Bartholomew the Englishman

On Perverse Angels

Excerpted from De proprietatibus rerum 2.20

Therefore, the evil angels, consenting to the will of the fallen Lucifer, were cast irrecoverably into that murky air as though confined in prison. Moreover, they fell from light into darkness, from knowledge into ignorance, from love into hate and envy, from greatest happiness into greatest misery, as Gregory says.

Again, according to their greater or lesser knowledge, some demons are sovereign over others, some under others, as Ambrosius says in his commentary on Luke. For though they are obstinate in evil, yet they are lively; they are not entirely stripped of sense. For as Isidore says, demons have three types of wit. For some demons know through the subtlety of nature, some know by daily experience of times, some know by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Original Latin

Item, daemones ut dicit Augustinus in eius vivacitate ingenii cognoscunt seminales rerum virtutes nobis occultas quas per congruas et temperatas elementorum per commixtiones spargunt, et sic diversas rerum species producunt quod enim posset per se facere natura successive, hoc potest diabolus facere per accelerationem operum naturae: unde per artem daemonum magi Pharaonis serpentes et ranas subito produxerunt, sicut super Exodum Glossa dicit.

Item, daemonum intentio tota est ad malum et ad fatigationem bonorum et ideo elementa saepe perturbant, tempestates in mari et in aere concitant, fructus terrae corrumpunt et devastant, ut patet Apocalypsis 7.[1] cap. et longe peiora facerent, si boni angeli non cohiberent et ideo, quia continue peccant, quocumque vadunt, poenam suam continue secum portant, ut dicit Gregorius.

Item, in libro 14 secundum diversas diversorum complexiones varias diversis parant, temptationum illaqueantes deceptiones, nam laetos temptant de luxuria, tristes de discordia, timidos de desperatione, superbos de praesumptione.

Apparente iudicio cuncto assistente coelestis curiae ministerio, antiquus ille hostis diabolus, belua crudelis et fortis in medio captivus adducetur, et cum suo toto corpore aeternae gehennae incendiis mancipabitur, ubi utique inauditum erit spectaculum, quando haec immanissima belua electorum oculis ostendetur.