christ did not seem to press much.

I deny the consequence. For the intent of Christ was only to persuade the Apostles that he was not a phantom, such as they thought him, because they had seen him enter through doors closed; which was repugnant to anything corporeal, whether living or dead, since penetration of bodies cannot naturally occur: therefore he wished to prove that by touch they could feel and judge that he had a true body, and not a phantastic one. And because by handling alone they could know that it was a body, but not whose body it was, therefore he commands them to see and touch the wounds imprinted on his body, whereby they were allowed to detect that he was the very one who had been crucified three days before.

Fourth conclusion. — An angel does not assume a body by way of an informing form, nor by way of hypostatic union, but as a mover ruling and directing it in the eliciting of certain operations.

Thus the Subtle Doctor, dist. 8, num. 2, where, having asked what it is for an angel to assume a body, he answers: This indeed, he says, is not to inform, nor even to unite it hypostatically to himself, but only to be the intrinsic mover of the body: for then he assumes, that is, takes to himself; because to discharge his proper operations he uses it as an instrument. Nor is that assumption said to occur when the assumed body is moved with progressive motion; because such motion does not suit the end for which such a body is assumed.

By these the Doctor resolves first that an angel is not united to a body as form, because otherwise he would be an incomplete substance, not complete, no less than the soul; nay, he would be a soul; because if he could inform some body, especially an organic body, seeing that it is fitter for information, he would thus be the act of an organic body.

He infers secondly that he does not assume a body hypostatically, since at least naturally such hypostatic union cannot occur; but demons assume bodies only by natural power: and in good angels a miracle does not seem admissible as often as they appear to men; for the matter is per se far too slight for establishing so great a miracle as hypostatic union itself.

He concludes thirdly, that for an angel to assume a body is nothing else than to assist it as a mover in the mobile, in order to exercise those operations truly or apparently, by which the angel may seem to inform the assumed body. In this the other Princes of Theology agree likewise, especially St. Thomas, 1, q. 51, art. 2, and the Seraphic Doctor, in 2, dist. 8, art. 3, q. 2. For nothing seems further required for that assumption of a body than that the angel intrinsically move the assumed body in such wise, which will plainly appear by assigning the reason of the individual parts of this dictum on assumption. First, we say that the angel is an intrinsic mover, because if he were an extrinsic mover he would not properly be said to assume a body to himself; likewise, if he were intimately present to the body, but not in order to move it, surely he would not be said to assume it; just as neither can the soul, present to a body, assume a body, nor is one body simultaneously penetrated with another body said to assume that other body, even if by its own power it placed itself penetratingly together with it. There is added, in order to exercise such operations, because it would not suffice that he be intimately present by way of local motion, otherwise an angel present to the Heaven and locally moving it would be said to assume the Heaven; likewise the angel who carried the Prophet Habakkuk by the hair to the den of lions, in which Daniel the Prophet was shut up, would be said truly to have assumed him, which nevertheless all Interpreters deny; for that translation was indeed a carrying of the body, but not an assumption. We said true or apparent operations, because some of those operations which appear are such not in the truth of the thing; for sensible hearing, bodily touch, and ocular vision, which we think the angels exercise in assumed bodies, are not true actions, but merely apparent.

Finally, the Doctor gathers that it does not suffice for that assumption of a body by an angel that he move it locally; for thus the motive Intelligences would assume the celestial spheres which they are said to move. Add that bodies remain assumed even when the angel ceases from all motion. Therefore, for him to be truly said to assume a body which he moves with progressive motion, it must be understood of progressive motion that either is a sign of life, or signifies the angel to be intimately present to the body and moving it intrinsically.

Note 1. Vital actions are of a twofold kind above all: some are said to be productive of an intrinsic term, which is called vital, because it either essentially depends on an intrinsic principle of life, both proximate and principal, or at least cannot naturally be brought about in any other way; of this kind are all the actions of the external and internal senses, and also of the sensitive appetite. Others, however, are actions of living things which, although they are performed by them in a vital mode and are such under that aspect, nevertheless produce terms that can be brought about by a non-vital action, such as progressive local motion, the formation of the voice, and the like; these can be called vital actions as to their mode, and not as to their substance, so that they may be distinguished from the former, which can be called vital essentially, or in their substance.

Note 2. From the Seraphic Doctor in 2. dist. 8. art. 3. q. 2., sensation can be taken in three ways, namely commonly, properly, and more properly. Commonly, to sense is the same as to know a thing as present, according to which mode Augustine takes it in the book De videndo Deo addressed to Paulina. In the second way, to sense is the same as to know a thing as it is here and now, and thus Boethius takes it, when he says that sense is of particulars, and intellect of universals. In the third way, to sense is the same as to receive, by means of a bodily organ, the species existing in matter apart from matter, and thus the Philosopher takes it in the second book de Anima, when he says that sense is receptive of species in matter apart from matter. In the two prior ways sense does not differ from intellect in reality, but in reason only, and in this way sensation can be admitted in an angel; for the angel knows a thing by his intellectual power as present, and as here and now, by directing his gaze upon it. In the third way, however, the sensitive power differs from the intellectual in reality and in reason, and in that third way sense is a power tied to a body, and in this way it does not befit an angelic spirit. So St. Bonaventure.

