Around the same time it fell to me, as a result of a certain discussion, that I had to write a little book On the Divination of Demons, which is its very title.

Now in a certain place in it, where I said that demons sometimes learn with complete ease the dispositions of human beings, not only those uttered by the voice but even those conceived in thought, when certain signs are expressed from the mind upon the body, I stated a most hidden matter with greater boldness than I ought to have. For that these things come to the knowledge of demons has been established even by a number of experiments. But whether certain signs are given off from the body of those who are thinking, signs perceptible to them but hidden from us, or whether they know these things by some other power, and that a spiritual one, can either only with the greatest difficulty be discovered by human beings, or cannot be discovered at all.

This book begins thus: On a certain day, in the holy days of the Octave.

1. On a certain day, in the holy days of the Octave, when in the morning many lay Christian brethren were present with me, and we had taken our seats in the usual place, a conversation arose about the Christian religion, directed against the presumption and the supposedly marvelous and great learning of the pagans. Having recalled it and completed it, I thought it should be committed to writing, without naming the persons who raised objections, even though they were Christians and seemed to be objecting rather in order to inquire what ought to be answered to the pagans.

When, therefore, the question of demonic divination was raised, and it was asserted that someone or other had foretold the destruction of the temple of Serapis that took place at Alexandria, I replied that it was not to be wondered at if the demons both could know and could foretell that this destruction of their temple and image was imminent, just as they know and foretell many other things, to the extent that knowing and announcing them in advance is permitted to them.

2. And when it was put to me, "Divinations of this kind, then, are not evil, nor displeasing to God; otherwise the almighty and just God would not permit them to happen, if they were evil and unjust," I replied, "These things ought not to be thought just on the grounds that the most almighty and most just God permits them to happen; for many other things that are most manifestly unjust also happen, such as murders, adulteries, thefts, robberies, and the rest of this kind, which, although they without doubt displease the just God because they are unjust, the same almighty God nevertheless permits to happen by a fixed reason of his judgment—not indeed with impunity, but unto the condemnation of those by whom the things that displease the Just One are done."

3. And when it was said, on the contrary, "There is indeed no room for doubt that God is almighty and just; but these human sins, which are committed against the society of human beings, he does not concern himself with as they are committed, and therefore those things can be done which surely could not be done if the Almighty had not allowed them. But those things which pertain to the worship of religion itself must in no way be believed to be despised by him, and on this account could not have been done unless they had pleased him, and therefore ought not to be reckoned evil"—

to this also I replied, "Now then they displease him, when temples and images are overthrown, and those sacrifices of the nations, if they have been performed, are punished.

For just as it is said that these things could not have been done unless they had pleased God, and therefore are to be thought good, since they please the Just One, so it can be said that they could not have been prohibited, overthrown, and punished unless they displeased God.

And on this account, if they were then rightly done because they were shown to please the just God by the fact that they were allowed to be done by him, then now they are done unjustly, because they are shown to displease God by the fact that he either commands or permits them to be overthrown."

4. Against this it was said, "These things are indeed now unjust, yet not evil; and they are unjust because they are done contrary to the laws by which they are prohibited; but they are not evil, because if they were evil, they would surely never have pleased God.

Moreover, if they had never pleased him, they would never have been done either, since he who can do all things, and who would not overlook such things, would not have allowed it—seeing that they are so great that they were done against the very religion by which God is worshiped, if they were done wickedly."

Here I said, "If they are not evil for the reason that they are proved to please God by the fact that the Almighty allows them to be done, how will that be good which they are prohibited from doing and which is overthrown?

But if it is not good that the things which please God are overthrown, the Almighty would not allow this to be done; for this too is done against the religion by which God is worshiped, if the things that please God are overthrown by human beings.

But if the Almighty permits this to be done wickedly, those things are not on that account to be thought good because the Almighty has permitted them to be done."

5. It was said in reply, "It must be granted that these things are now not rightly done—indeed, that for this very reason they are now no longer done at all, because they now displease the Almighty; and yet that they pleased him when they were done. For we do not know why they pleased him then, nor why they displease him now; provided only it be certain that they could neither have been done then unless they had pleased the Almighty, nor have ceased now unless they had displeased the Almighty."

To this I said, "Why then are such things even now done in secret, things that either lie hidden forever or, when detected, are punished, if the Almighty allows none of these things to be done except what pleases him as just, since what is unjust cannot please the Just One?"

