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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Two — the heavens and the stars

By what means some astrologers have predicted many true things. CHAPTER FIVE

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By what means some astrologers have predicted many true things. CHAPTER FIVE.1

Qua ratione nonnulli Astrologi multa vera praedixerint. CAPUT QUINTUM.

RESTAT, quo tandem ad exitum haec disputatio finemque perducatur, ut causas aperiamus cur permultae quorumdam Astrologorum praedictiones verae fuerint et cum rebus ipsis eventisque mirabiliter congruentes; hanc enim quaestionem, cum eius mentio supra incidisset, quo melius (commodiori scilicet loco) tractari posset, in extremam hanc disputationem reiecimus. Licet igitur praedictiones Astrologorum plerumque falsas esse verissimum sit et nobis supra satis explicatum, quoniam tamen et olim proditum est a multis hodieque admodum vulgare est, quinetiam a gravibus viris (quibus non credere difficile est) pro certo traditur fuisse quosdam Astrologos quorum pleraeque omnes praedictiones verae fuerunt, usu ipso eventuque comprobatae, et vix unum aut alterum de plurimis eorum praedictis secus evenit quam illi praenunciaverant: age, nos etiam hoc credere in animum inducamus, ne pervulgatae hominum opinioni (quasi publica fide et auctoritate confirmatae) adversari videamur. Concessa autem veritate huiusmodi praedictionum, causas eius disquiramus, videlicet qua ratione certo potuerint ab Astrologis futura praenunciari, quae, quod incerta sunt, vim et notionem humanae intelligentiae fugiunt. Non longum faciam: equidem asseveranter affirmo, si quae praedictiones Astrologorum verae fuerunt, earum veritatem non ex veritate firmitateque artis Astromantiae (quam nullam esse satis superque ostensum est), sed aliis ex causis proficisci: quae autem sint huiusmodi causae, brevibus explicabo.
It remains, that this disputation may at last be brought to its outcome and end, that we disclose the causes why very many predictions of certain Astrologers were true and marvelously agreeing with the very facts and events; for this question, since mention of it fell out above, we deferred to this last part of the disputation, that it might be better treated, in a more fitting place. Although, therefore, it is most true, and sufficiently explained by us above, that the predictions of the Astrologers are for the most part false; yet since it was long ago reported by many, and today is quite common, nay is handed down as certain by grave men (whom it is difficult not to believe), that there were certain Astrologers nearly all of whose predictions were true, confirmed by the very use and event, and scarcely one or another of their many predictions turned out otherwise than they had foretold: come, let us also bring ourselves to believe this, lest we seem to oppose the widespread opinion of men (as if confirmed by public faith and authority). But the truth of such predictions being granted, let us inquire into the causes of it—namely, by what means future things could be certainly foretold by the Astrologers, which, because they are uncertain, escape the force and notion of human understanding. I will not be long: I assuredly affirm that, if any predictions of the Astrologers were true, their truth proceeds not from the truth and firmness of the art of Astromancy (which has been shown more than enough to be none), but from other causes: and what these causes are, I will briefly explain.2
PRIMA causa. Veritas istarum praedictionum nonnunquam provenit ex pacto et societate quam iniit Astrologus cum daemone, vel ex occulto eius afflatu et instinctu, quo etiam nescientes homines ad divinandum instigantur. Hoc tradit Augustinus extremo cap. 7 lib. 5 de Civitate Dei:
FIRST CAUSE. The truth of these predictions sometimes comes from a pact and fellowship which the Astrologer has entered into with a demon, or from his hidden breathing and instinct, by which even unknowing men are instigated to divine. This Augustine relates at the end of chapter 7 of the fifth book of the City of God:3

Not undeservedly is it believed that, when the Astrologers wonderfully answer many true things, it comes about by the hidden instinct of spirits not good—whose care it is to insert into human minds, and to confirm, these false and harmful opinions about astral fates—and not by any art of the horoscope noted and inspected, which art is none. Thus Augustine.4

Non immerito creditur, cum Astrologi mirabiliter multa vera respondent, occulto instinctu fieri spirituum non bonorum, quorum cura est has falsas et noxias opiniones de Astralibus fatis inserere humanis mentibus atque firmare, non horoscopi notati et inspecti aliqua arte, quae nulla est. Sic Augustinus.

