For they do not merit the swift and expeditious medicine of this present time, whose hardness and impenitent heart, exceeding the punishment of the present life, 'treasures up for itself wrath and indignation in the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God,' in which 'their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished.' Against whom the prophet, as it were anxious for the affliction of the saints—seeing them subject to divers hardships and temptations, and on the contrary the sinners not only passing through the course of this world without any scourge of humiliation, but even rejoicing in an abundance of riches and the utmost prosperity of all things—inflamed with intolerable zeal after the manner of his spirit, exclaims: 'But my feet were almost moved:'
'my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners. For there is no regard to their death, nor firmness in their stroke. They are not in the labors of men, neither shall they be scourged with men'—namely, being destined to be punished with the demons in the future, who in the present have not merited to be scourged with men in the lot and discipline of sons. Jeremiah too, disputing with God over this prosperity of the wicked, though he by no means professes himself to doubt of the Lord's justice, saying: 'Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I should dispute with thee'—yet inquiring the causes of so great an inequality, subjoins and says: 'But nevertheless I will speak just things to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper?
'Wherefore are all they happy that transgress, and do wickedly? Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit. Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.' Whose ruin the Lord bewails through the prophet, and carefully directs physicians and teachers to their cure, and in a manner invites them to a like lamentation, saying: 'Babylon is suddenly fallen, she is crushed: howl over her, take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed'; the angels, to whom the care of human salvation is committed, answer despairing—or certainly the prophet, in the person of the apostles or of spiritual men and teachers, seeing the hardness of their mind and their impenitent heart: 'We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed:'
'let us forsake her, and let us go every one into his own land; for her judgment hath reached even unto the heavens, and is lifted up even to the clouds.' Concerning the desperate languor of these, therefore, Isaiah speaks in the person of God to Jerusalem: 'From the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head there is no soundness in her: a wound, and a bruise, and a swelling sore, it is not bound up, nor cured with medicine, nor soothed with oil.' Moreover, it is beyond doubt proved that there are as many pursuits in the unclean spirits as in men.
For it is manifest that some of them—whom the common folk even call 'Wanderers' (Plani)—are such deceivers and buffoons that, continually besetting certain places or roads, they take no delight in the torments of those whom they have been able to deceive in passing, but, content only with mockery and derision, they strive rather to tire them than to harm them; that some do nothing but pass the night in harmless oppressions of men; that others are so given over to fury and truculence that they are not content merely to vex with atrocious laceration the bodies of those whom they have filled, but even hasten to rush upon passers-by at a distance and to afflict them with most savage slaughter:
such as those who are described in the Gospel, for fear of whom no one dared any longer to pass by that way. That these, and their like, rejoice also in wars and in the shedding of blood by reason of their insatiable ferocity, is not to be doubted.
Others we see to have infected with a certain empty swelling the hearts of those whom they had seized—whom the common folk even call 'Bacucei'—so that, raising themselves up beyond the tallness of their own body, now indeed they lift themselves into certain airs of arrogance and gestures, now again, as if inclined to a certain state of tranquillity and affability, they lower themselves to be common and bland; and esteeming themselves, as it were, illustrious and worthy of universal regard, now indeed they show by the bending of the body that they adore higher powers, now again they believe themselves to be adored by others, and go through all the motions by which true offices are performed, whether proudly or humbly. Others we have found not only to be zealous for lies, but even to inspire men with blasphemies.
Of which thing we too are witnesses, who have heard most openly a demon confessing that through Arius and Eunomius it had put forth the impiety of a sacrilegious dogma. Which also, in the fourth book of Kings, we manifestly read one of those very spirits proclaiming: 'I will go forth,' it says, 'and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Of whom the Apostle, reproving those who are deceived by them, thus infers: 'giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy.' But that there are also other kinds of demons, that is, of the dumb and deaf, the Gospels testify.
