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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXI: De modo potestatis daemonibus datae ad glorificandos sanctos per tolerantiam passionum, qui aerios spiritus non placando ipsos, sed in deo permanendo uicerunt.

Moderatis autem praefinitisque temporibus etiam potestas permissa daemonibus, ut hominibus quos possident excitatis inimicitias aduersus dei ciuitatem tyrannice exerceant sibique sacrificia non solum ab offerentibus sumant et a uolentibus expetant, uerum etiam ab inuitis persequendo uiolenter extorqueant, non solum perniciosa non est, sed etiam utilis inuenitur ecclesiae, ut martyrum numerus inpleatur; quos ciuitas dei tanto clariores et honoratiores ciues habet, quanto fortius aduersus inpietatis peccatum et usque ad sanguinem certant. hos multo elegantius, si ecclesiastica loquendi consuetudo pateretur, nostros heroas uocaremus. hoc enim nomen a Iunone dicitur tractum, quod Graece Iuno ἥρα appellatur, et ideo nescio quis filius eius secundum Graecorum fabulas Heros fuerit nuncupatus, hoc uidelicet ueluti mysticum significante fabula, quod aer Iunoni deputetur, ubi uolunt cum daemonibus heroas habitare, quo nomine appellant alicuius meriti animas defunctorum. sed a contrario martyres nostri heroes nuncuparentur, si, ut dixi, usus ecclesiastici sermonis admitteret, non quo eis esset cum daemonibus in aere societas, sed quod eosdem daemones, id est aerias uincerent potestates et in eis ipsam, quidquid putatur significare, Iunonem, quae non usquequaque inconuenienter a poetis inducitur inimica uirtutibus et caelum petentibus uiris fortibus inuida. sed rursus ei succumbit infeliciter ceditque Vergilius, ut, cum apud eum illa dicat: uincor ab Aenea, ipsum Aenean admoneat Helenus quasi consilio religioso et dicat: Iunoni cane uota libens, dominamque potentem supplicibus supera donis. ex qua opinione Porphyrius, quamuis non ex sua sententia, sed ex aliorum, dicit bonum deum uel genium non uenire in hominem, nisi malus fuerit ante placatus; tamquam fortiora sint apud eos numina mala quam bona, quandoquidem mala inpediunt adiutoria bonorum, nisi eis placata dent locum, malis que nolentibus bona prodesse non possunt; nocere autem mala possunt, non sibi ualentibus resistere bonis. non est ista uerae ueraciterque sanctae religionis uia; non sic Iunonem, hoc est aerias potestates piorum uirtutibus inuidentes, nostri martyres uincunt. non omnino, si dici usitate posset, heroes nostri supplicibus donis, sed uirtutibus diuinis Heran superant. commodius quippe Scipio Africanus est cognominatus, quod uirtute Africam uicerit, quam si hostes donis placasset, ut parcerent.

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The City of God

Chapter 21 .--Of the Power Delegated to Demons for the Trial and Glorification of the Saints, Who Conquer Not by Propitiating the Spirits of the Air, But by Abiding in God.

The power delegated to the demons at certain appointed and well-adjusted seasons, that they may give expression to their hostility to the city of God by stirring up against it the men who are under their influence, and may not only receive sacrifice from those who willingly offer it, but may also extort it from the unwilling by violent persecution;--this power is found to be not merely harmless, but even useful to the Church, completing as it does the number of martyrs, whom the city of God esteems as all the more illustrious and honored citizens, because they have striven even to blood against the sin of impiety. If the ordinary language of the Church allowed it, we might more elegantly call these men our heroes. For this name is said to be derived from Juno, who in Greek is called Hêrê, and hence, according to the Greek myths, one of her sons was called Heros. And these fables mystically signified that Juno was mistress of the air, which they suppose to be inhabited by the demons and the heroes, understanding by heroes the souls of the well-deserving dead. But for a quite opposite reason would we call our martyrs heroes,--supposing, as I said, that the usage of ecclesiastical language would admit of it,--not because they lived along with the demons in the air, but because they conquered these demons or powers of the air, and among them Juno herself, be she what she may, not unsuitably represented, as she commonly is by the poets, as hostile to virtue, and jealous of men of mark aspiring to the heavens. Virgil, however, unhappily gives way, and yields to her; for, though he represents her as saying, "I am conquered by Aeneas," ¹ Helenus gives Aeneas himself this religious advice:

"Pay vows to Juno: overbear

Her queenly soul with gift and prayer." ²

In conformity with this opinion, Porphyry-- expressing, however, not so much his own views as other people's--says that a good god or genius cannot come to a man unless the evil genius has been first of all propitiated, implying that the evil deities had greater power than the good; for, until they have been appeased and give place, the good can give no assistance; and if the evil deities oppose, the good can give no help; whereas the evil can do injury without the good being able to prevent them. This is not the way of the true and truly holy religion; not thus do our martyrs conquer Juno, that is to say, the powers of the air, who envy the virtues of the pious. Our heroes, if we could so call them, overcome Hêrê, not by suppliant gifts, but by divine virtues. As Scipio, who conquered Africa by his valor, is more suitably styled Africanus than if he had appeased his enemies by gifts, and so won their mercy.