“Evil books will be abundant on earth and the sprits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. They will have great power over Nature: there will be churches built to serve these spirits. People will be transported from one place to another by these evil spirits, even priests, for they will not have been guided by the good spirit of the Gospel which is a spirit of humility, charity and zeal for the glory of God. On occasions, the dead and the righteous will be brought back to life. (That is to say that these dead will take on the form of righteous souls which had lived on earth, in order to lead men further astray; these so-called resurrected dead, who will be nothing but the devil in this form, will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus, denying the existence of Heaven; that is also to say, the souls of the damned. All these souls will appear as if fixed to their bodies) Our Lady of La Salette 19 Sept. 1846 (Published by Mélanie 1879)
There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air.Our Lady of La Salette 19 Sept. 1846 (Published by Mélanie 1879)
THE DETAILS:
Here is Nicolas Remy on how witches and demons have great control over nature - just as Out Lady has said.
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First, then, he chiefly bases his Apology on the argument that witches pretend to do many things which, by their
very nature, it is impossible for them
to do; such as the raising up of thunder,
clouds, storms, whirlwinds and other
tempests, which manifestly have their
origin in natural causes. Yet the contrary is not so unheard-of or rare but
that it can easily be defended on the
authority of not a few writers of no
mean repute, but rather highly praised
by many men.
Apollonius records
that he saw in India Brahmans who
could at will produce rain or fair
weather. The Assyrians, says Suidas,
had among their Chaldeans* a certain Julian (a sage reputed to have
written the Theurgica) who, when the
Roman army which was being led by
Marcus Antoninius against the Marcomannit was suffering from thirst,
raised up a cloud from which there
immediately fell rain.
Arnuphus, the
Egyptian wizard, in the war waged by
the ‘Romans against the Quadi, is said
to have obtained by his magic spells
from Mercury and the other Demons
of the air such a torrent of rain that it
utterly confused the Quadi and compelled them to yield the victory to the
Romans.
Olaus Magnus, IV, 1, borrows from Saxo Grammaticus a similar
account of the Biarmenses: “When they
could no longer resist the pressure of
Regner, the Danish King, against
them, and were driven back to their
last line of defence, they at last assailed
the heavens with incantations and
drew from them such a downpour of
rain in the face of their enemies that
they broke up and routed their whole
army.”
Lucius Piso (Apud Plin. II,
54) tells that Numa often called forth
lightning by his spells; and that when
Tullus Hostilius tried to do the same, but
did not observe the due rites and ceremonies, he was struck by the lightning
and perished.
Paulus Venetus wrote
that the Tartars, a race which now occupies ancient Parthia and Scythia,
could by their charms bring darkness
upon the earth when they wished ; and
that when he was among them he
barely escaped being surrounded and
robbed by thieves, thanks to this art.
This is similar to what Haito relates
in his History of the Sarmatians, that
a Tartar standard-bearer, seeing his
line wavering and nearly broken, enveloped the enemy in such a thick
darkness that they were slaughtered
almost to a man. The Emperor Constantine, a man whom Zonaras testifies
to have been of the most devoted orthodoxy, believed in the efficacy of magic
arts to ward off from the young vines
rain and winds and hail; but later this
practice is specifically condemned in
the books of the Imperial Archives;
for, as is noted by Theodorus Balsamon in the Nomocanon, they who use
such magic arts are punishable by the
law, even if they act in order to obtain
some good and to ensure the fertility
of the crops.
If, then, such misfortunes can be averted by incantations,
it will not seem absurd that they can
conversely be caused. Constantius, the
son of that Constantine, bore no uncertain witness as to this, when he
decreed that they who by their magic
arts so disturbed the elements were to
be destroyed as a deadly plague. S.
Augustine does not disagree with this
opinion when he admits that, with God’s permission, the elements can be
disturbed by sorcerers (In Psal. Ixxviii,
ver. 49): and S. Thomas (In postil, sua
in Job) subscribed to this when he
affirms that the Demons can gather
clouds in the air, drive them before
the wind and even send out fire from
them.
This has been eloquently interpreted—as indeed is clarified everything that he touches, by that most
eminent and honored jurisconsult
Pierre Gregoire Canon Law, Syntaxis artis mirabilis in tres partes digesta, Lib. IV, cap. xlvi, n. 3: “And now,” he says, speaking of Demons, “that we have
Our fruitful shoots set early in our furrows
they raise up rains and winds and
tempests in the air, condensed from the
fumes of the earth and the vapors of
the sea (for they have no other origin),
and from the midst of these they form
and cast forth hurricanes, comets,
thunderbolts, and many such signs
and portents, in the fashioning of
which they show themselves to be
marvelous workmen, having regard
to the material from which they are
formed.”