The prophet also mentions that certain spirits are inciters of lust and luxury, saying: 'The spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.' Nocturnal likewise, and diurnal, and noonday demons, the authority of the Scriptures in like manner teaches. Concerning the diversity of these, it would be too long if we wished, searching through all the volumes of the Scriptures, to run through them one by one: who by the prophet are designated onocentaurs, who hairy ones (fauns), who sirens, who lamiae, who screech-owls, who ostriches, who hedgehogs; who the asp, who the basilisk in the psalm; who the lion, who the dragon, or who the scorpion in the Gospel is named; who the prince of this world, who the rulers of these darknesses, or what spiritual forces of wickedness are named by the Apostle.
These names we ought not to receive as bestowed upon them by chance or fortuitously, but that by the signification of those wild beasts—which among us are either less harmful or more pernicious—their ferocity and rage is distinguished; and that from the likeness of a virulent wickedness or of the preeminence which a certain excellence of malice confers upon these among the other beasts or serpents, they too are named by their appellations: so that one, indeed, on account of the vehemence of fury and the rage of his ferocity, obtains the appellation of a lion; another, of a basilisk, on account of that deadly venom which slays before it is felt; another, on account of the lukewarmness of his malice, is allotted the name of an onocentaur or a hedgehog or an ostrich. GERMANUS:
We do not indeed doubt that those orders too which the Apostle enumerates refer to these, since 'our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.' Yet we wish to know whence there is this so great difference among them, or how there came to be such degrees of wickedness. Or were they created for this, that they should be allotted these orders of malice and in a manner serve as soldiers to this wickedness? SERENUS:
Although your propositions so steal from our eyes the whole time of the night's rest that we do not at all perceive the nearness of the approaching dawn, and are provoked to weave together insatiably the words of this conference right up to the rising of the sun, nevertheless, since the resolution of the proposed question, once it has begun to be investigated, leads us out into a certain most vast and most profound sea of questions which the brevity of the present hour does not allow to be traversed, I think it more convenient that we reserve it for the inquiry of the coming night, so that both to me, on the occasion of this question, a spiritual gladness and a richer fruit may be conferred from your more willing conversation, and that, the Holy Spirit affording us favorable breezes, we may more freely penetrate the bays of the proposed questions.
Wherefore, tasting a little sleep, let us shake off the drowsiness that now steals over our eyes with the light so near, and then, proceeding together to the church—since the solemnity of the Lord's day admonishes us to do this—when we have returned after the synaxis we shall confer with doubled joy on those things which the Lord shall have bestowed, according to your desire, for our common instruction. TEN CHAPTERS. On the kindness of Abba Serenus. A proposition concerning the diversity of the heavenly wickednesses. A reply concerning the manifold food of the holy Scriptures. On the twofold sense in the understanding of the holy Scriptures. On the fact that the proposed question ought to be received among those things that are to be held in a middle way. On the fact that nothing evil was created by God.
On the beginning of the principalities or powers. On the fall of the devil and of the angels. An objection, that the ruin of the devil took its beginning from the deception of Eve. A reply concerning the beginning of the devil's fall. On the punishment of him who deceives and of him who is deceived. On the throng of the demons and the restlessness which they always exercise in this air. On the fact that the hostile powers stir up against one another also the assault which they wage against men. Whence it came about that the spiritual wickednesses obtained the names of powers or principalities. On the fact that not without cause the names of angels or archangels have been bestowed on the holy and heavenly virtues. On the subjection of the demons which they render to their princes, perceived through a brother's vision.
On the fact that two angels always cling to each individual man. On the difference of the wickedness which is in the adverse spirits, proved through two philosophers. On the fact that the demons prevail nothing against men unless they have first besieged their minds. An inquiry concerning the apostate angels, who in Genesis are said to have lain with the daughters of men. A resolution of the proposed question. An objection: how could the profane intermingling of the race of Seth with the daughters of Cain be imputed before the prohibition of the law? A reply, that by natural law from the beginning men were liable to judgment or to punishment. On the fact that those who sinned before the flood were justly punished. Concerning the devil, how what is said in the gospel is to be understood:
'for he is a liar and the father of it.' When the things which the solemnity of the day required had been completed and the assembly of the church dismissed, we returned to the old man's cell and were first refreshed most sumptuously. For in place of the brine, over which a drop of oil poured on top was wont to be added to the daily meal, he mixed in a little fish-sauce and poured over a little more oil than usual.
