Section 23

“When the demons see Christians—and monks especially—working gladly and making progress, they first attack through temptation, placing stumbling blocks in our path: evil thoughts. But we have no need to fear their suggestions, because through prayer, fasting, and faith in the Lord their attack immediately fails.

“Even when they fail, however, they do not stop. They return deceitfully and with subtlety. When they cannot openly deceive the heart through filthy pleasures, they approach in another form. They create apparitions in an attempt to frighten us, changing their appearance and taking the shapes of women, wild animals, reptiles, gigantic bodies, and ranks of soldiers.

“But you need not fear these deceptive apparitions either. They are nothing and quickly disappear, especially when a person has already fortified himself with faith and the sign of the cross.

“Still, they are bold and shameless. If they are defeated in this way, they attack by another method. They pretend to prophesy and to foretell things that are going to happen. They make themselves appear enormously tall, reaching to the roof, and broad in body, hoping by such displays to catch secretly those whom they could not deceive through thoughts.

“If they find the soul strengthened here also by faith and a mind full of hope, then they bring in their ruler to help them.