ONCE again judgment is being suspended in order to describe remedies against certain injuries to the fruits of the earth. These injuries are inflicted sometimes through worms and sometimes through insects that fly in the air over long stretches of the earth in swarms, so that they seem to cover its surface, consuming all the plant matter consisting both of vines and of the crops in the fields and grass down to the roots. Also, remedies for babies exchanged through the work of demons.

As for the first, it should be said that when St. Thomas asked whether it is lawful to adjure an unreasoning creature (Second of Second, Q. 90 [Summa 2/2.90.3.Co.]), he answered that it is, but by way of compelling them. In this case, such compulsion ought to be applied to the Devil, who uses unreasoning creatures to harm us. This is the method of adjuration in the Church's exorcisms, through which the power of the demons is debarred from unreasoning creatures.|For if intention were ascribed to 182 D the unreasoning creature, such intention would be vain in terms of the creature, since it understands nothing. Hence, one is given to understand that these creatures can be repelled through lawful exorcisms and adjurations (with the assistance of God's mercy), so that fasts, processions and other acts of devotion should first be enjoined on the congregation. For evils are inflicted on account of acts of adultery and the increase in such crimes, and therefore people should also be encouraged to make confessions. In certain provinces, excommunications are fulminated, but in that case they acquire the force of an adjuration concerning the demons.

There is also another terrifying form of permission granted by God concerning humans. In certain instances, demons remove women's children and youngsters from them and substitute other people's.