Dist. 8, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/8/q/bon-sent-II-d8-p2-a1-q1
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### ARTICLE [the only article].
### *On the power of the demons with respect to men.*

### QUESTION I.
### *Whether the demons can dwell in human bodies.*

Concerning the first [question] one proceeds thus, and it is shown that the demons can dwell in human bodies.

*Foundations.* 1. No spirit is cast out of any body or dwelling-place in which it is not; but the demons, as one reads in the Gospels, have been cast out by Christ and his Apostles from the bodies of the possessed: therefore they at some time dwelt in them.

2. Likewise, Augustine in *On the Divination of Demons*, speaking of the demons, says: «They persuade in wondrous and invisible modes, by that subtlety of their bodies penetrating the bodies of men, who do not perceive [it]»; but if [a demon] can penetrate a body, since it can also rest there, it can also dwell [in it].

3. Likewise, it is settled that some are possessed by demons: therefore they are called possessed either because the demon has its *effect* in them, or because it is in them *according to substance*. If because they have an effect in them: then all sinners would be possessed by the devil, which is false: therefore [it is] because they are in them according to substance [that] they are called possessed: therefore they dwell in their bodies.

4. Likewise, no body can offer an obstacle to a spirit: therefore if the demons are spirits, no body is an obstacle to them: therefore just as light penetrates the air down to the depths and remains there, so too a demonic spirit can enter the human body throughout: therefore if it is not expelled by an agent of greater power, it seems that it can dwell there.

*On the contrary,* one argues thus. 1. Upon that [text] of Habakkuk 2: *The Lord is in his holy temple*, the Gloss [says]: «The unclean spirit can sit beside idols, [but] cannot be within [them]»: therefore if it cannot [be] in idols, much less in human bodies.

2. Likewise, Bede says, and the Master adduces [him] in the text, upon that [verse] from the Acts: *Why has Satan tempted thy heart?*: «Satan fills the heart of someone, [but] not indeed by entering into him nor into his sense»: therefore it does not seem that the demon enters according to substance into the body of any man.

3. Likewise, the soul is united to the body as *mover* and as *perfection*; but since it is conjoined as *perfection*, it is impossible that there be in the same body another nature perfecting [it]: therefore, since it is conjoined as *mover* [too], it is impossible that there be in the same body another spirit as moving [it]. If, then, a demon cannot be in the human body either as *mover* or as *perfection*: therefore in no way [at all].

4. Likewise, as has been said above, in no way is it allowed that two angelic spirits be at the same time in the same primary place: therefore, by parity of reason, it does not seem that in the same primary place there can be a soul and an Angel; but the soul is in the whole of its body, as Augustine holds: therefore in no part of the body can a demon be.

### CONCLUSION.

> By God's permitting [it], the demons can enter human bodies and harass [them].

**I respond:** It must be said that, as the Gospel text and also Augustine in the book *On the Divination of Demons* intimate, the demons by the nature of their subtlety and spirituality can penetrate any bodies whatever and subsist in them without any obstacle or impediment; but by reason of their power they can move and disturb those bodies in which they are. Therefore the demons, *as far as concerns the power and subtlety of [their] nature, can enter human bodies, and can also harass [them], unless they be prevented by a higher power*. And when they are permitted to enter and to harass, then they are said to possess bodies.

— And the Lord permits this either for the showing-forth of his own glory, or for the punishment of sin, or for the correction of the one sinning, or for our instruction. But from which of these causes determinately he permits [it], this lies hidden from human inquiry, on account of the fact that the judgments of God are hidden. This, however, is plain, that they are not unjust; and so he does not permit such things without a cause. — The reasons are therefore to be conceded, [namely] that the demons can enter human bodies.

*Solution of the opposed [arguments].* 1. To that which is objected from the Gloss, that [a demon] cannot be within [a body]; it must be said that *to be within something* can [be taken] in two ways: either as *that which is contained with respect to the container*, as water with respect to a vessel; and in this way a demon can well be within idols. In another way, *to be within* is said of something which *flows into the inmost [recesses] of a thing* and by flowing-in conserves and perfects [it]; and in this way it befits a demon neither with respect to an idol nor with respect to a man; and so that Gloss is to be understood.

2. To that which is objected from Bede, that [the demon] does not enter into the man; it must be said that [Bede] does not speak of an entrance into man which is attended-to from the side of the *body*, but [of one] which is attended-to from the side of the *rational spirit*.

3. 4. To that which is objected, that the soul is compared to the body as perfection and mover etc.; it must be said that the comparison through the mode of *mover* and through the mode of *perfection* is not the same, because *of one perfectible there is only one perfection*; for *perfection* appropriates to itself its perfectible, and conversely; but of one mobile there can be multiple *movers*, and one mover can move many [mobiles], especially when these have some [common] order. And because by divine judgment the sinning soul is subjected to a possessing demon as to a torturer and afflicter, hence it is that they can be at the same time in the same body.

— And by this is made plain the response to the last [objection], which was objected concerning the coexistence of two spirits. For [the case] is not similar, by reason of the fact that *to them*, as has been said above, the order of the *universe* is repugnant; but to *this* [pair, soul + demon] the order of *divine equity* is consonant, by which the sinning soul is afflicted; nor is the order of the *universe* repugnant [here], because [they] are compared in different ways to that habitation.