Part II, Chapter III, Section 3, Article 2: The Demons in Their Relation to the Human Race

Pohle, God the Author of Nature and the Supernatural, Part II, Chapter III, §3, Article 2 (pp. 344–349)

While the good Angels are placed as guardians over men in order to help them to attain their temporal and eternal salvation, the Devil, who “was a murderer from the beginning,”¹ by way of punishment for original sin, exercises a “reign of death” (imperium mortis) over the human race. This “reign of death” manifests itself in three ways.

1. Temptation to Sin

There are two species of temptation, known by the Scholastic names of tentatio probationis and tentatio seductionis. The tentatio probationis aims at proving the will, while the tentatio seductionis has for its ultimate object the ruin of the soul. It is quite plain that God cannot seduce men.² When He “tempts” a man, He simply “tries his faith,” as in the case of Adam and Abraham; which is quite compatible with His infinite holiness. Satan and his demons, on the contrary, continually strive by lies and false pretences to seduce men to commit sin and thereby to incur eternal damnation. John VIII, 44: “Ille homicida erat ab initio et in veritate non stetit, quia non est veritas in eo; quum loquitur mendacium, ex propriis loquitur, quia mendax est et pater eius” — He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. “As a roaring lion,” says St. Peter, “[the Devil] goeth about, seeking whom he may devour.”³

Whether the demons have a hand in all the temptations to which men are subject, is a problem regarding which the Fathers and theologians do not agree. What renders its solution difficult is the circumstance that, as Suarez has rightly pointed out, the underlying question is not one of power, but of fact. St. Thomas takes middle ground. He attributes all temptations to the indirect influence of the Devil. “Diabolus,” he says, “est causa omnium peccatorum nostrorum, quia instigavit primum hominem ad peccandum, ex cuius peccato consecuta est in toto genere humano quaedam pronitas ad omnia peccata. Et per hunc modum intelligenda sunt verba Damasceni et Dionysii. Directe autem dicitur esse aliquid causa alicuius, quod operatur directe ad illud; et hoc modo diabolus non est causa omnis peccati. Non enim omnia peccata committuntur diabolo instigante; sed quaedam ex libertate arbitrii et carnis corruptione.”⁴

2. Demoniacal Possession

God in His infinite wisdom occasionally permits demons to take possession of the human body. Ascetic theology distinguishes three species of demoniacal possession: (1) Circumsession, (2) obsession, and (3) possession in the strict sense of the term. Demoniacal possession, even in its highest stage, must not be conceived as analogous to the Hypostatic Union, or the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the souls of the just. It is no more than the relation of one who moves to him who is moved. We know that demoniacal possession is possible from Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Both in the Gospels and the Acts Christ and His Apostles are frequently described as expelling evil spirits from persons possessed by them (daemoniaci, ἐνεργούμενοι). It is a blasphemous reflection upon the truthfulness and sanctity of the Godman to assume, as some modern Rationalists do,⁵ that Christ simply played the role of a physician or magnetic healer to accommodate Himself to the superstitions of the Jews.

The Church placed herself squarely upon the ground taken by her Founder when she adopted various exorcisms into her liturgy and even established a special ordo of exorcists.⁶ Cases of diabolical possession were frequent in the Apostolic age and for a long time thereafter.⁷ The Church still recognizes the possibility of demoniacal possession in her Pontifical. The indications of demoniacal possession are: “Ignota lingua loqui pluribus verbis vel loquentem intelligere; distantia et occulta patefacere; vires supra aetatis seu conditionis naturam ostendere, et id genus alia.” Under the present discipline no exorcism may be performed without the express mandate of the Bishop. This rule is intended to prevent mistakes and abuses, such as have occurred in the past and are likely to occur again. We know that in the Middle Ages epilepsy, impotence, and other diseases were frequently ascribed to demoniacal influence, and no attention was paid to the fact that people who believe they are possessed by an evil spirit are often merely insane.⁸

3. Black Magic

By black magic⁹ theologians understand the power of producing superhuman effects without the cooperation of God or the blessed Angels. If any such power really exists, it must certainly be attributed to the influence of evil spirits.¹⁰ The possibility of human intercourse with Satan cannot be denied in view of the many instances recorded, or assumed as true, in the New Testament. The medieval witch-baiters sinned grievously by exaggerating the power of the Devil, by neglecting the most elementary principles of sound psychology, and by proceeding with unpardonable carelessness and inhuman cruelty in the trial of persons accused of witchcraft. No period of the world’s history is characterized by so many insane superstitions and such a radical want of common sense as the terrible time during which thousands of supposed witches were tried, tortured, and executed for practicing sorcery.¹¹ Of course, the theological principle that there are demons and that they have power to injure man in body and soul, is no more disproved by these medieval excesses than by the all too ready credence which in our own time thousands of well-meaning Catholics gave to the bogus revelations of Leo Taxil and his fictitious Diana Vaughan.¹²

Notes

Readings

St. Anselm, De Casu Diaboli. St. Thomas, Quaest. Disp., De Daemonibus. M. Psellus, De Daemonum Operatione (reprinted in Migne, P.G., CXXII, 819 sqq.). J. M. Platina, De Angelis et Daemonibus, Bononiae 1740. M. Gerbert, Daemonurgia Theologice Expensa, Friburgi 1776. W. Schneider, Der neuere Geisterglaube, 2nd ed., Paderborn 1885. Leistle, Die Besessenheit mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Lehre der Väter, Dillingen 1887. M. Hagen, Der Teufel im Lichte der Glaubensquellen, Freiburg 1899. Duhm, Die bösen Geister im Alten Testament, 1904. S. Hunter, Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. II, pp. 302 sqq. R. O’Kennedy, The Holy Angels, pp. 39 sqq., 120 sqq., London 1887. Spirago-Clarke, The Catechism Explained, 8th ed., pp. 147 sqq. Delaporte-Sadlier, The Devil: Does He Exist? And What Does He Do?, New York 1904. N. Paulus, Hexenwahn und Hexenprozess, vornehmlich im 16. Jahrhundert, Freiburg 1910. W. H. Kent, articles “Devil” and “Demon” in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IV. M. J. O’Donnell, art. “Possession,” ibid., Vol. XII. J. P. Arendzen, art. “Occult Arts,” ibid., Vol. XI. Habert, La Magie, Paris 1908. R. Polz, Das Verhältnis Christi zu den Dämonen, Innsbruck 1907. J. G. Raupert, Modern Spiritism, London 1904. Idem, The Supreme Problem, London 1911. A. V. Miller, The Dangers of Modern Spiritualism, London 1908.

Note on this transcription: footnote 1’s citation was inferred from the body text itself, which quotes John VIII, 44 in full a few lines later — the footnote marker’s own text was not clearly separable from the surrounding matter in the scan, but the source is unambiguous. One Greek term (ἐνεργούμενοι, “those worked upon,” i.e. the possessed) was reconstructed from garbled OCR. This article was otherwise clean.

This is the final article of the book. With it, Part II — Cosmology (Chapter I), Anthropology (Chapter II), and Angelology (Chapter III) — is complete, and with it the entire volume as transcribed across this project: Part I (Creation, Preservation and Concurrence, Final Cause and Providence) and Part II (the created universe: the physical cosmos, man, and the angels). What follows in the original is only the book’s index.