Note 3. From the same, ibidem,

Since the soul is united to the body in a threefold way, namely in the manner of a mover, or of a perfecter, or in both ways, so it has a threefold kind of operations with regard to the body: for some are operations that follow from the soul itself in the body as mover; some as perfection; some partly in this way and partly in that. Now the soul exercises in the body, in different ways, the operations that follow from it as mover and as perfection: for the operations that follow from the soul as mover it exercises through the body in such a way that it exercises those same operations upon the body itself, because it moves not only other bodies but also its own body. But the operations that follow from the soul in the body as its perfection the soul exercises in the > body through the body in such a way that it exercises them with the body, as is evident from the fact that the soul, with the eye closed, cannot see some body. The third operations, however, it exercises in the body in a manner as it were of both ways; and therefore the first befit the soul as mover, distinct from the movable thing; the second, as the form joined to matter. Therefore, since the angel is united to the assumed body not as perfection but as mover, it exercises the first operations fully in that same body; the second not at all; the third in a certain way yes, and in a certain way no. And this is better seen if we descend to examples: progressive motion, or whatever other motion, of the exterior members is from the soul in the body as mover, and therefore it befits an angel. But to sense through the organs of the body befits the soul as the perfection of those organs; for as the soul perfects the whole body, so the sight, or visual power, perfects the eye, and this does not befit the angel in the assumed body. But to laugh is an operation that partly befits the soul as mover, partly as perfection; for there is there a certain exhilaration of the heart, and this is from the soul as perfection; and there is also there a certain motion of the cheeks, and this is from the soul as mover. By reason of the first it does not befit the angel, but only by reason of the second.

So the Seraphic Doctor, with whom the Subtle Doctor agrees in many points, as he will show.

First conclusion. — Angels in assumed bodies can exercise operations of life that are performed through the motion of the body; but not those that necessarily proceed from the sensitive or vegetative faculties.

So the Doctor praised above, n. 4., where he explains the First part of the conclusion thus:

I say that the angel can cause local motion in the assumed body, and thus motion that seems to be progressive; also motion that would be of inspiration and respiration, the motion of the eyelids and of the hands and of similar things: and the reason is, because there is no body so imperfect in the universe that it has not something in its active power, as is evident of a heavy body with respect to the center.

So the Doctor. From which it is established that he grants that every vital action that is performed through the motion of the body the angel can elicit in the assumed body. He proves this, because no power should be denied to a spiritual substance that is granted to a body: but the power of acquiring a place is granted to bodies; therefore also to angels. Yet I confess that this proof is only a light conjecture, since this power could befit a body even though it did not befit a spirit, for many things befit bodies that do not square with spirits; for there is no body that cannot produce some corporeal quality, yet no spirit, as is commonly supposed, can effect this. The true reason, therefore, why an angel can effect this motion is that it can transfer a body from place to place; but it could not do this unless it could equally move it locally; therefore it can walk in the assumed body, etc. Hence we read of the angel Raphael that, while Tobias walked, he spoke, and effected other motions and gestures of the body.

The Doctor also indicates the Second part in the same place, namely that the operations that necessarily proceed from the sensitive or vegetative faculties cannot be produced by angels in assumed bodies; and this is first evident concerning the operations of the sensitive faculties:

Because, he> says, those are not naturally apt to be received except in a composite of an organ at least perfectly mixed and of the soul, insofar as it has a perfective power, neither of which is there, namely neither such a mixture nor a perfecting soul; and therefore, simply speaking, in such a composite body that he assumes there is no sensation. Also the operations that consist in truly acting, of which kind are the vegetative operations, do not befit that composite; for either those operations are naturally apt to belong to an animate composite, which is not there; or to a perfectly mixed body, as if flesh were to generate flesh: but neither is there. Likewise as to the vegetative acts that appear, if we speak of true nutrition, nothing there can be nourished; but if we speak of eating, which precedes nutrition, that is only the division of food by the local motion of the jaws, and its conveyance into the belly by local motion; then exhalation and resolution into humor, or into the elements, can take place; and these local motions can be brought about in the body by the active power of the angel. And as was said of the nutritive, so must be said of the augmentative, for there there is no nutrition or augmentation: yet there can be a true juxtaposition, if he himself should wish suddenly to add to his body other elements that can be imperfectly mixed, so as to bring about such an imperfect mixture, so that he might seem to grow.

But if you say, if eating is not a vital operation, then the argument for proving the true resurrection of Christ from his eating with his Disciples is worthless, which is against the holy Fathers. — I answer, that for proving his resurrection there are in the Gospel many other arguments more efficacious than this one, and thus along with the others it proves well, even if not by itself alone. Or I say that it was an eating ordered to true nutrition, for it is not unfitting that a glorious body can convert a non-glorious body into itself, just as it can be together with a non-glorious body; nor is it on that account corruptible, because it can convert another into itself; for God could make a glorious body in the least quantity, and augment it through eating, and yet nothing of what was nourished and augmented would be corrupted; but in such assumed bodies there is no nutrition, but only addition, or apposition.

So the Doctor. From which he concludes three things above all: First, that truly sensitive actions, or sensations, cannot be elicited by angels in assumed bodies, because those actions require a living organ, either as an effective principle, or as a receptive principle, or perhaps as a productive and receptive principle; therefore, since in assumed bodies there are no living organs — otherwise the assumed body would have to be judged vivified by the angel, and consequently the angel would be the act of the body, and in consequence would be a soul, and an incomplete substance naturally requiring to be in a body, all of which are absurd — therefore neither can those truly and properly sensitive operations be elicited in assumed bodies. He infers, secondly, that eating can be brought about by angels insofar as it is the crushing of food and its conveyance into the inner part, or stomach, but not insofar as it signifies the conversion of the food into the substance of the one fed; for, says the Seraphic Doctor, dist. 8. art. 3. quaest. 1., in perfect feeding or eating there is a twofold action: The first is the taking and consumption of the food; the second is the conversion and union of that food with the substance of the one fed. The first, he says, befits angels in the assumed body, not in pretense but truly, because they truly take and consume the food set before them; not so the second, for the food taken does not restore their need or loss; for that feeding is not in the angels from need, as it is in bodies truly nourished. Hence those foods taken by the angels either dissolve into the air or are carried away elsewhere. For this reason the angel Raphael said to Tobias: I seemed to eat with you: but I make use of invisible food; for by seeming to eat, he indicated that he truly took the food, divided it, and conveyed it into the inner part of the assumed body, but did not convert it into the substance of that same body.

