Dist. 8, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 6
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-q6
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### Question VI.
### *Whether the demons can scrutinize the secrets of our conscience.*

Sixth and last, it is asked whether the demons can scrutinize the secrets of our conscience. And that they can, it seems.

*For the affirmative.*

1. The office of demons is to accuse, according to what is read in Apocalypse twelve: *The accuser of the brethren is cast forth*, etc.: therefore, if in judgment we are arraigned concerning the most secret thoughts, it seems that these do not lie hidden from our accuser.

2. Likewise, sin is the character of the beast, as is intimated in Apocalypse fourteen. But each one recognizes his own seal, wherever it be placed: therefore the devil recognizes sin, wherever it be. But nothing is in us more secret than are the sins of our thoughts and affections: therefore if the devil can see these, he can ferret out the secrets of our consciences.

3. Likewise, Augustine in book twelve on Genesis *ad litteram*: «The evil angels have known the thought, since they predict many things, which they would not predict if they had not known the thoughts».

4. Likewise, this seems by reason. *Operation is more known than power, and power than substance*; because through cognition of operation and power one arrives at cognition of substance; but the substance of the soul cannot lie hidden from the devil: therefore neither its operation nor power: therefore if thought and affection are actions of the soul, therefore they cannot lie hidden from the demon.

5. Likewise, spiritual substances, as Dionysius says, by their nature are mirrors; but it is so in a material mirror that, when one is set over against another, it represents not only itself but also everything that shines in it: therefore if spiritual mirrors are of greater communication, it seems that, when a demon gazes upon and inspects the soul, he sees not only it but everything that is in it.

6. Likewise, nothing can my eye see in me which another's eye cannot see: if therefore it is so in the corporeal eye with respect to a visible corporeal thing, by parity of reason it will be likewise in the spiritual eye with respect to a spiritual knowable. Therefore, if the secret of my conscience does not lie hidden from my own spiritual eye, by parity of reason neither from the eyes of demons.

*To the contrary.*

**On the contrary:** 1. Third Kings, chapter eight: *Thou alone knowest the hearts of the sons of men*: therefore not the demon nor any other.

2. Likewise, Jeremiah seventeen: *I am the Lord, who search the heart and the reins*: therefore if the Lord attributes this to himself as proper, it seems that he does not share it with the devil.

3. Likewise, First Corinthians chapter two: *No one knows the things that are of a man, except the spirit of a man that is in him*; but the demon is neither our spirit nor is in us: therefore he does not know the secrets of our conscience.

4. Likewise, Augustine in the book *de Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus*: «That the devil does not see our internal thoughts, is certain».

5. Likewise, it seems by reason: because if he knew the internal thoughts, he would also know the virtues; therefore he would have known blessed Job's patience; and if he had known, he would not have tempted, since he does not wish to be overcome; but he tempted: therefore he knew neither his virtue nor his thoughts.

> **Conclusion.**
>
> *No creature can know the secrets of a human conscience save by signs, or by conjecture.*

**I respond:** For an understanding of what has been said, it must be noted that, just as God gave to the will of the rational creature dominion or free choice, over which nothing presides save the divine power; so to its cognitive [faculty] he gave the secret of conscience, whose secrets and depths nothing penetrates save divine wisdom. *Conclusion 1.* And therefore I say that no creature, neither human nor angelic, can know the secrets of a human conscience, except by signs or by conjectures, or unless it knows by divine revelation, or by a human being's announcement or disclosure. And since few things are so secret that they do not come forth in external works, or appear by external signs of the face, or by the signs of the heart, which is moved diversely according to the diversity of affections; *Conclusion 2.* hence it is that many of our thoughts and affections can be caught by the malignant spirits, unless they be hindered by the power of God. But this cognition is rather of conjecture than of certain knowledge. — And therefore the reasons showing that an evil angel cannot scrutinize the secrets of our conscience are to be granted.

