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In his readings of the several narratives of John’s Gospel wherein the Evangelist mentions Satan, Thomas Aquinas shows a consistent concern to demolish any notion that the first of the fallen angels can be identified with a supreme evil being, a summum malum, that could be identified with the malevolent demiurge described by gnosticizing thinkers such as Marcion, Valentinus, Manes, or the medieval movement associated with the latter, often known as the Cathars. Primary among his concerns is the refutation of the moral determinism he finds in their thought, which is particularly incompatible with the God given freedom for reception of divine filiation he finds throughout John’s Gospel.