For each one instills that drop of oil daily when about to eat, not that from this taste he may perceive any sweetness—since indeed its measure is so small that it scarcely suffices, I will not say to anoint, but even to pass through the passages of the throat and gullet—but that by this practice he may blunt the vainglory of the heart, which is wont to creep in gently and secretly on account of the stricter abstinence, and the goads of pride; because the more secretly abstinence itself is exercised and is accomplished with no man as witness, the more subtly it does not cease to tempt its concealer. Then he set out roasted salt, three olives apiece:
upon which, after these, he brought in a basket containing roasted chickpeas, which they call 'trogalia,' of which we took only five grains each, two plums, and a single dried fig apiece. For to exceed this number in that desert is culpable. When this refreshment was over and we had begun to demand back the promised resolution of the question, 'Put forth,' said the old man, 'your inquiry, whose investigation we had deferred to this hour.' Then GERMANUS: 'Whence, we ask, did such great variety of the adverse powers against man and this diversity proceed, which the blessed apostle thus enumerates:
our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places; and again: neither angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Whence then has such an emulous adversity of malice emerged against us? Or is it to be believed that these powers were founded by the Lord for this, that they should war against man by these grades and orders?' SERENUS:
The authority of the divine Scriptures, in those matters concerning which it willed to instruct us, has uttered certain things so lucidly and evidently even to those who lack sharpness of intellect, that they are not only veiled by no obscurity of a more hidden sense, but do not even need any support of interpretation, and on the very surface of the word and letter present their meanings and sentences; but certain things are so covered over and obscured by certain mysteries that in the discussion and understanding of them it has reserved for us an immeasurable field of exercise and solicitude. That God has ordained this for many causes is manifest:
first, lest the divine mysteries, having no veil of spiritual understanding drawn over them, should be laid open to all men—that is, to the faithful as well as to the profane—with equal knowledge and acquaintance, and through this there should be no distinction of virtue and prudence between the slothful and the studious; then, that even among the very household of the faith, while the immense spaces of understandings are stretched out before them, there might be that in which both the emptiness of the slothful might be reproved and the alacrity and industry of the studious might be proved.
And therefore quite fittingly is the divine Scripture compared to a rich and fertile field which, though it begets and brings forth many things that avail for the sustenance of men without any cooking by fire, yet certain things, unless first tempered and softened by the heat of flame so as to lay aside all the harshness of their rawness, are perceived as either unsuited to human uses or harmful. But some things are born so apt for both uses that they neither displease nor offend in their raw, uncooked state, and yet, when cooked by the heat of fire, are rendered more wholesome.
Many things too are brought forth only for the food of irrational cattle and animals, or of wild beasts and birds, in no way profitable for the foods of men, which, even remaining in their harshness without any preparation by fire, confer vital health upon the beasts of burden. This same principle we see quite evidently to be contained in this most abundant paradise of the spiritual Scriptures, in which certain things shine forth so plain and clear in the signification of the letter that, since they need no more sublime interpretation, by the simple sound of the letter alone they abundantly feed and nourish the hearers, as is that: Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord; and: thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.
But certain things, unless they have been attenuated by allegorical explanation and softened by the examination of the spiritual fire, will in no way arrive at the salutary food of the inner man without the stain of corruption, and rather from their reception harm than any usefulness will follow, as is that: let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and: he who has no sword, let him sell his tunic and buy himself a sword; and: he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
For certain of the most rigorous of the monks, having indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, understanding this simply, made for themselves wooden crosses and, carrying them about continually on their shoulders, brought upon themselves not edification but laughter from all who saw them. But some things are taken so conveniently and necessarily for both apprehensions—that is, both the historical and the allegorical—that either explanation supplies the vital juices to the soul, as is that: if anyone strikes you on your right cheek, offer him the other also; and: when they persecute you in this city, flee into another; and: if you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.