Daemon autem suggerit homini quod ab eo divinetur, vel palam se oculis eius aspectabilem et conspicuum offerens, eumque futura humanis verbis praedocens; vel formatis in aëre vocibus praesignificantibus futura citra ullam corporis speciem et figuram; vel immissa scriptura aliqua quae futurarum rerum prae[dictiones]...
And the demon suggests to the man what is to be divined by him: either openly offering himself visible and conspicuous to his eyes, and pre-teaching him the future in human words; or by voices formed in the air presignifying the future, without any bodily appearance and shape; or by some writing sent in, which [contains] pre[dictions] of future things...5
...[prae]dictiones contineat; vel dormienti per somnia, aut vigilanti, afficiendo et commovendo phantasiam, fingendoque phantasmata idonee ad repraesentandum id quod divinandum est, atque incitando hominem ad praedicendum id quod repraesentant phantasmata. Scire autem potest daemon futura quae praedocet hominem revelatione Dei per bonos Angelos ei facta: nonnunquam enim Deus ad agendum aliquid utitur daemonum ministerio. Solet etiam daemon praenunciare homini futura quae ipsemet postea facturus est. Solet, ob incomparabilem sui motus celeritatem, quae in longinquis locis remotisque mundi regionibus geruntur, ea ad homines qui longissime absunt deferre. Potest item daemon ex clandestinis consiliis, verbis, scriptis, ex signis quae in corpore tam exterius quam interius apparent, occultas hominum cogitationes et deliberationes tam praesentes quam futuras solertissime coniectando cognitas habere. Idemque coniicit ex praeparatione causarum aliarumque rerum quae ad gerendum aliquid debent concurrere. Denique, ob incredibilem subtilitatem solertiam mentis, ob tantam tot millium annorum experientiam, propter perfectam rerum omnium naturalium absolutamque scientiam, callidissimus atque sagacissimus est ad praesentiendum et praenoscendum futura.
...may contain predictions; or by affecting and stirring the phantasy of one sleeping, through dreams, or of one waking, and by feigning phantasms fit to represent that which is to be divined, and by inciting the man to predict that which the phantasms represent. And the demon can know the future things which it pre-teaches the man by a revelation of God made to it through the good Angels: for sometimes God, to do something, uses the ministry of the demons. The demon is also wont to foretell to a man the future things which it itself will afterward do. It is wont, by reason of the incomparable swiftness of its motion, to carry to men who are very far off the things that are done in distant places and remote regions of the world. The demon can also have known the hidden thoughts and deliberations of men, both present and future, by most skillfully conjecturing from clandestine counsels, words, writings, and from the signs that appear in the body, both outwardly and inwardly. And the same it conjectures from the preparation of causes and of the other things which must concur for doing something. Finally, by reason of the incredible subtlety and cleverness of its mind, by reason of so great an experience of so many thousands of years, and on account of its perfect and absolute knowledge of all natural things, it is most cunning and most sagacious at presensing and foreknowing the future.6
Hoc ipsum quod hic docuimus, quia enucleate aperteque tradit Augustinus in lib. 2 de Genesi ad litteram cap. 17, libet verba eius adscribere:
This very thing which we have here taught, because Augustine relates it distinctly and openly in the second book On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 17, it is pleasing to set down his words:7

Concerning the fates of the stars, whatever subtleties of theirs, and as it were the experiments of the documents of astrology, which they call Apotelesmata, let us utterly reject as repugnant to the soundness of our faith. For by such disputations they try to take away from us even the grounds of praying, and, with impious perversity, in the evil deeds which are most rightly reproved, they urge that God the author of the stars should rather be accused than the crimes of men. And therefore it must be confessed that, when true things are said by these men, they are said by a certain most hidden instinct, which human minds suffer unknowingly. Since this is done to deceive men, it is the work of seducing spirits, to whom it is permitted to know some true things about temporal matters—partly by the acuteness of a subtler sense, partly because they are vigorous in subtler bodies, partly by a craftier experience through the great length of their life, partly from the holy Angels (which they themselves learn from almighty God) revealing it to them, even by His command, who distributes human merits with the most hidden sincerity of justice. But sometimes these same nefarious spirits foretell, as if by divining, even the things which they themselves are going to do: wherefore the good Christian must beware of astrologers, or of any of those who divine impiously—especially when they tell true things—lest, by fellowship with the demons, they ensnare the deceived soul by a kind of pact of society. Thus far are the words of Augustine.8