Finally the Doctor infers that the eating done by Christ after the resurrection before the Disciples could truly take place through the conversion of the food into his substance, and therefore be true nutrition: namely because it does not seem unfitting that a glorious body, by the absolute power of God, can be nourished without the loss of any part previously possessed.

This opinion Suarez, undeservedly and without any reason whatever, marked as error in lib. 4. cap. 39., because, he says, it may seem excessive, or at least rash; both because, he says, it is against the common consent of the holy Fathers and of the Church; and also because it is against the impassibility, or perfection, of the risen body. But both these reasons, as well as that man's censure, appear utterly absurd; for first, groundlessly he feigns it to be against the sense of the Church, since on this matter not even a syllable is read among the Fathers. Secondly, he falsely supposes that nutrition cannot take place without the loss of the preceding parts; for which of the Philosophers besides Suarez ever dreamed this? Nutrition indeed takes place through the addition of a new part of substance, but it does not necessarily entail the loss of the preceding parts. Nor does what he again objects have any more truth, namely that if nothing was lost through the eating of Christ after his resurrection, it follows that his body was incomplete, or that through the substance added it was made in a way monstrous, since it would have a redundant portion of substance.

— For he answers that, since that added substance was small, the body of the Lord Christ could not be said to have anything exuberant, or beyond its natural lot and just proportion. Nor did it equally follow from this that he would be passible, since nothing of him perished through that nutrition. Suarez's censure, therefore, is vain.

You will say. Tertullian in lib. 3. adversus Marcionem, who contended that the body of the Lord Christ was only phantastic, but not true and solid, and proved this from the fact that the angels, in the phantasm of putative flesh, acted before Abraham and Loth, and yet truly both met with them, and were fed, and did what had been commanded them; Tertullian replies:

Know that not even that is to be conceded to you, that the flesh in the angels was putative, but true and solid human substance: for if it was not difficult for that putative flesh to exhibit true senses and acts, much more easily did it have to give true substance of flesh with true senses and acts.

Therefore Tertullian grants that the angels had, just as a true body, so also truly vital bodily operations.

I answer. Tertullian was utterly doubtful in solving this question, whether the angels ever had true bodies and true bodily vital operations; for indeed he teaches the negative part in the book De Carne Christi cap. 6., where he says of the angels: It is established, he says, that the angels did not bear their own flesh, that is, of a spiritual substance of nature, and if of some body, nevertheless of their own kind: but they were transformable for a time into human flesh, so that they could be seen and meet with men. And more openly in the book De Resurrectione Carnis cap. 62.: Because the angels, he says, were sometimes as men, eating, drinking, and stretching out their feet to the washing: for they had put on a human surface, their own substance remaining intact within. And so it seemed to Tertullian to suffice that it did not agree with the dogma of Apelles, who said the angels were created from airy substance; but what kind of bodies were assumed by them, true or masked, he held in doubt.

Which indeed ought not seem marvelous, since blessed Augustine himself, referring to this perplexing question lib. 3. De Trinitate, cap. 1, confesses that it exceeds the powers of his attention; and blessed Bernard followed him, Homilia 5. in Cantica.

Moreover, he says, whether natural bodies belong to those spirits, as ours belong to men, or whether the spirits themselves, when there is need, take bodies, and again, the work being finished, lay them down into that same matter from which they were taken, to be dissolved? I do not wish you to inquire into this: the Fathers seem to have held different views on such things, nor is it clear to me whence I should teach one or the other, and I confess my ignorance; but I judge that the knowledge of these things contributes little to our profit.

But as to the speech that angels frequently form in assumed bodies, our Alensis, qu. 35. memb. 4., ascribes to them the power by which they can form a voice similar to the human not only through the assumed body as through instruments serving the human voice like organs, but even without any assumed human body at all; which also all antiquity attests, which remembers oracles not only in statues and idols, but also in caves, trees, beasts, and even in skulls uttered by the demon.

Yet I would judge that speech formed by angels is not properly so called, since this action, no less than those described above, is vital; nor does it, properly speaking, signify only the sound formed in the air, but also the manner of its formation, namely that it be made immediately through one's own vital organs, and from the motion of the phantasy, and with the intention of signifying something. And although an angel can form in the air, or in the assumed body, a sound similar to that, and materially of the same nature as the sound of the human voice, yet he cannot fashion that same sound formally, since that sound of angelic speech is not made through vital organs, nor through the alteration of the phantasy, nor with the intention of signifying something. Therefore angels speak in assumed bodies only in about the manner in which someone artfully expresses the sound of the human voice by means of some instrument, say a pipe or a trumpet, or in the way hollow valleys and fissures of walls, and likewise the recesses of caves, echo back a received and reverberated voice in a most articulate manner.

— But it must be observed that demons speaking in bodies for the most part use a shrill, hissing, confused, obscure, weak, puny voice, and as it were from a tun, or through a cracked shell, as Remigius admits in lib. 1. De Demonolatria c. 8.; but the devil, when he appears and speaks in an assumed body, can be seen and heard only by those whom he wishes, while remaining altogether hidden from the rest: and that naturally; if, namely, with respect to some and not with respect to others, he brings an impediment on the part of the object or of the organ, as if he should so obstruct the medium that the species are not carried through it to the eye or the hearing; or if he forbids those similitudes to be directed to others, while to those by whom he wishes to be heard and seen he allows the images and sounds to pass freely, and draws their imagination to nothing else.

Second conclusion. — Angels in assumed bodies cannot truly per se generate any perfect animal.

So the Theologians commonly, with the Doctor praised above, n. 5.

