A
HISTORY OF MAGIC AND
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
VOLUME I
A
HISTORY OF MAGIC AND
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
DURING THE FIRST THIRTEEN
CENTURIES OF OUR ERA
BY LYNN THORNDIKE
VOLUME I
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Copyright 1923 Columbia University Press
First published by The Macmillan Company 1923
ISBN 0-231-08794-2
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface • -.r. , ix
Abbreviations xiii
Designation of Manuscripts xv
List of Works Frequently Cited by Author and Date of
Publication or Brief Title xvii
CHAPTER
I. Introduction i
BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Foreword 39
2. Pliny's Natural History 41
I, Its Place in the History of Science 42
11. Its Experimental Tendency 53
HI. Pliny's Account of Magic 58
IV. The Science of the Magi 64
V. Pliny's Magical Science 72
3. Seneca and Ptolemy: Natural Divination and As-
trology 100
4. Galen 117
I. The Man and His Times 119
II. His Medicine and Experimental Science . . . 139
HI. His Attitude Tovi^ard Magic 165
5. Ancient Applied Science and Magic: Vitruvius,
Hero, and the Greek Alchemists 182
6. Plutarch's Essays 200
7. Apuleius of Mad aura 221
8. Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana . . . 242
9. Literary and Philosophical Attacks upon Supersti-
tion : Cicero, Favorinus, Sextus Empiricus, Lucian 268
TO. Spurious Mystic Writings of Hermes, Orpheus, and
Zoroaster 287
T
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
n. Neo-Platonism and Its Relations to Astrology and
Theurgy 298
12. Aelian, Solinus, and Horapollo 322
BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
Foreword 337
13. The Book of Enoch 340
14. Philo Judaeus 348
15. The Gnostics 360
16. The Christian Apocrypha 385
17. The Recognitions of Clement and Simon Magus . 400
18. The Confession of Cyprian and Some Similar Stories 428
19. Origen and Celsus 436
20. Other Christian Discussion of Magic Before Augus-
tine 462
21. Christianity and Natural Science: Basil, Epipha-
Nius, and the Physiologus 480
22. Augustine on Magic and Astrology 504
23. The Fusion of Pagan and Christian Thought in
the Fourth and Fifth Centuries 523
BOOK III. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
24. The Story of Nectanebus, or the Alexander Legend
in the Early Middle Ages 551
25. Post-Classical Medicine 566
26. Pseudo-Literature in Natural Science .... 594
27. Other Early Medieval Learning: Boethius, Isidore,
Bede, Gregory 616
28. Arabic Occult Science of the Ninth Century . . 641
29. Latin Astrology and Divination, Especially in the
Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Centuries . . . 672
30. Gerbert and the Introduction of Arabic Astrology 697
31. Anglo-Saxon, Salernitan and Other Latin Medi-
cine IN Manuscripts from the Ninth to the
Twelfth Century 719
32. Constantinus Africanus (c. ioi 5-1087) .... 742
33. Treatises on the Arts Before the Introduction of
Arabic Alchemy 760
34. Marbod 775
Indices:
General 7^3
Bibliographical 811
Manuscripts 831
CONTENTS vU
BOOK IV. THE TWELFTH CENTURY
CHAPTER PAGB
35. The Early Scholastics: Peter Abelard and Hugh
OF St. Victor 3
36. Adelard of Bath 14
37. William of Conches 50
38. Some Twelfth Century Translators, Chiefly of
Astrology from the Arabic 66
39. Bernard Silvester; Astrology and Geomancy . . 99
40. Saint Hildegard of Bingen 124
41. John of Salisbury 155
42. Daniel of Morley and Roger of Hereford .... 171
43. Alexander Neckam on the Natures of Things . . 188
44. Moses Maimonides 205
45. Hermetic Books in the Middle Ages 214
46. Kiranides 229
47. Prester John and the Marvels of India .... 236
48. The Pseudo-Aristotle 246
49. Solomon and the Ars Notoria 279
50. Ancient and Medieval Dream-Books 290
BOOK V. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Forev^ord 305
51. Michael Scot 307
52. William of Auvergne 338
53. Thomas of Cantimpre 372
54. Bartholomew of England 401
55. Robert Grosseteste 436
56. Vincent of Beauvais 457
57. Early Thirteenth Century Medicine: Gilbert of
England and William of England 477
58. Petrus Hispanus 488
59. Albertus Magnus 5^7
I. Life 521
II. As a Scientist 528
HI, His Allusions to Magic 548
IV. Marvelous Virtues in Nature 560
V. Attitude Toward Astrology 577
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
60. Thomas Aquinas 593
61. Roger Bacon 616
I. Life 619
II. Criticism of and Part in Medieval Learning . 630
III. Experimental Science 649
IV. Attitude Toward Magic and Astrology . . . 659
62. The Speculum Astronomiae 692
6^. Three Treatises Ascribed to Albert 720
64. Experiments and Secrets: Medical and Biological . 751
65. Experiments and Secrets : Chemical and Magical . 777
66. PiCATRIX 813
67. GUIDO BONATTI AND BARTHOLOMEW OF PaRMA . . . 825
68. Arnald of Villanova 841
69. Raymond Lull 862
70. Peter of Abano 874
71. Cecco d'Ascoli 948
72. Conclusion 969
Indices :
General 985
Bibliographical 1007
Manuscripts ......••••••■. 1027
PREFACE
This work has been long in preparation — ever since in
1902-1903 Professor James Harvey Robinson, when my
mind was still in the making, suggested the study of magic
in medieval universities as the subject of my thesis for the
master's degree at Columbia University — and has been
foreshadowed by other publications, some of which are
listed under my name in the preliminary bibliography.
Since this was set up in type there have also appeared:
"Galen : the Man and His Times," in The Scientific Monthly,
January, 1922; "Early Christianity and Natural Science,"
in The Biblical Review, July, 1922; "The Latin Pseudo-
Aristotle and Medieval Occult Science," in The Journal of
English and Germanic Philology, April, 1922 ; and notes on
Daniel of Morley and Gundissalinus in The English His-
torical Review. For permission to make use of these pre-
vious publications in the present work I am indebted to the
editors of the periodicals just mentioned, and also to the
editors of The Columbia University Studies in History,
Economics, and Public Law, The American Historical Re-
view, Classical Philology, The Monist, Nature, The Philo-
sophical Review, and Science. The form, however, of these
previous publications has often been altered in embodying
them in this book, and, taken together, they constitute but
a fraction of it. Book I greatly amplifies the account of
magic in the Roman Empire contained in my doctoral dis-
sertation. Over ten years ago I prepared an account of
magic and science in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
based on material available in print in libraries of this
country and arranged topically, but I did not publish it, as it
seemed advisable to supplement it by study abroad and of
the manuscript material, and to adopt an arrangement by
authors. The result is Books IV and V of the present work.
My examination of manuscripts has been done especially
at the British Museum, whose rich collections, perhaps be-
cause somewhat inaccessibly catalogued, have been less used
by students of medieval learning than such libraries as the
X PREFACE
Bodleian and Bibliotheque Nationale. I have worked also,
however, at both Oxford and Paris, at Munich, Florence,
Bologna, and elsewhere ; but it has of course been impossible
to examine all the thousands of manuscripts bearing upon
the subject, and the war prevented me from visiting some
libraries, such as the important medieval collection of Am-
plonius at Erfurt. However, a fairly wide survey of the
catalogues of collections of manuscripts has convinced me
that I have read a representative selection. Such classified
lists of medieval manuscripts as Mrs. Dorothea Singer
has undertaken for the British Isles should greatly facilitate
the future labors of investigators in this field.
Although working in a rather new field, I have been aided
by editions of medieval writers produced by modern
scholarship, and by various series, books, and articles tend-
ing, at least, in the same direction as mine. Some such
publications have appeared or come to my notice too late
for use or even for mention in the text : for instance, another
edition of the De medicamentis of Marcellus Empiricus by
M. Niedermann; the printing of the Twelve Experiments
with Snake skin of John Paulinus by J. W. S. Johnsson in
Bull. d. I. societe frang. d^hist. d. I. med., XII, 257-67; the
detailed studies of Sante Ferrari on Peter of Abano; and
A. Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter,
1909, 2 vols. The breeding place of the eel (to which I
allude at I, 491) is now, as a result of recent investigation by
Dr. J. Schmidt, placed "about 2500 miles from the mouth
of the English Channel and 500 miles north-east of the
Leeward Islands" {Discovery, Oct., 1922, p. 256) instead
of in the Mediterranean.
A man who once wrote in Dublin * complained of the
difficulty of composing a learned work so far from the
Bodleian and British Museum, and I have often felt the
same way. When able to visit foreign collections or the
largest libraries in this country, or when books have been
sent for my use for a limited period, I have spent all the
available time in the collection of material, which has been
written up later as opportunity offered. Naturally one then
finds many small and some important points which require
verification or further investigation, but which must be
postponed until one's next vacation or trip abroad, by which
time some of the smaller points are apt to be forgotten.
* H. Cotton, Five Books of Maccabees, 1832, pp. ix-x.
PREFACE xi
Of such loose threads I fear that more remain than could
be desired. And I have so often caught myself in the act of
misinterpretation, misplaced emphasis, and other mistakes,
that I have no doubt there are other errors as w^ell as
omissions which other scholars will be able to point out and
which I trust they will. Despite this prospect, I have been
bold in affirming my independent opinion on any point
where I have one, even if it conflicts with that of specialists
or puts me in the position of criticizing my betters. Con-
stant questioning, criticism, new points of view, and conflict
of opinion are essential in the pursuit of truth.
After some hesitation I decided, because of the expense,
the length of the work, and the increasing unfamiliarity of
readers with Greek and Latin, as a rule not to give in the
footnotes the original language of passages used in the
text. I have, however, usually supplied the Latin or Greek
when I have made a free translation or one with which I
felt that others might not agree. But in such cases I advise
critics not to reject my rendering utterly without some fur-
ther examination of the context and line of thought of the
author or treatise in question, since the wording of particu-
lar passages in texts and manuscripts is liable to be corrupt,
and since my purpose in quoting particular passages is to
illustrate the general attitude of the author or treatise. In
describing manuscripts I have employed quotation marks
when I knew from personal examination or otherwise that
the Latin was that of the manuscript itself, and have
omitted quotation marks where the Latin seemed rather to
be that of the description in the catalogue. Usually I have
let the faulty spelling and syntax of medieval copyists stand
without comment. But as I am not an expert in palaeog-
raphy and have examined a large number of manuscripts
primarily for their substance, the reader should not regard
my Latin quotations from them as exact transliterations or
carefully considered texts. He should also remember that
th-ere is little uniformity in the manuscripts themselves.
I have tried to reduce the bulk of the footnotes by the
briefest forms of reference consistent with clearness — con-
sult lists of abbreviations and of works frequently cited by
author and date of publication — and by use of appendices
at the close of certain chapters.
Within the limits of a preface I may not enumerate all
the libraries where I have been permitted to work or which
xii PREFACE
have generously sent books — sometimes rare volumes — to
Cleveland for my use, or all the librarians who have person-
ally assisted my researches or courteously and carefully an-
swered my written inquiries, or the other scholars who have
aided or encouraged the preparation of this work, but I
hope they may feel that their kindness has not been in vain.
In library matters I have perhaps most frequently imposed
upon the good nature of Mr, Frederic C. Erb of the Co-
lumbia University Library, Mr. Gordon W. Thayer, in
charge of the John G. White collection in the Cleveland
Public Library, and Mr. George F. Strong, librarian of
Adelbert College, Western Reserve University; and I cannot
forbear to mention the interest shown in my work by Dr.
R. L. Poole at the Bodleian. For letters facilitating my
studies abroad before the war or application for a passport
immediately after the war I am indebted to the Hon.
Philander C. Knox, then Secretary of State, to Frederick
P. Keppel, then Assistant Secretary of War, to Drs. J.
Franklin Jameson and Charles F. Thwing, and to Professors
Henry E. Bourne and Henry Crew. Professors C. H.
Haskins,^ L. C. Karpinski, W. G. Leutner, W. A, Locy,
D. B. Macdonald, L. J. Paetow, S. B. Platner, E. C. Rich-
ardson, James Harvey Robinson, David Eugene Smith,
D'Arcy W. Thompson, A. H. Thorndike, E. L. Thorndike,
T. Wingate Todd, and Hutton Webster, and Drs. Charles
Singer and Se Boyar have kindly read various chapters in
manuscript or proof and offered helpful suggestions. The
burden of proof-reading has been generously shared with
me by Professors B. P. Bourland, C. D. Lamberton, and
Walter Libby, and especially by Professor Harold North
Fowler who has corrected proof for practically the entire
work. After receiving such expert aid and sound counsel
I must assume all the deeper guilt for such faults and indis-
cretions as the book may display.
* But Professor Haskins' recent article in Isis on "Michael Scot and
Frederick 11" and my chapter on Michael Scot were written quite
independently.
ABBREVIATIONS
Abhandl. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathema-
tischen Wissenschaften, begrundet von M.
Cantor, Teubner, Leipzig.
Addit. Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum.
Amplon, Manuscript collection of Amplonius Ratinck at
Erfurt.
AN Ante-Nicene Fathers, American Reprint of the
Edinburgh edition, in 9 vols., 191 3.
AS Acta sanctorum.
Beitrage Beitrage zur Geschichte der Philosophie des
Mittelalters, ed. by C, Baeumker, G. v. Hert-
ling, M. Baumgartner, et al., Miinster, 1891-.
BL Bodleian Library, Oxford,
BM British Museum, London.
BN Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
Borgnet Augustus Borgnet, ed. B. Alberti Magni Opera
omnia, Paris, 1890- 1899, in 38 vols.
Brewer Fr. Rogeri Bacon Opera quaedam hactenus in-
edita, ed. J. S. Brewer, London, 1859, in RS,
XV,
Bridges The Opus Maius of Roger Bacon, ed, J. H.
Bridges, I-II, Oxford, 1897; III, 1900,
CCAG Catalogus codicum astrologorum Graecorum, ed.
F. Cumont, W. Kroll, F. Boll, et al., 1898,
CE Catholic Encyclopedia.
CFCB Census of Fifteenth Century Books Owned in
America, compiled by a committee of the Bib-
liographical Society of America, New York,
1919.
CLM Codex Latinus Monacensis (Latin MS at Mu-
nich).
xfv MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum,
Vienna, i866~,
CU Cambridge University (used to distinguish MSS
in colleges having the same names as those at
Oxford).
CUL Cambridge University Library.
DNB Dictionary of National Biography.
EB Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edition.
EETS Early English Text Society Publications.
EHR English Historical Review.
ERE Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. J.
Hastings et al., 1908-.
HL Histoire Litteraire de la France.
HZ Historische Zeitschrift, Munich, 1859-.
Kiihn Medici Graeci, ed. C. J. Kiihn, Leipzig, 1829,
containing the v^orks of Galen, Dioscorides,
etc.
MG Monumenta Germaniae.
MS Manuscript.
MSS Manuscripts.
Muratori Rerum Italicarum scriptores ab anno aerae chris-
tianae 500 ad 1500, ed. L. A. Muratori, 1723-
1751.
NH C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historia (Pliny's
Natural History).
PG Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, series
graeca.
PL Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, series
latina.
PN The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second
Series, ed. Wace and Schaff, 1890-1900, 14
vols.
PW Pauly and Wissowa, Realencyclopadie der class-
ischen Altertumswissenschaft.
RS "Rolls Series," or Rerum Britannicarum medii
aevi scriptores, 99 works in 244 vols., Lon-
don, 1 858- 1 896.
ABBREVIATIONS xv
TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
altchristlichen Literatur, ed. Gebhardt und
Hamack.
DESIGNATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Individual manuscripts are usually briefly designated in
the ensuing notes and appendices by a single word indicating
the place or collection where the MS is found and the num-
ber or shelf-mark of the individual MS. So many of the
catalogues of MSS collections which I consulted were un-
dated and without name of author that I have decided to
attempt no catalogue of them. The brief designations that
I give will be sufficient for anyone who is interested in MSS.
In giving Latin titles, Incipifs, and the like of MSS I employ
quotation marks when I know from personal examination
or otherwise that the wording is that of the MS itself, and
omit the marks where the Latin seems rather to be that of
the description in the manuscript catalogue or other source of
information. In the following List of Works Frequently
Cited are included a few MSS catalogues whose authors I
shall have occasion to refer to by name.
LIST OF WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED BY
AUTHOR AND DATE OF PUBLICATION
OR BRIEF TITLE
For more detailed bibliography on specific topics and for
editions or manuscripts of the texts used see the bibliogra-
phies, references, and appendices to individual chapters. I
also include here some works of general interest or of rather
cursory character which I have not had occasion to mention
elsewhere; and I usually add, for purposes of differentia-
tion, other works in our field by an author than those works
by him which are frequently cited. Of the many histories of
the sciences, medicine, and magic that have appeared since
the invention of printing I have included but a small selec-
tion. Almost without exception they have to be used with
the greatest caution.
Abano, Peter of. Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum
et praecipue medicorum, 1472, 1476, 1521, 1526, etc.
De venenis, 1472, 1476, 1484, 1490, 1515, 1521, etc.
Abel, ed. Orphica, 1885.
Abelard, Peter. Opera hactenus seorsim edita, ed. V. Cou-
sin, Paris, 1849-1859, 2 vols.
Ouvrages inedits, ed. V. Cousin, 1835.
Abt, Die Apologie des Apuleius von Madaura und die an-
tike Zauberei, Giessen, 1908.
Achmetis Oneirocriticon, ed. Rigaltius, Paris, 1603.
Adelard of Bath, Ouaestiones naturales, 1480, 1485, etc.
De eodem et diverso, ed. H. Willner, Miinster, 1903.
Ahrens, K. Das Buch der Naturgegenstande, 1892.
Zur Geschichte des sogenannten Physiologus, 1885.
Ailly, Pierre d', Tractatus de ymagine mundi (and other
works), 1480 (?).
Albertus Magnus, Opera omnia, ed. A. Borgnet, Paris, 1890-
1899, 38 vols.
xviii MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
Allbutt, Sir T. Clifford. The Historical Relations of Medi-
cine and Surgery to the End of the Sixteenth Century,
London, 1905, 122 pp.; an address delivered at the St.
Louis Congress in 1904.
The Rise of the Experimental Method in Oxford, Lon-
don, 1902, 53 pp., from Journal of the Oxford Univer-
sity Junior Scientific Club, May, 1902, being the ninth
Robert Boyle Lecture.
Science and Medieval Thought, London, 1901, 116
brief pages. The Harveian Oration delivered before
the Royal College of Physicians.
Allendy, R. F. L'Alchimie et la Medecine; fitude sur les
theories hermetiques dans I'histoire de la medecine,
Paris, 1 91 2, 155 pp.
Anz, W. Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus,
Leipzig, 1897.
Aquinas, Thomas. Opera omnia, ed. E. Frette et P. Mare,
Paris, 1 87 1 -1880, 34 vols.
Aristotle, De animalibus historia, ed. Dittmeyer, 1907; En-
glish translations by R. Creswell, 1848, and D'Arcy W.
Thompson, Oxford, 1910.
Pseudo-Aristotle. Lapidarius, Merszborg, 1473.
Secretum secretorum, Latin translation from the Arabic
by Philip of Tripoli in many editions; and see Gaster.
Arnald of Villanova, Opera, Lyons, 1532.
Artemidori Daldiani et Achmetis Sereimi F. Oneirocritica ;
Astrampsychi et Nicephori versus etiam Oneirocritici ;
Nicolai Rigaltii ad Artemidorum Notae, Paris, 1603.
Ashmole, Elias, Theatrum chemicum Britannicum, 1652.
Astruc, Jean. Memoires pour servir a I'histoire de la Fa-
culte de Medecine de Montpellier, Paris, 1767.
Auri ferae artis quam chemiam vocant antiquissimi auctores,
Basel, 1572.
Barach et Wrobel, Bibliotheca Philosophorum Mediae Aeta-
tis, 1876-1878, 2 vols.
Bartholomew of England, De proprietatibus rerum Lingel-
bach, Heidelberg, 1488, and other editions.
WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED xix
Bauhin, De plantis a divis sanctisve nomen habentibus,
Basel, 1 59 1.
Baur, Ludwig, ed. Gundissalinus De divisione philosophiae,
Miinster, 1903.
Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste,
Miinster, 19 12.
Beazley, C. R. The Dawn of Modern Geography, London,
1 897-1 906, 3 vols.
Bernard, E. Catalog! librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et
Hiberniae in unum collecti (The old catalogue of the
Bodleian MSS), Tom. I, Pars i, Oxford, 1697.
Berthelot, P. E. M. Archeologie et histoire des sciences
avec publication nouvelle du papyrus grec chimique de
Leyde et impression originale du Liber de septuaginta
de Geber, Paris, 1906.
Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, 1887- 1888, 3
vols.
Introduction a I'etude de la chimie des anciens et du
moyen age, 1889.
La chimie au moyen age, 1893, 3 vols.
Les origines de I'alchimie, 1885.
Sur les voyages de Galien et de Zosime dans I'Archipel
et en Asie, et sur la matiere medicale dans I'antiquite,
in Journal des Savants, 1895, PP- 382-7.
Bezold, F. von, Astrologische Geschichtsconstruction im
Mittelalter, in Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Geschichtswiss-
enschaft, VIII (1892) 29ff.
Bibliotheca Chemica. See Borel and Manget.
Bjornbo, A. A. und Vogl, S. Alkindi, Tideus, und Pseudo-
Euklid; drei optische Werke, Leipzig, 191 1.
Black, W. H. Catalogue of the Ashmolean Manuscripts,
Oxford, 1845.
Boffito, P. G. II Commento di Cecco d'Ascoli all' Alcabizzo,
Florence, 1905.
II De principiis astrologiae di Cecco d'Ascoli, in Gior-
nale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, Suppl. 6, Turin,
1903.
XX MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
Perche fu condannato al fuoco I'astrologo Cecco d'As-
coli, in Studi e Documenti di Storia e Diritto, Publi-
cazione periodica dell' accademia de conferenza Storico-
Giuridiche, Rome, XX (1899).
Boll, Franz. Die Erforschung der antiken Astrologie, in
Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Altert., XI (1908) 103-26.
Eine arabisch-byzantische Quelle des Dialogs Hermip-
pus, in Sitzb. Heidelberg Akad., Philos. Hist. Classe
(1912) No. 18, 28 pp.
Sphaera, Leipzig, 1903.
Studien iiber Claudius Ptolemaeus, in Jahrb. f. klass.
Philol., Suppl. Bd. XXI.
Zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte d. griech. Astrologie u.
Astronomie, in Miinch. Akad. Sitzb., 1899.
Boll und Bezold, Stemglauben, Leipzig, 19 18; I have not
seen.
Bonatti, Guido. Liber astronomicus, Ratdolt, Augsburg,
1491.
Boncompagni, B. Delia vita e delle Opere di Gherardo
Cremonese traduttore del secolo duodecimo e di Ghe-
rardo da Sabbionetta astronomo del secolo decimoterzo,
Rome, 1 85 1.
Delia vita e delle opere di Guido Bonatti astrologo
ed astronomo del secolo decimoterzo, Rome, 1851.
Estratte dal Giornale Arcadico, Tomo CXXIII-
CXXIV. Delia vita e delle opere di Leonardo Pisano,
Rome, 1852.
Intorno ad alcune opere di Leonardo Pisano, Rome,
1854.
Borel, P. Bibliotheca Chimica seu catalogus librorum phi-
losophicorum hermeticorum usque ad annum 1653,
Paris, 1654.
Bostock, J. and Riley, H. T. The Natural History of
Pliny, translated with copious notes, London, 1855 ;
reprinted 1887.
Bouche-Leclercq, A. L'astrologie dans le monde romain, in
Revue Historique, vol. 65 (1897) 241-99.
WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED xxi
L'astrologie grecque, Paris, 1899, 658 pp.
Histoire de la divination dans I'antiquite, 1879- 1882,
4 vols.
Breasted, J. H. Development of Religion and Thought in
Ancient Egypt, New York, 191 2.
A History of Egypt, 1905; second ed., 1909.
Brehaut, E. An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages; Isidore of
Seville, in Columbia University Studies in History, etc.,
vol. 48 (1912) 1-274.
Brewer, J. S. Monumenta Franciscana (RS IV, i), Lon-
don, 1858.
Brown, J. Wood. An inquiry into the life and legend of
Michael Scot, Edinburgh, 1897.
Browne, Edward G. Arabian Medicine (the Fitzpatrick
Lectures of 1919 and 1920), Cambridge University
Press, 1 92 1.
Browne, Sir Thomas. Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1650.
Bubnov, N. ed. Gerberti opera mathematica, Berlin, 1899.
Budge, E. A. W. Egyptian Magic, London, 1899.
Ethiopic Histories of Alexander by the Pseudo-Callis-
thenes and other writers, Cambridge University Press,
1896.
Syriac Version of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Cambridge,
1889.
Syrian Anatomy, Pathology, and Therapeutics, Lon-
don, 1 91 3, 2 vols.
Bunbury, E. H. A History of Ancient Geography, London,
1879, 2 vols.
Cahier et Martin, Melanges d'archeologie, d'histoire et de
litterature, Paris, 1847-1856, 4 folio vols.
Cajori, F. History of Mathematics; second edition, revised
and enlarged, 191 9.
Cantor, M. Vorlesungen iiber Geschichte der Mathematik,
3rd edition, Leipzig, 1 899-1 908, 4 vols. Reprint of vol.
II in 1913.
Carini, S. I. Sulle Scienze Occulte nel Medio Evo, Palermo,
1872 ; I have not seen.
xxii MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
Cauzons, Th. de. La magie et la sorcellerie en France, 1910,
4 vols. ; largely compiled from secondary sources.
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3-
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A
HISTORY OF MAGIC AND
EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
VOLUME I
A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL
SCIENCE AND THEIR RELATION TO CHRISTIAN
THOUGHT DURING THE FIRST THIRTEEN CEN-
TURIES OF OUR ERA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Aim of this book — Period covered — How to study the history of
thought — Definition of magic — Magic of primitive man ; does civiliza-
tion originate in magic? — Divination in early China — Magic in ancient
Egypt — Magic and Egyptian religion— Mortuary magic — Magic in daily
life — Power of words, images, amulets — Magic in Egyptian medicine —
Demons and disease — Magic and science — Magic and industry — Alchemy
■ — Divination and astrology — The sources for Assyrian and Babylonian
magic — ^Was astrology Sumerian or Chaldean? — The number seven
in early Babylonia — Incantation texts older than astrological — Other
divination than astrology — Incantations against sorcery and demons —
A specimen incantation — Materials and devices of magic — Greek culture
not free from magic — Magic in myth, literature, and history — Simul-
taneous increase of learning and occult science — Magic origin urged for
Greek religion and drama — Magic in Greek philosophy — Plato's attitude
toward magic and astrology — Aristotle on stars and spirits — Folk-lore
in the History of Animals — Differing modes of transmission of ancient .
oriental and Greek literature — More magical character of directly trans-
mitted Greek remains — Progress of science among the Greeks — Archi-
medes and Aristotle — Exaggerated view of the scientific achievement
of the Hellenistic age — Appendix I. Some works on Magic, Religion,
and Astronomy in Babylonia and Assyria.
"Magic has existed among all peoples and at every
period." — Hegel}
This book aims to treat the history of magic and expert- Aim of
mental science and their relations to Christian thought dur- ^^'^ ^odk.
ing the first thirteen centuries of our era, with especial
emphasis upon the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. No
* Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion ; quoted by Sir James
Frazer, The Magic Art (1911), I, 426.
2 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
adequate survey of the history of either magic or experi-
mental science exists for this period, and considerable use
of manuscript material has been necessary for the medieval
period. Magic is here understood in the broadest sense of
the word, as including all occult arts and sciences, supersti-
tions, and folk-lore. I shall endeavor to justify this use
of the word from the sources as I proceed. My idea is
that magic and experimental science have been connected
in their development; that magicians were perhaps the
first to experiment; and that the history of both magic and
experimental science can be better understood by studying
them together, I also desire to make clearer than it has
been to most scholars the Latin learning of the medieval
period, whose leading personalities even are generally inac-
curately known, and on perhaps no one point is illumination
more needed than on that covered by our investigation. The
subject of laws against magic, popular practice of magic,
the witchcraft delusion and persecution lie outside of the
scope of this book.^
At first my plan was to limit this investigation to the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the time of greatest
medieval productivity, but I became convinced that this
period could be best understood by viewing it in the setting
of the Greek, Latin, and early Christian writers to whom
it owed so much. If the student of the Byzantine Empire
needs to know old Rome, the student of the medieval church
to comprehend early Christianity, the student of Romance
languages to understand Latin, still more must the reader
of Constantinus Africanus, Vincent of Beauvais, Guide
Bonatti, and Thomas Aquinas be familiar with the Pliny,
Galen, and Ptolemy, the Origen and Augustine, the Alkindi
and Albumasar from whom they drew. It would indeed be
difficult to draw a line anywhere between them. The ancient
*That field has already been soon to be edited by Professor
treated by Joseph Hansen, Zau- George L. Burr from H. C. Lea's
berwahn. Inquisition und Hexen- materials. See also a work just
prozess im ISfittelalter, 1900, and published by Miss M. A. Murray,
will be further illuminated by A The Witch-Cult in Western Eu'
History of Witchcraft in Eurofie, rope, Oxford, 1921.
1 INTRODUCTION 3
authors are generally extant only in their medieval form;
in some cases there is reason to suspect that they have
undergone alteration or addition; sometimes new works
were fathered upon them. In any case they have been pre-
served to us because the middle ages studied and cherished
them, and to a great extent made them their own. I begin
with the first century of our era, because Christian thought
begins then, and then appeared Pliny's Natural History
which seems to me the best starting point of a survey of
ancient science and magic, ^ I close with the thirteenth
century, or, more strictly speaking, in the course of the four-
teenth, because by then the medieval revival of learning had
spent its force. Attention is centred on magic and experi-
mental science in western Latin literature and learning,
Greek and Arabic works being considered as they con-
tributed thereto, and vernacular literature being omitted as
either derived from Latin works or unlearned and unscien-
tific.
Very probably I have tried to cover too much ground How to
and have made serious omissions. It is probably true that f^^^^ *^^-
^ -' . history of
for the history of thought as for the history of art the evi- thought.
dence and source material is more abundant than for politi-
cal or economic history. But fortunately it is more reliable,
since the pursuit of truth or beauty does not encourage
deception and prejudice as does the pursuit of wealth or
power. Also the history of thought is more unified and
consistent, steadier and more regular, than the fluctuations
and diversities of political history; and for this reason its
general outlines can be discerned with reasonable sureness
by the examination of even a limited number of examples,
provided they are properly selected from a period of suf-
ficient duration. Moreover, it seems to me that in the
present stage of research into and knowledge of our subject
^ Some of my scientific friends a treatment of the science of the
have urged me to begin with genuine Aristotle per se, although
Aristotle, as being a much abler in the course of this book I shall
scientist than Pliny, but this would say something of his medieval in-
take us rather too far back in fluence and more especially of the
time and I have not felt equal to Pseudo-Aristotle.
4 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
sounder conclusions and even more novel ones can be drawn
by a wide comparative survey than by a minutely intensive
and exhaustive study of one man or of a few years. The
danger is of writing from too narrow a view-point, magni-
fying unduly the importance of some one man or theory,
and failing to evaluate the facts in their full historical
setting. No medieval writer whether on science or magic
can be understood by himself, but must be measured in
respect to his surroundings and antecedents.
Definition Some may think it strange that I associate magic so
closely with the history of thought, but the word comes
from the Magi or wise men of Persia or Babylon, to whose
lore and practices the name was applied by the Greeks and
Romans, or possibly we may trace its etymology a little
farther back to the Sumerian or Turanian word imga or
unga, meaning deep or profound. The exact meaning of
the word, "magic," was a matter of much uncertainty even
in classical and medieval times, as we shall see. There can
be no doubt, however, that it was then applied not merely
to an operative art, but also to a mass of ideas or doctrine,
and that it represented a way of looking at the world. This
side of magic has sometimes been lost sight of in hasty or
assumed modern definitions which seem to regard magic as
merely a collection of rites and feats. In the case of primi-
tive men and savages it is possible that little thought accom-
panies their actions. But until these acts are based upon
or related to some imaginative, purposive, and rational
thinking, the doings of early man cannot be distinguished
as either religious or scientific or magical. Beavers build
dams, birds build nests, ants excavate, but they have no
magic just as they have no science or religion. Magic im-
plies a mental state and so may be viewed from the stand-
point of the history of thought. In process of time, as the
learned and educated lost faith in magic, it was degraded
to the low practices and beliefs of the ignorant and vulgar.
It was this use of the term that was taken up by anthro-
pologists and by them applied to analogous doings and
INTRODUCTION
notions of primitive men and savages. But we may go too
far in regarding magic as a purely social product of tribal
society : magicians may be, in Sir James Frazer's words,^
"the only professional class" among the lowest savages, but
note that they rank as a learned profession from the start.
It will be chiefly through the writings of learned men that
something of their later history and of the growth of
interest in experimental science will be traced in this work.
Let me add that in this investigation all arts of divination,
including astrology, will be reckoned as magic; I have been
quite unable to separate the two either in fact or logic, as I
shall illustrate repeatedly by particular cases."
Magic is very old, and it will perhaps be well in this in-
troductory chapter to present it to the reader, if not in its
infancy — for its origins are much disputed and perhaps
antecede all record and escape all observation — at least some
centuries before its Roman and medieval days. Sir J. G.
Frazer, in a passage of The Golden Bough to which we
have already referred, remarks that "sorcerers are found
in every savage tribe known to us; and among the lowest
savages . . . they are the only professional class that
exists." ^ Lenormant affirmed in his Chaldean Magic and
Sorcery ^ that "all magic rests upon a system of religious
belief," but recent sociologists and anthropologists have
^ Frazer has, of course, repeat-
edly made the point that modern
science is an outgrowth from
primitive magic. Carveth Read,
The Origin of Man, 1920, in his
chapter on "Magic and Science"
contends that "in no case ... is
Science derived from Magic" (p.
337), but this is mainly a logical
and ideal distinction, since he
admits that "for ages" science "is
in the hands of wizards."
*_I am glad to see that other
virriters on magic are taking this
view ; for instance, E. Doutte,
Magie et religion dans I'Afrique
du Nord, Alger, 1909, p. 351.
* Golden Bough, 1894, I. 420.
W. I. Thomas, "The Relation of
the Medicine-Man to the Origin
of the Professional Occupations"
(reprinted in his Source Book for
Social Origins, 4th edition, pp.
281-303), in which he disputes
Herbert Spencer's "thesis that the
medicine-man is the source and
origin of the learned and artistic
occupations," does not really con-
flict with Frazer's statement, since
for Thomas the medicine-man is
a priest rather than a magician.
Thomas remarks later in the same
book (p. 437), "Furthermore, the
whole attempt of the savage to
control the outside world, so far
as it contained a theory or a doc-
trine, was based on magic."
* Chaldean Magic and Sorcery.
1878, p. 70.
6 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
inclined to regard magic as older than a belief in gods. At
any rate some of the most primitive features of historical
religions seem to have originated from magic. Moreover,
religious cults, rites, and priesthoods are not the only things
that have been declared inferior in antiquity to magic and
largely indebted to it for their origins. Combarieu in his
Music and Magic ^ asserts that the incantation is universally
employed in all the circumstances of primitive life and
that from it, by the medium it is true of religious poetry, all
modern music has developed. The magic incantation is,
in short, "the oldest fact in the history of civilization.'*
Although the magician chants without thought of aesthetic
form or an artistically appreciative audience, yet his spell
contains in embryo all that later constitutes the art of music. ^
M. Paul Huvelin, after asserting with similar confidence
that poetry,^ the plastic arts,* medicine, mathematics, astron-
omy, and chemistry "have easily discernable magic sources,"
states that he will demonstrate that the same is true of law.*^
Very recently, however, there has been something of a reac-
tion against this tendency to regard the life of primitive
man as made up entirely of magic and to trace back every
phase of civilization to a magical origin. But R. R. Marett
still sees a higher standard of value in primitive man's magic
than in his warfare and brutal exploitation of his fellows
and believes that the "higher plane of experience for which
mana stands is one in which spiritual enlargement is appre-
ciated for its own sake." ^
Of the five classics included in the Confucian Canon,
The Book of Changes (I Citing or Yi-King), regarded by
^ Jules Combarieu, La musigue Art, London, 1900, Chapter xx,
et la magie, Paris, 1909, p. v. "Art and Magic." J. Capart,
^ Ibid., pp. 13-14. Primitive Art in Egypt.
"Among the , early Arabs . p_ Huvelin, Magie et droit in-
AT'^ M r^'^'f utterance ai^idud, Paris, 1907, in Annee
(Macdonald (1909). p. 16), and Sociologique, X, v-i?^; see too
the poet a wizard m league with ^.^ ^^/ /^^^^^^^^^ magiques et le
spirits (Nicholson, A Uterary droit romain, Ukcon,iW
History of the Arabs, 1914, p. 72). '
*Sce S. Reinach, "L'Art et la ' R. R. Marett, Psychology and
Magie," in LAnthropologie, XIV Folk-Lore, 1920, Chapter iii on
(1903), and Y. Hirn, Origins of "Primitive Values."
I INTRODUCTION 7
some as the oldest work in Chinese literature and dated
back as early as 3000 B.C., in its rudimentary form appears
to have been a method of divination by means of eight
possible combinations in triplets of a line and a broken line.
Thus, if a be a line and h a broken line, we may have acui',
bbb, aab, bba, abb, baa, aba, and bah. Possibly there is a
connection with the use of knotted cords which, Chinese
writers state, preceded written characters, like the method
used in ancient Peru. More certain would seem the resem-
blance to the medieval method of divination known as
geomancy, which we shall encounter later in our Latin
authors. Magic and astrology might, of course, be traced
all through Chinese history and literature. But, contenting
ourselves with this single example of the antiquity of such
arts in the civilization of the far east, let us turn to other
ancient cultures which had a closer and more unmistakable
influence upon the western world.
Of the ancient Egyptians Budge writes, "The belief in Magic in
magic influenced their minds . . . from the earliest to the Egypt,
latest period of their history ... in a manner which, at
this stage in the history of the world, is very difficult to
understand." -^ To the ordinary historical student the evi-
dence for this assertion does not seem quite so overwhelm-
ing as the Egyptologists would have us think. It looks
thinner when we begin to spread it out over a stretch of four
^ E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian berspriiche fur Mutter und Kind,
Magic, 1899, p. vii. Some other 1901. F. L. Griffith and H.
works on magic in Egypt are: Thompson, The Demotic Magical
Groff, Etudes sur la sorcellerie, Papyrus of London and Leiden,
memoires presentes a I'institut 1904. See also J. H. Breasted,
egyptien, Cairo, 1897; G. Busson, Development of Religion and
Extrait d'un memoire sur fori- Thought in Ancient Egypt, New
gine egyptienne de la Kabhale, in York, 1912.
Compte Rendu du Congres Scien- The following later but briefer
tiHque International des Catho- treatments add little to Budge:
liques, Sciences Religieuses, Paris, Alfred Wiedemann, Magie und
1891, pp. 29-51. Adolf Erman, Life Zauberei im Alten ALgypten, Leip-
w Ancient Egypt, English transla- zig, 1905, and Die Amulette der
tion, 1894, "describes vividly the alten ^gyptcr, Leipzig, 1910, both
magical conceptions and practices." in Der Alte Orient; Alexandre
F. L. Griffith, Stories of the High Moret, La magic dans tEgypte
Priests of Memphis, Oxford, 1900, ancienne, Paris, 1906, in Musee
contains some amusing demotic Guimet, Annates, Bibliotheque de
tales of magicians. Erman, Zau- vulgarisation. XX. 241-81.
8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic
and
Egyptian
religion.
Mortuary
magic.
thousand years, and it scarcely seems scientific to adduce
details from medieval Arabic tales or from the late Greek
fiction of the Pseudo-Callisthenes or from papyri of the
Christian era concerning the magic of early Egypt. And
it may be questioned whether two stories preserved in the
Westcar papyrus, written many centuries afterwards, are
alone "sufficient to prove that already in the Fourth Dynasty
the working of magic was a recognized art among the
Egyptians." ^
At any rate we are told that the belief in magic not only
was predynastic and prehistoric, but was "older in Egypt
than the belief in God." ^ In the later religion of the Egyp-
tians, along with more lofty and intellectual conceptions,
magic was still a principal ingredient.^ Their mythology
was affected by it * and they not only combated demons
with magical formulae but believed that they could terrify
and coerce the very gods by the same method, compelling
them to appear, to violate the course of nature by miracles,
or to admit the human soul to an equality with themselves.^
Magic was as essential in the future life as here on earth
among the living. Many, if not most, of the observances
and objects connected with embalming and burial had a
magic purpose or mode of operation; for instance, the
"magic eyes placed over the opening in the side of the body
through which the embalmer removed the intestines," ® or
the mannikins and models of houses buried with the dead.
In the process of embalming the wrapping of each bandage
was accompanied by the utterance of magic words. '^ In "the
oldest chapter of human thought extant" — the Pyramid
* Budge (1899), p. 19. At pp. 7-
10 Budge dates the Westcar Papy-
rus about 1550 B. C. and Cheops,
of whom the tale is told, in 3800
B. C. It is now customary to date
the Fourth Dynasty, to which
Cheops belonged, about 2900-2750
B. C. Breasted, History of Egypt,
pp. 122-3, speaks of a folk tale
preserved in the Papyrus Westcar
some nine (?) centuries after the
fall of the Fourth Dynasty.
* Budge, p. ix.
° Budge, pp. xiii-xiv.
* For magical myths see E. Na-
ville, The Old Egyptian Faith,
English translation by C. Camp-
bell, 1909, p. 23;^ et seq.
* Budge, pp. 3-4; Lenormant,
Chaldean Magic, p. 100; Wiede-
mann (1905), pp. 12, 14, 31-
" So labelled in the Egyptian
Museum at Cairo.
'Budge, p. 185.
I INTRODUCTION 9
Texts written in hieroglyphic at the tombs at Sakkara of
Pharaohs of the fifth and sixth dynasties (c, 2625-2475
B.C.), magic is so manifest that some have averred "that the
whole body of Pyramid Texts is simply a collection of
magical charms." ^ The scenes and objects painted on the
walls of the tombs, such as those of nobles in the fifth and
sixth dynasties, were employed with magic intent and were
meant to be realized in the future life; and with the twelfth
dynasty the Egyptians began to paint on the insides of the
coffins the objects that were formerly actually placed
within.^ Under the Empire the famous Book of the Dead
is a collection of magic pictures, charms, and incantations
for the use of the deceased in the hereafter,^ and while it is
not of the early period, we hear that "a book with words of
magic power" was buried with a pharaoh of the Old King-
dom. Budge has "no doubt that the object of every reli-
gious text ever written on tomb, stele, amulet, coffin, papy-
rus, etc., was to bring the gods under the power of the de-
ceased, so that he might be able to compel them to do his
will." * Breasted, on the other hand, thinks that the amount
and complexity of this mortuary magic increased greatly in
the later period under popular and priestly influence.^
Breasted nevertheless believes that magic had played Magic in
a great part in daily life throughout the whole course of dailyhfe.
Egyptian history. He writes, "It is difficult for the modern
mind to understand how completely the belief in magic pene-
trated the whole substance of life, dominating popular cus-
tom and constantly appearing in the simplest acts of the
daily household routine, as much a matter of course as
^Breasted (1912), pp. 84-5, 93-5. Day," Breasted, History of Egypt,
Systematic study" of the Pyra- p. 175.
mid Texts has been possible "only *r> ^ o
since the appearance of Sethe's cudge, p. 2S.
great edition,"— DiV Altsgypti- ^History of Egypt, p. 175; pp.
schen Pyramidentexte, Leipzig, 249-50 for the further increase in
l5K)8-i9io, 2 vols. mortuary magic after the Middle
^ Budge, pp. 104-7. Kingdom, and pp. 369-70, 390, etc.,
Many of them are to enable for Ikhnaton's vain effort to sup-
the dead man to leave his tomb at press this mortuary magic. See
will; hence the Egyptian title, also Breasted (1912), pp. 95-6, 281.
'The Chapters of Going Forth by 292-6, etc.
10
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Power of
words,
images,
amulets.
Magit in
Egyptian
medicine.
sleep or the preparation of food. It constituted the very
atmosphere in which the men of the early oriental world
lived. Without the saving and salutary influence of such
magical agencies constantly invoked, the life of an ancient
household in the East was unthinkable." ^
Most of the main features and varieties of magic known
to us at other times and places appear somewhere in the
course of Egypt's long history. For one thing we find the
ascription of magic power to words and names. The power
of words, says Budge, was thought to be practically un-
limited, and "the Egyptians invoked their aid in the smallest
as well as in the greatest events of their life." ^ Words
might be spoken, in which case they "must be uttered in a
proper tone of voice by a duly qualified man," or they might
be written, in which case the material upon which they were
written might be of importance.^ In speaking of mortuary
magic we have already noted the employment of pictures,
models, mannikins, and other images, figures, and objects.
Wax figures were also used in sorcery,^ and amulets are
found from the first, although their particular forms seem
to have altered with dififerent periods.^ Scarabs are of
course the most familiar example.
Egyptian medicine was full of magic and ritual and
its therapeusis consisted mainly of "collections of incan-
tations and weird random mixtures of roots and refuse." ®
Already we find the recipe and the occult virtue conceptions,
the elaborate polypharmacy and the accompanying hocus-
pocus which we shall meet in Pliny and the middle ages.
The Egyptian doctors used herbs from other countries and
preferred compound medicines containing a dozen ingredi-
ents to simple medicines."^ Already we find such magic
^Breasted (1912), pp. 290-1.
* Budge, pp. xi, 170-1.
* Budge, p. 4.
* Budge, pp. 67-70, yz, 77-
' Budge, pp. 27-28, 41, 60.
' From the abstract of a paper
on The History of Egyptian Medi-
cine, read by T. Wingate Todd at
the annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Historical Association, 1919.
See also B. Holmes and P. G.
Kitterman, Medicine in Ancient
Egypt', the Hieratic Material,
Cincinnati, 1914, 34 pp., reprinted
from The Lancet-Clinic.
' See H. L. Liiring, Die Uber die
medicinischcn Kenntnisse der al-
ien Algypter berichtenden Papyri
r INTRODUCTION ii
log-Jc as that the hair of a black calf will keep one from
growing gray.^ Already the parts of animals are a favorite
ingredient in medical compounds, especially those connected
with the organs of generation, on which account they were
presumably looked upon as life-giving, or those which were
recommended mainly by their nastiness and were probably
thought to expel the demons of disease by their disagreeable
properties.
In ancient Egypt, however, disease seems not to have Demons
been identified with possession by demons to the extent that disease,
it was in ancient Assyria and Babylonia. While Breasted
asserts that "disease was due to hostile spirits and against
these only magic could avail," ^ Budge contents himself with
the more cautious statement that there is "good reason for
thinking that some diseases were attributed to . . . evil
spirits . , . entering . . . human bodies . . . but the texts
do not afford much information" ^ on this point. Certainly
the beliefs in evil spirits and in magic do not always have
to go together, and magic might be employed against disease
whether or not it was ascribed to a demon.
In the case of medicine as in that of religion Breasted Magic
takes the view that the amount of magic became greater in science-
the Middle and New Kingdoms than in the Old Kingdom.
This is true so far as the amount of space occupied by it in
extant records is concerned. But it would be rash to assume
that this marks a decline from a more rational and scientific
attitude in the Old Kingdom. Yet Breasted rather gives
this impression when he writes concerning the Old Kingdom
that many of its recipes were useful and rational, that
"medicine was already in the possession of much empirical
wisdom, displaying close and accurate observation," and
that what "precluded any progress toward real science was
the belief in magic, which later began to dominate all the
verglichen mit den medic. Schrif- in Zeitschrift f. cegypt. Sprache,
ten griech. u. romischer Autoren, XII (1874), p. 106. M. A. Ruffer,
Leipzig, 1888. Also Joret, I Palaeopathology of Egypt, ig2i.
(1897) 310-11, and the article ^History of Egypt, p. loi.
there cited by G. Ebers, Ein Ky- ^ Ibid, p. 102.
phirecept aus dem Papyrus Ebers, " Budge, p. 206.
12
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic
and
industry.
Alchemy.
practice of the physician." ^ Berthelot probably places the
emphasis more correctly when he states that the later medical
papyri "include traditional recipes, founded on an em-
piricism which is not always correct, mystic remedies, based
upon the most bizarre analogies, and magic practices that
date back to the remotest antiquity." " The recent efforts
of Sethe and Wilcken, of Elliot Smith, Miiller, and Hooten
to show that the ancient Egyptians possessed a considerable
amount of medical knowledge and of surgical and dental
skill, have been held by Todd to rest on slight and dubious
evidence. Indeed, some of this evidence seems rather to
suggest the ritualistic practices still employed by uncivil-
ized African tribes. Certainly the evidence for any real
scientific development in ancient Egypt has been very
meager compared with the abundant indications of the preva-
lence of magic. ^
Early Egypt was the home of many arts and industries,
but not in so advanced a stage as has sometimes been sug-
gested. Blown glass, for example, was unknown until late
Greek and Roman times, and the supposed glass-blowers
depicted on the early monuments are really smiths engaged
in stirring their fires by blowing through reeds tipped with
clay.** On the other hand, Professor Breasted informs me
that there is no basis for Berthelot's statement that "every
sort of chemical process as well as medical treatment was
executed with an accompaniment of religious formulae, of
prayers and incantations, regarded as essential to the success
of operations as well as the cure of maladies." ^
Alchemy perhaps originated on the one hand from the
practices of Egyptian goldsmiths and workers in metals,
who experimented with alloys,^ and on the other hand from
*Petrie, "Egypt," in EB, p. 7Z-
* Berthelot (1885), p. 235. See
E. B. Havell, A Handbook of In-
dian Art, 1920, p. II, for a com-
bination of "exact science," ritual,
and "magic power" in the work
of the ancient Aryan craftsmen.
'Berthelot (1889), pp. vi-vii.
^History of Egypt, p. lOi.
' Archeologic et Hist aire des
Sciences, Paris, 1906, pp. 232-3.
* Professor Breasted, however,
feels that the contents of the new
Edwin Smith Papyrus will raise
our estimate of the worth of Egyp-
tian medicine and surgery : letter
to me of Jan. 20, 1922.
I INTRODUCTION 13
the theories of the Greek philosophers concerning world-
grounds, first matter, and the elements.^ The words,
alchemy and chemistry, are derived ultimately from the
name of Egypt itself, Kamt or Qemt, meaning literally black,
and applied to the Nile mud. The word was also applied
to the black powder produced by quicksilver in Egyptian
metallurgical processes. This powder. Budge says, was sup-
posed to be the ground of all metals and to possess mar-
velous virtue, "and was mystically identified with the body
which Osiris possessed in the underworld, and both were
thought to be sources of life and power." ^ The analogy to
the sacrament of the mass and the marvelous powers
ascribed to the host by medieval preachers like Stephen of
Bourbon scarcely needs remark. The later writers on
alchemy in Greek appear to have borrowed signs and phrase-
ology from the Egyptian priests, and are fond of speaking
of their art as the monopoly of Egyptian kings and priests
who carved its secrets on ancient steles and obelisks. In
a treatise dating from the twelfth dynasty a scribe recom-
mends to his son a work entitled Chemi, but there is no
proof that it was concerned with chemistry or alchemy.*
The papyri containing treatises of alchemy are of the third
century of the Christian era.
Evidences of divination in general and of astrology in Divina-
particular do not appear as early in Egyptian records as astrology,
examples of other varieties of magic. Yet the early date
at which Egypt had a calendar suggests astronomical inter-
est, and even those who deny that seven planets were dis-
tinguished in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley until the last
millennium before Christ, admit that they were known in
Egypt as far back as the Old Kingdom, although they deny
the existence of a science of astronomy or an art of astrology
then.^ A dream of Thotmes IV is preserved from 1450 B.C.
or thereabouts, and the incantations employed by magicians
'Berthelot (1885), pp. 247-78; E. ''Berthelot (1885), p. 10.
O.^v. Lippmann (1919), pp. 118-43. •• Lippmann C1919), pp. 181-2,
Budge, pp. 19-20. and the authorities there cited.
14 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
in order to procure divining dreams for their customers
attest the close connection of divination and magic.^ BeHef
in lucky and unlucky days is shown in a papyrus calendar of
about 1300 B.C.,^ and w^e shall see later that "Egyptian
Days" continued to be a favorite superstition of the middle
ages. Tables of the risings of stars which may have an astro-
logical significance have been found in graves, and there were
gods for every month, every day of the month, and every
hour of the day,^ Such numbers as seven and twelve are fre-
quently emphasized in the tombs and elsewhere, and if the
vaulted ceiling in the tenth chamber of the tomb of Sethos
is really of his time, we seem to find the signs of the zodiac
under the nineteenth dynasty. If Boll is correct in suggest-
ing that the zodiac originated in the transfer of animal gods
to the sky,* no fitter place than Egypt could be found for
the transfer. But there have not yet been discovered in
Egypt lists of omens and appearances of constellations on
days of disaster such as are found in the literature of the
Tigris-Euphrates valley and in the Roman historians. Budge
speaks of the seven Hathor goddesses who predict the death
that the infant must some time die, and affirms that "the
Egyptians believed that a man's fate . . . was decided be-
fore he was born, and that he had no power to alter it." ^
But I cannot agree that "we have good reason for assigning
the birthplace of the horoscope to Egypt," ® since the evidence
seems to be limited to the almost medieval Pseudo-Callis-
thenes and a Greek horoscope in the British Museum to which
is attached the letter of an astrologer urging his pupil to
study the ancient Egyptians carefully. The later Greek and
Latin tradition that astrology was the invention of the divine
men of Egypt and Babylon probably has a basis of fact, but
more contemporary evidence is needed if Egypt is to contest
the claim of Babylon to precedence in that art.
^ Budge, pp. 214-5. Annales du service des antiquites
* Budge, pp. 225-8; Wiedemann dc I'Egyptc, I (1900), 79-90.
(1905), p. g. *F. Boll in Neue Jahrb. (1908),
•Wiedemann (1905), pp. 7,8,11. p. 108.
See also G. Daressy, Une ancienne " Budge, pp. 222-3.
liste des decans egyptiens, in " Budge, p. 229.
INTRODUCTION
15
In the written remains of Babylonian and Assyrian
civilization ^ the magic cuneiform tablets play a large part
and give us the impression that fear of demons v^as a lead-
ing feature of Assyrian and Babylonian religion and that
daily thought and life were constantly affected by magic.
The bulk of the religious and magical texts are preserved in
the library of Assurbanipal, king of Assyria from 668 to
626 B.C. But he collected his library from the ancient
temple cities, the scribes tell us that they are copying very
ancient texts, and the Sumerian language is still largely
employed.^ Eridu, one of the main centers of early Su-
merian culture, "was an immemorial home of ancient wis-
dom, that is to say, magic." ^ It is, however, difficult in
the library of Assurbanipal to distinguish what is Baby-
lonian from what is Assyrian or what is Sumerian from
vvhat is .Semitic. Thus we are told that "with the exception
of some very ancient texts, the Sumerian literature, con-
sisting largely of religious material such as hymns and
incantations, shows a number of Semitic loanwords and
grammatical Semitisms, and in many cases, although not
always, is quite patently a translation of Semitic ideas by
Semitic priests into the formal religious Sumerian lan-
guage." 4
The chief point in dispute, over which great controversy
has taken place recently among German scholars, is as to
the antiquity of both astronomical knowledge and astrologi-
cal doctrine, including astral theology, among the dwellers
in the Tigris-Euphrates region. Briefly, such writers as
Winckler, Stiicken, and Jeremias held that the religion of
the early Babylonians was largely based on astrology and
that all their thought was permeated by it, and that they
had probably by an early date made astronomical observa-
tions and acquired astronomical knowledge which was lost
* Some works on the subject of ^Thompson, Semitic Magic, pp.
magic and religion, astronomy and xxxvi-xxxvii ; Fossey, pp. 17-20.
astrology in Babylonia and ^ Farnell, Greece and Babylon,
Assyria will be found in Appendix p. 102.
I at the close of this chapter. ■* Prince, "Sumer and Sumeri-
ans," in EB.
The
sources for
Assyrian
and Baby-
lonian
magic.
Was
astrology
Sumerian
or Chal-
dean?
i6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The num-
ber seven
in early
Babylonia.
in the decline of their culture. Opposing this view, such
scholars as Kugler, Bezold, Boll, and Schiaparelli have
shown the lack of certain evidence for either any consid-
erable astronomical knowledge or astrological theory in the
Tigris-Euphrates Valley until the late appearance of the
Chaldeans. It is even denied that the seven planets were
distinguished in the early period, much less the signs of the
zodiac or the planetary week,^ which last, together with any
real advance in astronomy, is reserved for the Hellenistic
period.
Yet the prominence of the number seven in myth, re-
ligion, and magic is indisputable in the third millennium
before our era. For instance, in the old Babylonian epic of
creation there are seven winds, seven spirits of storms, seven
evil diseases, seven divisions of the underworld closed by
seven doors, seven zones of the upper world and sky, and
so on. We are told, however, that the staged towers of
Babylonia, which are said to have symbolized for millen-
niums the sacred Hebdomad, did not always have seven
stages.^ But the number seven was undoubtedly of frequent
occurrence, of a sacred and mystic character, and virtue and
perfection were ascribed to it. And no one has succeeded
in giving any satisfactory explanation for this other than
the rule of the seven planets over our world. This also
applies to the sanctity of the number seven in the Old Testa-
ment ^ and the emphasis upon it in Hesiod, the Odyssey,
and other early Greek sources.^
anthrop. Gesellsch. in Wien, XXI
(1901), 225-74; see also Hehn,
Sieben::ahl und Sabbat bei den
^Webster, Rest Days, pp. 215-22,
with further bibliography. See
Orr (1913), 28-38, for an inter-
esting discussion in English of the
problem of the origin of solar and
lunar zodiac.
"Lippmann (1919), pp. 168-9.
* Although Schiaparelli, Astron-
omy in the Old Testament, 1905,
PP- V, 5, 49-51. 135, denies that
"the frequent use of the number
seven in the Old Testament is in
any way connected with the plan-
ets." I have not seen F. von
Andrian, Die Sicbenzahl im Geis-
tesleben der Volker, in Mittcil. d.
Babyloniern und im alien Testa-
ment, 1907. J. G. Frazer (1918),
I, 140, has an interesting passage
on the prominence of the number
seven "alike in the Jehovistic and
in the Babylonian narrative" of
the flood.
* Webster, Rest Days, pp. 211-2.
Professor Webster, who kindly
read this chapter in manuscript,
stated in a letter to me of 2 July
1921 that he remained convinced
that "the mystic properties as-
INTRODUCTION
17
However that may be, the tendency prevaiHng at present
is to regard astrology as a relatively late development intro-
duced by the Semitic Chaldeans. Lenormant held that
writing and magic were a Turanian or Sumerian (Acca-
dian) contribution to Babylonian civilization, but that
astronomy and astrology were Semitic innovations. Jas-
trow thinks that there was slight difference between the
religion of Assyria and that of Babylonia, and that astral
theology played a great part in both ; but he grants that the
older incantation texts are less influenced by this astral
theology. L. W. King says, "Magic and divination bulk
largely in the texts recovered, and in their case there is noth-
ing to suggest an underlying astrological element." ^
Whatever its date and origin, the magic literature may
be classified in three main groups. There are the astrological
texts in which the stars are looked upon as gods and pre-
dictions are made especially for the king,^ Then there are
the tablets connected with other methods of foretelling the
future, especially liver divination, although interpretation
of dreams, augury, and divination by mixing oil and water
were also practiced.^ Fossey has further noted the close
connection of operative magic with divination among the
Assyrians, and calls divination "the indispensable auxiliary
of magic." Many feats of magic imply a precedent knowl-
edge of the future or begin by consultation of a diviner,
or a favorable day and hour should be chosen for the magic
rite.*
Third, there are the collections of incantations, not how-
ever those employed by the sorcerers, which were pre-
cribed to the number seven" can
only in part be accounted for by
the seven planets ; "Our Ameri-
can Indians, for example, hold
seven in great respect, yet have
no knowledge of seven planets."
But it may be noted that the poet-
philosophers of ancient Peru com-
posed verses on the subject of as-
trology, according to Garcilasso
(cited by W. I. Thomas, Source
Book for Social Origins, 1909, p.
293)-
* L. W. King, History of Baby-
lon, 1915, p. 299.
^Fossey (1902), pp. 2-3.
' Farnell, Greece and Babylon,
pp. 301-2. On liver divination see
Frothingham, "Ancient Oriental-
ism Unveiled," American Journal
of Archaeology, XXI (1917) 55,
187, 313, 420.
* Fossey, p. 66.
Incanta-
tion texts
older than
the astro-
logical.
Other
divination
than
astrology.
i8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Incanta-
tions
against
sorcery
and
demons.
A speci-
men incan-
tation.
sumably illicit and hence not publicly preserved — in an
incantation which we shall soon quote sorcery is called evil
and is said to employ "impure things" — but rather defen-
sive measures against them and exorcisms of evil demons.^
But doubtless this counter magic reflects the original pro-
cedure to a great extent. Inasmuch as diseases generally
were regarded as due to demons, who had to be exorcized
by incantations, medicine was simply a branch of magic.
Evil spirits were also held responsible for disturbances
in nature, and frequent incantations were thought necessary
to keep them from upsetting the natural order entirely.^
The various incantations are arranged in series of tablets :
the Maklu or burning, Ti'i or headaches, Asakki marsuti or
fever, Labartu or hag-demon, and Nis kati or raising of the
hand. Besides these tablets there are numerous ceremonial
and medical texts which contain magical practice.^ Also
hymns of praise and religious epics which at first sight one
would not classify as mcantations seem to have had their
magical uses, and Farnell suggests that "a magic origin for
the practice of theological exegesis may be obscurely
traced." * Good spirits are represented as employing magic
and exorcisms against the demons.^ As a last resort when
good spirits as well as human magic had failed to check the
demons, the aid might be requisitioned of the god Ea, re-
garded as the repository of all science and who "alone was
possessed of the magic secrets by means of which they could
be conquered and repulsed." ^
The incantations themselves show that other factors than
the power of words entered into the magic, as may be illus-
trated by quoting one of them.
"Arise ye great gods, hear my complaint.
Grant me justice, take cognizance of my condition.
I have made an image of my sorcerer and sorceress;
^Fossey, p. i6. * Greece and Babylon, p. 296.
JLenormant, pp. 35. \f, }58. »Lenormant, pp. 146-7.
Thompson, Semitic Magic, pp. ' ^^ ^
xxxviii-xxxix. ^ Ibid, p. 158.
1 INTRODUCTION 19
I have humbled myself before you and bring to you my
cause,
Because of the evil they have done,
Of the impure things which they have handled.
May she die ! Let me live !
May her charm, her witchcraft, her sorcery be broken.
May the plucked sprig of the hinu tree purify me;
May it release me; may the evil odor of my mouth be
scattered to the winds.
May the mashfakal herb which fills the earth cleanse me.
Before you let me shine like the kankal herb,
Let me be brilliant and pure as the lardn herb.
The charm of the sorceress is evil;
May her words return to her mouth, her tongue be cut off.
Because of her witchcraft may the gods of night smite her,
The three watches of the night break her evil charm.
May her mouth be wax ; her tongue, honey.
May the word causing my misfortune that she has spoken
dissolve like wax.
May the charm she had wound up melt like honey.
So that her magic knot be cut in twain, her work de-
stroyed." ^
It is evident from this incantation that use was made Materials
of magic images and knots, and of the properties of trees and
devices
and herbs. Magic images were made of clay, wax, tallow, employed
and other substances and were employed in various ways. *" *^^
. magic.
Thus directions are given for making a tallow image of an
enemy of the king and binding its face with a cord in order
to deprive the person whom it represents of speech and will-
power.^ Images were also constructed in order that disease
demons might be magically transferred into them,^ and
sometimes the images are slain and buried.^ In the above
incantation the magic knot was employed only by the sor-
ceress, but Fossey states that knots were also used as
^Jastrow, Religion of Babylon 'Ibid., p. 161.
and Assyria, pp. 283-4.
* Zimmern, Beitrdge, p. 173. * Fossey, p. 399.
20 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
counter-charms against the demons.^ In the above incan-
tation the names of herbs were left untranslated and it is
not possible to say much concerning the pharmacy of the
Assyrians and Babylonians because of our lack of a lexicon
for their botanical and mineralogical terminology.^ How-
ever, from what scholars have been able to translate it
appears that common rather than rare and outlandish sub-
stances were the ones most employed. Wine and oil, salt
and dates, and onions and saliva are the sort of things used.
There is also evidence of the employment of a magic wand.^
Gems and animal substances were used as well as herbs ; all
sorts of philters were concocted ; and varied rites and cere-
monies were employed such as ablutions and fumigations.
In the account of the ark of the Babylonian Noah we are
told of the magic significance of its various parts; thus the
mast and cabin ceiling were made of cedar, a wood that
counteracts sorceries.*
One remarkable corollary of the so-called Italian Renais-
?nr!\of' sance or Humanistic movement at the close of the middle
mric'""" ^ges with its too exclusive glorification of ancient Greece
"'^^'''' and Rome has been the strange notion that the ancient
Hellenes were unusually free from magic compared with
other periods and peoples. It would have been too much to
claim any such immunity for the primitive Romans, whose
entire religion was originally little else than magic and whose
daily life, public and private, was hedged in by superstitious
observances and fears. But they, too, were supposed to
have risen later under the influence of Hellenic culture to
a more enlightened stage,^ only to relapse again into magic
in the declining empire and middle ages under oriental
influence. Incidentally let me add that this notion that m
the past orientals were more superstitious and fond of
^Fossey, p. 83. , form.
'Ibid., pp. 89-91. F. Kuchler, ^Lenormant, p. 190-
Beitrdge sur Kenntnis dcr Assyr.- * Jbid n 159
Babyl. Median; Texte mit Urn- '',.,, a ;. f^nt^ th^f thev
schrift, Uebersetzung und Kom- ' So enlightened in fact that they
menU Leipzig, 1904. treats of spoke with some scorn of th
twenty facsimile pages of cunei- "levity" and lies of the UrecKS.
INTRODUCTION
21
marvels than westerners in the same stage of civilization
and that the orient must needs be the source of every super-
stitious cult and romantic tale is a glib assumption which I
do not intend to make and which our subsequent investiga-
tion will scarcely substantiate. But to return to the sup-
posed immunity of the Hellenes from magic; so far has this
hypothesis been carried that textual critics have repeatedly
rejected passages as later interpolations or even called entire
treatises spurious for no other reason than that they seemed
to them too superstitious for a reputable classical author.
Even so specialized and recent a student of ancient astrol-
ogy, superstition, and religion as Cumont still clings to this
dubious generalization and affirms that "the limpid Hellenic
genius always turned away from the misty speculations of
magic." ^ But, as I suggested some sixteen years since,
"the fantasticalness of medieval science was due to 'the
clear light of Hellas' as well as to the gloom of the 'dark
ages, ^
It is not difficult to call to mind evidence of the presence
of magic in Hellenic religion, literature, and history. One
has only to think of the many marvelous metamorphoses in and
Greek mythology and of its countless other absurdities; of "*^*°^y'
the witches, Circe and Medea, and the necromancy of
Odysseus ; or the priest-magician of Apollo in the Iliad who
could stop the plague, if he wished ; of the lucky and unlucky
days and other agricultural magic in Hesiod.^ Then there
were the Spartans, whose so-called constitution and method
of education, much admired by the Greek philosophers, were
largely a retention of the life of the primitive tribe with its
ritual and taboos. Or we remember Herodotus and his
childish delight in ambiguous oracles or his tale of seceders
from Gela brought back by Telines single-handed because
he "was possessed of certain mysterious visible symbols of
the powers beneath the earth which were deemed to be of
^ Oriental Religions in Roman ^ E. E. Sikes, Folk-lore in the
Paganism, Chicago, 191 1, p. 189. Works and Days of Hesiod. in
The Classical Review. VII (1893).
^Thorndike (1905), p. 63. 390.
Magic
in mytli,
literature.
22
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Simul-
taneous in-
crease of
learning
and occult
science.
Magic ori-
gin urged
for Greek
religion
and drama.
wonder-working power." ^ We recall Xenophon's punc-
tilious records of sacrifices, divinations, sneezes, and dreams;
Nicias, as afraid of eclipses as if he had been a Spartan; and
the matter-of-fact mentions of charms, philters, and incan-
tations in even such enlightened writers as Euripides and
Plato. Among the titles of ancient Greek comedies
magic is represented by the Goetes of Aristophanes, the
Mandragorizomene of Alexis, the Pharmacomantis of An-
axandrides, the Circe of Anaxilas, and the Thettcde of
Menander.^ When we candidly estimate the significance of
such evidence as this, we realize that the Hellenes were not
much less inclined to magic than other peoples and periods,
and that we need not wait for Theocritus and the Greek
romances or for the magical papyri for proof of the
existence of magic in ancient Greek civilization.^
If astrology and some other occult sciences do not
appear in a developed form until the Hellenistic period, it
is not because the earlier period was more enlightened, but
because it was less learned. And the magic which Osthanes
is said to have introduced to the Greek world about the
time of the Persian wars was not so much an innovation
as an improvement upon their coarse and ancient rites of
Goetia.'^
This magic element which existed from the start in
Greek culture is now being traced out by students of anthro-
pology and early religion as well as of the classics. Miss
Jane E. Harrison, in Themis, a study of the social origins
of Greek religion, suggests a magical explanation for many
a myth and festival, and even for the Olympic games and
Greek drama.^ The last point has been developed in more
^ Freeman, History of Sicily, I,
IOI-3, citing Herodotus VII, 153.
' Butler and Owen, Apulei
Apologia, note on 30, 30.
* For details concerning opera-
tive or vulgar magic among
the ancient Greeks see Hubert,
Magia, in Daremberg-Saglio ; Abt,
Die Apologie dcs Apulcius von
Madaura und die antike Zau-
berei, Giessen, 1908; and F.
B. Jevons, "Grseco-Italian Magic,"
p. 93-, in Anthropology and the
Classics, ed. R. Marett; and the
article "Magic" in ERE.
* I think that this sentence is an
approximate quotation from some
ancient author, possibly Diogenes
Laertius, but I have not been able
to find it.
"J. E. Harrison, Themis, Cam-
bridge, 1912. The chapter head-
I INTRODUCTION 23
detail by F, M. Comford's Origin of Attic Comedy, where
much magic is detected masquerading in the comedies of
Aristophanes.^ And Mr. A. B. Cook sees the magician in
Zeus, who transforms himself to pursue his amours, and
contends that "the real prototype of the heavenly weather-
king was the earthly" magician or rain-maker, that the
pre-Homeric "fixed epithets" of Zeus retained in the
Homeric poems "are simply redolent of the magician," and
that the cult of Zeus Lykaios was connected with the belief
in werwolves.^ In still more recent publications Dr. Rendel
Harris ^ has connected Greek gods in their origins with the
woodpecker and mistletoe, associated the cult of Apollo
with the medicinal virtues of mice and snakes, and in other
ways emphasized the importance in early Greek religion and
culture of the magic properties of animals and herbs.
These writers have probably pressed their point too far,
but at least their work serves as a reaction against the old
attitude of intellectual idolatry of the classics. Their views
may be offset by those of Mr, Famell, who states that
"while the knowledge of early Babylonian magic is begin-
ning to be considerable, we cannot say that we know
anything definite concerning the practices in this department
of the Hellenic and adjacent peoples in the early period
with which we are dealing." And again, "But while Baby-
lonian magic proclaims itself loudly in the great religious
literature and highest temple ritual, Greek magic is barely
mentioned in the older literature of Greece, plays no part
at all in the hymns, and can only with difficulty be dis-
covered as latent in the higher ritual. Again, Babylonian
ings briefly suggest the argument: on Ritual Forms preserved in
"i. Hymn of the Kouretes ; 2. Greek tragedy; 9. Daimon to
Dithyramb, Aqco|xevov, and Drama ; Olympian; 10. The Olympians;
3. Kouretes, Thunder-Rites and 11. Themis."
Mana ; 4. a. Magic and Tabu, b. ^ F. M. Cornf ord, Origin of
Medicine-bird and Medicine-king; Attic Comedy, 1914, see especially
S. Totemism, Sacrament, and Sac- pp. 10, 13, 55, 157, 202, 22,2-
rifice ; 6. Dithyramb, Spring Fes- ^ A. B. Cook, Zeus, Cambridge,
tival, and Hagia Triada Sarcoph- 1914, pp. 134-5, 12-14, 66-76.
agus ; 7. Origin of the Olympic ^ Rendel Harris, Picus who is
Games (about a year-daimon) ; 8. also Zeus, 1916; The Ascent of
Daimon and Hero, with Excursus Olympus, 1917.
24 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
magic is essentially demoniac ; but we have no evidence that
the pre-Homeric Greek was demon-ridden, or that demon-
ology and exorcism were leading factors in his consciousness
and practice." Even Mr. Farnell admits, however, that
"the earliest Hellene, as the later, was fully sensitive to the
magico-divine efficacy of names." ^ Now to believe in the
power of names before one believes in the existence of
demons is the best possible evidence of the antiquity of
magic in a society, since it indicates that the speaker has
confidence in the operative power of his own words without
any spiritual or divine assistance.
Magic in Moreover, in one sense the advocates of Greek magic
Greek phi- \^2JVQ. not gone far enough. They hold that magic lies back
of the comedies of Aristophanes; what they might contend
is that it was also contemporary with them.^ They hold
that classical Greek religion had its origins in magic ; what
they might argue is that Greek philosophy never freed
itself from magic. "That Empedocles believed himself
capable of magical powers is," says Zeller, "proved by his
own writings." He himself "declares that he possesses the
power to heal old age and sickness, to raise and calm the
winds, to summon rain and drought, and to recall the
dead to life." ^ H the pre-Homeric fixed epithets of
Zeus are redolent of magic, Plato's Timaeus is equally redo-
lent of occult science and astrology; and if we see the
weather-making magician in the Olympian Zeus of Phidias,
we cannot explain away the vagaries of the Timaeus as
flights of poetic imagination or try to make out Aristotle
a modern scientist by mutilating the text of the History of
Animals.
' Farnell, Greece and Babylon, Ancients, in Folk-lore, 1890, and
pp. 292, lyS-g. E. H. Klatsche, The Supernatural
' See Ernest Riess, Superstitions in the Tragedies of Euripides, in
and Popular Beliefs in Greek University of Nebraska Studies,
Tragedy, in Transactions of the 1919.
American Philological Associa- ' See Zeller, Pre-Socratic Phi-
tion, vol. 27 (1896), pp. 5-34; and losophy, II (1881), 119-20, for fur-
On Ancient superstition, ibid. 26 ther boasts by Empedocles himself
(1895), 40-55. Also J. G. Frazer, and other marvels attributed to
Some Popular Superstitions of the him by later authors.
I INTRODUCTION 25
Toward magic so-called Plato's attitude in his Laws is Plato's
cautious. He maintains that medical men and prophets and ^ttitude
diviners can alone understand the nature of poisons (or magic and
spells) which work naturally, and of such things as incan- ^^^^^ °^^*
tations, magic knots, and wax images; and that since other
men have no certain knowledge of such matters, they ought
not to fear but to despise them. He admits nevertheless
that there is no use in trying to convince most men of this
and that it is necessary to legislate against sorcery.^ Yet
his own view of nature seems impregnated, if not actually
with doctrines borrowed from the Magi of the east, at least
with notions cognate to those of magic rather than of
modern science and with doctrines favorable to astrology.
He humanized material objects and confused material and
spiritual characteristics. He also, like authors of whom
we shall treat later, attempted to give a natural or rational
explanation for magic, accounting, for example, for liver
divination on the ground that the liver was a sort of mirror
on which the thoughts of the mind fell and in which the
images of the soul were reflected ; but that they ceased after
death.^ He spoke of harmonious love between the elements
as the source of health and plenty for vegetation, beasts,
and men, and their "wanton love" as the cause of pestilence
and disease. To understand both varieties of love "in rela-
tion to the revolutions of the heavenly bodies and the
seasons of the year is termed astronomy," ^ or, as we should
say, astrology, whose fundamental law is the control of
inferior creation by the motion of the stars. Plato spoke
of the stars as "divine and eternal animals, ever abiding," *
an expression which we shall hear reiterated in the middle
ages. "The lower gods," whom he largely identified with
the heavenly bodies, form men, who, if they live good lives,
return after death each to a happy existence in his proper
star.^ Such a doctrine is not identical with that of nativities
^Laws, XI, 933 (Steph.). * Timaeus, p. 40 (Steph.) ; Jow-
'Timacus, p. 71 (Steph.). ett, III, 459.
'Symposium, p. 188 (Steph.) ;
in Jowett's translation, I, 558. ^ Ibid., pp. 41-42 (Steph.).
26
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Aristotle
on stars
and spirits.
Folk-lore
in the
History of
Animals.
and the horoscope, but hke it exalts the importance of the
stars and suggests their control of human life. And when
at the close of his Republic Plato speaks of the harmony or
music of the spheres of the seven planets and the eighth
sphere of the fixed stars, and of "the spindle of Necessity
on which all the revolutions turn," he suggests that when
once the human soul has entered upon this life, its destiny
is henceforth subject to the courses of the stars. When in
the Timaeiis he says, "There is no difficulty in seeing that
the perfect number of time fulfills the perfect year when all
the eight revolutions . . . are accomplished together and
attain their completion at the same time," ^ he seems to
suggest the astrological doctrine of the magnns annus, that
history begins to repeat itself in every detail when the
heavenly bodies have all regained their original positions.
For Aristotle, too, the stars were "beings of superhuman
intelligence, incorporate deities. They appeared to him as
the purer forms, those more like the deity, and from them
a purposive rational influence upon the lower life of the
earth seemed to proceed, — a thought which became the root
of medieval astrology." ^ Moreover, "his theory of the
subordinate gods of the spheres of the planets . . . pro-
vided for a later demonology." ^
Aside from bits of physiognomy and of Pythagorean
superstition, or mysticism, Aristotle's History of Animals
contains much on the influence of the stars on animal life,
the medicines employed by animals, and their friendships
and enmities, and other folklore and pseudo-science.* But
^ Timaeus, p. 39 (Steph.) ;
Jowett, III, 458.
'W. Windelband, History of
Philosophy, English translation by
J. H. Tufts, 1898, p. 147.
'Windelband, History of An-
cient Philosophy, English transla-
tion by H. E. Cushman, 1899.
■Tor a number of examples,
which might be considerably mul-
tiplied if books VII-X are not
rejected as spurious, see Thorn-
dike (1905), pp. 62-3. T. E.
Lones, Aristotle's Researches in
Natural Science, London, 1912,
274 pp., discusses "Aristotle's
method of investigating the natu-
ral sciences," and a large number
of Aristotle's specific statements
showing whether they were cor-
rect or incorrect. The best trans-
lation of the History of Animals
is by D'Arcy W. Thompson, Ox-
ford 1910, with valuable notes.
1 INTRODUCTION 27
the oldest extant manuscript of that work dates only from
the twelfth or thirteenth century and lacks the tenth book.
Editors of the text have also rejected books seven and nine,
the latter part of book eight, and have questioned various
other passages. However, these expurgations save the face
of Aristotle rather than of Hellenic science or philosophy
generally, as the spurious seventh book is held to be drawn
largely from Hippocratic writings and the ninth from
Theophrastus.^
There is another point to be kept in mind in any com- Differing
parison of Egypt and Babylon or Assyria with Greece in "lodes
the matter of magic. Our evidence proving the great part mission of
played by magic in the ancient oriental civilizations comes oriemal
directly from them to us without intervening tampering or and Greek
• -1 r 1 1 • 1 T^ literature.
alteration except m the case of the early periods. But
classical literature and philosophy come to us as edited by
Alexandrian librarians ^ and philologers, as censored and
selected by Christian and Byzantine readers, as copied or
translated by medieval monks and Italian humanists. And
the question is not merely, what have they added ? but also,
what have they altered? what have they rejected? Instead
of questioning superstitious passages in extant works on
the ground that they are later interpolations, it would very
likely be more to the point to insert a goodly number on
the ground that they have been omitted as pagan or idola-
trous superstitions.
Suppose we turn to those writings which have been j^Qj-e
unearthed just as they were in ancient Greek; to the papyri, i^agical
the lead tablets, the so-called Gnostic gems. How does the of directly
proportion of magic in these compare with that in the Qreek"'^^^^
indirectly transmitted literary remains? If it is objected remains.
that the magic papyri ^ are mainly of late date and that
* See the edition of the History the Hbrary of Assurbanipal.
of Animals by Dittmeyer (1907), 'A list of magic papyri and of
p. vii, where various monographs publications up to about 1900 deal-
will be found mentioned. ing with the same is given in
^ Perhaps pure literature was Hubert's article on Magia in
over-emphasized in the Museum Daremberg-Saglio, pp. 1503-4. See
at Alexandria, and magic texts in also Sir Herbert Thompson and
28 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
they are found in Egypt, it may be replied that they are
as old as or older than any other manuscripts we have of
classical literature and that its chief store-house, too, was
in Egypt at Alexandria, As for the magical curses written
on lead tablets,^ they date from the fourth centur}' before
our era to the sixth after, and fourteen come from Athens
and sixteen from Cnidus as against one from Alexandria
and eleven from Carthage. And although some display
extreme illiteracy, others are written by persons of rank
and education. And what a wealth of astrological manu-
scripts in the Greek language has been unearthed in Euro-
pean libraries by the editors of the Catalogus Codicum
Graecoriini Astrologorum! ^ And occasionally archaeolo-
gists report the discovery of magical apparatus ^ or of repre-
sentations of magic in works of art.
Progress In thus contending that Hellenic culture was not free
among"he from magic and that even the philosophy and science of the
Greeks. ancient Greeks show traces of superstition, I would not, how-
ever, obscure the fact that of extant literary remains the
Greek are the first to present us with any very considerable
body either of systematic rational speculation or of classified
collection of observed facts concerning nature. Despite the
rapid progress in recent years in knowledge of prehistoric
man and Egyptian and Babylonian civilization, the Hellenic
F. L. Griffith, The Magical De- lent, Defixionum tabulae, etc.,
motic Papyrus of London and Paris, 1904, 568 pp. R. Wiinsch,
Leiden, 3 vols., 1909-1921; Cata- Defixionum Tabcllae Atficae, iSgy,
logue of Demotic Papyri in the and Scthianische I'crfiuchungsta-
Jolin Rylands Library, Manch^s- feln aus Rom (390-420 A.D.),
ter, zvitii facsimiles and complete Leipzig, 1898.
translations, 1909, 3 vols. Grenfell ,„• or. • 1
(1921), p. 159, says, "A corpus of Since 1898 various volumes
the magical papyri was projected ^"^ ^^l^.^ have appeared under the
in Germany by K. Preisendanz ^ditorship of Cuinont Kroll Boll,
before the war, and a Czech Ohvieri. Bassi and others Much
scholar, Dr. Hopfner, is engaged ^^ ^he material noted is of course
upon the difficult task of eluci- POst-classical and Byzantine, and
dating them " °^ Christian authorship or Ara-
' W. C. Battle, Magical Curses ^'^ °"Sin.
Written on Lead Tablets, in ' For example, see R. Wiinsch,
Transactions of the American Antikcs Zaubergcrdt aus Per-
Philological Association, XXVI gamou, in Jahrb. d. kaiserl.
(1895), pp. liv-lviii, a synopsis of deutsch. archccol. Instit., suppl. VI
a Harvard dissertation. Audol- (1905), p. 19.
