§10Hac atque huius modi facultate multa daemones futura praenuntiant, cum tamen ab eis longe sit altitudo illius prophetiae, quam deus per sanctos angelos et prophetas operatur.
With this and such kind of faculty, demons foretell many future things, although the height of that prophecy which God works through holy angels and prophets is far from them.
nam si quid de illa dei dispositione praenuntiant, audiunt. ut praenuntient; et cum ea praedicunt, quae inde audiunt, non fallunt neque falluntur; ueracissima enim sunt angelica et prophetica oracula.
For if they foretell anything of that disposition of God, they hear it in order to foretell it; and when they predict those things which they hear from there, they neither deceive nor are deceived, for angelic and prophetic oracles are most true.
sic autem indignanter accipitur, quod aliqua etiam talia daemones audiant et praedicant, quasi aliquid indignum sit, ut quod ideo dicitur, ut hominibus innotescat, hoc non solum boni, uerum etiam mali non taceant.
But it is accepted with indignation that demons also hear and predict some such things, as if it were unworthy that what is said for the purpose of becoming known to men should be kept silent not only by the good but also by the bad.
cum in ipsis hominibus etiam uitae bonae praecepta uideamus pariter a iustis peruersisque cantari, non obesse aliquid, immo etiam prodesse ad maiorem notitiam famamque ueritatis, cum de illa etiam hi quidquid nouerunt dicunt, qui ei peruersis moribus contradicunt.
Since even among men we see the precepts of a good life sung equally by the just and the perverse, and that it is no obstacle, but rather even profitable for the greater knowledge and fame of the truth, when even those say whatever they know about it who contradict it by their perverse morals.
in ceteris autem suis praedicationibus daemones plerumque falluntur et fallunt.
But in their other predictions, demons for the most part are deceived and deceive.
falluntur quidem, quia, cum suas dispositiones praenuntiant, ex inprouiso de-. super aliquid iubetur, quod eorum consilia cuncta perturbet.
They are indeed deceived because, when they foretell their own dispositions, something is suddenly commanded from above which disturbs all their counsels.
uelut si aliquid disponant quilibet homines quibusque potestatibus subditi, quod non prohibituros suos praepositos arbitrentur idque facturos se esse promittant, at illi, penes quos maior potestas est, ex alio superiore consilio hoc totum dispositum atque praeparatum repente prohibeant.
Just as if any men subject to any powers should arrange something which they think their superiors will not forbid, and promise that they will do it, but those with whom the greater power lies, by another superior counsel, suddenly forbid this whole thing that had been arranged and prepared.
falluntur etiam in causis naturalibus — sicut medici et nautae et agricolae, sed longe acutius longeque praestantius pro aerii corporis sensu sollertiore et exercitatiore praenoscunt — quia et haec ab angelis deo summo pie seruientibus ex alia dispositione ignota daemonibus ex inprouiso ac repente mutantur.
They are also deceived in natural causes—just as physicians and sailors and farmers foreknow, but far more acutely and far more excellently in accordance with the more skillful and practiced sense of their airy body—because these things too are suddenly and unexpectedly changed, by angels piously serving the supreme God, in accordance with another disposition unknown to demons.
tamquam si aliquid aegro extrinsecus accidat, quo moriatur, quem medicus ueris salutis praecedentibus signis uicturum esse promiserat; aut si aeris qualitate praeuisa diu flaturum illum uentum nautarum aliqui praedixissent, cui dominus Christus cum discipulis nauigans, ut quiesceret, imperauit, et facta est tranquillitas magna; uel si agricola illo anno fructificaturam uitem aliquam polliceatur, naturam utique terrae et numerum seminum callens, quo tamen anno eam uel inprouisa caeli intemperies arefaciat uel aliqua iussio potentioris eradicet: ita multa etiam ad praescientiam praedictionemque daemonum pertinentia, quae minoribus et usitatioribus causis futura praeuidentur, eadem maioribus et occultioribus causis inpedita mutantur.
As if something should happen to a sick person from without, by which he dies, whom the physician, by true preceding signs of health, had promised would live; or if, having foreseen the quality of the air, some of the sailors had predicted that that wind would blow for a long time, which the Lord Christ, sailing with his disciples, commanded to be still, and there was a great calm; or if a farmer should promise that a certain vine would bear fruit in that year, being indeed skilled in the nature of the soil and the number of seeds, but in that very year either an unexpected inclemency of the sky should dry it up or some command of a more powerful person should root it out: so many things also pertaining to the prescience and prediction of demons, which are foreseen as future by smaller and more usual causes, are changed when hindered by greater and more hidden causes.
fallunt autem etiam studio fallendi et inuida uoluntate, qua hominum errore laetantur.
But they also deceive from a desire to deceive and from an envious will, in which they rejoice at the error of men.
sed ne apud cultores suos pondus auctoritatis amittant, id agunt, ut interpretibus suis signorumque suorum coniectoribus culpa tribuatur, quando uel decepti fuerint uel mentiti.
But lest they should lose the weight of authority among their worshippers, they act so that the blame may be attributed to their interpreters and the conjecturers of their signs, when they have either been deceived or have lied.