Christian Texts

"Now the object of the will, i.e., of man's appetite, is the universal good...Hence it is evident that nothing can lull the human will but the universal good. This is to be found, not in any creature, but in God alone; because every creature has goodness by participation. Thus God alone can satisfy the will of a human being."

"Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate."

"Whether God can make the past not to have been?"

"Whether the angel guardian ever forsakes a man?...It would seem that the angel guardian sometimes forsakes the man whom he is appointed to guard... On the contrary, The demons are ever assailing us, according to 1 Peter 5:8: "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour." Much more therefore do the good angels ever guard us... the guardianship of the angels is an effect of Divine providence in regard to man. Now it is evident that neither man, nor anything at all, is entirely withdrawn from the providence of God: for in as far as a thing participates being, so far is it subject to the providence that extends over all being."

"But if man's affection be one of passion, then it is moved also in regard to other animals: for since the passion of pity is caused by the afflictions of others; and since it happens that even irrational animals are sensible to pain, it is possible for the affection of pity to arise in a man with regard to the sufferings of animals. Now it is evident that if a man practice a pitiful affection for animals, he is all the more disposed to take pity on his fellow-men: wherefore it is written (Prov. 12:10): "The just regardeth the lives of his beasts: but the bowels of the wicked are cruel." Consequently the Lord, in order to inculcate pity to the Jewish people, who were prone to cruelty, wished them to practice pity even with regard to dumb animals, and forbade them to do certain things savoring of cruelty to animals. Hence He prohibited them to "boil a kid in the milk of its dam"; and to "muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn"; and to slay "the dam with her young.""

"Man cannot live without joy. That is why one deprived of spiritual joys goes over to carnal pleasures."

"To scorn the dictate of reason is to scorn the commandment of God."

"It was necessary for our salvation that there be a knowledge revealed by God, besides philosophical science built up by human reason. Firstly, indeed, because the human being is directed to God, as to an end that surpasses the grasp of his reason. "The eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou hast prepared for them that wait for Thee" (Isaiah 64:4). But the end must first be known by men who are to direct their thoughts and actions to the end. Hence it was necessary for the salvation of man that certain truths which exceed human reason should be made known to him by divine revelation."

"God is the most noble of beings. Now it is impossible for a body to be the most noble of beings; for a body must be either animate or inanimate; and an animate body is manifestly nobler than any inanimate body. But an animate body is not animate precisely as body; otherwise all bodies would be animate. Therefore its animation depends upon some other thing, as our body depends for its animation on the soul. Hence that by which a body becomes animated must be nobler than the body. Therefore it is impossible that God should be a body."

"As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence...On the other hand, as regards human nature in general, woman is not misbegotten, but is included in nature's intention as directed to the work of generation. Now the general intention of nature depends on God, Who is the universal Author of nature. Therefore, in producing nature, God formed not only the male but also the female."

"It is written (1 John 4:16): "He that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him." Now charity is the love of God. Therefore, for the same reason, every love makes the beloved to be in the lover, and vice versa...the beloved is said to be in the lover, inasmuch as the beloved abides in the apprehension of the lover, according to Philippians 1:7, "For that I have you in my heart": while the lover is said to be in the beloved, according to apprehension, inasmuch as the lover is not satisfied with a superficial apprehension of the beloved, but strives to gain an intimate knowledge of everything pertaining to the beloved, so as to penetrate into his very soul."

"Thus from the four preceding articles, the definition of law may be gathered; and it is nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated."

"If forgers and other malefactors are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authorities, there is much more reason for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death."

"To love is to will the good of the other."

"Even as in the blessed in heaven there will be most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate. Wherefore as the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods. Consequently the sight of the happiness of the saints will give them very great pain; hence it is written (Isaiah 26:11): "Let the envious people see and be confounded, and let fire devour Thy enemies." Therefore they will wish all the good were damned."

"Baptism is the door of the spiritual life and the gateway to the sacraments."

"Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: firstly, for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle, as in natural science, where sufficient proof can be brought to show that the movement of the heavens is always of uniform velocity. Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astrology the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established, because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained [or saved, possunt salvari apparentia sensibilia]; not, however, as if this proof were sufficient, forasmuch as some other theory might explain them."

"Whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another. If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is put in motion by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God."

"The image of God always abides in the soul, whether this image be obsolete and clouded over as to amount to almost nothing; or whether it be obscured or disfigured, as is the case with sinners; or whether it be clear and beautiful as is the case with the just."

"Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it."

"The fire of hell is called eternal, only because it never ends. Still, there is change in the pains of the lost...Hence in hell true eternity does not exist, but rather time."

