Article 5 — Whether the demons also cooperate in the working of miracles

The fifth point of inquiry is whether the demons also cooperate in the working of miracles. (Parallel texts: ST I.114.4; I.110.4, ad 2; II-II.178.2; II-II.178.1, ad 2; SCG III.154; De malo, q. 16, a. 9; In II Sent. 7.3.1; Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 24; Commentary on 2 Thessalonians, ch. 2, lect. 2; Compendium theologiae, ch. 136.)

Obj. 1: And it would seem that they do. For it is said: there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show great signs and wonders (Matt 24:24). Now, such things they will not do save by the power of the demons. Therefore, demons cooperate in the working of miracles.

Obj. 2: The sudden healing of a sick man is a miracle; thus, Christ worked a miracle when he healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38). But the demons also can do this, since a sick man may be quickly cured by using medicine, and the demons, being by nature rapid in their movements, and well acquainted with the healing properties of medicines, can (it seems) apply these so efficaciously that the sick man is cured at once. Therefore, they can work miracles.

Obj. 3: It is a miracle to make the dumb speak. But it is a yet greater miracle to make a dog speak or sing, and Simon Magus (Cf. Acts 8:9–24.) is stated to have done this by a demon’s power. Therefore, a demon can work miracles.

Obj. 4: Valerius Maximus (Valerius Maximus, a 1st-century AD Roman author. His distinguished work, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX, written around 31 AD, was greatly esteemed by the holy fathers and teachers in the Middle Ages.) relates that the statue of Fortune situated at Rome on the Latin Way spoke not once, but twice thus: it is well that you have looked on me, oh matrons; rightly have you hallowed me. (Valerius Maximus, Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX 1.8.4.) Now, it is a greater miracle for stones than for the dumb to speak; and yet, the latter is miraculous. Therefore, seemingly, demons can work miracles.

Obj. 5: History tells us as related by Augustine that a certain Vestal Virgin, in proof of undefiled chastity, carried water from the Tiber in a leaky jug, and yet the water was not spilt. (Augustine, City of God 10.16 (PL 41:295); cf. 10.26 (PL 41:303–4).) Now, this could not happen unless the water by some non-natural power were prevented from pouring out, which was as certainly a miracle as was the Jordan’s being divided while the waters yet stood still. Therefore, demons can work miracles.

Obj. 6: It is much more difficult to change a man into a brute animal than to change water into wine. Now, the change of water into wine was miraculous (John 2). Therefore, a fortiori is it a miracle to change a man into a brute animal. Yet men are changed into dumb animals by the demon’s power; thus, Varro (Marcus Terentius Varro (ca. 116–28 BC), renowned Roman author of many works.) relates (as Augustine states) (Augustine, City of God 18.16–18 (PL 41:573–76).) that when the companions of Diomedes were returning from Troy, they were changed into birds, and they for a long time afterwards flew around the temple of Diomedes; also, that the famous sorceress Circe changed the companions of Odysseus into beasts; and that some Arcadians after crossing a swamp were changed into wolves. (Cf. Homer, Odyssey 10.236–44.) Therefore, demons can work miracles.

Obj. 7: Job’s trials were evidently brought about through the agency of a demon, since the Lord gave the latter power over all that Job had (Job 1:12). (Cf. Job 2:6.) Now, these trials were not effected without a miracle, as evinced by the fire coming down from heaven, and the wind that destroyed his house, resulting in the death of his children (Job 1:19). Therefore, demons can work miracles.

Obj. 8: It was a miracle that Moses changed his rod into a serpent (Exod 7:10). But Pharaoh’s magicians did this similarly, by the power of demons. Therefore, it seems that demons can work miracles.

Obj. 9: The working of miracles is further removed from man’s than from the angels’ power. Now, miracles are sometimes wrought by wicked men; thus, the wicked are made to say: have not we prophesied in your name . . . and done many miracles (Matt 7:22)? Therefore, real miracles can be wrought by demons also.

On the contrary, at the time of Antichrist, the devil will be able to do works of very great power, for he must be loosed a little time (Rev 20:3), which refers to the time of Antichrist. But he will not then work real miracles, since it is clearly stated that the time of Antichrist will be in all power and signs and lying wonders (2 Thess 2:9). Therefore, the demons cannot work miracles.

I answer that just as the good angels by grace can do something surpassing their natural power, so the wicked angels being restrained by divine providence are unable to do as much as they might by their natural power. The reason of this is that, as Augustine says, some things the angels would be able to do, if they were permitted, they cannot do, because they are not permitted. (Augustine, On the Trinity 3.9 (PL 42:877–79).) (Hence, the angels are said to be “bound” in that they are prevented from doing things to which their natural powers could extend, and to be “loosed” when by the divine decree they are permitted to do what their nature enables them to do.) Still, as he says in the same place, some things they cannot do even if permitted, because the mode of nature bestowed on them by God does not permit it. (Augustine, On the Trinity 3.9 (PL 42:877–79).)

