Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Secondly, others think that it was a good angel, sent by God to Saul to afflict him, that he might exact from him the just penalties of disobedience.
Thirdly, and more truly, others think that it was the devil, who not only vexed Saul outwardly, as he vexed holy Job, but also possessed him inwardly, and afflicted him with dire phantasms, sadnesses, griefs, anxieties, sorrows, and agitated him by turns; for this is properly and is called an “evil spirit”: by him, therefore, Saul was possessed, and made an energumen and demoniac, so that, agitated by him by turns, he raved, was mad, and raged, as we shall hear in the next chapter, verse 10 and following. So think Josephus, Rupert, Isidore, Eucherius, Lyranus, Hugh, Abulensis, Dionysius, Vatablus, Serarius, Sanchez here, and St. Gregory, book 2 of the Morals, chap. 6, and Theodoret here, Question 38: “When the divine spirit,” he says, “had departed, the evil spirit obtained the place; so when apostolic grace had left Judas, the devil entered into him.” Moreover this spirit is called of the Lord, because it was sent or permitted by God to Saul to chastise his sins. So Paul, 1 Corinthians 5, delivered the fornicator to Satan. Hear St. Gregory: “Therefore the same spirit is called both of the Lord, and evil: of the Lord, by the licence of a just power; evil, by the desire of an unjust power.” For this power, on the part of God punishing Saul by the devil, was just; but on the part of the devil, a tyrant, and tyrannically tormenting Saul, it was unjust. But the devil could do nothing to Saul except by power received from God, who had limited it, that he could afflict him so far and no further, as He did in the case of holy Job.
16. LET HIM PLAY WITH HIS HAND, AND THOU MAYEST BEAR IT MORE EASILY.—How the demon is put to flight by playing I shall say on verse 23.
18. A VERY VALIANT MAN AND FIT FOR WAR.—The Rabbis in St. Jerome’s Questions and Lyranus think that Doeg the Idumean, hostile to David, said and feigned this, namely hostilely praised David, that he might create danger of life for him while standing before the raging Saul; but David’s valour and fame had not yet grown so great that Doeg could know and hate him. Hence it is plain that David, having received the spirit of fortitude at his anointing, at once exerted his singular fortitude to the amazement of beholders, and performed certain signal works of warlike fortitude: which those who saw reported to Saul, and commended David to him.
19. WHO IS IN THE PASTURES.—See here the modesty of David, who although already anointed king, and destined successor of Saul, yet at once returned to his sheep, and became a shepherd, just as Saul, though anointed king, returned to his oxen and ploughs, chap. 11, 5.
23. DAVID TOOK HIS HARP AND PLAYED WITH HIS HAND, AND SAUL WAS REFRESHED, AND WAS BETTER,—namely because he was cheered by the music, and so his melancholy was lessened, and with it the ensuing anguish and evil passions of the soul. For to soothe or drive away these, music is wonderfully powerful. Cassiodorus, book 2 of the Variae, chap. 40: “Music,” he says, “gladdens harmful sadness, lessens swelling furies, makes bloody cruelty gentle, rouses sloth and drowsy languor, gives the wakeful a most wholesome rest, heals the weariness of the mind, which is ever hostile to good thoughts.”
St. Augustine, book 10 of the Confessions, chap. 33, asserts: “All the affections of our spirit have, according to their diversity, their own proper modes in voice and song, by some hidden familiarity with which they are stirred up.”
Nay, Seneca also, from Pythagoras, book 3 On Anger, chap. 9: “Pythagoras,” he says, “composed the perturbations of the mind with the lyre. And who does not know that the clarions and trumpets are incitements; as some songs are blandishments by which the mind is unbound?”
Asclepiades the physician was wont to soothe and calm by music the passions and diseases of the mind. Timotheus, an excellent harper, so roused Alexander the Great by striking the strings that he ran to arms. See Alexander ab Alexandro, book 2 of the Genialium, chap. 16. “The cities of the Greeks,” says Marianus Capella, “decreed that diseases of souls and bodies should be cured by the measures of the lyre. Whence those who gave remedies to the sick were of old said to sing before, says Macrobius, and Xenocrates freed the frenzied from madness by the measures of songs. Paracelsus says that the pains of the sciatic are soothed by the gentle Phrygian measures of pipes, and that the piper playing in measure heals the bites of vipers.”
And, to pass over the rest, there is commemorated that which is akin to the cure of Saul by the striking of the harp: the cure of the tarantula by music.
