Chapter VIII
Of the Different Diseases Brought by Demons.
Argument.
Avicenna and Galen and Hippocrates deny that it is possible for any diseases to be brought upon man by demons; and their view is followed by Pietro Pomponazzi[1] and Levin Lemne,[2] not because they did not believe that the demons, which they acknowledged to be evil, wished to cause disease, but because they held that every disease is due to natural causes. But that is no good argument: for is it not possible for sicknesses to spring from natural causes, and at the same time possible for demons to be the instigators of such sicknesses?
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The contrary opinion is held by Codronchi, Andrea Cesalpino, Jean Fernel,[3] Franciscus Valesius the Spaniard, and other most learned physicians, together with S. Jerome (on Matt, iii), S. Chrysostom (Homily 54, on Matt, xvii), S. Thomas (I, 2, 115, art. 5), and other theologians. The jurists also, especially Burchard[4] (Decret. XIX, de re magica), argue excellently on the same side. Grilland (2, 6, to number 13) has often been quoted to the same effect: but I prefer the firmer authority of the Holy Scriptures. Did not the devil afflict Job with loathsome sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head? Did not the devil put to an alien use the tongue and ears of him whom S. Matthew calls the Lunatic? Did not a devil afflict Saul with a black humour? The account is quite explicit, for it says that an evil spirit afflicted him, which went away when David played the harp.
Let us now see by what method the demon causes sickness. This has been
- ↑ “Pietro Pomponazzi.” 1492–1525. Philosopher and founder of the Aristotelean-Averroistic School. He taught philosophy at Padua, Ferrara, and Bologna. Among his chief works is the “De naturalium effectuum admirandorum causis, siue de incantationibus” (1520) in which he seeks to prove that in Aristotle’s philosophy miracles are not possible. The doctrine was condemned and Pomponazzi did not escape in common report the stigma of heresy.
- ↑ “Levin Lemne.” Or Livin Lemmens, 1505–1568. A Dutch philosopher, born at Zirickzee in Zeeland, where also he died. He practised medicine and acquired no small reputation in his day. His “De Miraculis Occultis Naturae Libri IV” was well esteemed, and was translated into French both by du Pinet (Lyons, 1566) and by Jacques Gohory (Paris, 1567).
- ↑ “Jean Fernel.” Born in 1497; “le Galien moderne,” physician and master astrologer to Henri II and Diane de Poitiers. He published several works on medicine; “La Pathologie”; “Les VII livres de la physiologie”; and after his death a “Uniuersa Medicina” containing his various tractates and monographs appeared at Frankfort in 1592.
- ↑ “Burchard.” The famous Bishop of Worms; born shortly after the middle of the tenth century; died 20 August, 1025. His celebrated “Collectarium canonum” or “Decretum” is in twenty books, and was long used as a practical guide for the clergy.
