Mingling scriptural texts, Platonic philosophy, and theological statements by great doctors of the Church, with wild utterances obtained from lunatics, he gave forth, about the beginning of the twelfth century, a treatise on The Work of Demons.

Sacred science was vastly enriched thereby in various ways; but two of his conclusions, the results of his most profound thought, enforced by theologians and popularized by preachers, soon took special hold upon the thinking portion of the people at large.

The first of these, which he easily based upon Scripture and St.Basil, was that, since all demons suffer by material fire and brimstone, they must have material bodies; the second was that, since all demons are by nature cold, they gladly seek a genial warmth by entering the bodies of men and beasts.( 348) (348) See Baas and Werner, cited by Kirchhoff, as above; also Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol.i, p.

68, and note, New York, 1884.

As to Basil's belief in the corporeality of devils, see his Commentary on Isaiah, cap.