3217. At length, when it was granted to speak concerning certain things written and published by me, concerning the devil [to wit], that he was created before the creation of the world, as a copula [link] between heavenly and corporeal things; which was also confirmed by this, that they could not have been written differently, inasmuch as the Christian world does not believe different; and that he was created a good angel, but afterwards fell and was cast from heaven; besides other things: then, inasmuch as these were the principles of the worshippers of nature, he snatched at these things so eagerly, that he said he had never possessed such a life: thus he [was] as it were let into [his] true life, for he was of such a character that he snatched at these things in the life of the body, and confirmed himself and persuaded himself [thereof]; and I could observe, that from him, poisons were diffused into spirits, by this, that they being as it were bound [ligati] by his efflux [effluvie] could hardly have thought otherwise.