Diatribe de Prodigiosis Crucibus

The second class consists of those [prodigies] which occur from time to time either by the aid of Angels or demons, with GOD permitting it, whether to manifest His own glory or to punish the transgressions of mortals; and although these are bound by a manifold connection to the chains of natural causes, it is nonetheless impossible that they should be perfectly explained as to their manner, due to the imbecility of human reasoning, while they are conceived only through obscure shadows of likenesses and under a confused notion. For just as they are endowed with an infused knowledge of natural things, so do they know how to apply the hidden sympathies and antipathies of Nature so aptly and harmoniously that nothing appears to be denied to them in producing unusual and prodigious effects. Of this sort are the sudden agitation of elementary bodies, the violence of winds, by which we read of vast masses of towers and buildings laid prostrate here and there, forests overturned, and cities—with the sea poured across the fields, its shores cast asunder—and many thousands of houses destroyed and their inhabitants snatched away by the breath of storms; to this also is referred the speech of animals.