Christians drive demons out of men, and from places where they have {128} taken up their abode, and even sometimes from the bodies of animals, which are frequently injured by them.(1) In reply to a statement of Celsus that we cannot eat bread or fruit, or drink wine or even water without eating and drinking with demons, and that the very air we breathe is received from demons, and that, consequently, we cannot inhale without receiving air from the demons who are set over the air,(2) Origen maintains, on the contrary, that the angels of God, and not demons, have the superintendence of such natural phenomena, and have been appointed to communicate all these blessings. Not demons, but angels, have been set over the fruits of the earth, and over the birth of animals, and over all things necessary for our race.(3) Scripture forbids the eating of things strangled because the blood is still in them, and blood, and more especially the fumes of it, is said to be the food of demons. If we ate strangled animals, we might have demons feeding with us,(4) but in Origen's opinion a man only eats and drinks with demons when he eats the flesh of idol sacrifices, and drinks the wine poured out in honour of demons.(6) Jerome states the common belief that the air is filled with demons.(6) Chrysostom says that angels are everywhere in the atmosphere.(7) Not content, however, with peopling earth and air with angels and demons, the Fathers also shared the opinion common to Jews(8) and heathen philosophers, that the heavenly bodies were animated beings. After fully discussing the question, with much reference to Scripture, {20}