THE WRITINGS OF FRIAR BARTHOLOMAEUS SPINA

[transportatio]ns: the least of whom could accomplish such a thing more quickly and strongly than a million dromedaries original: "Dromedarij"; camels were often used in medieval texts as the standard for the fastest and strongest land transport all at once. For that which is not a body does not suffer weariness or fatigue. Reason also persuades us regarding the power of the good angels, which is no less; furthermore, the histories of the destruction of the five cities in the valley of the Dead Sea Genesis 19, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the slaughter of Sennacherib's army Isaiah 37, where an angel destroys the Assyrian camp reveal this most clearly. The same can be confirmed from the authentic history, celebrated by the entire Church, of Saint James the Apostle: at the command of the same Apostle, a demon led the bound magician Hermogenes A legendary sorcerer who challenged St. James the Greater but was eventually converted from his own house to the house of the blessed James through the air. We also read of Saint Ambrose The 4th-century Bishop of Milan that, at the holy man's own command, he was carried from Milan to Rome in the space of three hours by a demon, and was then brought back to Milan by the same demon, so that the power of the saints over demons might be made manifest in this way.

Regarding the carrying of men by demons through the air by the power of the magic art, the truthful history of Saint Peter the Apostle offers excellent testimony, as does what is read in the Itinerary of Saint Clement An early Christian narrative also known as the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions concerning that most wicked man Simon Magus A biblical sorcerer who, according to tradition, attempted to prove his divinity by flying, who had himself visibly carried by demons through the air as if he were ascending to heaven. Paul, with his prayers, and Peter, by a command issued to the demons, cast him down to the earth; he died with his whole body broken.

But the uniform testimony of necromancers confirms the same, along with Avicenna original: "Auic."; Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037), a Persian polymath whose philosophical works were widely cited in debates about the soul and the supernatural in his book on Necromancy, as Agostino Nifo original: "Augu. Nyphus"; a celebrated Italian philosopher (1473–1538) who wrote on the nature of spirits recounts in his commentary on the third dispute, question 18. I omit the many accounts of this kind narrated in the Malleus Maleficarum The "Hammer of Witches," the famous 1486 treatise on witch-hunting. It is enough that the proposition has been clearly made known through these examples. To say, however, that God does not permit these things to happen in the case of witches original: "strigibus"; Spina specifically uses this term for witches believed to fly at night is to speak without reason. For God has permitted much greater evils when necessitated by the malice of those who do not fear Him—such as the irreparable fall of the angels and the fatal ruin of our first parents, and indeed of the entire human race. Truly, the judgments of God are inscrutable; we must confess that God permits whatever is proven to happen by faithful testimony, especially that of the Holy Scriptures,

of wise men, and a multitude of sworn witnesses who do not lack their senses. Moreover, since the main point is established, the accessory follows of its own accord. For men, having been carried in this way, can enter houses through doors or windows opened by the demon; they can take food prepared by the same and enjoy delights just as others do while awake, and the same must be said of the actions that follow. By the work of demons, even upon those who belong to such a house, can a deep sleep be cast while they are sleeping—through a caused dissolution of vapors seeking the brain A reference to the medieval medical theory that sleep is caused by physical vapors rising from the stomach to the brain, or through any other bodily disposition—so that in the meantime they do not hear sounds or noises resulting from the aforementioned movements? They can also [place] obst...