The Different Desires of the Evil Spirits

It is clearly proved that there are as many desires in unclean spirits as there are in men. Some of them, commonly called Plani, are shown to be so seductive and playful that when they have taken lasting possession of certain places or roads, they do not delight in tormenting the passers-by they can deceive. They are content merely to laugh at them and mock them, and try to tire them out rather than to harm them. Some spend the night merely taking harmless possession of men. But others are such slaves to fury and ferocity that they are not content simply to hurt the bodies of those they have seized by tearing them dreadfully. They are actually eager to rush on those who pass by at a distance and to attack them with the most savage slaughter, like those described in the gospel, for fear of whom no one dared to pass by that way. And there is no doubt that these, and others like them, in their insatiable fury delight in wars and bloodshed. [a]

Others, we find, fill the hearts of those they have seized with empty pride; these are commonly called Bacucei. They make them stretch themselves up beyond their proper height. At one moment they puff themselves up with arrogance and pomp, and at another they come down in an ordinary and pleasant manner to a state of calm and friendliness. Imagining that they are great people and the wonder of everybody, at one time they show by bowing their bodies that they are worshiping higher powers, and at another they think that they are being worshiped by others. So they go through all the movements that express true service, either proudly or humbly.

Others, we find, are not only eager for lies but also inspire men with blasphemies. Of this we ourselves can testify, for we have heard a demon openly confess that he had proclaimed a wicked and impious doctrine through the mouths of Arius and Eunomius. We read that one of them openly proclaimed the same thing in the fourth book of Kings: “I will go out,” he said, “and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” On this the apostle, rebuking those who are deceived by them, adds: “paying attention to seducing spirits and teachings of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy.” The gospels testify that there are other kinds of demons that are deaf and mute. And the prophet maintains that some spirits stir men to lust and wantonness, saying: “The spirit of fornication deceived them, and they went astray from their God.” In the same way the authority of Scripture teaches us that there are demons of the night, of the day, and of noonday.

But it would take too long to search through the whole of Scripture and run through their different kinds: the names the prophets give them, onocentaurs, satyrs, sirens, witches, howlers, ostriches and hedgehogs; the asps and basilisks of the Psalms; the lions, dragons and scorpions they are called in the gospel; and the names the apostle gives them, the prince of this world, the rulers of this darkness, and spirits of wickedness. We ought not to take all these names as given at random or by chance. They point to their fierceness and madness under the figure of those wild beasts that are more or less harmful and dangerous among us. They are called by these names by comparison with the poisonous wickedness or power that some pre-eminence in evil gives to one or another among the beasts or serpents. So one is given the name of lion because of the fury of his rage and the madness of his anger; another the name of basilisk because of his deadly poison, which kills a person before it is noticed; and another the name of onocentaur, or hedgehog, or ostrich, because of his sluggish malice.