I INTRODUCTION 29
title to the primacy in philosophy and science has hardly
been called in question, and no earlier works have been
discovered that can compare in medicine with those ascribed
to Hippocrates, in biology with those of Aristotle and
Theophrastus, or in mathematics and physics with those of
Euclid and Archimedes. Undoubtedly such men and writ-
ings had their predecessors, probably they owed something
to ancient oriental civilization, but, taking them as we have
them, they seem to be marked by great original power.
Whatever may lie concealed beneath the surface of the past,
or whatever signs or hints of scientific investigation and
knowledge we may think we can detect and read between
the lines, as it were, in other phases of older civilizations,
in these works solid beginnings of experimental and mathe-
matical science stand unmistakably forth.
"An extraordinarily large proportion of the subject Archime-
matter of the writings of Archimedes," says Heath, "repre- Aristotle
sents entirely new discoveries of his own. Though his
range of subjects was almost encyclopaedic, embracing
geometry (plane and solid), arithmetic, mechanics, hydro-
statics and astronomy, he was no compiler, no writer of
text-books. . . . His objective is always some new thing,
some definite addition to the sum of knowledge, and his com-
plete originality cannot fail to strike anyone who reads his
works intelligently, without any corroborative evidence such
as is found in the introductory letters prefixed to most of
them. ... In some of his subjects Archimedes had no fore-
runners, e. g., in hydrostatics, where he invented the whole
science, and (so far as mathematical demonstration was
concerned) in his mechanical investigations." ^ Aristotle's
History of Animals is still highly esteemed by historians of
biology ^ and often evidences "a large amount of personal
^T. L. Heath, The Works of Aristotle's Researches in Natural
Archimedes, Cambridge, 1897, pp. Science, London, 1912. Professor
xxxix-xl. W. A. Locy, author of Biology
^ On "Aristotle as a Biologist" and Its Makers, writes me (May-
see the Herbert Spencer lecture by 9, 1921) that in his opinion G. H.
D'Arcy W. Thompson, Oxford, Lewes, Aristotle; a Chapter from
1913. 31 pp. Also T. E. Lones, the History of Science, London,
30
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Exagger-
ated view
of the
scientific
achieve-
ment of
the Hellen-
istic age.
observations," ^ "great accuracy," and "minute inquiry," as
in his account of the vascular system ^ or observations on
the embryology of the chick.^ "Most wonderful of all,
perhaps, are those portions of his book in which he speaks of
fishes, their diversities, their structure, their wanderings, and
their food. Here we may read of fishes that have only
recently been rediscovered, of structures only lately reinves-
tigated, of habits only of late made known." ^ But of the
achievements of Hellenic philosophy and Hellenistic science
the reader may be safely assumed already to have some
notion.
But in closing this brief preliminary sketch of the period
before our investigation proper begins, I would take excep-
tion to the tendency, prevalent especially among German
scholars, to center in and confine to Aristotle and the
Hellenistic age almost all progress in natural science made
before modern times. The contributions of the Egyptians
and Babylonians are reduced to a minimum on the one hand,
while on the other the scientific writings of the Roman
1864, "dwells too much on Aris-
totle's errors and imperfections,
and in several instances omits the
quotation of important positive
observations, occurring in the
chapters from which he makes his
quotations of errors." Professor
Locy also disagrees with Lewes'
estimate of De generatione as
Aristotle's masterpiece and thinks
that "naturalists will get more
satisfaction out of reading the
Historia animalium" than either
the De generatione or De partihus.
Thompson (1913), p. 14, calls
Aristotle "a very great naturalist."
^ This quotation is from Pro-
fessor Locy's letter of May 9,
192 1.
^ The quotations are from a note
by Professor D'Arcy W. Thomp-
son on his translation of the
Historia animalium, III, 3. The
note gives so good a glimpse of
both the merits and defects of the
Aristotelian text as it has reached
us that I will quote it here more
fully:
"The Aristotelian account of the
vascular system is remarkable for
its wealth of details, for its great
accuracy in many particulars, and
for its extreme obscurity in others.
It is so far true to nature that it
is clear evidence of minute in-
quiry, but here and there so
remote from fact as to suggest
that things once seen have been
half forgotten, or that supersti-
tion was in conflict with the result
of observation. The account of
the vessels connecting the left arm
with the liver and the right with
the spleen ... is a surviving ex-
ample of mystical or superstitious
belief. It is possible that the
ascription of three chambers to
the heart was also influenced by
tradition or mysticism, much in
the same way as Plato's notion of
the three corporeal faculties."
* Professor Locy called my at-
tention to it in a letter of May 17,
1921. See also Thompson (1913),
p. 14.
* Thompson (1913), p. 19.
I INTRODUCTION 31
Empire, which are extant in far greater abundance than
those of the Hellenistic period, are regarded as inferior imita-
tions of great authors whose works are not extant; Posi-
donius, for example, to whom it has been the fashion of the
writers of German dissertations to attribute this, that, and
every theory in later writers. But it is contrary to the law
of gradual and painful acquisition of scientific knowledge
and improvement of scientific method that one period of a
few centuries should thus have discovered everything. We
have disputed the similar notion of a golden age of early
Egyptian science from which the Middle and New King-
doms declined, and have not held that either the Egyptians
or Babylonians had made great advances in science before
the Greeks. But that is not saying that they had not made
some advance. As Professor Karpinski has recently written:
"To deny to Babylon, to Egypt, and to India, their part
in the development of science and scientific thinking is to
defy the testimony of the ancients, supported by the dis-
coveries of the modern authorities. The efforts which have
been made to ascribe to Greek influence the science of Egypt,
of later Babylon, of India, and that of the Arabs do not
add to the glory that was Greece. How could the Baby-
lonians of the golden age of Greece or the Hindus, a little
later, have taken over the developments of Greek astron-
omy? This would only have been possible if they had
arrived at a state of development in astronomy which would
have enabled them properly to estimate and appreciate the
work which was to be absorbed. . . . The admission that
the Greek astronomy immediately affected the astronomical
theories of India carries with it the implication that this
science had attained somewhat the same level in India as in
Greece. Without serious questioning we may assume that
a fundamental part of the science of Babylon and Egypt
and India, developed during the times which we think of as
Greek, was indigenous science." ^
*L. C. Karpinski, "Hindu Science," in The American Mathematical
Monthly, XXVI (1919), 298-300.
32 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, i
Nor am I ready to admit that the great scientists of the
early Roman Empire merely copied from, or were distinctly
inferior to, their Hellenistic predecessors. Aristarchus may
have held the heliocentric theory ^ but Ptolemy must have
been an abler scientist and have supported his incorrect
hypothesis with more accurate measurements and calcula-
tions or the ancients would have adopted the sounder view.
And if Herophilus had really demonstrated the circulation
of the blood, so keen an intelligence as Galen's would not
have cast his discovery aside. And if Ptolemy copied
Hipparchus, are we to imagine that Hipparchus copied from
no one? But of the incessant tradition from authority to
authority and yet of the gradual accumulation of new matter
from personal observation and experience our ensuing sur-
vey of thirteen centuries of thought and writing will afford
more detailed illustration.
* Sir Thomas Heath, Aristar- the fixed stars remain unmoved
chus of Samos, the Ancient and that the earth revolves round
Copernicus: a history of Greek the sun in the circumference of a
astronomy to Aristarchus to- circle." Such evidence seems
gether with Aristarchus's treatise, scarcely to warrant applying the
"On the Sizes and Distances of title of "The Ancient Copernicus"
the Sun and Moon," a new Greek to Aristarchus. And Heath
text with translation and notes, thinks that Schiaparelli (/ precur-
Oxford, 1913, admits that "our sori di Copernico nell' antichita,
treatise does not contain any sug- and other papers) went too far
gestion of any but the geocentric in ascribing the Copernican hy-
view of the universe, whereas pothesis to Heraclides of Pontus.
Archimedes tells us that Aristar- On Aristotle's answer to Pythag-
chus wrote a book of hypotheses, oreans who denied the geocentric
one of which was that the sun and theory see Orr (1913), pp. 100-2.
APPENDIX I
SOME WORKS ON MAGIC, RELIGION, AND ASTRONOMY IN
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
The following books deal expressly with the magic of
Assyria and Babylonia :
Fossey, C. La magie assyrienne; etude suivie de textes magiques,
Paris, 1902.
King, L. W. Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, being "The Prayers
of the Lifting of the Hand," London, 1896.
Laurent, A. La magie et la divination chez les Chaldeo-Assyr-
iens, Paris, 1894.
Lenormant, F, Chaldean Magic and Sorcery, English transla-
tion, London, 1878.
Schwab, M., in Proc. Bibl. Archaeology (1890), pp. 292-342, on
magic bowls from Assyria and Babylonia.
Tallquist, K. L. Die Assyrische Beschworungsserie Maqlu, Leip-
zig, 1895-
Thompson, R. C. The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers
of Nineveh and Babylon in the British Museum, London, 1900.
Texts and translations — all but three are astrological.
The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1904.
Semitic Magic, London, 1908.
Weber, O. Damonenbeschworung bei den Babyloniern und As-
sy rern, 1906. Eine Skizze (37 pp.), in Der Alte Orient.
Zimmern. Die Beschwdrungstafeln Surpu.
Much concerning magic will also be found in works on
Babylonian and Assyrian religion.
Craig, J. A. Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts, Leipzig,
1895-7.
Curtiss, S. L Primitive Semitic Religion Today, 1902.
Dhorme, P. Choix des textes religieux Assyriens Babyloniens,
1907.
La religion Assyro-Babylonienne, Paris, 1910.
Gray, C. D. The Samas Religious Texts.
33
34 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
Jastrow, Morris, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston,
1898. Revised and enlarged as Religion Babyloniens und As-
syriens, Giessen, 1904.
Jeremias. Babylon. Assyr. Vorstellungen von dem Leben nach
Tode, Leipzig, 1887.
Holle und Paradies, and other w^orks.
Knudtzon, J. A. Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott, Leipzig,
1893.
Lagrange, M. J. £tudes sur les religions semitiques, Paris, 1905.
Langdon, S, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, Paris, 1909.
Reisner, G. A. Sumerisch-Babylonische Hymnen, Berlin, 1896.
Robertson Smith, W. Lectures on the Religion of the Semites,
London, 1907.
Roscher, Lexicon, for various articles.
Zimmern. Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete in Auswahl, 32 pp.,
1905 (Der Alte Orient).
Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Babyl. Religion, Leipzig, 1901.
On the astronomy and astrology of the Babylonians one
may consult:
Bezold, C. Astronomic, Himmelschau und Astrallehre bei den
Babyloniern. (Sitzb. Akad. Heidelberg, 191 1, Abh. 2).
Boissier. A. Documents assyriens relatifs aux presages, Paris,
I 894- I 897.
Choix de textes relatifs a la divination assyro-babylonienne,
Geneva, 1905-1906.
Craig, J. A. Astrological-Astronomical Texts, Leipzig, 1892.
Cumont, F. Babylon und die griechische Astrologie. (Neue
Jahrb. fiir das klass. Altertum, XXVH, 1911).
Epping, J., and Strassmeier, J. N. Astronomisches aus Babylon,
1889.
Ginzel, F. K. Die astronomischen Kentnisse der Babylonier, 1901.
Hehn, J. Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im
Alten Testament, 1907.
Jensen, P. Kosmologie der Babylonier, 1890,
Jeremias. Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomic, 1908.
Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur, 1913.
Kugler, F. X. Die Babylonische Mondrechnung, 1900.
Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, Freiburg, 1907-1913. To
be completed in four vols.
Im Bannkreis Babels, 1910.
Oppert, J. Die astronomischen Angaben der assyrischen Keilin-
APPENDIX I 35
schriften, in Sitzb. d. Wien. Akad. Math.-Nat. Classe, 1885, pp.
894-906.
Un texte Babylonien astronomique et sa traduction grecque par
CI. Ptolemee, in Zeitsch. f. Assyriol. VI (1891), pp. 103-23.
Sayce, A. H. The astronomy and astrology of the Babylonians,
with translations of the tablets relating to the subject, in Trans-
actions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, III (1874), 145-
339; the first and until recently the best guide to the subject.
Schiaparelli, G. V. I Primordi ed i Progress! dell' Astronomia
presso i Babilonesi, Bologna, 1908.
Astronomy in the Old Testament, 1905.
Stiicken, Astralmythen, 1896-1907.
Virolleaud, Ch. L'Astrologie chaldeenne, Paris, 1905- ; to be
completed in eight parts, texts and translations.
Winckler, Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier als Grundlage
der Weltanschauung und Mythologie aller Volker, in Der alte
Orient, III, 2-3.
BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Foreword.
Chapter 2. Pliny's Natural History.
I. Its place in the history of science.
II. Its experimental tendency.
III. Pliny's account of magic.
IV. The science of the Magi.
V. Pliny's magical science.
" 3. Seneca and Ptolemy : Natural Divination and
Astrology.
" 4. Galen.
I. The man and his times.
II. His medicine and experimental science.
III. His attitude toward magic.
" 5. Ancient Applied Science and Magic.
" 6. Plutarch's Essays.
" 7. Apuleius of Madaura.
" 8. Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana.
" 9. Literary and Philosophical Attacks upon
Superstition.
" 10. The Spurious Mystic Writings of Hermes,
Orpheus, and Zoroaster.
" II. Neo-Platonism and its Relations to Astrology
and Theurgy.
** 12. Aelian, Solinus, and Horapollo.
37
BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
FOREWORD
A TRIO of great names, Pliny, Galen, and Ptolemy, stand out A trio of
above all others in the history of science under the Roman names.
Empire. In the use or criticism which they make of earlier
writers and investigators they are also our chief sources for
the science of the preceding Hellenistic period. By their
voluminousness, their generous scope in ground covered, and
their broad, liberal, personal outlooks, they have painted, in
colors for the most part imperishable, extensive canvasses
of the scientific spirit and acquisitions of their own time.
Pliny pursued politics and literature as well as natural sci-
ence; Ptolemy was at once mathematician, astronomer,
physicist, and geographer; Galen knew philosophy as well
as medicine. The two latter men, moreover, made original
contributions of their own of the very first order to scientific
knowledge and method. It is characteristic of the homo-
geneous and widespread culture of the Roman Empire that
these three representatives of different, although overlap-
ping, fields of science were natives of the three continents
that enclose the Mediterranean Sea. Pliny was bom at Como
where Italy verges on transalpine lands ; Ptolemy, born some-
where in Egypt, did his work at Alexandria; Galen came
from Pergamum in Asia Minor. Finally, these men were,
after Aristotle, the three ancient scientists who directly or
indirectly most powerfully influenced the middle ages. Thus
they illuminate past, present, and future.
We shall therefore open the present section of our in- plan of
vestigation by considering in turn chronologically, Pliny,
Ptolemy, and Galen, coupling, however, with our considera-
tion of Ptolemy the work of Seneca on Natural Questions
39
this
section.
40 FOREWORD
which shows the same combination of natural science and
natural divination. Next we shall consider some representa-
tives of ancient applied science and its relations to magic, and
the more miscellaneous writings of Plutarch, Apuleius, and
Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana. From the hos-
pitable attitude toward magic and occult science displayed by
these last writers we sha'' then turn back again to consider
some examples of literary and philosophical attacks upon
superstition, before proceeding lastly to spurious mystic
writings of the Roman Empire, Neo-Platonism and its re-
lations to astrology and theurgy, and the works of Aelian,
Solinus, and Horapollo.
CHAPTER II
pliny's natural history
I, Its Place in the History of Science
Its importance in our investigation — As a collection of miscellaneous
information — As a repository of ancient natural science — As a source
for magic — Pliny's career — His writings — His own description of the
Natural History — His devotion to science — Conflict of science and
religion — Pliny not a trained naturalist — His use of authorities — His
lack of arrangement and classification — His scepticism and credulity
— A guide to ancient science — His medieval influence — Early printed
editions.
II. Its Experimental Tendency
Importance of observation and experience — Use of the word experi-
mentum — Experiments due to scientific curiosity — Medical experimenta-
tion— Chance experience and divine revelation — Marvels proved by
experience.
III. Pliny's Account of Magic
Oriental origin of magic — Its spread to the Greeks — Its spread out-
side the Graeco-Roman world — Failure to understand its true origin —
Magic and divination — Magic and religion — Magic and medicine — Magic
and philosophy — Falseness of magic — Crimes of magic — Pliny's censure
of magic is mainly intellectual — Vagueness of Pliny's scepticism — Magic
and science indistinguishable.
IV. The Sf-ience of the Magi
Magicians as investigators of nature — The Magi on herbs — Marvel-
ous virtues of herbs — Animals and parts of animals — Further instances
— Magic rites with animals and parts of animals — Marvels wrought
with parts of animals — The Magi on stones — Other magical recipe*
— Summary of the statements of the Magi.
V. Pliny's Magical Science
From the Magi to Pliny's magic — Habits of animals — Remedies dis-
covered by animals — Jealousy of animals — Occult virtues of animals —
The virtues of herbs— Plucking herbs — Agricultural magic— Virtue of
stones — Other minerals and metals — Virtues of human parts— Virtues
41
42
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of human saliva— The human operator— Absence of medical compounds
— Sympathetic magic — Antipathies between animals — Love and hatred
between inanimate objects — Sympathy between animate and inanimate
objects— Like cures like— The principle of association — Magic transfer
of disease— Amulets— Position or direction— The time element— Ob-
servance of number — Relation between operator and patient — Incanta-
tions— Attitude towards love-charms and birth control — Pliny and
astrology — Celestial portents — The stars and the world of nature —
Astrological medicine — Conclusion : magic unity of Pliny's superstitions.
''Salve, parens rerum omnium Natura, teque nobis
Quiritium solis celehratam esse numeris omnibus tuis fave!"
— Closing words of the Natural History}
I. Its Place in the History of Science
We should have to search long before finding a better start-
ing-point for the consideration of the union of magic with
the science of the Roman Empire, and of the way in which
that union influenced the middle ages, than Pliny's Natural
History} The foregoing sentence, with which years ago
I opened a chapter on the Natural History of Pliny the
Elder in my briefer preliminary study of magic in the intel-
lectual history of the Roman Empire, seems as true as
ever; and although I there considered his confusion of magic
and science at some length, I do not see how I can make the
present work well-rounded and complete without including
in it a yet more detailed analysis of the contents of Pliny's
book.
Pliny's Natural History, which appeared about yy A. D.
and is dedicated to the Emperor Titus, is perhaps the most
which is superior to both the Ger-
man editions in its explanatory
notes and subject index, and which
also apparently antedates them
in some readings suggested for
doubtful passages in the text.
Three modes of dividing the
Natural History into chapters are
indicated in the editions of Janus
and Detlefsen. I shall employ
that found in the earlier editions
of Hardouin, Valpy, Lemaire, and
Ajasson, and preferred in the
English translation of Bostock
and Riley.
* "Farewell, Nature, parent of
all things, and in thy manifold
multiplicity bless me who, alone
of the Romans, has sung thy
praise."
' For the Latin text of the
Naturalis Historia I have used the
editions of D. Detlefsen, Berlin,
1866-1882, and L. Janus, Leipzig,
1870, 6 vols, in 3 ; 5 vols, in 3.
There is, however, a good English
translation of the Natural History,
with an introductory essay, by
J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, Lon-
don, 1855, 6 vols. (Bohn Library),
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 43
important single source extant for the history of ancient
civilization. Its thirty-seven books, written in a very com-
pact style, constitute a vast collection of the most miscel-
laneous information. Whether one is investigating ancient
painting, sculpture, and other fine arts ; or the geography of
the Roman Empire; or Roman triumphs, gladiatorial con-
tests, and theatrical exhibitions; or the industrial processes
of antiquity; or Mediterranean trade; or Italian agriculture;
or mining in ancient Spain; or the history of Roman coin-
age; or the fluctuation of prices in antiquity; or the Roman
attitude towards usury; or the pagan attitude towards im-
mortality ; or the nature of ancient beverages ; or the relig-
ious usages of the ancient Romans ; or any of a number of
other topics ; one will find something concerning all of them
in Pliny, He is apt both to depict such conditions in his
own time and to trace them back to their origins. Further-
more he repeats many detailed incidents of interest to the
political or narrative historian of Rome as well as to the
student of the economic, social, artistic, and religious life of
antiquity. Probably there is no place where an isolated point
is more likely to be run down by the investigator, and it is
regrettable that exhaustive analytical indices of the work
are not available. We may add that, although the work is
supposedly a collection of facts, Pliny contrives to introduce
many moral reflections and sharp comments on the luxury,
vice, and unintellectual character of his times, suggesting
Juvenal's picture of degenerate Roman society and his own
lofty moral standards.
Indeed, Pliny's title, Naturalis Historia, or at least the ^g ^
common English translation of it, "Natural History," has repository
, . . . , ,. . , . , , 1,1 of ancient
been criticized as too limited m scope, and the work has been natural
described as "rather a vast encyclopedia of ancient knowl- science.
edge and belief upon almost every known subject." ^
Pliny himself mentions in his preface the Greek word
"encyclopedia" as indicative of his scope. Nevertheless, his
work is primarily an account of nature rather than of civili-
*Bostock and Riley (1855), I, xvi.
44 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
zation, and much of its information concerning such mat-
ters as the arts and business is incidental. Most of its books
bear such titles as Aquatic Animals, Exotic Trees, Medi-
cines from Forest Trees, The Natures of Metals. After an
introductory book containing the preface and a table of con-
tents and lists of authorities for each of the subsequent
books, the second book treats of the universe, heavenly
bodies, meteorology, and the chief changes, such as earth-
quakes and tides, in the land and water forming the earth's
surface. After four books devoted to geography, the sev-
enth deals with man and human inventions. Four more fol-
low on terrestrial and aquatic animals, birds, and insects.
Sixteen more are concerned with plants, trees, vines, and
other vegetation, and the medicinal simples derived from
them. Five books discuss the medicinal simples derived
from animals, including the human body; and the last five
books treat of metals and minerals and the arts in which
they are employed. It is thus evident that in the main Pliny
is concerned with natural science, and that, if his work is a
mine of miscellaneous historical information, it should even
more prove a rich treasure-house — "quoniam, ut ait Do-
mitius Piso, thesauros oportet esse non libros" ^ — for an in-
vestigation concerned as intimately as is ours with the his-
tory of science.
The Natural History is a great storehouse of misinfor-
mation as well as of information, for Pliny's credulity and
lack of discrimination harvested the tares of legend and
magic along with the wheat of historical fact and ancient
science in his voluminous granary. This may put other his-
torical investigators upon their guard in accepting its state-
ments, but only increases its value for our purpose. Per-
haps it is even more valuable as a collection of ancient er-
rors than it is as a repository of ancient science. It touches
upon many of the varieties, and illustrates most of the char-
acteristics, of magic. Moreover, Pliny often mentions the
Magi or magicians and discusses "magic" expressly at some
*NH. Preface.
11 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 45
length in the opening chapters of his thirtieth book — one of
the most important passages on the theme in any ancient
writer.
PHny the Elder, as we learn from his own statements in Piin/s
the Natural History and from one or two letters concerning ^^^^c"*-
him written by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whom he
adopted, went through the usual military, forensic, and offi-
cial career of the Roman of good family, and spent his life
largely in the service of the emperors. He visited vari-
ous Mediterranean lands, such as Spain, Africa, Greece, and
Egypt, and fought in Germany. He was in charge of
the Roman fleet on the west coast of Italy when he met his
death at the age of fifty-six by suffocation as he was trying
to rescue others from the fumes and vapors from the erup-
tion of Mount Vesuvius.
Of Pliny's writings the Natural History is alone extant. His
but other titles have been preserved which serve to show his writings,
great literary industry and the extent of his interests. He
wrote on the use of the javelin by cavalry, a life of his
friend Pomponius, an account in twenty books of all the
wars waged by the Romans in Germany, a rather long work
on oratory called The Student, a grammatical or philo-
logical work in eight books entitled De dubio sermone, and
a continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus in thirty-
one books. Yet in the dedication of the Natural History to
the emperor Titus he states that his days were taken up with
official business and only his nights were free for literary
labor. This statement is supported by a letter of his nephew
telling how he used to study by candle-light both late at
night and before daybreak. Pliny the Younger narrates sev-
eral incidents to illustrate how jealous and economical of
every spare moment his uncle was. He would dictate or
have books read to him while lying down or in the bath, and
on journeys a secretary was always by his side with books
and tablets. If the weather was very cold, the amanuensis
wore gloves so that his hands might not become too numb
to write. Pliny always took notes on what he read, and at
46
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
History.
his death left his nephew one hundred and sixty notebooks
written in a small hand on both sides.
His own Such were the conditions under which, and the methods
description ^y which, Pliny compiled his encyclopedia on nature. No
Natural single writer either Greek or Latin, he tells us, had ever be-
fore attempted so extensive a task. He adds that he treats
of some twenty thousand topics gleaned from the perusal of
about two thousand volumes by one hundred authors.^
Judging from his bibliographies and citations, however, he
would seem to have utilized more than one hundred au-
thors. But possibly he had not read all the writers men-
tioned in his bibliographies. He affirms that previous stu-
dents have had access to but few of the volumes which he
has used, and that he adds many things unknown to his
ancient authorities and recently discovered. Occasionally
he shows an acquaintance with beliefs and practices of the
Gauls and Druids. Thus his work assumes to be something
more tlian a compilation from other books. He says, how-
ever, that no doubt he has omitted much, since he is only
human and has had many other demands upon his time. He
admits that his subject is dry (sterilis materia) and does not
lend itself to literary exhibitions, nor include matters stimu-
lating to write about and pleasant to read about, like
speeches and marvelous occurrences and varied incidents.
Nor does it permit purity and elegance of diction, since one
must at times employ the terminology of rustics, foreigners,
and even barbarians. Furthermore, "it is an arduous task
to give novelty to what is ancient, authority to what is new,
interest to what is obsolete, light to what is obscure, charm
to what is loathsome" — as many of his medicinal simples
undoubtedly are — "credit to what is dubious."
It is a great comfort to Pliny, however, in his immense
task, when many laugh at him as wasting his time over
worthless trifles, to reflect that he is being spurned along
with Nature.^ In another passage ^ he contrasts the blood
His devo
tion to
science.
NH, Preface.
NH, xxn, 7.
NH, n, 6.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 47
and slaug'hter of military history with the benefits bestowed
upon mankind by astronomers. In a third passage ^ he
looks back regretfully at the widespread interest in science
among the Greeks, although those were times of political
disunion and strife and although communication between
different lands was interrupted by piracy as well as war,
whereas now, with the whole empire at peace, not only is
no new scientific inquiry undertaken, but men do not even
thoroughly study the works of the ancients, and are intent
on the acquisition of lucre rather than learning. These and
other passages which might be cited attest Pliny's devotion
to science.
In Pliny we also detect signs of the conflict between Conflict.
science and religion. In a single chapter on God he says ^"^^
pretty much all that the church fathers later repeated at religion,
much greater length against paganism and polytheism. But
his discussion would hardly satisfy a Christian. He asserts
that "it is God for man to aid his fellow man,- and this is
the path to eternal glory," but he turns this noble sentiment
to justify deification of the emperors who have done so much
for mankind. He questions whether God is concerned with
human affairs; slyly suggests that if so, God must be too
busy to punish all crimes promptly; and points out that
there are some things which God cannot do. He cannot
commit suicide as men can, nor alter past events, nor make
twice ten anything else than twenty. Pliny then concludes :
"By which is revealed in no uncertain wise the power of
Nature, and that is what we call God." In many other pas-
sages he exclaims at Nature's benignity or providence. He
believed that the soul had no separate existence from the
body, ^ and that after death there was no more sense left in
body or soul than was there before birth. The hope of per-
sonal immortality he scorned as "puerile ravings" produced
by the fear of death, and he believed still less in the possibility
of any resurrection of the body. In short, natural law, me-
NH, II, 46. iuvare mortalem. . , ."
'NH, II, 5. "Deus est mortali ' NH, VII, 56.
48 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
chanical force, and facts capable of scientific investigation
would seem to be all that he will admit and to suffice to
satisfy his strong intellect. Yet we shall later find him hav-
ing the greatest difficulty in distinguishing between science
and magic, and giving credence to many details in science
which seem to us quite as superstitious as the pagan beliefs
concerning the gods which he rejected. But if any reader
is inclined to belittle Pliny for this, let him first stop and
think how Pliny would ridicule some modern scientists for
their religious beliefs, or for their spiritualism or psychic re-
search.
Pliny not It is desirable, however, to form some estimate of Pliny's
naturalfst. fitness for his task in order to judge how accurate a picture
of ancient science his work is. He does not seem to have
had much detailed training or experience in the natural sci-
ences himself. He writes not as a naturalist who has ob-
served widely and profoundly the phenomena and opera-
tions of nature, but as an omnivorous reader and volumin-
ous note-taker who owes his knowledge largely to books or
hearsay, although occasionally he says "I know" instead of
**they say," or gives the results of his own observation and
experience. In the main he is not a scientist himself but
only a historian of science or nature; after all, his title,
Natural History, is a very fitting one. The question, of
course, arises whether he has sufficient scientific training to
evaluate properly the work of the past. Has he read the
best authors, has he noted their best passages, has he under-
stood their meaning? Does he repeat inferior theories and
omit the correcter views of certain Alexandrian scientists?
These questions are hard to answer. On his behalf it may
be said that he deals little with abstruse scientific theory and
mainly with simple substances and geographical places, mat-
ters in which it seems difficult for him to go far astray.
Scientific specialists were not numerous in those days, any-
way, and science had not yet so far advanced and ramified
that one man might not hope to cover the entire field and
do it substantial justice. Pliny the Younger was perhaps
II
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 49
authori-
ties.
a partial judge, but he described the Natural History as "a
work remarkable for its comprehensiveness and erudition,
and not less varied than Nature herself." ^
One thing in Pliny's favor as a compiler, besides his per- His use of
sonal industry, unflagging interest, and apparently abundant
supply of clerical assistance, is his full and honest statement
of his authorities, although he adds that he has caught many
authors transcribing others verbatim v^ithout acknowledg-
ment. He has, however, great admiration for many of his
authorities, exclaiming more than once at the care and dili-
gence of the men of the past who have left nothing untried
or unexperienced, from trackless mountain tops to the roots
of herbs.^ Sometimes, nevertheless, he disputes their as-
sertions. For instance, Hippocrates said that the appear-
ance of jaundice on the seventh day in fever is a fatal sign,
"but we know some who have lived even after this." ^ Pliny
also scolds Sophocles for his falsehoods concerning amber.*
It may seem surprising that he should expect strict scientific
truth from a dramatic poet, but Pliny, like many medieval
writers, seems to regard poets as good scientific authorities.
In another passage he accepts Sophocles' statement that a
certain plant is poisonous, rather than the contrary view of
other writers, saying "the authority of so prominent a man
moves me against their opinions." ^ He also cites Menander
concerning fish and, like almost all the ancients, regards
Homer as an authority on all matters.^ Pliny sometimes
cites the works of King Juba of Numidia, than whom there
hardly seems to have been a greater liar in antiquity.'^ He
stated among other things in a work which he wrote for
Gains Caesar, the son of Augustus, that a whale six hun-
dred feet long and three hundred and sixty feet broad had
♦Letter to Macer, Ep. Ill, 5, ed. ''Yet C. W. King, Natural His-
Keil. Leipzig, 1896. tory of Precious Stones, p. 2, de-
'NH, Vn, i; XXIII, 60; XXV, plores the loss of Juba's treatise,
I ; XXVII, I. which he says, "considering his
*XXVI, 76. position and opportunities for
*XXXVlI, II. exact information, is perhaps the
•XXI, 88. greatest we have to deplore in
•XXXII, 24. this sad catalogue of desiderata."
so
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
His
lack of
arrange-
ment and
classifica-
tion.
His
scepticism
and
credulity.
entered a river in Arabia.^ But where should Pliny turn
for sober truth ? The Stoic Chrysippus prated of amulets ; ^
treatises ascribed to the great philosophers Democritus and
Pythagoras ^ were full of magic; and in the works of Cicero
he read of a man who could see for a distance of one hun-
dred and thirty-five miles, and in Varro that this man, stand-
ing on a Sicilian promontory, could count the number of
ships sailing out of the harbor of Carthage.*
The Natural History has been criticized as poorly ar-
ranged and lacking in scientific classification, but this is a
criticism which can be made of many works of the classi-
cal period. Their presentation is apt to be rambling and
discursive rather than logical and systematic. Even Aris-
totle's History of Animals is described by Lewes ^ as un-
classified in its arrangement and careless in its selection of
material. I have often thought that the scholastic centuries
did mankind at least one service, that of teaching lecturers
and writers how to arrange their material. Pliny seems
rather in advance of his times in supplying full tables of
contents for the busy emperor's convenience. Valerius So-
ranus seems to have been the only previous Roman writer to
do this. One indication of haste in composition and failure
to sift and compare his material is the fact that Pliny some-
times makes or includes contradictory statements, probably
taken from different authorities. On the other hand, he not
infrequently alludes to previous passages in his own work,
thus showing that he has his material fairly well in hand.
Pliny once said that there was no book so bad but what
some good might be got from it,® and to the modern reader
he seems almost incredibly credulous and indiscriminate in
*NH. xxxn, 4.
*XXX, 30.
' Bouche-Leclercq (1899), p.
519, notes, however, that Aulus
Gellius (X, 12) protested against
Pliny's credulity in accepting such
works as genuine and that "Colu-
melle (VH, 5) cite un certain
Bolus de Mendes comme I'auteur
des vTOfiinifjLaTa attribucs a Dcmoc-
rite." Bouche-Leclercq adds, how-
ever, "Rien n'y fit: Democrite
devint le grand docteur de Ut
magie."
'NH, vn, 21.
'G. H. Lewes, Aristotle; a
Chapter from the History of
Science, London. 1864.
* Letters of Pliny the Younger,
in, 5, ed. Keil, Leipzig, 1896.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 51
his selection of material, and to lack any standard of judg-
ment between the true and the false. Yet he often assumes
an air of scepticism and censures others sharply for their
credulity or exaggeration. " 'Tis strange," he remarks
a propos of some tales of men transformed into wolves for
nine or ten years, "how far Greek credulity has gone. No
lie is so impudent that it lacks a voucher." ^ Once he ex-
presses his determination to include only those points on
which his authorities are in agreement.^
On the whole, while to us to-day the Natural History a guide tc
seems a disorderly and indiscriminate conglomeration of ^"j^^^"g
fact and fiction, its defects are probably to a great extent
those of its age and of the writers from whom it has bor-
rowed. If it does not reflect the highest achievements and
clearest thinking of the best scientists of antiquity — and be
it said that there are a number of the Hellenistic age of
whom we should know less than we do but for Pliny — it
probably is a fairly faithful epitome of science and error
concerning nature in his own time and the centuries pre-
ceding. At any rate it is the best portrayal that has reached
us. From it we can get our background of the confusion
of magic and science in the Hellenistic age, and then reveal
against this setting the development of them both in the
course of the Roman Empire and middle ages. Pliny gives
so many items upon each point, and is so much fuller than
the average ancient or medieval book of science, that he
serves as a reference book, being the likeliest place to look
to find duplicated some statement concerning nature by a
later writer. This of course shows that such a statement
did not originate with the later writer, but is not a sure sign
that he copied from Pliny ; they may both have used the same
authorities, as seems the case with Greek authors later in the
empire who probably did not know of Pliny's work.
In the middle ages, however, Pliny had an undoubted His
direct influence.^ Manuscripts of the Natural History are h^fluence.
*NH, VIII, 34. des Plinius im Mittelalter, in
* XXVIII, I. ^ Sitsh. Bayer. Akad. Philos-Philol.
*Ruck. Die Naturalis Historia Classe (1908) pp. 203-318. For
52
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
numerous, although in a scarcely legible condition owing to
corrections and emendations which enhance the obscurity of
the text and perhaps do Pliny grave injustice in other re-
spects.^ Also many manuscripts contain only a few books
or fragments of the text, so that it is possible that many
medieval scholars knew their Pliny only in part.^ This,
however, can scarcely be argued from their failure to in-
clude more from him in their own works; for that might
be due to their knowing the Natural History so well that
they took its contents for granted and tried to include other
material in their own works. In a later chapter we shall treat
of The Medicine of Pliny, a treatise derived from the Nat-
ural History. Pliny's phrase rerum natura figures as the
title of several medieval encyclopedias of somewhat similar
scope. And his own name was too well known in the middle
ages to escape having a work on the philosopher's stone
ascribed to him.^
citations of Pliny by writers of
the late Roman empire and early
middle ages, see Panckoucke,
Bibliotheque Latin e -Frang aise , vol.
CVI.
^Concerning the MSS see Det-
lefsen's prefaces in each of his
first five volumes and his fuller
dissertations in Jahn's Neue Jahrb.,
77, 653ff, Rhein. Mus., XV, 265ff;
XVIII, 227ff, 327.
Detlefsen seems to have made
no use of English MSS, but a
folio of the close of the 12th cen-
tury at New College, Oxford,
contains the first nineteen books
of the Natural History and is
described by Coxe as "very well
written and preserved."
Nor does Detlefsen mention Le
Mans 263, I2th century, containing
all 37 books except that the last
book is incomplete, and with a full
page miniature (fol. lov) show-
ing Pliny in the act of presenting
his work to Vespasian. Escorial
Q-I-4 and R-I-5 are two other
practically complete texts of the
fourteenth century which Detlef-
sen failed to use.
'See M. R. James, Eton Manu-
scripts, p. 63, MS 134, Bl. 4. 7.,
Roberti Crikeladensis Prioris Ox-
oniensis excerpta ex Plinii His-
toria Naturali, 12- 13th century,
in a large English hand, giving
extracts extending from Book II
to Book IX.
Of Balliol 124, fols. 1-138, Cos-
mographia mundi, by John Free,
born at Bristol or London, fellow
at Balliol College, Oxford, later
professor of medicine at Padua
and a doctor at Rome, also well
instructed in civil law and Greek,
Coxe writes, "This work is noth-
ing but a series of excerpts from
Pliny's Natural History, beginning
with the second and leaving off
with the twentieth." I wonder if
John Free may not have used the
very MS of the first nineteen
books mentioned in the foregoing
note, since the second book of the
Natural History is often reckoned
as the first.
In Balliol 146A, 15th century,
fol. 3-, the Natural History ap-
pears in epitome, with a prologue
opening, "I, Reginald (Retinal-
dus), servant of Christ, perusing
the books of Pliny . . ."
* Bologna, 952, 15th century,
fols. 157-60, "Tractatus optimus in
IX PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY S3
That the Natural History was well known as a whole at Early
least by the close of the middle ages is shown by the numer- ^^|"^q^^
ous editions, some of them magnificently printed, which
were turned off from the Italian presses immediately after
the invention of printing. In the Magliabechian Library
of Florence alone are editions printed at Venice in 1469 and
1472, at Rome in 1473 and Parma in 1481, again at Venice
in 1487, 1 49 1, and 1499, not to mention Italian translations
which appeared at Venice in 1476 and 1489.^ These edi-
tions were accompanied by some published criticism of
Pliny's statements, since in 1492 appeared at Ferrara a treat-
ise On the Errors of Pliny and Others in Medicine by Nich-
olas Leonicenus of Vicenza with a dedication to Politian.^
But two years later PHny found a defender in Pandulph
CoUenucius.^
But Pliny's future influence will come out repeatedly in
later chapters. We shall now inquire, first, what signs of
experimental science he shows, either derived from the past
or added by himself. Second, what he defines as magic and
what he has to say about it. Third, how much of what he
supposes to be natural science must we regard as essentially
magic ?
II. Its Experimental Tendency
It is probably only a coincidence that two medieval manu- impor-
scripts close the Natural History in the midst of the seventy- t^^ce of
sixth chapter of the last book with the words, "Experimenta tion and
plurihus modis constant . . . Primum pondere/' ^ But al- gnce^''
though from the very nature of his work Pliny makes ex-
tensive use of authorities, he not infrequently manifests a
realization, as one dealing with the facts of nature should, of
the importance of observation and experience as means of
quo exposuit et aperte declaravlt ana Florentiae adservantur, 1793-
plinius philosophus quid sit lapis 1795, II, 374-81.
philosophicus et ex qua materia 'De erroribus Plinii et aliorum
debet fieri et quomodo." in medicina, Ferrara, 1492.
* Fossi, Catalogus codicum ' Pliniana dcfensio, 1494.
saeculo XV itnpressorum qtd in * Escorial Q-I-4, and R-I-S, both
publico Bibliotheca Magliabechi- of the 14th century.
54 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap!
reaching the truth. The claims of many Romans of high
rank to have carried their arms as far as Mount Atlas, which
Pliny declares has been repeatedly shown by experience to
be most fallacious, leads him to the further reflection that
nowhere is a lapse of one's credulity easier than where a
dignified author supports a false statement.^ In other pas-
sages he calls experience the best teacher in all things,^ and
contrasts unfavorably garrulity of words and sitting in
schools with going to solitudes and seeking herbs at their
appropriate seasons. That upon our globe the land is en-
tirely surrounded by water does not require, he says, inves-
tigation by arguments, but is now known by experience.^
And if the salamander really extinguished fire, it would have
been tried at Rome long ago.^ On the other hand, we find
some assertions in the Natural History which Pliny might
easily have tested himself and found false, such as his state-
ment that an egg-shell cannot be broken by force or any
weight unless it is tipped a little to one side.^ Sometimes he
gives his personal experience,® but also mentions experience
in many other connections.
Use of The word employed most of the time by Pliny to denote
the word experience is experimentum? In many passages the word
mentum. does not indicate anything like a purposive, prearranged,
scientific experiment in our sense of that word, but simply
the ordinary experience of daily life.® We are also told
what experti,^ or men of experience, advise. In a number of
passages, however, experimentum is used in a sense some-
*NH, V, I, 12. 41; VII, 56; VIII, 7; XIV, 8;
*XXVI, 6, "usu efficacissimo XVI, i ; XVI, 64; XVII, 2; XVII,
rerum omnium magistro" ; XVII, 35; XXII, i; XXII, 43; XXII,
2, 12, "quare experimentis optime 49! XXII, 51; XXV, 7; XXXIV,
creditur." 39 and 51. Experience is also the
3 jj 65 idea in the two following passages,
*XXIX 2'? although the word experimentum
*XXTx' TT could not smoothly be rendered as
4f;i;:[f'' • „ ,. „ "experience" in a literal transla-
-^ XXV 54, cora-mque nobis ; ^^^^. yn, 50, "Accedunt experi-
XXV, 106, 'nos earn Romanis ex- ^^^^^ ^^ exempla recentissimi
penmentis per usus digeremus. census . . ." ; XXVIII, 45, "Nee
' Sometimes another term, as uros aut bisontes habuerunt Graeci
usus in note 2 above, is employed. in experimentis."
"See II. 41, 1-2; II, 108; VII, "XVI, 24; XXII, 57; XXVI, 60.
n PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 55
what more closely approaching our "experiment." These are
cases where something is being tested. For instance, a
method of determining whether an tgg is fresh or rotten by
putting it in water and watching if it floats or sinks is called
an experimentiim} That horses would whinny at no other
painting of a horse than that by Apelles is spoken of as illius
cxperimentum artis, a test of, or testimony to, his art." The
expression religionis experimento is applied to a religious
test or ordeal by which the virginity of Claudia was vindi-
cated,^ The word is also used of ways of telling if unguents
are good^ and if wine is beginning to tum;^ and of various
tests of the genuineness of drugs, gems, earths, and metals.®"
It is also twice used of letting down a lighted lamp into a
huge wine cask or into wells to discover if there is danger at
the bottom from noxious vapors.''^ If the lamp was ex-
tinguished, it was a sign of peril to human life. Pliny fur-
ther suggests purposive experimentation in speaking of
experimenta to discover water under ground ^ and in graft-
ing trees. ^
Most of the tests and experiences thus far mentioned Experi-
have been practical operations connected with husbandry and ^^^"clen-^
industry. But Pliny recounts one or two others which seem *'^.^ ^u"-
osity.
to have been dictated solely by scientific curiosity. He classi-
fies the following as experimenta: ^° the sinking of a well to
prove by its complete illumination that the sun casts no
shadow at noon of the summer solstice; the marking of a
dolphin's tail in order to throw some light upon its length
of life, should it ever be captured again, as it was three
hundred years later — perhaps the experiment of longest
duration on record; ^^ and the casting of a man into a pit of
* X, 75. 22 and 76 ; such phrases as sinceri
XXXV, 30. experimentiim and vcri experi-
VII, 35. mentum are used for "test o£
XIII, 3. genuineness."
'XIV. 25. 'XXIII, 31; XXXI, 28.
' XVII, 4 ; XX, 3 and 76 ; XXII, « XXXI, 27.
23; XXIX, 12; XXXIII, 19 and « XVII. 26.
43 and 44 and 57; XXXIV, 26 and '" II, 75.
48 : XXXVI, 38 and 55 ; XXXVII, " IX, 7.
56
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Medical
experi-
mentation.
Chance
experience
and divine
revelation.
serpents at Rome to determine if he was really immune from
their stings.^
Experimentum is employed by Pliny in a medical sense
which becomes very common in the middle ages. He calls
some remedies for toothache and inflamed eyes certa experi-
menta — sure experiences.^ Later experimentum came to be
applied to almost any recipe or remedy. Pliny, indeed,
speaks of the doctors as learning at our risk and getting
experience through our deaths.^ In another passage he
states more favorably that "there is no end to experimenting
with everything so that even poisons are forced to cure us." *
He also briefly mentions the medical sect of Empirics, of
whom we shall hear more from Galen. He says that they
so name themselves from experiences ^ and originated at
Agrigentum in Sicily under Acron and Empedocles.
Pliny is puzzled how some things which he finds stated
in "authors famous for wisdom" were ever learned by ex-
perience, for example, that the star-fish has such fiery fervor
that it burns everything in the sea which it touches, and di-
gests its food instantly.® That adamant can be broken only
by goat's blood he thinks must have been divinely revealed,
for it would hardly have been discovered by chance, and he
cannot imagine that anyone would ever have thought of
testing a substance of immense value in a fluid of one of the
foulest of animals. ''^ In several other passages he suggests
chance, accident, dreams,® or divine revelation as the ways
in which the medicinal virtues of certain simples were dis-
covered. Recently, for example, it was discovered that the
root of the wild rose is a remedy for hydrophobia by the
mother of a soldier in the praetorian guard, who was warned
* XXVIII, 6.
'XXVIII, 14.
•XXIX, 8. "Discunt periculis
nostris et experimenta per mortes
agunt." Bostock and Riley trans-
late the last clause, "And they ex-
perimentalize by putting us to
death." Another possible transla-
tion is, "And their experiments
cost lives."
*XXV, 17. ". . . adeo nullo
omnia experiendi fine ut cogeren-
tur etiam venena prodesse."
'XXIX, 4 "... ab experimen-
tis se cognominans empiricen."
• IX, 86.
'XXXVII, 15.
* According to Galen, as we shall
hear later, the Empirics relied a
good deal upon chance experience
and dreams.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 57
in a dream to send her son this root, which cured him and
many others who have tried it since. ^ And a soldier in
Pompey's time accidentally discovered a cure for elephan-
tiasis when he hid his face for shame in some wild mint
leaves.^ Another herb was accidentally found to be a cure
for disorders of the spleen when the entrails of a sacrificial
victim happened to be thrown on it and it entirely consumed
the milt.^ The healing properties of vinegar for the sting
of the asp were discovered by chance in this wise. A man
who was stung by an asp while carrying a leather bottle of
vinegar noticed that he felt the sting only when he set the
bottle down.* He therefore decided to try the effects of a
drink of the liquid and was thereby fully cured.^ Other
remedies are learned through the experience of rustics and
illiterate persons, and yet others may be discovered by ob-
serving animals who cure their ills by them,*' Pliny's opinion
is that the animals have hit upon them by chance.
Pliny represents a number of marvelous and to us in- Marvels
credible things as proved by experience. Divination from gxperi-
thunder, for instance, is supported by innumerable experi- ence.
ences, public and private. In two passages out of the three
mentioning experti which I cited above, those experienced
persons recommended a decidedly magical sort of procedure.'^
In another passage "the experience of many" supports "a
strange observance" in plucking a bud.^ A fourth bit of
magical procedure is called "marvelous but easily tested." *
Thus the transition is an easy one from signs of experimen-
tal science in the Natural History to our next topic, Pliny's
account of magic.
^ XXV, 6. mouth, it will prevent one from
' XX, 52. feeling the heat in the baths.
" XXV, 20. ' XXV, 6 and 21 and 50 ; XXVII,
* XXIII, 27. 2.
"Among other virtues of vine- 'XVI, 24; XXVI, 60.
gar, besides its supposed property * XXIII, 59.
of breaking rocks, Pliny mentions * XXVIII, 7.
that if one holds some in the
S8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
III. Pliny's Account of Magic.
Oriental Pliny supplies some account of the origin and spread of
magic. magic ^ but a rather confused and possibly unreliable one, as
he mentions two Zoroasters separated by an interval of five
or six thousand years, and two Osthaneses, one of whom
accompanied Xerxes, and the other Alexander, in their re-
spective expeditions. He says, indeed, that it is not clear
whether one or two Zoroasters existed. In any case magic
has flourished greatly the world over for many centuries,
and was founded in Persia by Zoroaster. Some other ma-
gicians of Media, Babylonia, and Assyria are mere names to
Pliny; later he mentions others like Apollobeches and Dar-
danus. Although he thus derives magic from the orient, he
appears to make no distinction, as we shall find other writers
doing, between the Magi of Persia and ordinary magicians,
nor does he employ the word magic in two senses. He makes
it evident, however, that there have been other men who have
regarded magic more favorably than he does.
Its spread Pliny next traces the spread of magic among the Greeks.
Greeks. -^^ marvels at the lack of it in the Iliad and the abundance
of it in the Odyssey. He is uncertain whether to class Or-
pheus as a magician, and mentions Thessaly as famous for
its witches at least as early as the time of Menander who
named one of his comedies after them. But he regards the
Osthanes who accompanied Xerxes as the prime introducer
of magic to the Greek-speaking world, which straightway
went mad over it. In order to learn more of it, the philos-
ophers Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato
went into distant exile and on their return disseminated their
lore. Pliny regards the works of Democritus as the greatest
single factor in that dissemination of the doctrines of magic
which occurred at about the same time that medicine was
being developed by the works of Hippocrates. Some
* In the opening chapters of Book XXX, unless otherwise indicated by-
specific citation.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 59
regarded the books on magic ascribed to Democritus as
spurious, but Pliny insists that they are genuine.^
Outside of the Greek-speaking world, whence of course Its spread
magic spread to Rome, Pliny mentions Jewish magic, repre- Qraeco-
sented by such names as Moses, Tannes, and Lotapes. But Roman
-1 • • 1 TT 1 world.
he holds that magic did not originate among the Hebrews
until long after Zoroaster. He also speaks of the magic of
Cyprus; of the Druids, who were the magicians, diviners,
and medicine men of Gaul until the emperor Tiberius sup-
pressed them ; and of distant Britain. ^ Thus discordant na-
tions and even those ignorant of one another's existence
agree the world over in their devotion to magic. From what
Pliny tells us elsewhere of the Scythians we can see that the
nomads of the Russian steppes and Turkestan were devoted
to magic too.
It has been shown that Pliny regarded magic as a mass Failure
of doctrines formulated by a single founder and not as a stand its'
gradual social evolution, just as the Greeks and Romans as- true origin.
cribed their laws and customs to some single legislator. He
admits in a way, however, the great antiquity claimed by
magic for itself, although he questions how the bulky dicta
of Zoroaster and Dardanus could have been handed down by
memory during so long a period. This remark again shows
how little he thinks of magic as a set of social customs and
attitudes perpetuated through constant and universal prac-
tice from generation to generation. Yet what he says of its
v/idespread prevalence among unconnected peoples goes to
prove this.
Pliny has a clearer comprehension of the extensive scope Magic and
of magic and of its essential characteristics, at least as it was divination,
in his day. "No one should wonder," he says, "that its au-
thority has been very great, since alone of the arts it has
*Aulus Gellius, X, 12, and wrote the works of alchemy at-
Columella, VII, 5, dispute this tributed to Democritus as well as
(Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie the books of medical and magical
grecque, p. 519). Berthelot {Ori- recipes which are quoted in the
gines de I'alchimie, p. 145) believes Geoponica and the Natural His-
in a Democritan school at the be- tory.
ginning of the Christian era which ^ XVI, 95.
6o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic and
religion.
Magic and
medicine.
Magic
and philos-
ophy.
embraced and united with itself the three other subjects
which make the greatest appeal to the human mind," namely,
medicine, religion, and the arts of divination, especially as-
trology. That his phrase artes mathematicas has reference
to astrology is shown by his immediately continuing, "since
there is no one who is not eager to learn the future about
himself and who does not think that this is most truly re-
vealed by the sky." But magic further "promises to reveal
the future by water and spheres and air and stars and lamps
and basins and the blades of axes and by many other
methods, besides conferences with shades from the infernal
regions." There can therefore be no doubt that Pliny re-
gards the various arts of divination as parts of magic.
While we have heard Pliny assert in general the close
connection between magic and religion, the character of the
Natural History, which deals with natural rather than re-
ligious matters, does not lead him to enter into much further
detail upon this point. His occasional mention of religious
usages in his own day, however, supports our information
from other sources that the original Roman religion was
very largely composed of magic forces, rules, and cere-
monial.
Nearly half the books of the Natural History deal in
whole or in part with remedies for diseases, and it is there-
fore of the relations between magic and natural science, and
more particularly between magic and medicine, that Pliny
gives us the most detailed information. Indeed, he asserts
that "no one doubts" that magic "originally sprang from
medicine and crept in under the show of promoting health
as a loftier and more sacred medicine." Magic and medi-
cine have developed together, and the latter is now in immi-
nent danger of being overwhelmed by the follies of magic,
which have made men doubt whether plants possess any
medicinal properties.
In the opinion of many, however, magic is sound and
beneficial learning. In antiquity, and for that matter at
almost all times, the height of literary fame and glory has
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 6i "
been sought from that science.^ Eudoxus would have it the
most noted and useful of all schools of philosophy. Em-
pedocles and Plato studied it; Pythagoras and Democritus
perpetuated it in their writings.
But Pliny himself feels that the assertions of the books Falseness
of magic are fantastic, exaggerated, and untrue. He re- ° "lag^c.
peatedly brands the magi or magicians as fools or impostors,
and their statements as absurd and impudent tissues of lies.^
Vanitas, or "nonsense," is his stock-word for their beliefs.*
Some of their writings must, in his opinion, have been dic-
tated by a feeling of contempt and derision for humanity.*
Nero proved the falseness of the art, for although he studied
magic eagerly and with his unlimited wealth and power had
every opportunity to become a skilful practitioner, he was
unable to work any marvels and abandoned the attempt.^
Pliny therefore comes to the conclusion that magic is "in-
valid and empty, yet has some shadows of truth, which
however are due more to poisons than to magic." ^
The last remark brings us to charges of evil practices Crimes
made against the magicians. Besides poisons, they special- ° "lagic.
ize in love-potions and drugs to produce abortions ; ''' and
some of their operations are inhuman or obscene and abom-
inable. They attempt baleful sorcery or the transfer of dis-
ease from one person to another.^ Osthanes and even Dem-
ocritus propound such remedies as drinking human blood or
utilizing in magic compounds and ceremonies parts of the
corpses of men who have been violently slain. ^ Pliny thinks
that humanity owes a great debt to the Roman government
' XXX, 2. ". . . quamquam ani- XXIX, 26 ; XXX, 7 ; XXXVII,
madverto summam Htterarum 14.
claritatem gloriamque ex ea sci- ■* XXXVII, 40.
entia antiquitus et paene semper » XXX 5-6.
petitam." «XXx', 6.' "Proinde ita per-
Examples are : XXV, 59, Sed ^^^^^^ ^j^ intestabilem, inritam.
magi utique circa banc insaniunt ; j^^^^^^ ^^^^^ habentem tamen
XXIX, 20 magorum mendacia ; q^asdam veritatis umbras, sed in
XXXVII, 60, magorum inpuden- j^j^ veneficas artis pollere, non
tiae vel manifestissimum . . . ex- niagicas "
emplum"; XXXVII, 72), "dira 'XXV 7
mendacia magorum." , :L ' ;"
'See XXII, 9; XXVI, 9; * XXVIII, 23.
XXVII, 6s; XXVIII, 2.^ and 27; " XXVIII, 2.
62
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Pliny's
censure of
magic is
mainly in-
tellectual.
Vagueness
of Pliny's
scepticism.
for abolishing those monstrous rites of human sacrifice, "in
which to slay a man was thought most pious ; nay more, to
eat men was thought most wholesome." ^
Pliny nevertheless lays less stress upon the moral argu-
ment against magic as criminal or indecent than he does
upon the intellectual objection to it as untrue and unscientific.
Indeed, so far as decency is concerned, his own medicine will
be seen to be far from prudish, while he elsewhere gives in-
stances of magicians guarding against defilement.^ More-
over, among the methods employed and the results sought
by magic which he frequently mentions there are compara-
tively few that are morally objectionable, although they seem
without exception false. But many of their recipes aim at
the cure of disease and other worthy, or at least admissible,
objects. Possibly Pliny has somewhat censored their lore
and tried to exclude all criminal secrets, but his censure
seems more intellectual than moral. For instance, he fills
a long chapter with extracts from a treatise on the virtues of
the chameleon and its parts by Democritus, whom he regards
as a leading purveyor of magic lore.^ In opening the chap-
ter Pliny hails "with great pleasure" the opportunity to ex-
pose "the lies of Greek vanity," but at its close he expresses
a wish that Democritus himself had been touched with the
branch of a palm which he said prevents immoderate loquac-
ity. Pliny then adds more charitably, "It is evident that
this man, who in other respects was a wise and most useful
member of society, has erred from too great zeal in serving
humanity."
Pliny himself fails to maintain a consistently sceptical at-
titude towards magic. His exact attitude is often hard to de-
termine. Often it is difficult to say whether he is speaking
in sober earnest or in a tone of light and easy pleasantry
and sarcasm, as in the passage just cited concerning Democ-
ritus. Another puzzling point is his frequent excuse that
he will list certain assertions of the magicians in order to
*XXX, 4. 'XXVIII, 19; XXX, 6. 'XXVIII, 29.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 63
expose or confute them. But really he usually simply sets
them forth, apparently expecting that their inherent and
patent absurdity will prove a sufficient refutation of them.
On the rare occasions when he undertakes to indicate in
what the absurdity consists his reasoning is scarcely scientific
or convincing. Thus he affirms that "it is a peculiar proof
of the vanity of the magicians that of all animals they most
admire moles who are condemned by nature in so many ways,
to perpetual blindness and to dig in the darkness as if they
were buried." ^ And he assails the belief of the magi ^ that
an owl's egg is good for diseases of the scalp by asking,
"Who, I beg, could ever have seen an owl's e.gg, since it is
a prodigy to see the bird itself?" Moreover, he sometimes
cites assertions of the magicians without any censure, apol-
ogy, or expression of disbelief; and there are many other
passages where it is practically impossible to tell whether he
is citing the magicians or not. Sometimes he will apparently
continue to refer to them by a pronoun in chapters where
they have not been mentioned by name at all.^ In other
places he will imperceptibly cease to quote the magi and
after an interval perhaps as imperceptibly resume citation of
their doctrines.* It is also difficult to determine just when
writers like Democritus and Pythagoras are to be regarded
as representatives of magic and when their statements are
accepted by Pliny as those of sound philosophers.
Perhaps, despite Pliny's occasional brave efforts to with- j^agic and
stand and even ridicule the assertions of the magicians, he science
could not free himself from a secret liking for them aiid guishable.
more than half believed them. At any rate he believed very
similar things. Even more likely is it that previous works
on nature were so full of such material and the readers of
his own day so interested in it, that he could not but include
^XXX, 7. we must look back three chapters
*XXIX, 26. for the antecedent of corum.
^Fot instance, XXX, 27, he * XXXVII, 14, he says that he is
mentions the magi, but not in going to confute "the unspeakable
XXX, 28. Nor are they mentioned nonsense of the magicians" con-
in XXX, 29, but in XXX, 30 cerning gems, but makes no spe-
"plura eorum remedia ponemus" cific citation from them until the
seems to refer to them, although thirty-seventh chapter on jasper.
64 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
much of it. Once he explains ^ that certain statements are
scarcely to be taken seriously, yet should not be omitted, be-
cause they have been transmitted from the past. Again he
begs the reader's indulgence for similar "vanities of the
Greeks," "because this too has its value that we should
know whatever marvels they have transmitted." ^ The truth
of the matter probably is that Pliny rejected some assertions
of the magicians but found others acceptable; that he gets
his occasional attitude of scepticism and ridicule of their
doctrines from one set of authorities, and his moments of
unquestioning acceptance of their statements from other
authors on whom he relies. Very likely in the books which
he used it often was no clearer than it is in the Natural
History whether a statement was to be ascribed to the magi
or not. Very possibly Pliny was as confused in his own
mind concerning the entire business as he seems to be to us.
He could no more keep magic out of his Natural History
than poor Mr, Dick could keep Charles the First's head out
of his book. One fact at any rate stands out clearly, the
prominence of magic in his encyclopedia and in the learning
of his age.
IV. The Science of the Magi
Magicians Let US now further examine Pliny's picture of magic,
gators of riot as he expressly defines or censures it, but as he reflects
nature. j^g q-^^ assertions and purposes in his fairly numerous cita-
tions from its literature and perhaps its practice. Here I
shall rather strictly limit my survey to those statements
which Pliny definitely ascribes by name to the magi or magic
art. The most striking fact is that the magicians are cited
again and again concerning the supposed properties, virtues,
and effects of things in nature — herbs, animals, and stones.
These virtues are, it is true, often employed in an effort to
produce wonderful results, and often too they are combined
with some fantastic rite or superstitious ceremonial per-
formed by a human agent. But in many cases either no
»XXX, 47. =" XXXVII, II.
on herbs.
rx PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 65
rite at all is suggested or merely some simple medicinal ap-
plication; and in a few cases there is no mention of any par-
ticular operation or result, the magicians are cited simply
as authorities concerning the great but unspecified virtues of
natural objects. Indeed, they stand out in Pliny's pages not
as mere sorcerers or enchanters or wonder-workers, but as
those who have gone the farthest and in most detail — too far
and too curiously in Pliny's opinion — into the study of medi-
cine and of nature. Sometimes their statements, cited with-
out censure, supplement others concerning the species under
discussion;^ sometimes they are his sole source of informa-
tion on the subject in hand.^
Pliny connects the origin of botany rather closely with The magi
magic, mentioning Medea and Circe as early investigators
of plants and Orpheus among the first writers on the sub-
ject.^ Moreover, Pythagoras and Democritus borrowed
from the mac/i of the orient in their works on the properties
of plants.^ There would be little profit in repeating the
names of the herbs concerning which Pliny gives opinions
of the magicians, inasmuch as few of them can be associated
with any plants known to-day.^ Suffice it to say that Pliny
makes no objection to the herbs which they employed. Nor
does he criticize their methods of employing them, although
some seem superstitious enough to the modern reader. A
chaplet is worn of one herb,® others are plucked with the
left hand and with a statement of what they are to be used
for, and in one case without looking backward.'^ The anem-
one is to be plucked when it first appears that year with a
statement of its intended use, and then is to be wrapped in a
red cloth and kept in the shade, and, whenever anyone falls
sick of tertian or quartan fever, is to l3e bound on the pa-
tient's body.^ The heliotrope is not to be plucked at all but
'XX, 30; XXI, 38, 94, 104; 104; XXII, 9, 24, 29; XXIV, 99.
XXII, 24, 29. 102; XXV, 59, 65, 80-81; XXVI,
=XXI, 36; XXIV, 99. 9-
' XXV, 5. * XXI, 38.
^XXIV, 99-102. 'XXI, 104; XXII, 24.
^See XX, 30; XXI, 36, 38, 94, 'XXI. 94.
66
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Marvelous
virtues
of herbs.
tied in three or four knots with a prayer that the patient may
recover to untie the knots. ^
PHny does not even object to the marvelous results which
the magi think can be gained by use of herbs until towards
the close of his twenty-fourth book, although already in his
twentieth and twenty-first books such powers have been
claimed for herbs as to make one well-favored and enable
one to attain one's desires,^ or to give one grace and glory.^
At the end of his twenty-fourth book * he states that Pythag-
oras and Democritus, following the magi, ascribe to herbs
unusually marvelous virtues such as to freeze water, invoke
spirits, force the guilty to confess by frightening them with
apparitions, and impart the gift of divination. Early in his
twenty-fifth book ^ Pliny suggests that some incredible effects
have been attributed to herbs by the magi and their disciples,
and in a later chapter ® he describes the magi as so mad about
vervain that they think that if they are anointed with it,
they can gain their wishes, drive away fevers and other dis-
eases, and make friendships. The herb should be plucked
about the rising of the dog-star when there is neither sun
nor moon. Honey and honeycomb should be offered to ap-
pease the earth; then the plant should be dug around with
iron with the left hand and raised aloft. By the time he
reaches his twenty-sixth book Pliny's courage has risen, so
to speak, enough to cause him at last to enter upon quite a
tirade against "magical vanities which have been carried so
far that they might destroy faith in herbs entirely." "^ As
examples he mentions herbs supposed to dry up rivers and
swamps, open barred doors at their touch, turn hostile armies
to flight, and supply all the needs of the ambassadors of the
Persian kings. He wonders why such herbs have never
been employed in Roman warfare or Italian drainage.
Pliny's only objection to magic herbs therefore seems to be
the excessive powers which are claimed for some of them.
'XXII, 29.
'XX, 30.
•XXI, 38.
*XXIV, 99 and 102.
'XXV, 5.
«XXV, 59.
'XXVI, 9-
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 67
He adds that it would be strange that the creduhty which
arose from such wholesome beginnings had reached such a
pitch, if human ingenuity observed moderation in anything
and if the much more recent system of medicine which As-
clepiades founded could not be shown to have been carried
even beyond the magicians. Here again we see Pliny failing
to recognize magic as a primitive social product and regard-
ing it as a degeneration from ancient science rather than
science as a comparatively modern development from it.
But he may well be right in thinking that many particular
far-fetched recipes and rites were the late, artificial product
of over-scholarly magicians. Thus he brands as false and
magical the assertion of a recent grammarian, Apion, that
the herb cynocephalia is divine and a safeguard against
poison, but kills the man who uproots it entirely.-^
In a few cases Pliny objects to the animals or parts of Animals
animals employed by the magi, as in the passage already cited of^^^f/*^
where he complains that they admire moles more than any mals.
other animals.^ But his assertion is inconsistent, since he
has already affirmed that they hold the hyena in most admi-
ration of all animals on the ground that it works magic upon
men.^ Their promise of readier favor with peoples and
kings to those who anoint themselves with lion's fat, espe-
cially that between the eyebrows, he criticizes by declaring
that no fat can be found there.^ He also twits the magi for
magnifying the importance of so nasty a creature as the tick.^
They are attracted to it by the fact that it has no outlet to
its body and can live only seven days even if it fasts.
Whether there is any astrological significance in the number
seven here Pliny does not say. He does inform us, how-
ever, that the cricket is employed in magic because it moves
backward.^ A very bizarre object employed by the Druids
and other magicians is a sort of tgg produced by the hissing
or foam of snakes."^ The blood of the basilisk may also be
;XXX, 6. 'XXX, 24.
"xxviiii 27. "xxix, 39.
* XXVIII, 25. 'XXIX. 12.
68 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
classed as a rarity. Apparently animals in some way un-
usual are preferred in magic, like a black sheep/ but the
logic in the reasons given by Pliny for their selection is not
clear in every instance. In some other cases not criticized
by Pliny ^ we have plainly enough sympathetic magic or the
principle of like cures like, as when the milt of a calf or sheep
is used to cure diseases of the human spleen.
Further The magicians, however, do not scorn to use familiar
instances
and easily obtainable animals like the goat and dog and cat.
The liver and dung of a cat, a puppy's brains, the blood and
genitals of a dog, and the gall of a black male dog are among
the animal substances employed.^ Such substances as those
just named are equally in demand from other animals.^ Mi-
nute parts of animals are frequently employed by the magi-
cians, such as the toe of an owl, the liver of a mouse given
in a fig, the tooth of a live mole, the stones from young
swallows' gizzards, the eyes of river crabs.^ Sometimes
the part employed is reduced to ashes, perhaps a relic of
sacrificial custom. Thus for toothache the magi inject into
the ear nearer the tooth the ashes of the head of a mad dog
and oil of Cyprus, while they prescribe for affections of
the sinews the ashes of an owl's head in honied wine with
lily root.^ Other living creatures which Pliny mentions as
used by the magi are the salamander, earthworm, bat, scarab
with reflex horns, lizard, tortoise, bed-bug, frog, and sea-
urchin.'^ The dragon's tail wrapped in a gazelle's skin and
bound on with deer-sinews cures epilepsy,® and a mixture
of the dragon's tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines, boiled in
oil, cooled in the night air, and rubbed on morning and
evening, frees one from nocturnal apparitions.®
Sometimes the parts of animals are bound on outside
the patient's body, sometimes the injured portion of his body
^XXX, 6. 7; XXX, 27; XXXII. 38.
'XXVIII, 57; XXX, 17. «XXX, 8 and 36; see also
"Use of goat, XXVIII, 56, 63, XXVIII. 60; XXXII, 19 and 24.
78-79; cat, XXVIII, 66; puppy, 'XXIX, 23; XXX, 18, 20, 30.
XXIX, 38: dop, XXX, 21. 49; XXXII, 14, 18, 24.
* XXVIII, 60, 66, 77; XXIX, 26. *XXX, 27.
• XXVIII, 66 ; XXIX, 15 ; XXX, " XXX, 24.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 69
is merely touched with them. Once the whole house is to be Magic
fumigated with the substance in question ; ^ once the walls "nf^als
are to be sprinkled with it ; once it is to be buried under the and parts
threshold. Some instances follow of more elaborate magic
ritual connected with the use of animals or parts of animals.
The hyena is more easily captured by a hunter who ties
seven knots in his girdle and horsewhip, and it should be
captured when the moon is in the sign of Gemini and with-
out the loss of a single hair.^ Another bit of astrology dis-
pensed by the tnagi is that the cat, whose salted liver is
taken with wine for quartan fever, should have been killed
under a waning moon.^ To cure incontinence of urine one
not only drinks ashes of a boar's genitals in sweet wine, but
afterwards urinates in a dog kennel and repeats the for-
mula, "That I may not urinate like a dog in its kennel." *
The magicians insist that the sex of the patient be observed
in administering burnt cow-dung or bull-dung in honied
wine for cases of dropsy.^ For infantile ailments the brains
of a she-goat should be passed through a gold ring and
dropped in the baby's mouth before it is given its milk.®
After the fresh milt of a sheep has been applied to the pa-
tient with the words, "This I do for the cure of the spleen,"
it should be plastered into the bedroom wall and sealed with
a ring, while the charm should be repeated twenty-seven
times."^ In treating sciatica^ an earthworm should be placed
in a broken wooden dish mended with an iron band, the
dish should be filled with water, the worm should be buried
again where it was dug up, and the water should be drunk
by the patient. The eyes of river crabs are to be attached
to the patient's person before sunrise and the blinded crabs
put back into the water.^ After it has been carried around
the house thrice a bat may be nailed head down outside a
window as an amulet. ^^ For epilepsy goat's flesh should be
^XXX, 24. "XXVIII, 78.
'XXVIII, 27. 'XXX, 17.
» XXVIII, 66; and see XXIX, ^XXX 18
'^*xxvTii, 60. 'xxxii, 38.
" XXVIII, 68. "XXIX, 26.
70
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Marvels
wrought
with parts
of ani-
mals.
The magi
on stones.
given which has been roasted on a funeral pyre, and the
animal's gall should not be allowed to touch the ground.^
Pliny occasionally speaks in a vague general way of his
citations from the magi concerning the virtues of parts of
animals as lies or nonsense or ''portentous," but he does not
specifically criticize their procedure any more than he did
their methods of employing herbs, and he does not criticize
their promised results as much as he did before. Indeed, as
we have already indicated, the object in a majority of cases
is purely medicinal. The purpose of others is pastoral or
agricultural, such as preventing goats from straying or caus-
ing swine to follow you.^ The blood of the basilisk, how-
ever, is said to procure answers to petitions made to the
powerful and prayers addressed to the gods, and to act
as a safeguard against poison or sorcery {veneficiorum
amuleta).^ Invincibility is promised the wearer of the head
and tail of a dragon, hairs from a lion's forehead, a lion's
marrow, the foam of a winning horse, a dog's claw bound
in deerskin, and the muscles alternately of a deer and a
gazelle.* A woman will tell secrets in her sleep if the heart
of an owl is applied to her right breast, and power of divina-
tion is gained by eating the still palpitating heart of a mole.'^
In the case of stones the names are again, as in the case
of herbs, of little significance for us.^ The accompany-
ing ritual is slight. There are one or two suspensions
from the neck or elsewhere by such means as a lion's mane —
the hair of the hyena will not do at all — nor the hair of the
cynocephalus and swallows' feathers. '^ There is some use of
incantations with the stones, a setting of iron for one stone,
burial of another beneath a tree that it may not dull the axe,
and placing another on the tongue after rinsing the mouth
with honey at certain days and hours of the moon in order to
acquire the gift of divination.^ Indeed, the results promised
* XXVIII, 63.
* XXVIII, 56; XXIX, 15.
"XXIX, 19.
*XXIX, 20.
*XXIX, 26; XXX, 7.
* Pliny ascribes statements
cerning stones to the magi in the
following chapters: XXXVI, 34;
XXXVII, 37, 40, 49, SI, 54, 56, 60,
70, 73-
' XXXVII, 54 and 40.
* XXXVII, 40, 60, 56, 73-
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 71
are all marvelous. The stones benefit public speakers, admit
to the presence of royalty, counteract fascination and sor-
cery, avert hail, thunderbolts, storms, locusts, and scorpions ;
chill boiling water, produce family discord, render athletes
invincible, quench anger and violence, make one invisible,
evoke images of the gods and shades from the infernal re-
gions.
We have yet to mention a group of magical recipes and other
remedies which Pliny for some reason collects in one chap- "magical
■' '■ recipes,
ter ^ but which hardly fall under any one head. A whet-
stone on which iron tools are sharpened, if placed without
his knowledge under the pillow of a man who has been poi-
soned, will cause him to reveal all the circumstances of the
crime. If you turn a man who has been struck by lightning
over on his injured side, he will speak at once. To cure tu-
mors in the groin, tie seven or nine knots in the remnant
of a weaver's web, naming some widow as each knot is tied.
The pain is assuaged by binding to the body the nail that
has been trod on. To get rid of warts, on the twentieth day
of the moon lie flat in a path gazing at the moon, stretch the
hands above the head and rub the warts with anything that
comes to hand. A corn may be extracted successfully at
the moment a star shoots. Headache may be relieved by a
liniment made by pouring vinegar on door hinges or by
binding a hangman's noose about the patient's temples. To
dislodge a fish-bone stuck in the throat, plunge the feet into
cold water; to dislodge some other sort of bone, place bones
on the head; to dislodge a morsel of bread, stuff bits of
bread into both ears. We may add from a neighboring
chapter a very magical remedy for fevers, although Pliny
calls it "the most modest of their promises." ^ Toe and fin-
ger nail parings mixed with wax are to be attached ere sun-
rise to another person's door in order to transfer the disease
from the patient to him. Or they may be placed near an
ant-hill, in which case the first ant who tries to drag one in-
^ XXVIII, 12, "Magorum haec ^ XXVIII, 23.
commenta sunt. . . ."
72
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap:
Summary
of the
state-
ments of
the magi.
From the
magi to
Pliny's
magic
side the hill should be captured and suspended from the pa-
tient's neck.
Such is the picture we derive from numerous passages in
the Natural History of the magic art, its materials and rites,
the effects it seeks to produce, and its general attitude
towards nature. Besides the natural materials employed and
the marvelous results sought, we have noted the frequent
use of ligatures, suspensions, and amulets, the obser\''ance of
astrological conditions, of certain times and numbers, rules
for plucking herbs and tying knots, stress on the use of the
right or left hand — in other words, on position or direction,
some employment of incantations, some sacrifice and fumi-
gation, some specimens of sympathetic magic, of the theory
that "like cures like," and of other types of magic logic.
V. Pliny's Magical Science
We may now turn to the still more numerous passages of
the Natural History where the magi are not cited and com-
pare the virtues there ascribed to the things of nature and
the methods employed in medicine and agriculture with
those of the magicians. We shall find many striking resem-
blances and shall soon come to a realization that there is more
magic in the Natural History which is not attributed to the
magi than there is that is. Pliny did not need to warn us that
medicine had been corrupted by magic; his own medicine
proves it. It is this fact, that virtually his entire work is
crammed with marvelous properties and fantastic ceremo-
nial, which makes it so difficult in some places to tell when
he begins to draw material from the magi and when he
leaves off. By a detailed analysis of this remaining mate-
rial we shall now attempt to classify the substances of which
Pliny makes use and the virtues which he ascribes to them,
the rites and methods of procedure by which they are em-
ployed, and certain superstitious doctrines and notions
which are involved. We shall thus find that almost pre-
cisely the same factors are present in his science as in the
lore of the magicians.
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY
73
Of substances we may begin with animals/ and, before
Habits of
we note the human use of their virtues with its strong sug- animals,
gestion of magic, may remark another unscientific and su-
perstitious feature which was very common both in ancient
and medieval times. This is the tendency to humanize ani-
mals, ascribing to them conscious motives, habits, and ruses,
or even moral standards and religious veneration. We shall
have occasion to note the same thing in other authors and
so will give but a few specimens from the many in the Nat-
ural History. Such qualities are attributed by Pliny espe-
cially to elephants, whom he ranks next to man in intelli-
gence, and whom he represents as worshiping the stars,
learning difficult tricks, and as having a sense of justice, feel-
* Some works upon animals in
antiquity and Greece are :
Aubert und Wimmer, Aristo-
teles Thierkunde, 2 vols., Leipzig,
1868.
Baethgen, De vi et signiUcatione
gain in religione ct artibus
Graecorum et Romanorum, Diss.
Inaug., Gottingen, 1887.
Bernays, Theophrasts Schrift
liber Frommigkeit.
Bikelas, O., La nomenclature de
la Faune grecque, Paris, 1879.
Billerbeck, De locis nonnullis
Arist. Hist. Animal. difUcilioribus ,
Hildesheim, 1806.
Dryoff, A., Die Tierpsychologie
des Plutarchs, Progr. Wiirzburg,
1897. tJber die stoische Tierpsy-
chologie, in Bl. f. bayr. Gymn., 23
(1897) 399ff.; 34 (1898) 416.
Erhard, Fauna der Cykladen,
Leipzig, 1858.
Fowler, W. W., A Year with
the Birds, 1895.
Hopf, L., Thierorakel und Ora-
kelthiere in alter und ncucr Zeit,
Stuttgart, 1888.
Hopfner, T., Der Tierkult der
alten ALgypter nach den griech-
isch-romischen Berichten und
den unchtigen Denkmdlcrn, in
Denkschr. d. Akad. Wien, 1913,
ii Abh.
Imhoof-Blumer, F., und Keller,
O., Tier- und Pilansenbilder auf
Miinscn und Gcmmcn des klas-
sischen Altertums. illustrated,
Keller, O., Thiere des class.
Altertums.
Kriiper, Zeit en des Gehens und
Kommens und des Briitens der
Vogel in Griechenland und lonien,
in Mommsen's Griech. Jahrcssei-
tcn, 1875.
Kiister, E., Die Schlange in der
griechischen Kunst und Religion,
Giessen, 1913.
Lebour, Zoologist, 1866.
Lewysohn, Zoologie des Tal-
mud s.
Lindermayer, A., Die Vogel
Griechenlands, Passau, i860.
Locard, Histoire des mollusques
dans I'antiquite, Lyon, 1884.
Lorenz, Die Taube im Alter-
thutne, 1886.
Marx, A., Griech. Mdrchen von
dankbaren Tieren, Stuttgart, 1889,
Miihle, H. v. d., Beitrdge sur
Ornithologie Griechenlands, Leip-
zig, 1844.
Sundevall, Thierarten des Aris-
toteles, Stockholm, 1863.
Thompson, D'Arcy W., A Glos-
sary of Greek Birds, 1895. Aris-
totle as a Biologist, 1913. Also
the notes to his translation of the
Historia animalium.
Westermarck, E., The Origin
and Development of Moral Ideas,
I (1906) 251-60, gives further
bibliography on the subjects of
animals as witnesses and the pun-
i:.hment of animal culprits.
■ 74 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ing of mercy, and so on.^ Similarly the lion has noble cour-
age and a sense of gratitude, while the lioness is wily in the
devices by which she conceals her amours with the pard.^
A number of the devices of fishes to escape hooks and nets
are repeated by Pliny from Ovid's Haliciiticon, extant
only in fragments.^ The crocodile opens its jaws to have
its teeth picked by a friendly bird ; but sometimes while this
operation is being performed the ichneumon "darts down its
throat like a javelin and eats away its intestines."* Pliny
also marvels at the cleverness displayed by the dragon and
the elephant in their combats with one another,^ which, how-
ever, almost invariably terminate fatally to both combatants,
the elephant falling exhausted in the dragon's coils and
crushing the serpent by its weight. Others say that in the
hot summer the dragons thirst for the blood of the elephant
which is very cold ; in their combat the elephant falls drained
of its blood and crushes the dragon who is intoxicated by
the same.
Remedies The dragon's apparent knowledge that the elephant is
b'^anhnal*^ cold-blooded leads us to a kindred topic, the remedies used
by animals and often discovered by men only by seeing ani-
mals use them. This notion continued in the middle ages,
as we shall see, and of course it did not originate with Pliny.
As he says himself, "The ancients have recorded the reme-
dies of wild beasts and shown how they are healed even when
poisoned." ^ Against aconite the scorpion eats white helle-
bore as an antidote, while the panther employs human ex-
crement.'^ Animals prepare themselves for combats with
poisonous snakes by eating certain herbs; the weasel eats
rue, the tortoise and deer use two other plants, while field
mice who have been stung by snakes eat condrion.^ The
hawk tears open the hawkweed and sprinkles its eyes with
the juice.^ The serpent tastes fennel when it sheds its old
»VIII, I-I2. * XXVII, 2; XVIII, I.
»VIII, 17-21. ''XXVII, 2; VIII, 41-
^ XXXII, S. "XX, 51 and 61; XXII, 37 and
* VIII, 37. 45.
"VIII, 11-12. "XX, 26.
II
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY
75
of ani-
mals.
skin,^ Sick bears cure themselves by a diet of ants.^ Swal-
lows restore the sight of their young with chelidonia or swal-
low-wort,^ and the historian Xanthus says that the dragon
restores its dead offspring to life with an herb called balis^
The hippopotamus was the original discoverer of bleeding,^
opening a vein in his leg by wounding himself on sharp reeds
along the shore, and afterwards checking the flow of blood
by plastering the place with mud.^ Pliny, however, states
in one passage that animals hit upon all these remedies by
chance and even have to rediscover them by accident in each
new case, "since," he continues in conformity with recent
animal psychologists, "reason and practice cannot be trans-
mitted between wild beasts." '^
Yet in another passage Pliny deplores the spite fulness jealousy
of the dog which, while men are looking, will not pluck the
herb by which it cures itself of snakebite.^ Probably Pliny
is using different authorities in the two passages. Theo-
phrastus, the pupil of Aristotle, had written a work on
Jealous Animals. More excusable than the spitefulness of
the dog is the attitude of the dragon, from whose brain the
gem draconitis must be taken while the dragon is alive and
preferably asleep. For if the dragon feels that it is mor-
tally wounded, it takes revenge by spoiling the gem.^ Ele-
phants know that men hunt them only for their tusks, and
so bury these when they fall ofif.^°
Animals have marvelous virtues of their own other than
the medicinal uses to which men have put them. For in-
stance, the mere glance of the basilisk is fatal, and its breath
burns up vegetation and breaks rocks. ^^ But the medicinal
effects which Pliny ascribes to animals and parts of animals
'VIII, 41; XX, 95.