De fatis syderum, quaslibet eorum argutias et quasi de matheseos documentorum experimenta, quae illi Apotelesmata vocant, omnino a nostrae fidei sanitate respuamus. Talibus enim disputationibus etiam orandi causas nobis auferre conantur, et impia perversitate, in malis factis quae rectissime reprehenduntur, ingerunt accusandum potius Deum auctorem syderum quam hominum scelera. Ideoque fatendum est, quando ab istis vera dicuntur, instinctu quodam occultissimo dici, quem nescientes humanae mentes patiuntur. Quod cum ad decipiendos homines fit, spirituum seductorum operatio est: quibus quaedam vera de temporalibus rebus nosse permittitur, partim quia subtilioris sensus acumine, partim quia corporibus subtilioribus viget, partim experientia callidiore propter magnam longitudinem vitae, partim a sanctis Angelis, quod ipsi ab omnipotente Deo discunt, etiam iussu eius sibi revelantibus, qui merita humana occultissima iustitiae synceritate distribuit. Aliquando autem iidem nefandi spiritus, etiam quae ipsi facturi sunt, velut divinando praedicunt: quapropter bono Christiano, sive Mathematici sive quilibet impie divinantium, maxime dicentes vera, cavendi sunt, ne consortio daemoniorum animam deceptam pacto quodam societatis irretiant. Hactenus sunt Augustini verba.

CAETERUM, gravissimo se obstringunt scelere quicumque, cupidi futura noscendi, consulunt daemones vel Astrologos daemonum opera utentes ad divinandum. Multis autem modis in eo ipso peccari potest: primo, si quis consulat daemonem de futuris, vel daemonis discipulum Astrologum, ratus esse daemoni futura omnia explorate percepta—hoc enim, cum solius Dei proprium sit nosse futura, si quis[...]
MOREOVER, they bind themselves with the gravest crime, whoever, eager to know the future, consult demons—or Astrologers who use the work of demons—for divining. And in this very thing one can sin in many ways: first, if anyone consult a demon about future things, or the demon's disciple, the Astrologer, thinking that all future things have been clearly perceived by the demon—for this, since it is proper to God alone to know the future, if anyone[...]9
...quis eandem cognitionem etiam daemoni tribueret, impietatis et idololatriae crimen esset. Deinde, si crimini vertitur cum excommunicato ab Ecclesia communionem et societatem habere, quantum erit cum diabolo (acerrimo Dei et Ecclesiae inimico et implacabili hominum hoste) pacto et societate coniunctum esse? et quem Deus ab omni societate fidelium ablegavit ad inferas et tartareas sedes aeternisque suppliciis mancipavit, eo ut amico et magistro atque doctore uti velle? Postea, qui daemonis familiaritate utitur in magnum certumque periculum animam suam obiicit, utpote quam daemon eiusmodi praedictionum illecebris circumvenire ac perdere vehementer cupit. Peccat etiam gravissime quisquis Astrologos consulit quo per illos aliorum hominum occulta peccata cognoscat. His accedit immane flagitium esse propterea daemonem vel Astrologum consulere, ut eorum consilio vel auxilio magnum aliquod scelus perpetrari queat. Istos autem veridicos (ut ferunt) Astrologos daemonum esse familiares et discipulos multa nec obscura sunt indicia: primo, improbitas morum vitaeque impuritas et sordes; tum contemptus omnium quae ad Christianae disciplinae ac pietatis cultum exercitationemque pertinent; postea, odisse lucem, fugitare conspectum congressumque hominum, raro versari in publico, fere in obscuro et abdito proculque arbitris vivere; ad hoc, de ipsorum fide ac religione mala (nec sane immerito ac temere) hominum existimatio; denique, multi de istis, capti a censoribus fidei nostrae quos Inquisitores vocant, vel ultro vel coacti (habita scilicet quaestione admotisque cruciatibus) suam cum daemone societatem et familiaritatem confessi sunt. Verum de prima causa satis.
...anyone should ascribe the same knowledge also to a demon, it would be a crime of impiety and idolatry. Next, if it is reckoned a crime to have communion and fellowship with one excommunicated from the Church, how great will it be to be joined by pact and fellowship with the devil (the bitterest enemy of God and the Church, and the implacable foe of men)? and to be willing to use as friend and master and teacher him whom God has banished from all fellowship of the faithful to the infernal and tartarean seats, and consigned to eternal punishments? Furthermore, he who uses the familiarity of a demon casts his soul into a great and certain peril, inasmuch as the demon vehemently desires to circumvent and destroy it by the allurements of such predictions. He also sins most gravely, whoever consults Astrologers in order to learn through them the hidden sins of other men. To this is added that it is a monstrous outrage to consult a demon or an Astrologer for this end, that by their counsel or aid some great crime may be perpetrated. And that these truthful (as they say) Astrologers are the familiars and disciples of demons, there are many and not obscure indications: first, the depravity of their morals and the impurity and filth of their life; then, the contempt of all things that pertain to the cultivation and practice of Christian discipline and piety; next, that they hate the light, shun the sight and company of men, rarely appear in public, live for the most part in obscurity and concealment and far from witnesses; besides, the bad (and surely not undeserved) opinion of men about their faith and religion; and finally, that many of these, seized by the censors of our faith whom they call Inquisitors, have—whether willingly or under compulsion (a judicial inquiry being held and tortures applied)—confessed their fellowship and familiarity with the demon. But enough about the first cause.10
SECUNDA causa. Astrologos divinare futura nonnunquam accidit ex occulta divinae providentiae dispositione, quae (ut in 4 et 7 lib. Confessionum, inquit Augustinus) caecas et improbas mentes consultorum aliquoties ignoto quodam instinctu sic agitat ut, nescientes, proferant quae consulentes vel ex eorum meritis vel ex abysso iusti iudicii Dei oporteat audire. Huc referre etiam convenit sortes antiquis usitatas, quando videlicet versibus alicuius Poëtae fortito acceptis quid eis futurum portenderetur inquirebant: quomodo nonnunquam contingebant illis carmina vel praesentibus vel futuris negociis mire congruentia. Velut Alexandro Severo, etiamnum adolescenti nec imperium speranti, dum Virgilianas sortes scrutatur, versus ex libro Aeneidos 6 exiere qui futurum illi imperium praesignificabant is verbis:
SECOND CAUSE. That the Astrologers divine the future sometimes happens from the hidden disposition of divine providence, which (as Augustine says in the fourth and seventh books of the Confessions) at times so moves the blind and wicked minds of the consulted, by a certain unknown instinct, that, not knowing it, they utter the things which the consulters—whether from their own merits, or from the abyss of the just judgment of God—ought to hear. Hither it is also fitting to refer the lots used by the ancients, when, namely, by the verses of some Poet taken at random, they inquired what the future portended to them: in which way sometimes there fell to them songs marvelously agreeing with present or future affairs. As to Alexander Severus, while still a youth and not hoping for empire, as he was scrutinizing the Virgilian lots, there came forth verses from the sixth book of the Aeneid which presignified his future empire, in these words:11