Against this it was said, "Such things are now not done at all. For those sacred rites," he said, "are not performed which are prescribed in the pontifical books; for those rites were then rightly done, and were then shown to please God by this very fact, that they were allowed to be done by the Almighty and Just One.

But if anything of the prohibited sacrifices is now done secretly and unlawfully, it is not to be compared with that pontifical kind of sacrifices, but is to be reckoned among the things that are done even at night; since it is certain that all these unlawful things are prohibited and condemned by the pontifical books themselves."

Here I replied, "Why then does God permit even such things to be done, if he disregards none of these misdeeds which are committed against religion—especially since even those who hold the pontifical books in high esteem are compelled to admit that he concerns himself with these things, by the very fact that they assert that the things prohibited in these books are surely prohibited by divine authority?

How then are they prohibited by divine authority, unless because they displease God, who surely, by prohibiting them, shows not only that they displease him but also that he concerns himself with them and by no means disregards them? From this it is gathered that, as just, God disapproves of something, and yet, as almighty, permits it."

6. When these things had been said, it was granted that something is not to be thought done justly and well merely because the Almighty, although it displeases him, nevertheless allows it to be done; and that it must be acknowledged that even those evils which are committed against the religion by which God is worshiped both displease the just God and are permitted by the Almighty by reason of his judgment.

But there was now another matter to be treated: whence come the divinations either of demons, or of whoever those are whom the pagans call gods? For it had to be considered whether perhaps these things are to be thought good, not indeed because the Almighty permits them to be done, but because they are so great that they seem to be attributable to nothing but the power of God.

I promised that I would answer this later, since the hour for going out to the people was already pressing upon us; nor did I delay, once room was given for writing, both to weave back over those earlier matters and to weave in these.

7. The nature of demons is such that by the sense of their aerial body they easily surpass the sense of earthly bodies; and in speed too, on account of the superior mobility of that same aerial body, they incomparably outstrip not only the running of any human beings or wild beasts, but even the flight of birds. Endowed with these two things, as far as their aerial body is concerned—that is, keenness of sense and speed of movement—they foretell or announce many things known beforehand, which human beings, on account of the slowness of their earthly sense, find wondrous. There has also accrued to the demons, through the long span over which their life is extended, a far greater experience of things than can come to human beings on account of the brevity of life.

By these powers which the nature of their aerial body has been allotted, the demons not only foretell many future things, but also do many wondrous things. And because human beings cannot say and do these things, some people think the demons worthy to be served and to be given divine honors—driven above all by the vice of curiosity, out of love of a false and earthly happiness and of temporal excellence.

But those who cleanse themselves of these desires, and do not allow themselves to be deceived and ensnared by them, but rather seek and love something that always remains in the same way, by participation in which they may be blessed,

first consider that demons are not to be set above them merely because they prevail by a keener sense of body—namely, an aerial one, that is, of a more refined element;

for not even among earthly bodies do they think that beasts are to be set above them, beasts which perceive many things more keenly—such as a keen-scented dog, which by its very sharp sense of smell so finds the hidden quarry that it provides a human being with a kind of guidance to catching it, not indeed by a more prudent understanding of the mind, but by a sharper sense of body;

or a vulture, which flies in from an unforeseen distance when a carcass has been cast out;

nor an eagle, which, soaring on high, is said to spy out from so great a distance a fish swimming beneath the waves, and, plunging heavily into the water with outstretched feet and talons, to seize it;

nor the many other kinds of living creatures which, in feeding, wander about among plants harmful to their health and touch none of those by which they would be harmed, whereas a human being has barely learned by experience to beware of them, and dreads many harmless things because they are untried.

From this it is easy to gather how much keener the sense in aerial bodies can be; nor would any prudent person therefore judge that the demons, who are endowed with it, are to be set above good human beings. The same I would say of speed of body too: for in this excellence also human beings are surpassed not only by birds but even by many four-footed beasts, so that in comparison with them they are to be reckoned as made of lead; nor do human beings therefore think that these kinds of living creatures are to be set above them—creatures which, for catching, taming, and reducing to the use and advantage of their own will, they command not by force of body but of reason.

7. But as for that third power of the demons—that by long experience of things they have learned how to foreknow and foretell many things—those who carefully take pains to distinguish these things from the truth of the truest light so despise it that they do not think wicked old men, who have experienced more and are on that account as it were more learned, surpass upright young men on that account;

nor do they think that physicians, sailors, or farmers, whom they find of perverse will and unjust character, are therefore to be preferred to themselves, merely because the former foretell so many things about states of health, the latter about storms, and the others about the kinds of trees and crops, that to one inexperienced in these matters they seem to divine.