It produces indeed also hay for the cattle, with which fodder all the fields of the Scriptures are filled—namely, the simple and pure narrative of the historical reading—by which the simpler ones and those less capable of perfect and complete reasoning, concerning whom it is said: Men and cattle thou shalt save, O Lord, may, according to the condition of their state and measure, be rendered more vigorous and robust only for the work and labor of the active life. Wherefore, concerning those things which are set forth with open explanation, we too can constantly define and boldly put forth our opinion.
But those things which the divine Spirit, reserving them for our meditation and exercise, has inserted covered over in the holy Scriptures, willing certain of them to be gathered by indications and opinions, ought so gradually and cautiously to be conferred, that their assertion or confirmation be placed in the judgment of the one disputing or the one receiving. For sometimes, when a diverse opinion is put forth on one matter, either may be judged reasonable and, without detriment to the faith, be received either firmly or in a middle way—that is, so that neither full belief nor absolute refutation be assigned to it—and the later opinion ought not to derogate from the prior, since neither of them is found to oppose the faith.
Such is that: that Elias has come in John and again is to precede the coming of the Lord; and concerning the abomination of desolation, that it stood in the holy place through that image of Jupiter which we read was placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and again is to stand in the church through the coming of Antichrist; and all those things which follow in the gospel, which are understood both to have been fulfilled before the captivity of Jerusalem and to be about to be fulfilled at the end of this world. Of which neither opinion attacks the other, nor does the prior understanding annul the following.
And therefore, the question proposed by you, although it does not seem to have been sufficiently nor frequently ventilated among men, nor to lie open to very many—and from this very thing what we shall put forth may perhaps seem doubtful to some—we ought so to temper our opinion, since it in no way prejudices the faith of the Trinity, that it be held among those things which are to be held in a middle way; yet not with such an opinion as is wont to be gathered only by suspicions and conjectures, but let everything be proved by manifest testimonies of the Scriptures. Far be it therefore that we should confess God to have created anything that is substantially evil, since the Scripture says: all things which God made are very good.
For if these were created by God, or made for this, that they should hold these grades of malice and always be at leisure for the deceptions and ruins of men, then contrary to the sentence of the aforesaid Scripture we shall defame God as the creator and inventor of evils—namely, that he himself founded the most wicked wills and natures, creating them for this, that, always persevering in wickedness, they might never be able to pass over into the affection of a good will. This reasoning, therefore, of this diversity we have received by the tradition of the fathers from the fount of the holy Scriptures.
That before the creation of this visible creation God made the spiritual and heavenly virtues—which, for this very reason, that they knew themselves to have been produced from nothing by the benefit of the Creator unto so great a glory of blessedness, rendering him perpetual thanks, clung unceasingly to his praises—no one of the faithful doubts. Nor indeed ought we to think that God first began the beginnings of his creation and workmanship from the constitution of this world, as though in those former and innumerable ages he was idle from all providence and divine dispensation, and as though, not having those upon whom he might exercise the benefits of his goodness, he is to be believed to have been solitary and estranged from all munificence.
To think this concerning that immense, beginningless, and incomprehensible majesty is quite lowly and unfitting, the Lord himself saying these things concerning those powers: when the stars were made together, all my angels praised me with a loud voice. Those, therefore, who are present at the creation of the stars are most manifestly proved to have been created before that beginning in which heaven and earth are said to have been made, since indeed they are reported to have praised the Creator with a loud voice and with admiration for all these visible creatures which they saw proceed from nothing.