But, says my opponent, it matters
not whether the belief in all this is
based on the credulity of the ignorant
ancients, or on the confirmation of
recent authors: in any case it is the
height of rashness and madness to
maintain in this way that Nature is so
utterly under the control of the Demons that she must perform their bidding, and so submit to their yoke that
she must take from them the time and
degree of her rain and thunder. I
answer that no one (I think) who is in
the least conversant with the works of
Theologians will deny that, subject to
the will of God, the Demons are concerned in such tempests in the character of an Adrastia, and are (as Chrysippus (Plut, de sera num. uindicta,
Idem probl. 51) and after him S. Basil
(Un cap. 13. Esaiae, and Psal. 78) says)
the executioners and ministers of
divine vengeance, who visit and
destroy mankind and their works with
disasters and calamities.
The words of
S. Paul are well known, where he says
that power over the air is given to
Demons (Ephesians, ii, 2): and in the
Apocalypse we read of the Powers of
the air sending forth such thunder-
bolts and lightnings. Plutarch (Jn
tract, de uitanda ase) also quotes Empe-
docles as calling the Demons ‘‘Wanderers of the air,” that is, as he
himself interprets it elsewhere, the
occupiers of the nether air under the
heavens, endowed, as Xenocrates*
says (Apud eundem Plutarch. In Iside et
Osiride) with the greatest malignity
and eagerness and Soldness in doing
evil.
If then this office is thus delegated to them, and they are as it were
commissioned to fulfill God’s wrath
against man by means of the very
forces of Nature, it must be less difficult to believe that they have witches
as their associates in this work: not for
the sake of the help that they can give
in performing what everybody knows
that the Demons can do without the
need of any help, but so that the Demon may make them more prone to do
evil and injury, and by their complicit
more and more abandoned to all
crime. He cheats them into the belief
that they have some marvelous power
to perform these difficult and miraculous tasks, and so drives them on and
on, fatiguing them with the heavy
burden of the exacting and tedious
duties which he imposes on them. For
so it is that this benevolent Master
refreshes his disciples with perpetual
hardship, labor and molestation.
Nor should our belief in this matter
be at all strained by any consideration
of the absurdity and incompatibility
with natural laws of the supposition
that, notwithstanding their solid
weight, men are lifted up and borne on
high through the air. For we freely admit at the start that these things have no part with the laws of Nature; but that such prodigies and portents manifest themselves in spite of and to the amazement of Nature, so that anyone who writes to ascribe them to natural causes might just as well try to touch the heavens with his finger.
For it is not fitting to think according to the standards of human reasoning and judgement of matters which manifestly surpass all the bounds and limits set by Nature. Simon Magus (according to the testimony of S. Ambrose in the Hexameron and Pope Clement in the Itinerarium), when he was strivin, with S, Peter the Apostle, perform: among other miracles the following: he made himself appear to fly away as if upon wings. Hegesippus (III, 2) writes that he did this in the sight of Nero, but that at the prayers of the Apostle he fell and broke his leg near Aricia, I pass over what Pausanias, in his description of Attica, relates of the poet Muszus, how he had been given by Boreas the gift of flight; what S. Basil (In orat. funeb. Greg. Nanzian.) says concerning the Argive Pegasus; what Herodotus and, after him, S. Grego: the Theologiant (Bbist 22, ad Basilium Magnum) tell of the Scythian Abaris, that he used to ride with the greatest swiftness through the air upon an arrow given him by Apollo. these seem to be fables rather than historical truths; although it is possible that they may have happened with the crafty help of the Cacodemon, whom all know that the Pagans in the delusion of their impious errors worshiped under the name of Apollo, Aeolus, and the other Gods.
For this is no more difficult of belief than that which more recent authors have written concerning Antidius,} Bishop of Tours; that he rode upon the Devil
so that he might reach Rome with the
greater speed and there as soon as
possible recall the Pope from some evil
undertaking. And even if these stories
are not true, we have not far to seek;
for we know that, as the Gospels relate,
the man possessed with an unclean
spirit broke the chains and fetters with
which he was bound, and was carried
by Satan into the wilderness: nay,
that Jesus Himself was taken up by
him in the Holy Land, and set upon the pinnacle of the Temple. For although
it is no part of a devout Christian to
inquire why this was done, it would
be blasphemous to question that it was
done, since we are told of it so plainly
in the Holy Gospel. If therefore it
once happened to Him who was the
vanquisher and conqueror of Satan to
be carried through the air by him,
why should we be so slow to believe
that men, who are so often vulnerable
to his attacks, especially those who
voluntarily surrender themselves into
his power, can at his pleasure be lifted
up and borne away through the air?
Finally, if it is desired to pursue this
inquiry beyond the evidence of the
ancient Annals and of more recent
history, what is more common in our own days than the frequent and persistent assertions of witches with regard
to this matter, confirmed by the testimony of men who constantly maintain that, not in sleep or with their
senses bewitched, but with their own
eyes they have seen witches fall from
the clouds, or clinging in perplexity to
the tops.of trees:or houses, or tying bemused upon the ground? Nor is this
mere street-corner gossip ; but it is evidence given upon the most solemn
oath in a Court of Justice, as we have
more than once shown in this work.