'XXIX, 39.
•XXV, 50.
Occult
virtues of
animals.
*XXV, 5.
^ VIII, 40; XXVIII, 31.
° For further remedies used by
animals see VIII, 41 ; XXIX, 14,
38; XXV, 52-53; XXVIII, 81.
' XXVII, 2. ". . . quod certe
casu repertum quis dubitet et quo-
tiens fiat etiam nunc ut novom
nasci quoniam feris ratio et usus
inter se tradi non possit?" Per-
haps Pliny would have denied the
inheritance of acquired character-
istics.
XXV, 51.
' XXXVII,
"VIII, 4.
' VIII, 33.
57.
76 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
are well nigh infinite. Many animal substances will have to
be introduced in other connections so that we need mention
now but a very few : the heads and blood of flies, honey in
which bees have died, cinere genitalis asini, chicks in the
t.gg, and thrice seven centipedes diluted with Attic honey,^ —
this last a prescription for asthma and to be taken through a
reed because it blackens every dish by its contact. Another
passage advises eating a rat or shrew-mouse in order to bear a
baby with black eyes.^ These items are enough to convince
us that the animals and parts of animals employed by the
magicians were not one whit more bizarre and nauseating
than the others found in the Natural History, nor were the
cures which they were expected to work any more improbable.
In order to illustrate, however, the delicate distinctions which
were imagined to exist not only between the virtues of dif-
ferent parts of the same animal, but also between slightly
varied uses of the same part, we may note that scales
scraped from the topmost part of a tortoise's shell and ad-
ministered in drink check sexual desire, considering which,
it is, as Pliny remarks, the more marvelous that a powder
made of the entire shell is reported to arouse lust.^ But love
turns readily to hatred in magic as well as in romance, and
it is nothing very unusual, as we shall find in other authors,
for the same thing on slight provocation to work in exactly
opposite ways.
The Pig grease, Pliny somewhere informs us, possesses espe-
he^rbs" ° cially strong virtue, "because that animal feeds on the roots
of herbs." ^ From the virtues of animals, therefore, let us
turn to those of herbs. ^ Pliny met on every hand assertion
of their wonderful powers. The empire-builders of Rome
employed the sacred herbs sagmina and verbenae in their em-
bassies and legations. The Gauls, too, use the verbena in
^XXIX, 34; XXX, 10, 19; theme is Joret, Les plantes dans
XXVIII, 46; XXIX, 11; XXX, /'anfi^Mjf^', Paris, 1904 ; see also F.
16. Mentz, De plantis qiias ad rem
XXX, 46, magicam facere crediderunt vet-
* XXXII, 14. eres, Leipzig, 1705, 28 pp.; F.
* XXVIII, 27- Unger, Die Pilanze als Zauber-
'A recent work on the general mittel, Vienna, 1859.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 77
lot-casting and prophetic responses.^ Pliny also states more
sceptically that there is another root which diviners take in
drink in order to feign inspiration.^ The Scythians know of
a plant which prevents hunger and thirst if held in the mouth,
and of another which has the same effect upon their horses,
so that they can go for twelve days without meat or drink, ^
— an exaggerated estimate of the hardihood of the mounted
Asiatic nomads and their steeds. Musaeus and Hesiod say
that one anointed with potion will attain fame and dignities.*
Pliny perhaps did not intend to subscribe fully to such
statements, although he cannot be said to call many of them
into question. He did complain that some writers had as-
serted incredible powers of herbs, such as to restore dragons
or men to life or withdraw wedges from trees, ^ yet he seems
on the whole in sympathy with the opinion of the majority
that there is practically nothing which the force of herbs
cannot accomplish. Herophilus, illustrious in medicine, had
said that certain herbs were beneficial if merely trod upon,
and Pliny himself says the same of more than one plant. He
tells us further that binding the wild fig tree about their
necks makes the fiercest bulls stand immobile ; ^ that another
plant subjects fractious beasts of burden to the yoke ; ' while
cows who eat buprestis burst asunder.^ Another herb con-
tacto genitali kills any female animal.® Betony is considered
an amulet for houses, ^° and fishermen in Pliny's neighbor-
hood mix a plant with chalk and scatter it on the waves. ^'^
"The fish dart towards it with marvelous desire and straight-
way float lifeless on the surface." Dogs will not bark at
persons carrying peristereos}^ The "impious plant" pre-
vents any human being who tastes it from having quinsy,
while swine are sure to have that disease if they do not eat it.
^ XXII, 3 ; XXV, 59 ; XXVII, 28. ' XXIII, 64.
' XXI, 105. "Halicacabi radicem ' XXV, 35-
bibunt qui vaticinari gallantesque ' XXII, 36.
vere ad confirmandas superstiti- " XXIV, 94.
ones aspici se volunt." " XXV, 46.
' XXV, 43-44- " XXV, 54.
*XXI, 21, 84. "XXV. 78.
"XXV, 5
78 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Some place it in birds' nests to prevent the voracious nest-
lings from strangling. Bitter almonds provide another
amusing combination of effects. Eating five of them per-
mits one to drink without experiencing intoxication, but if
foxes eat them they will die unless they find water near by
to drink. ^ There are some herbs which have a medicinal
effect, if one merely looks at them.- In two cases the
masculine or feminine variety of a herb is used to secure
the birth of a child of the desired sex.^
Plucking That the plucking of herbs and digging up of roots was
a process very apt to be attended by magical procedure we
find abundant evidence in the Natural History. Often
plants should be plucked before sunrise.^ Twice Pliny tells
us that the peony should be uprooted by night lest the wood-
pecker of Mars try to pick the digger's eyes out.^ The
state of the moon is another point to be observed,* and
once an herb is to be gathered before thunder is heard.'^ A
common instruction is to pick the plant with the left hand,^
and once with the thumb and fourth finger of the left hand.^
Once the right hand should be stretched covertly after the
fashion of a pickpocket through the left sleeve in order to
pluck the plant. ^'^ Sometimes one faces east in plucking
herbs ; sometimes, west ; again one is careful not to face the
wind.^^ Sometimes the gatherer must not glance behind liim.
Sometimes he must fast before he takes the plant from the
ground;^- again he must observe a state of chastity.^^
Sometimes he should be barefoot and clothed in white;
again he should remove every^ stitch of clothing and even his
rings. ^"* Sometimes the use of iron implements is forbidden ;
again gold or some other material is prescribed ; ^^ once the
herb is to be dug with a nail.^*' Sometimes circles are traced
* XXIII. 7S. = XXIII, 59.
"XXIV, 56-57. ^^XXIV, 62.
•XXV, 18; XXVII, 100. "XXV 'I 04
^XX. 14; XXIV, 82; XXV, 92. -XXIV ~63 and 118.
'XXV. 10; XXVII, 60. "XXI 19
;^,^,(V' 6. 93. "XXIV, 62; XXIII, 59-
'XX, 49: XXI, 83: XXIII, 54; ">^^"I' 8^; XXIV. 6. 62, 116.
XXIV, 63; XXV, 59; XXVI, 12. "XXVI. 12.
Ti PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 79
about the plant with the point of a sword. ^ Often the
plant must not touch the ground again after it is picked,^
presumably from a fear that its virtue would run ofT like an
electric current. Pliny alludes at least three times ^ to the
practice of herbalists of retaining portions of the herbs
they sell, and then, if they are not paid in full, replanting
the herb in the same spot with the idea that thereby the dis-
ease will return to plague the delinquent patient. Fre-
quently one is directed to state why one plucks the herb or
for whom it is intended.'* In one case the digger says,
"This is the herb Argemon which Minerva discovered was
a remedy for swine who taste it." ^ In another case one
should salute the plant and extract its juice before saying a
word ; thus its virtue will be much greater.^ In other cases,
as an offering to appease the earth, the soil about the plant
is soaked with hydromel three months before plucking it,
or the hole left by pulling it up is filled with different kinds
of grain.'' Sometimes one sacrifices beforehand with bread
and wine or prays to the gods for permission to gather the
herb.^ The customs of the Druids in gathering herbs are
mentioned more than once.^ In gathering the sacred mis-
tletoe on the sixth day of the moon they hold sacrifices and
a banquet beneath the tree.-^*' Two white bulls are the vic-
tims ; a priest clad in white cuts the mistletoe with a golden
sickle and receives it in a white cloak. ^^
To Pliny's discussion of herbs we may append some Agri-
specimens of the employment of magic procedure in agri- magic.
culture and of the superstitions of the peasantry in which
his pages abound. To guard against diseases of grain the
seeds before planting should be steeped in wine, the juice
of a certain herb, the gall of a cow, or human urine, or
^ XXI. 19; XXV, 21, 94. « XXV, 92.
xxvn"'-^ ^'' ^'' ^^^^' ^' '^^^' '9= ^^^' "•
'XXI, 83; XXV, 109; XXVI, [XXIV, 62; XXV, 21.
12. "XXIV, 62-63.
*XXII, 16; XXIII, 54; XXIV, "XVI, 95.
82; XXVII, 113. "See XXIV, 6, for other
"XXIV, 116. methods of plucking the mistletoe.
8o MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.^
should be touched with the shoulders of a mole ^ — the ani-
mal whose use by the magi we heard Pliny ridicule. One
should sow at the moon's conjunction. Before the field
is hoed, a frog should be carried around it and then buried
in the center in an earthen vessel. But it should be disin-
terred before harvest lest the millet be bitter. Birds may
be kept away from the grain by planting in the four cor-
ners of the field an herb whose name is unfortunately un-
known to Pliny. ^ Mice are kept out by the ashes of a
weasel, mildew by laurel branches, caterpillars by placing
the skull of a female beast of burden upon a stick in the
garden.^ To ward off fogs and storms from orchards and
vineyards a frog may be buried as directed above, or live
crabs may be burnt in the trees, or a painted grape may be
consecrated.'* Suspending a frog in the granary preserves
the corn stored there.^ To keep wolves away catch one,
break its legs, attach it to the ploughshare, and thus scatter
its blood about the boundaries of the field; then bury the
carcass at the starting-point.® Or consecrate at the altar
of the Lar the ploughshare with which the first furrow was
traced. Foxes will not touch poultry who have eaten the
dried liver of a fox or who wear a bit of its skin about
their necks. Fern will not spring up again if it is mowed
with the edge of a reed or uprooted by a ploughshare upon
which a reed has been placed.''^ Of the use of incantations
in agriculture we shall treat later.
Virtues Pliny appears to have much less faith in the possession
of marvelous virtues by gems than by herbs and parts of ani-
mals. He not only characterizes the powers attributed to
gems by the magi and Democritus and Pythagoras as "ter-
rible lies" and "unspeakable nonsense" ; ^ but refrains from
mentioning many such himself or inserts a cautious "if
we believe it" or "if they tell the truth." ^ Of the gem
'XVIII, 45. " XXVIII, 81.
* See also XXV, 6. 1 yvtTT R
a YTV i-Q '
*xviii 70 " XXXVII, 14, 73.
'XVIII. 73. • XXXVII, 55-56.
metals.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 8i
supposed to be produced from the urine of the lynx
he says, "I think that this is quite false and no gem of that
name has been seen in our time. What is stated concerning
its medicinal virtue is also false." ^ To other stones, how-
ever, he ascribes various medicinal virtues, either when
taken pulverized in drink or when worn as amulets.^ A few
other occult properties are stated without reservation, as
that amiantus resists all sorceries,^ that adamant expels idle
fears from the mind, that 'sideritis produces discord and
litigation, and that eumeces, placed beneath one's pillow at
night, causes oracular visions."* Magnets are said to differ
in sex, and the belief of Theophrastus and Mucianus.is re-
peated that certain stones bear offspring.^
Of the metals iron sometimes figures in Pliny's magical 0*1^^^
_ ° •' ° , minerals
procedure, as when he either prescribes or taboos the use of it and
in cutting herbs or killing animals. In Arcadia the yew-tree
is a fatal poison to persons sleeping beneath it, but driving
a copper nail into the tree makes it harmless.® Pliny says
that gold is medicinal in many ways and in particular is
applied to wounded persons and to infants as a safeguard
against witchcraft.'^ Earth itself is often used to work
marvels, but usually some particular portion, such as that
between cart ruts or that thrown up by ants, beetles, and
moles, or in the right footprint where one first heard a
cuckoo sing.^ However, the rule that an object should not
touch the ground is enforced in many other connections ^
than the plucking of herbs, and Pliny twice states that the
earth will not permit a serpent who has stung a human be-
ing to re-enter its hole.^° In his discussion of metals Pliny
does not allude to transmutation or alchemy, unless it be in
his accounts of various fraudulent practices of workers in
metal and how Caligula extracted gold from orpiment. But
the following directions for preparing antimony show how
'XXXVII, 13. 'XXXVI, 25, 39.
'For instance, XXXVII, 12 'XVI, 20.
amber, 37 jasper, 39 aetites, 55 ' XXXIII, 25.
"baroptenus." ' XXX, 12, 25.
•XXXVI, 31. "XX, 3; XXVIII, 6, 9; etc.
♦XXXVII, IS. 58, 67. "II, 63; XXIX, 23.
82
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Virtues of
human
parts.
Virtues of
human
saliva.
closely akin to magic the procedure in ancient metallurgy
might be. The antimony should be coated with cow-flap
and burnt in furnaces, then quenched in woman's milk and
pounded in mortars with an admixture of rain-water.^
Various parts and products of the human body are
credited with remarkable virtues as the mention just made
of woman's milk suggests. Other passages recommend
more especially the milk of a woman just delivered of a
male child, but most of all that of the mother of twins.^
Sed nihil facile reperiatur mulierimi profluvio magis mon-
strificum, as Pliny proceeds to illustrate by numerous ex-
amples.^ Great virtues are also attributed to the urine, par-
ticularly of a chaste boy.* A few other instances of rem-
edies drawn from the human body are ear-wax or a pow-
dered tooth against stings of scorpions and bites of snakes,^
a man's hair for the bite of a dog, the first hairs from a
boy's head for gout.® Diseases of women are prevented by
wearing constantly in a bracelet the first tooth a boy loses,
provided it has not touched the ground. Simply tying two
fingers or toes together is recommended for tumors in the
groin, catarrh, and sore eyes.'^ Or the eyes may be touched
thrice with water in which the feet have been washed.
Scrofula and throat diseases may be cured by the touch of
the hand of one who has died an early death, although some
authorities do not insist upon the circumstance of early
death but direct that the corpse be of the same sex as the
patient and that the diseased spot be touched with the back
of the left dead hand.
Of all fluids and excretions of the human body the saliva
is perhaps used most often in ancient and medieval medicine,
as the custom of spitting once or thrice in administering other
remedies or performing ceremonies goes to prove. The
spittle of a fasting person is the more efficacious. In a
chapter devoted particularly to the properties of human
* XXXIII, 34- 18-19.
»XX, 51; XXVIII, 21. ^ XXVIII, 8.
•VII, 13; XXVIII, 23. 'XXVIII, 9-
*XX, Z2\ XXII, 30; XXVIII, 'XXVIII, 9-11.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 83
saliva Pliny lists many diseases and woes which it allevi-
ates.^ In this connection he makes the following absurd
assertion which he nevertheless declares is easily tested by
experiment. "If a person repents of a blow given from a
distance or hand-to-hand, let him spit into the palm of the
hand with which he struck, and the person who has been
struck will feel no resentment. This is often proved by
beasts of burden who are induced to mend their pace by
this method after the use of the whip has failed." Pliny
adds, however, that some persons try to increase the force
of their blows by thus spitting on the hands beforehand.
He also mentions as counter-charms against sorcery the
practices of spitting into one's urine or right shoe, or when
crossing a dangerous spot.
The importance of the human operator as a factor in The
the performance of marvels, be they medical or magical, is operator,
attested by the frequent injunctions of chastity, virginity,
nudity, or a state of fasting upon persons concerned in
Pliny's procedure. Sometimes they are not to glance be-
hind them, sometimes they are to speak to no one during
the operation. Pliny also mentions men who have a special
capacity for wonder-working, such as Pyrrhus, the touch of
whose toe had healing power,^ those whose eyes exert strong
fascination, whole tribes of serpent-charmers and venom-
curers, and others whose mere presence addles the eggs be-
neath a setting hen.^ The power of words spoken by men
will be considered separately under the head of incantations.
While Pliny attributes the most extreme medicinal vir- Absence of
tues to simples, he excludes from his Natural History the ^^-^^
strange and elaborate compounds which were nevertheless pounds,
so popular in the pharmacy of his age. Of one simple,
laser, he says that it would be an immense task to attempt
to list all the uses that it is supposed to have in compounds.*
His position is that the simple remedies alone are the direct
work of nature, while the mixtures, tablets, pills, plasters,
* XXVIII, 7. " XXVIII, 6.
*VII, 2. "XXII, 49.
84
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Sympa-
thetic
magic.
Antipa-
thies
between
animals.
washes are artificial inventions of the apothecaries. Once
when he describes a compound called "Hermesias" which
aids in the generation of good and beautiful children, it
seems to be borrowed by Democritus from the magi} Fur-
thermore, Pliny thinks that health can be sufficiently pre-
served or restored by nature's simple remedies. Com-
pounds are the invention of human conjecture, avarice, and
impudence. Such conjecture is often false, not sufficiently
taking into account the natural sympathies and antipathies
of the numerous ingredients. Often compounds are inex-
plicable. Pliny also deplores resort to imported drugs from
India, Arabia, and the Red Sea, when there are homely
remedies at hand for the poorest man.^
We have just heard Pliny refer to the sympathies and
antipathies of natural simples, and he often explains the
marvelous effects of natural objects upon one another by
this relation of love and hatred, friendship or repugnance,
discord or concord which exists between them, which the
Greeks call sympathy or antipathy, and which Heracleitus
was perhaps the first philosopher to insist upon.^ Some
modern students of magic have tried to account for all magic
on this theory, and Pliny states that medicine and medicines
originated from it.*
This relationship exists between animals, — deer and
snakes, for example. So great a force is it that stags track
snakes to their holes and extract them thence despite all
resistance by the power of their breath. This antipathy
continues after death, for the sovereign remedy for snake-
bite is the rennet of a fawn killed in its mother's womb,
while serpents flee from a man who wears the tooth of a
deer. But antipathy may change to sympathy, for Pliny
adds that in some cases certain parts of deer treated in cer-
tain ways attract serpents.^ This force of antipathy is in-
*XXIV, 102.
'In this paragraph I have com-
bined views expressed by Pliny in
three different passages : XXII,
49 and 56; XXIV, i.
"IX, 88; XXIV, i; XXVIII,
23; XXXII, 12; XXXVII, 15; etc.
*XXIV, i; XXIX, 17.
•VIII. so; XXVIII. 42.
II
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY
85
deed capable of taking the strangest turn. Bed-bugs, foul
and disgusting as they are, heal the bite of snakes, especially
asps, and sows can eat the poisonous salamander.^ The an-
tipathy between goats and snakes would seem almost as
potent as that between deer and snakes,^ since we are told
that snake-bitten persons recover more quickly, if they fre-
quent the stalls where goats are kept or wear as an amulet
the paunch of a she-goat.
There is also "the hatred and friendship of deaf and
insensible things." ^ Instances are the magnet's attraction
for iron and the fact that adamant can be broken only by
the blood of a he-goat, two stock examples of occult influ-
ence and natural marvels which continued classic in the
medieval period.'* Pliny indeed regards this last as the
clearest illustration possible of the potency of sympathy
and antipathy, since a substance which defies iron and fire,
nature's two most violent agents, yields to the blood of a
foul animal.^
There is furthermore sympathy and antipathy between
animate and inanimate objects. So marvelous is the antip-
athy of the tamarisk tree for the spleen alone of internal
organs, that pigs who drink from troughs of this wood are
found when slaughtered to be without spleen, and hence
splenetic patients are fed from vessels of tamarisk.^ The
spleenless pig, it may be interpolated, is another common-
place of ancient and medieval science. Smearing the hives
with cow dung kills other insects but stimulates the bees
who have an affinity for it {cognatmn hoc iis),'^ probably,
although Pliny does not say so, on the theory that they are
'XXIX, 17 and 23.
'XXVIII, 43-
*XX, I. "Odia amicitiaque re-
rum surdarum ac sensu carentium
. . . quod Graeci sympathiam ap-
pellavere." XXIV, i. "Surdis
etiam rerum sua cuique sunt
venena ac minimis quoque . . •
Concordia valent."
* XXVIII, 41; XXXVII, 15.
Yet a note in Bostock and Riley's
translation, IV, 207, asserts, "Pliny
is the only author who makes
mention of this singularly absurd
notion."
""Nunc quod totis voluminibus
his docere conati summus de dis-
cordia rerum concordiaque quam
antipathiam Graeci vocavere ac
sympathiam non aliter clarius in-
telligi potest."
"XXIV, 41.
'XXI, 47.
Love and
hatred
between
inanimate
objects.
Sympathy
between
animate
and inani-
mate ob-
jects.
86 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
spontaneously generated from it. That the wild cabbage is
hostile to dogs is evidenced by the statement of Epicharmus
that it cures the bite of a mad dog but kills a dog if he eats
it when given to him with meat.^ Snakes hate the ash-tree
so, that if they are hemmed in by its foliage on one side and
fire on the other, they flee by preference into the flames.^
Betony, too, is so antipathetic to snakes that they lash them-
selves to death when a circle of it is drawn about them.^
Scorpions cannot survive in the air of Sicily.* Perhaps
antipathy is also the explanation of Pliny's absurd state-
ment that loads of apples and pears, even if there are only
a few of them, are very heavy for beasts of burden.^ Here,
however, the condition may be remedied and perhaps a re-
lationship of sympathy established by showing the beasts
how few fruit there really are or by giving them some to
eat. That sympathy may even attach to places or religious
circumstances Pliny infers from the belief that the priestess
of the earth at Aegira, when about to descend into the cave
and predict, drinks without injury bull's blood which is sup-
posed to be a fatal poison.^
Like cures That like cures like, or more precisely and paradoxically
^^^- that the cause of the disease will cure its own result, is an-
other notion which Pliny's medicine shares with magic.
This is seen in the use of parts of the mad dog to cure its
bite,'^ or in rubbing thighs chafed by horse-back riding with
the foam from a horse's mouth.® The bite of the shrew-
mouse, too, is best healed by imposition of the very animal
which bit you, but another shrew-mouse will do and they
are kept ready in oil and mud for this purpose.^ The sting
of the phalangium may be cured by merely looking at an-
other insect of that species, whether it be dead or alive.
From cases in which the cure for the disease is identical
with its cause it is but a short step to remedies similar to
*XX. 36. « XXVIII, 41.
^XVI, 24. ^xxix, 32.
'XXV, 55. " XXVIII, 61.
*XXXVII, 54. "XXIX, 27.
■^ XXIII, 62; XXIV. I.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 87
or in some way associated with the ailment. It seems ob-
vious to PHny that stone in the bladder can be broken by
the herb on which grow what look exactly like pearls. "In
the case of no other herb is it so evident for what medicine
it is intended; its species is such that it can be recognized
at once by sight without book knowledge."^ Similarly
ophites, a marble with serpentine streaks, is used as an amu-
let against snake-bite.^ Mithridates discovered that the
blood of Pontic ducks should be mixed in antidotes because
they live on poison.^ Heliotrope seed looks like a scorpion's
tail ; if scorpions are touched with a sprig of heliotrope they
die, and they will not enter ground which has been circum-
scribed by it.^ To accelerate a woman's delivery her lover
should take off his belt and gird her with it, then untie it,
saying that he has bound her and will unloose her, and then
he should go away.^ An epileptic may be cured by driving
an iron nail into the spot where his head rested when he fell
in the fit.^
Other instances of association are when the remedy em- The prirv
ploved is some part of an animal who is free from the disease '^'P^^ ?^
, -^ . ^ . • associa-
in question or marked by an opposite state of health. Goats tion.
and gazelles never have ophthalmia, hence various portions
of their bodies are prescribed for eye diseases.'^ Eagles can
gaze at the sun, therefore their gall is efficacious in eye-
salves.^ The bird called ossifrage has a single intestine
which digests anything; the end of this intestine serves as
an amulet against colic, and indigestion may be cured by
merely holding the crop of the bird in one hand.^ But do not
hold it too long or your flesh will waste away. The virus
of mares is an ingredient in a candle which makes heads of
horses seem to appear when it burns ; ^® while ink of the
sepia is used in a candle which causes Ethiopians to be
seen when it is lighted.^^ These magic candles are borrowed
^ XXVII, 74. •'XXVIII, 47.
^ XXXVI, II. 8 XXIX 38
^XXIl'io " XXX, 20.
»XXVilf:'9. "XXVIII, 49.
•■ XXVIII, 17. "XXXII, 52.
88 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap,
by Pliny from the works of Anaxilaus, and we shall find
them a feature of medieval collections of experiments.
Earth from a cart-wheel rut is thought a remedy against
the bite of the shrew-mouse because that creature is too tor-
pid to cross such a rut ; ^ and Pliny believes that none of
the virtues attributed to moles by the magicians is more
probable than that they are an antidote to the bite of the
shrew-mouse, which shuns even ruts, whereas moles burrow
freely through the soil.^ Pliny finds incredible the assertion
made by some that a ship will move more slowly if it has
the right foot of a tortoise aboard,^ but the logic of the
magic seems evident enough.
Magic In Pliny's medicine there are a number of examples of
of disease, what may be called magic transfer, in which the aim of the
procedure is not to cure the disease outright but to rid the
patient of it by transferring it from him to some other ani-
mal or object. Intestinal disease may be transferred to
puppies who have not yet opened their eyes by pressing them
to the body and giving them milk from the patient's mouth.
They will die of the disease, when its cause and exact nature
may be determined by dissecting them. But finally they
must be buried.* Griping pains in the bowels will also pass
to a duck that is held against the abdomen. One may be
rid of a cough by spitting in a frog's mouth or cure catarrh
by kissing a mule,^ although in these cases we are left unin-
formed whether the disease passes to the animal. But if a
person who has been stung by a scorpion whispers the news
in the ear of an ass, the ill will be transferred to the ass.®
A boil may be removed by rubbing nine grains of barley
around it, each grain thrice with the left hand, and then
throwing them all into the fire.^ Warts are banished by
touching each with a grain of the chickpea and then tying
the grains up in a linen cloth and throwing them behind
one.^ If a root of asphodel is applied to sores and then hung
* XXIX, 27. " XXXII, 29; XXX, II.
"XXX. 7. • XXVIII, 42.
'XXXII, 14. 'XXII, 65.
*XXX, 20 and 14. " XXII, 72.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 89
up in smoke, the sores will dry up along with the root.^ To
cure scrofulous sores some bind on as many earthworms
as there are sores and let them dry up together.^ A tooth
will cease aching if the herb erigeron is dug up with iron
and the patient thrice alternately touches the tooth with
the root and spits, and if he then replaces the herb in the
same spot and it lives. ^ If this last is a case of magic trans-
fer, perhaps we may trace the same notion in some of the
numerous instances in which Pliny directs that an animal
shall be released alive after some part of it has been removed
or some other medicinal use made of it.
A common characteristic of magic force and occult vir- Amulets,
tue is that it will often act at a distance or without any
physical contact or direct application. This is manifested
in the practice of carrying or wearing amulets, or, what is
the same thing, of ligatures and suspensions, in which ob-
jects are hung from the neck or bound to some part of the
body in order to ward off danger from without or cure
internal disease. Instances of such practices in the Natural
History are well nigh innumerable. Roots are suspended
from the neck by a thread ; ^ the tongue of a fox is worn in
a bracelet ; ^ for quinsy the throat is wound thrice with a
thong of dog-skin and catarrh is relieved by winding the
same about the fingers.^ A tooth stops aching when worms
are taken from a certain prickly plant, put with some bread
in a pill-box, and bound to the arm on the same side of the
body as the aching tooth."^ Two bed-bugs bound to the left
arm in wool stolen from shepherds are a charm against noc-
turnal fevers; against diurnal fevers, if wrapped in russet
cloth instead.® The heart of a vulture is an amulet against
snakes, wild beasts, robbers, and royal wrath.^ The trav-
eler who carries the herb artemisia feels no fatigue.^*' In-
jurious drugs cannot cross one's threshold and do injury in
'XXII, 32. «xxx, 12, 15.
'XXX, 12. 'XXVII, 62.
"XXV, 106. 'XXIX, 17.
*XX, 8r. "XXIX. 24.
'XXVIII, 47. "XXVI. 89.
90 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
one's household, if a sea-star is smeared with the blood of
a fox and attached to the lintel or door-post with a copper
nail.^ Not only is a wreath of herbs worn for headache,^
but a sprig of poplar held in the hand prevents chafing be-
tween the thighs.^ Often objects are placed under one's
pillow, especially for insomnia,* but any psychological ef-
fect is precluded in the case where this is to be done without
the patient's knowledge.^ All sorts of specifications are
given as to the color and kind of string, cloth, skin, box,
nail, ring, bracelet, and the like in which should be placed,
or with which should be bound on, the various gems, herbs,
and parts of animals which serve as amulets. But when
we are told that a remedy for headache which always helps
many consists of a little bone from a snail found between
two cart ruts, passed through gold, silver, and ivory, and
attached to the body with dog-skin; or that one may bind
on the head with a linen cloth the head of a snail decapitated
with a reed when feeding in the morning especially at full
moon ; ^ we feel that we have passed beyond mere amulets,
ligatures, and suspensions to more elaborate minutiae of
magic procedure.
Positioner Position or direction is often an important matter in
Pliny's, as in magic, ceremonial. It perhaps comes out most
frequently in his specification of right or left. An aching
tooth should be scarified with the left eye-tooth of a dog; a
spider which is placed with oil in the ear should be caught
with the left hand;''' epilepsy may be cured if a virgin
touches the sufferer with her right thumb ; ^ for ophthalmia
of the right eye suspend the right eye of a frog from the
patient's neck, and the left eye for the left eye;^ for lum-
bago tear off an eagle's feet away from the joint, and use
the right foot for the right side and the left for pain in the
left side.^*' But we have met other examples already, and
'XXXII, i6; also XX, 39. "XXIX, 36.
'XXII, 30. 'XXX, 8.
"XXIV, 32, 38. " XXVIII, 10.
*XX, 72, 82. " XXXII, 24.
"XXVI, 69. '"XXX, 18.
direction.
11 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 91
also cases of the use of the upper or lower part of this or
that according to the corresponding location of an aching
tooth in the upper or lower jaw.^ Tracing circles with and
about objects, facing towards this or that point of the com-
pass, the prohibition against glancing behind one, and the
stress laid upon finding things or killing animals between
the ruts of cart wheels, are other examples of taking into
consideration position and direction which we have already
met with incidentally to the treatment of other topics. The
prescription of a plant which has grown on the head of a
statue and of another which has taken root in a sieve thrown
into a hedge - also seem to take mere position largely into
account, more so than the accompanying recommendation
of an herb growing on the banks of a stream and of another
growing upon a dunghill.^
The element of time is also important. Operations should '^,^^ **™®
1 • element,
be performed before sunrise, early in the mornmg, at night,
and so on. The moon is especially regarded in such direc-
tions.^ When we are informed that sufferers from quartan
fever should be rubbed all over with the fat of a tortoise,
we are also told that the tortoise will be fattest on the fif-
teenth day of the moon and that the patient should be
anointed on the sixteenth.^ But this waxing and waning of
the tortoise with the moon is primarily a matter of astrology
and planetary influence, under which heading we shall also
later speak of Pliny's observance of the rising of the dog-
star.
Observance of number is another feature in Pliny's cere- Observ-
monial, of which we have already met instances. He also n"^ber
alludes to the writings of Pythagoras on the subject and as-
cribes to Democritus a work on the number four. Pliny's
recipes frequently recommend that the operation be thrice
repeated. In the case of curing scrofula by the ashes of
vipers he prescribes three fingers thereof taken in drink for
'See also XXX, 8. 75, 79; XXII, 72; XXIII, 71;
'XXIV, 106 and 109. XXVIII, 47; XXIX, 36; XXXII,
^XXIV, 107 and no. 14, 2^, 38, 46.
'Some examples are: XVIII, ° XXXII. 14.
92
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
CHAP.
Relation
between
operator
and
patient.
Incanta-
tions.
thrice seven days.^ In another application of a Gallic herb
with old axle-grease which has not touched iron, not only
must the patient spit thrice to the right, but the remedy is
more efficacious if three men representing three different
nations anoint the right side with it.^ The virtue of the
number one is not, however, entirely slighted. Importance
is attached to the death of a stag from a single wound.^
Sometimes three and one are joined in the same operation,
as when child-birth is aided by hurling through the hoiise
a stone or weapon by which three animals, a man, a boar,
and a bear, have been killed with single blows. One of the
discoveries of Pythagoras which seldom fails is that an odd
number of vowels in a child's given name portends lame-
ness, blindness, and like incapacitation on the right side of
its body, and an even number, injuries on the left side.'*
In a crown of smilax for headache there should be an odd
number of leaves,^ and in a diet of snails prescribed for
stomach trouble an odd number are to be eaten. ^ For a
head-wash ten green lizards are boiled in ten sextarii of
oil,"^ and for an application to prevent eyelashes from grow-
ing again when they have been pulled out fifteen frogs are
impaled on fifteen bulrushes.^ The person who has tied on
a certain amulet is thereafter excluded from the patient's
sight for five days.^ And so on.
This last item suggests a further intangible factor in
Pliny's procedure, the doing of things to or for the patient
without his knowledge. But this and any other incorporeal
relationships existing between operator and patient should
perhaps be classed under the head of sympathy and an-
tipathy.
Closely akin to the power of numljers is that of words.
Pliny once says of an incantation employed to avert hail-
storms that he would not dare in seriousness to insert its
'XXX, 12.
'XXIV, 112.
"VIII, so.
* XXVIII, 6.
"XXIV, 17.
•XXX, 15.
' XXIX, 34.
» XXXII, 24.
» XXXII, 38.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 93
words, although Cato in his work on agriculture prescribed
a similar formula of meaningless words for the cure of frac-
tured limbs. ^ But Pliny does not object to the repetition
of incantations or prayers if the words spoken have some
meaning. He informs us that ocimum is sown with curses
and maledictions and that when cummin seed is rammed
down into the soil, the sowers pray it not to come up.^ In
another case the sower is to be naked and to pray for him-
self and his neighbors.^ In a third case in which a poultice is
to be applied to an inflammatory tumor, Pliny says that
persons of experience regard it as very important that the
poultice be put on by a naked virgin and that both she and
the patient be fasting. Touching the sufferer with the back
of her hand she is to say, "Apollo forbids a disease to in-
crease which a naked virgin restrains." Then, withdraw-
ing her hand, she is to repeat the same words thrice and to
join with the patient in spitting on the ground each time.*
Indeed, in another passage Pliny states that it is the uni-
versal custom in medicine to spit three times with incanta-
tions.'^ Perhaps the power of the words is thought to be
increased or renewed by clearing the throat. Words were
also occasionally spoken in plucking herbs. Ring-worm or
tetter is treated by spitting upon and rubbing together two
stones covered with a dry white moss, and by repeating a
Greek incantation which may be translated, "Flee, Cantha-
rides, a wild wolf seeks your blood." ^ Abscesses and in-
flammations are treated with the herb reseda and a Latin
translation which seems irrelevant, if not quite senseless, and
which may be translated, "Reseda, make disease recede.
Don't you know, don't you know what chick has dug up these
roots? May they have neither head nor feet." ^ In the book
following this passage Pliny raises the general question of
the power of words to heal diseases.^ He gives many in-
stances of belief in incantations from contemporary popu-
'XVII, 47. ''XXVIII, 7.
'XIX, 36. "XXVII, 75-
'XVIII, 35. 'XXVII, 106.
*XXVI. 60. • XXVIII. 3-4.
94
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
CHAP.
Attitude
to love-
charms
and birth-
control.
Pliny and
astrology.
lar superstition, from Roman religion, and from the annals
of history. He does not doubt that Romans in the past
have believed in the power of words, and thinks that if we
accept set forms of prayer and religious formulae, we must
also admit the force of incantations. But he adds that the
wisest individuals believe in neither.
Pliny's recipes and operations are mainly connected
with either medicine or agriculture, but he also introduces
as we have seen magical procedure employed in child-birth,
safeguards against poisons and reptiles, and counter-charms
against sorcery. He more than once avers that love-charms
(amatoria) lie outside his province,^ in one passage alleging
as a reason that the illustrious general Lucullus was killed
by one," but he includes a great many of them nevertheless.^
Some herbs are so employed because of a resemblance in
shape to the sexual organs,^ another instance of association
by similarity. Pliny declared against abortive drugs as well
as love-charms,^ but cited from the Commentaries of Caecil-
ius one recipe for birth-control for the benefit of over-fecund
women, consisting of a ligature of two little worms found
in the body of a certain species of spider and bound on in
deer-skin before sunrise. After a year the virtue of this
charm expires.^
Pliny devotes but a small fraction of his work to the
stars and heavens as against terrestrial phenomena, and
therefore has less occasion to speak of astrology than of
magic. However, had he been a great believer in astrology
he doubtless would have devoted more space to the stars and
their influence on terrestrial phenomena. He recognizes none
the less, as we have seen, that magic and astrology are in-
* XXVII, 35. "Catanancen
Thessalam herbam qualis sit de-
scribi a nobis supervacuum est,
cum sit usus eius ad amatoria
tantum." XXVII, 99. "Phyteuma
quale sit describere supervacuum
habeo cum sit usus eius tantum ad
amatoria."
*XXV, 7. "Ego nee abortiva
dico ac ne amatoria quidem,
memor Lucullum imperatorem
clarissimum amatorio perisse . . ."
^A iew examples are: XX, 15,
84, 92; XXIV, II, 42; XXVI, 64;
XXVII, 42, 99; XXVIII, 77, 80;
XXX, 49; XXXII, so.
*XXII, 9.
"XXV, 7.
• XXIX, 27.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 95
timately related and that "there is no one who is not eager
to learn his own future and who does not think that this is
shown most truly by the heavens."^ Parenthetically it may
be remarked that the general literature of the time only con-
firms this assertion of the widespread prevalence of astrol-
ogy; allusions of poets imply a technical knowledge of the
art on their readers' part; the very emperors who occasion-
ally banished astrologers from Rome themselves consulted
other adepts. In another passage Pliny speaks of men who
"assign events each to its star according to the rules of na-
tivities and believe that God decreed the future once for all
and has never interfered with the course of events since.^
This way of thinking has caught learned and vulgar alike in
its current and has led to such further methods of divina-
tion as those by lightning, oracles, haruspices, and even such
petty auguries as from sneezes and shifting of the feet.
Furthermore in Pliny's list of men prominent in the various
arts and sciences we find Berosus of whom a statue was
erected by the Athenians in honor of his skill in astrological
prognostication.' In another place where he speaks for a
moment of "the science of the stars" Pliny disputes the the-
ories of Berosus, Nechepso, and Petosiris that length of
human life is ordered by the stars, and also makes the trite
objection to the doctrine of nativities tliat masters and
slaves, kings and beggars are born at the same moment.* He
also is rather inclined to ridicule the enormous figures of
720,000 or 490,000 years set by Epigenes and Berosus and
Critodemus for the duration of astronomical observations
recorded by the Babylonians.^ From such passages we get
the impression that astrology is widely accepted as a science
but that the art of nativities at least is not regarded by Pliny
^XXX, I. On the general atti- * II, 5. "Astroque suo eventus
tude to astrology of the preceding adsignat nascendi legibus semel-
Augustan Age and its poets see que in omnes futures umquam dec
H. W. Garrod, Manili Astronomi- decretum in reliquom vero otium
con Liber II, Oxford, 191 1, pp. datur."
Ixv-lxxiii, but I think he overesti- ^ vil 2>7-
mates the probable effect of the ^ ^'
edict of 16 A.D. upon the poem of *^ ' 50-
Manilius. ^VII, 57.
" 96 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.^
with favor. But it would not be safe to say that he denies
the control of the stars over human destiny. Indeed, in one
chapter he declares that the astronomer Hipparchus can
never be praised enough because more than any other man
he proved the relationship of man with the stars and that
our souls are part of the sky.^ When Pliny disputes the
vulgar notion that each man has a star varying in bright-
ness according to his fortune, rising when he is born, and
fading or falling when he dies, he is not attacking even the
doctrine of nativities; he is denying that the stars are con-
trolled by man's fate rather than that man's life is ordered
by the stars. ^
Celestial j£ pijj^y ^hus leaves us uncertain as to the relation of
portents. ■'
man to the stars, we also receive conflicting impressions
from his discussion of various celestial phenomena regarded
as portentous. In one passage he speaks of the debt of
gratitude owed by mankind to those great astronomical
geniuses who have freed men from their former supersti-
tious fear of eclipses.^ But he explains thunderbolts as
celestial fire vomited forth from the planet Venus and "bear-
ing omens of the future." * He also gives instances from
Roman history of comets which signaled disaster, and he
expounds the theory of their signifying the future.*^ What
they portend may be determined from the direction in which
they move and the heavenly body whose power they re-
ceive, and more particularly from the shapes they assume
and their position in relation to the signs of the zodiac. In-
deed, Pliny even gives examples of ominous eclipses of the
sun, although it is true that they were also of unusual
length.^ He also tells us that many of the common people
still believed that women could produce eclipses "by sor-
ceries and herbs. '^
'II, 24. "11, 9.
MI, 6, "Non tanta caelo societas *II, 18.
nobiscum est ut nostro fato mor- ' II, 23.
talis sit ibi quoque siderum ful- "II, 30.
gor." ' XXV, 5.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 97
Aside from the question of the control of human des- The stars
, . , ^,. , , , . and the
tiny by the constellations at birth, Plmy s general theories world of
of the universe and of the influence of the stars upon ter- nature,
restrial nature are roughly similar to those of astrology.
For him the universe itself is God, ''holy, eternal, vast, all
in all, nay, in truth itself all;" ^ and the sun is the mind
and soul of the whole world and the chief governor of na-
ture.^ The planets affect one another. A cold star renders
another approaching it pale; a hot star causes its neighbor
to redden ; a windy planet gives those near it a lowering ap-
pearance.^ At certain points in their orbits the planets are
deflected from their regular course by the rays of the sun, — •
an unwitting concession to heliocentric theory.* Pliny as-
cribes the usual astrological qualities to the planets.^ Saturn
is cold and rigid; Mars, a flaming fire; Jupiter, located be-
tween them, is temperate and salubrious. Besides their ef-
fects upon one another, the planets especially influence the
earth.® Venus, for instance, rules the process of genera-
tion in all terrestrial beings.''' Following the Georgics of
Vergil somewhat, Pliny asserts that the stars give indubi-
table signs of the weather and expounds the utility of the
constellations to farmers.^ He tells how Democritus by
his knowledge of astronomy was able to corner the olive
crop and put to shame business men who had been decrying
philosophy ; ^ and how on another occasion he gave his
brother timely warning of an impending storm.^^ But Pliny
does not accept all the theories of the astrologers as to con-
trol of the stars over terrestrial nature. He repeats, but
without definitely accepting it, the ascription by the Baby-
lonians of earthquakes to three of the planets in particular,^^
and the notion that the gem sandastros or garamantica, em-
'II, I. " XVIII, 5, 57, 69.
MI, 4. •XVIII, 68. Other authorities
'II, 16. tell the story of Thales; see
*II, 13. Cicero, De divinatione, II, 201;
*II, 6; and see II, 39. Aristotle, Poiit. I, 7; and Dioge-
*II, 6. "Potentia autem ad ter- nes Laertius.
ram magnopere eorum pertinens." "XVIII, 78.
Ml, 6. "II, 81.
98
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Astrologi-
cal medi-
cine.
Conclu-
sion :
magic
unity of
Pliny's su-T
perstitions.
ployed by Chaldeans in their ceremonies, is intimately con-
nected with the stars. ^ He is openly incredulous about the
gem glossopetra, shaped like a human tongue and supposed
to fall from the sky during an eclipse of the moon and to
be invaluable in selenomancy.^
Pliny tells how the physician Crinas of Marseilles made
a fortune by regulating diet and observing hours according
to the motion of the stars. ^ But he does not show much
faith in astrological medicine himself, rejecting entirely the
elaborate classification of diseases and remedies which the
astrologers had by his time already worked out for the
revolutions of the sun and moon in the twelve signs of the
zodiac* In his own recipes, however, astrological consid-
erations are sometimes observed, as we have already seen,
especially the rising of the dog-star and the phases of the
moon. Pliny, indeed, states that the dog-star exerts an ex-
tensive influence upon the earth.'^ As for the moon, the
blood in the human body augments and decreases with its
waxing and waning as shell-fish and other things in nature
do.^ Indeed, painstaking men of research had discovered
that even the entrails of the field-mouse corresponded in
number to the days of the moon, that the ant stopped work-
ing during the interlunar days, and that diseases of the eyes
of certain beasts of burden also increased and decreased
with the moon.'^ But on the whole Pliny's medicine and
science do not seem nearly so immersed in and saturated
with astrology as with other forms of magic. This gap
was for the middle ages amply filled by the authority
of Ptolemy, of whose belief in astrology we shall treat in
the next chapter.
We have tried to analyze the contents of the Natural
History, bringing out certain main divisions and underly-
ing principles of magic in Pliny's agriculture, medicine, and
natural science. This is, however, an artificial and difficult
* XXXVII, 28. ''II, 40.
^ XXXVII, 59. on 102
"XXIX, 5. ^^' ° •
*XXX, 29. 'II, 41.
II PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY 99
task, since it is not easy to sever materials from ceremonial
or the virtues of objects from the relations of sympathy
or antipathy between them. Often the same passage might
serve to illustrate several points. Take for example the
following sentence : "Thrasyllus is authority that nothing
is so hostile to serpents as crabs ; swine who are stung cure
themselves by this food, and when the sun is in Cancer,
serpents are in pain." ^ Here we have at once antipathy,
the remedies used by animals, the reasoning, characteristic
of magic, from association and similarity, and the belief in
astrology. And this confusion, to illustrate which a hundred
other examples might be collected from the Natural His-
tory, demonstrates how indissolubly interwoven are all the
varied threads that we have been tracing. They all go
naturally together, they belong to the same long period
of thought, they represent the same stage in mental develop-
ment, they all are parts of magic.
^ XXXII, 19.
CHAPTER III
SENECA AND PTOLEMY: NATURAL DIVINATION AND
ASTROLOGY
Seneca's Natural Questions — Nature study as an ethical substitute
for existing religion — Limited field of Seneca's work — Marvels accepted,
questioned, or denied — Belief in natural divination and astrology —
Divination from thunder — Ptolemy — His two chief works — His mathe-
matical method — Attitude towards authority and observation — The
Optics — Medieval translations of Almagest — Tetrabiblos or Quadri-
partitum — A genuine reflection of Ptolemy's approval of astrology —
Validity of Astrology — Influence of the stars not inevitable — Astrology
as natural science — Properties of the planets — Remaining contents of
Book One — Book Two: regions — Nativities — Future influence of the
Tetrabiblos.
"When the stars twinkle through the loops of time."
— Byron.
Seneca's j^ ^j^jg chapter we shall preface the main theme of Ptolemy
Questions, and his sanction of astrology by a consideration of another
and earlier ancient writer on natural science who was
very favorable to divination of the future, namely, the
famous philosopher, statesman, man of letters, and tutor of
Nero, Lucius Annaeus Seneca. In point of time his Natural
Questions, or Problems of Nature, is a work slightly ante-
dating even the Natural History of Pliny, but it is hardly
of such importance in the history of science as the more
voluminous works of the three great representatives of
ancient science, Pliny, Galen, and Ptolemy. Nevertheless
Seneca was well known and much cited in the middle ages
as an ethical or moral philosopher, and the title. Natural
Questions, was to be employed by one of the first medieval
pioneers of natural science, Adelard of Bath. Seneca in
any case is a name of which ancient science need not be
ashamed. He tells us that in his youth he had already
lOO
CHAP. Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY loi
written a treatise on earthquakes ; ^ and in the present trea-
tise his aim is to inquire into the natural causes of phenom-
ena ; he wants to know why things are so. He is aware that
his own age has only entered the vestibule of the knowledge
of natural phenomena and forces, that it has but just begun
to know five of the many stars, that "there will come a time
when our descendants will wonder that we were ignorant of
matters so evident." ^
In one passage Seneca perhaps expresses his conscious- study
ness of the very imperfect scientific knowleds^e of his own °^ nature
. as an ethi-
age a little too mystically. 'There are sacred things which cal substi-
are not revealed all at once. Eleusis reserves sights for existing
those who revisit her. Nature does not disclose her mysteries religion,
in a moment. We think ourselves initiated; we stand but
at her portal. Those secrets open not promiscuously nor to
every comer. They are remote of access, enshrined in the
inner sanctuary." ^ Indeed, he shows a tendency to regard
scientific research as a sort of religious exercise or perhaps
as a substitute for existing religion and a basis for moral
philosophy. He relates physics to ethics. His enthusiasm
in the study of natural forces appears largely due to the fact
that he believes them to be of a sublime and divine character
and above the petty affairs of men. He also as constantly
and more fulsomely than Pliny inveighs against the luxury,
vice, and immorality of his own day, and moralizes as to the
beneficent influence which natural law and phenomena should
exert upon human conduct. It is interesting to note that this
habit of drawing moral lessons from the facts of nature
was not peculiar to medieval or Christian writers.
With such subjects as zoology, botany, and mineralogy-
Seneca's work has little to do; it does not, like Pliny's
^ L. Anyiaei Senecac Naturalium Teubner edition, ed. Haase, 1881,
Quacstionum Libri Scptem, VI, and the English translation in
4, "Aliquando de motu terrarum Clark and Geikie, Physical Science
volumen iuvenis ediderim." The in the Time of Nero, 1910. In
edition by G. D. Koeler, Gottingen, Panckoucke's Library, vol. 147, a
1819, devotes several hundred French translation accompanies
pages to a Disquisitio and Ani- the text.
madvcrsiones upon Seneca's work. ^VII, 25.
I have also used the more recent ^VII, 31.
102 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Limited Natural History, include medicine and the industrial arts;
Seneca's neither does he, like Pliny, cite the lore of the magi. The
work. phenomena of which he treats are mainly meteorological
manifestations, such as winds, rain, hail, snow, comets, rain-
bows, and what he regards as allied subjects, earthquakes,
springs, and rivers. Perhaps he would not have regarded
the study of vegetables, animals, and minerals as so lofty
and sublime a pursuit. At any rate, in consequence of the
restricted field which Seneca covers we find very little of
the marvelous medicinal and magical properties of plants,
animals, and other objects, or the superstitious procedure
which fill the pages of Pliny.
Marvels Seneca nevertheless has occasion to repeat some tall
questioned, stories, such as that the river Alpheus of Greece reappears
or denied, as the Arethusa in Sicily and there every four years casts
up filth from its depths on the very days when victims are
slaughtered at the Olympic games. ^ He also affirms that
living beings are generated in fire; he believes in such ef-
fects of lightning as removing the venom from snakes
which it strikes; and he recounts the old stories of floating
islands and of waters with the virtue of turning white
sheep black. ^ On the other hand, he qualifies by the phrases,
*'it is believed" and "they say," the assertions that certain
waters produce foul skin-diseases and that dew in particu-
lar, if collected in any quantity, has this evil property; and
he doubts whether bathing in the Nile would enable a woman
to bear more children.^ He ridicules the custom of the
city which had public watchmen appointed to warn the in-
habitants of the approach of hail-storms, so that they might
avert the danger by timely sacrifice or simply by pricking
their own fingers so that they bled a trifle. He adds that
some suggest that blood may possess some occult property
of repelling storm-clouds, but he does not see how there
can be such force in a drop or two and thinks it simpler to
* III, 26. by lightning; III, passim for mar-
* V, 6, for animals generated in velous fountains,
flames; II, 31, for snakes struck * III, 25.
Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY 103
regard the whole thing as false. In the same chapter he
states that uncivilized antiquity used to believe that rain
could be brought on or driven off by incantations, but that
now-a-days no one needs a philosopher to teach him that
this is impossible. ■*■
But while he thus rejects incantations and is practically Belief in
silent on the subject of natural magic, Seneca accepts nat- Jjf^^'JJ'^/joj^
ural divination in well-nigh all its branches: sacrificial, au- and
gury, astrology, and divination from thunder. He believes ^^ ""^ °^'
that whatever is caused is a sign of some future event. ^
Only Seneca holds that every flight of a bird is not caused
by a direct act of God, nor the vitals of the victim altered
under the axe by divine interference, but that all has been
prearranged in a fatal and causal series.^ He believes that
all unusual celestial phenomena are to be looked upon as
prodigies and portents. A meteor "as big as the moon ap-
peared when Paulus was engaged in the war against Per-
seus" ; similar portents marked the death of Augustus and
execution of Sejanus, and gave warning of the death of
Germanicus.* But no less truly do the planets in their un-
varying courses signify the future. The stars are of divine
nature, and we ought to approach the discussion of them
with as reverent an air as when with lowered countenance
we enter the temples for worship.^ Not only do the stars
influence the upper atmosphere as earth's exhalations af-
fect the lower, but they announce what is to occur.^ Seneca
employs the statement of Aristotle that comets signify the
coming of storms and winds and foul weather to prove that
they are stars ; and declares that a comet is a portent of bad
weather during the ensuing year in the same way that the
Chaldeans or astrologers say that a man's natal star deter-
mines the whole course of his life.'' In fact, Seneca's
chief, if not sole, objection to the Chaldeans or astrologers
would seem to be that in their predictions they take only five
;iV, 7. "VII, 30.
II, 32. 6TT ^f,
' II, 46. ^^' ^°-
*I, I. 'VII, 28.
104
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Divination
from
thunder
Ptolemy.
stars ^ into account. "What ? Think you so many thousand
stars shine on in vain? What else, indeed, is it which causes
those skilled in nativities to err than that they assign us to
a few stars, although all those that are above us have a share
in the control of our fate? Perhaps those which are nearer
direct their influence upon us more closely; perhaps those
of more rapid motion look down on us and other animals
from more varied aspects. But even those stars that are
motionless, or because of their speed keep equal pace with
the rest of the universe and seem not to move, are not with-
out rule and dominion over us." - Seneca accepts the theory
of Berosus that whenever all the stars are in conjunction in
the sign of Cancer there will be a universal conflagration,
and a second deluge when they all unite in Capricorn.^
It is on thunderbolts as portents of the future that Sen-
eca dwells longest, however.* "They give," he declares,
"not signs of this or that event merely, but often announce
a whole series of events destined to occur, and that by mani-
fest decrees and ones far clearer than if they were set down
in writing." ^ He will not accept, however, the theory that
lightning has such great power that its intervention nullifies
any previous and contradictory portents. He insists that
divination by other methods is of equal truth, though pos-
sibly of minor importance and significance. Next he at-
tempts to explain how the dangers of which we are warned
by divination may be averted by prayer, expiation, or sacri-
fice, and yet the chain of events wrought by destiny not be
broken. He maintains that just as we employ the services
of doctors to preserve our health, despite any belief we may
have in fate, so it is useful to consult a hanispex. Then he
goes on to speak of various classifications of thunderbolts
according to the nature of the warnings or encouragements
which they bring.
We pass on from Seneca to a later and greater exponent
of natural science and divination, Ptolemy, in the follow-
^That is to say, five in addition 'III, 29.
to the sun and the moon. *II, 31-SO.
MI, 32. Ml, 32.
Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY lOS
ing century. He was perhaps born at Ptolema'is in Egypt
but lived at Alexandria. The exact years of his birth and
death are unknown, and very little is recorded of his life or
personality. The time when he flourished is sufficiently in-
dicated, however, by the fact that his first recorded astro-
nomical observation was in 127 and his last in 151 A. D.
Thus most of his work was probably done during the reigns
of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, but he appears to have
lived on into the reign of Marcus Aurelius. His strictly
scientific style scorns rhetorical devices and literary felici-
ties, and while it is clear and correct, is dry and imper-
sonal.^
Ptolemy's two chief works, the Geography in eight His two
books, and 17 nadTjixatLKri avvra^Ls, or Almagest {al-neylaTT]) ^^^^g
as the Arabs called it, in thirteen books, have been so often
described in histories of mathematics, astronomy, geogra-
phy, and discovery that such outline of their contents need
not be repeated here. The erroneous Ptolemaic theories of
a geocentric universe and of an earth's surface on which dry
land preponderated are equally well known. What is more
to the point at present is to note that one of these theories
was so well fitted to actual scientific observations and the
other was thought to be so similarly based, that they stood
the test of theory, criticism, and practice for over a thou-
sand years. ^ It should, however, be said that the Geography
does not seem to have been translated into Latin until the
*A complete edition of Ptol- Geschichte der griechischen Phi-
emy's works has been in process losophie und Astrologie, 1894, in
of publication since 1898 in the Jahrb. f. Philol. u. Pddagogik
Teubner library by J. L. Heiberg Neue Folge, Suppl. Bd. 21. A
and Franz Boll. They are also recent summary of investigation
the authors of the most important and bibliography concerning Ptol-
recent researches concerning emy is W. Schmid, Die Nachklas-
Ptolemy. See Heiberg's discus- sische Periode der Griechischen
sion of the MSS in the volumes Litteratur, 1913, pp. 717-24, in the
of the above edition which have fifth edition of Christ, Gesch d
thus far appeared ; his articles on Griech. Litt.
the Latin translations of Ptolemy 'Some strictures upon Ptolemy
m Hermes XLV (1910) 57ff, as a geographer are made by Sir
and XLVI (1911) 206ff; but es- W. M. Ramsay, The Historical
pecially Boll, ^tudien uber Clau- Geography of Asia Minor 1890
dtus Ptolcmdus. Ein Beitrag zur pp. 69-73. ' '
io6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
His
mathe-
matical
method.
opening of the fifteenth century/ when Jacobus Angelus
made a translation for Pope Alexander V, (1409-1410),
which is extant in many manuscripts ^ as well as in print. ^
It therefore did not have the influence and fame in the
Latin middle ages that the Almagest did or the briefer as-
trological writings, genuine and spurious, current under
Ptolemy's name.
We may briefly state one or two of Ptolemy's greatest
contributions to mathematical and natural science and his
probable position in the history of experimental method.
Perhaps of greater consequence in the history of science
than any one specific thing he did was his continual reliance
*Schmid would appear to be
mistaken in saying that the Geog-
raphy was already known in Latin
and Arabic translation in the time
of Frederick II (p. 718, "Seine in
erster Linie die Astronomic, dann
auch die Geographic und Har-
monik betreffcnden Schriften
haben sich nicht bloss im Orig-
inaltcxt erhalten ; sic wurden auch
friihzeitig von den Arabern iibcr-
setzt und sind dann, ahnlich wie
die Werke des Aristoteles, schon
zur Zeit des Kaisers Friedrich II,
noch ehe man sie im Urtext ken-
nen lernte, durch lateinische, nach
dem Arabischen gemachte Uber-
setzungen ins Abendland ge-
langt"), for in his own bibliog-
raphy (p. 723) we read, "Geog-
raphic . . . Friihste latein. Uber-
setzung des Jacobus Angelus
gedruckt Bologna, 1462." Appar-
ently Schmid did not know the
date of Angelus' translation.
However, Duhem, III (1915)
417, also speaks as if the Geogra-
phy were known in the thirteenth
century: "les considerations em-
pruntees a la Geographic dc Ptole-
mee fournissent a Robert dc Lin-
coln unc objection contre le mouve-
ment de precession des equinoxes
tel qu'il est define dans I'Alma-
geste." See also C. A. Nallino,
Al-Huwaricmi e il suo rifacimento
delta geografia di Tolomeo, 1894,
cited by Suter (iqm) viii-ix, for
a geography in Arabic preserved
at Strasburg which is based on
Ptolemy's Geography.
" In this Latin translation it
is often entitled Cosmographia.
Some MSS are: CLM 14583,
15th century, fols. 81-215, Cosmo-
graphia Ptolomei a Jacobo An-
gelo translata. Also BN 4801,
4802, 4803, 4804, 4838. Arsenal
981, in an Italian hand, is pre-
sumably incorrectly dated as of
the 14th century.
This Jacobus Angelus was chan-
cellor of the faculty of Mont-
pellier in 1433 and is censured by
Gerson in a letter for his super-
stitious observance of days.
^ The several editions printed
before 1500 seem to have consisted
simply of this Latin translation,
such as that of Bologna, 1462, and
Vincentiae, 1475, and the Greek
text to have been first published
in 1507. Sec Justin Winsor, A
Bibliography of Ptolemy's Geog-
raphy, 1884, in Library of Har-
vard Uitdversity, Bibliographical
Contributions, No. 18: — a bibliog-
raphy which deals only with
printed editions and not with the
MSS. According to Schmid, how-
ever, the editio princeps of the
Greek text was that of Basel,
1533- C. Miillcr's modern edition
(Didot, 1883 and 1901) gives an
unsatisfactory bare list of 38
MSS. See also G. M. Raidel,
Commentatio critico-literaria de
Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia
eiusque codicibus, 17Z7'
Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY 107
upon mathematical method both in his astronomy and his
geography. In particular may be noted his important con-
tribution to trigonometry in his table of chords, which mod-
em scholars have found correct to five decimal places, and
his contribution to the science of cartography by his suc-
cessful projection of spherical surfaces upon flat maps.
Ptolemy based his two great works partly upon the re- Attitude
suits already attained by earlier scientists, following Hip- authority
parchus especially in astronomy and Marinus in geography, yofion ^^'^'
He duly acknowledged his debts to these and other writers;
praised Hipparchus and recounted, his discoveries; and
where he corrected Marinus, did so with reason. But while
Ptolemy used previous authorities, he was far from relying
upon them solely. In the Geography he adds a good deal
concerning the orient and northern lands from the reports
of Roman merchants and soldiers. His intention was to re-
peat briefly what the ancients had already made clear, and
to devote his works chiefly to points which had remained ob-
scure. His ideal was to rest his conclusions upon the surest
possible observation ; and where such materials were meager,
as in the case of the Geography, he says so at the start. He
also recognized that delicate observations should be re-
peated at long intervals in order to minimize the possibility
of error. He devised and described some scientific instru-
ments and conducted a long series of astronomical observa-
tions. He anteceded Comte in holding that one should
adopt the simplest possible hypothesis consistent with the
facts to be explained.
Besides some minor astronomical works and a treatise The
on music which seems to be largely a compilation an im- ^^'*"-
portant work on optics is ascribed to Ptolemy.^ It is the
most experimental in method of his writings, although Alex-
ander von Humboldt's characterization of it as the only work
in ancient literature which reveals an investigator of nature
_ ^L'ottica di Claudia Tolomco da Eugenio ammiraglio di Sicilia ridotta
in latino, ed. Gilberto Govi, Turin, 1S85.
io8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
in the act of physical experimentation^ must be regarded as
an exaggeration in view of our knowledge of the writings
of other Alexandrines such as Hero and Ctesibius. As in
the case of some of Ptolemy's other minor works, the Greek
original is lost and also the Arabic text from which was
presumably made the medieval Latin version which alone
has come down to us. Yet there are at least sixteen manu-
scripts of this Latin version still in existence.^ The trans-
lation was made in the twelfth century by Eugene of Paler-
mo, admiral of Sicily, whose name is attached to other
translations and who was also the author of a number of
Greek poems. ^ Heller states that the Optics was lost at the
beginning of the seventeenth century but that manuscripts
of it were rediscovered by Laplace and Delambre.^ At any
rate the first of the five books is no longer extant, although
Bridges thinks that Roger Bacon was acquainted with it in
the thirteenth century.^ It dealt with the relations between
the eye and light. In the second book conditions of visi-
bility are discussed and the dependence of the apparent size
of bodies upon the angle of vision. The third and fourth
books deal with different kinds of mirrors, plane, convex,
concave, conical, and pyramidical. Most important of all
is the fifth and last book, in which dioptrics and refraction
are discussed for the first and only time in any extant work
of antiquity,^ provided the Optics has really come down in
its present form from the time of Ptolemy. His authorship
has been questioned because the subject of refraction is not
mentioned in the Almagest, although even astronomical
refraction is discussed in the Optics."^ De Morgan also
* Schmid (1913) still cites it ^A. Heller, Geschichte der
without qualification. Hammer- Physik von Aristoteles bis auf die
Jensen has an article, Ptolemaios neucstc Zcit, 2 vols., Stuttgart,
und Heron, in Hermes, XLVHI 1882- 1884. The statement sounds
(1913) 224, et seq. a trifle improbable in view of the
' Haskins and Lockwood, The number of MSS still in existence.
Sicilian Translators of the ^ Opus Mains, II, 7.
Twelfth Century, in Harvard 'The Dioptra of Hero is really
Studies in Classical Philology, geodetical.
XXI (1910), 89. 'Govi (1885), p. 151.
^ Ibid., 89-94.
Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY 109
objects that the author of the Optics is inferior to Ptolemy
in knowledge of geometry.^ Possibly a work by Ptolemy
has received medieval additions, either Arabic or Latin, in
the version now extant; maybe the entire fifth book is such
a supplement. That works which were not Ptolemy's might
be attributed to him in the middle ages is seen from the case
of Hero's Catoptrica, the Latin translation of which from
the Greek is entitled in the manuscripts Ptolemaei de spec-
ulis?
If there is, as in other parallel cases, the possibility that Medieval
the medieval period passed off recent discoveries of its J^^^^ ^f
own under the authoritative name of Ptolemy, there also Almagest.
is the certainty that it made Ptolemy's genuine works very
much its own. This may be illustrated by the case of the
Almagest. On the verge of the medieval period the work
was commented upon by Pappus and Theon at Alexandria
in the fourth, and by Proclus in the fifth century. The Latin
translation by Boethius is not extant, but the book was in
great repute among the Arabs, was translated at Bagdad
early in the ninth century and revised later in the same
century by Tabit ben Corra. During the twelfth century
it was translated into Latin both from the Greek and the
Arabic. The translation most familiar in the middle ages
was that completed at Toledo in 1175 by the famous trans-
lator, Gerard of Cremona. There has recently been dis-
covered, however, by Professors Haskins and Lockwood ^
a Sicilian translation made direct from the Greek text some
ten or twelve years before Gerard's translation. There are
* Ptolemy in Smith's Diction- gest, in Harvard Studies in Classi-
ary of Greek and Roman Biog- cal Philology, XXI (1910) 75-
raphy. 102.
^It was also so printed in C. H. Haskins, Further Notes
Sphera cum commcntis, 1518: on Sicilian Translations of the
"Explicit secundus et ultimus liber Tzvelfth Century, Ibid., XXIII,
Ptolomei de Speculis. Completa 155-66.
fuit eius translatio ultimo De- J. L. Heiberg, Eine mittelalter-
cembris anno Christi 1269." liche Uebcrsetzung der Syntaxis
' C. H. Haskins and D. P. Lock- des Ptolemaios, in Hermes XLV
wood, The Sicilian Translators of (1910) 57-66; and Noch einmal
the Twelfth Century and the First die mittclaltcrliche Ptolemaios-
Latin Version of Ptolemy's Alma- Uebersetznng, Ibid., XLVI, 207-16.
no
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Tet-
rabiblos or
Quadripar-
titum.
A genuine
reflec-
tion of
Ptolemy's
approval
of astrol-
ogy.
two manuscripts of this Sicilian translation in the Vatican
and one at Florence, showing that it had at least some Ital-
ian currency. Gerard's reputation and his many other
astronomical and astrological translations probably account
for the greater prevalence of his version, or possibly the
theological opposition to natural science of which the
anonymous Sicilian translator speaks in his preface had
some effect in preventing the spread of his version.
Of Ptolemy's genuine works the most germane to and
significant for our investigation is his Tetrahihlos, Quadri-
partitum-j or four books on the control of human life by
the stars. It seems to have been translated into Latin by
Plato of Tivoli in the first half of the twelfth century^ be-
fore Almagest or Geography appeared in Latin. In the
middle of the thirteenth century Egidius de Tebaldis, a
Lombard of the city of Parma, further translated the com-
mentary of Haly Heben Rodan upon the Quadripartitum.^
In the early Latin editions^ the text is that of the medieval
translation; in the few editions giving a Greek text there
is a different Latin version translated directly from this
Greek text.*
In the Tetrahihlos the art of astrology receives sanction
and exposition from perhaps the ablest mathematician and
closest scientific observer of the day or at least from one
who seemed so to succeeding generations. Hence from that
time on astrology was able to take shelter from any criti-
cism under the aegis of his authority. Not that it lacked
*Digby 51, 13th Century, fols.
79-114, "Liber iiii tractatuum
Batolomei Alfalisobi in sciencia
judiciorum astrorum. . . . Et per-
fectus est eius translatio de
Arabico in Latinum a Tiburtino
Platone cui Deus parcat die
Veneris hora tertia XXa die
mensis Octobris anno Domini
MCXXVIII {sic) XV die mensis
Saphar anno Arabum DXXXIII
{sic) in civitate Barchinona.
. . ." The date of translation is
given as October 2, 1138, in CUL
1767, 1276 A.D., fols. 240-76,
"Liber 4 Partium Ptholomei
Auburtino Palatone."
^ It is found in an edition printed
at Venice in 1493, "per Bonetum
locatellum impensis nobilis viri
Octaviani scoti civis Modoetien-
sis."
* In the British Museum are edi-
tions of Venice, 1484, 1493, 1519;
Paris, 1519; Basel, 1533; Louvain,
1548; it was also printed in 1551,
1555, 1578-
* In the British Museum are but
three editions of the Greek text,
all with an accompanying Latin
translation : Niirnberg, 1535 ;
Basel, 1553; and 1583.
Ill
SENECA AND PTOLEMY iii
other exponents and defenders of great name and ability.
Naturally the authenticity of the Tetrabiblos has been ques-
tioned by modern admirers of Hellenic philosophy and sci-
ence who would keep the reputations of the great men of
the past free from all smudge of superstition. But Franz
Boll has shown that it is by Ptolemy by a close comparison
of it with his other works. ^ The astrological Centiloquium
or Karpos, and other treatises on divination and astrologi-
cal images ascribed to Ptolemy in medieval Latin manu-
scripts are probably spurious, but there is no doubt of his
belief in astrology. German research as usual regards its
favorite Posidonius as the ultimate source of much of the
Tetrabiblos, but this is not a matter of much consequence
for our present investigation.
In the Tetrabiblos Ptolemy first engages in argument Validity of
as to the validity of the art of judicial astrology. If his ^^^'■°°gy-
remarks in this connection were not already trite conten-
tions, they soon came to be regarded as truisms. The laws
of astronomy are beyond dispute, says Ptolemy, but the art
of prediction of human affairs from the courses of the stars
may be assailed with more show of reason. Opponents of
astrology object that the art is uncertain, and that it is use-
less since the events decreed by the force of the stars are
inevitable. Ptolemy opens his argument in favor of the art
by assuming as evident that a certain force is diffused from
the heavens over all things on earth. If ignorant sailors
are able to judge the future weather from the sky, a highly
trained astronomer should be able to predict concerning its
influence on man. The art itself should not be rejected be*
cause impostors frequently abuse it, and Ptolemy admits
that it has not yet been brought to the point of perfection
and that even the skilful investigator often makes mistakes
owing to the incomplete state of human science. For one
thing, Ptolemy regards the doctrine of the nature of matter
held in his time as hypothetical rather than certain. An-
other difficulty is that old configurations of the stars can-
^ Studien iiber Claudius Ptolemdus, 1894.
112
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Influence
of the
stars not
inevitable.
Astrology
as natural
science.
not safely be used as the basis of present day predictions.
Indeed, so manifold are the different possible positions of
the stars and the different possible arrangements of terres-
trial matter in relation to the stars that it is difficult to col-
lect enough observations on which to base rules of general
judgment. Moreover, such considerations as diversity of
place, of custom, and of education must be taken into ac-
count in foretelling the future of different persons born
under the same stars. But although for these reasons pre-
dictions frequently fail, yet the art is not to be condemned
any more than one rejects the art of navigation because of
frequent shipwrecks.
Nor it is true that the art is useless because the decrees
of the stars are inevitable. It is often an advantage to have
previous knowledge even of what cannot be avoided. Even
the prediction of disaster serves to break the news gently.
But not all predictions are inevitable and immutable; this
is true only of the motion of the sky itself and events in
which it is exclusively concerned. "But other events which
do not arise solely from the sky's motion, are easily altered
by application of opposite remedies," just as we can in part
remedy the hurt of wounds and diseases or counteract the
heat of summer by use of cooling things. The Egyptians
have always found astrology useful in the practice of medi-
cine.
Ptolemy next proceeds to set forth the natures and
powers of the stars "according to the observations of the
ancients and conformably to natural science." Later, when
he comes to the prediction of particulars, he still professes
"to follow everywhere the law of natural causation," and
in a third passage he states that he "will omit all those
things which do not have a probable natural cause, which
many nevertheless scrutinize curiously and to excess: nor
will I pile up divinations by lot-castings or from numbers,
which are unscientific, but I will treat of those which have
an investigated certainty based on the positions of the stars
and the properties of places." Connecting the positions of
in SENECA AND PTOLEMY 113
the stars with earthly regions, — it is an art that fits in well
with Ptolemy's other occupations of astronomer and geogra-
pher! The Tetrabiblos has been called "Science's surren-
der," ^ but was it not more truly divination purified and
made scientific?
Taking up first the properties of the seven planets, Properties
Ptolemy associates with each one or more of the four ele- pf^^^^g
mental qualities, hot, cold, dry, and moist. Thus the sun
warms and to some extent dries, for the nearer it comes to
our pole the more heat and drought it produces. The moon
is moist, since it is close to the earth and is affected by the
vapors from the latter, while its influence renders other
bodies soft and causes putrefaction. But it also warms a
little owing to the rays it receives from the sun. Saturn
chills and to some extent dries, for it is remote from the
sun's heat and earth's damp vapors. Mars emits a parching
heat, as its color and proximity to the sun indicate. Jupi-
ter, situated between cold Saturn and burning Mars, is of a
rather lukewarm nature but tends more to warmth and mois-
ture than to their opposites. So does Venus, but conversely,
for it warms less than Jupiter does but moistens more,
its large surface catching many vapors from the neighbor-
ing earth. In Mercury, situated near sun, moon, and earth
alike, neither drought nor dampness predominates, but the
velocity of that planet makes it a potent cause of sudden
changes. In general, the planets exert a good or evil influ-
ence as they abound in the two rich and vivifying qualities,
heat and moisture, or in the detrimental ones, cold and
drought. Wet stars like the moon and Venus, are femi-
nine ; Mercury is neuter ; the other planets are masculine.
The sex of a planet may also, however, be reckoned accord-
ing to its position in relation to the sun and the horizon ; and
changes in the influences exerted by the planets are noted ac-
cording to their position or relation to the sun. This dis-
cussion of the properties of the planets is neither convinc-
* "C'etait la capitulation de la science." Bouche-Leclerca in Rev,
Hist.. LXV, 257, note 3.
114 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ing nor scientific. It seems arguing in a circle to make their
effects upon the earth depend to such an extent upon them-
selves being affected by vapors from the earth. Indeed
we are rather surprised that an astronomer like Ptolemy
should represent vapors from the earth as affecting the
planets at all. But his discussion is at least an effort, albeit
a feeble one, to express the potencies of the planets in
physical terms.
Remaining Ptolemy goes on to discuss the powers of the fixed stars
of Book which seem to depend upon their positions in constellations
O"^- and their relations to the planets. Then he treats of the
influence of the four seasons of the year and four cardinal
points, each of which he relates to one of the four qualities,
hot, cold, dry, and moist. With a discussion of the signs
of the zodiac and their division into Houses and relation in
Trigones or Triplicitates or groups of three connected with
the four qualities, of the exaltation of the planets in the
signs and of other divisions of the signs and relations of
the planets to them, the first book ends.
Book The second book begins by distinguishing prediction of
Regions. events for whole regions or countries, such as wars, pesti-
lences, famines, earthquakes, winds, drought, and weather,
from the prediction of events in the lives of individuals.
Ptolemy holds that events which affect large areas or whole
peoples and cities are produced by greater and more valid
causes than are the acts of individual men, and also that in
order to predict aright concerning the individual it is neces-
sary to know his region and nationality. He characterizes
the inhabitants of the three great climatic zones,^ quarters
the inhabited world into Europe, Libya, and two parts for
Asia in the style of the T maps, and subdivides these into
different countries whose peoples are described, including
such races as the Amazons. The effects of the stars vary
according to time as well as place, so that the period in
which any individual lives is as important to take into
^ In the medieval Latin translation the Slavs replace the Scythians
of Ptolemy's text.
Ill SENECA AND PTOLEMY 115
account as his nationality. Ptolemy also discusses how the
heavenly bodies influence the genus of events, a matter
which depends largely upon the signs of the zodiac, and
also how they determine their quality, good or bad, and spe-
cies, which depends on the dominant stars and their con-
junctions. Consequently he gives a list of the things which
belong under the rule of each planet. The remainder of
the second book is concerned chiefly with prediction of wind
and weather through the year and with other meteorological
phenomena such as comets.
The last two books take up the prediction of events in Nativities.
the lives of individuals from the stars, in other words the
science of nativities or genethlialogy. The third book dis-
cusses conception and birth, how to take the horoscope —
Ptolemy insists that the astrolabe is the only reliable instru-
ment for determining the exact time; sun-dials or water-
clocks will not do — and how to predict concerning parents,
brothers and sisters, sex, twins, monstrous births, length
of life, the physical constitution of the child born and what
accidents and diseases may befall it, and finally concerning
mental traits and defects. The fourth book deals less with
the nature of the individual and more with the prediction of
external events which befall the individual : honors, office,
marriage, offspring, slaves, travel, and the sort of death that
he will die. Ptolemy in opening the fourth book makes the
distinction that, while in the third book he treated of mat-
ters antecedent to birth or immediately related to birth or
which concern the temperament of the individual, now he
will deal with those external to the body and which
happen to the individual from without. But of course it
is difficult to maintain such a distinction with entire con-
sistency.
The great influence of the Tetrabihlos is shown not only Future in-
in medieval Arabic commentaries and Latin translations, fhe""^"^!.
but more immediately in the astrological writings of the de- biblos.
dining Roman Empire, when such astrologers as Hephaes-
ii6 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, hi
tion of Thebes/ Paul of Alexandria, and Julius Firmicus
Maternus cite it as a leading authoritative work. Only the
opponents of astrology appear to have remained ignorant
of the Tetrabihlos, continuing to make criticisms of the art
which do not apply to Ptolemy's presentation of it or which
had been specifically answered by him. Thus Sextus Em-
piricus, attacking astrology about 200 A. D., does not men-
tion the Tetrabihlos and some of the Christian critics of
astrology apparently had not read it. Whether the Neo-
Platonists, Porphyry and Proclus, wrote an introduction to
and commentary upon it is disputed.
^ Indeed, Hephaestion's first two dit Guilelmus KroU, Berlin, 1908.
books are nothing but Ptolemy See also CCAG passim concerning
repeated. About contemporary both Hephaestion and Vettius
with Ptolemy seems to have been Valens, and Engelbrecht, Hephas-
Vettius Valens whose astrological tion von Thcbcn und sein astrO'
work is extant : Vettius Valens, logisches Compendium, Vienna,
Anthologiarum libri primum edi- 1887.
CHAPTER IV
GALEN
I. The Man and His Times
Recent ignorance of Galen — His voluminous works — The manuscript
tradition of his works — His vivid personality — Birth and parentage —
Education in philosophy and medicine — First visit to Rome — Relations
with the emperors; later life — His unfavorable picture of the learned
world — Corruption of the medical profession — Lack of real search for
truth — Poor doctors and medical students — Medical discovery in his
time — The drug trade — The imperial stores — Galen's private supply of
drugs — Mediterranean commerce — Frauds of dealers in wild beasts —
Galen's ideal of anonymity — The ancient book trade — Falsification and
mistakes in manuscripts — Galen as a historical source — Ancient slavery
— Social life ; food and wine — Allusions to Judaism and Christianity —
Galen's monotheism — Christian readers of Galen.
11. His Medicine and Experimental Science
Four elements and four qualities — His criticism of atomism — Appli-
cation of the theory of four qualities in medicine — His therapeutics
obsolete — Some of his medical notions — Two of his cases — His power
of rapid observation and inference — His happy guesses — Tendency
toward scientific measurement — Psychological tests with the pulse —
Galen's anatomy and physiology — Experiments in dissection — Did he
ever dissect human bodies ? — Dissection of animals — Surgical operations
— Galen's argument from design — Queries concerning the soul — No
supernatural force in medicine — Galen's experimental instinct — His atti-
tude toward authorities — Adverse criticism of past writers — His esti-
mate of Dioscorides — Galen's dogmatism ; logic and experience — His
account of the Empirics — How the Empirics might have criticized
Galen — Galen's standard of reason and experience — Simples knowable
only through experience — Experience and food science — Experience and
compounds — Suggestions of experimental method — Difficulty of medical
experiment — Empirical remedies — Galen's influence upon medieval ex-
periment— His more general medieval influence.
III. His Attitude Toward Magic
Accusations of magic against Galen — His charges of magic against
others — Charms and wonder-workers — Animal substances inadmissible
117
Ii8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE cha&.
in medicine — Nastiness of ancient medicine — Parts of animals — Some
scepticism — Doctrine of occult virtue — Virtue of the flesh of vipers —
Theriac — Magical compounds — Amulets — Incantations and characters —
Belief in magic dies hard — On Easily Procurable Remedies — Specimens
of its superstitious contents — External signs of the temperaments of
internal organs — Marvelous statements repeated by Maimonides —
Dreams — Absence of astrology in most of Galen's medicine — The
Prognostication of Disease by Astrology — Critical days — On the His-
tory of Philosophy — Divination and demons — Celestial bodies.
&\\' etris Karayvcc nov ToSe, duokoyco t6 tclOos rovudv 5 Trap' 6\ov
knavTov Tov ^lov 'iiradov, ou8evl TnaTevcras rdv biriyovixkvwv rkroiavTa,
Trplv Tzeipadifjvai. Kal avros Siv bwarov tjv els Trelpav tKdilv fie.
Kiihn, IV, 513.
Slo K^-v ix€T^ kfikris ofxoiojs hfjiol <}>L\d7rov6s re Kal ^rjXcoTLKds OLkrjdeias
yhr]TaL, pri TrpoTerois tK 8volv ^ Tpiihv xPW^^iv airo4>o.Lvkado3. iroX-
XoLKts yap avT(^ (i>aveiTaibia Tri% paxpds irelpas coaTrep k<l)avr] Kq,pol . . .
Kiihn, XIII, 96-1.
XPV yap t6v pkWovra yvuaeaOal tl tcov ttoXXcov apeivov evdvs ph>
Kal ry ^baei. Kal ry TrpcjTj] 5t5acr/caXt^ ttoKv tcov aWav dieveyKtlv
eireLdav 8k ykvqyai, peipaKiov aXtjOelas tlvos txeiv kporiK'^v pavlav
wcnrep kv9ovaio}VTa,Kal pr}d' ijpkpa^ prjTevvKTos 8ia\elireLV (TTevSovra
re Kal avvTeraptvov kKpaOelv, ocra toIs kp8o^OT6.TOLS (IprjTaL tcov
TraXaioiu' kTreL8av 5* eKpadrj, Kpivetv aurd Kal ^acravl^eiv XP^^V
irapir6Wcj} Kal crKOTeZv iroaa peu 6po\oyel toIs kpapycos <f>aLVOpkvOis
TTocra 5^ 8ia4>kptTai Kal outojs to. fikv atpeladai ra 8' aT0(TTpk4>€adat„
Kiihn, II, 179.
"But if anyone charges me therewrith, I confess my disease
from which I have suffered all my life long, to trust none
of those v^ho make such statements until I have tested them
for myself in so far as it has been possible for me to put them
to the test."
