Tertullian, Apologeticum

Atque adeo dicimus esse substantias quasdam spiritales. Nec novum nomen est. Sciunt daemones philosophi, Socrate ipso ad daemonii arbitrium exspectante. Quidni? cum et ipsi daemonium a pueritia adhaesisse dicatur, dehortatorium plane a bono.

And so we say that certain spiritual substances exist. Nor is the name new. The philosophers know of demons, since Socrates himself waited on the decision of a demon. And why not? For a demon is said to have attached itself to him from boyhood, one that plainly dissuaded him from the good.

Omnes sciunt poetae; etiam vulgus indoctum in usum maledicti frequentat. Nam et Satanan, principem huius mali generis, proinde de propria conscientia animae eadem execramenti voce pronuntiat. Angelos quoque etiam Plato non negavit.

All the poets know them; even the unlearned common people use [the word] often in cursing. For with the same word of execration it also names Satan, the chief of this evil race, out of the soul's own awareness. Angels too even Plato did not deny.

Utriusque nominis testes esse vel magi adsunt. Sed quomodo de angelis quibusdam sua sponte corruptis corruptior gens daemonum evaserit, damnata a deo cum generis auctoribus et cum eo quem diximus principe, apud litteras sanctas ordo cognoscitur.

Even the magicians are at hand as witnesses to both names. But how, out of certain angels corrupted of their own free will, a still more corrupt race of demons came forth, condemned by God together with the authors of their race and with the prince we mentioned, is learned in its order from the sacred writings.

Nunc de operatione eorum satis erit exponere. Operatio eorum est hominis eversio. Sic malitia spiritalis a primordio auspicata est in hominis exitium. Itaque corporibus quidem et valitudines infligunt et aliquos casus acerbos, animae vero repentinos et extraordinarios per vim excessus. Suppetit illis ad utramque substantiam hominis adeundam subtilitas et tenuitas sua.

For now it will be enough to set out their activity. Their activity is the overthrow of man. So spiritual wickedness made its very first beginning in man's destruction. Accordingly, they inflict on bodies diseases and certain bitter mishaps, and on the soul sudden and extraordinary fits of violence. Their subtlety and thinness give them the means to reach both substances of a man.

Multum spiritalibus viribus licet, ut invisibiles et insensibiles in effectu potius quam in actu suo appareant, si poma, si fruges nescio quod aurae latens vitium in flore praecipitat, in germine exanimat,in pubertate convulnerat, ac si caeca ratione temptatus aer pestilentes haustus suos offundit.

Spiritual powers can do a great deal, so that, being invisible and imperceptible, they appear in their effect rather than in their action: as when some hidden blight in the air brings down fruit and crops in the flower, kills them in the bud, wounds them as they ripen; or as when the air, tampered with in some unseen way, pours out its pestilential draughts.

Eadem igitur obscuritate contagionis adspiratio daemonum et angelorum mentis quoque corruptelas agit furoribus et amentiis foedis aut saevis libidinibus cum erroribus variis, quorum iste potissimus quo deos istos captis et circumscriptis hominum mentibus commendat, ut et sibi pabula propria nidoris et sanguinis procuret simulacris imaginibus oblata.

With the same hidden contagion, then, the breath of demons and angels also works corruption of the mind, with frenzies and foul insanities or savage lusts, along with errors of every kind; and the chief of these is the error by which it commends these gods of yours to the captured and ensnared minds of men, so as to procure for itself its own proper food of savour and blood, offered to statues and images.

Et quae illi accuratior pascua est, quam ut hominem e cogitatu verae divinitatis avertat praestigiis falsis? Quas et ipsas quomodo operetur expediam.

And what pasture does it seek more carefully than to turn man away from the thought of the true divinity by false illusions? How it works these too, I shall explain.

Omnis spiritus ales est. Hoc angeli et daemones. Igitur momento ubique sunt; totus orbis illis locus unus est; quid ubi geratur tam facile sciunt quam adnuntiant, velocitas divinitas creditur, quia substantia ignoratur. Sic et auctores interdum videri volunt eorum quae adnuntiant. Et sunt plane malorum nonnunquam, bonorum tamen nunquam.