8. But as for the fact that demons not only foretell certain future things, but also do certain wondrous things by the very excellence of their body—why should this not be despised by the prudent, when very often wicked and depraved human beings so train their bodies, and can do so much by various arts, that those who do not know these arts and have never at any time seen them can scarcely believe them even when they are told? How many wondrous things have tightrope-walkers and other theatrical performers done, how many craftsmen, and especially mechanics? Are they therefore better than good human beings endowed with holy devotion?

I have mentioned these things so that whoever considers them without stubbornness and without an empty spiritedness of resistance may at the same time reflect that, if from the coarser underlying matter—whether of each one's own body, or of earth and water, of stones and wood and various metals—certain human beings can do such great things that those who cannot do them, often in their amazement, call them divine in comparison with themselves, even though some of those are more powerful in their arts while some of these are better in their character,

how much greater and more marvelous things can the demons do, by the capacity and facility of their most refined body—that is, the aerial one—and yet they are unclean and perverse spirits by the perversity of their will, and above all by the arrogance of pride and the malice of envy?

But how great is the power of the element of air, by which their bodies prevail, for invisibly contriving, moving, changing, and turning many visible things, it would take long to show now; and I think that it readily occurs even to one who gives it only moderate consideration.

9. Since these things are so, it must first be known, seeing that the question concerns the divination of demons, that they generally foretell those things which they themselves are going to do. For they often receive the power both to send diseases, and to render the very air diseased by tainting it, and to persuade those who are perverse and lovers of earthly advantages to do evil deeds—those of whose character they are certain that they will consent to them when they persuade them to such things.

And they persuade in wondrous and invisible ways, by that subtlety of their bodies penetrating the bodies of human beings who do not perceive it, and mingling themselves with their thoughts by means of certain imaginary visions, whether the people are awake or asleep.

Sometimes, however, they foretell not what they themselves do, but what they foreknow as future by natural signs—signs which cannot come within the senses of human beings. For just as a physician is not on that account to be held a diviner because he foresees what one ignorant of his art does not foresee, what wonder is it if, just as the physician, in the disturbed or moderated balance of the human body, foresees future states of health, whether good or bad, so a demon, in the condition and arrangement of the air known to him but unknown to us, foresees future storms?

Sometimes too they learn with complete ease the dispositions of human beings, not only those uttered by the voice but even those conceived in thought, when certain signs are expressed from the mind "upon the body"; and from this also they foretell many future things, things wondrous, of course, to others who did not know what was thus disposed.

For just as a more agitated movement of the mind appears in the face, so that something acted out within is recognized externally even by human beings, so it ought not to be incredible if even gentler thoughts give certain signs "through the body," which cannot be perceived by the dull sense of human beings, but can be perceived by the keen sense of demons.

10. By this and the like capacity the demons foretell many things; yet the loftiness of that prophecy which God works through his holy angels and the Prophets is far above them. For if they foretell anything of that disposition of God, they hear it in order to foretell it; and when they predict the things they hear from there, they neither deceive nor are deceived: for the angelic and prophetic oracles are most truthful.

But it is taken so indignantly that demons should hear and predict even some such things—as though it were something unworthy that what is said in order to become known to human beings should be left unspoken not only by the good but also by the evil—when in human beings themselves we see the precepts of a good life alike sung by the just and the perverse; and this does no harm, but rather even helps toward a greater knowledge and renown of the truth, when even those who contradict it by their perverse character say of it whatever they know.

But in their other predictions the demons are generally both deceived and deceive. They are deceived, indeed, because, when they foretell their own arrangements, something is unexpectedly commanded from above which throws all their plans into confusion. It is as if any human beings, subject to any powers, should arrange something which they suppose their superiors will not prohibit, and should promise that they will do it; but those in whose hands the greater power lies, by some other higher counsel, should suddenly prohibit this whole thing that had been arranged and prepared. They are deceived also when, like physicians, or sailors, or farmers, they foreknow some things from natural causes, but far more keenly and far more excellently, by the more skilled and more practiced sense of their aerial body; because these things too are unexpectedly and suddenly changed by the angels who serve God Most High with devotion, by another arrangement unknown to the demons.

