MIDDLE-AGE SPIRITUALISM. 355 



The author first finds the theological root of his subject. During 

 the middle ages it was held that all power or force was spiritual, that 

 it came from a spiritual source — from God — and was communicated 

 to the earth by spiritual agents or angels. No inevitable causation 

 was admitted. The laws of nature were the precepts in accordance 

 with which the angels executed the will of God. Sometimes he sus- 

 pended their agency, acting everywhere himself, or he delegated un- 

 usual power to them, when their operations were known as miracles. 

 Hence a knowledge of nature was at this time chiefly a knowledge of 

 the angels. Lucifer, the highest of these angels, rebelled against 

 God. The contest ended with the overthrow of the rebel and his 

 followers ; but God, calm in the consciousness of his omnipotence, 

 determined that Lucifer, now changed by his rebellion into a spirit 

 wholly evil, should enjoy liberty of action within certain limits. The 

 activity of the fallen spirit consists henceforth in incessant warfare 

 against God. Man is tempted and falls. The earth is divided into 

 two antagonistic kingdoms, those of good and evil. Over one reigns 

 God and his angels of light, over the other the devil and his minions. 

 Such was the dualistic conception of the middle ages, and to it may 

 be traced the magic of the Church, the astrology, alchemy, and sorcery 

 of the learned, as well as the diabolic forms of witchcraft believed in by 

 the common people. 



The Church, exercising its watch-care for man, surrounded him 

 from the cradle to the grave by the safeguards of magic. Thus, 

 soon after the birth of the child the priest must be ready to sprinkle 

 it with holy water, which has been purified from the pollution of 

 demons by prayer and conjuration ; and so strong was the impression 

 that the child, begotten in sin and by nature Lucifer's property, would 

 be doomed to the torments of hell without the grace of baptism, that 

 certain conscientious servants of the Church attempted to devise some 

 means by which the saving water might be brought in contact with 

 the child before it saw the light. 



Holy water, when drunk by the sick and infirm, healed and strength- 

 ened ; if sprinkled upon the field it promoted fertility, and given to 

 domestic animals it aiforded them protection against witchcraft. 



Says Thomas Aquinas : " It is a dogma of faith that the demons 

 can produce wind, storms, and rain of fire from heaven. The atmos- 

 phere is a battle-field between angels and devils. The latter work the 

 constant injury of man, the former his melioration ; and the conse- 

 quence is that changeableness of weather which threatens to frustrate 

 the hopes of husbandry. And, when Lucifer is able to bestow even 

 upon man — sorcerers and wizards — the power to destroy the fields, the 

 vineyards, and dwellings of man by rain, hail, and lightning, is it to be 

 wondered at if the Church, which is man's protection against the devil, 

 and whose especial calling it is to fight him, should in this sphere also 

 be his counterpoise, and should seek, from the treasury of its divine 