Every spirit is winged. This is what angels and demons are. Therefore they are everywhere in a moment; the whole world is one place to them; what is being done where, they know as easily as they report it. Their speed is believed to be divinity, because their substance is unknown. So they sometimes want to be seen as the authors of the things they report. And indeed they sometimes are, of evils; of good things, never.

Dispositiones etiam dei et tunc prophetis contionantibus exceperunt et nunc lectionibus resonantibus carpunt. Ita et hinc sumentes quasdam temporum sortes aemulantur divinitatem, dum furantur divinationem.

God's dispositions too they overheard back then, when the prophets preached them, and now they pick them up as the readings resound. So, taking from here certain lots of the times, they imitate divinity while they steal divination.

In oraculis autem quo ingenio ambiguitates temperent in eventus sciunt Croesi, sciunt Pyrrhi. Ceterum testudinem decoqui cum carnibus pecudis Pythius eo modo renuntiavit quo supra diximus; momento apud Lydiam fuerat. Habent de incolatu aeris et de vicinia siderum et de commercio nubium caelestes sapere paraturas, ut et pluvias, quas iam sentiunt, repromittant.

As for oracles, with what skill they temper their ambiguities to fit the outcome, the Croesuses know, the Pyrrhuses know. Again, the Pythian announced that a tortoise was being boiled down with the flesh of a sheep in the way we described above: in a moment he had been in Lydia. From dwelling in the air, and from their nearness to the stars, and from their dealings with the clouds, they are able to know the preparations of the sky, so that they also promise rains which they already feel coming.

Benefici plane et circa curas valitudinum. Laedunt enim primo, dehinc remedia praecipiunt ad miraculum nova sive contraria, post quae desinunt laedere, et curasse creduntur.

Very kind they are, to be sure, in the care of illnesses as well. For first they do harm, then they prescribe remedies, novel or contrary to the point of miracle, after which they stop doing harm, and are believed to have healed.

Porro, si et magi phantasmata edunt et iam defunctorum infamant animas, si pueros in eloquium oraculi elidunt, si multa miracula circulatoriis praestigiis ludunt, si et somnia immittunt habentes semel invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem, per quos et caprae et mensae divinare consuerunt, quanto magis ea potestas de suo arbitrio et pro suo negotio studeat totis viribus operari quod alienae praestat negotiationi!

Further: if magicians too produce phantoms and dishonour the souls of the dead; if they force boys into oracular speech; if they play out many marvels with the tricks of street conjurers; if they also send dreams, having at their side the power of angels and demons once invited, through whom even goats and tables have been accustomed to divine: how much more will that power, of its own will and for its own business, strive with all its strength to do what it performs for another's business!

Sed hactenus verba; iam hinc demonstratio rei ipsius, qua ostendemus unam esse utriusque nominis qualitatem. Edatur hic aliqui ibidem sub tribunalibus vestris quem daemone agi constet. Iussus a quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille tam se daemonem confitebitur de vero quam alibi dominum de falso.

But enough of words; from here on, a demonstration of the thing itself, by which we shall show that both names have one and the same nature. Let someone be brought forward here, right before your tribunals, who is agreed to be driven by a demon. Ordered to speak by any Christian you like, that spirit will confess itself a demon as truly as elsewhere it falsely calls itself a lord.

Aeque producatur aliquis ex his qui de deo pati existimantur, qui aris inhalantes numen de nidore concipiunt,qui ructando curantur, qui anhelando praefantur.

Likewise let someone be produced from those who are thought to be possessed by a god, who, breathing over the altars, conceive the deity from the smoke, who are cured by belching, who prophesy by panting.

Ista ipsa virgo Caelestis pluviarum pollicitatrix, ipse iste Aesculapius medicinarum demonstrator, alia die morituris Socordio et Tenatio et Asclepiodoto sumministrator, nisi se daemones confessi fuerint Christiano mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite!

That very Virgin Caelestis, promiser of rains, that very Aesculapius, revealer of medicines, supplier to Socordius and Tenatius and Asclepiodotus, who were to die another day: if they do not confess themselves demons, not daring to lie to a Christian, then and there shed the blood of that most impudent Christian!