"So if anyone after me becomes like me fond of w^ork and
zealous for truth, let him not conclude hastily from tv^^o or
three cases. For often he will be enlightened through long
experience, just as I have been." (It is remarkable that Pto-
lemy spoke similarly of his predecessor, Hipparchus, as a "lover
of toil and truth" — <f)LK6Trovoy Kal ^tXaXi70€a, quoted by Orr
(1913), I22.>
IV
GALEN
119
"For one who is to understand any matter better than most
men do must straightway differ much from other persons in
his nature and earHest education. And when he becomes a
lad he must be madly in love with the truth and carried away
by enthusiasm for it, and not let up by day or by night but
press on and stretch every nerve to learn whatever the ancients
of most repute have said. But having learned it, he must judge
the same and put it to the test for a long, long time and observe
v/hat agrees with visible phenomena and what disagrees, and
so accept the one and reject the other."
I. The Man and His Times
At the close of the nineteenth century one English stu- Recent
dent of the history of medicine said, "Galen is so inacces- Jf/^Qalen.
sible to English readers that it is difficult to learn about
him at first hand." ^ Another wrote, "There is, perhaps,
no other instance of a man of equal intellectual rank who
has been so persistently misunderstood and even misinter-
preted." ^ A third obstacle to the ready comprehension of
Galen has been that while more critical editions of some
single works have been published by Helmreich and others
in recent times,^ no complete edition of his works has ap-
peared since that of Kiihn a century ago,^ which is now re-
garded as very faulty.^ A fourth reason for neglect or
* James Finlayson, Galen: Two
Bibliographical Demonstrations in
the Library of the Faculty of
Physicians and Surgeons of Glas-
gow, 1895. Since then I believe
that the only work of Galen to be
translated into English is On the
Natural Faculties, ed. A. J. Brock,
1916 (Loeb Library).
^J. F. Payne, The Relation of
Harvey to his Predecessors and
especially to Galen: Harveian
Oration of 1896, in The Lancet,
Oct. 24, 1896, p. 113^.
^ In the Teubner texts : Scrip-
tora minora, 1-3, ed. I. Marquardt,
I. Mueller, G. Helmreich, 1884-
1893 ; De victu, ed. Helmreich,
1898; Dc iemperjmentis, ed.
Helmreich, 1904; De usu partium,
ed. Helmreich, 1907, 1909.
In Corpus Medicorum Grae-
corum, V, 9, 1-2, 1914-1915, The
Hippocratic Commentaries, ed.
Mewaldt, Helmreich, Westen-
berger, Diels, Hieg.
* Carolus Gottlob Kiihn, Claudii
Galeni Opera Omnia, Leipzig,
1821-1833, 21 vols. My citations
will be to this edition, unless
otherwise specified. An older
edition which is often cited is that
of Renatus Charterius, Paris,
1679, 13 vols.
° The article on Galen in PW
regards some of the treatises as
printed in Kiihn as almost un-
readable.
120 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
misunderstanding of Galen is probably that there is so much
by him to be read.
His volu- Athenaeus stated that Galen wrote more treatises than
works.^ any other Greek, and although many are now lost, more
particularly of his logical and philosophical writings, his
collected extant works in Greek text and Latin translation
fill some twenty volumes averaging a thousand pages each.
When we add that often there are no chapter headings or
other brief clues to the contents,^ which must be ploughed
through slowly and thoroughly, since some of the most
valuable bits of information come in quite incidentally or
by way of unlooked-for digression; that errors in the printed
text, and the technical vocabulary with numerous words
not found in most classical dictionaries increase the reader's
difficulties; ^ and that little if any of the text possesses any
present medical value, while much of it is dreary enough
reading even for one animated by historical interest, espe-
cially if one has no technical knowledge of medicine and
surgery : — when we consider all these deterrents, we are not
surprised that Galen is little known. "Few physicians or
even scholars in the present day," continues the English
historian of medicine quoted above, "can claim to have
read through this vast collection ; I certainly least of all. I
can only pretend to have touched the fringe, especially of
the anatomical and physiological works." ^
* Although Kiihn's Index fills a amined long stretches of text
volume, it is far from dependable. from which I have got nothing.
^Liddell and Scott often fail to For the most part, I thought it
allude to germane passages in better not to take time to read the
Galen's works, even when they Hippocratic commentaries. At
include, with citation of some first I was inclined to depend
other author, the word he uses. upon others for Galen's treatises
^ Perhaps at this point a simi- on anatomy and physiology, but
larly candid confession by the finally I read most of them in
present writer is in order. I have order to learn at first hand of his
tried to do a little more than Dr. argument from design and his
Payne in his modesty seems ready attitude towards dissection. Fur-
to admit of himself, and to look ther than this the reader can prob-
over carefully enough not to miss ably judge for himself from my
anything of importance those citations as to the extent and
works which seemed at all likely depth of my reading. My first
to bear upon my particular inter- draft was completed before I dis-
est, the history of science and covered that Puschmann had made
magic. In consequence I have ex- considerable use of Galen for
IV
GALEN
121
works.
Although the works of Galen are so voluminous, they The
have reached us for the most part in comparatively late ^adition^^
manuscripts/ and to some extent perhaps only in their me- of Galen's
dieval form. The extant manuscripts of the Greek text
are mostly of the fifteenth century and represent the en-
thusiasm of humanists who hoped by reviving the study
of Galen in the original to get something new and better
out of him than the schoolmen had. In this expectation they
seem to have been for the most part disappointed ; the mid-
dle ages had already absorbed Galen too thoroughly. If it
be true, as Dr. Payne contends,^ that the chief original con-
tributions to medical science of the Renaissance period were
the work of men trained in Greek scholarship, this was be-
cause, when they failed to get any new ideas from the Greek
texts, they turned to the more promising path of experimen-
tal research which both Galen and the middle ages had al-
ready advocated. The bulky medieval Latin translations ^ of
Galen are older than most of the extant Greek texts ; there
are also versions in Arabic and Syriac* For the last five
books of the Anatomical Exercises the only extant text is
an Arabic manuscript not yet published.^
medical conditions in the Roman
Empire in his History of Medi-
cal Education, English transla-
tion, London, 1891, pp. 93-ii3-
For the sake of a complete
and well-rounded survey I have
thought it best to retain those pas-
sages where I cover about the
same ground. I have been unable
to procure T. Meyer-Steineg, Ein
Tag ini Leben des Galen, Jena,
1913, 63 pp.
^ For an account of the MSS
see H. Diels, Berl. Akad. Abh.
(1905), SSff. Some fragments of
Galen's work on medicinal simples
exist in a fifth century MS of
Dioscorides at Constantinople and
have been reproduced by M. Well-
mann in Hermes, XXXVIII
(1903), 292fif. The first two books
of his Trepi TUiv iv ralj Tpo4>als Svva-
fieuv were discovered in a Wolf-
enbiittel palimpsest of the fifth
or sixth century by K. Koch;
see Berl. Akad. Sitzb. (1907),
I03ff.
'Lancet (1896), p. II3S-
^ For these see V. Rose, Ana-
lecta Graeca et Latina, Berlin,
1864. As a specimen of these
medieval Latin translations may
be mentioned a collection of some
twenty-six treatises in one huge
volume which I have seen in the
library of Balliol College, Oxford:
Balliol 231, a large folio, early
14th century (a note of owner-
ship was added in 1334 at Canter-
bury) fols. 437, double columned
pages. For the titles and incipits
of the individual treatises see
Coxe (1852).
*A. Merx, "Proben der syri-
schen Uebersetzung von Galenus'
Schrift iiber die einfachen Heil-
mittel," Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Mor^
gendl. Gcsell. XXXIX (1885).
237-305.
* Payne, Lancet (1896), p. 1130.
122
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Galen's
vivid per-
sonality.
Birth and
parentage.
If SO comparatively little is generally known about Galen,
it is not because he had an unattractive personality. Nor
is it difficult to make out the main events of his hfe. His
works supply an unusual amount of personal information,
and throughout his writings, unless he is merely transcrib-
ing past prescriptions, he talks like a living man, detailing
incidents of daily life and making upon the reader a vivid
and unaffected impression of reality. Daremberg asserts ^
that the exuberance of his imagination and his vanity fre-
quently make us smile. It is true that his pharmacology and
therapeutics often strike us as ridiculous, but he did not
imagine them, they were the medicine of his age. It is true
that he mentions cases which he has cured and those in which
other physicians have been at fault, but official war des-
patches do the same with their own victories and the enemy's
defeats. Vae victis! In Galen's case, at least, posterity
long confirmed his own verdict. And dull or obsolete as his
medicine now is, his scholarly and intellectual ideals and
love of hard work at his art are still a living force, while
the reader of his pages often feels himself carried back to
the Roman world of the second century. Thus "the magic
of literature," to quote a fine sentence by Payne, "brings
together thinkers widely separated in space and time." ^
Galen — he does not seem to have been called Claudius
until the time of the Renaissance — was born about 129 A.D.*
at Pergamum in Asia Minor. His father, Nikon, was an
architect and mathematician, trained in arithmetic, geome-
try, and astronomy. Much of this education he transmitted
to his son, but even more valuable, in Galen's opinion, were
his precepts to follow no one sect or party but to hear and
judge them all, to despise honor and glory, and to magnify
truth alone. To this teaching Galen attributes his own
peaceful and painless passage through life. He has never
* Ch. V. Daremberg, Exposition
des connaissances de Galien sur
I'anatomie, la physiologie, et la
pathologic du systcme nerveux,
Paris, 1841.
^Lancet (1896), p. 1140.
* Brock (1916), p. xvi, says in
131 A.D. Clinton, Fasti Romani,
placed it in 130.
IV GALEN 122,
grieved over losses of property but managed to get along
somehow. He has not minded much when some have vitu-
perated him, thinking instead of those who praise him. In
later life Galen looked back with great affection upon his
father and spoke of his own great good fortune in having
as a parent that gentlest, justest, most honest and humane
of men. On the other hand, the chief thing that he learned
from his mother was to avoid her failings of a sharp tem-
per and tongue, with which she made life miserable for their
household slaves and scolded his father worse than Xan-
thippe ever did Socrates.^
In one of his works Galen speaks of the passionate love Education
and enthusiasm for truth which has possessed him since boy- o"h'^*'and
hood, so that he has not stopped either by day or by night medicine,
from quest of it.^ He realized that to become a true scholar
required both high natural qualifications and a superior type
of education from the start. After his fourteenth year he
heard the lectures of various philosophers, Platonist and
Peripatetic, Stoic and Epicurean ; but when about seventeen,
warned by a dream of his father,^ he turned to the study
of medicine. This incident of the dream shows that
neither Galen nor his father, despite their education and in-
tellectual standards, were free from the current belief in
occult influences, of which we shall find many more instances
in Galen's works. Galen first studied medicine for four
years under Satyrus in his native city of Pergamum, then
under Pelops at Smyrna, later under Numisianus at Corinth
and Alexandria.^ This was about the time that the great
mathematician and astronomer, Ptolemy, was completing
his observations ^ in the neighborhood of Alexandria, but
Galen does not mention him, despite his own belief that a
first-rate physician should also know such subjects as
^ These details are from the De XIX, 59.
cognoscendis curandisque animi * De anatom. administ., Kiihn,
morbis, cap. 8, Kiihn, V, 40-44- II, 217, 224-25, 660. See also XV,
^De naturalihus facultatibus, 136; XIX, 57.
^^' ^9' Kiihn, II, 179. = His recorded astronomical ob-
' Kiihn, X, 609 (De methodo servations extend from 127 to 151
medendi); also XVI, 223; and A.D.
124
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
First visit
to Rome.
Relations
with the
emperors :
later life.
geometry and astronomy, music and rhetoric.^ Galen's in-
terest in philosophy continued, however, and he wrote many
logical and philosophical treatises, most of which are lost.^
His father died when he was twenty, and it was after this
that he went to other cities to study.
Galen returned to Pergamum to practice and was, when
but twenty-nine, made the doctor for the gladiators by five
successive pontiffs.^ During his thirties came his first resi-
dence at Rome.* The article on Galen in Pauly-Wissowa
states that he was driven away from Rome by the plague,
and in De libris pi'opriis he does say that, "when the great
plague broke out there, I hurriedly departed from the city
for my native land." ^ But in De prognosticatione ad Epi-
genem his explanation is that he became disgusted with the
malice of the envious physicians of the capital, and deter-
mined to return home as soon as the sedition there was over.^
Meanwhile he stayed on and gained great fame by his cures
but their jealousy and opposition multiplied, so that pres-
ently, when he learned that the sedition was over, he went
back to Pergamum.
His fame, however, had come to the imperial ears and
he was soon summoned to Aquileia to meet the emperors on
their way north against the invading Germans. An out-
break of the plague there prevented their proceeding with
the campaign immediately,"^ and Galen states that the em-
perors fled for Rome with a few troops, leaving the rest to
suffer from the plague and cold winter. On the way Lucius
Verus died, and when Marcus Aurelius finally returned to
the front, he allowed Galen to go back to Rome as court
^Kiihn, X, i6.
^Fragments du commcntaire de
G alien siir le Timce de Plat on,
were published for the first time,
both in Greek and a French trans-
lation, together with an Essai sur
Galien considcrc comme philo-
sophe, by Ch. Daremberg, Paris,
1848.
" Kiihn, XIII, 599-6oo.
* Clinton, Fasti Romani, I, 151
and 155, speaks of a first visit of
Galen to Rome in 162 and a second
in 164, but he has misinterpreted
Galen's statements. When Galen
speaks of his second visit to
Rome, he means his return after
the plague.
° Kiihn, XIX, IS.
"Kiihn, XIV, 622, 625, 648; sec
also I, 54-57, and XII, 263.
' Kiihn, XIV, 649-50.
IV GALEN 125
physician to Commodus.^ The prevalence of the plague at
this time is illustrated by a third encounter which Galen had
with it in Asia, when he claims to have saved himself and
others by thorough venesection.^ The war lasted much
longer than had been anticipated and meanwhile Galen was
occupied chiefly in literary labors, completing a number of
works. In 192 some of his writings and other treasures
were lost in a fire which destroyed the Temple of Peace on
the Sacred Way. Of some of the works which thus per-
ished he had no other copy himself. In one of his works
on compound medicines he explains that some persons may
possess the first two books which had already been pub-
lished, but that these had perished with others in a shop on
the Sacra Via when the whole shrine of peace and the great
libraries on the Palatine hill were consumed, and that his
friends, none of whom possessed copies, had besought him
to begin the work all over again. ^ Galen was still alive and
writing during the early years of the dynasty of the Severi,
and probably died about 200.
Although the envy of other physicians at Rome and His unfa-
their accusing him of resort to magic arts and divination vorable
, . ? . . picture of
m his marvelous prognostications and cures were perhaps the learned
neither the sole nor the true reason for Galen's temporary ^°^
withdrawal from the capital, there probably is a great deal
of truth in the picture he paints of the medical profession
and learned world of his day. There are too many other
ancient witnesses, from the encyclopedist Pliny and the
satirist Juvenal to the fourth century lawyer and astrologer,
Firmicus, who substantiate his charges to permit us to ex-
plain them away as the product of personal bitterness or
* R. M. Briau, L'Archiafrie Ro- Merton 219, early 14th century,
maine, Paris, 1877, however, held fol. 2^ — "Incipit liber Galieni
that Galen never received the offi- archistratos medicorum de ma-
cial title, archiater; see p. 24, "il est litia complexionis diversae."
difficile de comprendre pourquoi ^ De venae sectione, Kiihn, XIX,
le medecin de Pergame qui don- 524.
nait des soins a I'empereur Marc ^ Kiihn, XIII, 2^2-62, ; for an-
Aurele, ne fut jamais honore de other allusion to this fire see XIV,
ce titre." But he is given the title 66. Also II, 216; XIX, 19 and 41.
in at least one medieval MS —
126
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Corrup-
tion of the
medical
profession.
pessimism. We feel that these men lived in an intellectual
society where faction and villainy, superstition and petty-
mindedness and personal enmity, were more manifest than
in the quieter and, let us hope, more tolerant learned world
of our time. Selfishness and pretense, personal likes and
dislikes, undoubtedly still play their part, but there is not
passionate animosity and open war to the knife on every
hand. The stattis belli may still be characteristic of politics
and the business world, but scholars seem able to live in
substantial peace. Perhaps it is because there is less prospect
of worldly gain for members of the learned professions
than in Galen's day. Perhaps it is due to the growth of the
impartial scientific spirit, of unwritten codes of courtesy and
ethics within the leading learned professions, and of state
laws concerning such matters as patents, copyright, profes-
sional degrees, pure food, and pure drugs. Perhaps, in the
unsatisfactory relations between those who should have been
the best educated and most enlightened men of that time
we may see an important symptom of the intellectual and
ethical decline of the ancient world.
Galen states that many tire of the long struggle with
crafty and wicked men which they have tried to carry on,
relying upon their erudition and honest toil alone, and
withdraw disgusted from the madding crowd to save them-
selves in dignified retirement. He especially marvels at
the evil-mindedness of physicians of reputation at Rome.
Though they live in the city, they are a band of robbers as
truly as the brigands of the mountains. He is inclined to
account for the roguery of Roman physicians compared to
those of a smaller city by the facts that elsewhere men are
not so tempted by the magnitude of possible gain and that
in a smaller town everyone is known by everyone else and
questionable practices cannot escape general notice. The
rich men of Rome fall easy prey to these unscrupulous prac-
titioners who are ready to flatter them and play up to their
weaknesses. These rich men can see the use of arithmetic
and geometry, which enable them to keep their books
tv GALEN 127
straight and to build houses for their domestic comfort,
and of divination and astrology, from which they seek
to learn whose heirs they will be, but they have no
appreciation of pure philosophy apart from rhetorical
sophistry.-^
Galen more than once complains that there are no real Lack of
seekers after truth in his time, but that all are intent upon for truth,
money, political power, or pleasure. You know very well,
he says to one of his friends in the De methodo medendi,
that not five men of all those whom we have met prefer to
be rather than to seem wise.^ Many make a great outward
display and pretense in medicine and other arts who have
no real knowledge.^ Galen several times expresses his
scorn for those who spend their mornings in going about
saluting their friends, and their evenings in drinking bouts
or in dining with the rich and powerful. Yet even his
friends have reproached him for studying too much and not
going out more. But while they have wasted their hours
thus, he has spent his, first in learning all that the ancients
have discovered that is of value, then in testing and prac-
ticing the same.* Moreover, now-a-days many are trying
to teach others what they have never accomplished them-
selves.' Thessalus not only toadied to the rich but secured
many pupils by offering to teach them medicine in six
months.^ Hence it is that tailors and dyers and smiths
are abandoning their arts to become physicians. Thessalus
himself, Galen ungenerously taunts, was educated by a
father who plucked wool badly in the women's apartments.''^
Indeed, Galen himself, by the violence of his invective and
the occasional passionateness of his animosity in his con-
troversies with other individuals or schools of medicine,
illustrates that state of war in the intellectual world of his
age to which we have adverted.
^■For the statements of this *Kuhn, X, i, y6.
paragraph see Kiihn, XIV, 603-5, • Kiihn X 600
620-23. ' ' ^'
" Kiihn, X, 114. 'Kiihn, X, 4-5.
•Kiihn, XIV, 599-600. 'Kiihn, X, 10.
128
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Poor doc-
tors and
medical
students.
Medical
discovery
in Galen's
time.
The drug
trade.
We suggested the possibility that learning compared to
other occupations was more remunerative in Galen's day
than in our own, but there were poor physicians and medi-
cal students then, as well as those greedy for gain or who
associated with the rich. Many doctors could not afford to
use the rarer or stronger simples and limited themselves to
easily procured, inexpensive, and homely medicaments.^
Many of his fellow-students regarded as a counsel of per-
fection unattainable by them Galen's plan of hearing all the
different medical sects and comparing their merits and test-
ing their validity.^ They said tearfully that this course was
all very well for him with his acute genius and his wealthy
father behind him, but that they lacked the money to pursue
an advanced education, perhaps had already lost valuable
time under unsatisfactory teachers, or felt that they did not
possess the discrimination to select for themselves what was
profitable from several conflicting schools.
Galen was, it has already been made apparent, an intel-
lectual aristocrat, and possessed little patience with those
stupid men who never learn anything for themselves, though
they see a myriad cures worked before their eyes. But that,
apart from his own work, the medical profession was not
entirely stagnant in his time, he admits when he asserts that
many things are known to-day which had not been discov-
ered before, and when he mentions some curative methods
recently invented at Rome.^
Galen supplies considerable information concerning the
drug trade in Rome itself and throughout the empire. He
often complains of adulteration and fraud. The physician
must know the medicinal simples and their properties him-
self and be able to detect adulterated medicines, or the mer-
chants, perfumers, and herbarii will deceive him.* Galen
refuses to reveal the methods employed in adulterating
opobalsam, which he had investigated personally, lest the
* Kiihn, XII, 909, 916, and in vol.
XIV the entire treatise De reme-
diis parabilibus.
* Kiihn, X, 560.
"Kiihn, X, loio-ii.
* Kiihn, XIII, 571-72.
IV GALEN 129
evil practice spread further.^ At Rome at least there were
dealers in unguents who corresponded roughly to our drug-
gists. Galen says there is not an unguent-dealer in Rome
who is unacquainted with herbs from Crete, but he asserts
that there are equally good medicinal plants growing in the
very suburbs of Rome of which they are totally ignorant,
and he taxes even those who prepare drugs for the em-
perors with the same oversight. He tells how the herbs
from Crete come wrapped in cartons with the name of the
herb written on the outside and sometimes the further state-
ment that it is canipestris.^ These Roman drug stores seem
not to have kept open at night, for Galen in describing a
case speaks of the impossibility of procuring the medicines
needed at once because "the lamps were already lighted." ^
The emperors kept a special store of drugs of their own The
and had botanists in Sicily, Crete, and Africa who supplied stcu-es!^
not only them with medicinal herbs, but also the city of
Rome as well, Galen says. However, the emperors appear
to have reserved a large supply of the finest and rarest sim-
ples for their own use. Galen mentions a large amount of
Hymettus honey in the imperial stores — kv rals avroKparo-
pLKals airodrjKaLs,^ whence our word "apothecary." ^ He proves
that cinnamon ^ loses its potency with time by his own ex-
* Kijhn, XIV, 62, and see Pusch- dicitur is qui species aromaticas
mann, History of Medical Educa- et res quacunque arti medicine et
tion (1891), p. 108. cirurgie necessarias habet penes
^ Kiilin, XIV, 10, 30, 79; and see se et venales exponit," fol. 3.
Puschmann (1891), 109-11, where "According to Hugutius an
there is bibliography of the sub- apothecary is one who collects
ject. samples of various commodities in
^ Kiihn, X, 792. his stores. An apothecary is called
* Kiihn, XIV, 26. one who has at hand and exposes
" The meaning of the word for sale aromatic species and all
"apothecary" is explained as fol- sorts of things needful in medi-
lows in a fourteenth century cine and surgery."
manuscript at Chartres which is "The nest of the fabled cinna-
a miscellany of religious treatises mon bird was supposed to contain
with a bestiary and lapidary and supplies of the spice, which He-
bears the title, "Apothecarius rodotus (III, iii) tells us the
moralis monasterii S. Petri Car- Arabian merchants procured by
notensis." leaving heavy pieces of flesh for
"Apothecarius est, secundum the birds to carry to their nests,
Hugucium, qui nonnullas diver- which then broke down under the
sarum rerum species in apothecis excessive weight. In Aristotle's
suis aggregat. . . . Apothecarius History of Animals (IX, 13) the
130
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE cukvT
Galen's
private
supply of
drugs :
terra
sigillata.
perience as imperial physician. An assignment of the spice
sent to Marcus AureHus from the land of the barbarians
(kKTTJs ^ap^apov) was superior to what had stood stored in
wooden jars from the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and An-
toninus Pius. Commodus exhausted all the recent supply,
and when Galen was forced to turn to what had been on
hand in preparing an antidote for Severus, he found it much
weaker than before, although not thirty years had elapsed.
That cinnamon was a commodity little known to the popu-
lace is indicated by Galen's mentioning his loss in the fire
of 192 of a few precious bits of bark he had stored away
in a chest with other treasures.^ He praises the Severi,
however, for permitting others to use theriac, a noted medi-
cine and antidote of which we shall have more to say pres-
ently. Thus, he says, not only have they as emperors re-
ceived power from the gods, but in sharing their goods
freely they are like the gods, who rejoice the more, the
more people they save."
Galen himself, and apparently other physicians, were not
content to rely for medicines either upon the unguent-sellers
or the bounty of the imperial stores. Galen stored away oil
and fat and left them to age until he had enough to last for
a hundred years, including some from his father's lifetime.
He used some forty years old in one prescription.^ He also
traveled to many parts of the Roman Empire and procured
rare drugs in the places where they were produced. Very
interesting is his account of going out of his way in jour-
neying back and forth between Rome and Pergamum in
order to stop at Lemnos and procure a supply of the famous
terra sigillata, a reddish clay stamped into pellets with the
sacred seal of Diana.* On the way to Rome, instead of
journeying on foot through Thrace and Macedonia, he took
ship from the Troad to Thessalonica ; but the vessel stopped
nests are shot down with arrows * Kiihn, XIV, 64-66.
tipped with lead. For other allu- ^^./j Pisoncm dc theriaca, Kiihn,
sions to the cinnamon bird in XIV, 217.
classical literature see D'Arcy W. j ' ... vttt
Thompson, A Glossary of Greek ^"""' -^^^^' 704-
5iVrfj, Oxford, 1895, p. 82. "Kuhn, XII, 168-78.
IV GALEN 131
in Lemnos at Myrine on the wrong side of the island, which
Galen had not realized possessed more than one port, and
the captain would not delay the voyage long enough to en-
able him to cross the island to the spot where the terra
sigillata was to be found. Upon his return from Rome
through Macedonia, however, he took pains to visit the right
port, and for the benefit of future travelers gives careful
instructions concerning the route to follow and the distances
between stated points. He describes the solemn procedure
by which the priestess from the neighboring city gathered
the red earth from the hill where it was found, sacrificing
no animals, but wheat and barley to the earth. He brought
away with him some twenty thousand of the little discs or
seals which were supposed to cure even lethal poisons and
the bite of mad dogs. The inhabitants laughed, however,
at the assertion which Galen had read in Dioscorides that
the seals were made by mixing the blood of a goat with the
earth. Berthelot, the historian of chemistry, believed that
this earth was "an oxide of iron more or less hydrated and
impure."^ In another passage Galen advises his readers,
* M. Berthelot, "Sur les voyages had replaced the priestess of
de Galien et de Zosime dans I'Ar- Diana. Pierre Belon witnessed it
chipel et en Asie, et sur la matiere on August 6th, 1533. By that time
medicale dans I'antiquite," in there were many varieties of the
Journal dcs Savants (1895), PP- tablets, "because each lord of
382-7. The article is chiefly de- Lemnos had a distinct seal."
voted to showing that an alchem- When Tozer visited Lemnos in
istic treatise attributed to Zosimus 1890 the ceremony was still per-
copies Galen's account of his trips formed annually on August sixth
to Lemnos and Cyprus. Of such and must be completed before
future copying of Galen we shall sunrise or the earth would lose its
encounter many more instances. efficacy. Mohammedan khodjas
As for the terra sigillata, C. J. now shared in the religious cere-
S. Thompson, in a paper on mony, sacrificing a lamb. But
"Terra Sigillata, a famous medi- in the twentieth century the en-
cament of ancient times," pub- tire ceremony was abandoned,
lished in the Proceedings of the Through the early modern cen-
Seventeenth International Con- turies the terra sigillata continued
gress of Medical Sciences. Lon- to be held in high esteem in
don, 1913, Section XXIII, pp. western Europe also, and was in-
433-44, tells of various medieval eluded in pharmacopeias as late as
substitutes for the Lemnian earth 1833 and 1848. Thompson gives a
from other places, and of the in- chemical analysis of a sixteenth
teresting_ religious ceremony, per- century tablet of the Lemnian
formed in the presence of the earth and finds no evidence there-
Turkish officials on only one day in of its possessing any medicinal
in the year by Greek monks who property.
132
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Mediter-
ranean
commerce.
if they are ever in Pamphylia, to lay in a good supply of
the drug carpesiiim.^ In the ninth book of his work on
medicinal simples he tells of three strata of sory, chalcite,
and misy, which he had seen in a mine in Cyprus thirty
years before and from which he had brought away a sup-
ply, and of the surprising chemical change which the misy
underwent in the course of these years. ^
Galen speaks of receiving other drugs from Great Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, Cappadocia, Pontus, Macedonia, Gaul,
Spain, and Mauretania, from the Celts, and even from In-
dia.^ He names other places in Greece and Asia Minor than
Mount Hymettus where good honey may be had, and states
that much so-called Attic honey is really from the Cyclades,
although it is brought to Athens and there sold or reshipped.
Similarly, genuine Falernian wine is produced only in a small
part of Italy, but other wines like it are prepared by those
who are skilled in such knavery. As the best iris is that of
Illyricum and the best asphalt is from Judea, so the best
petroselinon is that of Macedonia, and merchants export it
to almost the entire world just as they do Attic honey and
Falernian wine. But the petroselinon crop of Epirus is sent
to Thessalonica and there passed off for Macedonian. The
best turpentine is that of Chios but a good variety may be
obtained from Libya or Pontus. The manufacture of drugs
has spread recently as well as the commerce in them. The
Agricola in the sixteenth cen-
tury wrote in his work on mining
{De re metal., ed. Hoover, 1912,
II, 31), "It is, however, very little
to be wondered at that the hill in
the Island of Lemnos was exca-
vated, for the whole is of a
reddish-yellow color which fur-
nishes for the inhabitants that
valuable clay so especially bene-
ficial to mankind."
'Kiihn, XIV, 72.
'Kiihn, XII, 226-9. See the
article of Berthelot just cited in
a preceding note for an explana-
tion of the three names and of
Galen's experience. Mr. Hoover,
in his translation of Agricola's
work on metallurgy (1912), pp.
573-4, says, "It is desirable here
to enquire into the nature of the
substances given by all of the old
mineralogists under the Latinized
Greek terms, chalcitis, misy, sory,
and melanteria." He cites Dios-
corides (V, 75-77) and Pliny
(NH, XXXIV, 29-31) on the sub-
ject, but not Galen. Yule (1903)
I, 126, notes that Marco Polo's
account of Tutia and Spodium
"reads almost like a condensed
translation of Galen's account of
Fompliolyx and Spodos."
'Kiihn. XIV, 7-8; XIII, 41 1-2;
XII, 215-6.
IV GALEN 133
best form of unguent was formerly made only in Laodicea,
but now it is similarly compounded in many other cities of
Asia Minor.^
We are reminded that parts of animals as well as herbs Frauds of
and minerals were important constituents in ancient phar- j,^^^^^^
macy by Galen's invective against the frauds of hunters beasts,
and dealers in wild beasts as well as of unguent-sellers.
They do not hunt them at the proper season for securing
their medicinal virtues, but when they are no longer in
their prime or just after their long period of hibernation,
when they are emaciated. Then they fatten them upon
improper food, feed them barley cakes to stuff up and dull
their teeth, or force them to bite frequently so that virus
will run out of their mouths.^
Besides the ancient drug trade, Galen gives us some in- Galen's
teresting glimpses of the publishing trade, if we may so _
term it, of his time. Writing in old age in the De methodo ity.
medendi,^ he says that he has never attached his name to one
of his works, never written for the popular ear or for fame,
but fired by zeal for science and truth, or at the urgent re-
quest of friends, or as a useful exercise for himself, or, as
now, in order to forget his old age. Popular fame is only
an impediment to those who desire to live tranquilly and
enjoy the fruits of philosophy. He asks Eugenianus, whom
he addresses in this passage, not to praise him immoderately
before men, as he has been wont to do, and not to inscribe
his name in his works. His friends nevertheless prevailed
upon him to write two treatises Hsting his works,'* and he
also is free enough in many of his books in mentioning
others which are essential to read before perusing the pres-
ent volume.^ Perhaps he felt differently at different times
on the question of fame and anonymity. He also objected
*Kuhn, XIV, 22-23, 77-78; * irepi T03V iSluv Pi^\luv,Ku\\n, XIX,
XIII, 119. Sff. ; and irtpi rns Tdfecjs rcof iSiojy
' Kuhn, XIV, 255-56. The beasts /3i)3Xico;^, XIX,_49 ff.
of course were also in demand for ° See, for instance, in the De
the arena. methodo medcndi itself, X, 895-96
' Kiihn, X, 456-57, opening pas- and 955.
sage of the seventh book.
134 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
to those who read his works, not to learn anything from
them, but only in order to calumniate them.^
The It was in a shop on the Sacra Via that most of the copies
book"* of some of Galen's works were stored when they, together
trade. with the great libraries upon the Palatine, were consumed
in the fire of 192. But in another passage Galen states that
the street of the Sandal-makers is where most of the book-
stores in Rome are located.^ There he saw some men dis-
puting whether a certain treatise was his. It was duly in-
scribed Galenus mediais and one man, because the title
was unfamiliar to him, bought it as a new work by Galen.
But another man who was something of a philologer asked
to see the introduction, and, after reading a few lines, de-
clared that the book was not one of Galen's works. When
Galen was still young, he wrote three commentaries on the
throat and lungs for a fellow student who wished to have
something to pass off as his own work upon his return
home. This friend died, however, and the books got into
circulation.^ Galen also complains that notes of his lec-
tures which he has not intended for publication have got
abroad,* that his servants have stolen and published some
of his manuscripts, and that others have been altered, cor-
rupted, and mutilated by those into whose possession they
have come, or have been passed off by them in other lands
as their own productions.^ On the other hand, some of his
pupils keep his teachings to themselves and are unwilling to
give others the benefit of them, so that if they should die
suddenly, his doctrines would be lost.^ But his own ideal
has always been to share his knowledge freely with those
who sought it, and if possible with all mankind. At least
one of Galen's works was taken down from his dictation by
short-hand writers, when, after his convincing demonstra-
tion by dissection concerning respiration and the voice,
Boethus asked him for commentaries on the subject and
'Kiihn, XIV, 651: henceforth '11,217.
this text will generally be cited *XIX, 9.
without name. "XIX, 41.
'XIX, 8. "11,283.
IV
GALEN
135
sent for stenographers.^ Although Galen in his travels
often purchased and carried home with him large quantities
of drugs, when he made his first trip to Rome he left all his
books in Asia.^
Galen dates the falsification of title pages and contents
of books back to the time when kings Ptolemy of Egypt
and Attains of Pergamum were bidding against each other
for volumes for their respective libraries.^ Works were
often interpolated then in order to make them larger and
so bring a better price. Galen speaks more than once of
the deplorable ease with which numbers, signs, and other
abbreviations are altered in manuscripts.* A single stroke
of the pen or slight erasure will completely change the mean-
ing of a medical prescription. He thinks that such altera-
tions are sometimes malicious and not mere mistakes. So
common were they that Menecrates composed a medical
work written out entirely in complete words and entitled
Autocrat or H ologrammatos because it was also dedicated to
the emperor. Another writer, Damocrates, from whom
Galen often quotes long passages, composed his book of
medicaments in metrical form so that there might be no
mistake made even in complete words.
Galen's works contain occasional historical information
concerning many other matters than books and drugs. Clin-
ton in his Fasti Roniani made much use of Galen for the
chronology of the period in which he lived. His allusions
to several of the emperors with whom he had personal re-
lations are valuable bits of source-material. Trajan was,
of course, before his time, but he testifies to the great im-
provement of the roads in Italy which that emperor had
effected.^ Galen sheds a little light on the vexed question
Falsifica-
tion and
mistakes
in manu-
scripts.
Galen as a
historical
source.
' XIV, 630.
' XIX, 34.
"XV, 109.
*XIII, 995-96; XIV, 31-32.
'X, 633. Duruy refers to the
passage in his History of Rome
(ed._ J. P. Mahafify, Boston, 1886,
V, i, 273), but says, "Extensive
sanitary works were undertaken
throughout all Italy, and the cele-
brated Galen, who was almost a
contemporary, extols their happy
effects upon the public health."
But Galen does not have sanitary
considerations especially in mind,
since he mentions Trajan's road-
building only by way of illustra-
tion, comparing his own systematic
136 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of the population of the empire, if Pergamum is the place
he refers to in his estimate of forty thousand citizens or one
hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants, including women
and slaves but perhaps not children.^
Ancient Galen illustrates for us the evils of ancient slavery in
slavery. . . . ....
an incident which he relates to show the inadvisability of
giving way to one's passions, especially anger.^ Returning
from Rome, Galen fell in with a traveler from Gortyna in
Crete. When they reached Corinth, the Cretan sent his
baggage and slaves from Cenchrea^ to Athens by boat, but
himself with a hired vehicle and two slaves went by land
with Galen through Megara, Eleusis, and Thriasa. On the
way the Cretan became so angry at the two slaves that he
hit them with his sheathed sword so hard that the sheath
broke and they were badly wounded. Fearing that they
would die, he then made off to escape the consequences of
his act, leaving Galen to look after the wounded. But later
he rejoined Galen in penitent mood and insisted that Galen
administer a beating to him for his cruelty. Galen adds
that he himself, like his father, had never struck a slave
with his own hand and had reproved friends who had broken
their slaves' teeth with blows of their fists. Others go far-
ther and kick their slaves or gouge their eyes out. The em-
peror Hadrian in a moment of anger is said to have blinded
a slave with a stylus which he had in his hand. He, too, was
sorry afterwards and offered the slave money, but the latter
refused it, telling the emperor that nothing could compen-
sate him for the loss of an eye. In another passage Galen
discusses how many slaves and "clothes" one really needs.*
treatment of medicine to the em- now deserted and beset by wild
peror's great work in repairing beasts so that they would pass
and improving the roads, straight- through populous towns and more
ening them by cut-offs that saved frequented areas. The passage
distance, but sometimes abandon- thus bears witness to a shifting
ing an old road that went straight of population,
over hills for an easier route that ^V, 49.
avoided them, filling in wet and ^ V, 17-19.
marshy spots with stone or cross- ^ Mentioned in Acts, xviii, 18,
ing them by causeways, bridging ". . . having shorn his head in
impassable rivers, and altering Cenchrea : for he had a vow."
routes that led through places *V, 46-47.
IV GALEN 137
Galen also depicts the easy-going, sociable, and pleasure- Social
loving society of his time. Not only physicians but men gen- ^nd wine
erally begin the day with salutations and calls, then separate
again, some to the market-place and lavvr courts, others to
v^atch the dancers or charioteers.^ Others play at dice or
pursue love affairs, or pass the hours at the baths or in eat-
ing and drinking or some other bodily pleasure. In the
evening they all come together again at symposia w^hich bear
no resemblance to the intellectual feasts of Socrates and
Plato but are mere drinking bouts. Galen had no objection,
however, to the use of wine in moderation and mentions the
varieties from different parts of the Mediterranean world
which were especially noted for their medicinal properties.^
He believed that drinking wine discreetly relieved the mind
from all worry and melancholy and refreshed it. *'For we
use it every day." ^ He affirmed that taken in moderation
wine aided digestion and the blood. ^ He classed wine with
such boons to humanity as medicines, "a sober and decent
mode of life," and "the study of literature and liberal dis-
ciplines." ^ Galen's treatise in three books on food values
{De aliment oriim faculfatibus) supplies information con-
cerning the ancient table and dietary science.
Galen's allusions to Judaism and Christianity are of con- Allusions
siderable interest. He scarcely seems to have distinguished and ChriT-
between them. In two passages in his treatise on differences tianity.
in the pulse he makes incidental allusion to the followers of
Moses and Christ, in both cases speaking of them rather
lightly, not to say contemptuously. In criticizing Archi-
genes for using vague and unintelligible language and not
giving a sufficient explanation of the point in question,
Galen says that it is "as if one had come to a school of
^X, 3-4. Tralles, "He has in most dis-
*X, 831-36; XIII, 513; XIV, 27- tempers a separate article concern-
29, and 14-19 on the heating and ing wine and I much doubt
storage of wine. whether there be in all nature a
3 jv ^^.7 .rr, "lO""^ excellent medicine than this
iv, 77/-/y. in the hands of a skillful and
* Similarly Milward (1733), p. judicious practitioner."
102, wrote of Alexander of "IV, 821.
138 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Moses and Christ and had heard undemonstrated laws."^
And in criticizing opposing sects for their obstinacy he re-
marks that it would be easier to win over the followers of
Moses and Christ.^ Later we shall speak more fully of a
third passage in De iisu partium^ where Galen criticizes the
Mosaic view of the relation of God to nature, representing
it as the opposite extreme to the Epicurean doctrine of a
purely mechanistic and materialistic universe. This sug-
gests that Galen had read some of the Old Testament, but
he might have learned from other sources of the Dead Sea
and of salts of Sodom, of which he speaks in yet another
context.^ According to a thirteenth century Arabian biog-
rapher of Galen, he spoke more favorably of Christians in
a lost commentary upon Plato's Republic, admiring their
morals and admitting their miracles.^ This last, as we shall
see, is unlikely, since Galen believed in a supreme Being who
worked only through natural law. "A confection ol loachos,
the martyr or metropolitan," and "A remedy for headache
of the monk Barlama" occur in the third book of the De
remediis parabilihus ascribed to Galen, but this third book
is greatly interpolated or entirely spurious, citing Galen
himself as well as Alexander of Tralles, the sixth century
writer, and mentioning the Saracens. Wellmann regards it
as composed between the seventh and eleventh centuries of
our era.''
Like most thoughtful men of his time, Galen tended to
believe in one supreme deity, but he appears to have derived
* Ktihn, VIII, 579, ws eij Mwi)o-ou above passages. Particula 24
Kal Xpiarov diarpitiriv &<f)iyfj.evos voncop (56), "medici et philosophi cum
ivawoSeiKTOiP aKouri. aere augmentati non sunt pre-
' Ibid., p. 6s7,0aTTovyap &PTISTOVS parati ad disciplinam sicut parati
inrdMuvaovKalXpLarou ixtTa5i56.^€i(v..' fuerunt ad disciplinam moysis et
I have been unable to find a pas- christi socii predictorum. decimo-
sage in which, according to Moses tercio megapulsus."
Maimonides of the twelfth cen- » Kiihn, III, 905-7.
tmy in h\s Aphorisms iroiTi Galen, ,^^^ ^j ^ XII, 372-5.
Galen said that the wealthy phy- 5 t- 1 ro A o
sicians and philosophers of his ^^ F.nlayson (1895) ; PP- 8-9;
time were not prepared for disci- Uarmck Medtcimsches aus der
pline as were the followers of altcstav Kirchengeschichte, Leip-
Moses and Christ. Perhaps it is ^ig, 1892.
a mistranslation of one of the ® Wellmann (1914), P- 16 note.
IV
GALEN 139
this conception from Greek rather than Hebraic sources.
It was to philosophy and the Greek mysteries that he turned
for revelation of the deity, as we shall see. Hopeless crim-
inals were for him those whom neither the Muses nor Soc-
rates could reform.^ It is Plato, not Christ, whom in an-
other treatise he cites as describing the first and greatest
God as ungenerated and good. "And we all naturally love
Him, being such as He is from eternity." ^
But while Galen's monotheism cannot be regarded as of Galen's
Christian or Jewish origin, it is possible that his argument readers^"
from design and supporting theology by anatomy made him
more acceptable to both Mohammedan and Christian read-
ers. At any rate he had Christian readers at Rome at the
opening of the third century, when a hostile controversialist
complains that some of them even worship Galen.^ These
early Christian enthusiasts for natural science, who also de-
voted much time to Aristotle and Euclid, were finally ex-
communicated; but Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen were to
return in triumph in medieval learning.
II. His Medicine and Experimental Science
Galen held as his fundamental theory of nature the view Four
which was to prevail through the middle ages, that all nat- and four
ural objects upon this globe are composed of four elements, qualities,
earth, air, fire, and water,^ and the cognate view, which he
says Hippocrates first introduced and Aristotle later dem-
onstrated, that all natural objects are characterized by four
qualities, hot, cold, dry, and moist. From the combinations
of these four are produced various secondary quaHties.^
Neither hypothesis was as yet universally accepted, however,
and Galen felt it incumbent upon him to argue against those
^Kiihn, IV, 816. *Kuhn, X, 16-17. J. Leminne,
' Kiihn, IV, 815. Les quatre elements, in Memoires
'Quoted by Eusebius, V, 28, couronnes par I Academie de
and reproduced by Harnack, Bclgique, vol. 65, Brussels, 1903,
Medicinisches aus der dltestcn traces the influence of the theory
Kirchengeschichte, 1892, p. 41, and in medieval thought.
by Finlayson (1895), pp. 9-10. * Kuhn, XIII, 763-4.
140
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Criticism
of atom-
ism.
Applica-
tion of the
theory of
four quali-
ties in
medicine.
who contended that the human body and world of nature
were made from but one element.^ There were others who
ridiculed the four quality hypothesis, saying that hot and
cold were words for bath-keepers, not for physicians to deal
with. 2 Galen explains that philosophers do not regard
any particular variety of earth or any other mineral sub-
stance as representing the pure element earth, which in the
philosophical sense is an extremely cold and dry substance
to which adamant and rocks make perhaps the closest ap-
proach. But the earths that we see are all compound bodies.^
Galen rejected the atomism of Democritus and Epicurus,
in which the atoms were indivisible particles dififering in
shape and size, but not differing in quality as chemical atoms
are supposed to do. He credits Democritus with the view
that such qualities as color and taste are sensed by us from
the concourse of atoms, but do not reside in the atoms them-
selves.* Galen also makes the criticism that the mere re-
grouping of "impassive and immutable" atoms is not enough
to account for the new properties of the compound, which
are often very different from those of the constituents, as
when "we alter the qualities of medicines in artificial mix-
tures." ^ Thus he virtually says that the purely physical
atomism of Democritus will not account for what today we
call chemical change. He also, as we shall see, rejected Epi-
curus' theory of a world of nature ruled by blind chance.
Galen of course thought that a dry medicine was good
for a moist disease, and that in a compound medicine, by
mixing a very cold with a slightly cold drug in varying pro-
portions a medicine of any desired degree of coldness might
be obtained.*^ In general he regarded solids like stones and
metals as dry and cold, while he thought that hot and moist
objects tended to evaporate rapidly into air.'^ So he de-
clared that dryness of solid bodies was incurable, while he
believed that children's bodies were more easily dissolved
*Kiihn, I, 428. "XIV, 250-53.
*Kiihn, X, iii. «yttt o^q
"Kuhn, XII, 166. ^"^' ^^•
*I, 417. 'X, 657.
IV GALEN 141
than adults' because moister and warmer.^ The Stoics and
many physicians believed that heat prolonged life, but As-
clepiades pointed out that the Ethiopians are old at thirty
because the hot sun dries up their bodies so, while the in-
habitants of Britain sometimes live to be one hundred and
twenty years old. This last, however, was regarded as prob-
ably due to the fact that their thicker skins conserved their
innate heat longer.^
As an offset to the evidence which will be presented later Galen's
of the traces of occult virtues, magic, and astrology in tics'^obso-
Galen's therapeutics I should like to be able to indicate the lete.
good points in it. But his entire system, like the four qual-
ity theory upon which it is largely based, seems now obso-
lete, and what evidenced his superiority to other physicians
in his own day would probably strike the modern reader
only as a token of his distinct inferiority to present practice.
Eighty odd years of modern medical progress since have
added further emphasis to Daremberg's declaration that we
have had to throw overboard "much of his physiology,
nearly all of his pathology and general therapeutics." ^
Nevertheless, we may note a few specimens which per- Some of
haps represent his ordinary theory and practice as dis- cal no-
tinguished from passages in which the influence of magic ^'°"^"
enters. He holds that bleeding and cold drink are the two
chief remedies for fever.* He notes that children occasion-
ally resemble their grandparents rather than their parents.^
He disputes the assertion of Epicurus — one by which some
of his followers failed to be guided — that there is no benefit
to health in Aphrodite, and contends that at certain intervals
and in certain individuals and circumstances sexual inter-
course is beneficial.*^ His discussion of anodynes and stu-
por or sleep-producing medicines shows that the ancients
had anaesthetics of a sort.'^ He recognized the importance
X, 872. dcs Klandios Galcnos, 1894, 204
'XIX, 344-45- pp.
More recently Galen's Materia * X, 624.
medico has been treated of in a " XIV, 253-54.
German doctoral dissertation by ° V, 911.
L. Israelson, Die materia medica 'X. 817-IQ.
142 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of breathing plenty of fresh, invigorating, and unpolluted
air, free from any intermixture of impurity from mines,
pits, or ovens, or of putridity from decaying vegetable or
animal matter, or of noxious vapors from stagnant water,
swamps, and rivers.^ As was usual in ancient and medieval
times, he attributes plagues to the corruption of the air,
which poisons men breathing it, and tells how Hippocrates
tried to allay a plague at Athens by purifying the air by
fumigation with fires, odors, and unguents.^
Two of Two specimens may be given of Galen's accounts of his
cases. own cases. In the first, some cheese, which he had told his
servants to take away as too sharp, when mixed with boiled
salt pork and applied to the joints, proved very helpful to a
gouty patient and to several others whom he induced to try
it.^ In the second case Galen administered the following
heroic treatment to a woman at Rome who was afflicted
with catarrh to the point of throwing up blood.* He did not
deem it wise to bleed her, since for four days past she had
gone almost without food. Instead he ordered a sharp
clyster, rubbed and bound her hands and feet with a hot
drug, shaved her head and put on it a medicament made of
doves' dung. After three hours she was bathed, care being
taken that nothing oily touched her head, which was then
covered up. At first he fed her only gruel, afterwards some
bitter autumn fruit, and as she was about to go to sleep he
administered a medicament made from vipers four months
before. On the second day came more rubbing and binding
except the head, and at evening a somewhat smaller dose
of the viper remedy. Again she slept well and in the morn-
ing he gave her a large dose of cooked honey. Again her
body was well rubbed and she was given barley water and a
little bread to eat. On the fourth day an older and therefore
stronger variety of viper- remedy was administered and her
head was covered with the same medicament as before. Its
properties, Galen explains, are vehemently drying and heat-
*X, 843. 'XII, 270-71.
'XIV, 281. *X, 368-71.
IV GALEN 143
ing. Again she was given a bath and a little food. On the
fifth day Galen ventured to purge her lungs, but he returned
at intervals to the imposition upon her head. Meanwhile
he continued the process of rubbing, bathing, and dieting,
until finally the patient was well again, — a truly remark-
able cure !
These two cases, however, do not give us a just compre- His power
hension of Galen's abilities at their best. In his medical obs«-va-
practice he could be as quick and comprehensive an observer t'on and
inference,
and as shrewd in drawing inferences from what he observed
as the famous Sherlock Holmes, so that some of his slower-
witted contemporaries accused him of possessing the gift
of divination. His immediate diagnosis of the case of the
Sicilian physician by noting as he entered the house the
excrements in a vessel which a servant was carrying out to
the dungheap, and as he entered the sick-room a medicine
set on the window-sill which the patient-physician had been
preparing for himself, amazed the patient and the philo-
sopher Glaucon^ more than, let us hope in this case in view
of his profession, they would have amazed the estimable Dr.
Watson.
Puschmann has pointed out that Galen employs certain His happy
expressions which seem happy guesses at later discoveries. ^"^^^^^•
He writes : "Galen was supported in his researches by an
extremely happy imaginative faculty which put the proper
word in his mouth even in cases where he could not possibly
arrive at a full understanding of the matter, — where he
could only conjecture the truth. When, for instance, he
declares that sound is carried 'like a wave' (Kiihn, HI, 644),
or expresses the conjecture that the constituent of the atmos-
phere which is important for breathing also acts by burning
(IV, 687), he expresses thoughts which startle us, for it
was only possible nearly two thousand years later to under-
stand their full significance."^
'Kiihn, VIII, 2,6^. Finlayson ^Puschmann (iSgr), pp. 105-6.
(189s), pp. 39-40, gives an English Vitruvius, too, however (V, iii),
translation of Galen's full account states that sound spreads in waves'
of the case. like eddies in a pond.
144
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Tendency
towards
scientific
measure-
ment.
Psycho-
logical
tests with
the pulse.
Galen was keenly alive to the need of exactness in
weights and measurements. He often criticizes past writers
for not stating precisely what ailment the medicament rec-
ommended is good for, and in what proportions the ingredi-
ents are to be mixed. He also frequently complains be-
cause they do not specify whether they are using the Greek
or Roman system of weights, or the Attic, Alexandrine, or
Ephesian variety of a certain measure.-^ Moreover, he saw
the desirability of more accurate means of measuring the
passage of time.^ When he states that even some illustrious
physicians of his acquaintance mistake the speed of the
pulse and are unable to tell whether it is slow, fast, or nor-
mal, we begin to realize something of the difficulties under
which medical practice and any sort of experimentation
labored before watches were invented, and how much de-
pended upon the accuracy of human machinery and judg-
ment. Yet Galen estimates that the chief progress made
in medical prognostication since Hippocrates is the gradual
development of the art of inferring from the pulse.^ Galen
tried to improve the time-pieces in use in his age. He states
that in any city the inhabitants want to know the time of
day accurately, not merely conjecturally ; and he gives di-
rections how to divide the day into twelve hours by a com-
bination of a sun-dial and a clepsydra, and how on the
water clock to mark the duration of the longest, shortest,
and equinoctial days of the year.^
Delicate and difficult as was the task of measuring the
pulse in Galen's time, he was clever enough to anticipate by
seventeen centuries some of the tests which modern psy-
chologists have urged should be applied in criminal trials.
He detected the fact that a female patient was not ill but in
love by the quickening of her pulse when someone came in
from the theater and announced that he had just seen Py-
^XIII, 435, 893, are two in-
stances.
» V, 80 ; XIV, 670.
* Various treatises on the pulse
by Galen will be found in vols.
V, IX, and X of Kiihp's edition.
* Galen's contributions to the
arts of clock-making and time-
keeping have been dealt with in an
article which I have not had ac-
cess to and of which I cannot now
find even the author and title.
IV GALEN 14s
lades dance. When she came again the next day, Galen had
purposely arranged that someone should enter and say that
he had seen Morphus dancing. This and a similar test on
the third day produced no perceptible quickening in the
woman's pulse. But it bounded again when on the fourth
day Pylades' name was again spoken. After recounting an-
other analogous incident where he had been able to read the
patient's mind, Galen asks why former physicians have never
availed themselves of these methods. He thinks that they
must have had no conception of how the bodily health in
general and the pulse in particular can be affected by the
"psyche's" suffering.^ We might then call Galen the first
experimental psychologist as well as the first to elaborate the
physiology of the nervous system.
It would scarcely be fair to discuss Galen's science at Galen's
all without saying something of his remarkable work in anat- an^^p^ysj,
omy and physiology. Daremberg went so far as to hold ology.
that all there is good or bad in his writings comes from good
or bad physiology, and regarded his discussion of the bones
and muscles as especially good.^ He is generally considered
the greatest anatomist of antiquity, but it is barely possible
that he may have owed more to predecessors and contem-
poraries and less to personal research than is apparent from
his own writings, which are the most complete anatomical
treatises that have reached us from antiquity. Herophilus,
for example, who was born at Chalcedon in the closing
fourth century B. C. and flourished at Alexandria under
the first Ptolemy, discovered the nerves and distinguished
them from the sinews, and thought the brain the center of
the nervous system, so that it is perhaps questionable
whether Payne is justified in calling Galen "the founder of
the physiology of the nervous system," and in declaring that
*XIV, 631-34. Muscular Anatomy" at the Inter-
' C. V. Daremberg, Exposition national Congress of Medical
des connaissances de Galien sur Sciences held at London in 1913;
I'anatomie, la physiologic, et la see pp. 389-400 of the volume de-
pathologie du systemc nervcux, voted to the history of medicine,
Paris, 1841. J. S. Milne dis- Section XXIII.
cussed "Galen's Knowledge of
146 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
"in physiological diagnosis he stands alone among the an-
cients." ^ However, if Galen owed something to Herophilus,
we owe much of our knowledge of the earlier physiologist
to Galen.^
Experi- Aristotle had held that the heart was the seat of the sen-
Sss'ection. sitive soul ^ and the source of nervous action, "while the
brain was of secondary importance, being the coldest part
of the body, devoid of blood, and having for its chief or
only function to cool the heart." Galen attacked this theory
by showing experimentally that "all the nerves originated
in the brain, either directly or by means of the spinal cord,
which he thought to be a conducting organ merely, not a
center." "A thousand times," he says, "I have demon-
strated by dissection that the cords in the heart called nerves
by Aristotle are not nerves and have no connection with
nerves." He found that sensation and movement were
stopped and even the voice and breathing were affected by
injuries to the brain, and that an injury to one side of the
brain affected the opposite side of the body. His public
demonstration by dissection, performed in the presence of
various philosophers and medical men, of the connection be-
tween the brain and voice and respiration and the commen-
taries which he immediately afterwards dictated on this
point were so convincing, he tells us fifteen years later, that
no one has ventured openly to dispute them."* His "experi-
mental investigation of the spinal cord by sections at differ-
ent levels and by half sections was still more remarkable." ^
Galen opposed these experimental proofs to such unscien-
tific arguments on the part of the Stoic philosopher, Chry-
sippus, and others, as that the heart must be the chief organ
because it is in the center of the body, or because one lays
^Lancet (1896), p. 1139. chick led Aristotle to locate in it
* I have failed to obtain K. F. H. the central seat of the soul.
Mark, Herophilus, ein Beitrag s:ur '' XIV, 626-30.
Geschichtc der Medicin, Carls- "11, 683, 696, This and the
ruhe, 1838. other quotations in this para-
'D'Arcy W. Thompson (1913), graph are from Dr. Payne's Har-
22-23, thinks that the precedence veian Oration as printed in Tht
of the heart over all other organs Lancet (1896), pp. 1137-39-
in appearing in the embryo of the
IV GALEN 147
one's hand on one's heart to indicate oneself, or because the
lips are moved in a certain way in saying "I"( eyco).'^ Another
noteworthy experiment by Galen was that in which, by
binding up a section of the femoral artery he proved that
the arteries contain blood and not air or spiritus as had
been generally supposed.- He failed, however, to perform
any experiments with the pulmonary veins, and so the no-
tion persisted that these conveyed "spirit" and not blood
from the lungs to the heart. ^
It has usually been stated that Galen never dissected Did Galen
ever
the human body and that his inferences by analogy from dissect
his dissection of animals involved him in serious error con- ^ '?-^":>
bodies?
cerning human anatomy and physiology. Certainly he
speaks as if opportunities to secure human cadavers or even
skeletons were rare.^ He mentions, however, the possibil-
ity of obtaining the bodies of criminals condemned to death
or cast to beasts in the arena, or the corpses of robbers
which lie unburied in the mountains, or the bodies of in-
fants exposed by their parents.^ It is not sufficient, he
states in another passage,^ to read books about human
bones; one should have them before one's eyes. Alexan-
dria is the best place for the student to go to see actual ex-
hibitions of this sort made by the teachers."^ But even if
one cannot go there, one may be able to procure human
bones for oneself, as Galen did from a skeleton which had
^Kiihn, V, 216, cited by Payne. *II, 384-86.
*Kiihn, II, 642-49; IV, 703-36, e tt
"An in arteriis natura sanguis , ^ u 1.
contineatur." J. Kidd, A Cursory ^Augustine testifies in two pas-
Analysis of the Works of Galen sages of his Dc anima et eius
so far as they relate to Anatomy origine (Migne PL 44, 475-548),
and Physiology, in Transactions that vivisection of human beings
of the Provincial Medical and was practiced as late as his time,
Surgical Association, VI (1837), the early fifth century: IV, 3,
299-336. "Medici tamen qui appellantur
^Lancet (1896), p. 1137, where anatomici per membra per venas
Payne states that Colombo {De per nervos per ossa per medullas
re anatomica, Venet. 1559, XIV, per interiora vitalia etiam vivos
261) was the first to prove by ex- homines quamdiu inter manus
periment on the living heart that rimantium vivere potuerunt dis-
these veins conveyed blood from siciendo scrutati sunt ut naturam
the lungs. corporis nossent"; and IV, 6
*II, 146-47. (Migne, PL 44, 528-9).
148 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
been washed out of a grave by a flooded stream and from
the corpse of a robber slain in the mountains. If one can-
not get to see a human skeleton by these means or some
other, he should dissect monkeys and apes.
Dissection Indeed Galen advises the student to dissect apes in any
case, in order to prepare himself for intelligent dissection
of the human body, should he ever have the opportunity.
From lack of such previous experience the doctors with
the army of Marcus Aurelius, who dissected the body of a
dead German, learned nothing except the position of the
entrails. Galen at any rate dissected a great many animals.
Tiny animals and insects he let alone, for the microscope
was not yet discovered, but besides apes and quadrupeds
he cut up many reptiles, mice, weasels, birds, and fish.^ He
also gives an amusing account of the medical men at Rome
gathering to observe the dissection of an elephant in order
to discover whether the heart had one or two vertices and
two or three ventricles. Galen assured them beforehand
that it would be found similar to the heart of any other
breathing animal. This particular dissection was not, how-
ever, performed exclusively in the interests of science, since
it was scarcely accomplished when the heart was carried
off, not to a scientific museum, but by the imperial cooks
to their master's table.^ Galen sometimes dissected animals
the moment he killed them. Thus he observed that the
lungs always sensibly shrank from the diaphragm in a
dying animal, whether he killed it by suffocation in water,
or strangling with a noose, or severing the spinal medulla
near the first vertebrae, or cutting the large arteries or
veins. ^
Surgical Surgical operations and medical practice were a third
operations, ^ay of learning the human anatomy, and Galen complains
of the carelessness of those physicians and surgeons who
do not take pains to observe it before performing an oper-
ation or cure. He himself had had one case where the
* n, 537, * II, 619-20. • II, 701.
IV GALEN 149
human heart was laid bare and yet the patient recovered.^
As a young practitioner before he came to Rome Galen
worked out so successful a method of treating wounds of
the sinews that the care of the health of the gladiators in
his native city of Pergamum was entrusted to him by sev-
eral successive pontifices - and he hardly lost a life. In the
same passage he again speaks contemptuously of the doctors
in the war with the Germans who were allowed to cut open
the bodies of the barbarians but learned no more thereby
than a cook would. When Galen came from Pergamum to
Rome he found the professions of physicians and surgeons
distinct and left cases to the latter which he before had at-
tended to himself.^ We may note finally that he invented
a new form of surgical knife.*
In Galen's opinion the study of anatomy was important Galen's
for the philosopher as well as for the physician. An under- froJJJ"^"*
standing of the use of the parts of the body is helpful to design,
the doctor, he says, but much more so to "the philosopher
of medicine who strives to obtain knowledge of all nature." ^
In the De iisu partium ^ he came to the conclusion that in
the structure of any animal we have the mark of a wise
workman or demiurge, and of a celestial mind; and that
"the investigation of the use of the parts of the body lays
the foundation of a truly scientific theology which is much
greater and more precious than all medicine," and which
reveals the divinity more clearly than even the Eleusinian
mysteries or Samothracian orgies. Thus Galen adopts the
argument from design for the existence of God. The mod-
ern doctrine of evolution is of course subversive of his
premise that the parts of the body are so well constructed
for and marvelously adapted to their functions that nothing
better is possible, and consequently of his conclusion that
this necessitates a divine maker and planner.
^IT, 631 ff. cal bearing.
''XIII, 599-600. Galen states ' X, 454-55.
that the pontifex's term of * II, 682.
office was seven months, a fact ^11, 291.
which perhaps had some astrologi- " IV, 360, et passim.
150
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Queries
concerning
the soul.
No super-
natural
force in
medicine.
In the treatise De foetuum formatione Galen displays a
similar inclination but more tentatively and timidly. He
thinks that the human body attests the wisdom and power
of its maker/ whom he wishes the philosophers would re-
veal to him more clearly and tell him "whether he is some
wise and powerful god."^ The process of the formation
of the child in the womb, the complex human muscular
system, the human tongue alone, seem to him so wonderful
that he will not subscribe to the Epicurean denial of any
all-ruling providence.^ He thinks that nature alone cannot
show such wisdom. He has, however, sought vainly from
philosopher after philosopher for a satisfactory demonstra-
tion of the existence of God, and is by no means certain
himself.*
Galen is also at a loss concerning the existence and sub-
stance of the soul. He points out that puppies try to bite
before their teeth come and that calves try to hook before
their horns grow, as if the soul knew the use of these parts
beforehand. It might be argued that the soul itself causes
the parts to grow,^ but Galen questions this, nor is he ready
to accept the Platonic world-soul theory of a divine force
permeating all nature.^ It offends his instinctive piety and
sense of fitness to think of the world-soul in such things
as reptiles, vermin, and putrefying corpses. On the other
hand, he disagrees with those who deny any innate knowl-
edge or standards to the soul and attribute everything to
sense perception and certain imaginations and memories
based thereon. Some even deny the existence of the rea-
soning faculty, he says, and affirm that we are led by the
affections of the senses like cattle. For these men courage,
prudence, temperance, continence are mere names. "^
In commenting upon the works of Hippocrates, Galen
insists that in speaking of "something divine" in diseases
^ IV, 687. soul constructs the parts and
* IV, 694, 696. another soul incites them to vol-
* IV, 688. untary motion.
*IV, 700. ejY „j
' IV, 692 ; II, 537. Others con- " ' 7"^'
tend, he says (IV, 693), that one *II, 28.
IV GALEN 151
Hippocrates could not have meant supernatural influence,
which he never admits into medicine in other passages.
Galen tries to explain away the expression as having ref-
erence to the effect of the surrounding air.^ Thus while
Galen might look upon nature or certain things in nature
as a divine work, he would not admit any supernatural
force in science or medicine, or anything bordering upon
special providence. In the De usu partiiim Galen states
that he agrees with Moses that "the beginning of genesis in
all things generated" was "from the demiurge," but that he
does not agree with him that anything is possible with God
and that God can suddenly turn a stone into a man or make
a horse or cow from ashes. "In this matter our opinion
and that of Plato and of others among the Greeks who
have written correctly concerning natural science differs
from the view of Moses." In Galen's view God attempts
nothing contrary to nature but of all possible natural
courses invariably chooses the best. Thus Galen expresses
his admiration at nature's providence in keeping the eye-
brows and eyelashes of the same length and not letting
them grow long like the beard or hair, but this is because
a harder cartilaginous flesh is provided for them to grow
in, and the mere will of God would not keep hairs from
growing in soft flesh. If God had not provided the carti-
laginous substance for the eyelashes, "he would have been
more careless, not merely than Moses but than a worthless
general who builds a wall in a swamp." ^ As between the
views on God of Moses and Epicurus, Galen prefers to steer
a middle course.
Already in describing Galen's dissections and tests with Galen's
the pulse we have seen evidence of the accurate observation mental
and experimental instincts which accompanied his zest for '"^t*"*^**
hard work and zeal for truth. In one of his treatises he
* XVIII B, I7ff. Moses Maimonides in the twelfth
^ De usu partium, XI, 14 (Kiihn, century took exception at some
111,905-7). The passage seems to length, in the 2Sth Particula of
me an integral part of the work his Aphorisms from Galen, to this
and not a later interpolation. criticism of his national lawgiver.
152
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Attitude
towards
authori-
ties.
confesses that it was a passion of his always to test every-
thing for himself. "And if anyone accuses me of this, I
will confess my disease, from which I have suffered all my
life long, that I have trusted no one of those who narrate
such things until I have tested it myself, if it was possible
for me to have experience of it," ^ Galen also recognized
that general theories were not sufficient for exact knowledge
and that specific examples seen with one's own eyes were
indispensable.^ He maintains that, if all teachers and
writers would realize and observe this, they would make
comparatively few false statements. He saw the danger
of making absolute assertions and the need of noting the
particular circumstances of each individual case.^ Galen
more than once declared that things, not names, were im-
portant and refused to waste time in disputing about termin-
ology and definitions which might be spent in "pursuing the
knowledge of things themselves." * Thus we see in Galen
a pragmatic scientist intent upon concrete facts and exact
knowledge ; but at the same time it must be recognized that
he accepted some universal theorems and general views.
Galen did not believe in merely repeating in new books
the statements of previous authorities. Ever since boy-
hood, he writes in his Anatomical Administrations, it has
seemed to him that one should record in writing only one's
new discoveries and not repeat what has been said already.^
Nevertheless in some of his writings he collects the pre-
scriptions of past physicians at great length, and a previous
treatise by Archigenes is practically embodied in one of
Galen's works on compound medicines. On another occa-
sion, however, after stating that Crito had combined previ-
ous treatises upon cosmetics, including the work of Cleo-
patra, into four books of his own which constitute a well-
nigh exhaustive treatment of the subject, Galen says that
^IV, 513; see also II, 55, cos ?7w7e 'XIII, 964.
irpwrov niv &Kovaai t6 yivonevov, kdavfxaaa ''II, 136; X, 3^5 J XII, 3II > he
Kal avrbs e^ovXrjdijv aiiTowTrjs airov Kara- credited Plato with the same atti-
CT^j'tti. tude, see II, 581.
'X, 608; XIII, 887-88. MI, 659-60.
IV
GALEN 153
he sees no profit in copying Crito's work again and merely
reproduces its table of contents.^ On the other hand, as
this passage shows, Galen thought that the ancients had
stated many things admirably and he had little patience with
contemporaries who would learn nothing from them but
were always ambitiously weaving new and complicated dog-
mas, or misinterpreting and perverting the teachings of the
ancients.^ His method was rather first to "make haste and
stretch every nerve to learn what the most celebrated of
the ancients have said ;" ^ then, having mastered this teach-
ing, to judge it and put it to the test for a long time and
determine by observation how much of it agrees and how
much disagrees with actual phenomena, and then embrace
the former portion and reject the latter.
This critical employment of past authorities is frequently Adverse
illustrated in Galen's works. He mentions a great many of p^st
names of past physicians and writers, thereby shedding some writers,
light upon the history of Greek medicine; but at times
he criticizes his predecessors, not sparing even Empedocles
and Aristotle. Although he cites Aristotle a great deal,
he declares that it is not surprising that Aristotle made
many errors in the anatomy of animals, since he thought
that the heart in large animals had a third ventricle.^ As
we have already seen in discussing the topic of weights and
measurements, Galen especially objects to the vagueness and
inaccuracy of many past medical writers,^ or praises in-
dividuals like Heras who give specific information.^ He
also shows a preference for writers who give first-hand
information, commending Heraclides of Tarentum as a
trustworthy man, if there ever was one, who set down only
those things proved by his own experience.'^ Galen declares
that one could spend a life-time in reading the books that
have already been written upon medicinal simples. He
urges his readers, however, to abstain from Andreas and
'XII, 446. 'XIII, 891.
"11, 141, 179. 6YTTT Ain IT
"11, 179; X, 609. ^^^^' 430-31.
*II, 621. ^XIII, 717.
IS4
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Galen's
estimate
of Dios-
corides.
Galen's
dogma-
tism : logic
and ex-
perience.
other liars of that stamp, and above all to eschew Pamphilus
who never saw even in a dream the herbs which he describes.
Of all previous writers upon materia niedica Galen pre-
ferred Dioscorides. He writes, "But Anazarbensis Dios-
corides in five books discussed all useful material not only
of herbs but of trees and fruits and juices and liquors, treat-
ing besides both all metals and the parts of animals." ^ Yet
he does not hesitate to criticize certain statements of Dios-
corides, such as the story of mixing goat's blood with the
terra sigillata of Lemnos. Dioscorides had also attributed
marvelous virtues to the stone Gagates which he said came
from a river of that name in Lycia; Galen's comment is
that he has skirted the entire coast of Lycia in a small boat
and found no such stream.^ He also wonders that Dios-
corides described butter as made of the milk of sheep and
goats, and correctly states that "this drug" is made from
cows' milk.^ Galen does not mention its use as a food in
his work on medicinal simples, and in his treatise upon food
values he alludes to butter rather incidentally in the chap-
ter on milk, stating that it is a fatty substance and easily
recognized by tasting it, that it has many of the properties
of oil, and in cold countries is sometimes used in baths in
place of oil.^ Galen further criticizes Dioscorides for his
unfamiliarity with the Greek language and consequent fail-
ure to grasp the significance of many Greek names.
Daremberg said of Galen that he represented at the same
time the most exaggerated dogmatism and the most ad-
vanced experimental school. There is some justification
for the paradox, though the latter part seems to me the
truer. But Galen was proud of his training in philosophy
and logic and mathematics; he stood fast by many Hippo-
cratic dogmas such as the four qualities theory, he thought ^
that in medicine as in geometry there were a certain num-
*XI, 794; also XIII, 658; XIV, "XII, 272.
61-62, and many other passages of
the Antidotes.
*XII, 203. Pliny, NH XXXVI,
34, makes the same statement as
Dioscorides.
* Pliny, NH XXVIII, 35, how-
ever, both tells how butter is made
and of its use as food among the
barbarians.
"^X, 40-41
IV GALEN 155
ber of self-evident maxims upon which reason, conforming
to the rules of logic, might build up a scientific structure.
In the De methodo medendi ^ he makes a distinction be-
tween the discovery of drugs and medicines, simple or com-
pound, by experience and the methodical treatment of dis-
ease which he now sets forth and which should proceed log-
ically and independently of mere empiricism, and he wishes
that other medical writers would make it clear when they
are relying merely on experience and when exclusively upon
reason.^ At the same time he expresses his dislike for mere
dogmatizers who shout their ipse dixits like tyrants with-
out the support either of reason or experience.^ He also
grants that the ordinary man, taught by nature alone, often
instinctively pursues a better course of action for his health
than "the sophists" are able to advise.* Indeed, he is of the
opinion that some doctors would do well to stick to experi-
ence alone and not try to mix in reasoning, since they are
not trained in logic, and when they endeavor to divide or
analyze a theme, perform like unskilled carvers who fail
to find the joints and mutilate the roast. ^ Later on in the
same work ^ he again affirms that persons who will not read
and profit by the books of medical authorities and whose
own reasoning is defective, should limit themselves to ex-
perience.
Normally, however, Galen upholds both reason and ex- Galen's
perience as criteria of truth against the opposing schools account of
of Dogmatics and Empirics. The former attacked experi- pirics.
ence as uncertain and impossible to regulate, slow and un-
methodical. The latter replied that experience was con-
sistent, adaptable to art, and proof enough.'^ Galen's chief
objection to the Empirics is that they reject reason as a cri-
terion of truth and wish the medical art to be irrational.^
"The Empirics say that all things are discovered by experi-
^X, 127, 962. «X, 915-16.
'X, 31. 'I, 75-76: XIV, 367.
\ X, 29. » I, 145 ; II. 41-43 ; X, 30-31, 782-
*X, 668. 83; XIII, 188, 366, 375, 463, 579,
X, 123. 594, 892 ; XIV, 245, 679.
156 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ence, but we say that some are found by experience and
some by reason." ^ Galen also objects to Herodotus's ex-
planation of the medical art as originating in the conversa-
tion of patients exposed at crossroads who told one another
of their complaints and recoveries and thus evolved a fund
of common experience.^ Galen criticizes such experience
as irrational and not yet put into scientific form (ov-koo Xoyut?) .
Of the Empirics he tells us further that they regard
phenomena only and ignore causes and put no trust in rea-
soning. They hold that there is no system or necessary
order in medical discovery or doctrine, and that some rem-
edies have been discovered by dreams, others by chance.
They also accepted written accounts of past experiences and
thus to a certain extent trusted in tradition. Galen argues
that they should test these statements of past authorities by
reason.^ His further contention that, if they test them by
experience, they might as well reject all writings and trust
only to present experience from the start, is a sophistical
quibble unworthy of him. He adds, however, that the Em-
pirics themselves say that past tradition or "history"
( taTOpla) should not be judged by experience, but it is
unlikely that he represents their view correctly in this par-
ticular. In another passage ^ he says that they distinguish
three kinds of experience, chance or accidental, offhand or
impromptu, and imitative or the repetition of the same
thing. In a third passage ^ he repeats that they held that
observation of one or two instances was not enough, but
that oft-repeated observation was needed with all conditions
the same each time. In yet another place ® he says that the
Empirics observe coincidences in things joined by experi-
ence. He himself defines experience as the comprehending
and remembering of something seen often and in the same
condition,'^ and makes the good point that one cannot ob-
serve satisfactorily without use of reason.^ He also admits
^X, 159- "I. 135.
' XIV, 675-76. ' XIV, 680.
*I, T44-SS. 'I, 131.
'XVI. 82. 'I, 134-
IV GALEN 157
in one place that some Empirics are ready to employ reason
as well as experience.-^
Having noted Galen's criticism of the Empirics, we may How the
imagine what their attitude would be towards his medicine, ^i^h*"^^
They would probably reject all his theories — which we, too, have
criticized
have finally discarded — of four elements and four qualities Galen,
and the like, and would accept only his specific recommenda-
tions for the cure of disease based upon his medical experi-
ence; except that they would also be credulous concerning
anything which he assured them was based upon his own
or another's experience, whether it truly was or not. They
would, however, have probably questioned much of his
anatomical inference from the dissection of the lower ani-
mals, since he tells us that they "have written whole books
against anatomy." ^ Considering the state of knowledge in
their time, their refusal to attempt any large generalizations
or to hazard any scientific hypotheses or to build any risky
medical system was in a way commendable, but their cre-
dulity as to particulars was a weakness.
On the whole Galen's attitude towards experience seems Galen's
an improvement upon theirs. He was apparently more criti- of "eason
cal towards the "experiences" of past writers than the and ex-
perience.
average Empiric, and in his combination of reason and ex-
perience he came a little nearer to modern experimental
method. Reason alone, he says, discovers some things,
experience alone discovers some, but to find others requires
use of both experience and reason.^ In his treatise upon
critical days he keeps reiterating that their existence is proved
both by reason and experience. These two instruments
in judging things given us by nature supplement each other.*
"Logical methods have force in finding what is sought, but
in believing what has been well found there are two criteria
for all men, reason and experience." ^ "What can you do
with men who cannot be persuaded either by reason or by
'XVI, 82. *XIII, 1 16-17.
^11, 288.
" IX, 842 ; XIII, 887. " X, 28-29.
158
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Simples
knowable
only from
experi-
ence.
practice ?" ^ Galen also speaks of discovering a truth by
logic and being thereby encouraged to try it in practice and
of then verifying it by experience.^ This, however, is not
quite the same thing as saying that the scientist should aim
to discover new truth by purposive experiments, or that
from a number of experiences reason may infer some gen-
eral law of nature.
It is perhaps in his work on medicinal simples that Galen
lays most stress upon the importance of experience. In-
deed he sees no other way to learn the properties of natural
objects than through the experience of the senses.^ *'For
by the gods," he exclaims, "how is it that we know that fire
is hot? Are we taught it by some syllogism or persuaded
of it by some demonstration? And how do we learn that
ice is cold except from the senses ?" * And Galen sees no
advantage in spending further time in arguments and hair-
splitting where one can learn the truth at once from the
senses. This thought he keeps repeating through the trea-
tise, saying, for example, "The surest judge of all will be
experience alone, and those who abandon it and reason on
any other basis not only are deceived but destroy the value
of the treatise." ^ Moreover, he restricts his account of me-
dicinal simples to those with which he is personally ac-
quainted. In the three books treating of plants he does not
mention all those found in all parts of the world, but only as
many as it has been his privilege to know by experience.* He
proposes to follow the same rule in the ensuing discussion of
animals and to say nothing of virtues which he has not tested
or of substances mentioned in the writings of past physi-
cians but unknown to him. He dares not trust their state-
ments when he reflects how some have lied in such matters.
In the middle ages Albertus Magnus talks in much the same
strain in his works on animals, plants, and minerals, and
perhaps he was stimulated to such ideals, consciously or un-
^X, 684.
'X, 454-55.
•XI, 420.
'XI, 434-35.
'XI, 456.
XII, 246.
IV GALEN 1 59
consciously, directly by reading Galen or indirectly through
Arabic works, by Galen's earlier expression of them.
Galen mentions some virtues ascribed to substances which
he has tested by experience and found false, such as the
medicinal properties attributed to the belly of a seagulP and
some of those claimed for the marine animal called torpedo.^
Anointing the place with frog's blood or dog's milk will not
prevent eyebrows that have been plucked out from grow-
ing again, nor will bat's blood and viper's fat remove hair
from the arm-pits.^ Also the brain of a hare is only fairly
good for boys' teeth.*
In beginning his work on food values ^ Galen states that Experi-
cncG 3.11(1
many have discussed the properties of aliments, some on the food
basis of reason alone, some on the basis of experience alone, science,
but that their statements do not agree. On the whole, since
reasoning is not easy for everyone, requiring natural sagac-
ity and training from childhood, he thinks it better to start
from experience, especially since not a few physicians are
of the opinion that only thus can the properties of foods
be learned.
The Empirics contended that most compound medicines Experi-
had been hit upon by chance, and Galen grants that the com-
Dogmatics usually are unable to give reasons for the in- Po^-"<^s.
gredients of their doses and find difficulty in reproducing a
lost prescription.^ But he holds that reasons can be given
for the constituents of the compound and that the logical
discovery of such remedies differs from the empirical.'^ His
own method was to learn the nature of each disease and the
varied properties of simples, and then prepare a compound
suited to the disease and to the patient.^ On the other hand,
we see how much depends upon experience from his con-
fession that sometimes he has hastily prepared a compound
from a few simples, sometimes from more, sometimes from
a great variety. If the compound worked well, he would
'XII, 336. "VI, 453-55.
•XII, 365. "XIII, 463.
•XII, 258, 262, 269, 331. ■'XII, 895.
* XII, 334. ' XIV, 222.
i6o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Sugges-
tions of
experi-
mental
method
continue to use it, sometimes making it stronger and some-
times weaker,^ For as you cannot put together compounds
without rational method, so you cannot tell their strength
certainly and accurately without experience.^ He admits
that no one can tell the exact quantity of each ingredient to
employ without the aid of experience,^ and says, "The
proper proportions in the mixture we shall find conjectur-
ally before experience, scientifically after experience." ^ In
these treatises upon compound medicines, unlike that on
medicinal simples, Galen gives the prescriptions of former
physicians as well as some tested by his own experience.*^
Sometimes, however, he expresses a preference for the med-
icines of those writers who were "most experienced" ; and
once says that he will give some compounds of the more
recent writers, who in their turn had selected the best from
older writers of long experience and added later discoveries.®
We suspect, however, that some of these prescriptions had
not been tested for centuries.
Galen gives a few directions how to regulate medical
observation and experience, although they cannot be said to
carry us very far on the road to modern laboratory research.
He saw the value of "long experience," a phrase which he
often employs.'^ He states that one experience is enough to
learn how to prepare a drug, but to learn to know the best
medicines in each kind and in different places many experi-
ences are required.^ Medicinal simples should be frequently
inspected, "since the knowledge of things perceived by the
senses is strengthened by careful examination." ® Galen ad-
vises the student of medicine to study herbs, trees, and fruit
as they grow, to find out when it is best to pluck them, how
to preserve them, and so on. But elsewhere he states that
it is possible to estimate the general virtue of the simple
*XIII, 700-701.
*XIII, 706-707.
"Xlll, 467.
*XIII, 867.
'XII, 392-93, 884; XIII, 116-17,
123, 125, 128-29, 354, 485, 502-503,
582, 656.
"XII, 968, 988.
'See XII, 988
XIV, 12, 60, 341.
«XIV, 82.
•XIII, S70.
