First question. Again, the same religious appeared as before and said: "O Judge, why have you created worms which can harm and cannot profit?"

Second question. "Item. Why have you created ferocious beasts that also harm human beings?"

Third question. "Item. Why do you send infirmities and pains into bodies?"

Fourth question. "Item. Why do you suffer the iniquity of unjust judges who afflict their subjects and scourge them as if they were bought slaves?"

Fifth question. "Item. Why is man's body troubled even in the moment of death?"

Response to the first question. The Judge replied: "Friend, I, God and Judge, created heaven and earth and all that is in them - but nothing without a reason and nothing without a similarity to spiritual things. For, just as the souls of the saints resemble the holy angels who have life and happiness, so the souls of the unjust resemble the demons who have everlasting death. Therefore, because you have asked why I created worms, I answer you that I created them to show the manifold power of my wisdom and goodness. For even though they can harm, nevertheless they do not harm except by my permission and because sin requires it in order that man, who scorns submission to his own superior, may groan over his ability to be troubled by this lowest of things and thus may know that he is nothing without me, whom even irrational things serve and at whose beckoning all things stand."

Response to the second question. "Item. As to why I created ferocious beasts, I answer: All that I created was not only good, but even very good, and was created either for man's benefit and testing or for the good of the other creatures and so that man, being so much happier than all others, might serve me, his God, all the more humbly. Moreover, beasts do harm in temporal things for two reasons: first, for the recognition and reproof of wickedness so that the wicked may understand from their scourges that they must obey me, their superior. Second, beasts also harm the good in order to advance their virtue and to purge them. And because man, by sinning, has raised himself up against me, his God, therefore all things which had been subject to man have been raised up against him."

Response to the third question. "Item. As to why infirmity comes to the body, I answer: This happens as a major warning and also because of the vices of incontinency and excess, in order that man may learn spiritual moderation and patience by bridling his flesh."

Response to the fourth question. "Item. Why is there toleration for unjust judges? This happens for the purging of others and because of my own patience. Just as gold is purged in the fire, even so, through the malice of the wicked, souls are purged and educated and drawn back from things that must not be done. Therefore, I patiently tolerate the wicked so that the ears of the devil's grain may be separated from the wheat of the good and so that out of my hidden and divine justice their desire may be fulfilled."

Response to the fifth question. "Item. Why does the body suffer punishment in death? It is just that man be punished in ways similar to the ways of his sinning. And because he sins through inordinate pleasure, it is right that he be stricken with a measure of bitterness and pain. Therefore, for some, death begins here - a death that will endure without end in hell. For others, death ends in purgatory; and then begins everlasting joy."