Accordingly, God does not give them the power to do things that surpass the faculty of their nature, because seeing that a miraculous work is a divine witness to God’s power and truth, if the demons whose whole will is diverted to evil, were to receive the power to work miracles, God would be vouching for their falsehood; and that would be repugnant to his goodness. Therefore, at times they perform, by God’s permission, only such works as seem to be miraculous to men, and which are within the limits of their natural power.

Even so, as explained above, by their natural power they can produce, in the manner of art, those effects only that result from the natural powers that are found within bodies, which latter obey them in respect of local movement; (Q. 6, a. 4.) and thus, they can employ them so as to produce an effect in a very short time. Now, by means of these powers, it is possible for bodies to undergo true transformations, just as according to the natural course of things we see one thing is generated from another. Besides this they can, by working some kind of change in a body, by disturbing the organ of the imagination (in respect of the various spirits and humors), make things that do not exist in the nature of things appear to the imagination; this is an effect that may also be produced by means of certain external bodies, by the application of which things appear different in form to what they really are, as is clear in cases of delirium or insanity.

Accordingly, demons can work wonders in us in two ways: first, by means of real bodily transformation; second, by affecting the imagination so as to delude the senses. But neither of these works is miraculous, but is in the mode of art, as we have explained above; (Q. 6, a. 4.) therefore, it must be said that simply speaking demons cannot work true miracles.

Reply Obj. 1: “Signs and wonders” denote things that can be done by natural power, yet to men are marvelous, or even things that are done by deceiving the senses, as explained above.

Reply Obj. 2: Nothing prevents a man from being cured more quickly by the art of demons than by nature left to itself, since we find that the same is true of human art. It does not seem, however, that the demons can cure a man all at once (although certain other effects they can produce almost suddenly), because the medicines that are applied to a man’s body effect his cure instrumentally, nature being the principal agent. Therefore, the medicines applied should be such as can be made to act by nature; and if too many were applied, they would be not conducive but prejudicial to health. Therefore, diseases which are by nature incurable are also incurable by demons. It is different with effects that depend on an external agent as their principal cause. It must be observed, however, that if demons were to effect a sudden cure, it would not be a miracle, since to be successful, they would have to act by the mediation of a natural power.

Reply Obj. 3: Speaking dogs and like works of Simon the Magician were quite possibly done by trickery and not in very truth. If, however, they were genuine, it matters not, since the demon did not give a dog the power of speech miraculously, as when it is given to the dumb by a miracle; rather, by some local movement he made sounds having the likeness of vocal letters and syllables. It is thus that we may understand Balaam’s ass to have spoken, (Cf. Numbers 22:28.) although in this case it was by the action of a good angel.

Reply Obj. 4: The same answer applies to the fourth objection about the statue, for this was done by a demon producing sounds like human speech by means of a movement in the air.

Reply Obj. 5: It is not unlikely that, in commendation of chastity, the true God through his good angels worked this miracle of the jug holding the water, because whatever good was in the heathens was from God. If, however, it was the work of the demons, this is not inconsistent with what has been said. Local rest and movement are from principles of the same genus, since the same nature that makes a thing move locally makes it rest locally. Therefore, just as demons can move bodies locally, so too they can prevent them being moved. Nor is it a miracle, as it is when it is done by God, because it results from the demon’s natural power in respect of this particular effect.

Reply Obj. 6: These transformations of which Varro speaks were not real, but apparent; they were effected by the demon working a change in a man’s imagination by introducing therein a bodily image, as Augustine says. (Augustine, City of God 18.18 (PL 41:574–76).)

Reply Obj. 7: By God’s permission, the devils can by a movement of the air cause disaster, even as this may be the natural result of the wind’s movements. It was in this way that Job’s trials were brought about by the work of the demons.

Reply Obj. 8: The Gloss mentions two opinions about the works of Pharaoh’s magicians. (Glossa ordinaria 1, 454–55, at Exodus 7:10–12 (PL 113:203–4).) According to one view, the rods were not really changed into serpents, but only in appearance, by a kind of conjuring trick. But Augustine, quoted in the same Gloss, (Glossa ordinaria 1, 454–55, at Exodus 7:12 (PL 113:204).) says that the change was real. And, he proves this with a certain amount of likelihood from the fact that Scripture uses the same word in speaking of the rods of the magicians and the rod of Moses, which of course was changed into a real serpent. Yet the demons’ work in changing the rods into serpents was no miracle, since they did it by means of seed collected together, with which they were able to decompose the rods and change them into serpents. But what Moses did was a miracle, since this was done by the power of God without the cooperation of any power of nature.

Reply Obj. 9: Men of evil life are sometimes the heralds of truth; therefore, God works miracles to vouch for the truth of their message, but this cannot be said of the demons.

Reply to the Sed Contra: To the argument advanced in a contrary sense, it is stated that the devil’s power will be let loose at the time of Antichrist, inasmuch as he will be permitted to do many things that he is not allowed to do now; therefore, he will do many things with the result that those will be seduced who deserved to be seduced for not assenting to the truth. And he will do some things by trickery, wherein there will be neither a true nor a miraculous result. He will also by a real transformation of bodies do some things wherein, although the results be real, they will not be miraculous, since they will be effected through natural causes. These are called “lies” on account of the intention with which he will do them, namely, to induce men by his wondrous works to believe in his lies.