Remember, Roman, to rule the peoples with your sway— these shall be your arts—to impose the custom of peace, to spare the conquered, and to war down the proud.12

Tu regere imperio populos Romane memento: Hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem, Parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.

Nec mirum ita evenire, Deo volente ideoque mentem movente, linguam moderante, et sortes apte ad id quod praesignificari vult miscente ac temperante: qui non solum ex ore Balaam arioli et falsi vatis[...]
Nor is it any wonder that it so falls out, God willing it, and therefore moving the mind, governing the tongue, and mixing and tempering the lots fitly to that which He wills to be presignified: God, who not only from the mouth of Balaam, a soothsayer and false prophet[...]13
...[falsi] vatis, sed etiam ex ore asinae qua ille ariolus vehebatur, verissima futurorum edidit oracula. Non est hoc loco in praeteritis relinquendum quod valde sapienter et salutariter monet Augustinus in libro secundo de Doctrina Christiana, capite vigesimosecundo et vigesimotertio: ait enim permissu Dei nonnunquam usu venire ut daemones vel per ipsos etiam homines multa vera praedicent, quod nonnulli eiusmodi divinationum (etiam cum superstitione atque impietate nimirum studiosi atque curiosi), noxia persuasione seducti, in maiora et magis execranda flagitia, ita se derelinqui a Deo promeriti praecedentibus suis peccatis, prolabantur. Sed praestat hic Augustini verba subscribere:
...the false prophet, but even from the mouth of the she-ass on which that soothsayer rode, gave forth most true oracles of future things. It must not in this place be left among the things passed over, what Augustine very wisely and wholesomely warns in the second book On Christian Doctrine, chapters twenty-two and twenty-three: for he says that by the permission of God it sometimes comes to pass that demons, or even men through them, predict many true things, with the result that some who are (with superstition and impiety, of course) zealous and curious of such divinations, seduced by a harmful persuasion, slip into greater and more execrable outrages—having, by their preceding sins, deserved to be thus abandoned by God. But it is better to set down Augustine's words here:14