It is as though something should befall a sick man from without, by which he dies, whom the physician, on the basis of preceding true signs of health, had promised would live; or as if, with the quality of the air foreseen, one of the sailors had predicted that a certain wind would blow long, the wind which the Lord Christ, sailing with his disciples, commanded to be still, and there was a great calm (Matt 8:26); or as if a farmer should promise that a certain vine would bear fruit in a given year, being thoroughly versed in the nature of the soil and the numbers of the seeds, and yet in that year an unforeseen inclemency of the heavens should dry it up, or some command of one more powerful should uproot it: so many things too pertaining to the foreknowledge and prediction of the demons, things foreseen as future from lesser and more usual causes, are hindered and changed by greater and more hidden causes.

But they also deceive, out of an eagerness to deceive and an envious will, by which they rejoice in the error of human beings. Yet, lest they lose the weight of their authority among their worshipers, they so act that the blame is assigned to their interpreters and to those who conjecture the meaning of their signs, whenever they have either been mistaken or have lied.

11. What wonder is it, then, if, when the overthrow of the temples or images was now imminent—the overthrow which the Prophets of the Most High God had foretold so long before—the demon Serapis disclosed it to one of his worshipers as near at hand, so that, in withdrawing or fleeing, he might commend his supposed divinity?

11. For these are put to flight, or even, bound by higher commands, are dragged off and removed from their places, so that concerning the things over which they ruled and by which they were worshiped, the will of God may be done—God who foretold so long before that this would come to pass among all the nations, and who commanded that it be done through his faithful.

But why should the demon not be allowed to predict this, when he already foreknew it to be imminent for himself?—since this prediction both bore witness to the Prophets, by whom these things were written down, and gave the prudent to understand how vigilantly the deceit of demons was to be guarded against and their worship to be fled;

these demons, who, when for so long a time before they had kept silent in their temples about these things to come—things they could not be ignorant of, since they had been foretold through the Prophets—after they began to draw near, wished as it were to "predict" them, lest they be thought ignorant and conquered.

Since, therefore, it had been foretold and written down so long before—to pass over other things for the moment—that which the Prophet Zephaniah says: the Lord will prevail against them, and will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth; and they shall worship him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11).

Either those who were worshiped in the temples of the nations did not believe that these things would happen to them, and therefore were unwilling to have them frequently announced through their seers and frenzied prophets—just as their own poet portrays Juno as not altogether believing what Jupiter had said about the death of Turnus. Now Juno is proclaimed by these people to be an aerial power, who in Virgil speaks thus:

Either, then, the demons—that is, the aerial powers—doubted that these things which they had learned were foretold through the Prophets could happen to them, and on that account were unwilling to make their prediction known; and from this it is to be understood of what sort they are. Or, since they knew most certainly that these things would come, they kept silent through their temples for this reason: lest they should already then begin to be abandoned and despised by understanding human beings, on the grounds that they would be bearing witness, concerning the future overthrow of their temples and images, to those Prophets who forbade that they be worshiped.

But now, after the time has come in which the prophecies of the Prophets of the one God were to be fulfilled—the God who calls those gods false and most vehemently commands that they not be worshiped—why should not the demons themselves be allowed to predict even this, once it had been established, so that from it it might appear more clearly that they had previously either not believed these things at all, or had been afraid to announce them to their worshipers; but at the end, as though having nothing more to do, they wished to display their divination even there, where they are now exposed as having long feigned divinity?

12. But as for what the rest of their worshipers say, that these things "foreknown" are contained even in certain of their own books—although the things which, in their temples, ought to have become known to their peoples so long a time before, if they were true, are to be thought concocted out of events already accomplished, just as our writings are recited, most ancient and most well known, not only in our churches but even—and this counts as weightier testimony against all enemies—in the synagogues of the Jews—

yet not even these very things which are brought forth by them but rarely and "in secret" ought to move us, if from some one of the demons it has been wrung out to disclose to his worshipers what he had learned from the utterances of the Prophets or from the oracles of the angels. And why should this not happen, since this too is not an attack upon, but an attestation of, the truth? For that one thing which alone should be demanded of them, they have never before brought forth, nor will they ever afterward—unless perhaps something concocted—attempt to bring forth: namely, that their gods, through their seers, dared to foretell or to say anything against the God of Israel.

Concerning this God, their most learned authors, who were able to read and know all those things, rather inquired who God was than were able to deny God.

Moreover, this God, whom none of them dared to deny to be the true God—and who, even if one had denied him, would not only be liable to the due penalties, but would also be convicted by sure effects;

this God, then, whom no one of them, as I have said, dared to deny to be the true God, foretold by open declaration, through his seers, that is, the Prophets, that those gods were false and altogether to be forsaken, and that their temples and images and sacred rites were to be overthrown; he commanded it by open power, and fulfilled it by open truth.

