Dist. 7, Part 2, Art. 2, Q. 3
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/7/q/bon-sent-II-d7-p2-a2-q3
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### Question III. *Whether one may use magical arts without sin.*

Thirdly it is asked whether one may use the ministry of demons in making such miracles without sin. And that one may not, it seems:

**On the negative side — Fundamenta:**

1. Counsel cannot be sought from demons without sin: therefore neither can their ministry or counsel be received. The first is proved by authority and example: by authority, since in Leviticus 20 it is commanded that he be killed who consults magicians and soothsayers; by example, from 4 Kings 1, where the king of Israel is rebuked and punished who sent to consult the god of Accaron.

2. Likewise, Augustine in *De Doctrina christiana* says that *divinations are to be condemned and shunned, because in them pacts of demons intervene*: if therefore to do is more than to say, and the first is not without damnable pacts, then neither is the second.

3. Likewise, the devil is deceitful, and it is well known to us that he loves no one except for his harm, and to pervert him: therefore one who receives service from him commits himself to peril; and every such person sins mortally: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, the devil is the enemy of Jesus Christ and of God: therefore one who receives help from him or makes commerce with him, since there is no *agreement of Christ with Belial*, is made an enemy of Christ. But this cannot be without sin: therefore etc.

**To the opposite:**

1. **Contra** this it seems by authority. The Apostle handed over the incorrigible to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, as appears in 1 Corinthians 5: therefore he was using the ministry of demons to fulfill justice: therefore by parity of reason a man, when he is in need, may use it for other services.

2. Likewise, if I need alms, I can receive and ask not only from a good man but also from a sinner and an impious one: therefore if I need bread and wine, I may ask this from a demon, that he may procure it, if there be no man at hand who may give it at once.

3. Likewise, one may demand service from a wicked servant and receive it: therefore if some saint has overcome the devil, he may lawfully command him and accept his service in the transmuting of creatures.

4. Likewise, granted that such arts are performed by characters alone, without immolations and other dealings, it seems that there is no sin there, since the characters either have some power to compel demons, or none. If none: then the demons do nothing. If some — but every power is from God, and to use something for that for which it exists is not a sin: therefore it seems that those miracles of demons may be performed without sin.

5. Likewise, if someone receives the service of a demon in things which are useful to himself, whether in miracles or in other matters, well knowing how much he can do; in what does he sin? It seems, in nothing: because he does not sin in faith, since he believes nothing of divinity to be in the devil; in morals he does not sin: therefore in no way, as it seems.

6. Likewise, if I had lost my book, it would be no sin if I were to ask of anyone who might know where it was: therefore if someone lost a cloak, and I well know that the devil can know it, it seems that this at least could be done without sin.

*Connected question*: It is therefore asked whether such arts or divinations can exist without sin.

### Conclusion.

> The counsel or help of demons cannot be sought without sin.

**I respond:** It must be said that such magical arts or divinations cannot be without sin: nor can counsel, or even help or ministry, be sought from the devil without sin, except perhaps in this case where God might subject the devil to a just man by his own judgment — as I have heard told of certain holy men; but by *voluntary* commerce one cannot use him without sin. *Threefold sin*: For either there is the sin of infidelity there — namely, if by believing the demon one ascribes something divine to him; or there is the sin of idolatry — namely, in offerings and sacrifices; or at least of disobedience, since one acts against the prohibition of God and of the Church.

*Reason*: Now the reason for this prohibition is that such a one sins against himself, while committing himself to peril; he sins against the Church, while having commerce with one who is altogether cut off and the adversary of the Church; he sins also against the divine majesty, while having recourse to the devil as though God, the God of Christians, were not omnipotent and altogether sufficient and gracious. And so it is forbidden, and cannot be done without sin. Whence the reasons brought forward for this must be granted.