Hence it comes about that, by a certain hidden divine judgment, men greedy of evil things are delivered up to be mocked and deceived, the deceiving and mocking of them, according to the deserts of their pleasures, being done by the prevaricating Angels, to whom this lowest part of the world is, according to the most beautiful order of things, subjected by the law of divine providence. By which illusions and deceptions it comes to pass that, by these superstitious and pernicious kinds of divination, many past and future things are told, and happen no otherwise than they say; and that many things come about by observations, according to their observations, by which the entangled become more curious, and thrust themselves more and more into the manifold snares of a most pernicious error. This kind of fornication of the soul the divine Scripture did not, for our health, pass over in silence; nor did it so deter the soul from it as for that reason to deny that such things are to be followed because they are said falsely by their professors—but rather, even if they tell you, it says, and it so come to pass, believe them not. For not because the image of dead Samuel foretold true things to King Saul are therefore those sacrileges, by which that image was presented, the less to be execrated; nor, because in the Acts of the Apostles a ventriloquist woman bore true testimony to the Apostles of the Lord, did the Apostle Paul therefore spare that spirit, and not rather cleanse her by the rebuking and casting out of that demon. All arts, therefore, of this kind, whether of trifling or harmful superstition, set up out of a certain pestilent fellowship of men and demons as by a pact of faithless and deceitful friendship, are utterly to be repudiated and shunned by a Christian. Thus Augustine.15

Hinc fit ut occulto quodam iudicio divino cupidi malarum rerum homines tradantur illudendi et decipiendi, pro meritis voluptatum suarum illudentibus eos atque decipientibus praevaricatoribus Angelis, quibus ista pars mundi infima secundum pulcherrimum ordinem rerum divina providentia lege subiecta est. Quibus illusionibus et deceptionibus evenit ut istis superstitiosis et perniciosis divinationum generibus multa praeterita et futura dicantur, nec aliter accidant quam dicunt; multaque observationibus secundum observationes suas eveniant, quibus implicati curiosiores fiant et sese magis magisque inserant multiplicibus laqueis perniciosissimi erroris. Hoc genus fornicationis animae salubriter divina Scriptura non tacuit, neque ab ea sic deterruit animam ut propterea talia negaret esse sectanda quia falsa dicuntur a professoribus eorum, sed etiam si dixerint vobis, inquit, et ita evenerit, ne credatis eis. Non enim quia imago Samuelis mortui Sauli Regi vera praenunciavit, propterea talia sacrilegia quibus imago illa praesentata est minus execranda sunt; aut quia in Actibus Apostolorum ventriloqua femina verum testimonium perhibuit Apostolis Domini, ideo Paulus Apostolus pepercit illi spiritui, ac non potius illius daemonii correptione atque exclusione mundavit. Omnes igitur artes huiusmodi vel nugatoriae vel noxiae superstitionis, ex quadam pestifera societate hominum et daemonum quasi pacto infidelis et dolosae amicitiae constituta, penitus sunt repudianda et fugienda Christiano. Sic Augustinus.

