De peste themata sacra tria

from that first general consideration. Those who err in the latter are found to have erred in the beginning, because they do not understand how Scripture describes this punishment for our crimes. For they are led by their own judgments, and those of certain physicians, upon whom the Light of the Word has not shone.

For there is a very great difference between the judgment of Theologians and that of Physicians, if you observe both separately within their own boundaries. Physicians and doctors are occupied in considering the form and matter of the plague, and they diligently explain where such heat or such cold is, they teach what is corrupted within and what can resist the corruption by reason of nature, they observe carbuncles, buboes, and putrid humors in them, and they prescribe what may remedy them, and to this extent, their office extends. But if they wish to show the efficient causes outside the affected body, higher than the reason of nature can bear, they exceed their limit and stumble gravely, and they are to be rejected if they claim wisdom beyond their own craft. For let them remain in the consideration of form and matter; regarding the external causes of the plague, namely the efficient and final causes, the entire judgment pertains to Theology, for in it those very things are clearly demonstrated which cannot be investigated by the power of nature or human reason. We do not deny, however, that Theology can sometimes take the precepts of its art from physics, as if on loan, and sometimes use them correctly in the Lord, for even in certain other