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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VIII: De dis caelestibus et daemonibus aeriis hominibus que terrenis Apulei Platonici definitione.

Quid? illa ipsa definitio daemonum parum ne intuenda est - ubi certe omnes determinando conplexus est - , quod ait daemones esse genere animalia, animo passiua, mente rationalia, corpore aeria, tempore aeterna? in quibus quinque commemoratis nihil dixit omnino, quod daemones cum bonis saltem hominibus id uiderentur habere commune, quod non esset in malis. nam ipsos homines cum aliquanto latius describendo conplecteretur, suo loco de illis dicens tamquam de infimis atque terrenis, cum prius dixisset de caelestibus dis, ut commendatis duabus partibus ex summo et infimo ultimis tertio loco de mediis daemonibus loqueretur: igitur homines, inquit, ratione cluentes, oratione pollentes, inmortalibus animis, moribundis membris, leuibus et anxiis mentibus, brutis et obnoxiis corporibus, dissimilibus moribus, similibus erroribus, peruicaci audacia, pertinaci spe, casso labore, fortuna caduca, singillatim mortales, cuncti tamen uniuerso genere perpetui, uicissim sufficienda prole mutabiles, uolucri tempore, tarda sapientia, cita morte, querula uita terras incolunt. cum hic tam multa diceret, quae ad plurimos homines pertinent, numquid etiam illud tacuit, quod nouerat esse paucorum, ubi ait tarda sapientia? quod si praetermisisset, nullo modo recte genus humanum descriptionis huius tam intenta diligentia terminasset. cum uero deorum excellentiam commendaret, ipsam beatitudinem, quo uolunt homines per sapientiam peruenire, in eis adfirmauit excellere. proinde si aliquos daemones bonos uellet intellegi, aliquid etiam in ipsorum descriptione poneret, unde uel cum dis aliquam beatitudinis partem, uel cum hominibus qualemcumque sapientiam putarentur habere communem. nunc uero nullum bonum eorum commemorauit, quo boni discernuntur a malis. quamuis et eorum malitiae liberius exprimendae pepercerit, non tam ne ipsos, quam ne cultores eorum, apud quos loquebatur, offenderet: significauit tamen prudentibus, quid de illis sentire deberent. quandoquidem deos, quos omnes bonos beatosque credi uoluit, ab eorum passionibus atque, ut ait ipse, turbelis omni modo separauit, sola illos corporum aeternitate coniungens, animo autem non dis, sed hominibus similes daemones apertissime inculcans; et hoc non sapientiae bono, cuius et homines possunt esse participes, sed perturbatione passionum, quae stultis malis que dominatur, a sapientibus uero et bonis ita regitur, ut malint eam non habere quam uincere. nam si non corporum, sed animorum aeternitatem cum dis habere daemones uellet intellegi, non utique homines ab huius rei consortio separaret, quia et hominibus aeternos esse animos procul dubio sicut Platonicus sentit. ideo cum hoc genus animantum describeret, inmortalibus animis, moribundis membris dixit esse homines. ac per hoc si propterea communem cum dis aeternitatem non habent homines, quia corpore sunt mortales: propterea ergo daemones habent, quia corpore sunt inmortales.

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The City of God

Chapter 8.--How Apuleius Defines the Gods Who Dwell in Heaven, the Demons Who Occupy the Air, and Men Who Inhabit Earth.

The definition which Apuleius gives of demons, and in which he of course includes all demons, is that they are in nature animals, in soul subject to passion, in mind reasonable, in body aerial, in duration eternal. Now in these five qualities he has named absolutely nothing which is proper to good men and not also to bad. For when Apuleius had spoken of the celestials first, and had then extended his description so as to include an account of those who dwell far below on the earth, that, after describing the two extremes of rational being, he might proceed to speak of the intermediate demons, he says, "Men, therefore, who are endowed with the faculty of reason and speech, whose soul is immortal and their members mortal, who have weak and anxious spirits, dull and corruptible bodies, dissimilar characters, similar ignorance, who are obstinate in their audacity, and persistent in their hope, whose labor is vain, and whose fortune is ever on the wane, their race immortal, themselves perishing, each generation replenished with creatures whose life is swift and their wisdom slow, their death sudden and their life a wail,--these are the men who dwell on the earth." ¹ In recounting so many qualities which belong to the large proportion of men, did he forget that which is the property of the few when he speaks of their wisdom being slow? If this had been omitted, this his description of the human race, so carefully elaborated, would have been defective. And when he commended the excellence of the gods, he affirmed that they excelled in that very blessedness to which he thinks men must attain by wisdom. And therefore, if he had wished us to believe that some of the demons are good, he should have inserted in his description something by which we might see that they have, in common with the gods, some share of blessedness, or, in common with men, some wisdom. But, as it is, he has mentioned no good quality by which the good may be distinguished from the bad. For although he refrained from giving a full account of their wickedness, through fear of offending, not themselves but their worshippers, for whom he was writing, yet he sufficiently indicated to discerning readers what opinion he had of them; for only in the one article of the eternity of their bodies does he assimilate them to the gods, all of whom, he asserts, are good and blessed, and absolutely free from what he himself calls the stormy passions of the demons; and as to the soul, he quite plainly affirms that they resemble men and not the gods, and that this resemblance lies not in the possession of wisdom, which even men can attain to, but in the perturbation of passions which sway the foolish and wicked, but is so ruled by the good and wise that they prefer not to admit rather than to conquer it. For if he had wished it to be understood that the demons resembled the gods in the eternity not of their bodies but of their souls, he would certainly have admitted men to share in this privilege, because, as a Platonist, he of course must hold that the human soul is eternal. Accordingly, when describing this race of living beings, he said that their souls were immortal, their members mortal. And, consequently, if men have not eternity in common with the gods because they have mortal bodies, demons have eternity in common with the gods because their bodies are immortal.