As to generation, he says, it must be said that it takes place by the power of the seed shed by the male into the female, in which the power of the father is preserved, as is commonly said: if he himself can receive that seed from someone by submitting, and preserve it in its natural quality suitable to his natural generation, until he pours it forth; he himself does nothing there except that he first receives into that assumed body that which he afterwards locally moves into someone upon whom he lies: and if that seed, before it is received into the womb, does not lose its natural quality, generation can take place through it, just as if he truly transferred what first fell into that same womb. And in this way generation is attributed not indeed to the good angel — God forbid that he mix himself in such vile things — but to the demon, because the same one first as succubus and afterwards as incubus receives the seed first poured forth by the one shedding it, and then pours it into the womb.

— The same has the Seraphic Doctor in the same dist. art. 3. q. 1., where he proves that demons cannot generate per se: first,

because generation is the production of a thing similar in species, but a demon assuming a body is not made like a man, but like a demon; therefore it cannot generate a man. Next, in order for generation to occur, it is necessary, according to the Physicians, that a threefold spirit concur, natural, vital, animal; and according to the Philosopher a threefold heat, namely the heat of the soul, the heat of the heaven, and the heat of the element; therefore, since the demon can have in the assumed body neither the animal spirit nor the animal heat, it seems that it can in no way generate. Finally, to generate is not an act of soul and body dividedly, but conjointly; but from the demon and the body there is not made one thing; therefore it can never pass through the body into the act of generating.

He adds, however, that two things concur to generation, namely the faculties and the constitution of the seed, as well as the transfusion and reception of that same seed:

the first, he says, belongs to that one alone to whom God gave the propagative power, and this in no way befits demons assuming a body; but the second, namely the reception and transfusion of the seed, can befit them; for first they submit to men in the form of women, that they may receive from them the seed of pollution, and with a certain cunning they preserve it in its power, and afterwards, by God's permission, they become incubi, and pour it into the vessels of women, from which transfusion men can be generated.

Delrio persuades this same truth with very many examples in lib. 2. Magiarum quaestionum q. 15. For antiquity, he says, thrusts forth its own offspring, begotten by demons in the guise of human form, as semi-gods: Hercules, Sarpedones, Servios Tullos; Anglia, Merlin; Pannonia, the Huns, born of the Arlunian Gothic striges and Fauns. Helinandus, lib. 4. Chronicorum, affirms that the family of Beauvais was raised up from a demon succubus. Chiesa, cap. 27. p. 2. histor. Perus., writes that in Hispaniola the demon Crocoton was accustomed to mingle with women, and that from this two-horned dwarfs are born.

— This same truth St. Augustine confirms in the books De Civitate Dei; for although in lib. 3. cap. 2. he spoke doubtfully, whether Venus could bear Aeneas from the union with Anchises, let us leave it in the middle: for a question of almost this kind arises in the Scriptures, where it is asked whether the apostate angels lay with the daughters of men? when, with the giants born, that is, men excessively large and strong, the earth was filled; nevertheless in lib. 15. cap. 23.¹ he determines the question in these words:

The report is exceedingly widespread, and many confirm that they have heard it from those with experience of such things, or from those who had the experience from persons whose good faith cannot be doubted, that Silvans and Fauns, whom the common people call Incubi, have been wanton with women and have coveted and accomplished intercourse with them; and that certain demons, whom the Gauls name Dusii, constantly attempt and effect this uncleanness — and they assert such things about it that to deny it would be shamelessness.

This very thing the Gloss confirms on those words of Genesis: The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, etc., where it says that it is not incredible that giants were begotten not by men but by angels, or by certain demons who are wanton with women.

William of Paris also proves it in part 3 of De Universo, chapter 25, where, after saying that the nation of the Huns was generated from demons of this kind, and likewise that the whole island of Cyprus was ravaged and inhabited by the sons of demons, he demonstrates by many arguments that demons can beget men, assuming and infusing not only human seed but even that of certain animals which have a certain affinity with man in generation; and he confirms this with the following example:

know, he says, that in the province of Saxony a certain bear (Ursus) carried off the wife of a certain soldier and brought her into the cave in which he dwelt, and there kept her for many days and years, and begat sons by her in the same place; and afterwards, when that woman was recovered and restored to her husband, they lived with the same woman and later became soldiers; and although they were true men of bear-like nature, this appeared in them, that their countenances inclined somewhat toward the likeness of bears' faces; and they were called Ursini, taking their surname from their father, namely the Bear, by whom they had been begotten. It should be known, moreover, that the bear is like men in two respects, namely in that they couple as married folk do; and when they are skinned, the whole shape of their body appears like that of men, on account of which many have abhorred the eating of their flesh, namely as though it were the eating of human flesh. It is therefore no wonder if bear-seed also approaches human seed with so great a likeness that it can be applied to it in a union suitable for generation. But to one who understands, is it not known that diabolical spirits of this kind can easily and suddenly present and apply to the women whom they thus deceive the seeds of animals which they know to be suitable for generation?

From these things he gathers below that the famous report, spread abroad by popular opinion, about Merlin is not improbable — namely that in Great Britain he is said to have been the son of an incubus demon — nor is that impossible. But that the same Merlin was held to be a Prophet in that same region, because he was seen to have prophesied many things about things to come, this can not undeservedly be believed to have happened by paternal instruction or teaching; for it is certain that demons know many things about the future and other hidden matters, and sometimes reveal them to others, not to say their own sons. He adds, moreover, that incubus demons are more hostile to women endowed with beautiful hair for a manifold reason: either because, he says, women of this sort devote excessive care to the dressing, adorning, and dyeing of their hair; or because they have been accustomed to strive to inflame those who look upon them with that beauty toward their own lust; or because women insolently glory in it. And perhaps they endure this temptation from wicked spirits unto the terror of divine severity, that they may cease from such adornment, fearing to inflame men to their lustful concupiscence, while they see the very demons seeming to instigate and provoke them to it.