Before, therefore, that temporal beginning which is spoken of by Moses, and which signifies the age of this world according to the historical—or rather Judaic—sense (our own sense being, of course, preserved, by which we interpret Christ to be the beginning of all things, in whom the Father created all things, according to that: all things were made through him, and without him was nothing made), before, I say, that temporal beginning of Genesis, that God created all those powers and heavenly virtues is not doubtful. Which the apostle, enumerating them in order, thus describes: for in Christ were created all things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether angels or archangels, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers.
all things were created through him and in him. That therefore of the number of these some princes had fallen, the lamentation of Ezekiel or of Isaiah most manifestly teaches, in which we recognize the prince of Tyre, or that Lucifer who rose in the morning, to be lamented with mournful wailing. And concerning the former the Lord speaks thus to Ezekiel: son of man, take up a lamentation over the prince of Tyre, and say to him: thus says the Lord God: thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty; thou wast in the delights of the paradise of God; every precious stone was thy covering: sardius, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite and onyx and beryl, sapphire and carbuncle and emerald; gold was the work of thy beauty:
and thy settings, prepared in the day in which thou wast created. Thou wast a cherub stretched out and protecting, and I set thee on the holy mountain of God; thou didst walk in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee. In the multitude of thy trafficking thy inward parts were filled with iniquity, and thou didst sin; and I cast thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O protecting cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thy heart was lifted up in thy beauty; thou hast lost thy wisdom by reason of thy beauty; I have cast thee to the ground; before the face of kings I gave thee, that they might behold thee. In the multitude of thy iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy trafficking, thou hast defiled thy sanctuary. Isaiah also, concerning another:
how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? thou art cast down to the earth, thou who didst wound the nations? who didst say in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of God I will set my throne, I will sit on the mount of the testament, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Whom, however, the Scripture records not to have fallen alone from that summit of the most blessed station, saying that the dragon drew down with him likewise the third part of the stars. One also of the apostles says more evidently: but the angels who kept not their principality, but left their own dwelling, he has reserved in eternal chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. That also which is said to us:
but you shall die like men, and shall fall like one of the princes—what else does it signify than that many princes had fallen? By which indications this reasoning of the diversity is gathered: that these differences of orders, which the adverse powers are said to have after the likeness of the holy and heavenly virtues, they either still retain even now from the grade of that former order in which each had been created, or certainly, having been rolled down from the heavenly ones, after the likeness of those virtues which persevere in that same place, they have, according to the merit of their wickedness in which each grew into evil, claimed for themselves these grades and appellations of orders in the contrary party. GERMANUS:
We have hitherto believed the cause and beginning of the diabolical ruin or transgression, by which he was cast down from the angelic station, to have been especially envy, when he deceived Adam and Eve with livid cunning. SERENUS: That this was not the beginning of that transgression or casting down, the reading of Genesis makes manifest, which before their deception judged him to be branded with the mark of the serpentine name, saying thus: but the serpent was wiser—or, as the Hebrew books express it, more cunning—than all the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made.
You understand, therefore, that before that circumvention of the first man he had departed from angelic sanctity, so that he not only deserved to be marked with the infamy of this name, but was even preferred to the other beasts of the earth in the tergiversation of wickedness. For the Scripture would not have designated a good angel by such a term, nor concerning those who persevere in that blessedness would it say: but the serpent was wiser than all the beasts of the earth. For this cognomen could in no way be fitted to Gabriel or Michael, nor would it even befit any good man. Most openly, therefore, both the term 'serpent' and the comparison with beasts do not ring of the dignity of an angel, but of the infamy of a transgressor.
Finally, the matter of envy and seduction by which he was instigated to deceive man arose from his prior ruin as its cause—namely, that he beheld man, most recently fashioned from the mud of the earth, being summoned to that glory from which he remembered that he himself, though he had been one of the princes, had fallen. And therefore his prior fall, by which, growing proud, he had fallen—by which also the serpent had deserved to be named—was followed by the second ruin through envy.
which, finding him still having something erect in himself, so that he could even hold a certain fellowship of conversation and counsel with man, by the sentence of the Lord he was profitably cast down into the depths, so that no longer, as before, gazing at something lofty, would he walk erect and exalted, but that, clinging to the ground, he would creep, and, humbled, would be fed upon his belly on the earthly foods and works of the vices—thenceforth making public the hidden enemy, and placing between himself and man a useful enmity and a salutary discord, so that while he is guarded against as a harmful foe, he could no longer harm man by fraudulent friendships.