XIII, 960-61;
IV GALEN i6i
from one or two experiences.-^ However, he suggests that
their effect be noted in the three cases of a perfectly heahhy
person, a sHghtly aihng patient, and a really sick man.^ In
the last case one should further note their varying effects as
the disease is marked by any excess of heat, cold, dryness,
or m.oisture. Care should be taken that the simples them-
selves are pure and free from any admixture of a foreign
substance.^ "It is also essential to test the relation to the
nature of the patient of all those things of which great use
is made in the medical art." ^ One condition to be observed
in experimental investigation of critical days is to count no
cases where any slip has been made by physician or patient
or bystanders or where any other foreign factor has done
harm.^ Galen was acquainted with physical experiments in
siphoning, for he says that, if one withdraws the air from
a vessel containing sand and water, the sand will follow be-
fore the water, which is the heavier {sic?).^
Galen also points out some of the difficulties of medi- Difficulty
cal experimentation. One is the extreme unlikelihood of experi-*'^^
ever being able to observe in even two cases the same com- ment.
bination of symptoms and circumstances.'^ The other is
the danger to the life of the patient from rash experiment-
ing.^ Thus Galen more than once tells us of abstaining
from testing some remedy because he had others of whose
effects he was surer.
In the treatise on easily procurable remedies ascribed Empirical
to Galen,^ in which we have already seen evidence of later
interpolation or authorship, some recipes are concluded by
^XII, 350. book, O Glaucon, ends thus. If it
*XVI, 86-87; XI, 518. has been useful to you, you will
* XI, 485. readily follow what I've written
*XVI, 85. to Salomon the archiater." But
*IX, 842. then the present second book
*II, 206. opens with the words (XIV, 390),
' I, 138. "Since you've asked me to write
* XVI, 80. you about easily procurable reme-
* There would seem to be some- dies, O dearest Solon," and goes
thing wrong, at least with its ar- on to say that the author will state
rangement as it now stands, for what he has learned from experi-
the first book ends (XIV, 389) ence beginning with the hair and
with the words, "This my fourth closing with the feet.
remedies.
1 62
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Galen's
influence
upon
medieval
experi-
ment.
such expressions as, "This has been experienced; it works
unceasingly," ^ or "Another remedy tested by us in many
cases." ^ This became a custom in many subsequent medi-
cal works, including those of the middle ages. One recipe
is introduced by the caution, "But don't cure anybody un-
less you have been paid first, for this has been tested in
many cases." ^ But we are left in some doubt whether we
should infer that remedies tested by experience are so su-
perior that they call for cash payment rather than credit, or
so uncertain that it is advisable that the physician secure his
fee before the outcome is known. In the middle ages the
word experimentiim was used a great deal as a synonym for
any medical treatment, recipe, or prescription. Galen ap-
proaches this usage, which we have already noticed in Pliny's
Natural History, when he describes "a very important ex-
periment" in bleeding performed by certain doctors at
Rome.*
Indeed Galen appears to have exerted a great influence
in the middle ages by his passages concerning experience in
particular as well as by his medicine in general. Medieval
writers cite him as an authority for the recognition of ex-
perience and reason as criteria of truth.^ Gilbert of Eng-
land cites "experiences from the book of experiments ex-
perienced by Galen," ^ and we shall find more than one such
apocryphal work ascribed to Galen in the middle ages.
John of St. Amand seems to have developed seven rules '^
which he gives for discovering experimentally the prop-
erties of medicinal simples from what we have heard Galen
say on the subject, and in another work, the Concordances,
John collects a number of passages about experience from
^ XIV, 378.
'XIV, 462.
'XIV, 534.
^XI, 205.
°John of St. Amand, Expositio
in Antidotarium Nicolai, fol. 231,
in Mesuae niedici clarissimi opera,
Venice, 1568. Pietro d'Abano,
Conciliator, Venice, 1526, Difif. X,
fol. 15; Difif. LX, fol. 83. Arnald
of Villanova, Repetitio super
Canon "Vita brevis," fol. 276, in
his Opera, Lyons, 1532.
" Gilbertus Anglicus, Compen^
dium mcdicinae, Lyons, 15 10, fol.
328V., "Experimenta ex libro ex-
perimentorum Gal. experta."
' In his Expositio in Antido-
tarium Nicolai, as cited above
(note 5).
IV GALEN 163
the works o£ Galen. ^ Peter of Spain, who died as Pope
John XXI in 1277, cites Galen in his discussion of "the
way of experience" and "the way of reason" in his Com-
mentaries on Isaac on Diets. ^ We have already suggested
Galen's possible influence upon Albertus Magnus, and we
might add Roger Bacon who wrote some treatises on medi-
cine. But it is hardly possible to tell whether such ideas
were in the air, or were due to Galen individually either in
their origin or their transmission. But he made a rather
close approach to the medieval attitude in his equal regard
for logic and for experimentation.
The more general influence of Galen upon all sides of His more
the medicine of the following fifteen centuries has often medieval
been stated in sweeping terms, but is difficult to exaggerate, influence.
His general theories, his particular cures, his occasional mar-
velous stories, were often repeated or paraphrased. Ori-
basius has been called "the ape of Galen," and we shall see
that the epithet might with equal reason be applied to Aetius
of Amida. Indeed, as in the case of Pliny, we shall find
plenty of instances of Galen's influence in our later chap-
ters. Perhaps as good a single instance of medieval study
of Galen as could be given is from the Concordances of John
of St. Amand already mentioned, which bear the alterna-
tive title, "Recalled to Mind" {Revocativum memoriae),
since they were written to "relieve from toil and worry
scholars who often spend sleepless nights in searching for
points in the books of Galen." ^ Or we may note how the
associates of the twelfth century translator from the Arabic,
Gerard of Cremona, added a list of his works at the close
of his translation of Galen's Tegni, "imitating Galen in
the commemoration of his books at the end of the same trea-
tise," as they themselves state.*
Not that medieval men did not make additions of their
^J. L. Pagel, Die Concordanciae XXI, 263-65).
dcs Johannes de Sancto Amando, ^ ed. Lyons, 1515, fols. 19V-20V.
Berlin, 1894, pp. 102-104. John 'Berlin, 902, I4tli century, fol.
also wrote commentaries on Galen, 175; Berlin 903, 1342 / .D., fol. 2.
(Histoire Litteraire de la France, * Boncompagni (1851), pp. 3-4.
164
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
own to Galen. For instance, the noted Jewish philosopher,
Moses Maimonides, in adding his collection of medical
Aphorisms to the many previous compilations of this sort
by Hippocrates, Rasis (Muhammad ibn Zakariya), Mesne
(Yuhanna ibn Masawaih), and others, states that he has
drawn them mainly from the works of Galen, but that he
supplements these with some in his own name and some by
other "moderns."^ Not that Galen was not sometimes criti-
cized or questioned. A later Greek writer, Symeon Seth,
ventured to devote a special treatise to a refutation of some
of Galen's physiological views. In it, addressing himself
to those "persons who regard you, O Galen, as a god," he
endeavored to make them realize that no human being is
infalHble.^ Among the medical treatises of Gentile da Fo-
ligno, who was papal physician and performed a public dis-
section at Padua in 1341,^ is found a brief argument against
Galen's fifth aphorism.* But such criticism or opposition
^ Moses ben Maimon, Apho-
risms, 1489. "Incipiunt aphorismi
excellentissimi Raby Moyses se-
cundum doctrinam Galieni medi-
corum principis . . . coUegi eos
ex verbis Galieni de omnibus
libris suis. . . . Et ego protuli
super his aflforismis quedam dicta
que circumspexi et ea m.eo nomine
nominavi et similiter protuli ali-
quos aphorismos aliquorum mod-
ernorum quos denominavi eorum
nomine."
* Ed. C. V. Daremberg, Notices
et Extraits dcs manuscrits mcdi-
caux, 1853, pp. 44-47, Greek text;
pp. 229-33, French translation.
* Garrison, History of Medicine,
2nd edition, 1917, p. 141. But at p.
151 Garrison would seem mistaken
in stating that Gentile died in
1348, for in the MS of which I
shall speak in the next footnote
his treatise on critical days is
dated back in the year 1362:
"Tractatus de enumeratione die-
rum creticorum m'i Gentilis anni
1362," at f ol. 125 ; while at fol. 162
we read, "Explicit questio . . .
m'i Zentilis anno Domini 1359 de
mense marcii, et scripta Pisis de
mense octobris 1359." It is pos-
sible but rather unlikely that the
dates later than 1348 refer to the
labors of copyists. Venetian MSS
contain not only a De reductione
medicinarum isd actum by Gen-
tile, written at Perugia in April,
1342 (S. Marco, XIV, 7, 14th cen-
tury, fols. 44-48) ; but also "Sug-
gestions concerning the pestilence
which was at Genoa in 1348," by
him (S. Marco, XIV, 26, 15th
century, fols. 99-iGO, consilia de
peste quae fuit lanuae anno 1348).
Valentinelli's catalogue of the
MSS in the Library of St. Mark's
does not help, however, to clear
up the question when Gentile died,
since in one place (IV, 235) Va-
lentinelli assures us that he died
at Bologna in 13 10, and in another
place (V, 19) says that he died at
Perugia in 1348.
* Cortona no, early years of
15th century, fol. 128, Rationes
Gentilis contra Galenum in quinto
aphorismi. This MS contains sev-
eral other works by Gentile da
Foligno.
IV
GALEN i6s
only shows how generally Galen was accepted as an author-
ity.
III. His Attitude Towards Magic
From Galen's habits of critical estimation rather than
blind acceptation of authority, of scientific observation, care-
ful measurement, and personal experiment, from his bril-
liant demonstrations by dissection, and his medical prognos-
tication and therapeutics, sane and shrewd for his time, —
from these we have now to turn to the other side of the pic-
ture, and examine what information his works afford us
concerning the magic and astrology in ancient medicine, con-
cerning the belief in occult virtues, suspensions, characters,
incantations, and the like. We may first consider what he
has to say concerning magic and divination as he under-
stands those words, and then take up his attitude to those
other matters which we look upon as almost equally deserv-
ing classification under those heads.
Apollonius of Tyana and Apuleius of Madaura were Accusa-
not the only celebrated men of learning in the early Roman ^°"^ic°
Empire to be accused of magic ; we have already alluded to against
the charges of magic made against Galen by the envious
physicians of Rome during his first residence in that city.
It is hard to escape the conviction that at that time learned
men were very liable to be suspected or accused of magic.
Indeed, Galen makes the general assertion that when a phy-
sician prognosticates aright concerning the future course of
a malady, this seems so marvelous to most men that they
would receive him with great affection, if they did not often
regard him as a wizard.^ Soon after saying this, Galen
begins the story of the prognostications he made and the
cure he wrought, when all the other doctors took an oppo-
site view of the case.- One of them then jealously sug-
gested that Galen's diagnosis was due to divination.^ When
asked by what kind of divination, he gave different answers
*XIV, 6oi. »XIV, 605. «XIV, 615.
i66 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
at different times and to different persons, sometimes say-
ing by dreams, sometimes by sacrificing, again by symbols,
or by astrology. Afterwards such charges against Galen
kept multiplying.^ As a result, Galen says that since then
he has not gone about advertising his prognostications like
a herald, lest the physicians and philosophers hate him the
more and slander him as a wizard and diviner, but that he
now reveals his discoveries only to his friends.^ In another
treatise he represents Hippocrates as saying that a proficient
doctor should be able to prognosticate the course of diseases,
but adds that contemporary physicians call such a doctor
a sorcerer and wonder-worker (7077x0 re /cat ■Kapa.ho^dKoyov') .^
Again in his work on medicinal simples ^ he states that he
abstained from testing the supposed virtue of crocodile's
blood in sharpening the vision, and the blood of house mice
in removing warts, partly because he had other reliable eye-
medicines and cures for warts — such as myrmecia, a gem
with wart-like lumps, partly because by employing such sub-
stances he feared to incur the reputation of a sorcerer, since
jealous physicians were already slandering his medical prog-
nostications as divination. This last passage affords a good
illustration of the close connection with magic of certain
natural substances supposed to possess marvelous virtues,
while Galen's wart stone also seems magical to the modern
reader.
Galen himself sometimes calls other physicians magicians.
Certain men with whom he does not agree are called by him
"liars or wizards or I don't know what to say," ^ and an-
other man who used mouse dung to excess he calls super-
stitious and a sorcerer.^ In the same work on simples '^ he
says that he will list herbs in alphabetical order as Pamphilus
did, but that he will not like him descend to old wives' tales,
Egyptian sorceries and incantations, amulets and other mag-
ical devices, which not only do not belong in the medical art
'XIV, 625. «XII, 306.
'XIV, 655. .XII ,07
'1, 54-55. ' ^ ^•
'•XII, 263. 'XI, 792-93
IV GALEN 167
but are utterly false. Pamphilus never saw most of the
herbs he mentioned, much less tested their virtues, but
copied anything he found, piling up names, incantations, and
wizardry. Galen accuses Xenocrates Aphrodisiensis also
of not having eschewed sorcery, and he notes that medical
writers have either said nothing about sweat or what is
superstitious and bordering upon magic.-^
Philters, love-charms, dream-draughts, and imprecations Charms
Galen regards as impossible or injurious, and intends to ^"^ ,
have nothing to do with them. He thinks it ridiculous to workers.
believe that by such spells one can bewitch one's adversaries
so that they cannot plead in court, or conceive or bear chil-
dren. He considers it worse to advertise and perpetuate
such false or criminal notions in writings than to practice
such a crime but once.- In one passage,^ however, to illus-
trate his theory that the gods prepare the sperms of plants
and animals, and set them going as it were, and afterwards
leave them to themselves, Galen compares them to the won-
der-workers— who were perhaps not magicians but men
similar to our sidewalk fakirs who exhibit mechanical toys—
who start things moving and then go away themselves while
what they have prepared moves on artificially for a time.
Galen's own works are not entirely free from the magi- Animal
cal devices of which he accuses others. We may begin with fnadmiV^^
animal substances, since he himself has testified that the sible in
use of sweat, crocodile's blood, and mouse's dung is sug-
gestive of magic. Moreover, he attributes more bizarre
virtues to the parts of animals than to herbs or stones. In
a passage somewhat similar to that in which Pliny * ex-
pressed his horror at the use of human blood, entrails, and
skulls as medicines, Galen declares that he will not men-
tion the abominable and detestable, as Xenocrates and some
others have done. The Roman law has long forbidden eat-
ing human flesh, while Galen regards even the mention of
certain secretions and excrements of the human body as
'XII, 283. "IV, 688.
"XII, 251-53. '^Natural Historv. XXVIII. 2.
i68
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Nastiness
of ancient
medicine.
Parts of
animals.
offensive to modest ears.^ Nevertheless, before long he of-
fends against his own standard and describes how he ad-
ministered to patients the very substance which he had be-
fore characterized as most unmentionable.^ It may also be
noted that he repeats unquestioningly such a tale as that the
cubs of the bear are born unformed and licked into shape
by their mother,^
Further milder illustrations of the fact that such nasty
substances were then not merely recommended in books but
freely employed in actual medical practice, are seen in the
frequent use by one of Galen's teachers of the dung of dogs
who for two days before had eaten nothing but bones,* in
Galen's own wonderfully successful treatment of a tumor
on a rustic's knee with goat dung — which is, however, too
sharp for the skins of children or city ladies,^ and in his dis-
covery by repeated experience that the dung of doves who
take little exercise is less potent than that of those who take
much,^ Galen also says that he has known of doctors who
have cured many persons by giving them burnt human bones
in drink without their knowledge.'''
Galen's medicinal simples include the bile of bulls, hye-
nas, cocks, partridges, and other animals.^ A digestive oil
can be manufactured by cooking foxes and hyenas, some
alive and some dead, whole in oil.^ Galen discusses with
perfect seriousness the relative strength of various animal
fats, those of the goose, hen, hyena, goat, pig, and so forth.^^
He decides that lion's fat is by far the most potent, with
that of the pard next. Among his simples are also found
the slough of a snake, a sheepskin, the lichens of horses, a
spider's web,^^ and burnt young swallows, for whose intro-
duction into medicine he gives Asclepiades credit.^^ Of
'XII, 248, 284-85, 290.
'XII, 293.
* XIV, 255. (To Piso on theriac.)
*XII, 291-92.
"XII, 298.
' XII, 304.
' XII, 342.
"XII, 276-77.
"XII, 367-69.
"XIII, 949-50, 954-55.
"XII, 343. These form the
titles of four successive chapters,
De simplic, XI, i, caps. 19-22.
" XII, 359. 942-43, 977.
IV GALEN 169
Archigenes' prescriptions for toothache he repeats that which
recommended holding for some time in the mouth a frog
boiled in water and vinegar, or a dog's tooth, burnt, pul-
verized, and boiled in vinegar.^ Cavities may be filled with
toasted earth-worms or spiders' eggs diluted with unguent
of nard. Teething infants are benefited, if their gums are
moistened with dog's milk or anointed with hare's brains.^
For colic he recommends dried cicadas with three, five, or
seven grains of pepper.^
Galen is less confident as to the efficacy for earache of Some
the multipedes which roll themselves up into a ball, and ^"^^^ icism.
which, cooked in oil, are employed especially by rural
doctors.^ He is still more sceptical whether the liver of a
mad dog will cure its bite.^ Many say so, and he knows of
some who have tried it and survived, but they took other
remedies too.^ Galen has heard that some who trusted to
it alone died. In one treatise "^ Galen discusses the strange
virtues of the basilisk in much the usual way, but in his work
on simples ^ he remarks drily that it is obviously impossible
to employ it in pharmacy, since, if the tales about it be true,
men cannot see it and live or even approach it without dan-
ger. He therefore will not include it or elephants or Nile
horses (hippopotamuses?) or any other animals of which
he has had no personal experience.
Galen tries to find some satisfactory explanation of the Doctrine
strange properties which he believes exist in so many things, virtue
The attractive power of the magnet and of drugs suggests
to him that nature in us is divine, as Homer says, and leads
like to like and thus shows its divine virtues.^ Galen re-
jects Epicurus's explanation of the magnet's attractive
power.^° It was that the atoms flowing off from both the
magnet and iron fit one another so closely that the two sub-
^ XII, 856. hydrophobia, only tends to make
' XII, 860. their recovery seem the more
' XII, 360. marvelous.
*XII, 366-67. 'XIV, 233.
'XII, 335. " XII, 250-51.
• A fact which — one cannot help ® XIV, 224-25.
remarking — considering the char- "II, 45-48.
acter of most ancient remedies for
170
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
stances are drawn together. Galen objects that this does not
explain how a whole series of rings can be suspended in a
row from a magnet. Galen's teacher Pelops, who claimed
to be able to tell the cause of everything, explained why-
ashes of river crabs are used for the bite of a mad dog as
follows.^ The crab is efficacious against hydrophobia be-
cause it is an aquatic animal. River crabs are better for
this purpose than salt water crabs because salt dries up
moisture. He also thought the ashes of crabs very potent in
absorbing the venom. But this type of reasoning is unsat-
isfactory to Galen, who finds the best explanation of all
such action in the peculiar property, or occult virtue, of the
substance as a whole. Upon this subject ^ he proposes to
write a separate treatise, and in the fragment De substantia
facultatum naturalium ( irepl ovalas rdv ^vclkuiv dvvannav ) he
again discusses the matter.^
Among parts of animals Galen regarded the flesh of
vipers as especially medicinal, particularly as an antidote
to poisons. Of the following cures wrought by vipers' flesh
which Galen narrates '^ two were repeated without giving him
credit by Aetius of Amida in the sixth, and Bartholomew
of England in the thirteenth century, and doubtless by other
writers. When Galen was a youth in Asia, some reapers
found a dead viper in their jug of wine and so were afraid
to drink any of it. Instead they gave it to a man near by
who suffered from the terrible skin disease elephantiasis and
whom they thought it would be a mercy to put quietly out
of his misery. He drank the wine but instead of dying re-
covered from his disease. A similarily unexpected cure was
effected when a slave wife in Mysia tried to kill her hus-
^XII, 358-59. Concerning the
virtue of river crabs we may also
quote from a story told in Nias
Island, west of Sumatra: "for
bad he only eaten river crabs, men
would have cast their skin like
crabs, and so, renewing their
youth perpetually, would never
have died." — From J. G. Frazer
(1918), I, 67. The belief that the
serpent annually changes its skin
and renews its youth may account
for the virtues ascribed to the
flesh of vipers and to theriac in
the following paragraphs,
' TTtpi Toip idioTTjTL TJjj oXijs oialas
evepyovvTCJV.
' IV, 760-61, ivepyelv rds oialas kot'
15 lav iKacrT-qv 4>vaLV.
«XII, 311-15.
IV GALEN 171
band by offering him a like drink. A third case was that
of a patient whom Galen told of these two previous cures.
After resorting- to augTiry to learn if he too should try it
and receiving a favorable response, the patient drank wine
infected by venom with the result that his elephantiasis
changed into leprosy, which Galen cured a little later with
the usual drugs. A fourth man, while hunting vipers, was
stung by one. Galen bled him, extracted black bile with a
drug, and then made him eat the vipers which he had caught
and which were prepared in oil like eels. A fifth man,
warned by a dream, came from Thrace to Pergamum. An-
other dream instructed him both to drink, and to anoint him-
self with, a concoction of vipers. This changed his disease
into leprosy which in its turn was cured by drugs which the
god prescribed.
The flesh of vipers was an important ingredient in the Theriac.
famous antidote and remedy called theriac, concerning which
Galen wrote two special treatises ^ besides discussing it in
his works on simples and antidotes. Mithridates, like King
Attains in Galen's native land, had tested the effects of vari-
ous drugs upon condemned criminals, and had thus dis-
covered antidotes against spiders, scorpions, sea-hares, aco-
nite, and other poisons. He then combined the results of
his research into one grand compound which should be an
antidote against any and every poison. But he did not in-
clude the flesh of the viper, which was added with some
other changes by Andromachus, chief physician to Nero.^
The divine Marcus Aurelius used to take a dose of theriac
daily and it had since come into general use.^ Galen gives
a long list of ills which it will cure, including the plague
and hydrophobia,'^ and adds that it is beneficial in keeping
a man in good health.^ He advises its use when traveling
or in wintry weather, and tells Piso that it will prolong his
life.^ He explains more than once''^ how to prepare the
^ Ad Pisonem de theriaca; De ^ XIV, 271-80.
theriaca ad Pamphilianum. ° XIV, 283.
' XIV, 2-3. " XIV, 294.
"XIV, 217. 'XII, 317-18; XIV, 45-46, 238.
iy2
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magical
com-
pounds.
viper's flesh, why the head and tail must be cut off, how it
is cleaned and boiled until the flesh falls from the backbone,
how it is mixed with pounded bread into pills, how the flesh
of the viper is best in early summer. Galen also accepts the
legend,^ quoting six lines of verse from Nicander to that
effect, that the viper conceives in the mouth and then bites
off the male's head, and that the young viper avenges its
father's death by gnawing its way out of its mother's vitals.
The Mar si at Rome denied the existence of the dips as or
snake whose bite causes one to die of thirst, but Galen is
not quite sure whether to agree with them.
Already we have had occasion to refer to Galen's two
works on compound medicines which occupy the better part
of two bulky volumes in Kiihn's edition and contain a vast
number of prescriptions. It is not uncommon for one of
these to contain as many as twenty-five ingredients. It
seems unlikely that such elaborate concoctions would have
been discovered by chance, as the Empirics held, but the
modem reader is ready to agree that it was chance, if any-
one was ever cured of anything by one of them. Yet Galen,
as we have seen, believes that reasons can be given for the
ingredients and would not for a moment admit that they
are no better than the messes of witches' cauldrons. He
argues that, if all diseases could be cured by simples, no
one would use compounds, but that they are essential for
some diseases, especially such as require the simultaneous
application of contrary virtues.- Also where a simple is too
strong or weak, it can be toned up or down to just the right
strength in a compound. Plasters and poultices seem al-
ways to be compounds. Of panaceas Galen is somewhat
more chary, except in the case of theriac ; he opines that a
medicine which is good for a number of ills cannot be very
good for any one of them.'
Procedure as well as substances suggestive of magic is
found to some extent in Galen's works. He instructs, for
*XIV, 238-39.
' XIII, 371, 374.
"XIII, 134.
IV GALEN 173
example, to pluck an herb with the left hand before sunrise.^
He also recommends the suspension of a peony to cure epi-
lepsy.- He saw a boy who wore this root remain free from
that disease for eight months, when the root happened to
drop off and the boy soon fell in a fit. When another peony
root was hung- about his neck, he remained in good health
until Galen for the sake of experiment removed it a second
time, whereupon another epileptic fit ensued as before. In
this case Galen suggests that perhaps some particles from
the root were drawn in by the patient's breathing or altered
the surrounding air. In another passage he holds that there
is no medical reason to account for the virtues of amulets,
but that those who have tested them by experience say that
they act by some marvelous antipathy unknown to man.^ A
ligature recommended by Galen is to bind about the neck of
the patient a viper which has been suffocated by tying sev-
eral strings, preferably of marine purple, about its neck.*
Galen marvels that sterciis lupimim, even when simply sus-
pended from the neck, "sometimes evidently is beneficial." ^
It should not have touched the ground but should have been
taken from trees or bushes. It also works better, as Galen
has found in his own practice, if suspended by the wool of
a sheep who has been torn by a wolf.
While Galen thus employs ligatures and suspensions and Incanta-
sanctions magic logic, he draws the line at use of images, characters
characters, and incantations. In the passage just cited he
goes on to say that he has found other suspended sub-
stances efficacious, but not the barbarous names such as
wizards use. Some say that the gem jasper comforts the
stomach if bound about the abdomen,^ and some wear it in
a ring engraved with a dragon and rays,"^ as King Nechepso
directs in his fourteenth book. Galen has employed it sus-
pended about the neck without any engraving upon it and
^XIII, 242, 'XII, 207.
XI, 859. ' A representation of the
° XII, 573 ; see also XIII, 256. Agathodaemon ; see C. W. King,
XI, 860. The Gnostics and their Remains,
*XII, 295-96. London, 1887, p. 220.
174
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Belief _
in magic
dies hard.
On easily
i)rocurable
remedies.
found it equally beneficial. In illustrating the virtue of
human saliva, especially that of a fasting man, Galen tells
of a man who promised him to kill a scorpion by means of
an incantation which he repeated thrice. But at each repe-
tition he spat on the scorpion and Galen afterwards killed
one by the same procedure without any incantation, and
more quickly with the spittle of a fasting than of a full
man.^
The preceding paragraph gives a good illustration of the
slow progress of human thought away from magic and
towards science. Men are discovering that marvels can be
worked as well without characters and incantations. Simi-
lar passages may be found in Arabic and Latin medieval
writers. But while Galen questions images and incantations,
he still clings to the notions of marvelous virtue in a fast-
ing man's spittle or in a gem suspended about the neck.
And these and other passages in which he clung to old super-
stitions were unfortunately equally influential upon suc-
ceeding writers, who sometimes, we fear, took them as an
excuse for further indulgence in magic. Indeed, we shall
find Alexander of Tralles in the sixth century arguing that
Galen finally became a believer in the efficacy of incanta-
tions. Thus the old notions and practices die hard.
In the treatise on easily procurable remedies, where pop-
ular and rustic remedies enter rather more largely than in
Galen's other writings, superstitious recipes are also met
with more frequently, and, if that be possible, the doses
become even more calculated to make one's gorge rise, it
being felt that the unfastidious tastes and crude constitu-
tions of peasants and the poorer classes can stand more than
daintier city patients. Another reason for separate consid-
eration of the contents of this treatise is the possibility, al-
ready mentioned, that it is interpolated and misarranged,
and the fact that it is in part of much later date than Galen.
*XII, 288-89. At II, 163, Galen again accepts the notion that human
saliva is fatal to scorpions.
IV GALEN 175
We must limit ourselves to a hasty survey of a few sped- Specimens
mens of its prescriptions. Following Archigenes, ligatures pgrstitfous
and crowns are employed for headaches.^ In contrast to contents.
Galen's previous scepticism concerning depilatories for eye-
brows we now find a number mentioned, including the blood
of a bed-bug.^ To cure lumbago,^ if the pain is in the right
foot, reduce to powder with your right hand the wings of
a swallow. Then make an incision in the swallow's leg and
draw off all its blood. Skin it and roast it and eat it en-
tire. Then anoint yourself all over with the oil for three
days and you will marvel at the result. "This has been often
proved by experience." To prevent hair from falling out
take many bees and burn them and mix with oil and use as
an ointment.* For a sty in the eye catch flies, cut off their
heads, and rub the sty with the rest of their bodies.'^ A
cooked black chameleon performs the double duty of cur-
ing toothache and killing mice.^ To extract a tooth in the
upper jaw surround it with the worms found in the tops of
cabbages; for a lower tooth use the worms on the lower
parts of the leaves.'^ Pain in the intestines will vanish, if
the patient drinks water in which his feet have been washed.^
A net transferred from a woman's hair to the patient's head
acts as a laxative, especially if the net is first heated.^ Vari-
ous superstitious devices are suggested to insure the birth
of a child of the sex desired.^" Bituminous trefoil, ^^ boiled
and applied hot, cures snake or spider bite, but let no one
use it who is not so afflicted or it will make him feel as if
he was.^^ For cataract is recommended a mixture of equal
parts of mouse's blood, cock's gall, and woman's milk,
* XIV, 321. ^ "The Psoranthea bituniinosa oi
' XIV, 349. Linnaeus. It is found on declivi-
* XIV, 386-87. ties near the sea-coast in the south
* XIV, 343. of Europe," says a note in Bostock
' XIV, 413. and Riley's The Natural History
-XIV, 427. of Pliny (Bohn Library), IV,
'XIV, 430. 330. Pliny, too (XXI, 88), states
*XIV, 471. that trefoil is poisonous itself and
"XIV, 472. to be used only as a counter-
^"XIV, 476. And others, "Ut ne poison.
cui penis arrigi possit," and "Ad " XIV, 491 ; a good example of
arrectionem pudendi." the power of suggestion.
176
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
External
signs of
the tem-
peraments
of internal
organs.
Marvelous
statements
repeated
by Mai-
monides.
dried. ^ For pain on one side of the head or face smear with
fifteen earthworms and fifteen grains of pepper powdered
in vinegar.- To stop a cough wear the tongue of an eagle
as an amulet.^ Wearing a root of rhododendron makes
one fearless of dogs and would cure a mad dog itself, if it
could be tied on the animal."^ A "confection" covering
three pages is said to prolong life, to have been used by the
emperors, and to have enabled Pythagoras, its inventor, who
began to make use of it at the age of fifty, to live to be one
hundred and seventeen without disease. "And he was a
philosopher and unable to lie about it." ^
It remains to note what there is in Galen's works in the
way of divination and astrology. We. are not entirely sur-
prised that contemporary doctors confused his medical
prognostic with divination, when we read what he has to
say concerning the outward signs of hot or cold internal
organs. In the treatise, entitled Th'e Healing Art (jexyrj
laTpiKT)),^ which Mewaldt says was the most studied of
Galen's works and spread in a vast number of medieval
Latin manuscript translations,'^ he devotes a number of
chapters to such subjects as signs of a hot and dry heart,
signs of a hot liver, and signs of a cold lung. Among the
signs of a cold brain are excessive excrements from the
head, stiff straight red hair, a late birth, mal-nutrition, sus-
ceptibility to injury from cold causes and to catarrh, and
somnolence.^
In his commentary on the Aphoristns of Hippocrates
Galen adds other signs by which it may be foretold whether
the child will be a boy or girl to those signs already men-
tioned by Hippocrates.^ Some of these seem superstitious
enough to us. And it was a case of the evil that men do
living after them, for Moses Maimonides, the noted Jewish
physician of Cordova in the twelfth century, in his collection
*XIV, 498.
*XIV, 502.
•XIV. 505.
*XIV, S17.
•XIV, 567ff.
•I, 305-412.
'GaUn in PW.
'I, 325-6.
•XVII B, 212 and 834.
IV GALEN 177
of Aphorisms, drawn chiefly from the works of Galen, re-
peats the following method of prognostication : Puerum
cum primo spermatizat perscrutare, quern si invenis habere
testiculum dextriim maiorem sinistro, you will know that
his first child will be a male, otherwise female. The same
may be determined in the case of a girl by a comparison of
the size of her breasts. Maimonides also repeats, from
Galen's work to Caesar on theriac,^ the story of the ugly
man who secured a beautiful son by having a beautiful boy
painted on the wall and making his wife keep her eyes fixed
upon it. Maimonides also repeats from Galen - the story
of the bear's licking its unformed cubs into shape. ^
In another treatise on Diagnosis from Dreams Galen Dreams,
makes a closer approach to the arts of divination.* He
states that dreams are affected by our daily life and thought,
and describes a few corresponding to bodily states or caused
by them. He thinks that if you dream you see fire, you are
troubled by yellow bile, and if you dream of vapor or dark-
ness, by black bile. In diagnosing dreams one should note
when they occurred and what had been eaten. But Galen
also believes that to some extent the future can be predicted
from dreams, as has been testified, he says, by experience.^
We have already mentioned the effect of his father's dream
upon Galen's career. In the Hippocratic commentaries ^ he
says that some scorn dreams and omens and signs, but that
he has often learned from dreams how to prognosticate or
cure diseases. Once a dream instructed him to let blood
between the index and great fingers of the right hand until
the flow of blood stopped of its own accord. "It is neces-
sary," he concludes, "to observe dreams accurately both as
to what is seen and what is done in sleep in order that you
^ Partic. 6, Kuhn, XIV, 253. edition of the Aphorisms dated
'Kijhn, XIV, 255. 1489 and numbered IA.28878 in
'These passages all come from the British Museum. The same
the 24th Particula of Maimonides' section contains still other marvels
Aphorisms, which is devoted es- from the works of Galen.
pecially to marvels : — "Incipit par- * Kiihn, VI, 832-5.
ticula xxiiii continens aphorismos *VI, 833.
dependentes a miraculis repertis * XVI, 222-23.
in libris medicorum," from an
178
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Lack of
astrology
in most
of Galen's
medicine.
The Prog-
nostication
of Disease
by Astrol-
ogy.
may prognosticate and heal satisfactorily." Perhaps he
had a dim idea along Freudian lines.
In the ordinary run of Galen's pharmacy and therapeutics
there is very little mention or observance of astrological
conditions, although Hippocrates is cited as having said that
a study of geometry and astronomy — which may v^ell mean
astrology — is essential in medicine.^ In the De methodo
medendi he often urges the importance of the time of year,
the region, and the state of the sky.^ But this expression
seems to refer to the weather rather than to the position of
the constellations. The dog-star is also occasionally men-
tioned,^ and one passage ^ tells how "Aeschrion the Empiric,
... an old man most experienced in drugs and our fellow
citizen and teacher," burned live river crabs on a plate of red
bronze after the rise of the dog-star when the sun entered
Leo and on the eighteenth day of the moon. We are also
informed that many Romans are in the habit of taking
theriac on the first or fourth day of the moon.^ But Galen
ridicules Pamphilus for his thirty-six sacred herbs of the
horoscope — or decans, taken from an Egyptian Hermes
book.^ On the other hand, one of his objections to the atom-
ists is that "they despise augury, dreams, portents, and all
astrology," as well as that they deny a divine artificer of
the world and an innate moral law to the soul.'^ Thus athe-
ism and disbelief in astrology are put on much the same
plane.
Whereas there is so little to suggest a belief in astrology
in most of Galen's works, we find among them two devoted
especially to astrological medicine, namely, a treatise on
critical days in which the influence of the moon upon dis-
ease is assumed, and the Prognostication of Disease by
Astrology. In the latter he states that the Stoics favored
astrology, that Diodes Carystius represented the ancients
*I, S3. 'X, 688; XIII, 544; XIV, 285.
*Coeli status, or 1^ KaT&araai^. ■* XII, 356.
X, 593-96, 625, 634, 645, 647-48, ■'XIV, 298.
658, 662, 68s, 737. 759-60, 778, 829, " XI, 798.
etc. 'II, 26-28.
IV GALEN 179
as employing the course of the moon In prognostications,
and that, if Hippocrates said that physicians should know
physiognomy, they ought much more to learn astrology, of
which physiognomy is but a part.^ There follows a state-
ment of the influence of the moon in each sign of the zodiac
and in its relations to the other planets.^ On this basis is
foretold what diseases a man will have, what medical treat-
ment to apply, whether the patient will die or not, and if
so in how many days. This treatise is the same as that as-
cribed in many medieval manuscripts to Hippocrates and
translated into Latin by both William of Moerbeke and
Peter of Abano.
The treatise on critical days discusses them not by rea- Critical
days.
son or dogma, lest sophists befog the plain facts, but solely,
we are told, upon the basis of clear experience.^ Having
premised that "we receive the force of all the stars above," "^
the author presents indications of the especially great influ-
ence of sun and moon. The latter he regards not as superior
to the other planets in power, but as especially governing
the earth because of its nearness.^ He then discusses the
moon's phases, holding that it causes great changes in the
air, rules conceptions and birth, and "all beginnings of ac-
tions," ^ Its relations to the other planets and to the signs
of the zodiac are also considered and much astrological'tech-
nical detail is introduced.'^ But the Pythagorean theory
that the numbers of the critical days are themselves the
cause of their significance in medicine is ridiculed, as is the
doctrine that odd numbers are masculine and even numbers
feminine.^ Later the author also ridicules those who talk
of seven Pleiades and seven stars in either Bear and the
seven gates of Thebes or seven mouths of the Nile.^ Thus
he will not accept the doctrine of perfect or magic numbers
along with his astrological theory. Much of this rather
»XIX, 529-30. 'IX, 908-10.
^XIX, 534-73. ^IX, 913.
' IX, 794. * IX, 922.
;iX, 901-2. "IX, 935.
" IX, 904.
i8o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
On the
history
of philos-
ophy.
Divination
and
demons.
long treatise is devoted to a discussion of the duration of a
moon, and it is shown that one of the moon's quarters is not
exactly seven days in length and that the fractions affect
the incidence of the critical days.
A treatise on the history of philosophy, which is marked
"spurious" in Kiihn's edition, I have also discovered among
the essays of Plutarch where, too, it is classed as spurious.-^
In some ways it is suggestive of the middle ages. After an
account of the history of Greek philosophy somewhat in the
style of the brief reviews of the same to be found in the
church fathers, it adds a sketch of the universe and natural
phenomena not dissimilar to some medieval treatises of
like scope. There are chapters on the universe, God, the
sky, the stars, the sun, the moon, the viagmis annus, the
earth, the sea, the Nile, the senses, vision and mirrors, hear-
ing, smell and taste, the voice, the soul, breathing, the proc-
esses of generation, and so on.
In discussing divination ^ the treatise states that Plato
and the Stoics attributed it to God and to divinity of the
spirit in ecstasy, or to interpretation of dreams or astrol-
ogy or augury. Xenophanes and Epicurus denied it en-
tirely. Pythagoras admitted only divination by hariispices
or by sacrifice. Aristotle and Dicaearchus admit only div-
ination by enthusiasm and by dreams. For although they
deny that the human soul is immortal, they think that there
is something divine about it. Herophilus said that dreams
sent by God must come true. Other dreams are natural,
when the mind forms images of things useful to it or about
to happen to it. Still others are fortuitous or mere reflec-
tions of our desires. The treatise also takes up the subject
of heroes and demons.^ Epicurus denied the existence of
*Kuhn, XIX, 22-345. Plutarch,
Opera, ed. Didot, De placitis
philosophorum, pp. 1065-1114; in
Plutarch's Miscellanies and Es-
says, English translation, 1889,
III, 104-92. The wording of the
two versions differs somewhat and
in Galen's works it is divided
simply into 2>7 chapters, whereas
in Plutarch's works it is divided
into five books and many more
chapters.
' XIX, 320-21 ; De plac. philos.,
V, 1-2.
*XIX, 253; De plac. philos.,
1,8.
bodies.
IV GALEN i8i
either, but Thales, Plato, Pythagoras, and the Stoics agree
that demons are natural substances, while heroes are souls
separate from bodies, and are good or bad according to the
lives of the men who lived in those bodies.
The treatise also gives the opinions of various Greek Celestial
philosophers on the question whether the universe or its
component spheres are either animals or animated. Fate is
defined on the authority of Heracleitus as "the heavenly
body, the seed of the genesis of all things." ^ The question
is asked why babies born after seven months live, while those
born after eight months die.^ On the other hand, a very
brief discussion of how the stars prognosticate does not go
into particulars beyond their indication of seasons and
weather, and even this Anaximenes ascribed to the effect
of the sun alone. ^ Philolaus the Pythagorean is quoted con-
cerning some lunar water about the stars^ which reminds
one of the waters above the firmament in the first chapter of
Genesis.
*Kuhn, XIX, 261-62; De placitis 'XIX, 274; De plac. philos., II,
philosophorum, I, 28 ; " ij 6i et^uap- 19.
nkvTj e<JTiv aidkpiop awfia. aitkpua r^s-
T03V ■jr&UTwv ytveaeus." * XIX, 265 ; De plac. philos.,
'XIX, 333. 11,5.
The
sources.
CHAPTER V
ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS^ HERO,
AND THE GREEK ALCHEMISTS
The sources — Vitruvius depicts architecture as free from magic —
But himself beheves in occult virtues and perfect numbers — Also in
astrology — Divergence between theory and practice, learning and art —
Evils in contemporary learning — Authorities and inventions — Machines
and Ctesibius — Hero of Alexandria — Medieval working over of the
texts — Hero's thaumaturgy — Instances of experimental proof — Magic
jugs and drinking animals — Various automatons and devices — Magic
mirrors — Astrology and occult virtue — Date of extant Greek alchemy
^Legend that Diocletian burned the books of the alchemists — Alchem-
ists' own accounts of the history of their art — Close association of
Greek alchemy with magic — Mystery and allegory — Experiment: rela-
tion to science and philosophy.
"doctum ex omnibus solum neque in alienis locis peregri-
num . . . sed in omni civitate esse civem."
— Vitruvius, VI, Introd. 2.
This chapter will examine what may be called ancient ap-
plied science and its relations to magic, taking observations
at three different points, the ten books of Vitruvius on ar-
chitecture, the collection of writings which pass under the
name of Hero of Alexandria, and the compositions of the
Greek alchemists. The remains of Greek and Roman liter-
ature in the field of applied science are scanty, not because
they were not treasured, and even added to, by the periods
following, but apparently because there had thus far been
so little development in the way of machinery or of power
other than manual and animal. So we must make the best
of what we have. The writings to be considered are none
of them earlier than the period of the Roman Empire but
182
CHAP. V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 183
like other writings of that time they more or less reflect the
scientific achievements or the occult lore of the preceding
Hellenistic period.
Vitruvius lived just at the beginning of the Empire Vitruvius
under Julius and Augustus Caesar. He is not much of a chhecture
writer, but architecture as set forth in his book appears as free
' , . . from
sane, straightforward, and solid. The architect is repre- magic,
sented as going about his business with scarcely any admix-
ture of magical procedure or striving after marvelous results.
The combined guidance of practical utility and of high
standards of art — Vitruvius stresses reality and propriety
now and again, and has little patience with mere show — per-
haps accounts for this high degree of freedom from super-
stition. Perhaps permanent building is an honest, down-
right, open, constructive art where error is at once apparent
and superstition finds little hold. If so, one wonders how
there came to be so much mystery enveloping Free-Masonry.
At any rate, not only in his building directions, but even in
his instructions for the preparation of lime, stucco, and
bricks, or his discussion of colors, natural and artificial,
Vitruvius seldom or never embodies anything that can be
called magical.^
This is the more noteworthy because passages in the very Occult
same work show him to have accepted some of the theories nuniber.
which we have associated with magic. Thus he appears to
believe in occult virtues and marvelous properties of things
in nature, since he affirms that, while Africa in general
abounds in serpents, no snake can live within the boundaries
of the African city of Ismuc, and that this is a property of
the soil of that locality which it retains when exported.^
Vitruvius also mentions some marvelous waters. One
^As much can hardly be said mind one forcibly and painfully
of our present day architects, of the deceits and levitations of
whose fantastic tin cornices pro- magicians.
jecting far out from the roofs of ^ De architectura, ed. F. Krohn,
high buildings and rows of stones Leipzig, Teubner, 1912, VIII, iii,
poised horizontally in midair, with 24. A recent English translation
no other visible support than a of Vitruvius is by M. H. Morgan,
elate glass window beneath, re- Harvard University Press, 1914.
i84 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
breaks every metallic receptacle and can be retained only in
a mule's hoof. Some springs intoxicate; others take away
the taste for wine. Others produce fine singing voices.-^
Vitruvius furthermore speaks of six and ten as perfect num-
bers and contends that the human body is symmetrical in
the sense that the distances between the different parts are
exact fractions of the whole. ^ He also tells how the Py-
thagoreans composed books on the analogy of the cube, al-
lowing in any one treatise no more than three books of 216
lines each.^
Vitruvius also more than once implies his confidence in
the art of astrology. In mapping out the ground-plan of his
theater he advises inscribing four equilateral triangles with-
in the circumference of a circle, "as the astrologers do in a
figure of the twelve signs of the zodiac, when they are mak-
ing computations from the musical harmony of the stars." *
I cannot make out that there is any astrological significance
or magical virtue in this so far as the arrangement of the
theater is concerned, but it shows that Vitruvius and his
readers are familiar with the technique of astrology and the
trigona of the signs. In another passage, comparing the
physical characteristics and temperaments of northern and
southern races, which astrologers generally interpreted as
evidence of the influence of the constellations upon mankind,
Vitruvius patriotically contends that the inhabitants of Italy,
and especially the Romans, represent a happy medium be-
tween north and south, combining the greater courage of the
northerners with the keener intellects of the southerners,
just as the planet Jupiter is a golden mean between the ex-
treme influences of Mars and Saturn. So the Romans are
fitted for world rule, overcoming barbarian valor by their
superior intelligence and the devices of the southerners by
their valor.^ In a third passage Vitruvius says more ex-
pressly of the art of astrology : "As for the branch of
^VIII, iii, 16, 20-21, 24-5. *V, vi, I. The wording is that
* III, i. of Morgan's translation.
•V, Introduction, 3-4. 'VI, i, 3-4. 9-io.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 185
astronomy which concerns the influences of the twelve signs,
the five stars, the sun, and the moon upon human Hfe, we
must leave all this to the calculations of the Chaldeans, to
whom belongs the art of casting nativities, which enables
them to declare the past and the future by means of calcula-
tions based on the stars. These discoveries have been
transmitted by men of genius and great acuteness who
sprang directly from the nations of the Chaldeans ; first of all,
by Berosus, who settled in the island state of Cos, and there
opened a school. Afterwards Antipater pursued the sub-
ject; then there was Archinapolus, who also left rules for
casting nativities, based not on the moment of birth but on
that of conception." After listing a number of natural
philosophers and other astronomers and astrologers, Vitru-
vius concludes : "Their learning deserves the admiration of
mankind; for they were so solicitous as even to be able to
predict, long beforehand, with divining mind, the signs of
the weather which was to follow in the future."^
Such a passage demonstrates plainly enough Vitruvius' Diver-
full confidence in the art of casting nativities and of weather 5e"^een
prediction, but it has no integral connection with his prac- theory and
,•11- .... practice,
tical architecture or even any necessary connection with the learning
construction of a sun-dial, which is what he is actually driv- ^"*^ ^^^'
ing at. But Vitruvius believed that an architect should not
be a mere craftsman but broadly educated in history, medi-
cine, and philosophy, geometry, music, and astronomy, in
order to understand the origin and significance of details
inherited from the art of the past, to assure a healthy build-
ing, proper acoustics, and the like. It is in an attempt to air
his learning and in the theoretical portions of his work that
he is prone to occult science. But the practical processes
of architecture and military engineering are free from it.
The attitude of Vitruvius towards other architects of Evils in
his own age, to past authorities, and to personal experimen- porlry '
tation is of interest to note, and roughly parallels the atti- learning.
tude of Galen in the field of medicine. Like Galen he com-
* IX, vi, 2-3, Morgan's translation.
i86
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Authori-
ties and
inventions.
plains that the artist must plunge into the social life of the
day in order to gain professional success and recognition.^
"And since I observe that the unlearned rather than the
learned are held in high favor, deeming it beneath me to
struggle for honors with the unlearned, I will rather demon-
strate the virtue of our science by this publication." ^ He
also objects to the self-assertion and advertising of them-
selves in which many architects of his time indulge.^ He
recognizes, however, that the state of affairs was much the
same in time past, since he tells a story how the Macedonian
architect, Dinocrates, forced himself upon the attention of
Alexander the Great solely by his handsome and stately ap-
pearance,* and since he asserts that the most famous artists
of the past owe their celebrity to their good fortune in work-
ing for great states or men, while other artists of equal
merit are seldom heard of.^ He also speaks of those who
plagiarize the writings of others, especially of the men of
the past.^ But all this does not lead him to despair of art
and learning; rather it confirms him in the conviction that
they alone are really worth while, and he quotes several
philosophers to that effect, including the saying of Theo-
phrastus that "the learned man alone of all others is no
stranger even in foreign lands . . . but is a citizen in every
city." '
In contradistinction to the plagiarists Vitruvius expresses
his deep gratitude to the men of the past who have written
books, and gives lists of his authorities,^ and declares that
"the opinions of learned authors . . . gain strength as time
^III, Introduction, 3,". . . There
should be the greatest indignation
when, as often, good judges are
flattered by the charm of social
entertainments into an approba-
tion which is a mere pretence."
^ Idem.
'VI, Introduction, 5.
* II, Introduction. Vitruvius
continues, "But as for rtie. Em-
peror, nature has not given me
stature, age has marred my face,
and my strength is impaired by
ill health. Therefore, since these
advantages fail me, I shall win
your approval, as I hope, by the
help of my knowledge and my
writings."
" III, Introduction, 2.
*VII, Introduction, i-io.
'VI, Introduction, 2. Also IX,
Introduction, where authors are
declared superior to the victorious
athletes in the Olympian, Pythian,
Isthmian, and Nemean games.
"VII, Introd., 11-14; IX, Introd.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 187
goes on." * "Relying upon such authorities, we venture to
produce new systems of instruction." ^ Or, as he says in
discussing the properties of waters, "Some of these things
I have seen for myself, others I have found written in Greek
books." ^ But in describing sun-dials he frankly remarks,
"I will state by whom the different classes and designs of
dials have been invented. For I cannot invent new kinds
myself at this late day, nor do I think that I ought to dis-
play the inventions of others as my own." * He also gives
an account of a number of notable miscellaneous discoveries
and experiments by past mathematicians and physicists.^
Also he sometimes repeats the instruction which he had re-
ceived from his teachers. Like Pliny a little later he thinks
that in some respects artistic standards have been lowered
in his own time, notably in fresco-painting.^ But also, like
Galen, he once admits that there are still good men in his
own profession besides himself, affirming that "our archi-
tects in the old days, and a good many even in our own
times, have been as great as those of the Greeks." '^ He de-
scribes a basilica which he himself had built at Fano.^
Vitruvius's last book is devoted to machines and mili- Machines
tary engines. Here he makes a feeble effort to introduce Qesibius
the factor of astrological influence, asserting that "all ma-
chinery is derived from nature, and is founded on the teach-
ing and instruction of the revolution of the firmament." ^
Among the devices described is the pump of Ctesibius of
Alexandria, the son of a barber.^° He had already been
mentioned in the preceding book ^^ for the improvements
which he introduced in water-clocks, especially regulating
their flow according to the changing length of the hours of
the day in summer and winter. Vitruvius also asserts that
he constructed the first water organs, that he "discovered
'IX, Introd., 17. 'VII, Introd., 18.
;vn, Introd., 10. «V, i, 6-ia
'VIII, in, 27. »Y ;\,
* IX, vii, 7. -^' '' 4-
''IX, Introd. "X, vii.
'VII, V. "IX, viii.
i88 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the natural pressure of the air and pneumatic principles, . . .
devised methods of raising water, automatic contrivances,
and amusing things of many kinds, . . . blackbirds singing
by means of vi^aterworks, and angohatae, and figures that
drink and move, and other things that have been found to
be pleasing to the eye and the ear." ^ Vitruvius states that
of these he has selected those that seemed most useful and
necessary and that the reader may turn to Ctesibius's own
works for those which are merely amusing. Pliny more
briefly mentions the invention of pneumatics and water or-
gans by Ctesibius.^
This characterization by Vitruvius of the writings of
Ctesibius also applies with astonishing fitness to some of the
works current under the name of Hero of Alexandria," ^ who
is indeed in a Vienna manuscript of the Belopoiika spoken
of as the disciple or follower of Ctesibius.* Hero, however,
is not mentioned either by Vitruvius or Pliny, and it is now
generally agreed as a result of recent studies that he belongs
to the second century of our era.^ His writings are objec-
tive and impersonal and tell us much less about himself than
Vitruvius's introductions to the ten books of De architectura.
nX, viii, 2 and 4; X, vii, 4. appeared, 1899, 1900, 1903, 1912,
'NH, VII, 38. 1914, including respectively, the
*The' work of Martin, Recher- Pneumatics and Automatic _ The-
ches sur la vie et les ouvrages ater, the Mechanics and Mirrors,
d'Heron d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1854, the Metrics and Dioptra, the
and the accounts of Hero in his- DeHnitions and geometrical re-
tories of physics and mathematics mains, Stereometrica and De
such as those of Heller and Cajori, mensuris and De geodaesia. For
must now be supplemented by the the Belopoiika or work on mili-
long article in Pauly and Wissowa, tary engines see C. Wescher,
Realencyclopddie der classischen Poliorcctique des Grecs, Paris,
Altertums-imssenschaft, (1912), 1867. In English we have The
cols. 992-1080. A recent briefer Pneumatics of Hero of Alex-
summary in English is the article andria, translated for Bennet
by T. L. Heath, EB, nth edition, Woodcroft by J. G. Greenwood,
XIII, 378. See also Hammer- London, 1851. A number of ar-
Jensen, Ptolemaios und Heron, in tides on Hero by Heiberg, Carra
Hermes, XLVIII (1913), p. 224, de Vaux, Schmidt, and others will
et seq. be found in Bibliotheca Mathe-
The writings ascribed to Hero, matica and Sudhoff's Archiv f. d.
hitherto scattered about in vari- Gesch. d. Naturiviss. u. d. Tech-
ous for the most part inacces- nik.
sible editions and MSS, are now * irapi 'HpajTOj KTT7cri/3foi;.
appearing in a single Teubner "Heath in EB, XIII, 378; Hei-
edition, of which five vols, have berg (1914). V, ix.
c ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 189
The similarity in content of his writings to those of the
much earher Ctesibius as well as the character of his ter-
minology suggest that he stands at the end of a long develop-
ment. He speaks of his own discoveries, but perhaps in
the main simply continues and works over the previous prin-
ciples and mechanisms of men like Ctesibius. As things
stand, however, his works constitute our most important,
and often our only, source for the history of exact science
and of technology in antiquity.^
Not only does Hero seem to have been in large measure Medieval
a compiler and continuer of previous science, his works also "^^^j. ^^^
have evidently been worked over and added to in subsequent ^^e texts,
periods and bear marks of the Byzantine, Arabian, and medi-
eval Latin periods as well as of the Hellenistic and Roman.
Indeed Heiberg regards the Geometry and De stereometricis
and De mensuris as later Byzantine collections which have
perhaps made some use of the works of Hero, while the De
geodaesia is an epitome of, or extract from, a pseudo-
Heronic collection. The Catoptrica is known only from the
Latin translation of 1269, probably by William of Moerbeke,
and long known as Ptolemy on Mirrors. It appears, how-
ever, to be directly translated from the Greek and not from
the Arabic. The Mechanics, on the other hand, is known
only from the Arabic translation by Costa ben Luca. Of
the Pneumatics we have Greek, Arabic, and Latin versions.
It was apparently known to the author of the thirteenth cen-
tury Summa philosophiae ascribed to Robert Grosseteste,
since he speaks of the investigations of vacuums made by
"Hero, that eminent philosopher, with the aid of water-
clocks, siphons, and other instruments." ^ Scholars are of
the opinion that the Arabic adaptation, which is of popular
character and limited to the entertaining side, comes closer to
the original Greek version of Hero's time than does the Latin
version which devotes more attention to experimental phys-
ics. The Automatic Theater, for which there is the same
* PW, Heron. * Baur (1912), p. 417.
ipo
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Hero's
thau-
maturgy.
Instances
of experi-
mental
proof.
chief manuscript as for the Pneumatics, also seems to have
been worked over and added to a great deal.
From Vitruvius's allusions to the works of Ctesibius and
from a survey of those works current under Hero's name
which are chiefly concerned with mechanical contrivances
and devices, the modern reader gets the impression that, aside
from military engines and lifting appliances, the science of
antiquity was applied largely to purposes of entertainment
rather than practical usefulness. However, in Hero's case
at least there is something more than this. His apparatus
and experiments are not intended so much to divert as to
deceive the spectator, and not so much to amuse as to as-
tound him. The mechanism is usually concealed ; the cause
acts indirectly, intermediately, or from a distance to pro-
duce an apparently marvelous result. It is a case of thau-
maturgy, as Hero himself says,^ of apparent magic. In fine,
the experimental and applied scientist is largely interested
in vying with the feats of the magicians or supplying the
temples and altars of religion with pseudo-miracles.
The introduction or proemium to the Pneumatics is
rather more truly scientific and has been called an unusual
instance in antiquity of the use as proof of purposive ob-
servation of nature and experiment. Thus the existence of
air is demonstrated by the experiment of pressing an in-
verted vessel, kept carefully upright, into water, which will
not enter the vessel because of the resistance offered by the
air already within the vessel. Or the elasticity of air and
the existence of empty spaces between its particles is shown
by the experiment of blowing more air into a globe through
a siphon, and then holding one's finger over the orifice. As
soon as the finger is removed the surplus air rushes out
with a loud report. Along with such admirable experimental
proof, however, the introduction contains some astonishingly
erroneous assertions, such as that "slime and mud are trans-
formations of water into earth," and that air released from
^ In the first chapter of the structed such things thaumaturges
Automatic Theater he says, "The because of the astounding charac-
ancicnls called those who con- tcr of tlie spectacle."
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 191
a vessel under water "is transformed so as to become water."
Hero believes that heat and light rays are particles of matter
which penetrate the interstices between the particles com-
posing air and water.
The Pneumatics consist of some seventy-eight theorems Magic
or experiments or tricks, call them what you will, which in ^j^fn^lng
different manuscripts and editions are variously grouped in animals.
a single book or two books. The same idea or method,
however, is often repeated in the different chapters. Thus
we encounter over half a dozen times the magic water-jar
or drinking horn from which either wine or water or a mix-
ture of both can be poured, or a choice of other liquids.
And in all these cases the explanation of the trick is the
same. When the air-hole in the top of the vessel is closed
so that no air can enter, the liquid will not flow out through
the narrow orifice in the bottom. Changes are rung on this
principle by means of inner compartments and connecting
tubes. Different kinds of siphons, the bent, the enclosed,
and the uniform discharge, are described in the opening chap-
ters and are utilized in working the ensuing wonders, such
as statues of animals which drink water offered to them,
inexhaustible goblets or those that will not overflow, and
harmonious jars. By this last expression is meant pairs of
vessels, secretly connected by tubes and so arranged that
nothing will flow from one until the other is filled, when
wine will pour from one jar and water from the other. Or
when water is poured into one jar, wine or mixed wine and
water flows from the other. Or, when water is drawn off
from one jar, wine flows from the other. Other vessels
are made to commence or cease to pour out wine or water,
when a little water is poured in. Others will receive no
more water once you have ceased pouring it in, no matter
how little may have been poured in, or, when you cease for
a moment to pour water in and then begin again, will not
resume their outpour until half full. In another case the
water will not flow out of a hole in the bottom of the ves-
sel at all until the vessel is entirely filled. Others are made
192
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Various
automa-
tons and
devices.
Magic
mirrors.
to flow by dropping a coin in a slot or working a lever, or
turning a wheel. In the last case the vessel of water is con-
cealed behind the entrance column of a temple. In one magic
drinking horn the flow of water from the bottom is checked
by putting a cover over the open top. When another pitcher
is tipped up, the same amount of liquid will always fk)w out.
In half a dozen chapters mechanical birds are made to
sing by driving air through a pipe by the pressure of flowing
water. In other chapters a dragon is made to hiss and a
thyrsus to whistle by similar methods. By the force of
compressed air water is made to spurt forth and automatons
to sound trumpets. The heat of the sun's rays is used to
warm air which expands and causes water to trickle out. In
a number of cases as long as a fire burns on an altar the
expansion of enclosed air caused thereby opens temple
doors by the aid of pulleys, or causes statues to pour liba-
tions, dancing figures to revolve, and a serpent to hiss. The
force of steam is used to support a ball in mid-air, revolve
a sphere, and make a bird sing or a statue blow a horn. In-
exhaustible lamps are described as well as inexhaustible
goblets, and a self -trimmed lamp in which a float resting on
the oil turns a cog-wheel which pushes up the wick as it and
the oil are consumed. Floats and cog-wheels are also used in
some of the tricks already mentioned. In another the flow
of a liquid from a vessel is regulated by a float and a lever.
Cog-wheels are also employed in constructing the neck of
an automaton so that it can be cut completely through with
a knife and yet the head not be severed from the body. A
cupping glass, a syringe, a fire engine pump with valves
and pistons, a hydraulic organ and one worked by wind
pretty much exhaust the contents of the Pneumatics. In its
introduction Hero alludes to his treatise in four books on
water-clocks, but this is not extant. Hero's water-organ is
regarded as more primitive than that described by Vitruvius.*
If magic jugs and marvelous automatons make up most
of the contents of the Pneumatics and Automatic Theater,
*PW, 1045.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 193
comic and magic mirrors play a prominent part m the
Catoptrics. The spectator sees himself upside down, with
three eyes, two noses, or an otherwise distorted counte-
nance. By means of two rectangular mirrors which open and
close on a common axis Pallas is made to spring from the
head of Zeus. Instructions are given how to place mirrors
so that the person approaching will see no reflection of him-
self but only whatever apparition you select for him to see.
Thus a divinity can be made suddenly to appear in a temple.
Clocks are also described where figures appear to announce
the hours.
Hero displays a slight tendency in the direction of as- Astrology
trology, discussing the music of the spheres in the first ^?^ occult
chapters of the Catoptrics, and in the Pneumatics describing
an absurdly simple representation of the cosmos by means
of a small sphere placed in a circular hole in the partition
between two halves of a transparent sphere of glass. One
hemisphere is to be filled with water, probably in order to
support the ball in the center.^ The marvelous virtues of
animals other than automatons are rather out of his line, but
he alludes to the virtue of the marine torpedo which can
penetrate bronze, iron, and other bodies.
Although we have seen some indications of its earlier ex- Date 01
istence in Egypt, alchemy seems to have made its appear- q^^^^^
ance in the ancient Greek-speaking and Latin world only at alchemy.
a late date. There seems to be no allusion to the subject
in classical literature before the Christian era, the first men-
tion being Pliny's statement that Caligula made gold from
orpiment.^ The papyri containing alchemistic texts are of
^But perhaps this is a medieval came the planets, then the sun"^
interpolation in the nature of a Orr (1913), P- 63 and Fig. 13.
crude Christian attempt to depict See also K. Tittel, "Das Weltbild
"the firmament in the midst of the bei Heron," in Bibl. Math. (1907-
waters" (Genesis, I, 6). However, 1908), pp. ii3-7-
it also somewhat resembles the ^ Berthelot (1885), pp. 68-9. For
universe of the Greek philosopher, the following account of Greek
Leucippus, who "made the earth a alchemy I have followed Berthe-
hemisphere with a hemisphere of lot's three works, Les Origines de.
air above, the whole surrounded I'Alchimie, 1885; Collection des
by the supporting crystal sphere ancicns Alchimistes Grecs, 3 vols.,
which held the moon. Above this 1887-1888; Introduction a I'Btude
194
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Legend
that Dio-
cletian
burned
the books
of the
alchemists.
the third century, and the manuscripts containing Greek
works of alchemy, of which the oldest is one of the eleventh
century in the Library of St. Mark's, seem to consist of
works or remnants of works written in the third century
and later, many being Byzantine compilations, excerpts, or
additions. Also Syncellus, the polygraph of the eighth
century, gives some extracts from the alchemists.
Syncellus and other late writers ^ are our only extant
sources for the statement that Diocletian burned the books
of the alchemists in Egypt, so that they might not finance
future revolts against him. If the report be true, one would
fancy that the imperial edict would be more effective as a
testimonial to the truth of transmutation in encouraging the
art than it would be in discouraging it by destroying a cer-
tain amount of its literature. Thus the edict would resemble
the occasional laws of earlier emperors banishing the
astrologers — except their own — from Rome or Italy because
they had been too free in predicting the death of the emperor,
which only serve to show what a hold astrology had both on
emperors and people. But the report concerning Diocletian
sounds improbable on the face of it and must be doubted for
want of contemporary evidence. Certainly we are not justi-
fied in explaining the air of secrecy so often assumed by
writers on alchemy as due to the fear of persecution which
this action of Diocletian ^ or the fear of being accused of
magic aroused in them. Persons who wish to keep matters
secret do not rush into publication, and the air of secrecy of
the alchemists is too often evidently assumed for purposes of
de la Chimie, 1889. Berthelot
made a good many books from
too few MSS; went over the same
ground repeatedly ; and sometimes
had to correct his previous state-
ments ; but still remains the full-
est account of the subject. E. O.
V. Lippmann, Entstehung und Aus-
breitung der Alchemie, 1919, is
still based largely on Berthelot's
publications. In English see C.
A. Browne, "The Poem of the
Philosopher Theophrastos upon
the Sacred Art : A Metrical
Translation with Comments upon
the History of Alchemy," in The
Scientific Monthly, September,
1920, pp. 193-214.
^ The earliest of them is John
of Antioch of the reign of Herac-
lius, about 620 A.D., although
they seem to use Panodorus, an
Egyptian monk of the reign of
Arcadius. Even he would be a
century removed from the event.
'Berthelot (1885), pp. 26, 72,
etc., took this story about Diocle-
tian far too seriously.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 195
show and to impress the reader with the idea that they really
have something to hide. Sometimes the alchemists them-
selves realize that this adoption of an air of secrecy has been
overdone. Thus Olympiodorus wrote in the early fifth cen-
tury, "The ancients were accustomed to hide the truth, to
veil or obscure by allegories what is clear and evident to
everybody." ^ Nor can we accept the story of Diocletian's
burning the books of alchemy as the reason why none have
reached us which can be certainly dated as earlier than the
third century.
The alchemists themselves, of course, claimed for their Akhem-
art the highest antiquity. Zosimus of Panopolis, who seems account"
to have written in the third century, says that the fallen an- of the
gels instructed men in alchemy as well as in the other arts, their art.
and that it was the divine and sacred art of the priests and
kings of Egypt, who kept it secret. We also have an address
of Isis to her son Horus repeating the revelation made by
Amnael, the first of the angels and prophets. To Moses are
ascribed treatises on domestic chemistry and doubling the
weight of gold.^ The manuscripts of the Byzantine period
discuss what "the ancients" meant by this or that, or purport
to repeat what someone else said of some other person.
Zosimus seems fond of citing himself in the texts repro-
duced by Berthelot, so that it may be questioned how much
of his original works has been preserved. Hermes is often
cited by the alchemists, although no work of alchemy as-
cribed to him has reached us from this early period. To
Agathodaemon is ascribed a commentary on the oracle of
Orpheus addressed to Osiris, dealing with the whitening and
^Berthelot (1885), 192-3. third century, later when he had
* But the Labyrinth of Solomon, secured the collaboration of
Avhich Berthelot (1885), p. 16, had Ruelle (1888), I, 156-7, and III,
cited as an example of the sort of 41, he had to admit was not even
ancient magic figures which had as old as the eleventh century MS
been largely obliterated by Chris- in which it occurred but was an
tians, and of the antiquity of addition in writing of the four-
alchemy among the Jews {ihid., p. teenth century and "a cabalistic
54), although he granted {ibid., work of the middle ages which
p. 171) that it might not be as old does not belong to the old tradi-
as the Papyrus of Leyden of the tion of the Greek alchemists."
196 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
yellowing of metals and other alchemical recipes. Other
favorite authorities are Ostanes, whom we have elsewhere
heard represented as the introducer of magic into the Greek
world, and the philosopher Democritus, whom the alchem-
ists represent as the pupil of Ostanes and whom we have
already heard Pliny charge with devotion to magic. Seneca
says in one of his letters that Democritus discovered a proc-
ess to soften ivory, that he prepared artificial emerald, and
colored vitrified substances. Diogenes Laertius ascribes to
him a work on the juices of plants, on stones, minerals,
metals, colors, and coloring glass. This was possibly the
same as the four books on coloring gold, silver, stones, and
purple ascribed to Democritus by Synesius in the fifth, and
Syncellus in the eighth, century. More recent presumably
than Ostanes and Democritus are the female alchemists, Cleo-
patra and Mary the Jewess, although one text represents
Ostanes and his companions as conversing with Cleopatra.
A few of the spurious works ascribed to these authors may
have come into existence as early as the Hellenistic period,
but those which have reached us, at least in their present
form, seem to bear the marks of the Christian era and later
centuries of the Roman Empire, if not of the early medieval
and Byzantine periods. And those authors whose names
seem genuine : Zosimus, Synesius, Olympiodorus, Stephanus,
are of the third, fourth and fifth centuries, at the earliest.
Close The associations of the names above cited and the fact
association ^j^^^ pseudo-literature forms so large a part of the early lit-
alchemy erature of alchemy suggest its close connection at that time
with magic. Whereas Vitruvius, although not personally in-
hospitable to occult theory, showed us the art of architecture
free from magic, and Hero told how to perform apparent
magic by means of mechanical devices and deceits, the Greek
alchemists display entire faith in magic procedure with which
their art is indissolubly intermingled. Indeed the papyri in
which works of alchemy occur are primarily magic papyri, so
that alchemy may be said to spring from the brow of magic.
The same is only somewhat less true of the manuscripts. In
with
magic
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 197
the earliest one of the eleventh century the alchemy is in the
company of a treatise on the interpretation of dreams, a
sphere of divination of life or death, and magic alphabets.
The treatises of alchemy themselves are equally impregnated
with magic detail. Cleopatra's art of making gold employs
concentric circles, a serpent, an eight-rayed star, and other
magic figures. Physica et mystica, ascribed to Democritus,
after a purely technical fragment on purple dye, invokes his
master Ostanes from Hades, and then plunges into alchem-
ical recipes. There are also frequent bits of astrology and
suggestions of Gnostic influence. Often the encircling ser-
pent Ouroboros, who bites or swallows his tail, is referred
to.^ Sometimes the alchemist puts a little gold into his mix-
ture to act as a sort of nest tgg, or mother of gold, and en-
courage the remaining substance to become gold too.^ Or
we read in a work ascribed to Ostanes of "a divine water"
which "revives the dead and kills the living, enlightens ob-
scurity and obscures what is clear, calms the sea and
quenches fire. A few drops of it give lead the appearance
of gold with the aid of God, the invisible and all-power-
ful. . . ."3
These early alchemists are also greatly given to mystery Mystery
and allegory. "Touch not the philosopher's stone with your ^{j^
hands," warns Mary the Jewess, "you are not of our race,
you are not of the race of Abraham." ^ In a tract concern-
ing the serpent Ouroboros we read, "A serpent is stretched
out guarding the temple. Let his conqueror begin by sac-
rifice, then skin him, and after having removed his flesh
to the very bones, make a stepping-stone of it to enter the
temple. Mount upon it and you will find the object sought.
For the priest, at first a man of copper, has changed his
color and nature and become a man of silver; a few days
later, if you wish, you will find him changed into a man of
gold." ^ Or in the preparation of the aforesaid divine
'Berthelot (1885), p. 59. * Berthelot (1885), p. 56.
* Ibid., p. 53. » Berthelot ( 1888) , III, 23.
•Berthelot (1888), III, 2SI.
198
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Experi-
mentation
in al-
chemy :
relation to
science
and philos-
ophy.
water Ostanes tells us to take the eggs of the serpent of oak
who dwells in the month of August in the mountains of
Olympus, Libya, and the Taurus.^ Synesius tells that
Democritus was initiated in Egypt at the temple of Memphis
by Ostanes, and Zosimus cites the instruction of Ostanes,
"Go towards the stream of the Nile ; you'll find there a stone ;
cut it in two, put in your hand, and take out its heart, for
its soul is in its heart." ^ Zosimus himself often resorts to
symbolic jargon to obscure his meaning, as in the descrip-
tion of the vision of a priest who was torn to pieces and who
mutilated himself.^ He, too, personifies the metals and
talks of a man of gold, a tin man, and so on.* A brief
example of his style will have to suffice, as these allegories
of the alchemists are insufferably tedious reading. "Finally
I had the longing to mount the seven steps and see the seven
chastisements, and one day, as it chanced, I hit upon the
path up. After several attempts I traversed the path, but
on my return I lost my way and, profoundly discouraged,
seeing no way out, I fell asleep. In my dream I saw a lit-
tle man, a barber, clothed in purple robe and royal raiment,
standing outside the place of punishment, and he said to
me. . . ." ^ When Zosimus was not dreaming dreams and
seeing visions, he was usually citing ancient authorities.
At the same time even these early alchemists cannot be
denied a certain scientific character, or at least a connection
with natural science. Behind alchemy existed a constant
experimental progress. "Alchemy," said Berthelot, "rested
upon a certain mass of practical facts that were known in
antiquity and that had to do with the preparation of metals,
their alloys, and that of artificial precious stones; it had there
an experimental side which did not cease to progress during
the entire medieval period until positive modern chemistry
emerged from it." ^ The various treatises of the Greek al-
chemists describe apparatus and experiments which are real
'Berthelot (1888), III, 251. *Ibid., p. 60.
'Berthelot (1885), p. 164. HI^'Is^''"' ^'^^' "' "^"^'
'Ibid., pp. 179-80. 'Berthelot (1885), pp. 21 1-2.
V ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE 199
but with which they associated resuhs which were impos-
sible and visionary. Their theories of matter seem indebted
to the earher Greek philosophers, while in the description
of nature Berthelot noted a "direct and intimate" relation
between them and the works of Dioscorides, Vitruvius, and
Pliny.i
* Berthelot (1889), p. vi.
CHAPTER VI
Plutarch's essays
Themes of ensuing chapters — Life of Plutarch — Superstition in Plu-
tarch's Lives — His Morals or Essays — Question of their authenticity —
Magic in Plutarch — Essay on Superstition — Plutarch hospitable toward
some superstitions — The oracles of Delphi and of Trophonius — Divina-
tion justified — Demons as mediators between gods and men — Demons
in the moon : migration of the soul — Demons mortal : some evil — Men
and demons — Relation of Plutarch's to other conceptions of demons —
The astrologer Tarrutius — De fato — Other bits of astrology — Cosmic
mysticism — Number mysticism — Occult virtues in nature — Asbestos —
On Rivers and Mountains — Magic herbs — Stones found in plants and
fish — Virtues of other stones — Fascination — Animal sagacity and reme-
dies— Theories and queries about nature — The Antipodes.
ensumg
chapters
Themes of HAVING noted the presence of magic in works so espe-
cially devoted to natural science as those of Pliny, Galen,
and Ptolemy, we have now to illustrate the prominence both
of natural science and of magic in the life and thought of
the Roman Empire by a consideration of some writers of a
more miscellaneous character, who should reflect for us
something of the interests of the average cultured reader of
that time. Of this type are Plutarch, Apuleius and Philos-
tratus, whom we shall consider in the coming chapters in
the order named, which also roughly corresponds to their
chronological sequence.
Plutarch flourished during the reigns of Trajan and
Hadrian at the turn of the first and second centuries, but
The Letter on the Education of a Prince to Trajan ^
probably is not by him, and the legend that Hadrian was his
pupil is a medieval invention. He was born in Boeotia about
46-48 A. D. and was educated in rhetoric and philosophy,
science and mathematics, at Athens, where he was a student
^ De institutione principis epistola ad Traianum, a treatise extant
only in Latin form.
Life of
Plutarch
CHAP. VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 201
when Nero visited Greece in 66 A. D. He also made
several visits to Rome and resided there for some time. He
held various public positions in the province of Achaea and
in his small native tov^n of Chaeronea, and had official con-
nections with the Delphic oracle and amphictyony. Artemi-
dorus in the Oneirocriticon states that Plutarch's death was
foreshadowed in a dream. ^
With Plutarch's celebrated Lives of Illustrious Men, as Super-
with narrative histories in general, we shall not be much piutarch's
concerned, although they of course abound in omens and L.^'^es.
portents, in bits of pseudo-science which details in his nar-
rative bring to the mind of the biographer, and in cases of
divination and magic. Thus theories are advanced to ex-
plain why birds dropped dead from mid-air at the shout set
up by the Greeks at the Isthmian games when Flamininus
proclaimed their freedom. Or we are told how Sulla re-
ceived from the Chaldeans predictions of his future great-
ness, how in the dedication to his Memoirs he admonished
Lucullus to trust in dreams, and how Lucullus's mind was
deranged by a love philter administered by his freedman in
the hope of increasing his master's affection towards him.^
Such allusions and incidents abound also of course in Dio
Cassius, Tacitus, and other Roman historians.
But we shall be concerned rather with Plutarch's other His
writings, which are usually grouped together under the title Essays. ^^
of Morals, or, more appropriately, Miscellanies and Es-
says. Not only is there great variety in their titles, but in
any given essay the attention is usually not strictly held to
one theme or problem but the discussion diverges to other
points. Some are by their very titles and form rambling
dialogues, symposiacs, and table-talk, where the conversation
lightly flits from one topic to other entirely different ones,
never dwelling for long upon any one point and never re-
^ IV, 72. On the biography and ode," pp. 367fF.
bibUography of Plutarch consult ' See also the essay, "Whether
Christ, Gesch. d. Griechischen an old man should engage in poli-
Litteratur, 5th ed., Munich, 1913, tics," cap. 16.
II, 2, "Die nachklassische Peri-
202
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Question
of their
authen-
ticity.
Magic in
Plutarch.
turning to its starting-point. This dinner-table and drink-
ing-bout type of cultured and semi-learned discourse has
other extant ancient examples such as the Attic Nights of
Aulus Gellius and the Deipnosophists of Athenaeus, but
Plutarch will have to serve as our main illustration of it.
His Essays reflect in motley guise and disordered array the
fruits of extensive reading and a retentive memory in ancient
philosophy, science, history, and literature.
The authenticity of some of the essays attributed to him
has been questioned, and very likely with propriety, but for
our purpose it is not important that they should all be by
the same author so long as they represent approximately the
same period and type of literature. The spurious treatise,
De placitis philosophorimi, we have already considered in
the chapter on Galen, to whom it has also been ascribed. The
essay On Rivers and Mountains we shall treat by itself in
the present chapter. The De fato has also been called spuri-
ous.^ Superstitious content is not a sufficient reason for
denying that a treatise is by Plutarch,^ since he is super-
stitious in writings of undoubted genuineness and since we
have found the leading scientists of the time unable to ex-
clude superstition from their works entirely. Moreover,
many of the essays are in the form of conversations ex-
pressing the divergent views of different speakers, and it is
not always possible to tell which shade of opinion Plutarch
himself favors. Suffice it that the views expressed are those
of men of education.
Plutarch does not specifically discuss magic under that
name at any length in any of his essays, but does treat of
* See R. Schmertosch, in PhiloL-
Hist. Beitr. z. Ehren Wachsmuths,
1897, pp. 28ff.
' Language and literary form are
surer guides and have been ap-
plied by B. Weissenberger, Die
Sprache Plutarchs von Ch'dronea
und die pseudoplutarchischen
Schriften, II Progr. Straubing,
1896, pp. I5ff. In 1876 W. W.
Goodwin, editing a revised edition
of the seventeenth century English
translation of the Morals, de-
clared that no critical translation
was possible until a thorough re-
vision of the text had been under-
taken with the help of the best
MSS. Since then an edition of
the text by G. N. Bernadakes,
1888-1896, has appeared, but it has
not escaped criticism.
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 203
such subjects as superstition in general, dreams, oracles,
demons, number, fate, the craftiness of animals, and other
"natural questions." Certain vulgar forms of magic, at
least, were regarded by him with disapproval or incredul-
ity.^ He rejects as a fiction the statement that the women
of Thessaly can draw down the moon by their spells, but
thinks that the notion perhaps originated in the fact or story
that Aglaonice, daughter of Hegetor, was so skilful in as-
trology or astronomy as to be able to foresee the occurrence
of lunar eclipses, and that she deluded the people into believ-
ing that at such times she brought down the moon from
heaven by charms and enchantments.- Thus we have one
more instance of the union of magic and science, this time
of pseudo-magic with real science as at other times of magic
with pseudo-science.
The essay entitled vrepl btiaibaniovlas deals with super- Essay on
stition in the usual Greek sense of dread or excessive g^^^^jj.
fear of demons and gods. We are accustomed to think of
Hellenic paganism as a cheerful faith, full of naturalism, in
which the gods were humanized and made familiar. Plu-
tarch apparently regards normal religion as of this sort, and
attacks the superstitious dread of the supernatural. He con-
tends that such fear is worse, if anything, than atheism, for
it makes men more unhappy and is an equal offense against
the divinity, since it is at least as bad to believe ill of the
gods as not to believe in them at all. Nothing indeed encour-
ages the growth of atheism so much as the absurd practices
and beliefs of such superstitious persons, "their words and
* The English translation of Plu- skill and impose upon him with
tarch's Morals "by several hands," subtle questions." But the cor-
first published in 1684- 1694, sixth responding clause in the Greek
edition corrected and revised by text is merely ol nh> cos aoinarov bta-
W. W. Goodwin, 5 vols., 1870- irtipav \ayL0a.vovTt%, and there seems
1878, IV, 10, renders a passage in to be no reason for taking the
the seventh chapter of De defectU' word "sophist" in any other than
oraculorunt, in which complaint its usual meaning. The passage
is made of the "base and villain- therefore cannot be interpreted as
ous questions" which are now put an attack upon even vulgar astrol-
to the oracle of Apollo, as fol- ogers.
lows : "some coming to him as a ' De defectu oraculorunt, 13.
mere paltry astrologer to try his
2IH MAGIC AXD EXPERIMEXTAL SCIENCE chap.
motions, their sorceries and magics, their runnings to and
fro and beatings of drums, their impure rites and their
purifications, their filthiness and chastity-, their barbarian
and illegal chastisements and abuse." ^ Plutarch seems to
be in part animated by the common prejudice against all
other religions than cHie's own. and speaks twice with dis-
taste of Jewish Sabbaths. He also, however, as the passage
just quoted shows, is opposed to the more extreme and de-
basing forms of magic, and declares that the superstitious
man becomes a mere peg or post upon which all the old-
wives hang any amulets and ligatures upon which they may
chance.- He further condemns such historic instances of
superstition as Xicias's suspension of military operations
during a lunar eclipse on the Sicilian expedition.^ There was
nothing terrible, says Plutarch, with his usual felicity of an-
tithesis, in the periodic reoirrence of the earth's shadow
upon the moon; but it was a terrible calamitv* that the
shadow of superstition should thus darken the mind of a
general at the very moment when a great crisis required the
fullest use of his reason.
-:"tarch In the essay upon the demon of Socrates one of the
^;l"^"'*^ speakers, attacking faith in dreams and apparitions, com-
mends Socrates as one who did not reject the worship of
the gods but who did purify philosophy, which he had re-
ceived from P}-thagoras and Empedocles full of phantasms
and myths and the dread of demons, and reeling like a Bac-
chanal, and reduced it to facts and reason and truth.* An-
other of the company, however, objects that the demon of
Socrates outdid the divination of P\thagoras.^ These con-
flicting opinions may be applied in some measiu-e to Plutarch
himself. His censtu"e of dread of demons and excessive
superstition is not to be taken as a sign of scepticism on
his part in oracles, dreams, or the demons themselves. To
these matters we next tturu
'Cap. 12. *Cap. 9.
•Cap. 7.