Burchard, Abbot of Belleval, reports something similar in the life of St. Bernard, chapter 6, where he narrates that when that saint had come to Nantes, he found there a woman who was tormented by a certain wanton devil. That lascivious devil appeared to her in the form of a soldier of exceedingly handsome aspect, and falsely inclined her heart toward love of him, inwardly by hidden suggestion, outwardly by flattering speech.

And when he had obtained the woman's consent, spreading out his arms, he placed her feet upon one of his hands; and with the other hand he covered her head, and endowed her with himself as the sign of this covenant. Now she had a husband, a valiant soldier, but wholly ignorant of so execrable a commerce. Therefore that most impure adulterer abused her invisibly, even while her husband lay in the same bed, and he tormented her with incredible lust. The evil lay hidden only six years, nor did the lost woman reveal the disgrace of so great a crime. But in the seventh year she was confounded within herself and was terrified, both on account of the abomination of so continuous a filthiness and on account of the fear of God, by whose judgment she feared at every moment to be intercepted and damned. She fled to the Priests and confessed her sin. She made pilgrimage to holy places and implored the intercession of the saints; but no confession, no prayer, no largesse of alms availed her. Daily, as before, and more importunely she was infested by the demon. Finally so great a crime was poured forth into public: which her husband, having heard and learned of it, abominated the intercourse. Meanwhile the man of God had come with his company to the aforesaid place; and when the unhappy woman heard of his arrival, trembling she cast herself at his feet. Weeping floods of tears she opened to him her horrible passion and long-standing deception, and that whatever commands had been imposed upon her by the Priests had profited her nothing. She added that her oppressor had foretold her his coming and had menacingly forbidden her to go before his presence, because it would profit her nothing, and that he (the Abbot withdrawing) who had been her lover would become her cruelest persecutor. Hearing these things, the man of God consoles the woman with kindly words; and promising help from Heaven, he commands her to return on the following day (for night was already at hand), trusting in the Lord. Returning in the morning, when she had related to the man of God the blasphemies and threats which she had heard that same night from her incubus: do not heed, says the man of God, his threats, but take this staff of ours and place it on your bed, and let him do what he can. The woman did what had been commanded, and reclining on her bed, fortified with the sign of the cross, she places the staff beside her. Straightway > he is present, but he does not presume to approach either the accustomed work or the bed itself: yet he threatens most fiercely that when the man of God had departed he would return to her torments. The Lord's day was drawing near, and the man of God wished to be summoned to the Church by edict of the Bishop. And when on that day a great multitude had gathered in the Church, during the solemnities of Mass, with the Bishops Gothfrid of Chartres and Brictius of Nantes accompanying him, he himself ascended at the ambo and proclaimed that all who were in the Church should hold lighted candles in their hands. And doing this himself with the Bishops and Clerics, he publicly discloses the unheard-of audacities of the devil, and with the subscription of all the faithful who were present he anathematizes the fornicating spirit, who had burned even against his own nature in so horrendous pollutions; and by the authority of Christ he forbids access both to her and to all women thereafter. And so, when those Sacramental lights were extinguished, the whole power of the devil was thereafter extinguished, and after the woman had communicated following her confession the enemy never afterward appeared to her, but driven out beyond return he fled away.

Laurentinus Ananias reports something similar in book 1 of De natura daemonis, chapter 3, as having happened in the region of Marrea, in which not many years ago a certain girl, lovely and outstanding in beauty, and no less illustrious by birth, long refusing marriage, was found to be with child; and when her parents were anxiously inquiring about who had perpetrated such a violation, the girl of her own accord confessed that she had exercised venery both by night and by day with a certain youth; but that she did not know who he was, or whence he came or was. At these things the parents could not but be greatly astonished, anguished in mind and afflicted; and when at last they were taught by a maidservant that a man was having dealings with their daughter in the bedchamber, without any delay, with torches and tapers lighted, since it was night, they came running, and with the doors unlocked they saw a huge and horrendous monster, exceeding all human credence and most terrible of all, hanging from their daughter's embrace. Straightway they summon a priest approved in life and morals, who, while he was reciting the words of the Gospel of St. John, The Word was made flesh, the demon, with a very great and horrendous clamor raised, and terror struck and left behind him, after his own manner vanished, at the same time carrying off the ceiling of the bedchamber: but this most unhappy woman, three days later, gave birth to a monster no less horrendous, which, lest it be nourished and reared to the utter ignominy of the family, a pyre having been built after the custom, was consumed by flames.

Now the reason why demons make themselves incubi or succubi is not for the sake of grasping delight or carnal pleasure; since, being pure spirits, they cannot perceive such delight: but this is the chief reason, that through the vice of lust they may injure the whole nature of man, both of body and of soul, and thus render men more prone to all vices.

You will say 1. A demon is devoid of life and the origin of death: therefore he cannot be the author and origin of a vital act. — I answer. this vital power is not in the demon but in the seed itself; just as the power of heating is not in the cup of the one offering the drink, or in the vessel for pouring wine, but in the wine itself. But if it is asked whose son a man thus begotten may be; I answer that he is not the son of the demon but the son of the man whose seed was taken. And when it is urged that nothing is superfluous in the works of angels as in those of nature: this I concede; but when it is inferred that the demon can both receive and infuse seed indivisibly: I answer that this is true; but he rather does this visibly, as succubus and incubus, that thus by such filthiness he may infect the body and soul of man and woman.

You will say 2. A demon and a man differ in species: therefore from this coupling offspring cannot follow. — I answer. that there is no such consequence, both because from horse and ass, and from other animals discrepant in species, Mules, Thoes, Leopards, Panthers, and other hybrids are begotten; and because generation is not here attributed to the demon but to the man whose the seed is, as St. Thomas rightly says in the sixth Quodlibet, article eight, ad sextum; and therefore here man is born from man, as he is ordinarily born from male and female.

