devils in the air, and adds, "Nam et in
alio loco de daemonibus quod in aere isto vagentur, Apostolus ait:
In quibus ambulastis aliquando juxta Saeculum mundi istius, secundum
principem potestatis aeris spiritus, qui nunc operatur in filos
diffidentiae (Eph, ii,2). Haec autem omnium doctorum opinio est, quod
aer iste qui coelum et terram medius dividens, inane appellatur, plenus
sit contrariis fortitudinibus." See also his Com. in Isaiam, lib. xiii,
cap. 50 (Migne, Patr. Lat., vol. xxiv, p. 477). For Augustine, see the
De Civitate Dei, passim.

During the Middle Ages this doctrine of the diabolical origin of storms
went on gathering strength. Bede had full faith in it, and narrates
various anecdotes in support of it. St. Thomas Aquinas gave it his
sanction, saying in his all authoritative Summa, "Rains and winds, and
whatsoever occurs by local impulse alone, can be caused by demons."
"It is," he says, "a dogma of faith that the demons can produce wind,
storms, and rain of fire from heaven."

Albert the Great taught the same doctrine, and showed how a
certain salve thrown into a spring produced whirlwinds. The great
Franciscan--the "seraphic doctor"--St. Bonaventura, whose services to
theology earned him one of the highest places in the Church, and to whom
Dante gave special honour in paradise, set upon this belief his high
authority. The lives of the saints, and the chronicles of the Middle
Ages, were filled with it. Poetry and painting accepted the idea and
developed it. Dante wedded it to verse, and at Venice this thought
may still be seen embodied in one of the grand pictures of Bordone: a
shipload of demons is seen approaching Venice in a storm, threatening
destruction to the city, but St. Mark, St. George, and St. Nicholas
attack the vessel, and disperse the hellish crew.(219)

(219) For Bede, see the Hist. Eccles., vol. i, p. 17; Vita Cuthberti,
c. 17 (Migne, tome xliv). For Thomas Aquinas, see the Summa, pars I, qu.
lxxx, art. 2. The second citation I owe to Rydberg, Magic of the Middle
Ages, p. 73, where the whole interesting passage is given at length. For
Albertus Magnus, see the De Potentia Daemonum (cited by Maury, Legendes
Pieuses). For Bonaventura, see the Comp. Theol. Veritat., ii, 26. For
Dante, see Purgatorio, c. 5. On Bordone's picture, see Maury, Legendes
Pieuses, p. 18, note.

The popes again and again sanctioned this doctrine, and it was
amalgamated with various local superstitions, p