Away then with those who would
make Nature the standard and rule of
all things, so that they think that nothing can happen which does not con-
form to her methods and limits!
For
thus they constrict the hands and
circumscribe the might of God, who forces even the stars to obey His laws;
and will not believe that He can do
anything except what is credible according to nature. For this is to think
too grossly and materially of His works,
and, as they say, to render Jove utterly
destitute. “Therefore,” says Lucius
in Apuleius (Golden Ass, Book 1), “I
think nothing impossible; but as the
fates have decreed, so do all things
happen for mortals.” For to all men
there happen many marvelous and
almost impossible experiences which,
when told to the ignorant, cannot be
believed.
Again, it is argued that it is only in
their thoughts (which should in no
way be amenable to punishment) that
witches are concerned: in these disturbances of the elements ; and this is made
another plea for their pardon and
impunity ; as if only the actual results,
but not the evil devising which lead to
them (as Cicero says in the Pro Milone),
ought to be regarded as punishable.
But what is this but an open defence
of the blind and impure passions of the
heart, in defiance of the express pronouncement of the Gospel (S. Matthew
xii), which tells us that the evil
thoughts of the heart are the gravest
sin in the sight of God? In the last
clause of the Decalogue we are warned
that they who enviously and covetously imagine some evil device, even
if they do not carry their thought into
deeds, must nevertheless not be held
guiltless, seeing that they have sinned
in their hearts.
Can the law regard an
accessory to a fact as innocent of that
fact?
But it may be objected that this
argument is not concerned with those
punishments which the Theologians
leave to the secret vengeance of God
(Acts of God), but only with those that
are instituted as an example by human
laws (the Blood Penalty), of which
they who have themselves admitted
nothing which can be taken as evidence
of their guilt can in no way be deemed
worthy: since thought alone can do no
hurt unless it is followed by some
action; nor even the attempt itself, unless it results in some injury. Let us
concede this, Let it be granted that
human law allows some things which
are condemned by Divine law. Yet
there is no lack in sacred law of the
most clearly expressed sanctions for the
punishment of the will to sin with the
same severity as the actual deed.
The
Edicts of Gratian, Valentinian and
Theodosius laid down the severest
penalties for the man who planned to
contract a marriage by force against
the will of those who were concerned,
even if he did not succeed in his design.
He who buys poison with the intention
of giving it to his father, although he
fails to do so, is held liable to the
penalty under the Lex Cornclia De
Sicariis.
He who solicits another man’s
wife or would seduce her into adultery,
although he may not have effected his
purpose, is nevertheless extraordinarily punished on account of the
abominable lusts of his heart. The
man who has even thought of ravishing
a holy virgin has to pay the penalty for
the actual deed.
In short, where any atrocious and grave crime is concerned,
it is enough for a man to have conceived the intention for him to be
punished for the fact. It was perhaps
for this reason that in our own time the
Senate of Paris judged an eminently
noble man to be guilty of High Treason
because he had only conceived the idea
of assassinating the king; in spite of the
fact that he had immediately repented
of the notion, and had himself laid information against himself.
Now what
more abominable thought or concept
of an evil mind, what greater wickedness and depravity of the human heart
can there be than not only to revolve
in the mind and plot and desire that
which all other men regard with
horror and apprehension—such as
thunders and lightnings, the ruin and
destruction of the crops, the violent
agitation and even uprooting of trees,
and the devastation and spoliation of
wide and fertile tracts of land; but
with might and main, by day and by
night, to strive to bring these things about, and to wait upon, support, and
as far as they can assist the Demons
whom they believe to be the instigators
of these upheavals; and in a word to
use their every effort and endeavor
to please them alone as much as they
possibly can, as if in the knowledge
that both God and all men were detestable to them?
Such are the sins of
thought which, according to S. Basil,
De uera uirginitate, should be judged not
merely as fancies, but as facts accomplished in the soul; and should, as soon
as they manifest themselves as the presence of fire is indicated by smoke,
be immediately quelled and extinguished; and are deserving of the
heavier penalty, in that there is often
more harm in a secretly conceived sin
than in an openly committed one.
Finally, if a bare guilty thought must
by no means be considered penal, and
if innocence is sufficiently preserved if
you
But nurse a secret rancor in the
breast;
then, I suppose, all the provisions of
the law are invalid, which decree the
most terrible punishment of the flames
for blasphemous opinions concerning,
God and religion, if they are but lay bare and discovered by word of
mouth! Those decrees of the Emperors and Jurists are, forsooth, savage
and bloodthirsty, which assigned the
same penalty and punishment to not
only the accomplices but even the
accessories of a crime, as to its actual
perpetrators! DEMONOLATRY BK.III CH.XII
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