a youth
with her; but that anything may be born from such concubinage I do not
believe. Many sorceresses have at one time or another been subjected
to death at the stake on account of their intercourse with demons. If
the devil can deceive eyes and ears so that they fancy they see and
hear things which do not exist, how much easier is it for him to
deceive the sense of touch, which is in this nature exceedingly gross!
But enough! These explanations have no bearing upon the present text,
and we have been led to them merely by Jewish babbling.

36. The true meaning is that Moses calls those men the sons of God,
who had the promise of the blessed seed. This is a New Testament
phrase and signifies the believers who call God, Father, and whom, God
in turn, calls sons. The flood came not because the generation of Cain
was corrupt, but because the generation of the righteous who had
believed God, had obeyed his Word, and had possessed the true worship,
now had lapsed into idolatry, disobedience to parents, sensuality,
oppression. Even so the last day shall be hastened, not by the
profligacy of Gentile, Turk and Jew, but by the filling of the Church
with errors through the pope and fanatical spirits, so that those very
ones who occupy the highest place in the Church exercise themselves in
sensuality, lust and oppression.

37. It is a cause of fear for us all, that even those who were
descended from the best patriarchs, began to grow haughty and depart
from the Word. They gloried in their wisdom and righteousness, as
later the Jews did in circumcision and Father Abraham. So did the
popes glory in the title of the Church only to replace gradually their
spiritual glory by carnal indulgence after forfeiting the knowledge of
God, his Word and his worship. The Roman Church was truly holy and
adorned by the grandest martyrs. We, at this day, however, are
witnesses how she has fallen.

38. Let no one, therefore, glory in his gifts, however splendid! The
greatest gift is to be a member of the true Church. But take care not
to become proud on that account, for you may fall, just as Lucifer
fell from heaven and, as we are here informed, as the sons of God fell
into carnal pleasures. They are, therefore, no longer sons of God, but
sons of Satan, having fallen alike from the first and the second table
of the Law. So in the past, popes and bishops have been good and holy,
but today they are of all men the worst and, so to speak, the dreg