"Whether the Woman should have been made in the first production of things?"

"Perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence."

"Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend."

"it is to be observed that four proximate effects may be ascribed to love: viz. melting, enjoyment, languor, and fervor. Of these the first is "melting," which is opposed to freezing. For things that are frozen, are closely bound together, so as to be hard to pierce. But it belongs to love that the appetite is fitted to receive the good which is loved, inasmuch as the object loved is in the lover...Consequently the freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with love: while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved."

"The third principle [way doing good to another may give pleasure] is the motive: for instance when a man is moved by one whom he loves, to do good to someone: for whatever we do or suffer for a friend is pleasant, because love is the principal cause of pleasure."

"mysterium Christi explicite credi non potest sine fide Trinitatis."

"The mystery of the Son cannot be explicitly believed to be true without faith in the Trinity."

"Yet if heretics be altogether uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord's command [in Matthew 13:30], which is to be understood as referring to the case when the cockle [weeds] cannot be plucked up without plucking up the wheat, as we explained above (10, 8, ad 1), when treating of unbelievers in general."

"We ought to cherish the body. Our body's substance is not from an evil principle, as the Manicheans imagine, but from God. And therefore, we ought to cherish the body by the friendship of love, by which we love God."

"Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him."

"All admit that indulgences have some value; for it would be blasphemy to say that the Church does anything in vain."

"To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation."

"Whatever was in the human nature of Christ was moved at the bidding of the divine will; yet it does not follow that in Christ there was no movement of the will proper to human nature, for the good wills of other saints are moved by God's will... For although the will cannot be inwardly moved by any creature, yet it can be moved inwardly by God."

"Yet almost all' (heretics, schismatics and Catholics), though in different ways, long for the one visible Church of God, that truly universal Church whose mission is to convert the whole world to the Gospel so that the world may be saved, to the glory of God."

"For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though the communion is imperfect."

"For when my soul was breaking free, I saw clearly multitudes of Ethiopians standing around my bed, creating a disturbance and commotion, exacting payment for my deceptions and lawless vanities, howling like dogs and wolves, enraged like a bitter sea, producing false settlements, jeering, foaming rabidly, screaming, howling, squealing like pigs, examining my actions, carrying around documents in their hands, contorting in mockery their black and gloomy and dark faces, the mere sight of which alone seemed to me most terrifying and more bitter than even the Gehenna of fire. For it would be better for a living person to fall into that Gehenna of fire than to hear and see such things."

"Our lord and our common father Basil, the chosen of the Lord, then spoke to those handsome young men who were my guides, saying this, “My lords and fellow servants, when you have completed what is appropriate for this soul, deposit it there in the divine resting place made ready and prepared for me by the Lord”; and after he said this, he departed from our presence. Those handsome young men lifted me up, and raising their holy and fiery feet from the ground, like clouds or wind-driven ships on the sea, they journeyed upward on the road to the east, carrying me lightly through the air."

"So those radiant and handsome young men explained to me about that tollhouse as we approached it along the road which we were ascending, and we found its official in charge most savage and unbending ... His attendants and terrible tax collectors, who were most harsh and merciless, came out to meet us swarming like ants, and gnashing and grinding their teeth at me. They were carrying many documents in their hands, questioning, interrogating, and investigating carefully the charges against me, to see if they could find the deeds of heartlessness which they needed to drag me down into their harsh dungeons. By Christ's grace they did not find anything against me that they hoped for, but rather goodness toward everyone and fairness, compassion and abundant alms-giving. For if ever I gave someone a piece of bread, or an obol, or a cup of wine or even of water, or I brought a stranger into my room, or shared another’s grief, or mourned with someone in mourning, and visited the sick, or went to a jail to visit the brethren dreadfully confined in it, and encouraged them with words of exhortation to bear their miseries with patience, or in short if I acted as my will and my hand enabled me, my good protectors and guides pointed all these charitable deeds out to them. When those bloodsucking and harsh Ethiopians saw this evidence, they were completely overcome with shame and, letting us go, disappeared from sight."

"When the sentence has been passed, the assistants should promptly get themselves ready for questioning the denounced person under torture, and while they are doing so, the bishop (or judge) should, both in his own person and through other good men who are zealots for the Faith, urge the person to be questioned to make a free confession, even promising to spare his life if necessary, as was discussed above. But if even this method cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, they will be able to assign a second or third day for continuing the torture, but not for repeating it, because torture ought not to be repeated except when new indications against him turn up, in which case they can repeat it. Continuation, on the other hand, is not prohibited."