**To the arguments in opposition:**

*Ad 1.* To that which is objected, that Paul used a diabolical ministry in punishing the wicked; it can be said that this was not by diabolical commerce but rather by divine judgment and by the command of the Apostle himself, to whom the evil spirits were subjected — they were not confederated with him as with magicians and diviners. — *Alternatively*: Or it may be said that the *handing over* was nothing else than exposing them to the vexation of demons.

*Ad 2.* To that which is objected about alms, which I can receive from an impious man; it must be said that the case is not similar, *for a twofold reason*. First, because although the member is not actually united, it is nevertheless not a member altogether cut off, as a demon is, and the offices of charity and pietas can be received and bestowed; it is not so with the devil and his angels, whose damnation is certain. — Furthermore, the alms which an impious man holds in time of necessity belongs to the just man: therefore the just man, when he demands it and receives it, takes what is his own; and so does justly. It is not so with the ministry of the devil in performing miracles: *God comes to our aid in four ways* — for we never need diabolical miracles or aids, since either the Lord comes to our aid through Himself, or through His Angel, or through our neighbor, or He grants the merit of patience.

*Ad 3.* To that which is objected, that the devil is a servant; it must be said that his service and ministry is not deputed by God for this, unless it be done by a special privilege; but rather he is deputed to tempt and to exercise; and so he serves, though he intends to overcome — because of his evil God makes our good.

*Ad 4.* To what is asked, that the sin lies in the characters; it must be said that it is a great sin, because they are made for this — namely, for imploring the ministry of demons — which is not lawful, and so is done for an evil end. — But as to what is asked: either they have power, or they do not; it must be said that of themselves they have no power, but only from a diabolical pact. *Note*: For thus the devil pacted with those who were more familiar to him, that he would recognize such signs and would present himself when they were used. He shows, however, that he is compelled by them — to show that there is some truth in such arts, in which there are many nefarious things, by which a man is led away both from faith and from the worship of God. Whence in no way is it to be believed that such characters can do anything, especially over spirits, except by their pact; and so all such charms are vain and pernicious; nor does the devil do this because he delights in them, but in the infidelity of the doers.

*Ad 5.* To what is asked: in what is the sin? it must be said that, if anyone does this — not believing them to have the power, nor offering anything — he sins by the sin of disobedience and by the sin of morals, because by this very invocation of demons he does insult to his God and to the Christian community; and while he joins himself to a schismatic and liar, he commits himself to peril. *Note*: But scarcely or never does he by this alone satisfy the devil, unless some infidelity or idolatry be mixed in. For just as upright faith does much for divine miracles — as the Gospels declare — so does perverse faith do much for the miracles of demons, since the devil is the perverse imitator of God.

*Ad 6.* *To the connected question*: To what is asked, that it be a sin to inquire about lost things; it must be said that it is a sin, because contrary to a prohibition; and it is prohibited for the aforesaid reasons. The strongest reason, however, is that he himself is a liar and the father thereof, and most frequently mixes false things with true. And so it is a great danger to believe him, because he could easily lead a man into error — saying that this one has the thing who does not have it (if he were to see, evils might arise from this); and because also he draws men to himself by such revelations, to his own fellowship, which is exceedingly pernicious, and which the devil desires, that he may deceive. And so, that men may be less on their guard, he puts forward in his divinations certain honorable things — as that he shows his divinations to a virgin boy, while nevertheless in hidden things he incites to the most shameful. And therefore Augustine says in book II *Super Genesim ad litteram* at the end: « To a good Christian, mathematicians, or any who divine impiously — most of all when they speak true things — are to be shunned, lest by the fellowship of demons they ensnare the deceived soul in a certain pact of society ». And so the whole is plain.

### Scholion.

The solution of the question is commonly approved by the doctors. Cf. St. Thomas, here q. 3. a. 2; *S.* II. II. q. 96. a. 2, q. 98. a. 4; *S. c. Gent.* III. c. 103ff. — B. Albert, here a. 12. — Peter of Tarentaise, here q. 3. a. 3. — Richard of Mediavilla, here a. 4. q. 2. — Aegidius Romanus, here q. 3. a. 3. — Dionysius Carthusian, here q. 6.

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