Hence who would be so foolish as not rather to choose to worship him whom those gods that he used to worship do not forbid to be worshiped? For when one has begun to worship him, one will surely not worship those whom the God one worships forbids to be worshiped.

13. But that the nations themselves would worship him, the false gods whom they previously worshiped having been destroyed, was foretold by his Prophets, as I mentioned a little before, and now I repeat: the Lord, it says, will prevail against them, and will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth, and they shall worship him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11). And not the islands alone, but all the nations in such a way that even all the islands of the nations are included; since elsewhere it names not the islands but the whole circle of the earth, saying: all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule over the nations (Ps 22:27–28 (21:28–29)).

But that these things were to be fulfilled through Christ is sufficiently clear, both from many other testimonies and in that very psalm from which I have quoted this. For when, a little earlier, he himself spoke through the Prophet of his future Passion, saying: they have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones; but they themselves looked and gazed upon me, they divided my garments among them, and over my clothing they cast lots (Ps 22:16–18 (21:17–19)); a little after he adds that which I have set down: all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord (Ps 22:27 (21:28)).

And yet, through that testimony also which I adduced earlier, where it was said, the Lord will prevail against them, and will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth (Zeph 2:11)—in the fact that it is set down, he will prevail, it is sufficiently shown that this too was foretold: that the pagans would first attack the Church, and would persecute the Christian name with all their might, so that, if it could be done, it might be utterly wiped from the earth; and that, because he was going to overcome them by the patience of the martyrs and the greatness of miracles, and by the consequent faith of the peoples, it was therefore said thus: the Lord will prevail against them (Zeph 2:11).

For it would not be said, he will prevail against them, unless they were resisting him by attacking. Hence in the Psalm too it has been prophesied thus: why have the nations raged, and the peoples devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes came together as one, against the Lord and against his Christ (Ps 2:1–2). And a little after it says: the Lord said to me, 'you are my Son, today I have begotten you: ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.' (Ps 2:7–8) See whence it was said, in the other psalm too which I cited above: all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord (Ps 22:27 (21:28)).

By these and the like prophetic documents it is shown to have been foretold—what we see fulfilled through Christ—that the God of Israel, whom we understand to be the one true God, would be worshiped not in that one nation alone which was called Israel, but among all the nations, and would tear down all the false gods of the nations both from their temples and from the hearts of their worshipers.

14. Let these people go now, and let them still dare to keep defending their old vanities against the Christian religion and against the true worship of God, so that they may perish with an uproar. For this too was foretold of them in the Psalm, the Prophet saying: you have sat upon the throne, you who judge righteousness. You have rebuked the nations, and the wicked one has perished; you have blotted out their name forever, and unto the age of the age. The enemy's swords have failed unto the end, and you have destroyed their cities. Their memory has perished with an uproar, and the Lord abides forever (Ps 9:4–7 (9:5–8)).

It is necessary, therefore, that all these things be fulfilled; nor ought we to be moved by the fact that those few who remain still dare to display their empty-worded teachings and to mock the Christians as utterly unlearned, while we see fulfilled in them the things that were foretold. For that very supposed inexperience and folly of the Christians, which appears to the humble and holy, and to those who diligently strive after it, to be lofty and the only true wisdom—that very supposed folly of the Christians, I say, has reduced them to this fewness, since, as the Apostle says, God has made foolish the wisdom of this world (1 Cor 1:20).

Then he adds a thing marvelous, if anyone understands it, and so continues: for since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not by wisdom know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. For the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness, yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. For what is foolish of God is wiser than men, and what is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:21–25).

Let them mock, then, as much as they can, what they take to be our inexperience and folly, and let them boast of their teaching and wisdom. This I know: that these mockers of ours are fewer this year than they were the year before. For ever since the time when the nations raged, and the peoples devised vain things against the Lord and against his Christ (Ps 2:1–2), when the blood of the saints was poured out by them and the Church was laid waste, down to this present time and thereafter, they are diminished day by day.

But against their reproaches and proud mockeries, the oracles of our God render us most steadfast—oracles which in this matter too we see, and rejoice to see, fulfilled. For thus he addresses us through the Prophet: hear me, you who know judgment, my people, in whose heart is my law: do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their disparagement; nor reckon as great the fact that they now spurn you. For just like a garment, so shall they be consumed by time, and like wool shall they be eaten by the moth: but my righteousness abides forever (Isa 51:7–8). Yet let them read these writings of ours, if they deign to; and when their contradictions reach us, as far as the Lord helps, we shall reply.