"We, (Name), by God's mercy Bishop of Such-and-Such city (or judge in the lands subject to the rule of Lord Such-and-Such), note, after a careful examination of the merits of the proceeding conducted by us against you, Such-and-Such of Such-and-Such place and of Such-and-Such diocese, that you are inconsistent in your confessions and that there are nonetheless many indications that are sufficient for exposing you to questioning under torture, and therefore, in order for the truth to be had from your own mouth and for you to cease from then on offending the ears of the judges, as an interlocutory measure we declare, judge and sentence that on the present day at such-and-such hour you should be subjected to questioning under torture."

"Since we desired with all our heart, as we still do, to bring you back to the Unity of the Holy Church and to remove this heretical depravity from your bowels, we employed our efforts to make you save your soul and escape the death of your body and that of your soul in Hell, applying various appropriate methods to make you convert to salvation, but you, being given over to a reprehensible frame of mind through being simultaneous led and led astray by an evil spirit, preferred to be tortured with the savage and everlasting torments in Hell, and to be consumed in body by the flames here rather than to adopt saner counsel, veering back from damnable and baneful errors and flying to the embrace and mercy of Holy Mother Church."

"If the judge's aim is to investigate whether she is enveloped in the sorcery of silence, he should note whether she can cry when standing in his presence or being exposed to torture. The ancient accounts of trustworthy men and the teaching of our own experience have demonstrated that this is the most certain sign, so that even if she is urged and compelled with conjurations to cry, if she is a sorceress she does not have this ability (to shed tears)."

"Fourth, the step consists of other kinds of torture devices being laid out before him if the person questioned under torture is unwilling to make an appropriate confession, and in his being told that he will have to endure them if he does not confess the truth. If even this cannot bring him to feel terror or tell the truth, then sentence to a second or third day of questioning under torture will be passed in his presence in the following manner (as a continuation and not a repetition of the torture, since it cannot be repeated unless new indications come to light). "We, the aforementioned judge (as above), assign to you such-and-such a day for the continuation of the questioning under torture, so that the truth should come from your own mouth." The whole should be put into the protocol by the notary."

"The following or a similar method of conjuring her to genuine tears if she is innocent and of restraining false tears can be followed by the judge (or priest) in the sentence. Putting a hand over the head of the denounced man (woman), he says, "I conjure you by the loving tears shed on the Cross for the salvation of this world by Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the most passionate tears of His mother, the Most Glorious Virgin Mary, which were sprinkled over His wounds at eventide, and by all the tears shed here in this world by all the Saints and the Elect of God, from whose eyes He has now wiped every tear, that you should shed tears to the extent that you are innocent, but not at all if you are guilty. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (Sign of the Cross.) "Amen.""

"The Malleus is a work that rouses strong, often emotional reactions, and these may take a multiplicity of forms. Since at least the nineteenth century, it has been viewed by many as an example of medieval ignorance and superstition, being associated with the later witch hunting of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries that seemed to have been instigated by it. For those who view as innocent victims the large numbers of men and (predominantly) women who were burned alive for crimes that are now considered to be completely bereft of substance, the work epitomized everything that was wrong with what was thought to be a medieval mentality."

"Robert Langdon: The Catholic Inquisition soon publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history. Sir Leigh Teabing: The Malleus Maleficarum. [He throws the book at Langdon, who catches it] Robert Langdon: The Witches' Hammer. Sir Leigh Teabing: It instructed the clergy on how to locate, torture and kill all free-thinking women. Robert Langdon: In three centuries of witch-hunts, 50,000 women are captured, burned alive at the stake. Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, at least that. Some say millions."

"When the implements are ready, the judge should, in his own person and through other good men who are zealots for the Faith, advise the person to be questioned under torture to confess the truth freely. If he is unwilling, the judge should order the assistants to tie him to the strappado or fasten him to other implements. They should obey without joy, as if they are upset. Afterwards, he should be released at the request of certain people, dragged to the side, and again advised. In this advice, he should be informed that he will not be executed."

"It remains for Us now to speak about those questions which, although they pertain to the positive sciences, are nevertheless more or less connected with the truths of the Christian faith. In fact, not a few insistently demand that the Catholic religion take these sciences into account as much as possible. This certainly would be praiseworthy in the case of clearly proved facts; but caution must be used when there is rather question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which the doctrine contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved. If such conjectural opinions are directly or indirectly opposed to the doctrine revealed by God, then the demand that they be recognized can in no way be admitted."

"Never has Christian philosophy denied the usefulness and efficacy of good dispositions of soul for perceiving and embracing moral and religious truths"