First question. Again the same religious appeared on his rung as before and said: "O Judge, I ask you: Why do animals suffer inconveniences when they will not have eternal life and do not have the use of reason?"

Second question. "Item. Why are all things born with pain when there is no sin in the birth of anything?"

Third question. "Item. Why does an infant carry the sin of its father when it does not know how to sin?"

Fourth question. "Item. Why does the unforeseen so frequently occur?"

Fifth question. "Item. Why does a wicked man die a good death like the just; and the just sometimes a bad death like the unjust?"

Response to the first question. The Judge replied: "Friend, although this inquisition of yours does not come from love, nevertheless I do answer you so that others may love. You inquire why animals suffer infirmities. It is because in them - as in everything else - all things are disordered. For I am the establisher of all natures, and I gave to each nature its own temperament and order by which each thing might move and live. But after man - because of whom all things were made - opposed his lover, i.e., me, his God, all other things began to take on his disorder; and all that should have revered him began to oppose and resist him.

Therefore, it is out of this vice of disorder that so very many annoyances and adversities befall both man and the animals. However, animals also sometimes suffer because of the intemperance of their own nature - sometimes for the mitigation of their wildness and the purging of nature itself; sometimes because of mankind's sins so that, when the things that man loves are plagued or withdrawn, man himself may attentively consider what great punishment he deserves, for he has the use of a greater thing, reason. Indeed, if mankind's sins did not demand it, the animals that are in man's hands would not be so singularly afflicted. But not even they suffer without great justice.

For either it will be to them for a swifter end of life, or for less labor of misery and consumption of strong nature, or because of the change of seasons or out of the carelessness of man when labor is forthcoming. Let man therefore fear me, his God, more than everything else and be all the more gentle toward my creatures and animals, on whom he must have mercy for the sake of me, their Creator. For this reason, I, God, gave man the precept concerning the Sabbath, for I care about everyone of my creatures."

Response to the second question. "Item. As to why all things are born with suffering, I answer: When man scorned the most beautiful delight, he immediately incurred a toilsome life. And because disorder began in man and through man, it is my justice that the other creatures too - which exist for man's sake - should have some bitterness for the tempering of their delight and the fostering of their nourishment. Therefore, man is born with pain and makes progress with labor so that he may be eager to hasten to his true rest. He dies naked and poor so that he may bridle his inordinate impulses and so that he may fear future examination. And thus, even animals give birth with pain so that bitterness may temper their excesses and so that they may be partners with man in labor and pain. Therefore, man, who is so much nobler than the animals, should all that more fervently love me, the Lord God, his Creator."

Response to the third question. "Item. As to why the child carries the sins of the father, I answer: Could anything that comes from something unclean be clean itself? Therefore, when the first man lost the beauty of innocence because of his disobedience, he was cast out of the paradise of joy and became involved in unclean things. No one was found able, of himself, to recover this innocence. Therefore I, the merciful God, came in the flesh and instituted baptism, by means of which a child is liberated from wrong uncleanness and from sin. Because of this, the son will not carry the sin of the father; but each one will die in his own sin.

However, it happens many times that children imitate the sins of their parents; and therefore the parents' sins are sometimes punished in the children. This is not because the sins of the parents will not be punished in the parents themselves, although the punishment of these sins may be deferred for a time. But each one will die in, and be punished for, his own sin. Sometimes, too, the sins of the fathers - as it is written - are visited even upon the fourth generation; for when the children do not endeavor to mitigate my wrath in their own behalf or on behalf of their parents, it is my divine justice that they be punished together with the parents whom they followed against me."

Response to the fourth question. "Item. As to why the unforeseen soul frequently comes about, I answer: It is written that man shall be punished through those things through which he sins. And who shall be able to understand the plan of God? Many seek me, not in accordance with knowledge, but for the sake of the world. Some fear more than is right; others presume too much; others are proud in their designs. Therefore, I, God, who work the salvation of all, cause sometimes the occurrence of that which man most fears: sometimes, the removal of a thing that is loved more than is right; sometimes, the delay of a thing that is too anxiously anticipated and desired, in order that, above all things, man may always fear, love, and acknowledge me, his God."

Response to the fifth question. "Item. As to why a wicked man dies a good death like the just, I answer: The wicked sometimes have certain good traits and do certain works of justice for which they are to be repaid in the present. Similarly, too, the just sometimes do certain bad things for which they are to be scourged in the present, or they should be expected to be. Therefore, because at present all things are uncertain and all things are reserved for the future and because there is one entrance for all, therefore there must also be one exit for all, for it is not the exit but the life that makes a man blessed.

However, the fact that the wicked meet with an exit like that of the just is a result of my divine providence, for they themselves desired that exit. The devil, foreseeing the exits of his friends, sometimes foretells to them their time of death to cause in them presumption and vainglory and the deception - as it is found in those books entitled Apocrypha - that after death they will be praised as if they were just.

On the other hand, the just sometimes meet with a lamentable exit for their own greater merit so that they who, in their lifetime, always were careful about the virtues, may, through a contemptible death fly free to heaven - insofar as not even offscourings would be found in need of cleansing. As it is written, a lion killed a disobedient prophet and did not eat of the cadaver but guarded it.

In that the lion killed the body, what else is hinted at if not my divine permission that the prophet's disobedience be punished? That the lion did not eat of the cadaver was a showing of the prophet's good works so that purged in the present, he might be found to be just in the future. Therefore, let each one fear to examine my judgments; for even as I am incomprehensible in virtue and power, so am I terrible in my plans and my judgments. Indeed, some who wished to comprehend me in their wisdom have failed in their hope."