His causis adiiciunt quidam alias duas, minus fortasse probabiles, non minus tamen frequentes usuque compertas. TERTIA causa. Non pauci divinant non tam peritia artis Astromanticae (quae nulla est) quam singulari quadam sagacis ingenii solertia, et multiplici humanarum rerum peritia usuque, et exquisita eorum hominum quibus divinatio fit negociorum, morum, studiorum et ingeniorum observatione atque notitia. Etenim quidam sunt qui, perspectis quorundam hominum temperamentis et affectionibus corporum, studiis item, exercitationibus, institutis, familiaritatibus, denique virtutibus aut vitiis, multa eventura eis provident ipsisque magna asseveratione et auctoritate praenunciant, ac plerumque divinant. Ad hoc genus divinationum pertinet si quis principem tyrannice tractantem cives et crudeli domi[natu]...
To these causes some add two others, perhaps less probable, yet no less frequent and proven by use. THIRD CAUSE. Not a few divine, not so much by skill in the astromantic art (which is none), as by a certain singular cleverness of a sagacious wit, and by a manifold experience and practice of human affairs, and by an exquisite observation and knowledge of the business, morals, pursuits, and dispositions of the very men for whom the divination is made. For there are some who, having examined the temperaments and bodily affections of certain men, likewise their pursuits, exercises, habits, intimacies, and finally their virtues or vices, foresee many things that will befall them, and predict them to them with great assurance and authority, and for the most part divine truly. To this kind of divinations it belongs, if someone should predict that a prince treating his citizens tyrannically and oppressing them with cruel domi[nion]...16
...[domi]natu prementem a suis eum occisum iri praedixerit, hominemque frequentissimum in furtis et rapinis suspendio periturum; religionis contemptorem falsaeque doctrinae proseminatorem, contra veritatem fidei et Ecclesiae Catholicae auctoritatem, ignis supplicio mulctatum iri. Hoc genere divinationis usus est Annibal, qui, perspecta imperitia atque temeritate Terentii Varronis et C. Flamminii Romanorum Coss. et Imperatorum, Afris victoriam, Romanis insignem cladem valde fidenter et asseveranter praedixit: eamque praedictionem mox certaminis exitus, plurimis Romanorum millibus interfectis, comprobavit.
...oppressing them with cruel dominion would be slain by his own; and that a man very frequent in thefts and robberies would perish by hanging; that a despiser of religion and a disseminator of false doctrine, against the truth of the faith and the authority of the Catholic Church, would be punished by the penalty of fire. This kind of divination Hannibal used, who, having perceived the inexperience and rashness of Terentius Varro and Gaius Flaminius, consuls and commanders of the Romans, very confidently and assuredly predicted victory for the Africans and a notable disaster for the Romans: and that prediction the outcome of the contest soon confirmed, very many thousands of Romans being slain.17
QUARTA causa. Non raro Astrologorum divinatio vera exsistit ob stultam consulentium credulitatem: multi namque facillime credunt quae dicuntur, ipsis de rebus quas vel maxime optant vel timent vehementer atque perhorrescunt. Solet enim eiusmodi credulitas instillare animis consulentium magnam spem rei bonae a divinis promissae, vel ingentem metum iniicere tristium et acerborum casuum calamitatisque ab illis praenunciatae. Hi autem duo affectus animi, cum potentissimi sint ad efficiendum et commovendum hominem, crebro efficiunt (certe multum proficiunt) ut humana negocia ad praedictos fines perducantur. Etenim vehemens quaedam spes ardensque desiderium excitant atque incitant homines ut ad bona ipsis promissa sedulo se comparent et omnibus suis opibus viribusque contendant: quo fit ut ob eam rem plerumque, quo intendunt, optatorum suorum et alienorum promissorum compotes facti, perveniant. Ex adverso autem metus, pavor, horrorque praedictorum malorum atque calamitatum saepe faciunt homines cunctanter ac dubitanter aggredi negocia, timide ac negligenter persequi, et quocumque obiecto impedimento turpiter et infeliciter deserere, eaque ratione in praenunciata ipsis mala delabi.
FOURTH CAUSE. Not rarely the divination of the Astrologers turns out true on account of the foolish credulity of those who consult them: for many most easily believe the things that are said, about the very things which they either most desire, or fear and shudder at vehemently. For such credulity is wont to instill into the minds of the consulters a great hope of the good thing promised by the diviners, or to cast in a huge fear of the sad and bitter chances and calamity foretold by them. And these two affections of the soul, since they are most powerful to effect and to move a man, frequently effect (certainly much avail) that human affairs are brought to the predicted ends. For a certain vehement hope and ardent desire excite and incite men to prepare themselves diligently for the goods promised them, and to strive with all their resources and strength: whence it comes about that, for that reason, they mostly arrive where they aim, having become masters of their own wishes and of the promises of others. But on the contrary, fear, dread, and horror of the predicted evils and calamities often make men undertake their affairs hesitantly and doubtfully, pursue them timidly and negligently, and, at whatever impediment thrown in the way, basely and unhappily abandon them—and in that way slide into the very evils foretold to them.18
Luculenta eius rei exempla reperimus in Romano exercitu, cui (ut scribit Livius) cum auguria et auspicia secreto inspecta infaustum belli exitum minarentur, auspices et duces, ne militem in arma euntem funesto nuncio consternarent, versis in contrariam partem auspiciis, omnia fausta et triumphalia portendi et a diis promitti mentiti sunt: quo mendacio utiliter decepti milites alacriter proelium inierunt, fortiter pugnarunt, et hostes (quos auguria victores fore praemonstrabant) feliciter vicerunt. Contra vero, cum Nicias dux classis Atheniensium, incognita sibi lunae defectione, portendi ratus classis naufragium si ea nocte portum egrederetur, cum stulto metu occupatus oppressusque discessum differt, a Siracusanis cum tota classe captus est. Verum, ne disceptatio haec longius quam initio promisimus et quam fert instituti nostri ratio producatur, et quo citius ad ea quae suscepti operis magis propria sunt veniamus, hic finem disputandi de divinatione Astrologica faciemus.
We find clear examples of this thing in the Roman army, for which (as Livy writes), when the auguries and auspices, secretly inspected, threatened an unlucky outcome of the war, the augurs and leaders, lest they dismay the soldier going to arms with a deadly report, the auspices being turned to the contrary side, lied that all favorable and triumphal things were portended and promised by the gods: by which lie the soldiers, usefully deceived, eagerly entered battle, fought bravely, and happily conquered the enemy whom the auguries foreshowed they would conquer. But on the contrary, when Nicias, general of the fleet of the Athenians—an eclipse of the moon being unknown to him, and thinking that the shipwreck of the fleet was portended if it should go out of the harbor that night—seized and oppressed by a foolish fear, delays the departure, he was captured by the Syracusans with the whole fleet. But, lest this discussion be drawn out further than we promised at the beginning, and than the plan of our undertaking allows, and that we may the sooner come to the things which are more proper to the work we have undertaken, we shall here make an end of disputing about astrological divination.19