You will insist. Generation is accomplished through the formative power which is in the seed, the living body being resolved: but the body assumed by demons is not living: therefore demons cannot generate. Further, the principle of begetting is the heart: therefore since the demon lacks a heart, the cordial power is equally wanting to him, tempering the heat as is required. Finally, the seed has no generative power except so long as the animal heat is retained in it: but it must needs evaporate because of the great distance to which it is sometimes carried by the demon, etc. — I answer to the first. that the demon in this matter conducts himself not after the manner of a principal cause but of an instrumental one, applying the true seed necessary for generation: which he can assuredly perform, as was said above. To the second I say, whether the power of begetting arises from the heart or from the brain, the genital spirit is infused into the seed itself at the very moment of the seed's separation from the human body; and the demon merely preserves this spirit with its heat. For demons can employ certain means for the preservation of the seed, lest the vital heat evaporate; they can also move so swiftly and carry the seed so that those spirits cannot flow away: from which the answer to the last objection is clear.

You will say finally. That it is not to be believed that God concurs to an act of this kind, or infuses a soul into such a body born of such a coupling, and adds the crown to the work of the demon begun. — I answer. that the demon, as regards the operation of nature, is here merely an instrument, and only applies the principal agent, which is the true human seed: but that God concurs to the ultimate disposition of the organic body born of human seed: and that what is involved is merely accidental, and morally only the sin of the witch and the malice of the demon. Therefore God, as the author of nature, helps nature, but is not at the service of sin, of which He is not the author. Add that, if arguments of this kind had any force, it would follow that offspring could be begotten neither from fornication, nor from adultery, nor from incest.

I answer. that the case is different, because in these the order of nature is observed, but not in that demoniacal wedlock. — But this answer does not dissolve our rejoinder: for the order of nature is observed as regards the principal physical principles of generation; for nature merely demands that offspring be born of the prolific seed of the man duly mixed with the seed of the woman.

You will ask 1. Whether sons can be born also from a man with an incubus, and from a demon as succubus.

I answer. that it seems more probable that they cannot. For mothers supply more things for the generation of offspring and for childbirth than fathers; for the touch of the body is required, that the seed in the mother's womb may be changed into an organic body, and that most perfect architecture of the human body be completed; there is required also the continuous operation of the vegetative soul in nourishing the fetus, and other secrets of nature almost innumerable; all of which a demon in an assumed body can perform I greatly doubt, nay rather I judge that he cannot. Hence I shall steadfastly affirm that what certain histories of the French relate about the Counts of Poitou descended from Melusine the Siren and a noble man, as well as what we related above from William of Paris about the family of the Ursini propagated from a bear, must be reckoned among oft-repeated old wives' tales. I should therefore judge that the boys whom we read to have been born of a succubus demon were either supposititious, being the true offspring of another woman secretly taken away by the demon: or masked demons under the appearance of a little child newly born, and growing as it were through feeding and nursing after the manner of a true growing boy. An example of the former kind very many Authors relate with Delrio, book 2, q. 15, concerning a certain noble Bavarian, who, because he bore the death of his wife too impatiently, asserted that on a certain night a woman had returned and said that she had been raised up, the demon having assumed the appearance of the deceased woman: who thereafter lived with her husband as the aforesaid woman, and received children from him: but when that husband had been admonished many times by that masked wife to abstain from revilings and blasphemies, and yet did not amend his life, on a certain day, in the sight of this man, the lying wife herself vanished, leaving there a woman's garment and the little children whom she had secretly received from elsewhere and had supposed to be begotten of herself. — For the latter kind, however, of the demon's fraud in assuming the form of a little child born of a succubus demon, Ulricus adduces an example in his Dialogue on Pythonical Women, chapter 6.

This happened in the kingdom of Sicily in the reign of Roger, that a certain man, vigorous and skilled in the art of swimming, bathing in the sea about twilight while the moon shone, seized by the hair a woman swimming behind him, thinking she was one of his companions who wished to duck him; and speaking to her he could not extort a single word, and he led her, wrapped in a cloak, to his house, and at length solemnly took her in marriage. When he was at one time rebuked by a certain companion because he had accepted a phantom, terrified he grasped his sword, threatening in the sight of the same woman to kill the son whom he had had by her, unless she should speak and say whence she was. What, she said, woe to you wretch, you are destroying a useful wife by forcing me to speak; I would have been with you and it would have gone well with you, had you permitted me to keep the silence enjoined upon me? But now hereafter you shall not see me, and straightway she vanished. But the boy grew up and began to frequent the baths; until one day that phantastical woman snatched the same boy away in those same waves before many, him whom, had he been her true son, she ought to have driven from the sea to the shore. So far he.

To the proof of demoniacal fraud of this kind belong the little children themselves whom the demons sometimes substitute for women, as if begotten by them, and who are commonly called Changelings, that is, Exchanges, says William of Paris in the last part of De universo, chapter 25, as it were exchanged and substituted by the parent women in place of their own sons. They are said, moreover, to be so insatiable with milk that, even after exhausting the breasts of four nurses, they persist in being wasted and thin; yet most weighty, and at last after some years they utterly vanish. The Italians call them Vagitations, from their continual crying. Delrio judges that such was the boy whom a certain beggar carried about on his shoulders through Galicia with the utmost exhaustion; for when the beggar was afterwards apprehended, he confessed that the boy had been a masked devil, who had promised him that he would allure all men to give him alms so long as he was thus carried about in the habit of a sickly boy wrapped in bandages.

You will ask 2. Whether demons can produce animals of themselves?