• Cap. a * Cap. 10.
pe-fu:
VI
PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 20=
Plutarch's faith and interest in oracles in general and The
, . . , , oracles of
in the Delphian oracle ot Apollo in particular are attested Delphi and
by three of his essays, the De defectu oraculorum, De Py- '^X^^^
thme oracuUs and De Ei apud Delphos. At the same time
these essays attest the decline of the oracles from their earlier
popularity" and greatness. The oracular cave of Trophonius,
of which we shall hear again in the Life of Apollonius of
Tyana, also comes into Plutarch's works, and the prophetic
and apocal}'ptic vision is described of a youth who spent two
nights and a day there in an endeavor to learn the nature
of the demon of Socrates.^
Plutarch further had faith in divination in general, Divination
whether by dreams, sneezes or other omens: but he attempted
to give a dignified philosophical and theological explana-
tion of it. Few men receive direct divine revelation, in his
opinion, but to many signs are given on which divination
may be based.- He held that the human soul had a natural
faculty of di%-ination which might be exercised at favorable
times and when the bodily state was not unfavorable.^ A
speaker in one of his dialogues justifies divination even from
sneezes and like trivial occurrences upon the ground that as
the faint beat of the pulse has meaning for the ph}*sician and
a small cloud in the sk}- is for a skilful pilot a sign of im-
pending storm, so the least thing may be a clue to the truly-
prophetic soul.^ The extent of Plutarch's faith in dreams
may be inferred from his discussion of the problem. Why
are dreams in autumn the least reliable ? ^ First there is
Aristotle's suggestion that eating autumn fruit so disturbs
the digestion that the soul is left little opportunity to ex-
ercise its prophetic faculty- undistracted. If we accept the
doctrine of Democritus that dreams are caused by images
from other bodies and even minds or souls, which enter the
body of the sleeper through the open pores and affect the
mind, revealing to it the present passions and future de-
^ De genio Socratis, 21-22. * De genio Socratis, 12,
'Ibid.. 24.
* De dcfcctu orjcuhrum, 40. * Sympos. \TII. 10.
206
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Demons as
mediators
between
gods and
fnen.
Demons in
the moon :
migration
of the soul.
signs of others, — if we accept this theory, it may be that
the falling leaves in autumn disturb the air and ruffle these
extremely thin and film-like emanations. A third explana-
tion offered is that in the declining months of the year all
our faculties, including that of natural divination, are in a
state of decline. In the case of oracles like that at Delphi it
is suggested that the Pythia's natural faculty of divination
is stimulated by "the prophetical exhalations from the earth"
which induce a bodily state favorable to divination.^ The
god or demon, however, is the underlying and directing
cause of the oracle.-
To the demons and their relations to the gods and to
men we therefore next come. Plutarch's view is that they
are essential mediators between the gods and men. Just as
one who should remove the air from between the earth and
moon would destroy the continuity of the universe, so those
who deny that there is a race of demons break ofif all inter-
course between gods and men.^ On the other hand, the
theory of demons solves many doubts and difficulties.-'*
When and where this doctrine originated is uncertain,
whether among the magi about Zoroaster, or in Thrace with
Orpheus, or in Egypt or Phrygia. Plutarch likens the gods
to an equilateral, the demons to an isosceles, and human be-
ings to a scalene triangle; and again compares the gods to
sun and stars, the demons to the moon, and men to comets
and meteors.^ In the youth's vision in the cave of Tro-
phonius the moon appeared to belong to earthly demons,
while those stars which have a regular motion were the
demons of sages, and the wandering and falling stars the
demons of men who have yielded to irrational passions.®
These suggestions that the moon and the air between
earth and moon are the abode of the demons and this remi-
niscence of the Platonic doctrine of the soul and its migra-
tions receive further confirmation in a discussion whether
^ De defectu oraculorum, 44.
^bid., 48.
Ubid., 13.
*Ibid., ID.
^bid., 13.
*£?<? genio Socratis, 22.
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 207
the moon is inhabited in the essay, On the Face in the Moon.
A story is there told ^ of a man who visited islands five
days' sail west of Britain, where Saturn is imprisoned and
where there are demons serving him. This man who ac-
quired great skill in astrology during his stay there stated
upon his return to Europe that every soul after leaving the
human body wanders for a time between earth and moon,
but finally reaches the latter planet, where the Elysian fields
are located, and there becomes a demon. ^ The demons do
not always remain in the moon, however, but may come to
earth to care for oracles or be imprisoned in a human body
again for some crime.^ The man who repeats the stranger's
story leaves it to his hearers, however, to believe it or not.
But the struggle upward of human souls to the estate of
demons is again described in the essay on the demon of Soc-
rates,^ where it is explained that those souls which have suc-
ceeded in freeing themselves from all union with the flesh
become guardian demons and help those of their fellows
whom they can reach, just as men on shore wade out as far
as they can into the waves to rescue those sea-tossed, ship-
v/recked mariners who have succeeded in struggling almost
to land. The soul is plunged into the body, the uncorrupted
mind or demon remains without.^
The demons differ from the gods in that they are mortal, Demons
though much longer-lived than men. Hesiod said that crows ^°^^^^ '■ .,
some evil.
live nine times as long as men, stags four times as long as
crows, ravens three times as long as stags, a phoenix nine
times as long as a raven, and the nymphs ten times as long as
the phoenix.^ There are storms in the isles off Britain when-
ever one of the demons residing there dies."^ Some demons
are good spirits and others are evil ; some are more passive
and irrational than others ; some delight in gloomy festivals,
foul words, and even human sacrifice.^
^Cap. 26. «Cap. 22.
Cap. 29. " ]jg defectu oraculorum, 10.
Cap. 30. ' ii,id., 18.
Cap. 24. Ubid., 13-14.
208
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Men and
demons.
Relation of
Plutarch's
to other
concep-
tions of
demons.
Once a year in the neighborhood of the Red Sea a man
is seen who spends the remainder of his time among
"nymphs, nomads and demons." ^ At his annual appear-
ance many princes and great men come to consult him con-
cerning the future. He also has the gift of tongues to the
extent of understanding several languages perfectly. His
speech is like sweetest music, his breath sweet and fragrant,
his person the most graceful that his interlocutor had ever
seen. He also was never afflicted with any disease, for once
a month he ate the bitter fruit of a medicinal herb. As to
the exact nature of Socrates' demon there is some diversity
of opinion. One man suggests that it was merely the sneez-
ing of himself or others, sneezes on the left hand warning
him to desist from his intended course of action, while a
sneeze in any other quarter was interpreted by him as a fa-
vorable sign.^ The weight of opinion, however, inclines to-
wards the view that his demon did not appear to him as an
apparition or phantasm, or even communicate with him as an
audible voice, but by immediate impression upon his mind.^
Plutarch's account of demons is the first of a number
which we shall have occasion to note. As the discussion of
them by Apuleius in the next chapter and the rather crude
representation of them given in Philostratus's Life of Apol-
lonius of Tyana will show, there was as yet among non-
Christian writers no unanimity of opinion concerning de-
mons. On the other hand there are several conceptions in
Plutarch's essays which were to be continued later by Chris-
tians and Neo-Platonists : namely, the conception of a medi-
ate class of beings between God and men, the hypothesis of
a world of spirits in close touch with human life, the associa-
tion of divination and oracles with demons, and the location
of spirits in the sphere of the moon or the air between earth
and moon, — although Plutarch sometimes connected demons
with the stars above the moon. This occasional association
of stars with spirits and of sinning souls with falling stars
^ De defectu oraculorum, 21. ^ Ibid., 20.
*De genio Socratis, 11.
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 209
bears some resemblance to the depiction of certain stars as
sinners in the Hebraic Book of Enoch, which was written
before Plutarch's time and which we shall consider in our
next book as an influence upon the development of early
Christian thought.
As for the stars apart from demons, Plutarch discusses The
the art of astrology as little as he does "magic" by that name. Tarrutms^.
Mentions of individuals as skilled in "astrology" may sim-
ply mean that they were trained astronomers. When a
veritable astrologer in our sense of the word is mentioned
in one of Plutarch's Lives,^ he is described as a fJLadrmaTiKos
— a word often used for a caster of horoscopes and pre-
dicter of the future. Here, however, it carries no reproach
of charlatanism, since in the same phrase he is called a
philosopher. This Tarrutius was a friend of Varro, who
asked him to work out the horoscope of Romulus backward
from what was known of the later life and character
of the founder of Rome. "For it was possible for the
same science which predicted man's life from the time of
his birth to infer the time of his birth from the events
of his life." Tarrutius set to work and from the data at
his disposal figured out that Romulus was conceived in the
first year of the second Olympiad, on the twenty-third day
of the Egyptian month Khoeak at the third hour when there
was a total eclipse of the sun; and that he was born on
the twenty-first day of the month Thoth about sunrise. He
further estimated that Rome was founded by him on the
ninth day of the month Pharmuthi between the second and
third hour. For, adds Plutarch, they think that the for-
tunes of cities are also controlled by the hour of their
genesis. Plutarch, however, seems to look upon such doc-
trines as rather strange and fabulous.^ Varro, on the other
hand, may have regarded it as the most scientific method
possible of settling disputed questions of historical chro-
nology.
Romulus, cap. 12. Slo. to fivdwdes ti'ox^'fi<^et rovs bTvyx&vov-
AXXd ravra ixlv ictojs Kal to. roiavra. ras avrol^.
Tcjj^eftf) Kal irtpiTTU) irpocra^eTai /LxdXXo;' i)
210 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The A favorable attitude towards astrology is found mainly
^ ^^^°' in those essays by Plutarch which are suspected of being
spurious, the De fato and De placitis philosophorum. Of
the latter we have already treated under Galen. In the
former fate is described as "the soul of the universe," and
the three main divisions of the universe, namely, the im-
movable heaven, the moving spheres and heavenly bodies,
and the region about the earth, are associated with the
three Fates, Clotho, Atropos, and Lachesis.^ It is similarly
stated in the essay on the demon of Socrates ^ that of the
four principles of all things, life, motion, genesis or genera-
tion, and corruption, the first two are joined by the One
indivisibly, the second and third Mind unites through the
sun; the third and fourth Nature joins through the moon.
And over each of these three bonds presides one of the three
Fates, Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis. In other words, the
one God or first cause, invisible and unmoved, in whom is
life, sets in motion the heavenly spheres and bodies, through
whose instrumentality generation and corruption upon
earth are produced and regulated, — which is substantially
the Aristotelian view of the universe. Returning to the
De fato we may note that it repeats the Stoic theory of
the magnus anntis when the heavenly bodies resume their
rounds and all history repeats itself.^ Despite this ap-
parent admission that human life is subject to the move-
ments of the stars, the author of the De fato seer^ to think
that accident, fortune or chance, the contingent, and "what
is in us" or free-will, can all co-exist with fate, which he
practically identifies with the motion of the heavenly bodies,*
Fate is also comprehended by divine Providence but this
fact does not militate against astrology, since Providence
itself divides into that of the first God, that of the secondary
gods or stars "who move through the heavens regulating
mortal affairs, and that of the demons who act as guardians
of men.^
*Cap. 2. *Caps. 5-8.
' Cap. 22.
" Cap. 3. Cap. 9
VI
PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 211
One or two bits of astrology may be noted in Plutarch's Other
other essays. The man who learned "astrology" among astrobgy.
demons in the isle beyond Britain affirmed that in human
generation earth supplies the body, the moon furnishes the
soul, and the sun provides the intellect.^ In the Symposiacs ^
the opinion of the mythographers is repeated that mon-
strous animals were produced during the war with the giants
because the moon turned from its course then and rose
in unaccustomed quarters. Plutarch was, by the way, in-
clined to distinguish the moon from other heavenly bodies
as passive and imperfect, a sort of celestial earth or terres-
trial star. Such a separation of the moon from the other
stars and planets would have, however, no necessary con-
trariety with astrological theory, which usually ascribed a
peculiar place to the moon and represented it as the medium
through which the more distant planets exerted their effects
upon the earth.
Sometimes Plutarch's cosmology carries Platonism to Cosmic
the verge of Gnosticism, a subject of which we shall treat
in a later chapter. The diviner who had communed with
demons, nomads, and nymphs in the desert asserted that
there was not one world, but one hundred and eighty-three
worlds arranged in the form of a triangle with sixty to each
side and one at each angle. Within this triangle of worlds
lay the plain of truth where were the ideas and models of
all things that had been or were to be, and about these was
eternity from which time flowed off like a river to the one
hundred and eighty-three worlds. The vision delectable of
those ideas is granted to men only once in a myriad of
years, if they live well, and is the goal toward which all
philosophy strives. The stranger, we are informed, told
this tale artlessly, like one in the mysteries, and produced no
demonstration or proof of what he said. We have already
heard Plutarch liken gods, demons, and men to different
kinds of triangles; he also repeats Plato's association of the
^De facie in orbe lunae, 28. ''VIII, 9.
212
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Number
mysticism.
Occult
virtues in
nature.
five regular solids with the elements, earth, air, fire, water,
and ether.^ He states that the nature of fire is quite apparent
in the pyramid from "the slenderness of its decreasing sides
and the sharpness of its angles," ^ and that fire is engendered
from air when the octahedron is dissolved into pyramids, and
air produced from fire when the pyramids are compressed
into an octahedron.^
These geometrical fancies are naturally accompanied by
considerable number mysticism. In this particular passage
the merits of the number five are enlarged upon and a long
list is given of things that are five in number.!"* Five is again
extolled in the essay on The Ei at Delphi,^ but there one of
the company remarks with much reason that it is possible
to praise any number in many ways, but that he prefers to
five "the sacred seven of Apollo." ® Platonic geometrical
reveries and Pythagorean number mysticism are indulged
in even more extensively in the essay On the Procreation
of the Soul in Timaeus. The number and proportion exist-
ing in planets, stars and spheres are touched on,'^ and it is
stated that the divine demiurge produced the marvelous vir-
tues of drugs and organs by employing harmonies and num-
bers.^ Thus in the potency of ntmiber and numerical rela-
tions is suggested a possible explanation of astrology^and
magic force in nature.
Plutarch, indeed, shows the same faith in the existence
of occult virtues in natural objects and in what may be
called natural magic as most of his contemporaries. At his
symposium when one man avers that he saw the tiny fish
echene'is stop the ship upon which he was sailing until the
look-out man picked it off,^ some laugh at his credulity but
^ De defectu oraculorum, 31-32.
The resemblance of the stranger's
tale to the vision of Er in Plato's
Republic is also evident.
^Ibid., 34.
"Ibid., 37.
* Ibid., 36; and see 11-12.
* Caps. 8-16.
*Cap. 17.
'Cap. 31.
•Cap. 33.
' Symposiacs, II, 7. D'Arcy W.
Thompson in his translation of
Aristotle's History of Animals
comments on II, 14, "The myth of
the 'ship-holder' has been ele-
gantly explained by V. W. Elk-
man, 'On Dead Water,' in the Re-
ports of Nansen's North Polar
Expedition, Christiania, 1904."
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 213
others narrate other cases of strange antipathies in nature.
Mad elephants are quieted by the sight of a ram; vipers will
not move if touched with a leaf from a beech tree; wild bulls
become tame when tied to a fig tree;^ if light objects are
oiled, amber fails to attract them as usual; and iron rubbed
with garlic does not respond to the magnet, "These things
are proved by experience but it is difficult if not quite impos-
sible to learn their cause." At the Symposium ^ the ques-
tion also is raised why salt is called divine, and it is sug-
gested that it may be because it preserves bodies from decay
after the soul has left them, or because mice conceive with-
out sexual intercourse by merely licking salt. In The Delay
of the Deity Plutarch again treats of occult virtues.^ They
pass from body to body with incredible swiftness or to an
incredible distance. He wonders why it is that if a goat
takes a piece of sea-holly in her mouth, the entire herd will
stand still until the goatherd removes it. We see once more
how closely such notions are associated with magical prac-
tices, when in the same paragraph he mentions the custom
of making the children of those who have died of con-
sumption or dropsy sit soaking their feet in water until the
corpse has been buried so that they may not catch their
parent's disease.
On the other hand, how difficult it must have been with Asbestos.
the limited scientific knowledge of that time to distinguish
true from false marvelous properties may be inferred from
Plutarch's description ^ of a certain soft and pliable stone
that used to be produced at Carystus and from which hand-
kerchiefs and hair-nets were made which could not be burnt
and were cleaned by exposure to fire, — a description, it would
seem, of our asbestos, although Plutarch does not give the
stone any name. Strabo also ascribes similar properties to
a stone from Carystus without naming it.^ Dioscorides and
^ See above p. 77 for the some- *X, i (Casaub., 446) ; for this
what diflferent statement of Pliny and some other source citations
(NH, XXIII, 64). and a brief bibliography of mod-
' Symposiacs, V, 10. ern discussions on the subject see
^De sera numinis vindicta, 14. the article, "Amiantus" (3) in
* De defectu oraculorum, 43. Pauly-Wissowa.
214 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
other Greek authors, we are told/ apply the word "asbestos"
to quick-lime, but Pliny in the Natural History ^ describes
what he says the Greeks call aa^eaTLvou much as Plutarch
does. He adds that it is employed in making shrouds for
royal funerals to separate the ashes of the corpse from those
of the pyre.^ But he seems to regard it as a plant, not a
stone, listing it as a variety of linen in one of his books on
vegetation. He also states incorrectly that it is found but
rarely and in desert and arid regions of India where there
is no rain and a hot sun and amid terrible serpents.* Prob-
ably Pliny or his source argued that anything which resisted
the action of fire must have been inured by growth under
fiery suns and among serpents. Furthermore it obviously
should possess other marvelous properties, so we are not
surprised to find Anaxilaus cited to the effect that if this
"linen" is tied around a tree trunk, the blows with which
the tree is felled cannot be heard. It was thus that imagina-
tions inured to magic enlarged upon unusual natural prop-
erties.
* Article on "Asbestos" in the length. It is still preserved in the
Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edi- Vatican," (Bostock and Riley,
tion, which further states that note 45).
Charlemagne was said to own a * "On the contrary, it is found in
tablecloth which was cleaned by the Higher Alps in the vicinity of
throwing it into the fire, and that glaciers, in Scotland, and in
in 1676 a merchant from China Siberia even" (Bostock and Riley,
exhibited to the Royal Society a note 46). The article on "Amian-
handkerchief of "salamander's tus (3)" in Pauly-Wissowa incor-
wool" or linum asbesti (asbestos rectly assumes that in XIX, 4,
linen). See also Marco Polo, I, Pliny has it in mind. In XXXVI,
42, and Cordier's note in Yule 31, however, Pliny briefly de-
(1903), I, 216. scribes the stone amianthus, which
^XIX, 4. In Bostock and Riley's Bostock and Riley (note 52) call
English translation, note 44 states "the most delicate variety of
that "the wicks of the inextin- asbestus," as "losing nothing in
guishable lamps of the middle fire" and "resisting all potions (or,
ages, the existence of which was spells) even of the magi," — "Ami-
an article of general belief, were antus alumini similis nihil igni
said to be made of asbestus." On deperdit. Hie veneficis resistit
its use in lamp-wicks see also omnibus privatim magorum." In
Pausanias, I, 26, 7. XXXVII, 54, in an alphabetical
' "In the year 1702 there was list of stones, he briefly states that
found near the Naevian Gate at asbestos is iron-colored and found
Rome a funeral urn, in which in the mountains of Arcadia, —
there was a skull, calcined bones, "Asbestos in Arcadiae montibus
and other ashes, enclosed in a nascitur coloris ferrei."
cloth of asbestus of a marvelous
VI
PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 215
A treatise upon rivers and mountains in which the mar- On rivers
velous virtues of herbs and stones figure very prominently °^i„J"^"""
has sometimes been included among the works of Plutarch,
but also has been omitted entirely from some editions.^
Some have ascribed it to Parthenius of the time of Nero.
It is made up of some thirty-five chapters in each of which
a river and a mountain are mentioned. Usually some myth
or tragic history is recounted, from which the river took its
name or with which it was otherwise intimately connected.
A similar procedure is followed in the case of the mountain.
The writer, whoever he may be, makes a show of extensive
reading, citing over forty authorities, most of whom are
Greek and not mentioned in the full bibliographies of
Pliny's Natural History. The titles cited have to do largely
with stones, rivers, and different countries. It has been
questioned, however, whether these citations are not bogus. ^
The properties attributed to herbs and stones in this Magic
treatise are to a large extent magical. A white reed found ^^ ^'
in the river Phasis while one is sacrificing at dawn to Hecate,
if strewn in a wife's bedroom, drives mad any adulterer who
enters and makes him confess his sin.^ Another herb men-
tioned in the same chapter was used by Medea to protect
Jason from her father. In a later chapter * we are told how
Hera called upon Selene to aid her in securing her revenge
upon Heracles, and how the moon goddess filled a large
chest with froth and foam by her magic spells until presently
a huge lion leaped out of the chest. Returning from such
sorceresses as Hecate, Medea, and Selene to herbs alone, in
other rivers are plants which test the purity of gold, aid
dim sight or blind one, wither at the mention of the word
"step-mother" or burst into flames whenever a step-mother
has evil designs against her step-son, free their bearers from
fear of apparitions, operate as charms in love-making and
* Ed. by R. Hercher, Lipsiae, and Mountains itself called a
185 1 ; and by C. Miiller in "Schwindelbuch," but these cita-
Geograph. Graeci Minorcs, II, tions are rejected as fraudulent.
637flf. 'Cap. 5.
' In Christ's Gesch. d. Griech. * Cap. 18.
Litt., not only is the On Rivers
2i6 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
childbirth, cure madmen of their frenzy, check quartan
agues if appHed to the breasts, protect virginity or wither
at a virgin's touch, turn wine into water except that it retains
its bouquet, or preserve persons anointed with their juice
from sickness to their dying day.
Stones An easy transition from the theme of magic herbs to
found in .-.,,, . , . ,
plants that oi stones is afforded by a sort of poppy which grows
and sh. -^^ ^ river of Mysia and bears black, harp-shaped stones which
the natives gather and scatter over their ploughed fields.^
If these stones then lie still where they have fallen, it is
taken as a sign of a barren year; but if they fly away like
locusts, this prognosticates a plentiful harvest. Other mar-
velous stones are found in the head of a fish in the river
Arar, a tributary of the Rhone. The fish is itself quite
wonderful since it is white while the moon waxes and
black when it wanes. ^ Presumably for this reason the stone
cures quartan agues, if applied to the left side of the body
while the moon is waning. There is another stone which
must be sought after under a waxing moon with pipers
playing continually.^
Virtues of Other stones guard treasuries by sounding a trumpet-
stones, like alarm at the approach of thieves; or change color four
times a day and are ordinarily visible only to young girls.
But if a virgin of marriageable age chances to see this stone,
she is safe from attempts upon her chastity henceforth.*
Some stones drive men mad and are connected with the
Mother of the Gods or are found only during the celebration
of the mysteries.^ Others stop dogs from barking, expel
demons, grow black in the hands of false witnesses, protect
from wild beasts, and have varied medicinal powers or other
effects similar to those already mentioned in the case of
herbs. ° In a river where the Spartans were defeated is a
stone which leaps towards the bank, if it hears a trumpet,
*Cap. 21. *Cap. 7.
* Cap. 6. ' Caps. 9, 10, 12.
•Cap. I. 'Caps. 16, 18, 24.
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 217
but sinks at the mention of the Athenians.^ Certainly a mar-
velous stone, capable of both hearing and motion !
Leaving the treatise on rivers and mountains, for the Fascina-
occult virtue of human beings we may turn to a discus- **°"'
sion of fascination in the Symposiacs.^ Some of the com-
pany ridiculed the idea, but their host asserted that a myriad
of events went to prove it and that if you reject a thing
simply because you cannot give a reason for it, you "take
away the marvelous from all things." He pointed out that
some men hurt little and tender children by looking at them,
and argued that, as the plumes of other birds are ruined when
mixed with those of the eagle, so men may injure by their
touch or mere glance. Plutarch, who was of the company,
suggested effluvia or emanations from the body as a possible
explanation, pointing out that love begins with glances, that
no disease is more contagious than sore eyes, and that gazing
upon the curlew cures jaundice. The bird appears to attract
the disease to itself, and averts its head and closes its eyes,
not, as some think, because it is jealous of the remedy sought
from it, but because it feels wounded as if from a blow.
Others of the company contended that the passions and affec-
tions of the soul may have a powerful effect through the
eyes and glance upon other persons, and argued that the
sufferings of the soul strengthen the powers of the body, and
that the same counter-charms are efficacious against envy as
against fascination. The emanations which Democritus be-
lieved that envious and malicious persons sent forth are also
mentioned ; fathers have fascinated their own children, and
it is even possible that one might injure oneself by reflection
of one's gaze. It is suggested that young children may some-
times be fascinated in this manner rather than by the glance
of others.
Plutarch devotes two essays to the familiar theme of the Animal
craftiness and sagacity of animals and the remedies used by ^n?*^^*^
them. In one essay ^ a companion of Odysseus refuses to remedies.
* Cap. 17. 9 ; also Quaest. Nat., cap. 26, "Why
V, 7. certain brutes seek certain rem-
Bruta animalia rattone uti, cap. edies."
2l8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Theories
and
queries
about
nature.
allow Circe to turn him back from a pig to human form.
He boasts among other things that beasts know how to cure
themselves. Without ever having been taught swine when
sick run to rivers to search for craw-fish; tortoises physic
themselves with origanum after eating vipers; and Cretan
goats devour dittany to extract arrows and darts which have
been shot into their bodies. In the other essay ^ on the
cleverness of animals we find many familiar stories repeated,
including some of the inevitable excerpts from Juba on ele-
phants. We meet again the dolphins with their love for
mankind,- the bird who picks the crocodile's teeth and warns
him of the ichneumon,^ the fish who rescue one another by
biting the line or dragging one another by the tail out of
nets,^ the trained elephant who was slow to learn and was
beaten for it and was afterwards seen practicing his exer-
cises by himself in the moonlight,^ the sentinel cranes who
stand on one foot and hold a stone in the other to awaken
them if they let it drop.® More novel perhaps is the story
how herons open oysters by first swallowing them, shells
and all, until they are relaxed by the internal heat of the bird,
which then vomits them up and eats them out of the shells.
Or the account of the tunny fish who needs no astrological
canons and is familiar with arithmetic, "Yes, by Zeus, and
with optics, too." '^
Plutarch's essays bring out yet other interests and de-
fects of the science of the time. One on The Principle of
Cold is a good illustration of the failings of the ancient
hypothesis of four elements and four qualities and of the
silly, limited arguing which usually and almost of necessity
accompanied it. He denies that cold is mere privation of
heat, since it seems to act positively upon fluids and solids
and exists in different degrees. After considering various
assertions such as that air becomes cold when it becomes
* De solertia animaliunt. "* Cap. 25.
'Ibid., 36-37; also the closing ^ Cap. 12.
chapters of The Banquet of the * Cap. 10.
Seven Sages. ' Cap. 29.
•Cap. 31.
VI PLUTARCH'S ESSAYS 219
dark; that air whitens things and water blackens them;
that cold objects are always heavy; he finally associates the
element earth especially with the quality cold. In another
essay ^ he states that there are no females of a certain type
of beetle which was engraved as a charm upon the rings
warriors wore to battle, but that the males begat offspring
by rolling up balls of earth. He declares that "diseases do
not have distinct germs" in a discussion in the Symposiacs
whether there can be new diseases.^ Other natural ques-
tions discussed in the treatise of that name and the Symposi-
acs are : Why a man who often passes near dewy trees con-
tracts leprosy in those limbs which touch the wood? Why
the Dorians pray for bad hay-making? Why bears' paws
are the sweetest and most palatable food? Why the tracks
of wild beasts smell worse at the full of the moon? Why
bees are more apt to sting fornicators than other persons ? ^
Why the flesh of sheep bitten by wolves is sweeter than that
of other sheep? Why mushrooms are thought to be pro-
duced by thunder? Why flesh decays sooner in moonlight
than sunlight? Whether Jews abstain from pork because
they worship the pig or because they have an antipathy
towards it ? ^
Plutarch sometimes shows evidence of considerable The
astronomical knowledge. For instance, he knows that the ^"^'Po^es.
mathematicians figure that the distance from sun to earth is
immense, and that Aristarchus demonstrated the sun to be
eighteen or twenty times as far off as the moon, which is
distant fifty-six times the earth's radius at the lowest esti-
mate.*^ Yet in the same essay ® Plutarch has scoffed at the
idea of a spherical earth and of antipodes, and at the asser-
tion that bars weighing a thousand talents would stop falling
at the earth's center, if a hole were opened up through the
earth, or that two men with their feet in opposite directions
^ Isis and Osiris, 10. 10; IV, 5.
VIII, 9, l.bia.bkcrirkpu.aTa v6<T(jivo\JK s r-i j- • • 7 »
«^^^^ De facte in orbe lunae, 9-10;
'Nat. Quaest., caps. 6, 14, 22, ""}'? 5^^ °P^"/"& chapters of De
2A ■xd > i- > ~t, , dejectu oraculorum.
* Symposiacs, II, 9 ; IV, 2 ; III, * Cap. 7.
220 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, vi
at the center of the earth might nevertheless both be right
side up, or that one man whose middle was at the center
might be half right side up and half upside down. He
admits, however, that the philosophers think so. Thus we
see that Christian fathers like Lactantius were not the first
to ridicule the notion of the Antipodes; apparently as well
educated and omnivorous a pagan reader as Plutarch could
do the same.
CHAPTER VII
APULEIUS OF MADAURA
I. Life and Works
Magic and the man — Stylistic reasons for regarding the Metamor-
phoses as his first work — Biographical reasons — No mention of the
Metamorphoses in the Apology.
II. Magic in the Metamorphoses
Powers claimed for magic — Its actual performances — Its limitations
— The crimes of witches — Male magicians — Magic as an art and dis-
cipline— Materials employed — Incantations and rites — Quacks and
charlatans — Various superstitions — Bits of science and religion — Magic
in other Greek romances.
III. Magic in the Apology
Form of the Apologia — Philosophy and magic — Magic defined —
Good and bad magic — Magic and religion — Magic and science — Medical
and scientific knowledge of Apuleius — He repeats familiar errors —
Apparent ignorance of magic and occult virtue — Despite an assumption
of knowledge — Attitude toward astronomy — His theory of demons —
Apuleius in the middle ages.
I. His Life and Works
One of the fullest and most vivid pictures of magic in the Magic and
ancient Mediterranean world which has reached us is pro- ^^ "l^^ ^^
vided by the writings of Apuleius. He lived in the second in his
century of our era and was not merely a rhetorician of great
note in his day and the writer of a romance which has ever
since fascinated men, but also a Platonic philosopher, an
initiate into many religious cults and mysteries, and a stu-
dent of natural science and medicine. To him has been
ascribed the Latin version of Asclepius, a supposititious
dialogue of Hermes Trismegistus. No author perhaps ever
more readily and complacently talked of himself than
221
222
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Stylistic
reasons
for re-
garding
the Meta-
morphoses
as his
first work.
Apuleius, yet it is no easy task to make out the precise facts
of his life, partly because in his romance, The Metamor-
phoses, or The Golden Ass, he has hopelessly confused
himself with the hero Lucius and introduced an autobio-
graphical element of uncertain extent into what is in the
main a work of fiction; partly because his Apology, or
defense when tried on the charge of magic at Oea in Africa,
is more in the nature of special pleading intended to refute
and confound his accusers than of a frank confession or
accurate history of his career. However, he appears to have
been born at Madaura in North Africa, to have studied first
at Carthage and then at Athens, to have visited Rome and
wandered rather widely about the Mediterranean world, but
to have spent more time altogether at Carthage than at any
other one place.
Besides the Metamorphoses and Apologia, with which
we shall be chiefly concerned, four other works are extant
which are regarded as genuine, The God of Socrates, The
Dogma of Plato, Florida, and On the Universe. The
order in which these works were written is uncertain, but it
seems almost sure that the Metamorphoses was the first. In
it Apuleius not only more or less identifies himself with the
hero Lucius, who is represented as quite a young man, he
also apologizes for his Latin and speaks of the difficulty with
which he had acquired that language at Rome. But in the
Florida'^ we find him repeating a hymn and a dialogue in
both Latin and Greek, or, after delivering half an address
in Greek, finishing it in Latin, or boasting that he writes
poems, satires, riddles, histories, scientific treatises, orations,
and philosophical dialogues with equal facility in either lan-
guage.^ Instead now of craving pardon if he offends by
his rude, exotic, and forensic speech, he feels that his repu-
tation for literary refinement and elegance has become such
that his audience will not pardon him a solitary solecism or
a single syllable pronounced with a barbarous accent.^ It
Xap. i8
* "Tarn graece quam latine, gemi-
no veto, pari studio, simili studio."
'^Florida, cap. 9.
cal rea-
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 223
therefore looks as if the Metamorphoses was his first pub-
Hshed effort in Latin and as if his pecuHar style had proved
so popular that he did not find it necessary to apologize for
it again. In the Apology he seems supremely confident of
his rhetorical powers in the Latin language, and even the
accusers describe him as a philosopher of great eloquence
both in Greek and Latin.^ Three years before in the same
town his first public discourse had been greeted with shouts
of "Insigniter," and many in the audience at the time of his
trial can still repeat a passage from it on the greatness of
Aesculapius.^ In the Apology, too, he displays a more
extensive learning than in the Metamorphoses and has writ-
ten already poems and scientific treatises as well as orations.
Indeed, practically all the doctrines set forth in his other
philosophical works may be found in brief in the Apology.
Moreover, while in the Metamorphoses Apuleius ends Biographi-
the narrative with what seems to be his own comparatively
recent initiation into the mysteries of Isis in Greece and
of Osiris at Rome, in the Apology ^ he speaks of having"
been initiated in the past into all sorts of sacred rites,
although he does not mention Rome or Isis and Osiris specifi-
cally. It is implied, however, that he has been at Rome in
more than one passage of the Apology. Pontianus, his
future step-son, with whom Apuleius had become acquainted
at Athens "not so many years ago," was "an adult at Rome"
before Apuleius came to Oea. After they had met again at
Oea and had both married there, Apuleius gave Pontianus
a letter of introduction to the proconsul Lollianus Avitus at
Carthage, of whom he says, "I have known intimately many
cultured men of Roman name in the course of my life, but
have never admired anyone as much as him." Perhaps
Apuleius may have met Lollianus at Carthage, but in the
Florida,'^ in a panegyric on Scipio Orfitus, proconsul of
Africa in 163-164 A. D., he alludes to the time "when I
moved among your friends in Rome." All this fits in nicely
^Apologia, cap. 4. °Caps. 55-56.
'Caps. 73 and SS- * Cap. 17.
224 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
with the statements in the closing chapters of the Metamor-
phoses concerning his rising fame as an orator in the courts
of law and "the laborious doctrine of my studies" at Rome.
We may therefore reconstruct the course of events as fol-
lows. After meeting Pontianus at Athens and concluding
his studies in Greece, Apuleius came to Rome, where he
remained for some time, perfecting his Latin style, engaging
in forensic oratory, and publishing the Metamorphoses.
Pontianus, who was younger than Apuleius, either accom-
panied or followed his friend to Rome, in which city he
was still residing after Apuleius had returned to Africa.
But Pontianus, too, had left Rome and come back to his
African city of Oea to settle the question of his mother's
proposed second marriage, before Apuleius, who had prob-
ably revisited Carthage in the meantime and was now travel-
ing east again with the intention of visiting Alexandria,
arrived at Oea and was induced to wed the widow, who was
considerably older than he. On the delicate question of this
lady's exact age depends our dating of the birth of Apuleius
and the chronology of his entire career. At the trial of
Apuleius for magic Aemilianus, the accuser, declared that
she was sixty when she married Apuleius, and he had previ-
ously proposed to marry her to his brother, Clarus, whom
Apuleius calls "a decrepit old man." ^ On the other hand,
Apuleius asserts that the records, which he produces in
court, of her being accepted in infancy by her father as
his child show that she is "not much over forty," ^ — a tactful
ambiguity which, inasmuch as we no longer have the records,
it would probably be idle to attempt to fathom.
No men- The chief, if not the only, objection to dating the
Metamor- Metamorphoses before the Apology is that nothing is said
m th" ^^ ^^ ^" ^^^ latter.^ But obviously Apuleius, when on trial
Apology. for magic, would not mention the Metamorphoses unless his
* Apologia, cap. 70. that he places the Apology earlier.
' Cap. 8g. But for the reasons already given
•To Professor Butler (Apulei I agree with the article on Apu-
Apologia, ed. H. E. Butler and A. leius in Pauly and Wissowa and
S. Owen, Oxford, 1914) this diffi- its citations that the Metamor-
culty seems so insurmountable phases is Apuleius's first work.
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 225
accusers forced him to do so. They may not have yet heard
of it or it may at first have been published anonymously,
although the probability is that Apuleius v^ould not have
spent three years at Oea without bringing it to his admirers'
attention. Or they may know of it, but the judge may not
have admitted it as evidence on the ground that they must
prove that Apuleius has practiced magic. The Metamor-
phoses does not recount any personal participation of
Apuleius himself in magic arts, unless one identifies him
throughout with the hero Lucius; it purports to be a Latin
rendition of Milesian tales ^ and does not seem to have
been taken very seriously until the church fathers began to
cite it. Or the accusers may have dwelt upon it and Apuleius
simply have failed to take notice of their charge. All these
suppositions may not seem very plausible, but on the other
hand we may ask, how would Apuleius dare to write a work
like the Metamorphoses after he had been accused and tried
of magic? One would expect him then to drop the subject
rather than to display an increasing interest in it. But let
us turn to his treatment of that theme in both those works,
and first consider the Metamorphoses.
IL Magic in the Metamorphoses
Vast power over nature and spirits is attributed to magic Powers
ned
magic
and its practitioners in the opening chapters of the Metamor- \q^^^
phases. "By magic's mutterings swift streams are reversed,
the sea is calmed, the sun stopped, foam drawn from the
moon, the stars torn from the sky, and day turned into
night." ^ While such assertions are received with some
scepticism by one listener, they are largely borne out by
the subsequent experiences of the characters in the story
and by the feats which witches are made to perform. These
are sometimes humorously and extravagantly presented, but
as crime and ferocious cruelty are treated in the same spirit,
* The work opens with the state- called Milesian manner," and that
ment that the author "will stitch "we begin with a Grecian story."
together varied stories in the so- 'I, 3.
perform-
ances.
226 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
this light vein cannot be regarded as an admission of magic's
unreaHty. On the contrar}', the magic of Thessaly is cele-
brated with one accord the world over.^ Meroe the witch
can "displace the sky, elevate the earth, freeze fountains,
melt mountains, raise ghosts, bring down the gods, ex-
tinguish the stars, and illuminate the bottomless pit." ^
Submerging the light of starry heaven to the lowest depths
of hell is a power also attributed to the witch Pamphile.^
"By her marvelous secrets she makes ghosts and elements
obey and serve her, disturbs the stars and coerces the
divinities." *
Its actual In none of the episodes recorded in The Golden Ass,
however, do the witches find it necessary or advisable to go
to quite so great lengths as these, although Pamphile once
threatens the sun with eternal darkness because he is so slow
in yielding to night when she may ply her sorcery and
amours.'^ The witches content themselves with such accom-
plishments as carrying on love affairs with inhabitants of
distant India, Ethopia, and even the Antipodes, — "trifles of
the art these and mere bagatelles" ; ^ with transforming their
enemies into animal forms or imprisoning them helpless
in their homes, or transporting them house and all to a spot
a hundred miles off;"^ and, on the other hand, with break-
ing down bolted doors to murder their victims,^ or assum-
ing themselves the shape of weasels, birds, dogs, mice, and
even insects in order to work their mischief unobserved ; ^
they then cast their victims into a deep sleep and cut their
throats or hang them or mutilate them.^^ They often know
what is being said about them when apparently absent, and
they sometimes indulge in divination of the future. ^^ But to
whatever fields of activity they may extend or confine them-
MI, I. 'Ill, 16.
'1,8. « I, 8.
'II. 5- 'I Q-io
MIX, 15. The wording of the « j' ^j^'
translated passages throughout ^ ' ■^'
this chapter is mainly my own, but ^^^t' ^^ ^" , jv
I have made some use of existing H. 20 and 30; lA, 29.
English translations. "I. n; H, 11.
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 227
selves, their violent power is irresistible, and we are given
to understand that it is useless to try to fight against it or
to escape it. Its secret and occult character is also empha-
sized, and the adjective caeca or noun latehrae are more than
once employed to describe it.^
Yet there are also suggested certain limitations to the Its limita-
power of magic. The witches seem to break down the
bolted doors, but these resume their former place when the
hags have departed, and are to all appearances as intact as
before. The man, too, whose throat they have cut, whose
blood they have drained off, and whose heart they have
removed, awakes apparently alive the next morning and
resumes his journey. All the events of the preceding night
seem to have been merely an unpleasant dream. The witches
had stuffed a sponge into the wound of his throat - with the
adjuration, "Oh you sponge, born in the sea, beware of
crossing running water." In the morning his traveling com-
panion can see no sign of wound or sponge on his friend's
throat. But when he stoops to drink from a brook, out
falls the sponge and he drops dead. The inference, although
Apuleius draws none, is obvious ; witches can make a corpse
seem alive for a while but not for long, and magic ceases
to work when you cross running water. We also get the
impression that there is something deceptive and illusive
about the magic of the witches, and that only the lusts and
crimes are real which their magic enables them or their
employers to commit and gratify. They may seem to draw
down the sun, but it is found shining next day as usual.
When Lucius is transformed into an ass, he retains his
human appetite and tenderness of skin,^ — a deplorable state
of mind and body which must be attributed to the imper-
^11, 20, 22; III, 18. of the tribe, drag him a hundred
'Very similar practices are re- yards or so from the camp, cut up
counted by A. W. Howitt, Native his abdomen obliquely, take out
Tribes of South-East Australia, the kidney and caul-fat, and then
PP- 355-96; "the medicine-men of ?tuff a handful of grass and sand
hostile tribes sneak into the camp into the wound."
in the night, and with a net of a
peculiar construction garotte one ' VI, 26.
228
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The
crimes of
witches.
Male
magicians.
Magic as
an art and
discipline.
fections of the magic art as well as to the humorous cruelty
of the author.
In The Golden Ass the practitioners of magic are usually
witches and old and repulsive. We have to deal with won-
ders worked by old-wives and not by Magi of Persia or
Babylon. As we have seen and shall see yet further, their
deeds are regarded as illicit and criminal. They are "most
wicked women" (nequissimae mulieres),^ intent upon lust
and crime. They practice devotiones, injurious impreca-
tions and ceremonies.^
Male practitioners of magic are represented in a less
unfavorable light. An Egyptian, who in return for a large
sum of money engages to invoke the spirit of a dead man
and restore the corpse momentarily to life, is called a prophet
and a priest, though he seems a manifest necromancer and is
himself adjured to lend his aid and to "have pity by the
stars of heaven, by the infernal deities, by the elements of
nature, and by the silence of night," ^ — expressions which
are certainly suggestive of the magic powers elsewhere
ascribed to witches. The hero of the story, Lucius, is ani-
mated in his dabblings in the magic art by idle curiosity
combined with thirst for learning, but not by any criminal
motive.^ Yet after he has been transformed into an ass by
magic, he fears to resume his human form suddenly in
public, lest he be put to death on suspicion of practicing the
magic art.^
Magic is depicted not merely as irresistible or occult or
criminal or fallacious; it is also regularly called an art and
a discipline. Even the practices of the witches are so dig-
nified, Pamphile has nothing less than a laboratory on the
roof of her house, — a wooden shelter, concealed from view
but open to the winds of heaven and to the four points of
the compass, — where she may ply her secret arts and where
she spreads out her "customary apparatus." ^ This consists
*II, 22.
"I, 10 ; VII, 14; IX, 23,29.
"11, 28.
MI, 6; III, 19.
•Ill, 29.
•III. 17.
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 229
of all sorts of aromatic herbs, of metal plates inscribed with
cryptic characters, a chest filled with little boxes containing-
various ointments,^ and portions of human corpses obtained
from sepulchers, shipwrecks (or birds of prey, according as
the reading is navium or avium), public executions, and the
victims of wild beasts.^ It will be recalled that Galen repre-
sented medical students as most likely to secure human
skeletons or bodies to dissect from somewhat similar
sources; and possibly they might incur suspicion of magic
thereby.
All this makes it clear that to work magic one must have Materials
materials. The witches seem especially avid for parts of ^"^PWed.
the human body. Pamphile sends her maid, Fotis, to the
barber's shop to try to steal some cuttings of the hair of a
youth of whom she is enamoured ; ^ and another story is
told of witches who by mistake cut off and replaced with
wax the nose and ears of a man guarding the corpse instead
of those of the dead body.^ Other witches who murdered
a man carefully collected his blood in a bladder and took
it away with them.^ But parts of other animals are also
employed in their magic, and stones as well as varied herbs
and twigs. ^ In trying to entice the beloved Boeotian youth
Pamphile used still quivering entrails and poured libations
of spring water, milk, and honey, as well as placing the
hairs — ^which she supposed were his — with many kinds of
incense upon live coals. "^ To turn herself into an owl she
anointed herself from top to toe with ointment from one
of her little boxes, and also made much use of a lamp.® To
regain her human form she has only to drink, and bathe in,
spring water mixed with anise and laurel leaf, — "See how
great a result is attained by such small and insignificant
herbs !"^ — while Lucius is told that eating roses will re-
fill, 21. «II, 5. "Surculis et lapillis et id
I, 10; II, 20-21. genus frivolis inhalatis."
'HI, 16. 'Ill, 18.
*II, 23-30. "HI, 21.
•I, 13. »III, 23.
230
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Quacks
and char-
latans.
Store him from asinine to human form.^ The Egyptian
prophet makes use of herbs in his necromancy, placing one
on the face and another on the breast of the corpse; and he
himself wears linen robes and sandals of palm leaves.^
Besides materials, incantations are much employed,^
while the Egyptian prophet turns towards the east and
"silently imprecates" the rising sun. As this last suggests,
careful observance of rite and ceremony also play their part,
and Pamphile's painstaking procedure is described in precise
detail. Divine aid is once mentioned ^ and is perhaps another
essential for success. More than one witch is called divina^
and magic is termed a divine discipline.^ But we have also
heard the witches spoken of as coercing the gods rather
than depending upon them for assistance. Their magic
seems to be performed mainly by using things and words in
the right ways.
Besides the witches (magae or sagae) and what Apuleius
calls magic by name, a number of other charlatans and
superstitions of a kindred nature are mentioned in The
Golden Ass. Such a one is the Egyptian "prophet" already
described. Such was the Chaldean who for a time as-
tounded Corinth by his wonderful predictions, but had
been unable to foresee his own shipwreck.'^ On learning
this last fact, a business man who was about to pay him one
hundred denarii for a prognostication snatched up his
money again and made off. Such were the painted disrepu-
table crew of the Syrian goddess who went about answering
all inquiries concerning the future with the same ambiguous
couplet.^ Such were the jugglers whom Lucius saw at
Athens swallowing swords or balancing a spear in the
'in, 25.
'U, 28.
' Examples are : I, 3, magico
susurramine; II, i, artis magicae
nativa cantamina ; II, 5, omnis
carminis sepulchralis magistra
creditur; II, 22, diris cantamini-
bus somno custodes obruunt ; III,
18, tunc decantatis spirantibus
fibris; III, 21, multumque cum
lucerna secreta collocuta.
*I, II, quo numinis ministerio.
^ I, 8, saga, inquit, et divina ;
IX, 29, saga ilia et divini potens.
'Ill, 19.
'II, 12-14.
*VIII, 26-27; IX, 8.
VII
APULEWS OF MAD AURA 231
throat while a boy climbed to the top of it.-^ Such were the
physicians who turned poisoners."
Other passages allude to astrology ^ besides that already Various
cited concerning the Chaldean. Divination from dreams is ^<^q^I^ ^'
also discussed. In the fourth book the old female servant
tells the captive maiden not to be terrified "by the idle fig-
ments of dreams" and explains that they often go by con-
traries ; but in the last book the hero is several times guided
or forewarned by dreams. Omens are believed in. Starting
left foot first loses a man a business opportunity,^ and
another is kicked out of a house for his ill-omened words."^
The violent deaths of all three sons of the owner of another
house are presaged by the following remarkable conglomera-
tion of untoward portents: a hen lays a chick instead of an
tgg ; blood spurts up from under the table ; a servant rushes
in to announce that the wine is boiling in all the jars in the
cellar; a weasel is seen dragging a dead snake out-of-doors;
a green frog leaps from the sheep-dog's mouth and then a
ram tears open the dog's throat at one bite.^
Of scientific discussion or information there is little in Some bits
of science
the Metamorphoses. When Pamphile foretells the weather and
for the next day by inspection of her lamp, Lucius suggests religion,
that this artificial flame may retain some properties from
its heavenly original. '^ The herb mandragora is described
as inducing a sleep similar to death, but as not fatal; and
the beaver is said to emasculate itself in order to escape its
hunters.^ We should feel lost without mention of a dragon
in a book of this sort, and one is introduced who is large
enough to devour a man.^ It is interesting to note for pur-
poses of comparison, — inasmuch as we shall presently take
up the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, a Neo-Pythagorean,
and later shall learn from the Recognitions of Clement that
the apostle Peter was accustomed to bathe at dawn in the
*I, 4. 'II, 11-12.
*X, II, 25. *X, II. For bibliography on the
'VIII, 24; XI, 22, 25. mandragora see Frazer (1918) I,
* I, 5. 2>77, note 2, in his chapter, "Jacob
" II, 26. and the Mandrakes."
" IX, 33-34- -VIII, 21.
232
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic in
other
Greek
romances.
sea, — that Lucius, while still in the form of an ass, in his
zeal for purification plunged into the sea and submerged his
head beneath the wave seven times, because the divine
Pythagoras had proclaimed that number as especially appro-
priate to religious rites.^ **It has been said that The Golden
Ass is the first book in European literature showing piety
in the modern sense, and the most disreputable adventures
of Lucius lead, it is true, in the end to a religious climax."
But, adds Professor Duncan B. Macdonald, "Few books,
in spite of fantastic gleams of color and light, move under
such leaden-weighted skies as The Golden Ass. There is no
real God in that world; all things are in the hands of en-
chanters; man is without hope for here and hereafter; full
of yearnings he struggles and takes refuge in strange
cults." 2
While magic plays a larger part in The Golden Ass than
in any other extant Greek romance, it is not unusual in the
others to find the hero and heroine exposed to perils from
magicians, or themselves falsely charged with magic, as in
the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, where Charicles is "con-
demned to be burned on a charge of poisoning." ^ In the
Christian romances, too, as the Recognitions will show us
later, there are plenty of allusions to magic and demons.
Meanwhile we are reminded that in the Roman Empire accu-
sations of magic were made not merely in story books but
in real life by the trial for magic of the author of the
Metamorphoses himself, and we next turn to the Apology
which he delivered upon that occasion.
Form
of the
Apologia.
IIL Magic in the Apology
The Apologia has every appearance of being preserved
just as it was delivered and perhaps as it was taken down
by shorthand writers ; it does not seem to have undergone
the subsequent revision to which Cicero subjected some of
his orations. It must have been hastily composed, since
*XI, I.
•Macdonald (1909), p. 128.
"VIII, 9.
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 233
Apuleius states that it has been only five or six days since
the charges were suddenly brought against him, while he
was occupied in defending another lawsuit brought against
his wife.^ There also are numerous apparently extempore
passages in the oration, notably those where Apuleius
alludes to the effect which his statements produce, now upon
his accusers, now upon the proconsul sitting in judgment.
From the Florida we know that Apuleius was accustomed to
improvise.^ Moreover, in the Apology certain statements
are made by Apuleius which might be turned against him
with damaging effect and which he probably would have
omitted, had he had the leisure to go over his speech care-
fully before the trial. For instance, in denying the charge
that he had caused to be made for himself secretly out of
the finest wood a horrible magic figure in the form of a
ghost or skeleton, he declares that it is only a little image of
Mercury made openly by a well-known artisan of the town.'
But he has earlier stated that "Mercury, carrier of incanta-
tions," is one of the deities invoked in magic rites ; "* and in
another passage ^ has recounted how the outcome of the
Mithridatic war was investigated at Tralles by magic, and
how a boy, gazing at an image of Mercury in water, had
predicted the future in one hundred and sixty verses. But
this is not all. In a third passage ® he actually quotes
Pythagoras to the effect that Mercury ought not to be carved
out of every kind of wood.
* Cap. I. Osiris, says Budge at p. 85, "a
'Florida, caps. 24-26. figure was fashioned in such a
'Caps. 61-63. The following way as to include the chief char-
passages from E. A. W. Budge, acteristics of the forms of these
Egyptian Magic (1899), perhaps gods, and was inserted in a rect-
furnish an explanation of the true angular wooden stand which was
purpose and character of Apu- intended to represent the coffin or
leius's wooden figure: p. 84, chest out of which the trinity
"Under the heading of 'Magical Ptah-Seker-Ausar came forth.
Figures' must certainly be in- On the figure itself and on the
eluded the so-called Ptah-Seker- sides of the stand were inscribed
Ausar figure, which is usually prayers. . . ." Such a figure in a
made of wood ; it is often solid, coffin might well be described by
but is sometimes made hollow, the accusers as the horrible form
and is usually let into a rectangu- of a ghost or skeleton,
lar wooden stand which may be * Cap. 31.
either solid or hollow." To get ° Cap. 42.
the protection of Ptah, Seker, and ' Cap. 43.
234 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Philosophy If in the Metamorphoses the practice of magic is im-
magic. py^g^j chiefly to old-wives, in the Apology a main concern of
Apuleius is to defend philosophers in general ^ and himself
in particular from "the calumny of magic." ^ Epimenides,
Orpheus, Pythagoras, Ostanes, Empedocles, Socrates, and
Plato have been so suspected, and it consoles Apuleius in
his own trial to reflect that he is but sharing the undeserved
fate of "so many and such great men." ^ In this connection
he states that those philosophers who have taken an especial
interest in theology, "who investigate the providence of the
universe too curiously and celebrate the gods too enthusias-
tically," are the ones to be suspected of magic; while those
who devote themselves to natural science pure and simple
are more liable to be called irreligious atheists.
Magic But what is it to be a magician, Apuleius asks the ac-
^ "^ • cusers,* and therewith we face again the question of the
definition of magic, and Apuleius gradually answers his own
query in the course of the oration. Magic, in the ordinary
use of the word, is described in much the same way as in
the Metamorphoses. It has been proscribed by Roman law
since the Twelve Tables ; it is hideous and horrible ; it is
secret and solitary; it murmurs its incantations in the dark-
ness of the night.^ It is an art of ill repute, of illicit evil
deeds, of crimes and enormities.^ Instead of simply calling
it magia, Apuleius often applies to it the double expres-
sion, magica maleficia.'^ Perhaps he does this intention-
ally. In one passage he states that he will refute certain
charges which the accusers have brought against him, first,
by showing that the things he has been charged with have
nothing to do with magic ; and second, by proving that, even
if he were a magician, there was no cause or occasion for
his having committed any maleficiuni in this connection.'
* Caps. 1-3. mcnt soupgonnes de Magie, Paris,
'Cap. 2. 1625.
•Caps. 27 and 31. For the same * Cap. 25.
thought applied in the case of " Cap. 47.
medieval men see Gabriel Naude, * Cap. 25.
Apologie pour tons les grands ' Caps. 9, 42, 61, 6^.
^"rsonoges qui ont este fiusse- " Cap. 28.
VII APULEWS OF MAD AURA 235
That is to say, maleficium, literally "an evil deed," means
an injury done another by means of magic art. The pro-
consul sitting in judgment takes a similar view and has
asked the accusers, Apuleius tells us,^ when they asserted
that a woman had fallen into an epileptic fit in his pres-
ence and that this was due to his having bewitched her,
whether the woman died or what good her having a fit
did Apuleius. This is significant as hinting that Roman
law did not condemn a man for magic unless he were proved
to have committed some crime or made some unjust gain
thereby.
Does Apuleius for his part mean to suggest a distinction Good and
between magia and magica maleficia, and to hint, as he did
not do in the Metamorphoses, that there is a good as well as
a bad magic? He cannot be said to maintain any such dis-
tinction consistently; often in the Apology magia alone as
well as maleficium is used in a bad sense. But he does sug-
gest such a thought and once voices it quite explicitly.^
"If," he says, "as I have read in many authors, magus in the
Persian language corresponds to the word sacerdos in ours,
what crime, pray, is it to be a priest and duly know and un-
derstand and cherish the rules of ceremonial, the sacred cus-
toms, the laws of religion?" Plato describes magic as part
of the education of the young Persian prince by the four
wisest and best men of the realm, one of whom instructs
him in the magic of Zoroaster which is the worship of the
gods. "Do you hear, you who rashly charge me with magic,
that this art is acceptable to the immortal gods, consists in
celebrating and reverencing them, is pious and prophetic,
and long since was held by Zoroaster and Oromazes, its au-
thors, to be noble and divine?" ^ In common speech, how-
ever, Apuleius recognizes that a magician is one "who by
his power of addressing the immortal gods is able to accom-
plish whatever he will by an almost incredible force of in-
cantations." But anyone who believes that another man
possesses such a power as this should be afraid to accuse him,
* Cap. 48. " Cap. 25. ' Cap. 26.
236 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
says Apuleius, who thinks by this ingenious dilemma to
prove the insincerity of his accusers. Nevertheless he pres-
ently mentions that Mercury, Venus, Luna, and Trivia are
the deities usually summoned in the ceremonies of the ma-
gicians.^
Magic and It will be noted that Apuleius connects magic with the
gods and religion more in the Apology than in the Metamor-
phoses. There his emphasis was on the natural materials
employed by the witches and their almost scientific labora-
tories. But in the Apology both Persian Magi and common
magicians are associated with the worship or invocation of
the gods, and it is theologians rather than natural philoso-
phers who incur suspicion of magic.
Magic and But it may be that the reason why Apuleius abstains in
science • • •
the Apology from suggesting any connection or confusion
between magic and natural science is that the accusers have
already laid far too much stress upon this point for his lik-
ing. He has been charged with the composition of a tooth-
powder,- with use of a mirror,^ with the purchase of a sea-
hare, a poisonous mollusc, and two other fish appropriate
from their obscene shapes and names for use as love-charms,*
He is said to have had a horrible wooden image or seal con-
structed secretly for use in his magic, ^ to keep other instru-
ments of his art mysteriously wrapped in a handkerchief in
the house, ^ and to have left in the vestibule of another house
where he lodged "many feathers of birds" and much soot
on the walls. "^ All these charges make it evident that natural
and artificial objects are, as in the Metamorphoses, consid-
ered essential or at least usual in performing magic. More-
over, so ready have the accusers shown themselves to inter-
pret the interest of Apuleius in natural science as an evi-
dence of the practice of magic by him, that he sarcastically
remarks ^ that he is glad that they were unaware that he had
read Theophrastus On beasts that bite and sting and Ni-
*Cap. 31. "Cap. 61,
* Cap. 6. " Cap. 53-
• Cap. 13. ' Cap. 58.
*Caps. 30, 33, "Cap. 41,
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 237
cander On the bites of wild beasts (usually called
Theriaca),^ or they would have accused him of being a
poisoner as well as a magician.
Apuleius shows that he really is a student, if not an au- Medical
thority, in medicine and natural science. The gift of the scientific
tooth-powder and the falling of the woman in a fit were inci- knowledgt
dents of his occasional practice of medicine, and he also sees leius.
no harm in his seeking certain remedies from fish.^ He
repeats Plato's theory of disease from the Timaeus and cites
Theophrastus's admirable work On Epileptics.^ Mention
of the mirror starts him off upon an optical disquisition
in which he remarks upon theories of vision and reflection,
upon liquid and solid, flat and convex and concave mirrors,
and cites the Catoptrica of Archimedes.* He also regards
himself as an experimental zoologist and has conducted all
his researches publicly.^ He procures fish in order to study
them scientifically as Aristotle, Theophrastus, Eudemus,
Lycon, and other pupils of Plato did.® He has read innumer-
able books of this sort and sees no harm in testing by ex-
perience what has been written. Indeed he is himself writ-
ing in both Greek and Latin a work on Natural Questions
in which he hopes to add what has been omitted in earlier
books and to remedy some of their defects and to arrange
all in a handier and more systematic fashion. He has pas-
sages from the section on fishes in this work read aloud in
court.
Throughout the Apology Apuleius occasionally airs his He repeats
scientific attainments by specific statements and illustrations errx)!-^'^
from the zoological and other scientific fields. Indeed the
^ Nicander lived in the second at Paris, which O. M. Dalton
century B.C. under Attalus III (Bycantine Art and Archaeology,
of Pergamum. Of his works p. 483) says "is evidently a pains-
there are extant the Theriaca in taking copy of a very early orig-
958 hexameters and another poem, inal, perhaps almost contemporary
the Alexipharmaca, of 630 lines; with Nicander himself."
ed. J. G. Schneider, 1792 and ^ Cap. 40.
1816; by O. Schneider, 1856. 'Caps. 49-51.
There is an illuminated eleventh * Caps. 15-16.
century manuscript of the Then- "Cap. 40.
aca in the Bibliotheque Nationale ° Cap. 36.
238 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
presence of such allusions is as noticeable in the Apology as
was their absence from the Metamorphoses. But they go to
show that his knowledge was greater than his discretion,
since for the most part they repeat familiar errors of con-
temporary science. We are told — the story is also in Aris-
totle, Pliny, and Aelian — how the crocodile opens its jaws to
have its teeth picked by a friendly bird,^ that the viper gnaws
its way out of its mother's womb,^ that fish are spontane-
ously generated from slime,^ and that burning the stone gag-
ates will cause an epileptic to have a fit.* On the other hand,
the skin shed by a spotted lizard is a remedy for epilepsy,
but you must snatch it up speedily or the lizard will turn
and devour it, either from natural appetite or just because
he knows that you want it.^ This tale, so characteristic of
the virtues attributed to parts of animals and the human
motives ascribed to the animals themselves, is taken by Apu-
leius from a treatise by Theophrastus entitled Jealous Ani-
mals.
Apparent In defending what he terms his scientific investigations
o^"maei(f fi"oni the aspersion of magic Apuleius is at times either a
and occult trifle disingenuous and inclined to trade upon the ignorance
of his judge and accusers, or else not as well informed him-
self as he might be in matters of natural science and of oc-
cult science. He contends that fish are not employed in
magic arts, asks mockingly if fish alone possess some prop-
erty hidden from other men and known to magicians, and
affirms that if the accuser knows of any such he must be a
magician rather than Apuleius.® He insists that he did not
make use of a sea-hare and describes the "fish" in question
in detail,''' but this description, as is pointed out in Butler
and Owen's edition of the Apology,^ tends to convince us
that it really was a sea-hare. In the case of the two fish with
obscene names, he ridicules the arguing from similarity of
names to similarity of powers in the things so designated, as
*Cap. 8. 'Cap. 51.
' Cap. 85. ' Caps. 30, 42.
' Cap. 38. ' Cap. 40.
' Cap. 45- " P. 98.
virtue.
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 239
if that were not what magicians and astrologers and believ-
ers in sympathy and antipathy were always doing. You
might as well say, he declares, that a pebble is good for the
stone and a crab for an ulcer,^ as if precisely these remedies
for those diseases were not found in the Pseudo-Dioscorides
and in Pliny's Natural History."^
It is hardly probable that in the passages just cited Apu- Despite an
leius was pretending to be ignorant of matters with which ^f ]^^ow\°"
he was really acquainted, since as a rule he is eager to show edge,
off his knowledge even of magic itself. Thus the accusers
affirmed that he had bewitched a boy by incantations in a
secret place with an altar and a lamp ; Apuleius criticizes
their story by saying that they should have added that he
employed the boy for purposes of divination, citing tales
which he has read to this efifect in Varro and many other
authors.^ And he himself is ready to believe that the hu-
man soul, especially in one who is still young and innocent,
may, if soothed and distracted by incantations and odors,
forget the present, return to its divine and immortal nature,
and predict the future. When he reads some technical
Greek names from his treatise on fishes, he suspects that the
accuser will protest that he is uttering magic names in some
Egyptian or Babylonian rite.^ And as a matter of fact, when
later he mentioned the names of a number of celebrated ma-
gicians,^ the accusers appear to have raised such a tumult
that Apuleius deemed it prudent to assure the judge that he
had simply read them in reputable books in public libraries,
and that to know such names was one thing, to practice the
magic art quite another matter.
Apuleius affirms that one of his accusers had consulted Attitude
he knows not what Chaldeans how he might profitably marry toward
° ^ _ •' •' astrology.
off his daughter, and that they had prophesied truthfully
that her first husband would die within a few months. "As
for what she would inherit from him, they fixed that up, as
^ Cap. 35. Giessen, 1908, p. 224.
'So Abt has pointed out: Die * Caps. A^-AZ-
Apologie des Apuleius von Ma- * Cap. 38.
dau^a und die antike Zauberei, * Cap. 90.
' 240 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
they usually do, to suit the person consulting them." ^ But
in this respect their prediction turned out to be quite incor-
rect. We are left in some doubt, however, whether their
failure in the second case is not regarded as due merely to
their knavery, and their first successful prediction to the
rule of the stars. Elsewhere, however, Apuleius does state
that belief in fate and in magic are incompatible, since there
is no place left for the force of spells and incantations, if
everything is ruled by fate.^ But in other extant works ^ he
speaks of the heavenly bodies as visible gods, and Lauren-
tius Lydus attributes astrological treatises to him.*
His theory In one passage of the Apology Apuleius affirms his be-
lief with Plato in the existence of certain intermediate be-
ings or powers between gods and men, who govern all div-
inations and the miracles of the magicians.^ In the treatise
on the god or demon of Socrates ® he repeats this thought
and tells us more of these mediators or demons. Their na-
tive element is the air, which Apuleius thought extended as
far as the moon,'^ just as Aristotle ^ tells of animals who
live in fire and are extinguished with it, and just as the fifth
element, that "divine and inviolable" ether, contains the di-
vine bodies of the stars. With the superior gods the demons
have immortality in common, but like mortals they are sub-
ject to passions and to feeling and capable of reason.^ But
their bodies are very light and like clouds, a point peculiar
to themselves. ^° Since both Plutarch and Apuleius wrote
essays on the demon of Socrates and both derived, or
thought that they derived, their theories concerning demons
from Plato, it is interesting to note some divergences be-
tween their accounts. Apuleius confines them to the atmos-
phere beneath the moon more exclusively than Plutarch
does; unlike Plutarch he represents them as immortal, not
merely long-lived; and he has more to say about the sub-
' Cap. 97.
" Cap. 43.
'Cap. 84.
• Cap. 6.
*De mundo, cap. i; De deo
'■ De deo Socratis, cap. 8.
Socratis, cap. 4.
^ Hist. Anim., V,_ 19.
* De mens., IV., 7, 73 ; De os-
^ De deo Socratis, cap. 13.
tent., 3, 4, 7, 10, 44, 54.
^'' Ibid., caps. 9-1'^
VII APULEIUS OF MAD AURA 241
stance of their bodies and less concerning their relations
with disembodied souls.
Apuleius would have been a well-known name in the Apuleius
middle ages, if only indirectly through the use made by nr'ddle
Augustine in The City of God ^ of the Metamorphoses in ages,
describing magic and of the De dec Socratis in discussing
demons.^ He also speaks of Apuleius in three of his letters,^
declaring that for all his magic arts he could win neither a
throne nor judicial power. Augustine was not quite sure
whether Apuleius had actually been transformed into an ass
or not. A century earlier Lactantius * spoke of the many
marvels remembered of Apuleius. That manuscripts of the
Metamorphoses, Apology and Florida were not numerous
until after the twelfth and thirteenth centuries may be in-
ferred from the fact that all the extant manuscripts seem to
be derived from a single one of the later eleventh century,
written in a Lombard hand and perhaps from Monte Cas-
sino.^ The article on Apuleius in Pauly and Wissowa states
that the best manuscripts of his other works are an eleventh
century codex at Brussels and a twelfth century manuscript
at Munich,^ but does not mention a twelfth century manu-
script of the De deo Socratis in the British Museum.'^ An-
other indication that in the twelfth century there were manu-
scripts of Apuleius in England or at Chartres and Paris is
that John of Salisbury borrows from the De dogmate Pla-
tonis in his De migis curialiiim} In the earlier middle ages
there was ascribed to Apuleius a work on herbs of which
we shall treat later.
^ XVIII, 18. 395 A.D. and 397 A.D. G. Huet,
*VIII, 14-22. "Le roman d'Apulee etait-il
* Epistles 102, 136, 138, in Migne, connu au moyen age," Le Moyen
PL, vol. 23. Age (1917), 44-52, holds that the
* Diz'in. Instit., V, 3. Metamorphoses was not known
* Codex Laurentianus, plut. 68, directly to the medieval vernacu-
2. _ The same MS contains the lar romancers. See also B. Stum-
Histories and Annals (XI-XVI) fall. Das Mdrchen von Amor und
of Tacitus. A subscription to the Psyche in Seinem Fortleben, Leip-
ninth book of the Metamorphoses zig, 1907.
indicates that the original manu- * CLM 621.
script from which this was de- ' Harleian 3969.
rived or copied was produced in " VII, $•
CHAPTER VIII
PHILOSTRATUS S LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA
Compared
with
Apuleius.
Compared with Apuleius — Philostratus's sources — Time and space
covered — Philostratus's audience — Object of the Life — Apollonius
charged with magic — A confusion of terms — The Magi and magic —
Apollonius and the Magi — Philostratus on wizards — Apollonius and
wizards — Quacks and old-wives — The Brahmans — Marvels of the
Brahmans — Magical methods of the Brahmans — Medicine of the
Brahmans — Some signs of astrology — Interest in natural science — Nat-
ural law or special providence? — Cases of scepticism — Anecdotes of
animals — Dragons of India — Occult virtues of gems — Absence of num-
ber mysticism — Mantike or the art of divination — Divining power of
Apollonius — Dreams — Interpretation of omens — Animals and divina-
tion— Divination by fire — Other so-called predictions — Apollonius and
the demons — Not all demons are evil — Philostratus's faith in demons
— The ghost of Achilles — Healing the sick and raising the dead — Other
marvels — Golden wrynecks and the iunx — Why named iunx? —
Apollonius in the middle ages.
Some fifty years after the birth of Apuleius occurred
that of Philostratus, whose career and interests were some-
what similar, although he came from the Aegean island of
Lemnos instead of the neighborhood of Carthage and wrote
in Greek rather than Latin. But like Apuleius he was a
student of rhetoric and went first to Athens and then to
Rome, The resemblance is perhaps closer between Apuleius
and Apollonius of Tyana, whose life Philostratus wrote and
of whom we know more than of his biographer. Like Apu-
leius Apollonius had to defend himself in court against the
accusation of magic, and Philostratus gives us what pur-
ports to be his apology on that occasion. Two centuries
afterwards Augustine in one of his letters ^ names Apollo-
nius and Apuleius as examples of men who were addicted to
the magic art and who, the pagans said, performed greater
' Ep. 136.
242
CHAP. VIII APOLLO NWS OF TV AN A 243
miracles than Christ did. A century before Augustine
Lactantius states ^ that a certain philosopher who had
"vomited forth" three books "against the Christian religion
and name" had compared the miracles of Apollonius favor-
ably with those of Christ; Lactantius marvels that he did
not mention Apuleius as well. Like Apuleius, Apollonius
was a man of broad learning who traveled widely and sought
initiation into mysteries and cults. Apuleius was a Platonist ;
Apollonius, a Pythagorean. We may also note a resemblance
between the Metamorphoses and the Life of Apollonius.
Both seem to elaborate earlier writings and both have much
to say of transformations, wizards, demons, and the occult.
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, however, must be taken
more seriously than the Metamorphoses. If the African's
work is a rhetorical romance embodying a certain auto-
biographical element, a Milesian tale to which personal re-
ligious experiences are annexed, then the work by Philos-
tratus is a rhetorical biography with a tinge of romance and
a good deal of sermonizing.
Philostratus ^ composed the Life of Apollonius about Phiio-
217 A. D, at the request of the learned wife of the emperor stratus's
. . ^ ^ sources.
Septimius Severus, to whose literary circle he belonged.
The empress had come into possession of some hitherto
unknown memoirs of Apollonius by a certain Damis of
Nineveh, who had been his disciple and had accompanied
him upon many of his travels. Some member of Damis's
family had brought these documents to the empress's atten-
tion. Some scholars incline to the view that she was de-
ceived by an impostor, but it hardly seems that there would
be sufficient profit in the venture to induce anyone to take
the pains to forge such memoirs. Also I can see no reason
why a contemporary of Apollonius should not have said and
believed everything which Philostratus represents Damis as
saying; on the contrary it seems to me just what would be
^Divin. Instit., V, 2-3. named Philostratus and which
^ works should be assigned to each,
Concerning other writers see Schmid (1913) 608-20.
244 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
said by a naif, gullible, and devoted disciple, who was in-
clined to exaggerate the abilities and achievements of his
master and to take literally everything that Apollonius ut-
tered ironically or figuratively. Other accounts of Apollo-
nius were already in existence by a Maximus of Aegae,
where Apollonius had spent part of his life, and by Moera-
genes, but the memoirs of Damis seem to have offered much
new material. Philostratus accordingly wrote a new life
based largely upon Damis, but also making use of the will
and epistles of Apollonius, many of which the emperor Ha-
drian had earlier collected, and of the traditions still current
in the cities and temples which Apollonius had frequented
and which Philostratus now took the trouble to visit. It
has sometimes been suggested, chiefly by Christian writers
intent upon discrediting the career of Apollonius, that Phil-
ostratus invented Damis and his memoirs. But Philostratus
seems straightforward in describing the pains he has been to
in preparing the Life, and certainly is more explicit and
systematic in stating his sources than other ancient biogra-
phers like Plutarch and Suetonius are. He appears to fol-
low his sources rather closely and not to invent new inci-
dents, although he may, like Thucydides and other ancient
historians, have taken liberties with the speeches and argu-
ments put into his characters' mouths. And through the
work, despite his belief in demons and marvels, he now and
then gives evidence of a moderate and sceptical mind, at
least for his times.
Time and Apollonius lived in the first century of our era and died
covered. during the reign of Nerva well advanced in years. It is
therefore of a period over a century before his own that Phil-
ostratus writes. He is said to commit a number of errors
in history and geography,^ but we must remember that mis-
takes in geography were a failing of the best ancient his-
* See article on Apollonius of that he came to the conclusion that
Tyana in Pauly-Wissowa. Priaulx, either Apollonius never visited In-
The Indian Travels of Apollonius dia, or, if he did, that Damis
of Tyana, London, 1873, p. 62, "never accompanied him but fab-
found the geography of Apollo- ricated the journal Philostratus
nius's Indian travels so erroneous speaks of."
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 245
torians such as Polybius, and the general picture drawn of
the emperors and poHtics of Apollonius's time is not far
wrong. It is true that Philostratus also makes use of tra-
dition which has gradually formed since the death of Apol-
lonius, and introduces explanations or comments of his own
on various matters. It is, however, not the facts either of
Apollonius's career or of his times that concern us but the
beliefs and superstitions which we find in Philostratus's
Life of him. Whether these are of the first, second, or
early third century is scarcely necessary or possible for us
to distinguish. If Damis records them, Philostratus accepts
them, and the probability is that they apply not only to all
three centuries but to a long period before and after. The
territory covered in the Life is almost as extensive ; it ranges
all over the Roman Empire, alludes occasionally to the Celts
and Scythians, and opens up Ethiopia and India ^ to our gaze.
Apollonius was a great traveler and there are many inter-
esting and informing passages concerning ships, sailing, pi-
lots, merchants and sea-trade.^
If we ask further, for what class of readers was the philo^-
Life intended, the answer is, for the intellectual and learned. aiKjJ^nce
Apollonius himself was distinctly a Hellene. Philostratus
represents him as often quoting Homer and other bygone
Greek authors, or mentioning names from early Greek his-
tory such as Lycurgus and Aristides. One of his aims was
to restore the degenerate Greek cities of his own day to their
ancient morality. Furthermore, Apollonius never cared for
many disciples, and neither required them to observe all the
rules of life which he himself followed, nor admitted them
to all his interviews with other sages and his initiations into
sacred mysteries. This aloofness of the sage is somewhat
reflected in his biographer. The Life is an attempt not to
^ Priaulx, however, regarded its Indian merchants — Alexandria,"
statements concerning India as or from earHer authors,
such as might have been "easily-
collected at that great mart for ^III, 23, 35; IV, 9, 32; V, 20;
Indian commodities and resort for VI, 12, 16; VII, 10, 12, 15-16.
246
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Object of
the Life.
Apollonius
charged
with
magic.
popularize the teachings of Apollonius but to justify him
before the learned world.
The charge had been frequently made that Apollonius
came illegitimately by his wisdom and acquired it violently
by magic. Philostratus would restore him to the ranks of
true philosophers who gained wisdom by worthy and licit
methods. He declares that he was not a wizard, as many
suppose, but a notable Pythagorean, a man of broad culture,
an intellectual and moral teacher, a religious ascetic and re-
former, probably even a prophet of divine and superhuman
nature. It is not now so generally held by Christian writers
as it used to be that Philostratus wrote the Life with the
Gospel story of Christ in mind, and that his purpose was to
imitate or to parody or to oppose a rival narrative to the
Christian story and teaching. At no point in the Life does
Philostratus betray unmistakably even a passing acquaint-
ance with the Gospels, much less display any sign of animus
against them. Moreover, the Christian historian and apolo-
gist, Eusebius, who lived in the century following Philos-
tratus and was familiar with his Life of Apollonius, in writ-
ing a reply to a treatise in which Hierocles, a provincial gov-
ernor under Diocletian, had compared Apollonius with
Jesus, distinctly states that Hierocles was the first to sug-
gest such an idea.^ Such similarities then as may exist be-
tween the Life and the Gospels must be taken as examples of
beliefs common to that age.
Apollonius was accused of sorcery or magic during his
lifetime by the rival philosopher Euphrates. The four
books on Apollonius written by Moeragenes also portrayed
him as a wizard ; ^ and Eusebius in his reply to Hierocles
ascribed the miracles wrought by Apollonius to sorcery and
the aid of evil demons.^ Earlier the satirist Lucian de-
^ See the treatise of Eusebius
Against Apollonius. Lactantius
(Divin. Inst., V, 2-3) probably
had reference to Hierocles in
speaking of a philosopher who
had written three books against
Christianity and declared the
miracles of Apollonius as wonder-
ful as those of Christ.
' So Origen says (Against Cel-
sus, VI, 41) and Philostratus im-
plies (I, 3).
' See the Against Apollonius,
caps. 31, 35.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 247
scribed Alexander the pseudo-prophet as having been in his
youth an apprentice to "one of the charlatans who deal in
magic and mystic incantations, ... a native of Tyana, an
associate of the great Apollonius, and acquainted with all
his heroics." ^
In defending his hero against these charges Philostratus A con-
is guilty himself both of some ambiguous use of terms and of terms
of some loose thinking. The same ambiguous terminology,
however, will be found in other discussions of magic. In a
few passages Philostratus denies that Apollonius was a
/xd7os but much oftener exculpates him from the charge
of being a 76:7s or yoijTrjs. With the latter word or words
there is no difficulty. It means a wizard, sorcerer, or en-
chanter, and is always employed in a sinister or disreputable
sense. With the term fxayos the case is different, as with the
Latin magus. It may signify an evil magician, or it may
refer to one of the Magi of the East, who are generally re-
garded as wise and good men. This delicate distinction,
however, is not easy to maintain and Philostratus fails to do
so, while Mr. Conybeare in his English translation - makes
confusion worse confounded not only by translating nayos
as "wizard" instead of "magician," but by sometimes doing
this when it really should be rendered as "one of the Magi."
It may also be noted that Philostratus locates the Magi in
Babylonia as well as in Persia.
To begin with, in his second chapter Philostratus says The Magi
that some consider Apollonius a magician "because he con- ^" magic
sorted with the Magi of the Babylonians, and the Brahmans
of the Indians, and the Gymnosophists in Egypt." But they
are wrong in this. "For Empedocles and Pythagoras him-
self and Democritus, although they associated with the Magi
and spake many divine utterances, yet did not stoop to the
art" (of magic). Plato, too, he goes on to say, although
* 'AXf^avSpos, V xPevSo/xavTis, cap. 5. text in the recent Loeb Qassical
In the passage quoted I have used Library edition, both racy and ac-
Fowler's translation. curate, and have employed it in a
" In other respects, however, I number of the quotations which
have usually found this transla- follow,
tion, which accompanies the Greek
248
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
he visited Egypt and its priests and prophets, was never re-
garded as a magician. In this passage, then, Philostratus
closely associates the Magi with the magic art, and I am not
sure whether the last "Magi" should not be "magicians."
On the other hand his acquittal of Democritus and Pythag-
oras from the charge of magic does not agree with Pliny,
who ascribed a large amount of magic to them both.
Apollonius himself evidently did not regard the Magi
whom he met in Babylon and Susa as evil magicians. One
of the chief aims of his scheme of oriental travel "was to
acquaint himself thoroughly with their lore." He wished to
discover whether they were wise in divine things, as they
were said to be.^ Sacrifices and religious rites were per-
formed under their supervision.^ Apollonius did not permit
Damis to accompany him when he visited the Magi at noon
and again about midnight and conversed with them.^ But
Apollonius himself said that he learned some things from
them and taught them some things ; he told Damis that they
were "wise men, but not in all respects" ; on leaving their
country he asked the king to give the presents which the
monarch had intended for Apollonius himself to the Magi,
whom he described then as "men who both are wise and
wholly devoted to you." *
Quite different is the attitude towards witchcraft an*!
wizards of both Apollonius and his biographer. In the opin-
ion of Philostratus wizards are of all men most wretched.^
They try to violate nature and to overcome fate by such
methods as inquisition of spirits, barbaric sacrifices, incan-
tations and besmearings. Simple-minded folk attribute
great powers to them ; and athletes desirous of winning vic-
tories, shopkeepers intent upon success in business ventures,
and lovers in especial are continually resorting to them and
apparently never lose faith in them despite repeated failures,
despite occasional exposure or ridicule of their methods in
* I, 32.
"1,29.
*I. 26.
* I, 40.
»V, 12.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 249
books and writing, and despite the condemnation of witch-
craft both by law and nature.^ Apollonius was certainly
no wizard, argues Philostratus, for he never opposed the
Fates but only predicted what they would bring to pass, and
he acquired this foreknowledge not by sorcery but by divine
revelation.^
Nevertheless Apollonius is frequently accused of being Apollonius
a wizard by others in the pages of Philostratus. At Athens ^i2ar(js
he was refused initiation into the mysteries on this ground,^
and at Lebadea the priests wished to exclude him from the
oracular cave of Trophonius for the same reason.^ When
the dogs guarding the temple of Dictynna in Crete fawned
upon him instead of barking at his approach, the guardians
of the shrine arrested him as a wizard and would-be temple
robber who had bewitched the dogs by something that he
had given them to eat.^ Apollonius also had to defend him-
self against the accusation of witchcraft in his hearing or
trial before Domitian.^ He then denied that one is a wizard
merely because one has prescience, or that wearing linen gar-
ments proves one a sorcerer. Wizards shun the shrines and
temples of the gods ; they make use of trenches dug in the
earth and invoke the gods of the lower world. They are
greedy for gain and pseudo-philosophers. They possess no
true science, depending for success in their art upon the
stupidity of their dupes and devotees. They imagine what
does not exist and disbelieve the truth. They work their
sorcery by night and in darkness when those employing them
cannot see or hear well. Apollonius himself was accused
to Domitian of having sacrificed an Arcadian boy at night
and consulted his entrails with Nerva in order to determine
the latter's prospects of becoming emperor."^ When before
his trial Domitian was about to put Apollonius in fetters,
the sage proposed the dilemma that if he were a wizard he
could not be kept in bonds, or that if Domitian were able
'VII, 39. "VIII, 30.
Tv/'i8. 'VIII, 7.
*VIII, 19. "VII, 20.
250
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap^
Quacks
and old-
wives.
The
Brahmans.
to fetter him, he was obviously no wizard.^ This need
not imply, however, that Apollonius believed that wizards
really could free themselves, for he was at times ironical. If
so, Domitian replied in kind by assuring him that he would
at least keep him in fetters until he transformed himself into
water or a wild beast or a tree.