Translator’s notes

  1. The fifth and final chapter of the anti-astrology disputation—the long-promised explanation (deferred earlier, pp. 262/267, ‘extrema hac disputatione aperiemus’) of why some astrologers' predictions came true. ↩
  2. Marginal gloss: "Quatuor causae propter quas nonnunquam praedicta Astrologorum vera cadunt." Pererius takes up the deferred question: why did some astrologers' predictions come true and agree with events? Though astrology is mostly false, it is reported (even by grave men) that some astrologers were nearly always right—so, granting this, he asks the cause. His thesis: any true predictions come not from the art of astromancy (proven worthless) but from OTHER causes, which he will now explain (four causes). ↩
  3. Marginal gloss: "Instinctu daemonum aliquando homines ad divinandum (impelli)." FIRST CAUSE: the truth sometimes comes from a pact the astrologer made with a demon, or from the demon's hidden instinct (which moves even unknowing men to divine). Augustine teaches this (City of God 5.7, end): ↩
  4. Augustine, City of God 5.7: when astrologers ‘wonderfully answer many true things,’ it is by the hidden instinct of evil spirits (whose aim is to fix false beliefs about astral fate in men's minds)—not by any genuine art of the horoscope, which is none. ↩
  5. How the demon suggests to the man what to divine: (1) openly appearing and pre-teaching the future in human words; (2) by voices formed in the air, without bodily shape; (3) by sending a writing containing predictions. Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘dictiones’). ↩
  6. The demon's further means (continued): by stirring a sleeper's or waker's phantasy with feigned phantasms; and the demon knows the future it pre-teaches (a) by God's revelation through good Angels (God sometimes uses demons' ministry), (b) because it foretells what it will itself do, (c) by its incomparable speed carrying news from distant regions, (d) by skillful conjecture of men's hidden thoughts (from words, writings, bodily signs) and of the preparation of causes, and (e) by its incredible mental subtlety, its experience of so many thousand years, and its perfect knowledge of all natural things. ↩
  7. Lead-in to a long quotation of Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 2.17, confirming the demonic explanation of astrologers' true predictions. ↩
  8. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram 2.17: reject the ‘fates of the stars’ and the astrologers' Apotelesmata as contrary to faith (they would rob us of prayer and blame God rather than men's sins). When astrologers say true things, it is by a most hidden instinct men suffer unknowingly—the work of seducing spirits, who know some temporal truths (by subtler sense, subtler bodies, long experience, or revelation through the holy Angels at God's command), and who sometimes foretell what they themselves will do. So the good Christian must beware astrologers, especially when they speak truth, lest the demons ensnare the soul by a pact. ↩
  9. Marginal gloss: "Quot modis et quam graviter peccetur ab iis qui de divinatione rerum futurarum daemonem consulunt et vacant." MOREOVER: whoever consults demons (or astrologers using demons) to know the future binds himself with the gravest crime. One sins in many ways—first, by consulting a demon (or its disciple the astrologer) about the future as if the demon had clearly perceived all futures, since to know the future is proper to God alone. Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘quis’; signature M 3). ↩
  10. Continuing the enumeration of sins in consulting demons/astrologers: ascribing God's foreknowledge to a demon is impiety and idolatry; pact with the devil is worse than communion with an excommunicate; it imperils the soul. Consulting astrologers to learn others' hidden sins, or to commit a crime, is grave. Signs these ‘truthful’ astrologers are demons' familiars: depraved morals, contempt of piety, shunning the light, bad repute—and many, seized by the Inquisitors, confessed (under torture) their pact with the demon. ↩