I answer 1. That imperfect animals, as flies, worms, frogs, and insects of this kind and others, which are born from putrefaction, demons can produce quickly; not indeed by creating, but by applying actives to passives. So St. Augustine, book 3 of De Trinitate, chapter 7. And it is proved by examples almost innumerable, by which it is established that Magicians, having received a powder from the devil and cast it into the air, usually at once produce various species of locusts, cankerworms, mice, and various plagues of similar little animals. Thus also they can produce certain geese more imperfect, such as are wont to be generated from the fallen fruits of trees rotting in the sea, or from the timbers of rotten ships. — I answer 2. That they can also produce the animals which are called perfect; not indeed by applying actives to passives, since these are not born from putrefaction but from the prolific seed of parents: but they can produce them in the manner in which they do men, namely by receiving from an animal the seed emitted, as an incubus demon, and afterwards infusing it into another animal, as a succubus. A demon could also cunningly take away animals already born, and in remote places where they seem to have been born, cherish, nourish, and effect their respiration; since not rarely among stones are found not only flies, mice, and similar imperfect living things: but even sometimes perfect ones: for William of Newburgh relates in the Historia Anglorum, chapter 28, that while in a certain quarry a huge rock was being split with iron tools, there appeared two dogs filling in that rock a place capable of themselves, without any breath, understand any perceptible one: but they seemed to be of that kind of dogs which they call greyhounds, but with fierce countenances, heavy of odor, devoid of hair; and one of them, as is said, quickly expired, but the other, of, as they say, stupendous voracity, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, kept for many days in his delights. He adds, moreover, that in another stone was found a toad having a golden chain about its neck. I judge that this chain was added by a demon; for the toad itself could have been born in the same place, for in the coal mines of Liège huge flints are sometimes found in which live toads are enclosed, hidden as it were in the cradles of their nativity. So Delrio, book 2, qu. 14.

You will ask 3. Whether demons can change bodies into another species?

I answer. that they cannot; for all such transformations that are read of are illusory and deceiving: for neither, for example, can a human soul inform a beast-like body, as neither can the soul of a lion a horse's body, or the soul of a horse a human body; because each substantial form, in order to give its own being by informing, requires dispositions proper and suitable to itself, and the proper organization of its own body; hence the soul is defined: the act of an organic body. Whence it comes about that neither can a brute soul inform a human body, nor a human one a brute body. Therefore the soul of a man will not be able to migrate into a beast's body so as to inform it, much less will it be able, if it is with its body, to change an animal. This St. Augustine proves excellently lib. 18. De Civit. Dei, cap. 18, where, speaking of the juggleries of demons by which the most famous Sorceress Circe is said to have changed the companions of Ulysses into swine, he says:

nor indeed do demons create by nature, if they do anything such as this question which we are treating is concerned with; but they change, in appearance only, things which were created by the true God, that they may seem to be what they are not. Therefore I should not believe that, by any art or power of demons, not only the mind but not even the body can truly be converted into bestial limbs or lineaments: but that man's phantastic spirit, which is varied even by thinking or dreaming through innumerable kinds of things, and although it is not a body, yet assumes forms like bodies with marvelous swiftness: the bodily senses of man being lulled or oppressed, can by some ineffable manner be brought into a corporeal figure to the senses of others, so that the very bodies of the men may lie somewhere, living indeed, but much more heavily and vehemently than in sleep with their senses closed. And that phantastic spirit, as it were embodied, may appear in the likeness of some animal to the senses of others, and the man himself may also seem to himself to be such, as he could seem such to himself in dreams, and may carry burdens, which burdens, if they are true bodies, are carried by demons to make sport of men, some beholding true bodies of burdens, part false ones of beasts. For a certain man named Praestantius related that it had happened to his father that he should take that poison by means of cheese in his house, and should lie on his bed as if sleeping, who nevertheless could in no way be aroused: after some days, however, he said that he had awakened as it were, and had related as it were dreams which he had suffered, namely that he had been made a horse, and had carried grain among the other beasts of burden to the soldiers, which is called retica, because it is carried to the nets; and that it was found that this had been done as he narrated: yet these things seemed to him his own dreams. Another also declared that in his house during a night, before he rested, he had seen coming to him a certain Philosopher very well known to him, and that he had expounded to him certain Platonic matters which he had previously, when asked, refused to expound; and when he had been asked by the same Philosopher why he did in his house what he had denied to the petitioner in his own house: I did not do it, he said, but I dreamed that I did it: and hence to the other, waking, it was exhibited through the phantastic image, what the other saw in dreams. These things have come to us not from witnesses of any quality whatsoever whom we should think it unworthy to believe, but from those relating them whom we should not judge to have lied to us. Wherefore that men are said, and it has been committed to letters by the Gods, or rather demons, that the Arcadians are wont to be converted into wolves, and that Circe changed the companions of Ulysses by meats after that manner, seems to me to have been able to happen in the way I have said, if however it was done.

Thus St. Augustine.

James Sprenger relates in the second part of De mallei maleficarum, q. 2,

that in the city of Salamina of the kingdom of Cyprus, when a certain youth, together with the others from a ship there putting in, that they might procure for themselves necessaries of food, had received eggs from a poisoning woman and witch for a price, and had eaten one of them while returning to the ship, straightway as if deprived of his mind and made mute, he was unable to conjecture what had happened to him; while he wished to board the ship he suffered repulse from his companions, they seeing and thinking him an ass. Wherefore, as the woman had admonished him, he returns to her house, and served her in the manner of an ass for three years, carrying away the necessaries of the house in timbers and grains, and whatever had to be carried he bore as a beast of burden; this consolation being left to him, that although he was reckoned a beast of burden by all others, yet by the very sorcerers dwelling together or apart he was recognized as a true man by his humanly manner of conversing in gait, posture, and habit. Therefore when three years had elapsed, while one day before noon he had entered the aforesaid city, and the woman followed from afar, it happened that a certain Church, in which the divine mysteries were being celebrated, the youth thus bewitched was passing by: who, hearing the known bell for the elevation of the Body of Christ, turned himself to the Church, and while he did not dare to enter on account of blows and expulsion, from outside he fixed his knees and hinder legs in the earth, and raising his fore feet, that is hands, joined together, from his asinine head, as was thought, he beholds the Sacrament in the elevation. When certain Genoese Merchants had espied so great a prodigy, wondering they follow the ass, and conferring among themselves about the wondrous work, behold the witch follows the ass with a staff: and because, as was premised, witchcrafts of this kind are much practiced in those parts, at the instance of the Merchants, by the Judge the ass is seized together with the witch, and being interrogated and exposed to tortures she confesses the crime, and promises to restore the youth to his own form, that she may be able to return to her house. Therefore, having been dismissed and returned home, the youth is reduced to his pristine form, and she again being seized, received the due vengeance for what she had committed, and the youth returned to his own home with joy.