Closely akin to the goetes or wizards are the old hags and
quack-doctors who offer one Indian spices or boxes sup-
posed to contain bits of stone taken from the moon, stars,
or depths of earth.^ Likewise the divining old-wives who
go about with sieves in their hands and pretend by means
of their divination to heal sick animals for shepherds and
cowherds.^ We also read that Apollonius expelled from
the cities along the Hellespont various Egyptians and
Chaldeans who were collecting money on the pretense of
offering sacrifices to avert the earthquakes which were then
occurring.'*
We have heard Philostratus mention the Brahmans of
India in the same breath with the Magi of Persia and imply
that Apollonius's association with them contributed to his
reputation as a magician.^ In another passage ^ Philostratus
places goetes and Brahmans in unfortunate juxtaposition,
and, immediately after condemning the wizards and defend-
ing Apollonius from the charge of sorcery, goes on to say
that when he saw the automatic tripods and cup-bearers of
the Indians, he did not ask how they were operated. "He
applauded them, it is true, but did not think fit to imitate
them." But of course Apollonius should not even have ap-
plauded these automatons, which set food and poured wine
before the guests of the Brahmans, if they were the con-
trivances of wizards. And in another passage,'^ where he
defends the signs and wonders wrought by the Brahmans
against the aspersions cast upon them by the Gymnosophists
of Ethiopia, Apollonius explains their practice of levitation
'VII, 34.
'VII, 39.
"VI, II ; III, 43.
'VI, 41.
'I, 2.
'V, 12.
VI, II.
VIII APOLLONWS OF TYANA 251
as an act of worship and communion with the sun god, and
hence far removed from the rites performed in deep trenches
and hollows of the earth to the gods of the lower world
which we have heard him mention before as a practice char-
acteristic of wizards.
Nevertheless the feats ascribed to the Brahmans are cer- Marvels
tainly sufficiently akin to magic to excuse Philostratus for Brahmans.
mentioning them along with the Magi and wizards and to
justify us in considering them. Indeed, modern scholarship
informs us that in the Vedic texts the word "brahman" in
the neuter means a "charm, rite, formulary, prayer," and
"that the caste of the Brahmans is nothing but the men who
have hrdhman or magic power. ^ In marked contrast to the
taciturnity of Apollonius as to his interviews with the Magi
of Babylon and Susa is the long account repeated by Phi-
lostratus from Damis of the sayings and doings of the sages
of India. As for Apollonius himself, "he was always re-
counting to everyone what the Indians said and did." ^
They knew that he was approaching when he was yet afar
off and sent a messenger who greeted him by name.^ lar-
chas, their chief, also knew that Apollonius had a letter for
him and that a delta was missing in it, and he told Apol-
lonius many events of his past life. "We see, O Apollo-
nius," he said, "the signs of the soul, tracing them by a
myriad symbols." ^ The Brahmans lived in a castle con-
cealed by clouds, where they rendered themselves invisible
at will. The rocks along the path up to their abode were
still marked by the cloven feet, beards, faces, and backs of
the Pans who had tried to scale the height under the lead-
ership of Dionysus and Heracles, but had been hurled down
headlong.^ Here too was a well for testing oaths, a purify-
*J. E. Harrison, Themis, Cam- from the sacrificial lore of the
bridge, 1912, p. 72. "The Buddha Vedas : "E. B. Havell, A Hand-
himself condemned as worthless book of Indian Art, 1920, p. 6, and
the whole system of Vedic sacri- see p. 32 for the birth of Buddha
fices, including in his ban astrol- under the sign Taurus,
ogy, divination, spells, omens, and ^VI, 10.
witchcraft; but in the earliest 'III, 12.
Buddhist stupas known to us, the *III, 16.
symbolism is entirely borrowed " III, 13.
252
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ing fire, and the jars in which the winds and rain were bot-
tled up.
Magical When the messenger of the Brahmans greeted Apollonius
of^\he^^ by name, the latter remarked to the astounded Damis, "We
Brahmans. have Come to men who are wise without art (drexvccs), for
they seem to have the gift of foreknowledge." ^ As a mat-
ter of fact, however, most of the subsequent wonders
wrought by the Brahmans were not performed without the
use of paraphernalia and rites very similar to those of magic.
Each Brahman carries a staff — or magic wand — and wears
a ring, which are both prized for their occult virtue by which
the Brahmans can accomplish anything they wish.^ They
clothe themselves in sacred garments made of "a. wool that
springs wild from the ground" (cotton?) and which the
earth will not permit anyone else to pluck. larchas also
showed Apollonius and Damis a marvelous stone called Pan-
tarhe, which attracted and bound other stones to itself and
which, although only the size of his finger-nail and formed
in earth four fathoms deep, had such virtue that it broke
the earth open.^ But it required great skill to secure this
gem. "We only," said the Brahman, "can obtain this pan-
tarhe, partly by doing things and partly by saying things,"
in other words by incantations and magical operations. Be-
fore performing their rite of levitation tTiey bathed and
anointed themselves with a certain drug. "Then they stood
like a chorus with larchas as leader and with their rods up-
lifted struck the earth, which heaving like the sea-wave
raised them up in the air two cubits high." * The metallic
tripods and cup-bearers which served the king of the coun-
try when he came to visit the Brahmans appeared from no-
where laden with food and wine exactly as if by magic.^
The medical practice, if we may so call it, of the Brah-
mans was tinged, to say the least, with magic. A dislocated
hip, indeed, they appear to have cured by massage, and a
* III, 12. Rut perhaps the trans-
lation should be, "men who are ex-
ceedingly wise."
'HI, IS.
=■111, 46-47.
*III, 17.
Mil, 27.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 253
blind man and a paralytic are healed by unspecified methods.^
But a boy is cured of inherited alcoholism by chewing owl's
eggs that have been boiled; a woman who complains that
her sixteen-year-old son has for two years been vexed by
a demon is sent away with a letter full of threats or incan-
tations to employ against the spirit; and another woman's
sufferings in childbirth are prevented by directing her hus-
band to enter her chamber with a live hare concealed in his
bosom and to release the hare after he has walked around
his wife once. larchas, indeed, attributed the origin of
medicine to divination or divine revelation.^ His theory
was that Asclepius, as the son of Apollo, learned by oracles
what drugs to employ for the different diseases, in what
amounts to mix the drugs, what the antidotes for poisons
were, and how to use even poisons as remedies. This last
especially he affirmed that no one would dare attempt with-
out foreknowledge.
The Brahmans seem to have made some use of astrology Some
in working their feats of magic. Damis at any rate said that astrology
when Apollonius bade farewell to the sages, larchas made
him a present of seven rings named after the planets, which
he wore in turn upon the appropriate days of the week.^
Perhaps, too, the seven swords of adamant which larchas
had rediscovered as a child had some connection with the
planets.^ Moeragenes ascribed four books on foretelling the .^t^
future by the stars to Apollonius himself, but Philostratus v/sf
was unable to find any such work by Apollonius extant in .;.^
his day.^ And unless it be an allusion to Chaldeans which '
we have already noted, there is no further mention of as-
trology in Philostratus's Life — a rather remarkable fact con-
sidering that he wrote for the court of Septimius Severus,
the builder of the Septizonium.
The philosopher Euphrates, who is represented by Philos- Interest
tratus as jealous of Apollonius, once advised the emperor science
Vespasian, when Apollonius was present, to embrace natural
^III, 38-40. "Ill, 21.
Mil, 44.
'Ill, 41. mi, 41.
254 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
philosophy — or a philosophy in accordance with natural law
— but to beware of philosophers who pretended to have
secret intercourse with the gods.^ There was justification
in the latter charge against Apollonius, but it should not be
assumed that his mysticism rendered him unfavorable to
natural science. On the contrary he is frequently represented
by Philostratus as whiling away the time along the road by
discussing with Damis such natural problems as the delta of
the Nile or the tides at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. He
was especially interested in the habits of animals and the
properties of gems. Vespasian was fond of listening to
"his graphic stories of the rivers of India and the animals"
of that country, as well as to "his statements of what the
gods revealed concerning the empire." ^ Some of the ques-
tions which Apollonius put to the Brahmans concerned na-
ture.^ He asked of what the world was composed, and when
they said, "Of elements," he asked if there were four. They
believed, however, in a fifth element, ether, from which the
gods had been generated and which they breathe as men
breathe air. They also regarded the universe as a living
animal. He further inquired of them whether land or sea
predominated on the earth's surface,* and this same attitude
of scientific inquiry and of curiosity about natural forces
and objects is frequently met in the Life.
Apollonius believed, as we shall see, in omens and por-
tents, and interpreted an earthquake at Antioch as a divine
warning to the inhabitants.^ The Brahman sages, moreover,
regarded prolonged drought as a punishment visited by the
world soul upon human sinfulness.^ On the other hand,
Apollonius gave a natural explanation of volcanoes and de-
nied the myths concerning Enceladus being imprisoned un-
der Mount Aetna and the battle of the gods and giants.'^
And in the case of the earthquake the people had already
accepted it as a portent and were praying in terror, when
'V, 37- 'VI, 38.
'V, 2,7. eTTT ,.
•Ill, 34. ' ^^'
Mil, 7,7. ^V. 17.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 255
Apollonius took the opportunity to warn them to cease from
their civil factions. As a matter of fact, both Apollonius
and Philostratus appear to regard portents as an extraordi-
nary sort of natural phenomena. A knowledge of natural
science helps in recognizing them and in interpreting them.
When a lioness of enormous size with eight whelps in her is
slain by hunters, Apollonius at once recognizes the event as
portentous because as a rule lionesses have whelps only
thrice and only three of them on the first occasion, two in
the second litter, and finally but a single whelp, "but I be-
lieve a very big one and preternaturally fierce." ^ Here
Apollonius is not in strict agreement with Pliny and Aris-
totle ^ who say that the lioness produces five whelps at the
first birth and one less every succeeding year.
The scepticism of Apollonius concerning the Aetna Cases of
myth is not an isolated instance. At Sardis he ridiculed the scepticism
notion that trees could be older than earth,^ and he was one
of the few ancients to question the swan's song.* He de-
nied "the silly story that the young of vipers are brought into
the world without mothers" as "consistent neither with na-
ture nor experience," ^ and also the tale that the whelps of
the lioness claw their way out into the world.® In India
Apollonius saw a wild ass or unicorn from whose single
horn a magic drinking horn was made.' A draught from
this horn was supposed to protect one for that day from dis-
ease, wounds, fire, or poison, and on that account the king
*I, 22. sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia
' NH, VIII, 17; Hist. Anim., cygni. This concrete explanation
VI, 31. is quite inadequate; it is beyond
^VI, 37. a doubt that the swan's song (Hke
*The ancient authorities, pro the halcyon's) veiled, and still
and con, will be found listed in hides, some mystical allusion."
D. W. Thompson, Glossary of * II, 14.
Greek Birds, 106-107. He adds: "I, 22. Pliny, NH, VIII, 17,
"Modern naturalists accept the repeats a slightly different popular
story of the singing swans, assert- notion that the lioness tears her
ing that though the common swan womb with her claws and so can
cannot sing, yet the Whooper or bear but once ; against this view
whistling swan does so. It is cer- he cites Aristotle's statement that
tain that the Whooper sings, for the lioness bears five times, as
many ornithologists state the fact, described above,
but I do not think that it can sing ' III, 2.
very well ; at the very best, dant
of animals.
256 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
alone was permitted to hunt the animal and to drink from
the horn. When Damis asked Apollonius if he credited this
story, the sage ironically replied that he would believe it
if he found the king of the country to be immortal.
Either, however, the scepticism of Apollonius, as was the
case with so many other ancients and medieval men, was
sporadic and inconsistent, or it came to be overlaid with the
credulity of Damis and Philostratus, as the following ex-
ample suggests. larchas told Damis and Apollonius flatly
that the races described by Scylax of men with long heads
or huge feet with which they were said to shade themselves
did not exist in India or anywhere else; yet in a later book
Philostratus states that the shadow- footed people are a
tribe in Ethiopia.^
Anecdotes At any rate the marvels of India are more frequently
credited than criticized in the Life by Philostratus, and the
same holds true of the extraordinary conduct and well-nigh
human intelligence attributed to animals. Especially delight-
ful reading are six chapters on the remarkable sagacity of
elephants and their love for mankind.^ On this point, as by
Pliny, use is made of the work of Juba. We read again of
sick lions eating apes, of the lioness's love affair with the
panther, of the fondness of leopards for the fragrant gum
of a certain tree and of goats for the cinnamon tree ; of apes
who are made to collect pepper for men by appealing to their
instinct towards mimicry ; ^ and of the tiger, whose loins
alone are eaten by the Indians. "For they decline to eat the
other parts of this animal, because they say that as soon as
it is born it lifts up its front paws to the rising sun." * In
the river Hyphasis is a creature like a white worm which
yields when melted down a fat or oil that once set afire can-
not be extinguished and which the king uses to burn walls
'III, 47; VI, 25. Scylax was a sius, Periplus Scylacis Caryan-
Persian admiral under Darius densis, 1639), but some date it as
who traveled to India and wrote early as the fourth century B.C.
an account of his voyages. The ^11, 11-16.
work extant under his name is of * II, 2; III, 4.
doubtful authorship (Isaac Vos- * II, 28.
viii APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 257
and capture cities.^ In India are griffins who quarry gold
with their powerful beaks, and the luminous phoenix with its
nest of spices and swan-like funeral song.^
Especially remarkable are the snakes or dragons with Dragons
which all India is filled and which often are of enormous ° " *^
size, thirty or even seventy cubits long.^ Those found in
the marshes are sluggish and have no crests ; but those on
the hills and ridges move faster than the swiftest rivers and
have both beards and crests.* Those in the plain engage in
combats with elephants which terminate fatally for both
parties as we have already learned from Pliny.^ The moun-
tain dragons have bushy beards, fiery crests, golden scales,
and a ferocious glance.® They burrow into the earth, mak-
ing a noise like clashing brass, or go hissing down to the
shore and swim far out to sea. Terrifying as they are, the
Indians charm them by showing them golden characters em-
broidered on a cloak of scarlet and by incantations of a se-
cret wisdom. They eat the dragon's heart and liver in order
to be able to understand the language and thoughts of ani-
mals.''^
The dragons, however, are prized more for the precious Occult
stones in their heads, which the Indians quickly cut off as virtues of
. ^ , ■' gems,
soon as they have bewitched them. The pupils of the eyes ,,,
of the hill dragons are a fiery stone possessing irresistible
virtue for many occult purposes,^ while in the heads of the
mountain dragons are many brilliant stones of flashing
colors which exert occult virtue if set in a ring, "and they
say that Gyges had such a ring." ^ But there are many mar-
velous stones outside the heads of dragons. "Who does not
know the habits of birds," says Apollonius to Damis in one
of his disquisitions upon natural phenomena,^" "and that
eagles and storks will not build their nests without placing in
them, the one the stone aetites, and the other the lychnites.
"■III, I. Greek fire?
"Ill, a
*III, 48-9.
'III, 9.
mi, 6; II, 17.
*in, 7.
Mil, 7.
'Ill, 8.
= NH, VIII, II.
"11, 14.
258 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
as aids in hatching and to drive snakes away?'' On parting
from the Indian king Phraotes, Apollonius as usual refused
to accept money presents but picked up one of the gems that
were offered him with the exclamation, "O rare stone, how
opportunely and providentially have I found you !" ^ Phi-
lostratus supposes that he detected some occult and divine
power in this particular stone. The Brahmans had gems
so huge that from one of them a goblet could be carved large
enough to slake the thirst of four men in midsummer, but
in this case nothing is said of occult virtue.^ The Brahman
larchas felt sure that he was the reincarnation of the hero
Ganges, son of the river Ganges, because as a mere child he
knew where to dig for the seven swords of adamant which
Ganges had fixed in the earth. ^ Presumably these were
magic swords and their virtue in part due to the stone ada-
mant of which they were made. Less is said in the Life of the
virtues of herbs than of gems, but the Indians made a nup-
tial ointment or love-charm from balm distilled from trees,^
and drugs and poisons are mentioned more than once, man-
dragora being described as a soporific drug rather than a
deadly poison.^
Absence Considering that Apollonius was a Pythagorean, there is
of number surprisingly little said concerning perfect numbers and their
mystic significance. Aside from the seven rings and seven
swords already mentioned, about the only instance is the
question asked by Apollonius whether eighteen, the number
of the Brahman sages at the time of his visit, had any espe-
cial importance.^ He remarked that eighteen was not a
square, nor a number usually held in esteem and honor like
ten, twelve, and sixteen. The Brahmans agreed that there
was no particular significance in eighteen, and further in-
formed him that they maintained no fixed number of mem-
bers but had varied from only one to as many as seventy
according to the available supply of worthy men,
^11, 40. 'in, I.
"111,27. » VIII, 7.
'111,21. "111,30.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 259
If Philostratus denies that Apollonius was a magician, Mantike
he does depict him as endowed with prophetic gifts, with art*of
power over demons, and with "secret wisdom." He rather divination,
likes to give the impression that the sage foretold things
by innate prophetic gift or divine inspiration, but even
navTLKT] or the art of divination is not condemned as yorjTela
or witchcraft was. larchas the Brahman says that those who
delight in mantike become divine thereby and contribute to
the safety of mankind.^ Apollonius himself, when condemn-
ing wizards as pseudo-wise, made the reservation that man-
tike, if true in its predictions, was not a pseudo-science, al-
though he professed ignorance whether it could be called an
art or not.^ He denied that he practiced it, when he was ex-
amined by Tigellinus, the favorite of Nero, who was perse-
cuting philosophers on the ground that they were addicted
to mantike.^ His accusers before Domitian again adduced
his alleged practice of divination as evidence that he was a
wizard.^
If Apollonius practiced neither wizardry nor mantike. Divining
the question arises how he was able to foretell the future, of^pol-
In his trial before Domitian he did not attempt to deny that lon»us.
he had predicted the plague at Ephesus, but attributed his
"sense of the coming disaster" to his abstemious diet, which
kept his senses clear and enabled him to see as in an un-
clouded mirror "all that is happening or about to occur." ^
For he was credited with knowledge of distant events the
moment they occurred as well as with foreknowledge of the
future. Thus at Ephesus he was aware of the assassination
of Domitian at Rome ; and at Tarsus, although he arrived af-
ter the incident had occurred, he was able to describe and to
find the mad dog by whom a boy had been bitten.^ larchas
told Apollonius that health and purity were requisite for
* III, 42. porary of Philostratus, also states
"VIII, 7. that Apollonius announced the
' IV, 44. assassination of Domitian and
*VIII, 7. even named the assassin in Ephe-
'VIII, 7. sus on the very day that the event
*_VIII, 26; VI, 43. The his- occurred at Rome. His account
torian, Dio Cassius, a contem- differs too much from that by
26o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Dreams.
Interpreta-
tion of
omens.
divination; ^ and Apollonius in turn, in recounting his life
story to the naked sages of Egypt, represented the Pythago-
rean philosophy as appearing before him and promising,
"And when you are pure, I will grant you the faculty of
foreknowledge." ^
Apollonius often was warned by dreams. When he
dreamt of fish who were cast gasping upon dry land and
who appealed for succour to a dolphin swimming by, he
knew that he ought to visit and restore the graves and assist
the descendants of the Eretrians whom Darius had taken
captive to the Persian kingdom over five centuries before.^
Another dream he interpreted as a command to visit Crete.*
In defending his linen apparel before Domitian he declared,
"It is a pure substance under which to sleep at night, for to
those who live as I do dreams bring the truest of their reve-
lations." ^ He was not the only dreamer of the time, how-
ever, and when some of his followers were afraid to accom-
pany him to Rome in Nero's reign, they made warning
dreams their excuse for deserting him.^
It has been seen that Apollonius not only had prophetic
dreams but was skilful in interpreting them. He was equally
adept in explaining the meaning of omens. The dead lion
with her eight unborn whelps he took as a sign that Damis
and he would remain a year and eight months in that land.'
When Damis objected that Homer interpreted the sparrow
and her eight nestlings whom the snake devoured as nine
years' duration of the Trojan war, Apollonius retorted that
the birds had been hatched but that the whelps, being yet
unborn, could not signify complete years. On another occa-
sion he interpreted the birth of a three-headed child as a
sign of the year of the three emperors.^
Philostratus to have been copied 'VI, ii.
from it. He concludes it with * I, 23.
the positive assertion, "This is * IV, 34.
really what took place, though 'VIII, 7.
there should be ten thousand " IV, 37.
doubters." (LXVII, 18.) 'I, 22.
'Ill, 42. "V, 13.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 261
Such interpretation of dreams and omens suggests an Animals
lation.
art or arts of divination rather than foreknowledge by di- ^^^mc
rect divine inspiration. So does the passage in which Apol-
lonius informs Domitian, when accused before him of having
divined the future by sacrificing a boy, that human entrails
are inferior to those of animals for purposes of divination,
since the beasts are less perturbed by knowledge of their
approaching death. ^ Apollonius himself would not sacrifice
even animal victims, but he enlarged his powers of divina-
tion during his sojourn among the Arab tribes by learning
to understand the language of animals and to listen to the
birds as these predict the future.^ The Arabs acquire this
power by eating, some say the heart, others the liver, of
dragons, — a fact which gave the church historian Eusebius
an opportunity to charge Apollonius with having broken his
taboo of animal flesh.
Although he did not sacrifice animals and divine from Divination
their entrails, Apollonius appears to have employed prac- ^
tices akin to those of the art of pyromancy when he threw a
handful of frankincense into the sacrificial fire with a
prayer to the sun, "and watched to see how the smoke of it
curled upwards, and how it grew turbid, and in how many
points it shot up; and in a manner he caught the meaning
of the fire, and observed how it appeared of good omen and
pure." ^ Again he visited an Egyptian temple and sacrificed
an image of a bull made of frankincense and told the priest
that if he really understood the science of divination by fire
(kfiirvpov ao(j)ias), he would see many things revealed in the
circle of the rising sun.'*
It should be added that only a very ardent admirer of Other
Apollonius or an equally ardent seeker after prophecies so-called
would see anything prophetic in some of the apparently tions.
chance remarks of the sage which have been perverted into
predictions. At Ephesus he did not actually predict the
plague, which had already begun to spread judging from the
'VIII, 7. "I, 31.
'I, 20. "V, 25.
■ 262 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
account of Philostratus, but rather warned the heedless pop-
ulation to take measures to prevent its becoming general.^
When visiting the isthmus of Corinth he began to say that
it w^ould be cut through, an idea which had doubtless oc-
curred again and again to many ; but then said that it would
not be cut through.^ This sane, if somewhat vacillating,
state of mind received confirmation soon afterwards when
Nero attempted an Isthmian canal but left it uncompleted.
Another similarly ambiguous utterance was elicited from
Apollonius by an eclipse of the sun accompanied by thunder :
"There shall be some great event and there shall not be." ^
This was believed to receive miraculous fulfillment three
days later when a thunderbolt dashed the cup out of which
Nero was drinking from his hands but left him unharmed.
Once Apollonius saved his life by changing from a ship
which sank soon afterwards to another vessel.* An instance
of more specific prophecy is the case of the consul Aelian,
who testified that when he was but a tribune under Vespa-
sian, Apollonius took him aside and told him his name and
country and parentage, "and you foretold to me that I
should hold this high office which is accounted by the multi-
tude the highest of all." ^ But Aelian may have exagger-
ated the accuracy of Apollonius's prediction, or the latter
may have made a shrewd guess that Aelian was likely to
rise to high office.
Apollonius The divining faculty of Apollonius enabled him to de-
and the ^^^^ ^^le presence and influence of demons, phantoms, and
goblins, whose ways he understood as well as the language
of the birds. At Ephesus he detected the true cause of the
plague in a ragged old beggar whom he ordered the people
to stone to death. ^ At this command the blinking eyes of
the aged mendicant suddenly shot forth malevolent and fiery
gleams and revealed his demon character. Afterwards, when
the people removed the stones, they found underneath,
pounded to a pulp, an enormous hound still vomiting foam
'IV, 4. "V, 18.
MV, 24. 'VII, 18.
'IV, 43. 'IV, 10.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 263
as mad dogs do. Later, when accused of magic before
Domitian, Apollonius requested that the emperor question
him in private about the causes of this pestilence at Ephesus,
which he said were too deep to be discussed pubHcly.^ And
earher in the reign of Nero, when asked by TigelHnus how
he got the better of demons and phantasms, he evaded the
question by a saucy retort.^ On one. occasion, however, we
are told that he got rid of a ghostly apparition by heaping
abuse upon it ; ^ and a satyr, who remained invisible but cre-
ated annoyance by running amuck through the camp, he dis-
posed of by the expedient of filling a trough with wine and
letting the spirit get drunk on it. When the wine had all dis-
appeared, Apollonius led his companions to the cave of the
nymphs where the satyr was now visible in a drunken sleep.*
He also reformed the character of a licentious youth by ex-
pelling a demon from him,^ and at Corinth exposed a lamia
who, under the disguise of a dainty and wealthy lady, was
fattening up a beautiful youth named Menippus with the
intention of eventually devouring his blood.^ On his return
by sea from India Apollonius passed a sacred island where
lived a sea nymph or female demon who was as destructive
to mariners as Scylla or the Sirens were of old.
But the word "demon" is not always employed by Phi- Not all
lostratus in the sense of an evil spirit. The annunciation ot ^re evil
the birth of Apollonius was made to his mother by Proteus
in the form of an Egyptian demon."^ Damis looked upon
Apollonius himself as a demon and worshiped him as such,
when he heard him say that he comprehended not only all
human languages but also those things concerning which
men maintain silence.^ In a letter to Euphrates ^ Apollonius
affirms that the all-wise Pythagoras should be classed among
demons. But when Domitian, on first meeting Apollonius
*VIII, 7. "IV, 25.
•n, 4. ^' 4-
* VI, 27. * I, 19-
"IV, 20. "Epist. 50.
264
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Philo-
stratus's
faith in
demons.
The
ghost of
Achilles.
Healing
the sick
and rais-
ing the
dead.
said that he looked like a demon, the sage replied that the
emperor was confusing demons and human beings.-^
Philostratus adds his own bit of personal testimony to
the existence of demons, although it cannot be said to be
very convincing. After telling the satyr story he warns his
readers not to be incredulous as to the existence of satyrs or
to doubt that they make love. For they should not mistrust
what is supported by experience and by Philostratus's own
word. For he knew in Lemnos a youth of his own age
whose mother was said to be visited by a satyr, and such he
probably was, since he wore a fawn skin tied around his
neck by the two front paws.^
Apollonius had an interview with the ghost of Achilles
which strongly suggests necromancy. He sent his compan-
ions on board ship and passed the night alone at the hero's
tomb. Nor did he allude to what had happened until ques-
tioned by the curious Damis. He then averred that his
method of invoking the dead had not been that of Odysseus,
but that he had prayed to Achilles much as the Indians do
to their heroes. A slight earthquake then occurred and
Achilles appeared. At first he was five cubits tall but grad-
ually increased to some twelve cubits in height. At cock-
crow he vanished in a flash of summer lightning.^
Apollonius, as well as the Brahmans, wrought some
cures. One was of a boy who had been bitten by a mad dog
and consequently "behaved exactly like a dog, for he
barked and howled and went on all fours." * Apollonius
first found and quieted the dog, and then made it lick the
wound, a homeopathic treatment which cured the boy. It
now only remained to cure the dog, too, and this the philoso-
pher effected by praying to the river which was near by and
then making the dog swim across it. "For," concludes Phi-
lostratus, "a drink of water will cure a mad dog if he only
can be induced to take it." The modern reader will suspect
that the dog was not mad to begin with and that Apollonius
'VII, 32.
"VI, 27.
MV, II, 1S-16.
*VI, 43.
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 265
cleverly cured the boy's complaint by the same force that
had induced it — suggestion. Apollonius once revived a
maiden who was being borne to the grave by touching her
and saying something to her, but Philostratus honestly ad-
mits that he is not sure whether he restored her to life or
detected signs of life in the body which had escaped the
notice of everyone else.^
When Apollonius was brought before Tigellinus, the Other
scroll on which the charges against him had been written was ^^^"^^ ^'
found to have become quite blank when Tigellinus unrolled
it.^ Upon that occasion and again before Domitian he in-
timated that his body could not be bound or slain against
his will.^ The former contention he proved to the satisfac-
tion of Damis, who visited him in prison, by suddenly re-
moving his leg from the fetters and then inserting it again.*
Damis regarded this exhibition as a divine miracle, since
Apollonius performed it without magical ceremony or in-
cantations. He is also represented as escaping from his
bonds at about midnight when imprisoned later in life in
Crete.^ Philostratus, too, implies that he vanished miracu-
lously from the courtroom of Domitian and that he some-
times passed from one place to another in an incredibly
short time, and is somewhat doubtful whether he ever died.
But we have seen that even on the testimony of Damis and
Philostratus themselves many of the marvels and predic-
tions of Apollonius were not "artless" but involved a knowl-
edge of contemporary natural science and medicine, or of
arts of divination, or the employment, in a way not unlike
the procedure of magic, of forces and materials outside him-
self, namely, the occult virtues of things in nature or incan-
tations, rites, and ceremonies.
So much for Apollonius and his magic, but the Life con- Golden
tains some interesting allusions to the 1^7^ or wryneck, ^"(["the
which throw light upon the use of that bird in Greek magic, »"»•«■•
but which have seldom been noted and then not correctly
* IV. 45. * VII, 38.
' IV, 44- • VIII, 30.
•VIII, 8.
266 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
interpreted.-^ The wryneck was so much employed in Greek
magic, as references to it from Pindar to Theocritus show,
that the word iunx was sometimes used as a synonym or
figurative expression for spells or charms in general. Phi-
lostratus, too, employs it in this sense, representing the Gym-
nosophists as accusing the Brahmans of "appealing to the
crowd with varied enchantments (or iunges)."^ But in
other passages he makes it clear that the wryneck is still em-
ployed as a magic bird. Describing the royal palace at
Babylon ^ he states that the Magi have hung four golden
wrynecks, which they themselves attune and which they call
the tongues of the gods, from the ceiling of the judgment
hall to remind the king of divine judgment and not to set
himself above mankind. Golden wrynecks were also sus-
pended in the Pythian temple at Delphi, and in this connec-
tion they are said to possess some of the virtue of the Sirens,^
or, as Mr. Cook translates it, "to echo the persuasive note of
siren voices." These two passages seem to point clearly to
the employment of mechanical metal birds which sang and
moved as if by magic. The Greek mathematician Hero in
his explanation of mechanical devices employed in temples
tells how to make a bird turn itself about and whistle by
turning a wheel. ^
Why Now this is precisely what the wryneck does in its "won-
named derful way of writhing its head and neck" and emitting hiss-
ing sounds. The bird's "unmistakable note" is "que, que,
* The passages are not listed in birds. But the iunx is found as a
Liddell and Scott, nor mentioned bird on several Greek vases of
by Professor Bury in his note on the latest period ; see British
"The tvy^ in Greek Magic," Museum Catalogue of Vases, vol.
Journal of Hellenic Studies IV, figs. 94, 98, 342, 163, 331b;
(1886), pp. 157-60. Hubert's magic wheels are also represented
article on "Magia" in Daremberg- on the vases, but are not described
Saglio cites only one passage and as iunges in the catalogue ; see
seems to regard the iunx solely vol. IV, figs. 33 la, 272>, 385, 399f
as a magic wheel. D'Arcy W. 409, 436, 450, 458, and vol. Ill,
Thompson, A Glossary of Greek E 774, F 223, F 279.
Birds, Oxford, 1895, also cites but ^ VI, 10; see also VIII, 7.
one passage from Philostratus. ^ I, 25.
A. B. Cook, Zeus, Cambridge, *VI, 11.
1914, I, 253-65, notes both main " Cited by Cook, Zeus, I, 266,
passages but tries to interpret the who, however, fails to connect it
iunges as solar wheels rather than with the iunx.
lunxi
VIII APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 267
que, repeated many times in succession, at first rapidly, but
gradually slowing and in a continually falling key." ^ I
would therefore suggest that as the English name for the
bird is derived from its writhing its neck, so the Greek name
comes from its cry, for "que" and the root 1^7, if repeated
rapidly many times in succession, sound much alike. ^
The name, Apollonius, continued to be associated with ApoIIonius
magic in the middle ages, when the Golden Flozvers of middle
Apollonius, a work on the notory art or theurgy,^ is found ^ses.
in the manuscripts. And we shall find Cecco d'Ascoli * in
the early fourteenth century citing a "book of magic art" by
Apollonius and also a treatise on spirits, De angelica fac-
tione. In 1412 Amplonius listed in the catalogue of his
manuscripts a "book of Apollonius the magician or philoso-
pher which is called Elizinus." ^ Works on the causes and
properties of things are also ascribed to Apollonius in
medieval manuscripts,^ and a Balenus or Belenus to whom
works on astrological images and seals are ascribed in the
manuscripts ^ is perhaps a corruption for Apollonius.^
^ Newton's Dictionary of Birds; Elizinus.
a reference supplied me by the *BN 13951, 12th century, Liber
kindness of my colleague, Pro- Apollonii de principalibus rerum
fessor F. H. Herrick. causis. Vienna 3124, 15th century,
' Professor Bury's theory that fols. 57v-s8v, "Verba de pro-
"the bird was called Xvy^ from prietatibus rerum quomodo virtus
its call which sounded like icb unius frangitur per aliuni. Ada-
ico; and it was used in lunar mas nee ferro nee igne domatur
enchantments because it was sup- .../... cito medetur."
posed to be calling on lo, the ' Royal 12-C-XVIII, Baleni de
moon": and that "Ivyi, originally imaginibus ; Sloane 3826, fols.
meant a moon-song independently loov-ioi, Beleemus de imaginibus;
of the wryneck," which came to Sloane 3848, fols. 52-8, Liber
be employed in magic moon- Balamini sapientis de sigillis
worship on account of its cry, has planetarum, fols. 59-62, liber sapi-
already been refuted by Pro- entis Baleym de ymaginibus sep-
fessor Thompson, who pointed tern planetarum. But these forms
out that "the bird does not cry might suggest Balaam. We also
lw„ i<ji, and the suggested deri- hear of Flacius Affricus, a disciple
vation of its name and sanctity of Belenus.
from such a cry cannot hold." * M. Steinschneider, "Apollonius
'See Chapter 49 for a fuller von Thyana (oder Balinas) bei
account of it. den Arabern," in Zeitschrift der
* See Chapter 71. Deutschen M orgenl'dndischcn Ge-
'Math. 54, Liber Appollonii j^//.yc/za/f, XLV (1891), 439-46.
magi vel philosophi qui dicitur
CHAPTER IX
LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ATTACKS UPON SUPER-
STITION : CICERO, FAVORINUS, SEXTUS EMPIRICUS,
AND LUCIAN
Authors to be considered — Their standpoint — De divinatione ; argu-
ment of Quintus — Cicero attacks past authority— Divination distinct
from natural science — Unreasonable in method — Requires violation^ of
natural law — Cicero and astrology — His crude historical criticism —
Favorinus against astrologers — Sextus Empiricus — Lucius, or The Ass:
is it by Lucian? — Career of Lucian — Alexander the pseudo-prophet —
Magical procedure in medicine satirized — Snake-charming — A Hyp^er-
borean magician — Some ghost stories — Pancrates, the magician —
Credulity and scepticism — Menippus, or Necromancy — Astrological in-
terpretation of Greek myth — History and defense of astrology — Lucian
not always sceptical — Lucian and medicine — Inevitable intermingling
of scepticism and superstition — Lucian on writing history.
Authors Having noted the large amount of magic that still existed
sidered. ^oth in the leading works of natural science of the early
Roman empire and in the more general literature of that
period, it is only fair that we should note such extremes of
scepticism towards the superstitions then current as can be
found during the same period. They are, however, few
and far between, and we shall have to go back to the close
of the Republican period for the best instance in the De
divinatione of Cicero. As Pliny's Ncttural History was
mainly a compilation of earlier Greek science, so Cicero's
arguments against divination were not entirely original with
him. As his other philosophical writings are largely in-
debted to the Greeks, so his attack upon divination is sup-
posed to be under considerable obligations to Clitomachus
and Panaetius,-^ philosophers of the New Academy and the
* T. Schiche, De foniibus libra- Die Quellen von Ciceros swei
rum Ciccronis qui sunt de divina- BHichern de Divinatione, Freiburg,
Hone, Jena, 1875; K. Hartf elder, 1878.
268
CHAP. IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 269
Stoic school who flourished respectively at Carthage and
Athens and at Rhodes and Rome in the second century be-
fore our era. We shall next briefly note the criticisms of
astrologers and astrology made by Favorinus, a rhetorician
from Gaul who resided at Rome under Hadrian and was a
friend of Plutarch but whose argument against the astrolo-
gers has been preserved only in the Attic Nights of Aulus
Gellius/ and by Sextus Empiricus,^ a sceptical philosopher
who wrote about 200. Finally we shall consider Lucian's
satirical depiction of various superstitions of his time.
It will be noticed that no one of these critics of magic, Their
if we may so designate them, is primarily a natural scientist.
Cicero and Lucian and Favorinus are primarily men of let-
ters and rhetoricians. And all four of our critics write to
a greater or less extent from the professed standpoint of a
general sceptical attitude in all matters of philosophy and
not merely in the matter of superstition. Thus the attack
of Sextus Empiricus upon astrology occurs in a work which
is directed against learning in general, and in which he assails
grammarians, rhetoricians, geometricians, arithmeticians,
students of music, logicians, physicists, and students of
ethics, as well as the casters of horoscopes. Aulus Gellius
did not know whether to take the arguments of Favorinus
against the astrologers seriously or not. He says that he
heard Favorinus make the speech the substance of which he
repeats, but that he is unable to state whether the philosopher
really meant what he said or argued merely in order to
exercise and to display his genius. There was reason for
this perplexity of Aulus Gellius, since Favorinus was in-
clined to such tours de force as eulogies of Thersites or of
Quartan Fever.
De divinatione takes the form of a supposititious conver- De divina-
sation, or better, informal debate, between the author and argument
his brother Quintus. In the first book Ouintus, in a rather °^ Quin-
. . . '^ . . . tus.
rambling and leisurely fashion and with occasional repetition
* Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticae, 'Adv. astro!., in Opera, ed.
XIV, I. Johannes Albertus Fabricius,
Leipzig, 1718.
270
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of ideas, upholds divination to the best of his ability, citing*
many reported instances of successful recourse to it in
antiquity. In the second book Tully proceeds with a some-
what patronizing air to pull entirely to pieces the arguments
of his brother who assents with cheerful readiness to their
demolition. On the whole the appeal to the past is the main
point in the argument of Quintus. What race or state, he
asks, has not believed in some form of divination? "For
before the revelation of philosophy, which was discovered
but recently, public opinion had no doubt of the truth of
this art; and after philosophy emerged no philosopher of
authority thought otherwise. I have mentioned Pytha-
goras, Democritus, Socrates. I have left out no one of the
ancients save Xenophanes. I have added the Old Academy,
the Peripatetics, the Stoics. Epicurus alone dissented." ^
Quintus closes his long argument in favor of the truth
of divination by solemnly asserting that he does not approve
of sorcerers, nor of those who prophesy for the sake of
gain, nor of the practice of questioning the spirits of the
dead — which nevertheless, he says, was a custom of his
brother's friend Appius."
When Tully's turn to speak comes, he rudely disturbs his
brother's reliance upon tradition. "I think it not the part of
a philosopher to employ witnesses, who are only haply true
and often purposely false and deceiving. He ought to
show why a thing is so by arguments and reasons, not by
events, especially those I cannot credit." ^ "Antiquity,"
Cicero declares later, "has erred in many respects." ** The
existence of the art of divination in every age and nation
has little effect upon him. There is nothing, he asserts, so
widespread as ignorance.^
Divination "^^^^ brothers distinguish divination as a separate sub-
distinct ject from the natural or even the applied sciences. Quintus
rafscience! says that medical men, pilots, and farmers foresee many
things, yet their arts are not divination. "Not even Phere-
^ De dizinatione, I, 39. * Ibid., II, 2>2>-
^Ibid., I, 58. ^Ibid.. II, 36.
'Ibid., II, II.
Cicero
attacks
past
authority.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 271
cydes, that famous Pythagorean master, who predicted an
earthquake when he saw that the water had disappeared
from a well which usually was well filled, should be re-
garded as a diviner rather than a physicist." ^ Tully carries
the distinction a step further and asserts that the sick seek
a doctor, not a soothsayer; that diviners cannot instruct us
in astronomy; that no one consults them concerning philo-
sophic problems or ethical questions ; that they can give us
no light on the problems of the natural universe; and that
they are of no service in logic, dialectic, or political science.^
An admirable declaration of independence of natural science
and medicine and other arts and constructive forms of
thought from the methods of divination ! But also one
more easy to state in general terms of theory than to enforce
in details of practice, as Pliny, Galen, and Ptolemy have
already shown us. None the less it is indeed a noteworthy
restriction of the field of divination when Cicero remarks
to his brother, "For those things which can be perceived
beforehand either by art or reason or experience or conjec-
ture you regard as not the affair of diviners but of scien-
tists." ^ But the question remains whether too large powers
of prediction may not be claimed by "science."
Cicero proceeds to attack the methods and assumptions
of divination as neither reasonable nor scientific. Why, Unreason-
he asks, did Calchas deduce from the devoured sparrows ^gfj^*'^
that the Trojan war would last ten years rather than ten
weeks or ten months ? * He points out that the art is con-
ducted in different places according to quite different rules
of procedure, even to the extent that a favorable omen in
one locality is a sinister warning elsewhere.^ He refuses to
believe in any extraordinary bonds of sympathy between
things which, in so far as our daily experience and our
'I, so. ''11,30.
a Tj - . " II, 12. An astrologer, how-
' '^ ^' ever, would probably say that
* II, 5. "Quae enim praesentiri seeming contradiction could be ac-
aut arte aut ratione aut usu aut counted for by the varying influ-
coniectura possunt, ea non divinis ence of the constellations upon
tribuenda putas sed peritis." different regions.
2^2
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Requires
violation
of natural
law.
Cicero and
astrology.
knowledge of the workings of nature can inform us, have
no causal connection. What intimate connection, he asks,
what bond of natural causality can there be between the
liver or heart or lung of a fat bull and the divine eternal
cause of all which rules the universe?^ "That anything
certain is signified by uncertain things, is not this the last
thing a scientist should admit?" " He refuses to accept
dreams as fit channels either of natural divination or divine
revelation.^ The Sibylline Books, like most oracles, are
vague and the evident product of labored ingenuity.*
Moreover, divination asserts the existence of phenomena
which science denies. Such a figment, Cicero scornfully
affirms, as that the heart will vanish from the carcass of a
victim is not believed even by old-wives now-a-days. How
can the heart vanish from the body? Surely it must be
there as long as life lasts, and how can it disappear in an
instant? "Believe me, you are abandoning the citadel of phi-
losophy while you defend its outposts. For in your effort
to prove soothsaying true you utterly pervert physiology.
. . . For there will be something which either springs from
nothing or suddenly vanishes into nothingness. What scien-
tist ever said that? The soothsayers say so? Are they
then, do you think, to be trusted rather than scientists?"*^
Cicero makes other arguments against divination such
as the stock contentions that it is useless to know prede-
termined events beforehand since they cannot be avoided,
and that even if we can learn the future, we shall be happier
not to do it, but his outstanding argument is that it is un-
scientific.
Cicero's attack upon divination is mainly directed
against liver divination and analogous methods of predict-
ing the future, but he devotes a few chapters ^ to the doc-
trines of the Chaldeans. They postulate a certain force in
the constellations called the zodiac and hold that between
*II, 12. 'II, 60-71.
^11, 19. "Quid igitur minus a ^11, 54.
physicis dici debet quam quidquam 'II, 16.
certi significari rebus incertis ?" " II, 42-47.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 273
man and the position of the stars and planets at the moment
of his birth there exists a relation of sympathy so that his
personality and all the events of his life are thereby deter-
mined. Diogenes the Stoic limited this influence to the
determination of one's aptitude and vocation, but Cicero
regards even this much as going too far. The immense
spaces intervening between the different planets seem to him
a reason for rejecting the contentions of the Chaldeans.
His further criticism that they insist that all men born at
the same moment are alike in character regardless of hori-
zons and different aspects of the sky in different places is
one that at least did not hold good permanently against
astrology and is not true of Ptolemy. He asks if all the
men who perished at Cannae were born beneath the same
star and how it came about that there was only one Homer
if several men are born every instant. He also adduces
the stock argument from twins. He attacks the practice,
which we shall find continued in the middle ages, of astro-
logical prediction of the fate of cities. He says that if all
animals are to be subjected to the stars, then inanimate
things must be, too, than which nothing can be more absurd.
This suggests that he hardly conceives of the fundamental
hypothesis of medieval science that all inferior nature is
under the influence of the celestial bodies and their motion
and light. At any rate his arguments are directed against
the casting of horoscopes or genethlialogy. And in the
matter of the influence of the planets upon man he was not
entirely antagonistic, at least in other writings than the De
divinatione, for in the Dream of Scipio he speaks of Jupiter
as a star wholesome and favorable to the human race, of
Mars as most unfavorable. He further calls seven and
eight perfect numbers and speaks of their product, fifty-six,
as signifying the fatal year in Scipio's life. Incidentally, as
another instance that Cicero was not always sceptical, it may
be recalled that it was in Cicero that Pliny read of a man
who could see one hundred and thirty-five miles. -^
^NH, VII, 21.
274
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
His crude
historical
criticism.
Favorinus
against as-
trologers.
Such apparent inconsistency is perhaps a sign of some-
what indiscriminating eclecticism on Cicero's part. We ex-
perience something of a shock, although perhaps we should
not be surprised, to find him in his Republic ^ arguing as
seriously in favor of the ascension or apotheosis of Romulus
as a historic fact as a professor of natural science in a
denominational college might argue in favor of the his-
toricity of the resurrection of Christ. Although in the De
divinatione he impatiently brushed aside the testimony of so
great a cloud of witnesses and of most philosophers in favor
of divination, he now argues that the opinion that Romulus
had become a god "could not have prevailed so universally
unless there had been some extraordinary manifestation of
power," and that "this is the more remarkable because other
men, said to have become gods, lived in less learned times
when the mind was prone to invent and the inexperienced
were easily led to believe," whereas Romulus lived only six
centuries ago when literature and learning had already made
great progress in removing error, when "Greece was already
full of poets and musicians, and little faith was placed in
legends unless they concerned remote antiquity." Yet a
few chapters later Cicero notes that Numa could not have
been a pupil of Pythagoras, since the latter did not come to
Italy until 140 years after his death; ^ and in a third chap-
ter ^ when Laelius remarks, "That king is indeed praised
but Roman History is obscure, for although we know the
mother of this king, we are ignorant of his father," Scipio
replies, "That is so ; but in those times it was almost enough
if only the names of the kings were recorded." We can
only add, "Consistency, thou art a jewel 1"
Favorinus denied that the doctrine of nativities was the
work of the Chaldeans and regarded it as the more recent
invention of marvel-mongers, tricksters, and mountebanks.
He regards the inference from the effect of the moon on
tides to that of the stars on every incident of our daily life
^Republic, II, 10.
'Ibid.. II, 15.
'Ibid., II, 18.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 275
as unwarranted. He further objects that if the Chaldeans
did record astronomical observations these would apply only
to their own region and that observations extended over a
vast lapse of time would be necessary to establish any system
of astrology, since it requires ages before the stars return
to their previous positions. Like Cicero, Favorinus prob-
ably manifests his ignorance of the technique of astrology
in complaining that astrologers do not allow for the differ-
ent influence of different constellations in different parts of
the earth. More cogent is his suggestion that there may be
other stars equal in power to the planets which men cannot
see either for their excess of splendor or because of their
position. He also objects that the position of the stars is
not the same at the time of conception and the time of birth,
and that, if the different fate of twins may be explained by
the fact that after all they are not born at precisely the same
moment, the time of birth and the position of the stars must
be measured with an exactness practically impossible. He
also contends that it is not for human beings to predict the
future and that the subjection of man not merely in matters
of external fortune but in his own acts of will to the stars
is not to be borne. These two arguments of the divine pre-
rogative and of human free will became Christian favorites.
He complains that the astrologers predict great events like
battles but cannot predict small ones, and declares that they
may congratulate themselves that he does not propose such
a question to them as that of astral influence on minute ani-
mals. This and his further question why, out of all the
grand works of nature, the astrologers limit their attention
to petty human fortune, suggest that like Cicero he did not
realize that astrology was or would become a theory of all
nature and not mere genethlialogy.
To the arguments against nativities that men die the Sextus
same death who were not born at the same time and that Empincus.
men who are born at the same time are not identical in
character or fortune Sextus Empiricus adds the derisive
question whether a man and an ass born in the same instant
276
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Lucius or
The Ass:
is it by
Lucian ?
would suffer exactly the same destiny. Ptolemy would of
course reply that while the influence of the stars is constant
in both cases it is variably received by men and donkeys;
and Sextus's query does not show him very well versed in
astrology. He mentions the obstacle of free will to astro-
logical theory but does not make very much of it. The chief
point which he makes is that even if the stars do rule human
destiny, their effect cannot be accurately measured. He
lays stress on the difficulty of exactly determining the date
of birth or of conception, or the precise moment when a
star passes into a new sign of the zodiac. He notes the
variability and unreliability of water-clocks. He calls atten-
tion to the fact that observers at varying altitudes as well
as in different localities would arrive at different conclu-
sions. Differences in eyesight would also affect results, and
it is difficult to tell just when the sun sets or any sign of
the zodiac drops below the horizon owing to reflection and
refraction of rays. Sextus thus leaves us somewhat in doubt
whether his objections are to be taken as indicative of a
spirit of captious criticism towards an art, the fundamental
principles of which he tacitly recognizes as well-nigh incon-
testible, or whether he is simply trying to make his case
doubly sure by showing astrology to be impracticable as
well as unreasonable. In any case we shall find his argument
that the influence of the stars cannot be measured accurately
repeated by Christian writers.
The main plot of the Metamorphoses of Apuleius ap-
pears, shorn of the many additional stories, the religious
mysticism, and the autobiographical element which charac-
terize his narrative, in a brief and perhaps epitomized Greek
version, entitled Lucius or The Ass, among the works of
Lucian of Samosata, the contemporary of Apuleius and
noted satirist. The work is now commonly regarded as
spurious, since the style seems different from that of Lucian
and the Attic Greek less pure. The narrative, too, is bare,
at least compared with the exuberant fancy of Apuleius, and
seems to avoid the marvelous and romantic details in which
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 277
he abounds. Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in the
ninth century, who regarded the work as Lucian's, said that
he wrote in it as one deriding the extravagance of super-
stition. Whether this be true of The Ass or not, it is true
of other satires by Lucian of undisputed genuineness, in
which he ridicules the impostures of the magic and pseudo-
science of his day. In place of the genial humor and fantas-
tic imagination with which his African contemporary credu-
lously welcomed the magic and occult science of his time,
the Syrian satirist probes the same with the cool mockery of
his keen and sceptical wit.
Lucian was born at Samosata near Antioch about 120 or Career of
125 A. D. and after an unsuccessful beginning as a sculptor's
apprentice turned to literature and philosophy. He prac-
ticed in the law courts at Antioch for some time and also
wrote speeches for others. For a considerable period of his
life he roamed about the Mediterranean world from Paphla
gonia to Gaul as a rhetorician, and like Apuleius resided both
at Athens and Rome. After forty he ceased teaching
rhetoric and devoted himself to literary production, living
at Athens. Towards the close of his life, "when he already
had one foot in Charon's boat," ^ he was holding a well paid
and important legal position in Egypt. His death occurred
perhaps about 200 A. D. Some ascribe it to gout, probably
because he wrote two satires on that disease. Suidas states
that Lucian was torn to pieces by dogs as a punishment for
his attacks upon Christianity, which again is probably a
perversion of Lucian's own statement in Peregrinus that he
narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by the Cynics.
It was at the request of that same adversary of Chris- Alexander
tianity against whom Origen composed the Reply to Ceisus 'A'^j^j^.
that Lucian wrote his account of the impostor, Alexander prophet.
of Abonutichus, a pseudo-prophet of Paphlagonia. This
Alexander pretended to discover the god Asclepius in th«
form of a small viper which he had sealed up in a goose tgg.
'^Apologia pro mercede conduc- H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler,
tis. Most of Lucian's Essays have 1905, 4 vols,
been translated into English by
278 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
He then replaced the tiny viper by a huge tame serpent which
he had purchased at Pella in Macedon and which was trained
to hide its head in Alexander's armpit, while to the crowd,
who were also permitted to touch the tail and body of the
real snake, was shown a false serpent's head made of linen
with human features and a mouth that opened and shut and
a tongue that could be made to dart in and out. Having thus
convinced the people that the viper had really been a god
and had miraculously increased in size, Alexander proceeded
to sell oracular responses as from the god. Inquirers sub-
mitted their questions in sealed packages which were later
returned to them with appropriate answers and with the seals
unbroken and apparently untouched. Similarly Plutarch
tells of a sceptical opponent of oracles who became converted
into their ardent supporter by receiving such an answer to
a sealed letter.^ Lucian, however, explains that Alexander
sometimes used a hot needle to melt the seal and then restore
it to practically its original shape, or employed other methods
by which he took exact impressions of the seal, then boldly
broke it, read the question, and afterwards replaced the seal
by an exact replica of the original made in the mould.
Lucian adds that there are plenty of other devices of this
sort which he does not need to repeat to Celsus who has
already made a sufficient collection of them in his "excellent
treatises against the magicians." Lucian tells later, how-
ever, how Alexander made his god seem to speak by attach-
ing a tube made of the windpipes of cranes to the artificial
head and having an assistant outside speak through this
concealed tube. In our later discussion of the church father
Hippolytus we shall find that he apparently made use of this
expose of magic by Lucian as well as of the arguments of
Sextus Empiricus against astrology. Lucian's personal ex-
periences with this Alexander were quite interesting but
are less germane to our investigation.
^ De defectu oraculorum, 45.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 279
We must not fail, however, to note another essay, Philo- Magicai
pseudes or Apiston, in which the superstition and pseudo- fn^medr-^^
science of antiquity are sharply satirized in what purports cine
to be a conversation of several philosophers, including a
Stoic, a Peripatetic, and a Platonist, and a representative of
ancient medicine in the person of Antigonus, a doctor. Some
of the magical procedure then employed in curing diseases
is first satirized. Cleodemus the Peripatetic advises as a
remedy for gout to take in the left hand the tooth of a field
mouse which has been killed in a prescribed manner, to wrap
it in the skin of a lion freshly-flayed, and thus to bind it
about the ailing foot. He affirms that it will give instant
relief. Dinomachus the Stoic admits that the occult virtue
of the lion is very great and that its fat or right fore-paw
or the bristles of its beard, if combined with the proper
incantations, have wonderful efficacy. But he holds that for
the cure of gout the skin of a virgin hind would be superior
on the ground that the hind is speedier than the lion and so
more beneficial to the feet. Cleodemus retorts that he used
to think the same, but that a Libyan has convinced him that
the lion can run faster than the hind or it would never catch
one. The sceptical reporter of this conversation states that
he vainly attempted to convince them that an internal disease
could not be cured by external attachments or by incanta-
tions, methods which he regards as the veriest sorcery
(goefia).
His protests, however, merely lead Ion the Platonist to Snake;
recount how a Magus, a Chaldean of Babylonia, cured his '^ ^^^^S-
father's gardener who had been stung by an adder on the
great toe and was already all swollen up and nearly dead.
The magician's method was to apply a splinter of stone from
the statue of a virgin to the toe, uttering at the same time
an incantation. He then led the way to the field where the
gardener had been stung; pronounced seven sacred names
from an ancient volume, and fumigated the place thrice with
torches and sulphur. All the snakes in the field then came
forth from their holes with the exception of one very aged
2S0
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
A Hyper-
borean
magician.
Some
ghost
stories.
Pancrates,
the
magician.
and decrepit serpent, whom the magician sent a young snake
back to fetch. Having thus assembled every last serpent, he
blew upon them, and they all vanished into thin air.
This tale reminds the Stoic of another magician, a bar-
barian and Hyperborean, who could walk through fire or
upon water and even fly through the air. He could also
"make people fall in love, call up spirits, resuscitate corpses,
bring down the moon, and show you Hecate herself as large
as life." ^ More specific illustration of the exercise of these
powers is given in an account of a love spell which he per-
formed for a young man for a big fee. Digging a trench,
he raised the ghost of the youth's father and also summoned
Hecate, Cerberus, and the Moon. The last named appeared
in three successive forms of a woman, an ox, and a puppy.
The sorcerer then constructed a clay image of the god of
love and sent it to fetch the girl, who came and stayed until
cock-crow, when all the apparitions vanished with her. In
vain the sceptic argues that the girl in question would have
come willingly enough without any magic. The Platonist
matches the previous story with one of a Syrian from Pales-
tine who cast out demons.
The discussion then further degenerates into ghost
stories and tales of statuettes that leave their pedestals after
the household has retired for the night. One speaker says
that he no longer has any fear of ghosts since an Arab gave
him a magic ring made of nails from crosses and taught him
an incantation to use against spooks. At this juncture a
Pythagorean philosopher of great repute enters and adds his
testimony in the form of an account of how he laid a ghost
at Corinth by employing an Egyptian incantation.
Eucrates, the host, then tells of Pancrates, whom he had
met in Egypt and who "had spent twenty-three years under-
ground learning magic from Isis," and whom crocodiles
would allow to ride on their backs. They traveled a time
together without a servant, since Pancrates was able to dress
up the door-bar or a broom or pestle, turn it into human
^ Fowler's translation.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 281
form, and make it wait upon them. There follows the
familiar story of Eucrates' overhearing the incantation of
three syllables which Pancrates employed and of trying it
out himself when the magician was absent. The pestle
turned into human form all right enough and obeyed his
order to bring in water, but then he discovered that he could
not make it stop, and when he seized an axe and chopped it
in two, the only effect was to produce two water-carriers in
place of one.
The conversation is turning to the subject of oracles Credulity
when the sceptic can stand it no longer and retires in dis- scepticism,
gust. As he tells what he has heard to a friend, he remarks
upon the childish credulity of "these admired teachers from
whom our youth are to learn wisdom." At the same time,
the stories seem to have made a considerable impression even
upon him, and he wishes that he had some lethal drug to
make him forget all these monsters, demons, and Hecates
that he seems still to see before him. His friend, too, de-
clares that he has filled him with demons. Their dialogue
then concludes with the consoling reflection that truth and
sound reason are the best drugs for the cure of such empty
lies.
The Menippus or Necromancy, while an obvious imita- Menippus,
tion and parody of Odysseus' mode of descent to the under-
world to consult Teiresias, also throws some light on the
magic of Lucian's time. In order to reach the other world
Menippus went to Babylon and consulted Mithrobarzanes,
one of the Magi and followers of Zoroaster. He is also
called one of the Chaldeans. Besides a final sacrifice
similar to that of Odysseus, the procedure by which the
magician procured their passage to the other world included
on his part muttered incantations and invocations, for the
most part unintelligible to Menippus, spitting thrice in the
latter's face, waving torches about, drawing a magic circle,
and wearing a magic robe. As for Menippus, he had to
bathe in the Euphrates at sunrise every morning for the
full twenty-nine days of a moon, after which he was purified
tnancy.
282
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Astrologi-
cal inter-
pretation
of Greek
myth.
at midnight in the Tigris and by fumigation. He had to
sleep out-of-doors and observe a special diet, not look any-
one in the eye on his way home, walk backwards, and so
on. The ultimate result of all these preparations was that
the earth was burst asunder by the final incantation and the
way to the underworld laid open. When it came time to
return Menippus crawled up with difficulty, like Dante going
from the Inferno to Purgatory, through a narrow tunnel
which opened on the shrine of Trophonius.
An essay on astrology ascribed to Lucian is usually
regarded as spurious.^ Denial of its authenticity, however,
should rest on such grounds as its literary style and the
manuscript history of the work rather than upon its — to
modern eyes — superstitious character. In antiquity a man
might be sceptical about most superstitions and yet believe
in astrology as a science. Lucian's sceptical friend Celsus,
for example, as we shall see in our chapter on Origen's
Reply to Celsus, believed that the future could be foretold
from the stars. And whether the present essay is genuine or
spurious, it is certainly noteworthy that for all his mockery
of other superstition Lucian does not attack astrology in any
of his essays. Moreover, this essay on astrology is very
sceptical in one way, since it denies the literal truth of vari-
ous Greek myths and gives an astrological interpretation of
them, as in the case of Zeus and Kronos and the so-called
adultery of Mars. This is not inconsistent with Lucian's
ridicule elsewhere of the anthropomorphic Olympian divini-
ties. What Orpheus taught the Greeks was astrology, and
the planets were signified by the seven strings of his lyre.
Teiresias taught them further to distinguish which stars were
masculine and which feminine in character and influence.
A proper interpretation of the myth of Atreus and Thyestes
also shows the Greeks at an early date acquainted with astro-
logical doctrine. Bellerophon soared to the sky, not on a
* Fowler omits it. It appears in
the Teubner edition, Luciani
Samosatensis opera, ed. C. Jaco-
bitz, II (1887), 187-95, but both
Jacobitz and Dindorf mark it as
spurious. Croiset, Essai sur la
vie et les oouvrcs de Lucien, Paris,
1882, p. 43, also rejects it.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 283
horse but by the scientific power of his mind. Daedalus
taught Icarus astrology and the fable of Phaethon is to be
similarly interpreted. Aeneas was not really the son of the
goddess Venus, nor Minos of Jupiter, nor Aesculapius of
Mars, nor Autolycus of Mercury. These are to be taken
simply as the planets under whose rule they were born.
The author also connects Egyptian animal worship with the
signs of the zodiac.
The author of the essay also delves into the history of History
astrology, to which he assigns a high antiquity. The ^^^^^ ^'f
Ethiopians were the first to cultivate it and handed it on in a astrology,
still imperfect stage to the Egyptians who developed it. The
Babylonians claim to have studied it before other peoples,
but our author thinks that they did so long after the Ethi-
opians and Egyptians. The Greeks were instructed in the
art neither by the Ethiopians nor the Egyptians, but, as we
have seen, by Orpheus. Our author not only states that the
ancient Greeks never built towns or walls or got married
without first resorting to divination, but even asserts that
astrology was their sole method of divination, that the
Pythia at Delphi was the type of celestial purity and that the
snake under the tripod represented the dragon among the
constellations, Lycurgus taught his Lacedaemonians to ob-
serve the moon, and only the uncultured Arcadians held
themselves aloof from astrology. Yet at the present day
some oppose the art, declaring either that the stars have
naught to do with human affairs or that astrology is useless
since what is fated cannot be avoided. To the latter objec-
tion our author makes the usual retort that forewarned is
forearmed; as for the former denial, if a horse stirs the
stones in the road as it runs, if a passing breath of wind
moves straws to and fro, if a tiny flame burns the finger, will
not the courses and deflexions of the brilliant celestial bodies
have their influence upon earth and mankind?
The manner of the essay does not seem like Lucian's Lucian not
usual style, and the astrological interpretation of religious sceptical,
myth was characteristic of the Stoic philosophy, whereas
2»4
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Lucian
and
medicine.
Lucian's philosophical affinities, if he can be said to have
any, are perhaps rather with the Epicureans. But Celsus
was an Epicurean and yet believed in astrology. It must
not be thought, however, that Lucian in his other essays
is always sceptical in regard to what we should classify as
superstition. He tells us how his career was determined by
a dream in the autobiographical essay of that title. In the
Dialogues of the Gods magic is mentioned as a matter-of-
course, Zeus complaining that he has to resort to magic in
order to win women and Athene warning Paris to have
Aphrodite remove her girdle, since it is drugged or enchanted
and may bewitch him.
The writings of Lucian contain many allusions to the
doctors, diseases, and medicines of his time.^ On the whole
he confirms Galen's picture. Numerous passages show that
the medical profession was held in high esteem, and Lucian
himself first went to Rome in order to consult an oculist.
At the same time Lucian satirizes the quacks and medical
superstition of the time, as we have already seen, and
describes several statues which were believed to possess heal-
ing powers. In the burlesque tragedy on gout, Tragodopo-
dagra, whose authenticity, however, is questioned, the dis-
ease personified is triumphant, and the moral seems to be
that all the remedies which men have tried are of no avail.
On the other hand, Lucian wrote seriously of the African
snake whose bite causes one to die of thirst {De dipsadibus).
He admits that he has never seen anyone in this condition
and has not even been in Libya where these snakes are
found, but a friend has assured him that he has seen the
tombstone epitaph of a man who had died thus, a rather
indirect mode of proof which we are surprised should satisfy
the author of How to Write History. Lucian also repeats
the common notion that persons bitten by a mad dog can
be cured only by a hair or other portion of the same animal.^
^ See the interesting paper of J. Proceedings of the Royal Society
D. Rolleston, "Lucian and Medi- of Medicine, VIII, 49-58, 72-84.
cine," 1915, 23 pp., reprinted from * See the close of Nigrinus.
IX ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION 285
Our chapter which set out to note cases of scepticism Inevitable
in regard to superstition has ended by including a great gHng"of '
deal of such superstition. The sceptics themselves seem scepticism
, T • . • 1 ^"^ super-
credulous on some pomts, and Lucian s satire perhaps more stition.
reveals than refutes the prevalence of superstition among
even the highly educated. The same is true of other literary
satirists of the Roman Empire whose jibes against the
astrologers and their devotees only attest the popularity of
the art and who themselves very probably meant only to
ridicule its more extreme pretensions and were perhaps at
bottom themselves believers in the fundamentals of the art.
Our authors to some extent, as we have pointed out, pro-
vided an arsenal of arguments from which later Christian
writers took weapons for their assaults upon pagan magic
and astrology. But sometimes subsequent writers confused
scepticism with credulity, and the influence of our authors
upon them became just the opposite of what they intended.
Thus Ammianus Marcellinus, the soldier-historian of the
falling Roman Empire upon whom Gibbon placed so much
reliance, was so attached to divination that he even quoted
its arch-opponent, Cicero, in support of it. For he actually
concludes his discussion of the subject in these words :
"Wherefore in this as in other matters Tully says most
admirably, 'Signs of future events are shown by the
gods.' " 1
But in order to conclude our chapter on scepticism with Lucian on
a less obscurantist passage, let us return to Lucian. His J^jg^Q^y
essay. How to Write History, gives serious expression to
those ideals of truth and impartiality which also lie behind
his mockery of impostors and the over-credulous. "The
historian's one task," in his estimation, "is to tell the thing
as it happened." He should be "fearless, incorruptible, in-
dependent, a believer in frankness, ... an impartial judge,
kind to all but too kind to none." "He has to make of his
brain a mirror, unclouded, bright, and true of surface."
"Facts are not to be collected at haphazard but with careful,
^ Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt, XXI, i, 14.
286 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, ix
laborious, repeated investigation." "Prefer the disinterested
account." ^ Such sentences and phrases as these reveal a
scientific and critical spirit of high order and seem a vast
improvement upon the frailty of Cicero's historical criticism.
But how far Lucian would have been able to follow his own
advice is perhaps another matter.
^The wording of these excerpts is that of Fowler's translation.
CHAPTER X
THE SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS OF HERMES, ORPHEUS,
AND ZOROASTER
Mystic works of revelation — The Hermetic books — Poimandres and
the Hermetic Corpus — Astrological treatises ascribed to Hermes —
Hermetic works of alchemy — Nechepso and Petosiris — Manetho — The
Lithica of Orpheus — Argument of the poem — Magic powers of stones
— Magic rites to gain powers of divination — Power of gems compared
with herbs — Magic herbs and demons in Orphic rites — Books ascribed to
Zoroaster — The Chaldean Oracles.
There were in circulation in the Roman Empire many writ- Mystic
ings which purported to be of divine origin and authorship, ^velation.
or at least the work of ancient culture-heroes and founders
of religions who were of divine descent and divinely in-
spired. These oracular and mystic compositions usually
pretend to great antiquity and often claim as their home
such hoary lands as Egypt and Chaldea, although in the
Hellenic past Apollo and in the Roman past the Sibylline
books ^ also afford convenient centers about which forgeries
cluster. Assuming as these writings do to disclose the
secrets of ancient priesthoods and to publish what should
not be revealed to the vulgar crowd, they may be confidently
expected to embody a great deal of superstition and magic
along with their expositions of mystic theologies. Also the
authors, editors, or publishers of astrological, alchemistic,
and other pseudo-scientific treatises could not be expected
to resist the temptation of claiming a venerable and cryptic
origin for some of their books. Moreover, such pseudo-
literature was not entirely unjustified in its affirmation of
high antiquity. Few things in intellectual history antedate
magic, and these spurious compositions are not especially
* See Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und Forschiingen, Halle, 1898; Alex-
andre, Oracida Sibyllina, 2nd ed., Paris, 1869; Charles (1913) H, 368 ff.
287
288 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
distinguished by new ideas, although they to some extent
reflect the progress made in learning, occult as well as scien-
tific, in the Hellenistic age. It must be added that much of
their contents depends for its effect entirely upon its claim
to eminent authorship and great antiquity and upon the im-
pressionability of its public. To-day most of it seems
trivial commonplace or marked by the empty vagueness
characteristic of oracular utterances. I shall attempt no
complete exposition or exhaustive treatment of such writ-
ings ^ but touch upon a few examples which bear upon the
relations of science and magic.
The Chief among these are the Hermetic books or writings
books. attributed to Hermes the Egyptian or Trismegistus. "Under
this name," wrote Steinschneider in 1906, "there exists in
many languages a literature, for the most part superstitious,
which seems to have not yet been treated in its totality." ^
The Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, known in Greek as
OioW, QccO, and Tar, was identified with Hermes, and the
epithet "thrice-great" is also derived from the Egyptian
aa aa, "the great Great." Citations of works ascribed to this
Hermes Trismegistus can be traced back as early as the first
century of our era.^ He is also mentioned or quoted by
various church fathers from Athenagoras to Augustine and
often figures in the magical papyri. The historian Ammi-
anus Marcellinus ^ in the fourth century ranks him with the
great sages of the past such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and
Apollonius of Tyana. Our two chief descriptions of the
Hermetic books from the period of the Roman Empire are
found in the Stromata^ of the Christian Clement of Alex-
andria (C.150-C.220 A.D.) and in the De mysteriis^
ascribed to the Neo-Platonist lamblichus (died about 330
* Besides the works to be cited ^Steinschneider (1906), 24. He
later in this chapter, the reader mentions the dissertation of R.
may consult : A. Dieterich, Ab- Pietschmann, Hermes Trismegis-
raxas (Studien z. relig. gcsch. d. tus, Leipzig, 1875.
.y/)af. a/^.), Leipzig, 1891, especially ^ See Galen, citing Pamphilus,
chapter II (pp. I36ff.), "Jiidisch- Kuhn, XI, 798.
orphisch-gnostiche Kulte und die * XXI, 14, 15.
Zauberbiicher" ; and G. A. Lobeck, ' VI, 4.
Aglaophanms, 1829, 2 vols. *I, IJ VIII, 1-4.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 289
A. D.). Clement speaks of forty-two books by Hermes
which are regarded as "indispensable." Of these ten are
called "Hieratic" and deal with the laws, the gods, and the
training of the priests. Ten others detail the sacrifices,
prayers, processions, festivals, and other rites of Egyptian
worship. Two contain hymns to the gods and rules for
the king. Six are medical, "treating of the structure of the
body and of diseases and instruments and medicines and
about the eyes and the last about women." Four are astro-
nomical or astrological, and the remaining ten deal with
cosmography and geography or with the equipment of the
priests and the paraphernalia of the sacred rites. Clement
does not say so, but from his brief summary one can
imagine how full these volumes probably were of occult
virtues of natural substances, of magical procedure, and of
intimate relations and interactions between nature, stars,
and spirits. lamblichus repeats the statement of Seleucus
that Hermes wrote twenty thousand volumes and the asser-
tion of Manetho that there were 36,525 books, a number
doubtless connected with the supposed length of the year,
three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter days.^
lamblichus adds that Hermes wrote one hundred treatises
on the ethereal gods and one thousand concerning the
celestial gods.^ He is aware, however, that most books
attributed to Hermes were not really composed by him,
since in other passages he speaks of "the books which are
circulated under the name of Hermes," ^ and explains that
"our ancestors . , . inscribed all their own writings with
the name of Hermes," * thus dedicating them to him as the
patron deity of language and theology. By the time of
lamblichus these books had been translated from the Egyp-
tian tongue into Greek.
There has come down to us under the name of Hermes Poiman-
a collection of seventeen or eighteen fragments which is hermetic ^
generally known as the Hermetic Corpus. Of the frag- Corpus.
'VIII, I. 'VIII, 4.
"VIII, 2. n, I.
290 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ments the first and chief is entitled Poimandres {HoLnavbp-qs),
a name which is sometimes apphed to the entire Corpus.
Another fragment entitled Asclepius, since it is in the form
of a dialogue between him and "Mercurius Trismegis-
tus," exists in a Latin form which has been ascribed probably
incorrectly to Apuleius of Madaura as translator {Asclepius
. . . Mercurii trismegisti dialogus Lucio Apuleio Madau-
rensi philosopho Platonico interprete) . None of the Greek
manuscripts of the Corpus seems older than the fourteenth
century, although Reitzenstein thinks that they may all be
derived from the version which Michael Psellus had before
him in the eleventh century.^ But the concluding prayer
of the Poimandres exists in a third century papyrus, and the
alchemist Zosimus in the fourth century seems acquainted
with the entire collection. The treatises in this Corpus are
concerned primarily with religious philosophy or theosophy,
with doctrines similar to those of Plato concerning the soul
and to the teachings of the Gnostics, The moral and re-
ligious instruction is associated, however, with a physics and
cosmology very favorable to astrology and magic. Of magic
in the narrow sense there is little in the Corpus, but a
Hermetic fragment preserved by Stobaeus affirms that
"philosophy and magic nourish the soul." Astrology plays
a much more prominent part, and the stars are ranked as
visible gods, of whom the sun is by far the greatest. All
seven planets nevertheless control the changes in the world
of nature; there are seven human types corresponding to
them; and the twelve signs of the zodiac also govern the
human body. Only the chosen few who possess gnosis or
are capable of receiving nous can escape the decrees of fate
as administered by the stars and ultimately return to the
spiritual world, passing through "choruses of demons" and
"courses of stars" and reaching the Ogdoad or eighth heaven
above and beyond the spheres of the seven planets. ^ Such
'R. Reitzenstein, Poimatuires, ^Citations supporting this and
Leipzig, 1904, p. 319. This work the preceding sentences may be
is the fullest scientific treatment found in Kroll's article on
of the subject. Hermes Trismegistus in Pauly-
SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS
291
Gnostic cosmology and demonolog}% especially the location
of demons amid the planetary spheres, provides favorable
ground for the development of astrological necromancy.
Not only is a belief in astrology implied throughout the Astro-
Poimandres, but a number of separate astrological treatises treatises
are extant in whole or part under the name of Hermes Tris- |jcnbed to
megistus/ and he is frequently cited as an authority in other
Greek astrological manuscripts.- The treatises attributed
to him comprise one upon general method,^ one on the names
and powers of the twelve .signs, one on astrological medicine
addressed to Ammon the Egyptian,^ one on thunder and
lightning, and some hexameters on the relation of earth-
quakes to the signs of the zodiac. This last is also ascribed
to Orpheus.^ There are various allusions to and versions
of tracts concerning the relation of herbs to the planets or
signs of the zodiac or thirty-six decans.® These treatises
attribute magic virtues to plants, include a prayer to be
repeated when plucking each herb, and tell how to use the
Wissowa, 809-820. The Poiman-
dres was translated into English
by John Everard, D.D., a mystic
but also a popular preacher whose
outspoken sermons caused his fre-
quent arrest and imprisonment
during the reigns of James I and
Charles I. James is reported to
have said of him, "What is this
Dr. Ever-out? Hi? name shall be
Dr. Never-out," {Diet. Nat. Biog,).
Dr. Everard's translation was
printed in 1650 and again in 1657
when the "Asclepius" was added
to it. In 1884 it appeared again
in the Bath Occult Reprint Series
with an introduction by Hargrave
Jennings, and the second volume
in the same series was Hermes'
The Virgin of the World, pub-
lished at London. Kroll mentions
only the more recent translation
by Mead, Thrice Greatest Her-
mes. London, 1906.
^ Consult the bibliography in
Kroll's article in Pauly-Wissowa.
' See the various volumes of
Catalogiis codicum astrologorum
Graecorum, passim.
^ Unprinted.
■* An English translation by
John Harvey was printed in Lon-
don, 1657, i2mo. It also exists in
manuscript form in the British
Museum ; Sloane 1734, fols. 283-
98, "The learned work of Hermes
Trismegistus intituled hys Phis-
icke Mathematycke or Mathe-
maticall Physickes, direct to Ham-
mon Kinge of Egvpte."
'Orphica, ed. Abel (1885), p.
141.
" It was to a work on this last
subject that Pamphilus, cited by
Galen, referred in mentioning the
herb aerov, but this plant is not
named in the extant treatise on
the decans. Such treatises are
more or less addressed to As-
clepius : printed in J. B. Pitra,
Analecta Sacra, V, ii, 279-go;
Cat. cod. antral. Grace. IV, 134;
VI, 83; VII, 231; VIII, ii, 159;
VIII, iii, 151; and by Ruelle, Rev.
Phil, XXXII, 247.
292
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Hermetic
works of
alchemy.
Nechepso
and
Petosiris.
Manetho.
astrological figures of the decans, engraved on stones, as
healing amulets.
Works under the name of Hermes Trismegistus are
cited by Greek alchemists of the closing Roman Empire, such
as Zosimus, Stephanus, and Olympiodorus, but those Her-
metic treatises of alchemy which are extant are of late date
and much altered. ■"• Some treatises are preserved only in
Arabic; others are medieval Latin fabrications. The Greek
alchemists, however, seem to have recited the mystic hymn
of Hermes from the Poimandres?
Hellenistic and Roman astrology sought to extend its
roots far back into Egyptian antiquity by putting forth
spurious treatises under the names, not only of Hermes
Trismegistus, but also of Nechepso and Petosiris,^ who were
regarded respectively as an Egyptian king and an Egyptian
priest who had lived at least seven centuries before Christ.
Indeed, they were held to be the recipients of divine revela-
tion from Hermes and Asclepius. A lengthy astrological
treatise, which Pliny ^ is the first to cite and from a four-
teenth book of which Galen ^ mentions a magic ring of
jasper engraved with a dragon and rays, seems to have
appeared in their names probably at Alexandria in the
Hellenistic period. Only fragments and citations ascribed
to Nechepso and Petosiris are now extant.^
Yet another astrological work which claims to be drawn
from the secret sacred books and cryptic monuments of
ancient Egypt is ascribed to Manetho. It is a compilation
^Berthelot (1885), pp. 133-6, and
his article on Hermes Trisme-
gistus in La Grande Encyclopedie;
also Kroll on Hermes in Pauly-
Wissowa, 799.
'Berthelot (1885), p. 134.
* Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie
grecque, 1899, PP- xi, 519-20,
563-4-
*NH, n, 21; VH, 50.
"Kiihn, Xn, 207.
"They have been collected and
edited by E. Riess, Ncchepsonis
et Petosiridis frag'menta niagica,
in Philologus, Supplbd. VI, Got-
tingen (1891-93), pp. 323-394- See
also F. Boll, Die Erforschung der
antikcn Astrologie, in Neue Jahrb.
fiir das klass. Altert., XI (1908),
p. 106, and his dissertation of the
same title published at Bonn, 1890.
I have found that Riess, while in-
cluding some of the passages at-
tributed to Nechepso by the sixth
century medical writer, Aetius,
seems to have overlooked the
"Emplastrum Nechepsonis e cu-
presso," Aetius, Tetrabibl., IV,
Sermo III, cap. 19 (p. 771 in the
edition of Stephanus, 15^).
X SPURIOUS MYSnC WRITINGS 293
in verse of prognostications from the various constellations
and is regarded as the work of several writers, of whom
the oldest is placed in the reign of Alexander Severus in the
third century.^
Orpheus is another author more cited than preserved by The
classical antiquity. Pliny called him the first writer on herbs Orpheus,
and suspected him of magic. Ernest Riess affirms that
Rohde (Psyche, p. 398) "has abundantly proved that
Orpheus' followers were among the chief promulgators of
purifications and charms against evil spirits." ^ Among
poems of some length extant under Orpheus' name the one
of most interest to us is the Lithica, where in 770 lines the
virtues of some thirty gems are set forth with considerable
allusion to magic.^ The authorship is uncertain, but the
verse is supposed to follow the prose treatise by Damigeron
who lived in the second century B. C. The date of the poem
is now generally fixed in the fourth century of our era,
although King ^ argued for an earlier date. I agree with
him that the allusion in lines 71-74 to decapitation on the
charge of magic is, taken alone, too vague and blind to be
associated with any particular event or time; editors since
Tyrwhitt have connected it with the law of Constantius
against magic and the persecution of magicians in 371 A. D.
But King's contention that the Lithica is by the same author
as the Argonaiitica, also ascribed to Orpheus, and is there-
fore of early date, falls to the ground since the Argonaiitica,
too, is now dated in the fourth century.
^ Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie rus texts in the Cunningham
grecquc, 1898, p. xiii. Axt and Memoirs of the Royal Irish Acad-
Riegler, Manethonis Apotclesmati- emy.
corum libri sex Cologne, 1832. 3 ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Lithica
Also edited by Koechly. is contained in Orphica, ed. E.
_*_E. Riess, On Ancient Super- Abel, Lipsiae et Pragae, 1885. A
stition, in Transactions Ameri- rather too free English verse
can Philological Association translation, Orpheus on Gems,
(1895), XXVI, 40-55. Grenfell is given in C. W. King, T/j^ /v^a/M-
(1921), p. 151, announces that J. ral History, Ancient and Modern,
G. Smyly is about to publish "a of Precious Stones and Gems and
remarkable fragment of an Orphic of Precious Metals, London, 1865.
ritual" among some thirty papy- * Pp. 397-98.
294
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Argument
of the
poem.
Magic
powers of
stones.
The Lithica opens by representing Hermes as bestowing
upon mankind the precious lore of the marvelous virtues of
gems. In his cave are stored stones which banish ghosts,
robbers, and snakes, which bring health, happiness, victory
in war and games, honor at courts and success in love, and
which insure safety on journeys, the favor of the gods, and
enable one to read the hidden thoughts of others and to
understand the language of the birds as they predict the
future. Few persons, however, avail themselves of this
mystic lore, and those who do so are liable to be executed
on the charge of magic. After this introduction, which may
be regarded as a piquant appetizer to whet the reader's taste
for further details, the virtues of individual stones are
described, first in the words of Theodamas, a wise and divine
man ^ whom the author meets on his way to perform annual
sacrifice at an altar of the Sun, where as a child he narrowly
escaped from a deadly snake, and then in a speech of the
seer Helenus to Philoctetes which Theodamas quotes. Greek
gods are often mentioned; as the poem proceeds the virtues
of a number of gems are attributed to Apollo rather than
Hermes; and there are allusions to Greek mythology and
the Trojan war. Some gems are found in animals, for in-
stance, in the viper or the brain of the stag.
Let us turn to some examples of the marvelous virtues
of particular stones. The crystal wins favorable answers
from the gods to prayers; kindles fire, if held over sticks,
yet itself remains cold; as a ligature benefits kidney trouble.
Sacrifices in which the adamant is employed win the favor
of the gods ; it is also called Lethaean because it makes one
forget worries, or the milk-stone (galactis) because it re-
news the milk of sheep or goats when powdered in brine and
sprinkled over them. Worn as an amulet it counteracts the
evil eye and gains royal favor for its bearer. The agate is
an agricultural amulet and should be attached to the plow-
man's arm and the horns of the oxen. Other stones help
vineyards, bring rain or avert hail and pests from the crops.