*Solution of the opposed arguments.*

1. *Note.* To that which is objected first to the contrary, about the accuser's office, it must be said that not only will the demon himself be the accuser, but also our heart; whence, although we can be accused by the devil concerning external and visible things, concerning the hidden and the secret we cannot. Yet neither will be left unpunished, since there will be no lack of accuser and witness.

2. To that which is objected, that sin is the character of the devil; it must be said that sin is then called a character when it is written on the forehead; but this is when one sins without blush and publicly, so that it can already be said to him: *Thou hast the forehead of a harlot woman; thou refusedst to blush*; and then without

doubt our sin is known to the devil, because already it is not secret but manifest.

3. To that which is objected from Augustine, that they have known thoughts; it must be said that he is speaking of cognition by conjecture, not of certain knowledge.

4. To that which is objected, that *operation is more known than substance*; it must be said that this is true of external operation; but it does not always hold true of internal operation. For many things are known to us whose powers and operations lie hidden from us. — *Another solution.* Or it must be said that this holds in natural operation, not in voluntary operation. For natural operation, insofar as it is natural, is naturally apt to represent itself and cannot conceal itself, just as neither can substance; nay, by it substance is manifested, since it has more of the character of actuality, and through this of manifestation and light. But it is otherwise in voluntary operation. For while substance naturally represents itself, just as it naturally is, and cannot conceal itself; voluntary operation, just as it voluntarily comes forth into being, so it is also voluntarily manifested; and so it can be concealed — nay, it is not manifested unless the man wills. And of such kind are the things which lie hidden in the secret of our conscience. Therefore, although the devil can see the soul by his own power, he cannot nevertheless catch sight of it [i.e., of voluntary operation].

5. To that which is objected, that a mirror represents another mirror and the things contained in it; it must be said that a mirror is twofold, one natural, and one voluntary. The natural mirror, just as it naturally receives, so it naturally renders, and so conceals nothing; therefore the mirror set opposite to it represents not only itself but also everything that shines in it. But the voluntary mirror is not in the act of manifesting the things which it contains in itself, unless the will makes it so; and such is the spiritual mirror. Therefore the case is not alike.

6. To that which is objected concerning the corporeal eye, the response is now clear by this very reason. For one corporeal eye sees whatever another sees, if the object is revealed to both; but if it is opened to one and covered to the other, one can see what the other does not see. Since therefore no one can or wills to veil himself from himself, because he is always present to himself; therefore his own eye, if anything is in him, cannot lie hidden; but another's eye he can elude and veil himself from it, since he is not present to it nor has power over it: and therefore our conscience can lie hidden from every spiritual eye, except from itself and from him who is above it. And therefore Augustine on Genesis *ad litteram* says that «just as corporeal substances have certain coverings by which they conceal themselves from alien sight, so in spiritual substances it must be understood after their own manner»; this is the sense of his words.

*Incidental question.*

And if you ask how this can be or be understood, since a spiritual substance is simple and uniform throughout, and so it seems that he who sees a little, nothing lies hidden, and since it is uniform, there cannot be there something concealing and something concealed; it must be said that that obstacle is not to be understood by the interposition of any opaque nature, as is the case in our corporeal sight, or obscure, or less clear; but there *to hide is the same as to be unwilling to manifest*. And although there are not there diversities of folds from the composition of diverse natures, there are nevertheless in the soul gradations of powers and states, according to which certain things are said to be more inward to the soul, namely those which regard the higher and simpler or purer powers, according to which the soul more recollects itself in itself, and is united and simplified to that which is supremely one; and near these chiefly resides the secret of conscience.

*To the text of the Master.*

And thus the solution of the objections is clear; from which also all the things said in the *littera* are manifested. Only this needs explanation, that Gennadius says that the demons [act] *through the energy of operations*, etc. — what he there calls *energy*. *Energy.* And it must be said that *energy* is named from *en*, which is *in*, and *ergon*, which is *labor*, and *mene*, which is *defect*; whence *energy* is as it were an interior labor or interior defect. *What are energumens.* Whence those are called *energumens* who labor inwardly through the vexation of a demon inwardly besetting them and making the soul to labor. And this is what Gennadius means to say.