Thus Sprenger.

Palladius relates something similar in the life of St. Macharius, writing that a certain maiden, by the aid of a certain Jew with magical arts converted, as it seemed, into a mare, was brought to blessed Macharius, whose sight the devil could not make sport of: for although all beheld her as a daughter, that is as a mare, yet St. Macharius beheld her as not masked under that equine form, and by his prayers obtained from God that she should be free from all that illusion; and he said to her that this witchcraft had been permitted by God because she frequented the Sacraments more negligently, although otherwise she lived honestly and devoutly.

Delrio relates something stupendous in the place cited, as having happened not long ago near Dixmude in Flanders: that when a tavern-keeper woman had had a complaint with a certain rustic about the price to be paid for the beer she had served, she said angrily that on that day he would not be able to board the boat which he had left at the river's bank and push it from the bank with poles; which indeed came to pass as the woman had threatened: for when he had expended all his strength in vain to draw that boat from the bank, he called two or three Soldiers to his aid, who, when they had long labored together in vain, at length they espy in the bilge of the boat a ghastly toad regarding them with gleaming eyes. One of the soldiers could not endure it, but with the point of his sword, pierced and swollen at the throat, threw it into the water. It rolls over on its back as if lifeless, belly upturned; the others impose other wounds on it as it flounders, and suddenly the boat is released. Joyful, the rustic leads his helpers back to the same inn from which he had departed; he asks for drink, the maidservant offers it; he asks where the hostess is? He hears that she is very ill and yielding up her soul in bed. What, I say, do you take me for a fool, you silly girl? Scarce half the hour has elapsed since I left her there sound and wicked as you are? I am going to see what this means. He enters the bedchamber, he finds the woman with her neck and belly pierced with wounds, lacerated, and expiring. Whence, he exclaims, these wounds? The maidservant professes not to know, nor that the woman had, so far as she knew, set foot out of the house. They go to the Magistrate; the wounds, inflicted with cut and thrust, are found in the very places in which the soldiers had marked the toad, which appeared nowhere.

From these things, therefore, it is established that that transformation of men is not true, but only masked, which either Magicians by diabolical art, or the devil himself effects. And this in divers manners; for he is wont sometimes to substitute another body, and while those men are absent and lulled asleep somewhere in a hidden place, he himself, having assumed a wolf's body, either formed from the air and circumposed about himself, performs those things, who think that the men were wrought by that miserable one absent and sleeping. Which stratagem, made manifest to all by a certain Saint, William of Paris narrates in the last part of De universo, chapter 13.

There was, he says, a certain one possessed, and for days the wicked spirit used to seize him, and so demented him that he believed himself to be a wolf: but in the days of the seizure the devil used to hurl him into a hidden place, and there leave him as if dead; but in the time of such concealment the devil entered into a wolf, or showed himself to men in the very form of a wolf, and made terrific incursions against men and animals, so that they fled from his face, fearing to be devoured by him. There was also a report that that man became a wolf for days. And this the man himself believed, as I said before. He believed moreover that he was that very wolf which made incursions of this kind. Which having been heard, a holy man came into that region in which these things were being done, and preached to the men that what they believed about that man was not true, namely that he became a wolf: and being brought to the place in which he lay as if dead, he showed the man to the people, who had come to such a spectacle; and before the men, he having been aroused and freed from such vexation, he showed to him and to the bystanders the wolf which that man believed himself to be, as he also himself confessed before the men who were present.

Sometimes, however, he circumposes about the very men the skins of beasts, most fitly put on outwardly: which happens when he gives them a wolf's skin to be hidden in the hollow of some tree-trunk, as is established from the confessions of certain persons. Finally, sometimes on the part of the Magician he circumposes an aerial image of a beast, and applying members to members so far as the likeness permits, accommodates head to head, mouth to mouth, belly to belly, foot to foot, arms to arms. This is wont to happen when they use for this certain injunctions, or words conceived in the mind alone; in which last case, indeed, it is nothing wonderful if afterwards they are found truly wounded in those human members which in the beast's body had received the blow; for the circumambient air yielded lightly, and the wound was truly implanted in the body. Which confirms

Of this also, he says, of the apparent conversion of Witches into Cats, another witness in this city of Ferrara, Philip by name, asserted to me with a certain artifice under judicial oath in this year, that some three months ago a certain witch had imposed upon him, that he should not forbid to come about the boy (perchance bewitched by himself) whom he had undertaken to cure, if he should see any cats fawning upon and mocking him. Therefore on the same day, after she had departed, an hour later he himself and his wife saw a great cat, and hitherto unseen by them, which was approaching the boy with swift step: and when the parents had often driven it away out of fear, at last they burned with impatience at the coming vexation of its approach: and the door being shut, that man most grievously struck the cat fleeing hither and thither for a long time with a spear, and at length it got out by a window. From that time, however, that old witch lay in bed for very many days, her whole body broken and wounded.

So Spina.