  11. SECOND CAUSE: astrologers sometimes divine truly by the hidden disposition of divine providence, which (Augustine, Confessions 4 and 7) so moves the consulted men's blind minds by an unknown instinct that, unknowing, they utter what the inquirers ought to hear (from their merits, or from God's just judgment). Here belong the ancient ‘lots’ (sortes)—random poetic verses consulted for the future—which sometimes marvelously fit events: as Alexander Severus, a youth not hoping for empire, drew from Aeneid 6 verses foretelling his rule: ↩
  12. Virgil, Aeneid 6.851–853 (Anchises' charge to Aeneas in the underworld). Drawn by the young Alexander Severus as a ‘sors Virgiliana’ foretelling his future empire. ↩
  13. Marginal gloss: "Numer. 23 et 24" (Numbers 22–24). No wonder the lots fall out true, when God moves the mind, governs the tongue, and arranges the lots—God who uttered true oracles even from the mouth of Balaam the false prophet (and his ass). Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘vatis’). ↩
  14. Concluding the Balaam example (Num 22–24): God uttered true oracles even from the false prophet's mouth and his ass. Pererius then introduces a long quotation of Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana 2.22–23, warning that demons (or men through them) predict true things by God's permission, drawing the curious into ever greater crimes. ↩
  15. Marginal gloss: "Hinc valde observanda beati Augustini sententia." Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana 2.23: by a hidden divine judgment, men greedy for evil are handed over to be deceived by the apostate Angels (who rule this lowest world-part under providence); so superstitious divinations come true and entangle the curious ever deeper. Scripture warns ‘even if it come to pass, believe them not’ (Deut 13:1–3): the witch of Endor's true word to Saul (1 Sam 28) does not make her sacrilege less damnable, nor did Paul spare the truthful ventriloquist (the pythoness, Acts 16:16–18) but cast out her demon. So all such superstitious arts—springing from a pact-like fellowship of men and demons—must be utterly shunned. ↩
  16. Some add two further causes, less probable but no less frequent. THIRD CAUSE: many divine not by the (nonexistent) art but by sagacious wit, wide experience of human affairs, and shrewd observation of the consulter's character, pursuits, and temperament—predicting confidently what such a person will do, and usually getting it right. (E.g., predicting that a tyrant oppressing his citizens...) Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘natu’). ↩
  17. Marginal gloss: "Divinatio Annibalis." Examples of shrewd ‘divination’: that a tyrant will be killed by his own; a habitual thief will hang; a heretic will be burned. Hannibal used this kind: seeing the rashness of the Roman commanders (Terentius Varro and Flaminius), he confidently predicted African victory and Roman disaster—soon confirmed by the slaughter (at Cannae and Lake Trasimene). ↩
  18. Marginal gloss: "Stulta consulentium in Astrologos credulitas, praedictiones eorum veras nonnunquam reddit." FOURTH CAUSE: the prediction often comes true through the consulters' foolish credulity. Believing what is foretold about what they most desire or dread, they are filled with hope or fear—the two most powerful passions—which often bring affairs to the predicted ends: hope spurs men to strive for the promised good (so they attain it), while fear makes them undertake things timidly and abandon them (so they fall into the foretold evil). ↩
  19. Marginal gloss: "Niciae ducis Atheniensium exitialis inscitia." Two illustrations of how belief drives the outcome. (1) The Roman army (Livy): when secret auguries threatened defeat, the leaders lied that the auspices were favorable—and the ‘usefully deceived’ soldiers fought bravely and won. (2) Nicias, the Athenian general (Thucydides 7): ignorant that the lunar eclipse was natural, he feared it portended disaster, delayed the fleet's departure, and was captured with his whole fleet by the Syracusans. Pererius closes the disputation on astrological divination here. ↩