Art of the Devil. Arturo Graf

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СКАЧАТЬ body of a possessed person, suffered the mortification of hearing the fiend recite coram populo the entire list of his own most secret sins, including those of thought.

      Do the devils know the future? Another puzzling question! The majority of theologians denied this, and rightly; for if they know the future, as they know the present and the past, in what way does their knowledge differ at all from that of God? And how can God suffer the devils to know beforehand all that He is to do throughout the ages of eternity? Such knowledge as this they could not have possessed, even before their banishment from Heaven; for had they possessed it, knowing what was bound to be the outcome of their rebellion, they would never have rebelled. Indeed, it is said that not even the good angels have direct knowledge of the future, but know it only in so far as they read it in the mind of God, and in so far as God permits them to read it. However, even on this point, there is a way to conciliate conflicting opinions. Origen would have it that the demons conjectured the future from the aspects and movements of the heavenly bodies; an opinion, to my mind, not altogether consistent with that of Lactantius (about 300), who made astrology itself an invention of the demons. Saint Augustine believed that the devils did not know the future through direct vision, but that by virtue of a faculty that they possess of moving from place to place with lightning speed, and because of the acuteness of their senses and their intellect, they were able to surmise it, imagine it or divine it. Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274) affirmed that they did not know those future things that are contingent, but that they did know those that follow fixed laws; for the demons had a very complete knowledge of the course of nature.

      The devils, then, knew by heart all the sciences: and it is probably for this reason that, whenever a man of science has revealed some great truth to his fellows, the Church has never failed to cry: “To the Devil with him!” and to burn him alive if it could. Dante denies that the devils can philosophise; “for love, in them, is altogether extinguished; and to philosophise, love is necessary”.[33] This does not prevent Dante, however, from representing as arguing in perfectly good form the devil who is carrying off the soul of Guido da Montefeltro, who had received undeserved absolution from Pope Boniface VIII; or from permitting the demon to style himself a “logician”, just as if he were a Doctor of the Sorbonne.[34] It is said (and the famous Jean Bodin[35] so writes in his Daemonomania) that the renowned Ermolao Barbaro, patriarch of Aquileja (died in 1493), once called up a devil in order to find out from him what Aristotle had meant by his “entelechy”. At any rate, though ignorant of sound philosophy, the demon must have been well versed in sophistry, even master of it; and in this connection I recall the fearful tale of that scholar of Paris, who (having died and gone to perdition) appeared to his terrified teacher, arrayed in a gown that was completely embroidered with sophisms; a tale that the good Passavanti (1297–1357) relates, for the admonition and confusion of all those who do not make good use of the syllogism.

      But if the devils were not supposed to have any knowledge of philosophy, it will appear strange to some that they could have a knowledge of theology, could know the Scriptures by heart, and could argue concerning the mysteries with that same precision and clarity of ideas that we so admire in professional theologians. Yet such was the case. On countless occasions, through the mouths of possessed persons of whose bodies they had made themselves masters, the demons would quote passages from both the Old and the New Testaments; they would cite the opinions and judgments of Fathers and Doctors of the Church; they would propound embarrassing questions; to the no slight humiliation of those who, listening to them or striving to exorcise them, found that they themselves knew far less of these matters than did the demons. In one of the Visions of Saint Fursey, the demons argue very learnedly with the angels concerning sins and penances, quote the Scriptures, and show themselves no less able dialecticians than are the greatest theologians. Nor is there any lack of other cases of like nature. We know how the Devil used to engage in very bitter theological disputes with Luther.

      However, we need not believe that all the devils possessed the same knowledge, or that they were all of the same mental capacity. There were among them, indeed, some who were more, some less, learned than the rest; just as some were more, some less, intelligent. In due season, we shall meet the stupid and ignorant devil, a conception that is not so unreasonable as it might seem at first glance. If a certain branch of knowledge appealed to any devil, he could, it seems, devote himself to that particular branch. Caesarius tells of a devil lawyer, Oliver by name, who proved himself an able pleader. Other devils took greater delight in material pursuits; and these helped in the brewing of philtres, the transmuting of metals and in performing other tasks of that nature.

      Knowledge implies power; therefore it is no wonder that the devils were able to perform great things. True, their power also had its limits, but what were these limits? It is hard to say with any accuracy. Matthew calls Satan a powerful spirit,[36] and, indeed, not without reason. His power is not comparable with the omnipotence of God; yet he is great and formidable. He rebels and is conquered, and victory will never smile on him again; but, though conquered, he rises again and avenges himself. He enters the happy abode of our first parents and brings in sin; he disturbs the harmony of God’s work and brings in death. He poisons the world and makes it apostatise from God; he becomes the lord and arbiter of this perverted world, princeps hujus saeculi.[37] It is said, forsooth, that he can do only so much as God permits him to do; but we must admit that God permits much to him, and that, whatever he performs, he performs by virtue of a force that resides within himself and is connatural to him. Whatever there is of evil in the world comes, in the beginning, from him; and the preponderance of evil renders gigantic our own conception of his power. And this power of his, which was to have been weakened by the work of redemption, has not been weakened. We are told how the Devil once appeared to Saint Anthony and told him that the curses men were incessantly hurling at him were undeserved, since, now that Christ reigned, he himself could no longer do anything. But the devil who said this lied. Along with paganism, perhaps his unlimited sway over the earth also ceased; but his power did not cease. Christ has conquered him, but he has not disarmed him; and straightway he begins the strife anew and ranges the earth at will, disputing with his victorious adversary this wretched human race, soul by soul. He peoples his kingdom with slaves; and when century after century has passed since the Redeemer’s death, who, looking on this poor troubled world of ours, would say that he found himself in a world redeemed?

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      Примечания

      1

      Isaiah xiv, 12: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.”

      2

      Cf. II СКАЧАТЬ