Continual and daily experience has taught and teaches the Italians, especially in Apulia, that those whom the tarantula has bitten and stupefied, so that, seized with lethargy, they sleep a deadly sleep unless they wake, cannot be roused by any art of physicians, except by a modulated song, which they bend into various measures and harmony until they find that which answers to the disease and stupor as a remedy; then they persist in singing it; the sick man is roused to wakefulness and dancing; by leaping he draws out sweat, and so drives out all the poison, and is restored to himself, to his mind and health. Who would not admire this miracle of music and song?
But what could the music and harp of David do against the demon agitating Saul? The Platonists answer, and following them Cajetan on chap. 2 to the Ephesians, Augustine Niphus, book 3 On Demons, chap. 5 and following, Eugubinus, book 8 On the Perennial Philosophy, chap. 26, that demons have some subtle body, and therefore hear music and are moved by it. But this is an error. For it is certain that Angels and demons are wholly incorporeal, and pure and mere spirits.
Secondly, some think that God can subject, nay in fact sometimes subjects, demons to certain corporeal things, e.g. melody, the smoke of the liver, Tobit chap. 6, hypericum, rosemary, etc. So Levinus Lemnius and Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy chap. 26: “To the liver of Tobias’s fish,” he says, “a supernatural power was given, to enlighten the eyes of Tobias; as to the fire of hell is given the power of tormenting demons, and to blessed water the power of putting them to flight and washing the soul from faults.” Valesius adds, and says: “Some exorcists say that demons are driven away by the fumigation of stag’s horn, and of any dung, especially human, likewise rue and hypericum: by the first two, because the demon, being most proud, cannot bear to be despised. I, however, he says, think that they came into this opinion because all physicians testify that by the fumigation of those things epilepsy is manifested. As soon, then, as the epileptic perceives their fumigation, he is seized by the paroxysm of epilepsy and by a shaking and tossing of all his limbs, or if he is already in the paroxysm, it grows worse: but the exorcists attribute this to the demon and think that he is visited. That rue and hypericum are salutary for curing epilepsy is plain from this, that they drive away the winds which agitate the brain of epileptics.” But though it is certain that God can subject demons to a corporeal thing, as to music, yet it is uncertain whether in fact He has subjected them to it.
Thirdly, then, it is truer that David by playing put the demon of Saul to flight by a force partly natural, partly supernatural: natural, because music cheers, and so drives away melancholy, which the demon used to torment Saul. For no humour is more opportune to the devil than this, to vex men, tempt them, and incite them to sorrow, envy, anger, despair. Wherefore the demon, who acts through natural causes, especially uses the melancholic humour to drive men into anguish, scruples, distrusts, dissensions, aversions, hatreds, quarrels, slaughters, etc. Such was that lunatic cured by Christ, who, as the moon waxed, was more agitated by the demon with melancholy and mania, Matthew 17, 14.
Hence Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy chap. 27: “Demons,” he says, “invade melancholics, or bring melancholic diseases upon men, because the melancholic humour is of all most ready to drive a man into madness and despair: which those most wicked spirits above all desire. For the melancholic humour depresses, weighs down and saddens the heart, and clouds the brain with a black soot, as with a mist; so that through it all things seem black, sad, harmful, hostile, horrid.” Wherefore, let him who desires to escape the temptations of the devil beware of melancholy; if by nature or chance he has sadness, let him fight against it, and resist manfully and constantly all its imaginations and suggestions, e.g. when it brings in suspicions, fears, anguish, scruples, let him say: I do not believe you; for you proceed from my enemy, namely from the demon and melancholy: false, inept, foolish are the things you represent to me; I will therefore embrace the contrary, which are true, apt and prudent. So we say to one who, suffering from vertigo, thinks all things are turning and whirling: You are deceived, friend, nothing whirls except your brain; and by the vertigo of it which whirls you, it comes about that all things which are at rest seem to you, whirled about, to whirl. Hence St. Anthony, as St. Athanasius testifies, said that “nothing is more efficacious for overcoming demons than spiritual joy.” And St. James, in his epistle chap. 5, 13: “Is any of you sad? Let him pray: is he cheerful in mind? Let him sing.” For this reason in the divine office the Church uses song and music, to rouse the faithful to devotion, alacrity, joy, with which they may serve God, resist the devil, and proceed eagerly to every work of virtue. St. Augustine, experiencing this in himself at the beginning of his conversion, says thus in book 9 of the Confessions, chap. 6: “How much did I weep at thy hymns and canticles, vehemently moved by the voices of thy sweetly sounding Church. Those voices flowed into my ears, and thy truth was distilled into my heart, and thence a feeling of piety burned, and tears ran, and it was well with me in them.”