Cyprian Saint, Bishop of Carthage, Quod Idola Dii non sint

Hi ergo spiritus sub statuis adque imaginibus consecratis delitescunt, hi adflatu suo uatum pectora inspirant, extorum fibras animant, auium uolatus gubernant, sortes regunt, oracula efficiunt, falsa ueris semper inuoluunt, nam et falluntur et fallunt, uitam turbant, somnos inquietant, inrepentes etiam spiritus in corporibus occulte mentes terrent, membra distorquent, ualitudinem frangunt, morbos lacessunt, ut ad cultum sui cogant, ut nidore altarium et rogis pecorum saginati remissis, quae constrinxerant, curasse uideantur. haec est de illis medella, cultorum cessat iniuria : nec aliud studium est quam a Deo homines auocare et ad superstitionem sui ab intellectu uerae religionis auertere, cum sint ipsi poenales, quaerere sibi ad poenam comites, quos ad crimen suum fecerint errore participes. hi tamen adiurati per Deum uerum nobis statim cedunt et fatentur et de obsessis corporibus exire coguntur: uideas illos nostra uoce et oratione maiestatis occultae flagris caedi, igne torreri, incremento poenae progagantis extendi, eiulare, gemere, deprecari, unde ueniant et quando discedant ipsis etiam, qui se colunt, audientibus confiteri, ut uel exiliant statim uel euanescant gradatim, prout fides patientis adiuuat aut gratia curantis adspirat. hinc uulgus in odium nostri nominis cogunt, ut nos odisse incipiant homines antequam nosse, ne cognitos aut imitari possint aut damnare non possint.

These spirits, then, lurk beneath statues and consecrated images; they inspire the breasts of prophets with their breath, animate the fibres of entrails, steer the flights of birds, govern lots, produce oracles, always wrap falsehood in truth (for they are both deceived and deceivers); they disturb life, trouble sleep; creeping as spirits into bodies too, they secretly terrify minds, twist limbs, break health and provoke diseases, to force [people] to worship them, so that, glutted with the reek of altars and the pyres of cattle, they may seem to have cured [them] by releasing what they had bound tight. This is the healing that comes from them: their injury to their worshippers stops. Nor have they any other aim than to call men away from God and to turn them from the understanding of true religion to superstition about themselves; and since they are themselves under punishment, to seek for themselves companions in punishment, whom by error they have made partners in their crime. Yet these, when adjured by the true God, at once yield to us, confess, and are forced to go out of the bodies they have possessed. You may see them, at our voice and prayer, beaten with the whips of the hidden majesty, scorched with fire, stretched out by the increase of a spreading punishment, howling, groaning, pleading, confessing where they come from and when they are leaving, while even those who worship them listen; so that they either leap out at once or vanish by degrees, as the faith of the sufferer helps or the grace of the healer breathes upon [him]. Hence they drive the common people to hatred of our name, so that men begin to hate us before they know us, lest, once they know us, they might either imitate us or be unable to condemn us.