* Line 94, Trfpl<f>povi QeioddfiavTL', line 1 65, baiixovio^ <i>^s.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 295
Lychnis prevents a pot from boiling on a fire and makes it
boil when the fire is dead. The magnet was used by the
witches Circe and Medea in their spells; an unchaste wife
is unable to remain in the bed where this stone has been
placed with an incantation. Other stones cure snake-bite
and various diseases, serve as love-charms or aids in child-
birth, or counteract incantations and enchantments.
To make the gem sidcritis or oreites utter vocal oracles Magic
the operator must abstain for three weeks from animal food, ^^^^
the public baths, and the marriage bed ; he is then to wash P?wers of
. ^ , , . . divination,
and clothe the gem like an mfant and employ various sacri-
fices, incantations, and illuminations. The gem Liparaios,
known to the learned Magi of Assyria, when burnt on a
bloodless altar with hymns to the Sun and Earth attracts
snakes from their holes to the flame. Three youths robed
in white and carrying two-edged swords should cut up the
snake who comes nearest the fire into nine pieces, three for
the Sun, three for the earth, three for the wise and prophetic
maiden. These pieces are then to be cooked with wine, salt,
and spices and eaten by those who wish to learn the language
of birds and beasts. But further the gods must be invoked
by their secret names and libations poured of milk, wine,
oil, and honey. What is not eaten must be buried, and the
participants in the feast are then to return home wearing
chaplets but otherwise naked and speaking to no one whom
they may meet. On their arrival home they are to sacrifice
mixed spices. It will be recalled that Apollonius of Tyana
and the Arabs also learned the language of the birds by
eating snake-flesh.
Thus gems are potent in religion and divination, love- Powers
charms and child-birth, medicine and agriculture. The poem compared
fails, however, to touch upon their uses in alchemy or rela- with herbs,
tions to the stars, nor does it contain much of anything that
can be called necromancy. But the author ranks the virtues
of stones above those of herbs, whose powers disappear with
age. Moreover, some plants are injurious, whereas the mar-
velous virtues of stones are almost all beneficial as well as
296
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic
herbs and
demons in
Orphic
rites.
Books
ascribed to
Zoroaster.
permanent. "There is great force in herbs," he says, "but
far greater in stones," ^ an observation often repeated in
the middle ages.
More stress is laid upon the power of demons and herbs
in a description which has been left us by Saint Cyprian,^
bishop of Antioch in the third century, of some pagan mys-
teries upon Mount Olympus into which he was initiated
when a boy of fifteen and which have been explained as
Orphic rites. His initiation was under the charge of seven
hierophants, lasted for forty days, and included instruction
in the virtues of magic herbs and visions of the operations
of demons. He was also taught the meaning of musical
notes and harmonies, and saw how times and seasons were
governed by good and evil spirits. In short, magic, pseudo-
science, occult virtue, and perhaps astrology formed an
important part of Orphic lore.
Cumont states in his Oriental Religions in Roman
Paganism that "towards the end of the Alexandrine period
the books ascribed to the half -mythical masters of the
Persian science, Zoroaster, Hosthanes and Hystaspes, were
translated into Greek, and until the end of paganism those
names enjoyed a prodigious authority." ^ Pliny regarded
Zoroaster as the founder of magic and we have met
other examples of his reputation as a magician. Later
we shall find him cited several times in the Byzantine
Geoponica which seems to use a book ascribed to him on
the sympathy and antipathy existing between natural
objects.^ Naturally a number of pseudo-Zoroastrian books
were in circulation, some of which Porphyry, the Neo-
Platonist, is said to have suppressed. At least he tells us in
his Life of Plotinus ^ that certain Christians and other men
'Lines 410-41 1.
' Confessio S. Cypriani, in Acta
Sanctorum, ed. BoUandists, Sept.,
VII, 222; L. Preller, Philologus
(1846), I, 349ff.; cited by A. B.
Cook, Zeus, Cambridge, 1914, I,
iio-iii. The work is treated more
fully below in Chapter 18.
^ Franz Cumont, op. cit., Chi-
cago, 191 1, p. 189. See also
Windischmann, Zoroastrische Stu-
dien, Berlin, 1863.
* See below, Chapter 26.
"Cap. 16.
X SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS 297
claimed to possess certain revelations of Zoroaster, but that
he advanced many arguments to show that their book was
not written by Zoroaster but was a recent composition.
There has been preserved, however, in the writings of J^^
,, . r 1 1 Chaldean
the Neo-Platonists a collection of passages known as the Oracles.
Zoroastrian Logia or Chaldean Oracles ^ and which "present
... a heterogeneous mass, now obscure and again bom-
bastic, of commingled Platonic, Pythagorean, Stoic, Gnostic,
and Persian tenets." ^ Not only are these often cited by
the Neo-Platonists, but Porphyry, lamblichus, and Proclus
composed commentaries upon them.^ Some think that these
citations and commentaries have reference to a single work
put together by Julian the Chaldean in the period of the
Antonines. This "mass of oriental superstitions, a medley of
magic, theurgy, and delirious metaphysics," ^ was reverenced
by the Neo-Platonists of the following centuries as a sacred
authority equal to the Timaeus of Plato. Our next chapter
will therefore deal with the writings of the Neo-Platonists
upon whom this spurious mystic literature had so much
influence.
* Edited by Kroll, De oraculis Sacra, V, 2, pp. 192-95, Up6k\ov bt
Chaldaicis, in Breslaii Philolog. rrjs XaXdaiKijs (l)i\oao4>Lai. Many quo-
Abhandl., VII (1894), 1-76. Cory, tations of oracles from Porphyry's
Ancient Fragments, London, 1832. De philosophia ex oraculis hausta
' L. A. Gray in A. V. W. Jack- are made by Eusebius, Praeparatio
son, Zoroaster, 1901, pp. 259-60. evangclica, in PG, XXI.
' G. Wolff, Porphyrii de phi- ' Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie
losophia ex oraculis hauriendis, grecque, p. 599.
Berlin, 1886. Pitra, Analecta
CHAPTER XI
NEO-PLATONISM AND ITS RELATIONS TO ASTROLOGY AND
THEURGY
Neo-
Platonism
and the
occult.
Neo-Platonism and the occult — Plotinus on magic — The life of rea-
son is alone free from magic — Plotinus unharmed by magic — Invoking
the demon of Plotinus — Rite of strangling birds — Plotinus and astrology
—The stars as signs — The divine star-souls — How do the stars cause
and signify? — Other causes and signs than the stars — Stars not the
cause of evil — Against the astrology of the Gnostics — Fate and free-
will— Summary of the attitude of Plotinus to astrology — Porphyry's
Letter to Anebo — Its main argument — Questions concerning divine
natures — Orders of spiritual beings — Nature of demons — The art of
theurgy — Invocations and the power of words — Magic a human art :
theurgy divine — Magic's abuse of nature's forces — Its evil character —
Its deceit and unreality — Porphyry on modes of divination — lamblichus
on divination — Are the stars gods? — Is there an art of astrology? —
Porphyry and astrology — Astrological images — Number mysticism —
Porphyry as reported by Eusebius — The emperor Julian on theurgy
and astrology — Julian and divination — Scientific divination according to
Ammianus Marcellinus — Proclus on theurgy — Neo-Platonic account of
magic borrowed by Christians — Neo-Platonists and alchemy.
That the Neo-Platonists were much given to the occult has
been a common impression among- those who have written
upon the period of the decline of the Roman Empire, of the
end of paganism, and the passing of classical philosophy.
This is perhaps in some measure the result of Christian view-
point and hostility; probably the Christians of the period
would seem equally superstitious to a modern Neo-Platonist.
If the lives of the philosophers by Eunapius sound like fairy
tales, ^ what do the lives of the saints of the same period
sound like? If the Neo-Platonists were like our mediums,
* Paul Allard, La transforma-
tion dii Paganismc romain an IJ^e
siccle, pp. 113-33, in Compte
Rendu du Congrcs Scicnlifique
International dcs Catholiqucs.
Detixicme Section, Sciences re
ligieuses. Paris, 1891.
298
CHAP. XI NEO-PLATONISM 299
what were the Christian exorcists like? But let us turn to
the writings of the leading Neo-Platonists themselves, the
only accurate mirror of their views.
Plotinus/ who lived from about 204 to 270 A. D. and Plotinus
on magic,
is generally regarded as the founder of Neo-Platonism, was
apparently less given to occult sciences than some of his
successors.^ One of his charges against the Gnostics ^ is
that they believe that they can move the higher and incor-
poreal powers by writing incantations and by spoken words
and various other vocal utterances, all which he censures as
mere magic and sorcery. He also attacks their belief that
diseases are demons and can be expelled by words. This
wins them a following among the crowd who are wont to
marvel at the powers of magicians, but Plotinus insists that
diseases are due to natural causes.* Even he, however, ac-
cepted incantations and the charms of sorcerers and
magicians as valid, and accounted for their potency by the
sympathy or love and hatred which he said existed between
different objects in nature, which operates even at a dis-
^ Plotini opera o»inia, Forphyrii spect. A noteworthy recent pub-
libcr de znta Plotini, cum Marsilii lication is W. R. Inge, Tlie Philos-
Ficini commentariis . . . ed D. ophy of Plotinus, 1918, 2 vols.
Wyttenbach, G. H. Moser, and F. " H. F. Muller, Plotinische Stu-
Creuzer, Oxford, 1835, 3 vols. dicn II, in Hermes, XLIX, 70-89,
Page references in my citations argues that the philosophy of
are to this edition, but I have also Plotinus was genuinely Hellenic
employed: Plotini Enneadcs, ed. and free from oriental influence,
R. Volkmann, Leipzig, 1883; Se- that all theurgy was hateful to
lect Works of Plotinus translated him, and that he opposed Gnos-
from the Greek with an Introduc- ticism and astrology. Miiller
tion containing the substance of seems to me to overstate his case
Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, by and to be too ready to exculpate
Thomas Taylor, new edition with Plotinus, or perhaps rather Hel-
preface and bibliography by G. R. lenism, from concurrence in the
S. Mead, London, 1909; K. S. superstition of the time.
Guthrie, The Philosophy of Ploti- ^ For Gnosticism see Chapter 15.
mis, Philadelphia, 1896, and Ploti- *'Ennead, II, 9, 14. IWwTivovirpos
nos, Complete Works. 4 vols., tov% Tvucttikovs, ed. G. A. Heigl,
1918, English Translation. Where 1832; and Plotini De Virtutibus ct
my citations give the number of Advcrsus Gnosticos libellos, ed. A.
the chapter in addition to the Kirchhoff, 1847 ; are simply extracts
Ennead and Book, these agree from the Enncads. See also C.
\vith Volkmann's text and Guth- Schmidt, Plotin's Stellung cum
rie's translation,— which, however, Gnosticismus u. kirchl. Christeti'-
are not quite identical in this re- turn, 1900; in TU, X, 90 pp.
300
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The life
of reason
is alone
free from
magic.
Plotinus
unharmed
by magic.
tance, and which is an expression of one world-soul ani-
mating the universe,^
Plotinus held further, however, that only the physical
and irrational side of man's nature was affected by drugs
and sorcery, just as "even demons are not impassive in their
irrational part," ^ and so are to some extent subject to
magic. But the rational soul may free itself from all influ-
ence of magic.^ Moreover, remorselessly adds the clear-
headed Plotinus with a burst of insight that may well be
attributed to Hellenic genius, he who yields to the charms of
love and family affection or seeks political power or aught
else than Truth and true beauty, or even he who searches
for beauty in inferior things ; he who is deceived by appear-
ances, he who follows irrational inclinations, is as truly
bewitched as if he were the victim of magic and goetia so-
called. The life of reason is alone free from magic.'*
Whereat one is tempted to paraphrase a remark of Aelian ^
and exclaim, "What do you think of that definition of
magic, my dear anthropologists and sociologists and modern
students of folk-lore?"
This immunity of the true philosopher and sincere fol-
lower of truth from magic received illustration, according
to Porphyr}',® in the case of Plotinus himself, who suffered
no harm from the magic arts which his enemy, Alexandrinus
Olympius, directed against him. Instead the baleful de-
fluxions from the stars which Olympius had tried to draw
down upon Plotinus were turned upon himself. Porphyry
also states '^ that Plotinus was aware at the time of the
"sidereal enchantments" of Olympius against him. Inci-
dentally the episode provides one more proof of the essential
unity of astrology and magic.
^Ennead, IV, 4, 40 (11, 805 or
434). Tas dk yoTjreLas wws', v "rfj
avuiraOilq., Kal tw ■Ke4>VKivai avn4>uvlau
elvai ofjLolwv KalkvavrLujatv avofiolo^v, Kal
rfj Twv bvvay.c(j3v tuv toXXoij' troiKiXiif.
els if ^ct)oi> awTeXovuTwv. Ibid. 42 (II,
808 or 436) . . .KalTlxvoLisKailaTpiiv
Kal kvaoLduv aWo ctXXco rjuayKaadr] ira-
paax^'i-v TL TTjs bvvkixeoi's ttis avrov.
Ennead, IV, 9 (II, 891 or 479).
el dk Kal kTTuioal Kal oXwj fiayelaL ffvvd-
yovcn Kal avixiradtls TrSppudti' iroiov(Ti,
wavTOi^ Toi hta i/'i'X^J nias.
^ Enncad, IV, 4 (II, 810 or 437).
'^Ennead, IV, 4, 43-44.
* Ennead, IV, 4, 44.
" See Chapter XII, pp. 323-4.
* Vita Plotini, cap. 10.
' Vita, cap. 10,
XI NEO-PLATONISM 301
Plotinus, indeed, was regarded by his admirers as Invoking
the
divinely inspired, as another incident from the Life by demon of
Porphyry will illustrate.^ An Egyptian priest had little diffi- Plotinus.
culty in persuading Plotinus, who although of Roman
parentage had been born in Egypt, to allow him to try to
invoke his familiar demon. Plotinus was then teaching in
Rome where he resided for twenty-six years, and the temple
of Isis was the only pure place in the city which the priest
could find for the ceremony. When the invocation had been
duly performed, there appeared not a mere demon but a
god. The apparition was not long enduring, however, nor
would the priest permit them to question it, on the ground
that one of the friends of Plotinus present had marred the
success of the operation. This man had feared he might
suffer some injury when the demon appeared and as a
counter-charm had brought some birds which he held in his
hands, apparently by the necks, for at the critical moment
when the apparition appeared he suffocated them, whether
from fright or from envy of Plotinus Porphyry declares
himself unable to state.
This practice of grasping birds by the necks in both The rite of
hands is shown by a number of works of art to have been a birds.
custom of great antiquity. We may see a winged Gorgon
strangling a goose in either hand upon a plate of the seventh
century B.C. from Rhodes now in the British Museum.^ A
gold pendant of the ninth century B.C. from Aegina, now
also in the British Museum, consists of a figure holding a
water-bird by the neck in either hand, while from its thighs
pairs of serpents issue on whose folds the birds stand with
their bills touching the fangs of the snakes.^ There also is a
figure of a winged goddess grasping two water-birds by the
necks upon an ivory fibula excavated at Sparta.^
* Cap. 10. such as a figure holding up two
^ A748. water-birds, in immediate con-
' Shown in the article on nexion with IMycenaean gold pat-
"Jewelry" in the eleventh edition terns." See further A. J. Evans
of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in Journal of Hellenic Studies,
Plate I, Figure 50. The article 1893, p. 197.
says of the pendant, "Here we find *]. E. Harrison, Themis, Cam-
the themes of archaic Greek art, bridge, 1912. p. 114, Fig. 20.
302
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Plotinus
and
astrology.
The stars
as signs.
Porphyry also tells us in the Life that Plotinus devoted
considerable attention to the stars and refuted in his writ-
ings the unwarrantable claims of the casters of horoscopes.^
Such passages are found in the treatises on fate and on the
soul, while one of his treatises is devoted entirely to the
question, "Whether the stars effect anything?" ^ This was
one of four treatises which Plotinus a little before his death
sent to Porphyry, and which are regarded as rather inferior
to those composed by him when in the prime of life. In the
next century the astrologer, Julius Firmicus Maternus, re-
gards Plotinus as an enemy of astrology and represents him
as dying a horrible and loathsome death from gangrene.^
As a matter of fact the criticisms made by Plotinus
were not necessarily destructive to the art of astrology, but
rather suggested a series of amendments by which it might
be made more compatible with a Platonic view of the uni-
verse, deity, and human soul. These amendments also
tended to meet Christian objections to the art. His criti-
cisms were not new; Philo Judaeus had made similar ones
over two centuries before.* But the great influence of
Plotinus gave added emphasis to these criticisms. For in-
stance, the point made by him several times that the motion
of the stars "does not cause everything but signifies the
future concerning each" ^ man and thing, is noted by
Macrobius both in the Saturnalia ^ and the Dreamt of
Scipio; "^ while in the twelfth century John of Salisbury,
arguing against astrology, fears that its devotees will take
refuge in the authority of Plotinus and say that they detract
^ Vita, cap. 15. It will be noted
that like some of the church
fathers Plotinus attacked geneth-
lialogy rather than astrology. Upoa-
elx^ 8i ToZs fj.ev ivepl Tcbv acrrepajv ko-
vdaiv ov Trdfu Tt /laOrjuaTiKcbs, rotj 8e
ruv yepeOXidXoycov airoTtkeaTiKols a.Kpv-
pkarepop. Kal4>o}pa(Tas tvs kwayyeKLas
r6 kvixtyyvov eXeyx^tf iroWaxov Kal
(tuv) kv rots avyyp&fxfjiaaiu ovk ioKPrjae.
' Ennead II, 3, Ilepi tov el iroul tA,
tarpa. Porphyry arranged his
master's treatises in the form of
six enneads of nine each and per-
haps somewhat revised them at the
same time.
^ Mathescos libri VIII, ed.
Kroll et Skutsch, Lipsiae, 1897. I,
7, 14-22.
*See below, pp. 353-4-
^ Ennead II, 3 (p. 242), "On v
T03V SlCtpuiv <t)opa (TrjfjLalvii irepl
tKaarov to. ka6p.eva AXX' ohK avrri ir&vTa
iroiei, ws Tois ttoXXoIj 5o|(if«Tai, cKpTjrai
fikv irohrfpov tv aWois. See also En-
nead III, i, and IV, 3-4.
•I, 18.
^Cao. 19.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 303
nothing from the Creator's power, since He established once
for all an unalterable natural law and disposed all future
events as He foresaw them. Thus the stars are merely His
instruments.^
But let us see what Plotinus says himself rather than The divine
what others took to be his meaning. Like Plato, who re- ^^^'■■^°" s-
garded the stars as happy, divine, and eternal animals, Plo-
tinus not only believes that the stars have souls but that
their intellectual processes are far above the frailties of the
human mind and nearer the omniscience of the world-soul.
Memory, for example, is of no use to them,^ nor do they
hear the prayers which men address to them.^ Plotinus
often calls them gods. They are, however, parts of the uni-
verse, subordinate to the world-soul, and they cannot alter
the fundamental principles of the universe, nor deprive other
beings of their individuality, although they are able to make
other beings better or worse.*
In his discussion of problems concerning the soul Plo- How do
the st3.rs
tinus says that "it is abundantly evident . . . that the mo- cause and
tion of the heavens affects things on earth and not only in signify?
bodies but also the dispositions of the soul," ^ and that each
part of the heavens affects terrestrial and inferior objects.
He does not, however, think that all this influence can be
accounted for "exclusively by heat or cold," — perhaps a dig
at Ptolemy's Tetrahihlos.^ He also objects to ascribing the
crimes of men to the will of the stars or every human act
^ Polycraticus, II, 19, (ed. C. C. agreed that they have senses,
I. Webb, 1909, I, 112). Mr. Webb namely, sight and hearing," is
(I, xxviii) holds that John of quite misleading, as caps. 40-42
Salisbury "certainly did not have make evident.
Plotinus," and derived some pas- * Ennead II, iii, 6 and 13 (249-
sages from his works through 50).
Macrobius and Augustine; but he ^ Ennead IV, iv, 31. on nev ovv
is unable to state in what inter- 17 <f>opa. voitl . . . a.vaiJi^i<T0-nT-nTiJi% nlv
mediate source John could have rd kirLyeta ov fxbvov toIs aco/^acnv dXXd
found the passage now in ques- /cat rats r^s ^vxvs biaOkaeoL, Kal tC:v
tion. It does not seem to reflect ntpdv eKaarov eis to. kTrlyua Kal 6Xwj
Plotinus' doctrine very accurately. rd xdrw woiel, iroWaxv 8rj\ov.
' Eiuicad IV, iv, 6 and 8. ^Idcm. Guthrie heads the pas-
* Ibid.. 30. Guthrie's translation, sage, "Absurdity of Ptolemean
"We have shown that memory is Astrology." See also Ennead, II,
useless to the stars: we have iii, 1-5.
304 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
to a sidereal decision,^ and to speaking of friendships and
enmities as existing between the planets according as they
are in this or that aspect towards one another.^ If then the
admittedly vast influence of the stars cannot be satisfactorily
accounted for either as material effects caused by them as
bodies or as voluntary action taken by them, how is it to be
explained ? Plotinus accounts for it by the relation of sym-
pathy which exists between all parts of the universe, that
single living animal, and by the fact that the universe ex-
presses itself in the figures formed by the movements of the
celestial bodies, which "exert what influence they do exert
on things here below through contemplation of the intelli-
gible world." ^ These figures, or constellations in the astro-
logical sense, have other powers than those of the bodies
which participate in them, just as many plants and stones
*'among us" have marvelous occult powers for which heat
and cold will not account.^ They both exert influence effec-
tively and are signs of the future through their relation to
the universal whole. In many things they are both causes
and signs, in others they are signs only.^
Other For Plotinus, however, the universe is not a mechanical
C3.11SCS 3.rid
signs than ^^^ where but one force prevails, namely, that produced by
the stars, qj. represented by the constellations. The universe is full of
variety with countless different powers, and the whole would
not be a living animal unless each living thing in it lived
its own life, and unless life were latent even in inanimate
objects. It is true that some powers are more effective
than others, and that those of the sky are more so than
those of earth, and that many things lie under their power.
Nevertheless Plotinus sees in the reproduction of life and
species in the universe a force independent of the stars. In
^ Ennead II, iii, 6. dXXA yevofieva iroi.6Tr)ai Sia<}>6pois Kal
^ Ennead II, iii, 4. \6yoLstiboTroLriBkvTaKai4>^(r€(j}s dwaixtws
* Guthrie's translation, Ennead neraXaliovTa, olov Kal XLOcov 4>v<rtLs Kal
IV, iv, 35. ti df) dpq. TL 6 i]\ios Kal to. ^orapcJiv kfepyeLaidavfiaaTaTroWaTrapt-
&\\a acrrpa ets to. rfiSe, xpi) vonl^ew x'^^'''^'-
aiiTop fj,h avu (iXkirovra tlvai. ^ Ennead IV, iv, 34. Kal Trotvaeis
Idem. Kal kv Tols Trap' 77^111' eicri Kal arjp.aaia's iv iroWols AXXaxoO 5i
iroXXat, &s ob dtpixa rj xj/vxpo. irapkxtTaL, ar]ixaaias iiovov.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 305
the generation of any animal, for example, the stars con-
tribute something, but the species must follow that of its
forebears.^ And after they have been produced or begot-
ten, terrestrial beings add something of their own. Nor are
the stars the sole signs of the future. Plotinus holds that
"all things are full of signs," and that the sage can not mere-
ly predict from stars or birds, but infer one thing from an-
other by virtue of the harmony and sympathy existing be-
tween all parts of the universe.^
Nor can the gods or stars be said to cause evil on earth. Stars not
since their influence is affected by other forces which mingle of evil,
with it. Like the earlier Jewish Platonist, Philo, Plotinus
denies that the planets are the cause of evil or change their
own natures from good to evil as they enter new signs of the
zodiac or take up different positions in relation to one an-
other. He argues that they are not changeable beings, that
they would not willingly injure men, or, if it is contended
that they are mere bodies and have no wills, he replies that
then they can produce only corporeal effects. He then solves
the problem of evil in the usual manner by ascribing it to
matter, in which reason and the celestial force are received
unevenly, as light is broken and refracted in passing through
water.^
Plotinus repeats much the same line of argument in his Against
book against the Gnostics, where he protests against "the a^^rology
tragedy of terrors which they think exists in the spheres of of the
the universe," * and the tyranny they ascribe to the heavenly
bodies. His belief is that the celestial spheres are in per-
fect harmony both with the universe as a whole and with our
globe, completing the whole and constituting a great part of
it, supplying beauty and order. And often they are to be re-
garded as signs rather than causes of the future. Their
natures are constant, but the sequence of events may be
varied by chance circumstances, such as different hours of
^ Ennead II, iii (p. 256). * Enncad, II, ix, 13. rrisTpaywblas
Ibid. (pp. 250-1). Toiv <f>oi3€pu:v, COS oiovTai, a> rals rod
"Ibid., II, iii (pp. 243-6, 254-5, Koauov ff<t>aiftai.s.
263-5).
3o6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Fate and
free-will.
Summary
of the atti-
tude of
Plotinus to
astrology.
nativities, place of residence, and the dispositions of indi-
vidual souls. Amid all this diversity one must also expect
both good and evil, but not on that account call nature or
the stars either evil themselves or the cause of evil.
As the allusion just made in the preceding paragraph to
"the dispositions of individual souls" shows, Plotinus made
a distinction between the extent of the control exercised by
the stars over inanimate, animate, and rational beings. The
stars signify all things in the sensible world but the soul is
free unless it slips and is stained by the body and so comes
under their control. Fate or the force of the stars is like
a wind which shakes and tosses the ship of the body in
which the soul makes its passage. Man as a part of the
world does some things and suffers many things in accord-
ance with destiny. Some men become slaves to this world
and to external influences, as if they were bewitched.
Others look to their inner souls and strive to free themselves
from the sensible world and to rise above demonic nature
and all fate of nativities and all necessity of this world, and
to live in the intelligible world above. ^
Thus Plotinus arrives at practically what was to be the
usual Christian position in the middle ages regarding the
influence of the stars, maintaining the freedom of the human
will and yet allowing a large field to astrological prediction.
He is evidently more concerned to combat the notion that
the stars cause evil or are to be feared as evil powers than
he is to combat the belief in their influence and significations.
His speaking of the stars both as signs and causes in a way
doubles the possibility of prediction from them. If he at-
tacked the language used by astrologers of the planets, and
perhaps to a certain extent the technique of their art, he
supported astrology by reconciling the existence of evil and
of human freedom with a great influence of the stars and by
his emphasis upon the importance of the figures made by the
^The references for the state- III, iv (p. 521); IV, iv (p. 813);
ments in this paragraph are in II, iii (p. 260) ; III, iv (p. 520) ;
the order of their occurrence: IV, 3 (p. 71 0 : in these cases the
Enncad, II, iii (pp. 257, 251-2) ; higher page-numbering is used.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 307
movements of the heavenly bodies above any purely physical
effects of their bodies as such. Thus he reinforced the con-
ception of occult virtue, always one of the chief pillars, if
not the chief support, of occult science and magic. On the
other hand, men were not likely to reform a language and
technique sanctioned by as great an astronomer as Ptolemy
merely because a Neo-Platonist questioned its propriety.
Although Plotinus denied that diseases were due to de- Porphyry's
mons, vve once heard him speak of "demonic nature," and J^H^^^ ^^
one of the Enneads discusses Each man's own demon. Here,
however, the discussion is limited to the power presiding in
each human soul, and nothing is said of magic. For the con-
nection of demons with magic and for the art of theurgy we
must turn to the writings of Porphyry and lamblichus, and
especially to The Letter to Aneho of Porphyry, who lived
from about 233 to 305, and the reply thereto of the master
Abammon, a work which is otherwise known as Liber de
mysteriis} The attribution of the latter work to lamblichus,
who died about 330, is based upon an anonymous assertion
prefixed to an ancient manuscript of Proclus and upon the
fact that Proclus himself quotes a passage from the De mys-
teriis as the words of lamblichus. This attribution has been
questioned, but if not by lamblichus, the work seems to be
at least by some disciple of his with similar views." Other
works of lamblichus are largely philosophical and mathe-
matical; among the chief works of Porphyry, apart from
his literary work in connection with Plotinus, were his com-
mentaries on Aristotle and fifteen books against the Chris-
tians.
The Letter to Anebo inquires concerning the nature of Its main
the gods, the demons, and the stars; asks for an explana- ^^§""^^t-
tion of divination and astrology, of the power of names and
incantations; and questions the employment of invocations
^ Edited Venice, Aldine Press, lor's English translation, London,
1497 and 15 16; Oxford, 1678; by 1821.
G. Partliey, Berlin, 1857. In_ the * Carl Rasche, De lamblicho
following quotations from it I libri qui inscribitur de mysteriis
have usually adhered to T. Ta}^- auctore, Aschendorff, 191 1, 82 pp.
3o8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Questions
concerning
divine
natures.
and sacrifice. Other topics brought up are the rule of spirits
over the world of nature, partitioned out among them for
this purpose ; the divine inspiration or demoniacal possession
of human beings ; and the occult sympathy between different
things in the material universe. In especial the art of the-
urgy, a word said to be used now for the first time by Por-
phyry,^ is discussed. It may be roughly defined for the
moment as a sort of pious necromancy or magical cult of the
gods. Porphyry raises various objections to the procedure
and logic of the theurgists, diviners, enchanters, and astrolo-
gers, which lamblichus, as we shall henceforth call the au-
thor of the De mysteriis as a matter of convenience if not
of certainty, endeavors to answer, and to justify the art of
theurgy.
We may first note the theory of demons which is elicited
from lamblichus in response to Porphyry's trenchant and
searching questions. The latter, declaring that ignorance and
disingenuousness concerning divine natures are no less rep-
rehensible than impiety and impurity, demands a scientific
discussion of the gods as a holy and beneficial act. He asks
why, if the divine power is infinite, indivisible, and incom-
prehensible, different places and different parts of the body
are allotted to different gods. Why, if the gods are pure in-
tellects, they are represented as having passions, are wor-
shiped with phallic ritual, and are tempted with invocations
and sacred offerings? Why boastful speech and fantastic
action are taken as indications of the divine presence; and
why, if the gods dwell in the heavens, theurgists invoke only
terrestrial and subterranean deities? How superior beings
can be invoked with commands by their inferiors, why the
Sun and Moon are threatened, why the man must be just
and chaste who invokes spirits in order to secure unjust ends
or gratify lust, and why the worshiper must abstain from
animal food and not touch a corpse when sacrifices to the
gods consist of the bodies of dead victims? Porphyry
' Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie grecque (1898), p. 599, citing Kroll,
De oraculis Chaldaicis.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 309
wishes further an explanation of the various genera of gods,
visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, beneficent
and malicious, aquatic and aerial. He wants to know
whether the stars are not gods, how gods differ from demons,
and what the distinction is between souls and heroes.
lamblichus in reply states that as heroes are elevated Orders of
above souls, so demons are inferior and subservient to the belngg,^
gods and translate the infinite, ineffable, and invisible divine
transcendent goodness into terms of visible forms, energy,
and reason.^ He further distinguishes "the etherial, empy-
rean, and celestial gods," and angels, archangels, and ar-
chons.^ As for corporeal, visible, aerial, and aquatic gods,
he affirms that the gods have no bodies and no particular
allotments of space, but that natural objects participate in
or are related to the gods etherially or aerially or aquatically,
each according to its nature.^ "The celestial divinities," for
example, "are not comprehended by bodies but contain bodies
in their divine lives and energies. They are not themselves
converted to body, but they have a body which is converted
to its divine cause, and that body does not impede their
intellectual and incorporeal perfection." ^ lamblichus denies
that there are any maleficent gods, saying that "it is much
better to acknowledge our inability to explain the occurrence
of evil than to admit anything impossible and false concern-
ings the gods." ^ But he admits the existence of both good
and evil demons and makes of the latter a convenient scape-
goat upon whom to saddle any inconsistencies or impurities
in religious rites and magical ceremony.
lamblichus does not, however, hold the view of Apuleius Nature of
that demons are subject to passions. They are impassive ^"^°"s.
and incapable of suffering.^ He scorns the notion that even
the worst demons can be allured by the vapors of animal
sacrifice or that petty mortals can supply such beings with
anything;'^ it is rather in the consumption of foul matter
* De mysieriis, I, 5. ° IV, 6.
*VIII, 2. n, 10.
'I, 9. ''V, 10-12.
*I, 17 (Taylor's translation).
310 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
by pure fire in the act of sacrifice that they take delight.
Demons are not, however, like the gods entirely separated
from bodies. The world is divided up into prefectures
among them and they are more or less inseparable from and
identified with the natural objects which they govern.^ Thus
they may serve to enmesh the soul in the bonds of matter
and of fate, and to afflict the body with disease.^ Also the
evil demons "are surrounded by certain noxious, blood-
devouring, and fierce wild beasts," probably of the type of
vampires and empousas.^ lamblichus further holds that there
is a class of demons who are without judgment and reason,
each of whom has some one function to perform and is not
adapted to do anything else,* Such demons or forces in
nature men may well address as superiors in invoking them,
since they are superior to men in their one special function ;
but when they have once been invoked, man as a rational
being may also well issue commands to them as his irra-
tional inferiors.^
The art of lamblichus also undertakes the defense of theurgy and
theurgy. .
carefully distinguishes it from magic, as we shall soon see.
It is also different from science, since it does not merely em-
ploy the physical forces of the natural universe,^ and from
philosophy, since its ineffable works are beyond the reach
of mere intelligence, and those who merely philosophize
theoretically cannot hope for a theurgic union or communion
with the gods."^ Even theurgists cannot as a rule endure the
light of spiritual beings higher than heroes, demons, and
angels,* and it is an exceedingly rare occurrence for one of
them to be united with the supramundane gods.^ This
theurgy, or "the art of divine works," operates by means
of "arcane signatures" and "the power of inexplicable sym-
bols." ^^ It is thus that lamblichus explains away most of
the details in sacred rites and sacrifices to which Porphyry
' I, 20. ' IV, 10.
MI, 6. 'II, II.
"11,7. '11,3.
MV, I. 'V, 20.
MV. 2. "I, 9; VI, 6; II, II.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 311
had objected as obscene or material and as implying that the
gods themselves were passive and passionate. They are
mystic symbols, "consecrated from eternity'' for some hid-
den reason "which is more excellent than reason." ^ Occult
virtues indeed! We have already heard lamblichus state
that natural objects participate in or are related to the gods
etherially or aerially or aquatically; theurgists therefore
quite properly employ in their art certain stones, herbs, aro-
matics, and sacred animals.^ By employing such potent sym-
bols mere man takes on such a sacred character himself that
he is able to command many spiritual powers.^
Invocations and prayers are also much used in theurgical Invoca-
operations. But such invocations do not draw down the ^^e power
impassive and pure gods to this world; rather they purify °f words,
those who employ them from their passions and impurity
and exalt them to union with the pure and the divine.*
These prayers are symbolic, too. They do not appeal to
human passions or reason, "for they are perfectly unknown
and arcane and are alone known to the God whom they in-
voke." ^ In another passage ^ lamblichus replies to Por-
phyry's objection that such prayers are often composed of
meaningless words and names without signification by de-
claring— somewhat inconsistently with his previous asser-
tion that these invocations are "perfectly unknown" — that
some of the names "which we can scientifically analyze"
comprehend "the whole divine essence, power and order."
Moreover, if translated into another language, they do not
have exactly the same meaning, and even if they do, they
no longer retain the same power as in the original tongue.
We shall meet a similar passage concerning the power of
words and divine names in the church father Origen who
lived earlier in the third century than Porphyry and lam-
blichus. lamblichus concludes that "it is necessary that
'I, II. "I, 12.
ay 2^ *I, 15; III, 24 (Taylor's trans-
^' ^^- lation).
"IV. 2. "VII, 4.
312
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic a
human
art:
theurgy
divine.
Magic's
abuse of
nature's
forces.
ancient prayers . . . should be preserved invariably the
same." ^
Neither Porphyry nor lamblichus, I believe, employs the
word, "magic," but they both often allude to its practitioners
and methods by such expressions as "jugglers" and "enchant-
ers" or by contrasting what is done "artificially" or by
means of art with theurgical operations. In the last case
the distinction is between what on the one hand is regarded
as a divine mystery or revelation and what on the other
hand is looked upon as a mere human art and contrivance.
And "nothing . . . which is fashioned by human art is
genuine and pure." ^ Christian writers drew a like distinc-
tion between prophecy or miracle and divination or magic.
Sometimes, however, lamblichus speaks of theurgy itself
as an art, an involuntary admission of the close resemblance
between its methods and those of magic. We are also told
that if the theurgist makes a slip in his procedure, he there-
by reduces it to the level of magic.^
Another distinction is that theurgy aims at communion
with the gods while magic has to do rather with "the physi-
cal or corporeal powers of the universe." ^ Both Porphyry
and lamblichus believed that harmony, sympathy, and mutual
attraction existed between the various objects in the uni-
verse, which lamblichus asserted was one animal.^ Thus it
is possible for man to draw distant things to himself or to
unite them to, or separate them from, one another.^ But
art may also use this force of sympathy between objects in
an extreme and unseemly manner, and this disorderly forc-
ing of nature, we are left to infer, constitutes an essential
feature of m.agic, whose procedure is not truly natural or
scientific.
Magic not only disorders the law and harmony, and makes
a perverse and contrary use of natural forces. Its practi-
tioners are also represented as aiming at evil ends and as
VII, 5.
' III, 29.
•II. 10.
*IV, 10.
'IV, 12.
'IV, 3.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 313
themselves of evil character.^ They may try by their illicit
and impure procedure to have intercourse with the gods or
with pure spirits, but they are unable to accomplish this. All
that they succeed in doing is to secure the alliance of evil
demons by associating with whom they become more de-
praved than ever. Such wicked demons may pose as angels
of light by requiring that those who invoke them should
be just or chaste, but afterwards they show their true colors
by assisting in crimes and the gratification of lusts. ^ It is
they, too, who assuming the guise of superior spirits are
responsible for the boastful and arrogant utterances of
which Porphyry complained in persons supposed to be di-
vinely inspired.^
Finally magic is unstable and fantastic. "The imagina- Its deceit
tions artificially produced by enchantment" are not real ob- ^ijj.y_
jects. Those who foretell the future by "standing on char-
acters" are no theurgists, but employ a superficial, false, and
deceptive procedure which can attract only evil demons.*
These demons are themselves deceitful and produce "fic-
titious images." ^ Porphyry in the Letter to Aneho also al-
luded to the frauds of "jugglers." Although the attitude
both of Porphyry and lamblichus is thus professedly unfa-
vorable to the magic arts, we find that one of lamblichus's
disciples, named Sopater, was executed under Constantine on
a charge of having charmed the winds.®
How is divination to be placed in reference to magic and Porphyry
theurgy ? Porphyry had inquired concerning various meth- "" divina-
ods of divination: in sleep, in trances, and when fully con- tion.
scious; in ecstasy, in disease, and in states of mental aber-
ration or enchantment. He mentioned divination on hear-
ing drums and cymbals, by drinking water and other potions,
by inhaling vapor ; divination in darkness, in a wall, in the
open air or in the sunlight; by observing entrails or the
flight of birds or the motion of the stars, or even by means
'IV, 10; III, 31. 'II, 10.
^ IV, 7. * E. S. Bouchier, Syria as a
' II, 10. Roman Province, Oxford, 1916,
*VI, 5; III, 25; III, 13. p. 231.
314 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of meal. Yet other modes of determining the future which
he hsts are by characters, images, incantations, and invoca-
tions, with which the use of stones and herbs is often com-
bined. These details make it evident how impossible it is
to draw any dividing line between the methods of magic and
divination, and Porphyry himself states that those who in-
voke the gods concerning the future not only "have about
them stones and herbs," but are able to bind and to free
from bonds, to open closed doors, and to change men's in-
tentions. Among the virtues of parts of animals mentioned
in his treatise upon abstinence from animal food are the
powers of divination which may be obtained by eating the
heart of a hawk or crow.-"-
lamblichus Porphyry states that all diviners attribute their predic-
tion.^^*^^' tions to gods or demons, but that he wonders if foreknowl-
edge may not be a power of the human soul or perhaps
accountable for by the sympathy which exists between differ-
ent parts of the universe. lamblichus holds, however, that
divination is neither a human art nor the work of nature
but of divine origin.^ He perhaps regards it as little more
than a branch of theurgy. He distinguishes between human
dreams which are sometimes true, sometimes false, and
dreams and visions divinely sent.^ If one is able to predict
the future by drinking water, it is because the water has been
divinely illuminated.* That we can predict when the mind
is diseased and disordered, and that stupid or simple-minded
men are often better able to prophesy than the wise and
learned, are for him but further proofs that foreknowledge
is a divine gift and not a human science, while divination
by such means as rods, pebbles, grains of corn and wheat
simply excites the more his pious admiration at the great-
ness of divine power.^ He disapproves of divination by
standing on characters,^ but sees no reason why divination
in darkness, in a wall, or in sunlight, or by potions and in-
cantations, may not be divinely directed. He will not, how-
^De absHnentia, II, 48. *III, 11.
Mil, I, 10. "Ill, 24; III, 17.
•Ill, 2-3. "Ill, 14.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 315
ever, connect the disordered imaginations excited by dis-
ease with divine presentiments.^ From true divination he
also separates the "natural prescience" of certain animals
M^hose acuteness of sense or occult sympathy with other
parts and forces of nature enables them to perceive some com-
ing events before men do. Their power resembles proph-
ecy, "yet falls short of it in stability and truth." ^ Augury
is an art whose conjectures have great probability, but they
are based upon divine signs or portents effected in nature
by the agency of demons.^
The stars are on a totally different plane from the other Are
substances employed in divination. To Porphyry's ques- lods?^^^
tion whether they are not gods lamblichus is not content to
reply that the celestial divinities comprehend these heav-
enly bodies and that the bodies in no way impede "their in-
tellectual and incorporeal perfection." ^ He must needs go
on to argue that the stars themselves, as simple indivisible
bodies, unchanging in quality and uniform in movement,
closely approach to "the incorporeal essence of the gods."
He then triumphantly if illogically concludes, "Thus there-
fore the visible celestials are all of them gods and after a
certain manner incorporeal." We may add the opinion of
Chaeremon and others, noted by Porphyry, that the only
gods were the physical ones of the Egyptians and the planets,
signs of the zodiac, decans, and horoscope; all religious
myths were explained by Chaeremon as astrological alle-
gories.
Porphyry objected that those who thus reduce religion is there
to astrology submit everything to fate and leave the human ^^^"^l °^ ;
soul no freedom, and furthermore that in any case astrology
is an unattainable science. lamblichus defends it against
these objections, insisting that the universe is divided under
the rule of planets, signs, and decans ; ^ that the Egyptians
*III, 25. Although, as stated Mil, 26.
above, one may be divinely in- ' III, 15.
spired while diseased. But there ' I, 17.
is no causal connection between "VIII, 4.
the two.
3i6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Porphyry
and
astrology.
Astrologi-
cal images.
do not make everything physical but ascribe two souls to
man, one of which obeys the revolutions of the stars, while
the other is intellectual and free ; ^ and that there is a sys-
tematic art of astrology based on divine revelation and the
long observations of the Chaldeans, although like any other
science it may at times degenerate and become contaminated
by error.^ lamblichus further regards as ridiculous the con-
tention of those "who ascribe depravity to the celestial bodies
because their participants sometimes produce evil." ^ In
the brief separate treatise, De fato,'^ he again holds that all
things are bound by the indissoluble chain of necessity which
men call fate, but that the gods can loose the bonds of fate,
and that the human mind, too, has power to rise above na-
ture, unite with the gods, and enjoy eternal life.
Whether Porphyry in his other extant works evidences
a belief in astrology or not, and whether he wrote an Intro-
duction to the Tetrabiblos or astrological handbook of Ptol-
emy, has been disputed.^ This Introduction ascribed to
Porphyry was much cited by subsequent astrologers ® and
was printed in 1559 together with a much longer anonymous
commentary on the Tetrabiblos which some ascribe to Proc-
lus."^
Towards astrological images at least. Porphyry shows
himself in the Letter to Anebo more favorable than lam-
blichus, saying, "Nor are the artificers of efficacious images
to be despised, for they observe the motion of celestial
bodies." lamblichus, on the other hand, rather grudgingly
admits that "the image-making art attracts a certain very
obscure genesiurgic portion from the celestial effluxions." ^
He seems to have the same feeling against images as against
'VIII, 6.
'IX, 3-4.
•I, 18.
* lamblichus. In Nicomachi
Geraseni arithmeticam introduc-
tionem et De fato, published by
Tennulius, Deventer and Arnheim,
1668.
"Zeller, Philos. d. Gr., Ill, 2, 2,
p. 608. cites passages to show
Porphyry's leanings towards as-
trology; but F. Boll, Studien ilber
Claudius Ptolemaeus, 1 15-17, and
Bouche-L e c 1 e r c q , L'Astrologie
grccque, 601-602, are inclined to
the opposite view.
" CCAG, passim.
' Ed. Hieronymus Wolf, Basel,
1559, Greek and Latin.
« III. 28.
XI
NEO-PLATONISM
317
characters, perhaps regarding both as bordering upon idol-
atry.^
Plotinus, Porphyry, and lambHchus were all given to
number mysticism. The sixth book of the sixth Ennead is
entirely devoted to this subject, while Porphyry and lam-
blichus both wrote Lives of Pythagoras and treatises upon
his doctrine of number.
Other works by Porphyry than the Letter to Anebo
axe cited or quoted a good deal by Eusebius in Praeparatio
evangeiica, especially his Hept r^s e/c \o'yloiv 4)Ckoao4)las , but
the extracts are made for Eusebius's own purposes, which
are to discredit pagan religion, and neither express Por-
phyry's complete thought nor probably even tend to prove
his original point. Besides showing that Porphyry was in-
consistent in distinguishing the different victims to be sac-
rificed to terrestrial and subterranean, aerial, celestial, and
sea gods in the above-mentioned work, when in his De ab-
stinentia a rebus animatis he held that beings who delighted
in animal sacrifice were no gods but mere demons, Eusebius
quotes him a good deal to show that the pagan gods were
nothing but demons, that they themselves might be called
magicians and astrologers, that they loved characters, and
that they made their predictions of the future not from their
own foreknowledge but from the stars by the art of as-
trology, and that like men they could not even always read
the decrees of the stars aright. The belief is also men-
tioned that the fate foretold from the stars may be avoided
by resort to magic.^
The Emperor Julian was an enthusiastic follower of lam-
blichus whom he praises ^ in his Hymn to the Sovereign
Sun delivered at the Saturnalia of 361 A. D. He also de-
scribes "the blessed theurgists" as able to comprehend un-
speakable mysteries which are hidden from the crowd,
such as Julian the Chaldean prophesied concerning the god
Number
mysticism.
Porphyry
as reported
by Euse-
bius.
The
Emperor
Julian on
theurgy
and
astrology.
' III, 29.
* Eusebius, Praep. evang., IV, 6-
15i 23; V, 6, II, 14-15; VI, I, 4-5;
etc., in Migne, PG, XXI. _
^ Loeb Library edition
Julian's works, I, 398, 412, 433.
of
3i8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of the seven rays.^ The emperor tells us that from his youth
he was regarded as over-curious {irepLepyoTepov, a word
which almost implies the practice of magic) and as a di-
viner by the stars {aaTpbuavTiv). His Hymn to the Sun con-
tains a good deal of astrological detail, speaks of the uni-
verse as eternal and divine, and regards planets, signs, and
decans as "the visible gods." In short, "there is in the
heavens a great multitude of gods." - The Sun, however,
is superior to the other planets, and as Aristotle has pointed
out "makes the simplest movement of all the heavenly bodies
that travel in a direction opposite to the whole." ^ The Sun
is also the link between the visible universe and the intel-
ligible world, and Julian infers from his middle station
among the planets that he is also king among the intellec-
tual gods.* For behind his visible self is the great Invisible.
He frees our souls entirely from the power of "Genesis,"
or the force of the stars exercised at nativity, and lifts them
to the world of the pure intellect.^
Julian believed in almost every form of pagan divina-
tion as well as in astrology. To the oracles of Apollo he as-
cribed the civilizing of the greater part of the world through
the foundation of Greek colonies and the revelation of re-
ligious and political law.^ The historian Ammianus Mar-
cellinus '^ tells us that Julian was continually inspecting en-
trails of victims and interpreting dreams and omens, and
that he even proposed to re-open a prophetic fountain whose
predictions were supposed to have enabled Hadrian to be-
come emperor, after which that emperor blocked it up from
fear that someone else might supplant him through its instru-
mentality. In another passage ^ he defends Julian from the
charge of magic, saying, "Inasmuch as malicious persons
have attributed the use of evil arts to learn the future to
this ruler who was a learned inquirer into all branches of
knowledge, we shall briefly indicate how a wise man is able
* I, 482, 498. '1,368.
' I, 405. I' 419. .. „
=•1:374-75. ;?$"'.^"' ^•
M, 366-67. "XXI, 1. 7.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 319
to acquire this by no means trivial variety of learning. The
spirit behind all the elements, seeing that it is incessantly
and everywhere active in the prophetic movement of peren-
nial bodies, bestows upon us the gift of divination by the
different arts which we employ; and the forces of nature,
propitiated by varied rites, as from exhaustless springs pro-
vide mankind with prophetic utterances."
Ammianus thus regards the arts of divination as serious Scientific
sciences based upon natural forces, although of course in divmation.
the characteristic Neo-Platonic way of thinking he confuses
the spiritual and physical and substitutes propitiatory rites
for scientific experiments. His phrase, "the prophetic move-
ment of perennial bodies" almost certainly means the stars
and shows his belief in astrology. In another passage ^ he
indicates the widespread trust in astrology among the Ro-
man nobles of his time, the later fourth century, by saying
that even those "who deny that there are superior powers
in the sky," nevertheless think it imprudent to appear in
public or dine or bathe without having first consulted an
almanac as to the whereabouts of Mercury or the exact posi-
tion of the moon in Cancer, The passage is satirical, no
doubt, but Ammianus probably objects quite as much to
their disbelief in superior powers in the sky as he does to
the excess of their superstition. That astrology and divin-
ation may be studied scientifically he again indicates in a
description of learning at Alexandria. Besides praising the
medical training to be had there, and mentioning the study
of geometry, music, astronomy, and arithmetic, he says,
"In addition to these subjects they cultivate the science
which reveals the ways of the fates." ^
lamblichus's account of theurgy is repeated in more con- Proclus on
densed form by Proclus (412-485) in a brief treatise or ^ ^"^sy-
fragment which is extant only in its Latin translation by
the Florentine humanist Ficinus, entitled De sacrificio et
inagiaJ Neither magic nor theurgy, however, is mentioned
* XXVIII, iv, 24. 1497, along with the De mysteriis,
^XXII, xvi, 17-18. and other works edited or com-
' Published at Venice (Aldine), posed by Marsilius Ficinus. See
320
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Neo
Platonic
account of
magic bor-
rowed by
Christians.
by name in the Latin text. Proclus states that the priests
of old built up their sacred science by observing the sym-
pathy existing between natural objects and by arguing from
manifest to occult powers. They saw how things on earth
were associated with things in the heavens and further dis-
covered how to bring down divine virtue to this lower world
by the force of likeness which binds things together. Pro-
clus gives several examples of plants, stones, and animals
which evidence such association. The cock, for instance, is
reverenced by the lion because both are under the same
planet, the sun, but the cock even more so than the lion.
Therefore demons who appear with the heads of lions
(leonina front e) vanish suddenly at the sight of a cock un-
less they chance to be demons of the solar order. After
thus indicating the importance of astrology as well as occult
virtue in theurgy or magic, Proclus tells how demons are in-
voked. Sometimes a single herb or stone "suffices for the
divine work" ; sometimes several substances and rites must
be combined "to summon that divinity." When they had
secured the presence of the demons, the priests proceeded,
partly under the instruction of the demons and partly by
their own industrious interpretation of symbols, to a study
of the gods. "Finally, leaving behind natural objects and
forces and even to a great extent the demons, they won
communion with the gods."
Despite the writings of Porphyry and other Neo-Platon-
ists against Christianity, much use was made by Christian
theologians of the fourth and fifth centuries of the Neo-
Platonic accounts of magic, astrology, and divination, es-
pecially of Porphyry's Letter to Anebo. Eusebius in his
Praeparatio Evangelica -^ made large extracts from it on
these themes and also from Porphyry's work on the Chal-
dean oracles. Augustine in The City of God ^ accepted Por-
Pars II, Apologetica, Praep.
Evang., IV, 22; V, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14;
VI, I, 4; XIV, 10 (Migne, Patro-
logia Gracca, vol. 21).
also Prodi Opera, ed. Cousin,
Paris, 1820-1827, III, 278; and
Kroll, Analecta Graeca, Greiss-
wald, 1901, where a Greek trans-
lation accompanies the Latin text.
^ Euscbii Caesariemis Opera,
*X, 9-10.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 321
phyry as an authority on the subjects of theurgy and magic.
On the other hand, we do not find the Christian writers re-
peating the attitude of Plotinus that the Hfe of reason is
alone free from magic, except as they substitute the word
"Christianity" for "the Hfe of reason."
The Neo-Platonists showed some interest in alchemy Neo-
as well as in theurgy and astrology. Berthelot published in ^^^j
his Collection dcs Alchimistes Grecs "a little tract of posi- alchemy,
tive chemistry" which is extant under the name of lam-
blichus ; and Proclus treated of the relations between the
metals and planets and the generation of the metals under
the influence of the stars. ^ Of Synesius, who was both a
Neo-Platonist and a Christian bishop, and who seems to
have written works of alchemy, we shall treat in a later
chapter.
* Berthelot (1889), p. ix.
CHAPTER XII
AELIAN^ SOLINUS AND HORAPOLLO
Aelian On the Nature of Animals — General character of the work
— Its hodge-podge of unclassified detail — Solinus in the middle ages —
His date — General character of his work; its relation to Pliny — Animals
and gems — Occult medicine — Democritus and Zoroaster not regarded
as magicians — Some bits of astrology — Alexander the Great — The
Hieroglyphics of Horapollo — Marvels of animals — Animals and as-
trology— The cynocephalus — Horapollo the cosmopolitan.
From mystic and theurgic compositions we return to works
of the declining Roman Empire which deal more directly
with nature but, it must be confessed, in a manner somewhat
fantastic. About the beginning of the third century, Aelian
of Praeneste, who is included by Philostratus in his Lives
of the Sophists, wrote On the Nature of Animals} Its
seventeen books, written in Greek, which Aelian used flu-
ently despite his Latin birth, are believed to have reached
us partly in interpolated form through two families of
manuscripts, of which the older and less interpolated text
is found in a thirteenth century manuscript at Paris and a
somewhat earlier Vatican codex.^ A number of its chap-
ters are similar to and perhaps borrowed from Pliny's
Natural History; at any rate they are commonplaces of an-
cient science ; but the work also has a marked individuality.
Parallels have also been noted between this work and the
later Hexaemeron of the church father Basil. Aelian was
much cited in Byzantine literature and learning, and if he
was not directly used in the Latin west, at least the attitude
* Ilepi fciwv IStoTT/Tos. I have used henceforth be cited without title
both the editio princeps by Gesner, in the notes.
Zurich, 1556, and the critical edi-
tion by R. Hercher, Paris, 1858, * See PW, and Christ, Gesch. d.
and Teubner, 1864. The work will griech. Litt., for further details.
322
CHAP.xii AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HORAPOLLO 323
toward animals which he displays and his selection of mate-
rial concerning them are as apt precursors of medieval
Latin as of medieval Greek scientific literature.
In preface and epilogue Aelian himself adequately indi- General
cates the character of his work. He is impressed by the of^^^g ^^
customs and characteristics of animals, and marvels at their work,
wisdom and native shrewdness, their justice and modesty,
their affection and piety, which should put human beings
to blush. Thus Aelian's work is marked by that tendency
which runs through ancient and medieval literature to ad-
mire actions in the irrational brutes which seem to indicate
almost human intelligence and virtue on their part, and to
moralize therefrom at the expense of human beings. An-
other striking feature of his work is its utterly whimsical
and haphazard order. He mentions things simply as they
happen to occur to him. This fact, too, he recognizes, but
refuses to apologize for, stating that it suits him, if it does
not suit anyone else, and that he regards a mixed-up order
as more motley, variegated, and pleasing. Not only does
he attempt no classification whatever of his animals and
mention snakes and quadrupeds and birds in the same breath ;
he also does not complete the treatment of a given animal in
one passage but may scatter detached items about it through-
out his work. There is, for instance, probably at least one
chapter concerning elephants in each of his seventeen books.
It would therefore be absurd for us to attempt any logi- its hodge-
cal arrangement in discussing his contents; we may do jus- P^'^p 9^
tice to him most adequately by adopting his own lack of fied detail,
method and noting a few items and topics taken more or less
at random from his work. Ants never go out in the new
moon. Yet they neither gaze at the sky, nor count the num-
ber of days on their fingers, like the learned Babylonians and
Chaldeans, but have this marvelous gift from nature.^ In
sexual intercourse the female viper conceives through the
mouth and bites off the head of the male; afterwards her
young gnaw their way out of her vitals. "What have your
^ I, 22.
324 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Oresteses and Alcmaeons to say to that, my dear trage-
dians?" ^ Doves put laurel boughs in their nests to guard
against fascination and the evil eye, and the hoopoe simi-
larly employs ablavrov or KaWlrpLxov as an amulet;^ and
other unreasoning animals guard against sorcery by some
mystic and marvelous natural power. Another chapter
treats of divinations from the crow and how hairs are dyed
black with its eggs.^ Others tell us of the generation of
serpents from the marrow of a dead man's spine,* and of
venomous women like Medea and Circe who are worse than
the asp with its incurable sting, since they kill by mere
touch. ^
We go on to read of swift little beasts called Pyrigoni
who are generated from fire and live in it, of salamanders
who extinguish flames, of the remedies used by the tortoise
against snakes, of the chastity of doves whose marriages
never result in divorce, and of the incontinence of the par-
tridge.® Also of the jealousies of certain animals like the
stag which hides its right horn, the lizard who devours its
cast-off skin, and the mare who eats the hippomanes from
its colt, lest men obtain these precious substances,'^ Of the
care taken by storks, herons, and pelicans of their aged
parents.^ How the swallow by the virtue of an herb gives
sight to its young who are born blind, and how a hoopoe
found an herb whose virtue dissolved the mud with which
the caretaker of a building had plugged up the hole in the
wall which it used for its nest.^ How the lion and basilisk
fear the cock, and of a lake without fish in a place where
the cocks do not crow.^°
How elephants venerate the waxing moon ; how the wea-
sel eats rue when about to fight the snake; and of the jeal-
* I, 24. " I, 54.
=■ I, 35. D. W. Thompson, Glos- " II, 2 and 31 ; III, 5.
sary of Greek Birds, p. 57, notes 'III, 17.
that in the Birds of Aristophanes, 'III, 23 and 25.
where the hoopoe appears, "the 'III, 26; in I, 45, the wood-
mysterious root in verse 654 is the pecker similarly employs the vir-
magical &SLavTov" tue of an herb to remove a stone
■ I, 48. blocking the entrance to its nest.
* I, 52. " III, 32 and 38.
XII AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HORAPOLLO 325
ousy of the hedge-hog and lynx, the latter concealing his
precious urine, the other watering his own hide when he is
captured in order to spoil it.-^ How the Indians fight grif-
fins when collecting gold.^ How the presence of a cock aids
a woman's delivery.^ Of unnamed beasts in Libya who
know how to count and leave an eleventh part of their prey
untouched.* That the sea dragon is easily captured with
the left hand but not with the right.^ Dragons know the
force of herbs and cure themselves with some and increase
their venom with others.® How dogs, cows, and other ani-
mals sense a famine or plague be forehand. ''^ How the
Egyptians by their magic charm birds from the sky and
snakes from their holes. ^ When it rains in Eg>'pt, mice are
born from the small drops and plague the country. Traps
and fences and ditches are of no avail against them, as they
can leap over trenches and walls. Consequently the Egyp-
tians are forced to pray God to end the calamity,^ — an in-
teresting variant on the Old Testament account of the
plagues of Egypt.
In dogs there exists a certain dialectical faculty of ratioc-
ination.^^ The weather may be predicted from birds, quad-
rupeds, and flies.^^ The she-goat can cure suffusion of its
eyes.^- Eagles drop tortoises on rocks to break their shells
and the bald-headed poet Aeschylus met his death by having
his pate mistaken thus for a smooth round stone.^^ Some
predict the future by birds, others by entrails, or by grains,
sieves, and cheeses; the Lycians practice divination by fish.^*
A stork whom a widow of Tarentum helped when it was
too young to fly brought her a luminous precious stone the
following year.^^ Solon did not have to enact a law ordering
'IV, 10, 14, 17. "VII, 14.
WYr' ^^- "VII, 16. The story is also
,}V, 29. found in Pliny NH, X, 3, where
5 \j: ' 53- it is added that Aeschylus re-
g V> 2>7- mained cut-doors that day, be-
, y {;' 4- cause an oracle predicted that he
g^}' 10. would be killed by the fall of a
^ VI, 22' (tortoise's) house.
"Vi,^59. "VIII, 5.
"VII, 7-8. "VIII, 22.
326 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
children to support their aged parents in the case of lions,
whose cubs are taught by nature filial piety toward their
elders.^ Only the horn of the Scythian ass can hold the
water of the Arcadian river Styx; Alexander the Great sent
a sample of it to Delphi with some accompanying verses
which Aelian quotes.^ In Epirus dragons sacred to Apollo
are employed in divination, and in the Lavinian Grove drag-
ons spit out again the frumenty offered them by unchaste
virgins.^ By flying beneath it an eagle saved the life of its
young one who had been thrown down from a tower.* Dif-
ferent fish eat different sea herbs.^ There are fish who
live in boiling water.® There are scattered mentions of the
marvels of India throughout Aelian' s work, and in his six-
teenth book the first fourteen chapters are almost exclu-
sively concerned with the animals of that land.
Solinus A well-known work in the middle ages dating from the
middle period of the Roman Empire was the Collectanea rerum
ages. memorabilium or Polyhistor of Solinus. Mommsen's edi-
tion lists 153 manuscripts from 32 places,'^ and we shall find
many citations of Solinus in our later medieval authors.
Martianus Capella and Isidore were the first to make exten-
sive use of his work. In the thirteenth century Albertus
Magnus had little respect for Solinus as an authority and
expressed more than once the quite accurate opinion that
his work was full of lies. Nevertheless copies of it con-
tinued to abound in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
and by 1554 five printed editions had appeared. "From it
directly come most of the fables in works of object so dif-
ferent as those of Dicuil, Isidore, Capella, and Priscian." ^
His date. The first extant author to make use of Solinus is Augus-
tine in The City of God, while he is first named in the Gen-
ealogus of 455 A. D. None of the manuscripts of the work
^IX, I. rum memorabilium iterum recen-
'X, 40. suit Th. Mommsen, Berlin, 189S,
' XI, 2 and 16. pp. xxxi-li. Beazley, Dawn of
*XII, 21. Modern Geography, I, 520-2, lists
• XIII, 3. 152 MSS.
* XIV, 19. * Beazley, Dawn of Modern
' C. lulii Solini Collectanea re- Geography. 1, 247.
XII AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HORAPOLLO 327
antedate the ninth century, but many of them have copied
an earlier subscription from a manuscript written "by the
zeal and diligence of our lord Theodosius, the unconquered
prince." This is taken to refer to the emperor Theodosius
II, 401-450. The work itself, however, has no Christian
characteristics; on the contrary it is very fond of mentioning
places famed in pagan religion and Greek mythology and
of recounting miracles and marvels connected with heathen
shrines and rites. Indeed, Solinus seldom, if ever, men-
tions anything later than the first century of our era. He
speaks of Byzantium, not of Constantinople, and makes no
mention of the Roman provinces as divided in the system of
Diocletian. His book, however, is a compilation from earlier
writings so that we need not expect allusions to his own
age. The Latin style and general literary make-up of the
work are characteristic of the declining empire and early
medieval period. Mommsen was inclined to date Solinus in
the third rather than the fourth century, but the work seems
to have been revised about the sixth century, after which
date it became customary to call it the Polyhistor rather than
the Collectanea rerum memorahilium. It is also referred to,
however, as De mirabilibus mundi, or Wonders of the
World.
The work is primarily a geography and is arranged by General
countries and places, beginning with Rome and Italy. As character
each locality is considered, Solinus sometimes tells a little work: its
of its history, but is especially inclined to recount miracu- ^o Pliny,
lous religious events or natural marvels associated with that
particular region. Thus in describing two lakes he rather
apologizes for mentioning the first at all because it can
scarcely be called miraculous, but assures us that the second
"is regarded as very extraordinary." ^ Sometimes he di-
gresses to other topics such as calendar reform.^ Solinus
drav/s both his geographical data and further details very
largely from Pliny's Natural History; but inasmuch as
Pliny treated of these matters in separate books, Solinus has
* Mommsen (1895), p. 48. 'Ibid., p. 7.
328 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
to re-organize the material. He also selects simply a few
particulars from Pliny's wealth of detail on any given sub-
ject, and furthermore considerably alters Pliny's wording,
sometimes condensing the thought, sometimes amplifying
the phraseology — apparently in an effort to make the point
clearer and easier reading. Of Pliny's thirty-seven books
only those from the third to the thirteenth inclusive and the
last book are used to any extent by Solinus. That is to say,
he either was acquainted with only, or confined himself to,
those books dealing with geography, man and other animals,
and gems, omitting almost entirely, except for the twelfth
and thirteenth books, Pliny's elaborate treatment of vegeta-
tion and of medicinal simples -^ and discussion of metals and
the fine arts. Solinus does not acknowledge his great debt
to Pliny in particular, although he keeps alluding to the
fulness with which everything has already been discussed
by past authors, and although he cites other writers who are
almost unknown to us. Of his known sources Pomponius
Mela is the chief after Pliny but is used much less. On the
other hand, the number of passages for which Mommsen
was unable to give any source is not inconsiderable. As may
have been already inferred, the work of Solinus is brief ;
the text alone would scarcely fill one hundred pages.^
Animals It would perhaps be rash to conjecture which quality
and gems, commended the book most to the following period : its handy
size, or its easy style and fairly systematic arrangement, or
its emphasis upon marvels. The last characteristic is at
least the most germane to our investigation. Solinus ren-
dered the service, if we may so term it, of reducing Pliny's
treatment of animals and precious stones in particular to a
few common examples, which either were already the best
known or became so as a result of his selection. Indeed,
King was of the opinion that the descriptions of gems in
Solinus were more precise, technical, and systematic than
^Yet one medieval MS of So- century, fols. 156-74-
linus is described as De variorum ^ In Mommsen's edition critical
herbarum et radicum qualitate et apparatus occupies more than one-
virtute mcdica; Vienna 3959, 15th half of the 216 pages.
XII AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HORAPOLLO 329
those in Pliny, and found his notices "often extremely use-
ful." ^ Solinus describes such animals as the wolf, lynx,
bear, lion, hyena, onager or wild ass, basilisk, crocodile,
hippopotamus, phoenix, dolphin, and chameleon ; and re-
counts the marvelous properties of such gems as achates or
agate, galactites, catochites, crystal, gagates, adamant, helio-
trope, hyacinth, and paeanites. The dragons of India and
Ethiopia also occupy his attention, as they did that of Phi-
lostratus in the Life of Apolloniits of Tyana; indeed, he re-
peats in different words the statement found in Philostratus
that they swim far out to sea.^ In Sardinia, on the con-
trary, there are no snakes, but a poisonous ant exists there.
Fortunately there are also healing waters there with which
to counteract its venom, but there is also native to Sardinia
an herb called Sardonia which causes those who eat it to die
of laughter.^
Although Solinus makes no use of Pliny's medical books. Occult
he shows considerable interest in the healing properties of "^ *'^'"^'
simples and in medicine. He tells us that those who slept
in the shrine of Aesculapius at Epidaurus were warned in
dreams how to heal their diseases,'* and that the third daugh-
ter of Aeetes, named Angitia, devoted herself "to resisting
disease by the salubrious science" of medicine.^ According
to Solinus Circe as well as Medea was a daughter of Aeetes,
but usually in Greek mythology she is represented as his
sister.
* C. W. King, The Natural His- VII, 52) speaks of as a premoni-
tory. Ancient and Modern, of tory sign of death in cases of
Precious Stones and Gems, Lon- madness, "is not the indication of
don, 1865, p. 6. mirth, but what has been termed
=■ Mommsen (1895), PP. 132, 188. ^^^ ""tl"' Sardoniciis, the 'Sardonic
l^ygj^^ produced by a convulsive
* Ibid., 46-7. Mommsen could action of the muscles of the face."
give no source for these state- This form of death may be what
ments concerning Sardinia, and Solinus has in mind. Agricola in
they donot appear to be in Pliny. his work on metallurgy and mines
But it is from a footnote in the still believes in the poisonous ants
English translation of the Natural of Sardinia; De re metaUica, VI,
History by Bostock and Riley (II, near close, pp. 216-7, in Hoover's
208, citing Dalechamps, and Le- translation, 1912.
maire. III, 201) that I learn that "Mommsen (1895), p. 57.
the laughter which Pliny (NH, '^ Ibid., p. 39.
CHAP.
Democri-
tus and
Zoroaster
not re-
garded as
magicians.
Some
bits of
astrology.
330 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
This allusion to Circe and Medea shows that magic, to
which medicine and pharmacy are apparently akin, does not
pass unnoticed in Solinus's page. He copies from Mela the
account of the periodical transformation of the Neuri into
wolves.^ But instead of accusing Democritus of having em-
ployed magic, as Pliny does, Solinus represents him as en-
gaging in contests with the Magi, in which he made frequent
use of the stone catochites in order to demonstrate the oc-
cult power of nature.^ That is to say, Democritus was ap-
parently opposing science to magic and showing that all the
latter's feats could be duplicated or improved upon by em-
ploying natural forces. In two other passages ^ Solinus
calls Democritus physicus, or scientist, and affirms that his
birth in Abdera did more to make that town famous than
any other thing connected with it, despite the fact that it
was founded by and named after the sister of Diomedes.
Zoroaster, too, whom Pliny called the founder of the magic
art, is not spoken of as a magician by Solinus, although he
is mentioned three times and is described as "most skilled
in the best arts," and is cited concerning the power of coral
and of the gem aetites^
It is not part of Solinus's plan to describe the heavens,
but he occasionally alludes to "the discipline of the stars," ^
as he calls astronomy or astrology. On the authority of L.
Tarrutius, "most renowned of astrologers," ® he tells us that
the foundations of the walls of Rome were laid by Romulus
in his twenty-second year on the eleventh day of the kalends
of May between the second and third hours, when Jupiter
was in Pisces, the sun in Taurus, the moon in Libra, and
the other four planets in the sign of the scorpion. He also
^Mommsen (1895), p. 82.
''Ibid., pp. 45-46.
*Ioid., pp. 13, 68.
*lbid., pp. 18, 41, 159-
'^ Ibid., p. 50, and elsewhere,
"siderum disciplinam."
''Ibid., p. 5, "mathematicorum
nobilissimus." Solinus probably
takes this from Varro, who, as
Plutarch informs us in his Life of
Romulus, asked "Tarrutius, his
familiar acquaintance, a good
philosopher and mathematician,"
to calculate the horoscope of
Romulus. See above, p. 209.
XII AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HOR APOLLO 331
speaks of the star Arcturus destroying the Argive fleet off
Euboea on its return from Ilium. ^
Alexander the Great figures prominently in the pages of Alexander
Solinus, being mentioned a score of times, and this too cor-
responds to the medieval interest in the Macedonian con-
queror. Stories concerning him are repeated from Pliny,
but Solinus also displays further information. He insists
that Philip was truly his father, although he adds that Olym-
pias strove to acquire a nobler father for him, when she
affirmed that she had had intercourse with a dragon, and
that Alexander tried to have himself considered of divine
descent.^ The statement concerning Olympias suggests the
story of Nectanebus, of which a later chapter will treat, but
that individual is not mentioned, although Aristotle and Cal-
listhenes are spoken of as Alexander's tutors, so that it is
doubtful if Solinus was acquainted with the Pseudo-CaUis-
thenes. He describes Alexander's line of march with fair
accuracy and not in the totally incorrect manner of the
Pseud o-Callisthenes.
In seeking a third text and author of the same type as The
Aelian and Solinus to round out the present chapter, our giyphicsoi
choice unhesitatingly falls upon the Hieroglyphics of Hora- Horapollo.
polio, a work which pretends to explain the meaning of the
written symbols employed by the ancient Egyptian priests,
but which is really principally concerned with the same mar-
velous habits and properties of animals of which Aelian
treated. In brief the idea is that these characteristics of
animals must be known in order to comprehend the signifi-
cance of the animal figures in the ancient hieroglyphic writ-
ing. Horapollo is supposed to have written in the Egyptian
language in perhaps the fourth or fifth century of our era,^
but his work is extant only in the Greek translation of it
made by a Philip who lived a century or two later and who
seems to have made some additions of his own.*
^Mommsen (1905), pp. 75-6. ''I have used the text and Eng-
^Ibid., p. 66. lish translation of A. T. Cory,
* PW, for the problem of his The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo
identity and further bibliography. Nilous, 1840. Philip's Greek is so
332 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Marvels of The zoology of Horapollo is for the most part not novel,
but repeats the same erroneous notions that may be found
in Aristotle's History of Animals, Pliny's Natural History,
Aelian, and other ancient authors. Again we hear of the
basilisk's fatal breath, of the beaver's discarded testicles, of
the unnatural methods of conception of the weasel and
viper, of the bear's licking its cubs into shape, of the kind-
ness of storks to their parents, of wasps generated from a
dead horse, of the phoenix, of the swan's song, of the sick
lion's eating an ape to cure himself, of the bull tamed by
tying it to the branch of a wild fig tree, of the elephant's
fear of a ram or a dog and how it buries its tusks. ^ Less
familiar perhaps are the assertions that the mare miscarries,
if she merely treads on a wolf's tracks;^ that the pigeon
cures itself by placing laurel in its nest; ^ that putting the
wings of a bat on an ant-hill will prevent the ants from com-
ing out.* The statement that if the hyena, when hunted,
turns to the right, it will slay its pursuer, while if it turns
to the left, it will be slain by him, is also found in Pliny.^
But his long enumeration of virtues ascribed to parts of
the hyena by the Magi does not include the assertion in
Horapollo's next chapter ® that a man girded with a hyena
skin can pass through the ranks of his enemies without in-
jury, although it ascribes somewhat similar virtues to the
animal's skin. In Horapollo it is the hawk rather than the
eagle which surpasses other winged creatures in its ability
to gaze at the sun; hence physicians use the hawk-weed in
eye-cures.'^
bad that some would date it in the II, 44 and 39 and 76-7 and 85-6
fourteenth or fifteenth century. and 88.
The oldest extant Greek codex ^ II, 45.
was purchased in Andros in 1419. MI, 46; Aelian says the same,
The work was translated into however, as we stated above.
Latin by the fifteenth century at " II, 64.
latest; see Vienna 3255, 15th cen- "NH, XXVIII, 27.
tury, 82 fols., Horapollo, Hiero- °II, 72.
glyphicon latirie versorum liber I ' I, 6. According to Pliny (NH,
et libri II introductio cum figuris XX, 26), the hawk sprinkles its
calamo exaratis et coloratis. eyes with the juice of this herb;
^I, i; II, 61; II, 65; II, 36 and Apuleius (Metamorphoses, cap.
59; II, 57; II, 83; I, 34-5; il, 57; 30) says that the eagle does so.
XII AELIAN, SOLINUS, AND HORAPOLLO 333
Animals also serve as astronomical or astrological sym- Animals
bols in the system of hieroglyphic writing as interpreted by astrology.
Horapollo. Not only does a palm tree represent the year
because it puts forth a new branch every new moon/ but
the phoenix denotes the magnus annus in the course of which
the heavenly bodies complete their revolutions.^ The scarab
rolls his ball of dung from east to west and gives it the shape
of the universe.^ He buries it for twenty-eight days con-
formably to the course of the moon through the zodiac, but
he has thirty toes to correspond to the days of the month.
As there is no female scarab, so there is no male vulture.
The female vulture symbolizes the Egyptian year by spend-
ing five days in conceiving by the wind, one hundred and
twenty in pregnancy, the same period in rearing its young,
and the remaining one hundred and twenty days in prepar-
ing itself to repeat the process.* The vulture also visits
battlefields seven days in advance and by the direction of its
glance indicates which army will be defeated.
The cynocephalus, dog-headed ape, or baboon, was men- The cyno-
tioned several times by Pliny, but Horapollo gives more ^^^
specific information concerning it, chiefly of an astrological
character. It is born circumcised and is reared in temples
in order to learn from it the exact hour of lunar eclipses, at
which times it neither sees nor eats, while the female ex gen-
italibus sanguinem emittit. The cynocephalus represents the
inhabitable world which has seventy-two primitive parts,
because the animal dies and is buried piecemeal by the priests
during a period of as many days, until at the end of the
seventy-second day life has entirely departed from the last
remnant of its carcass.^ The cynocephalus not only marks
the time of eclipses but at the equinoxes makes water twelve
times by day and by night, marking off the hours ; hence a
figure of it is carved by the Egyptians on their water-clocks.®
Horapollo associates together the god of the universe and
fate and the stars which are five in number, for he believes
*I, 3. "I. II-
'II, 57. "I. 14.
•I, 10. "I. 16.
334 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xii
that five planets carry out the economy of the universe and
that they are subject to God's government.^
Horapollo Horapollo cannot be given high rank either as a zoolo-
poHtan"^°" S^^^ ^"^ astronomer, or a philologer and archaeologist; but
at least he was no narrow nationalist and had some respect
for history. The Egyptians, he says, "denote a man who
has never left his own country by a human figure with the
head of an ass, because he neither hears any history nor
knows of what is going on abroad." ^
*I, 13. ^I» 23.
Foreword.
Chapter
13-
<(
14,
((
15-
((
16.
BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
The Book of Enoch.
Philo Judaeus.
The Gnostics.
The Christian Apocrypha.
17. The Recognitions of Clement and Simon
Magus.
18. The Confession of Cyprian and some similar
stories.
19. Origen and Celsus.
20. Other Christian Discussion of Magic before
Augustine.
21. Christianity and Natural Science; Basil,
Epiphanius, and the Physiologus.
22. Augustine on Magic and Astrology.
23. The Fusion of Pagan and Christian Thought
in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries.
335
BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
FOREWORD
We now turn back chronologically to the point from
which we started in our survey of classical science and
magic in order to trace the development of Christian thought
in regard to the same subjects. How far did Christianity
break with ancient science and superstition? To what ex-
tent did it borrow from them ?
It has often been remarked that, as a new religion comes Magic and
to prevail in a society, the old rites are discredited and pro- I'^ligion-
hibited as magic. The faith and ceremonies of the majority,
performed publicly, are called religion : the discarded cult,
now practiced only privately and covertly by a minority,
is stigmatized as magic and contrary to the general good.
Thus we shall hear Christian writers condemn the pagan
oracles and auguries as arts of divination, and classify the
ancient gods as demons of the same sort as those invoked
in the magic arts. Conversely, when a new religion is being
introduced, is as yet regarded as a foreign faith, and is
still only the private worship of a minority, the majority
regard it as outlandish magic. And this we shall find illus-
trated by the accusations of sorcery and magic heaped upon
Jesus by the Jews, and upon the Jews and the early Chris-
tians by a world long accustomed to pagan rites. The same
bandying back and forth of the charge of magic occurred be-
tween Mohammed and the Meccans.^
It is perhaps generally assumed that the men of the mid- Relation
die ages were widely read in and deeply influenced ^^j-iy
by the fathers of the early church, but at least for our sub- Christiaji
1 • 1 1 11 ^"^ medie-
ject this influence has hardly been treated either broadly or val litera-
*Sir William Muir, "Ancient Arabic Poetry, its Genuineness ^^^'
and Authenticity," in Royal Asiatic Society's Journal (1882), p. 30.
337
338
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE fore-
Method of
presenting
early
Christian
thought.
in detail. Indeed, the predilection of the humanists of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for anything written in
Greek and their aversion to medieval Latin has too long
operated as a bar to the study of medieval literature in gen-
eral. And scholars who have edited or studied the Greek,
Syriac, and other ancient texts connected with early Chris-
tianity have perhaps too often neglected the Latin versions
preserved in medieval manuscripts, or, while treasuring up
every hint that Photius lets fall, have failed to note the cita-
tions and allusions in medieval Latin encyclopedists. Yet it
is often the case that the manuscripts containing the Latin
versions are of earlier date than those which seem to pre-
serve the Greek original text.
There is so much repetition and resemblance between the
numerous Christian writers in Greek and Latin of the Ro-
man Empire that I have even less than in the case of their
classical contemporaries attempted a complete presentation
of them, but, while not intending to omit any account of the
first importance in the history of magic or experimental sci-
ence, have aimed to make a selection of representative per-
sons and typical passages. At the same time, in the case
of those authors and works which are discussed, the aim is
to present their thought in sufficiently specific detail to
enable the reader to estimate for himself their scientific or
superstitious character and their relations to classical thought
on the one hand and medieval thought on the other.
Before we treat of Christian writings themselves it is
essential to notice some related lines of thought and groups
of writings which either preceded or accompanied the devel-
opment of Christian thought and literature, and which either
influenced even orthodox thought powerfully, or illustrate
foreign elements, aberrations, side-currents, and undertows
which none the less cannot be disregarded in tracing the
main current of Christian belief. We therefore shall suc-
cessively treat of the literature extant under the name of
Enoch, of the works of Philo Judaeus, of the doctrines of
the Gnostics, of the Christian Apocrypha, of the Pseudo-
WORD BOOK II, FOREWORD 339
Clementines and Simon Magus, and of the Confession of
Cyprian and some similar stories. We shall then make
Origen's Reply to Celsus, in which the conflict of classical
and Christian conceptions is well illustrated, our point of
departure in an examination of the attitude of the early
fathers towards magic and science. Succeeding chapters will
treat of the attitude toward magic of other fathers before
Augustine, of Christianity and natural science as shown in
Basil's Hexaemeron, Epiphanius' Panarion, and the Physio-
logus, and of Augustine himself. A final chapter on the
fusion of paganism and Christianity in the fourth and fifth
centuries will terminate this second division of our investi-
gation and also serve as a supplement to the preceding divi-
sion and an introduction to the third book on the early mid-
dle ages. Our arrangement is thus in part topical rather
than strictly chronological. The dates of many authors and
works are too dubious, there is too much of the apocryphal
and interpolated, and we have to rely too much upon later
writers for the views of earlier ones, to make a strictly or
even primarily chronological arrangement either advisable
or feasible.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BOOK OF ENOCH
Enoch's
reputation
as an
astrologer
in the
middle
ages.
Enoch's reputation as an astrologer in the middle ages — Date and
influence of the literature ascribed to Enoch — Angels governing the
universe ; stars and angels — The fallen angels teach men magic and
other arts — The stars as sinners — Effect of sin upon nature — Celestial
phenomena — Mountains and metals — Strange animals.
In collections of medieval manuscripts there often is found
a treatise on fifteen stars, fifteen herbs, fifteen stones, and
fifteen figures engraved upon them, which is attributed some-
times to Hermes, presumably Trismegistus, and sometimes
to Enoch, the patriarch, who "walked with God and was
not."^ Indeed in the prologue to a Hermetic work on astrol-
ogy in a medieval manuscript we are told that Enoch and the
first of the three Hermeses or Mercuries are identical.^ This
* Ascribed to Enoch in Harleian
MS 1612, fol. I5r, Incipit:
"Enoch tanquam unus ex phi-
losophis super res quartum librum
edidit, in quo voluit determinare
ista quatuor : videlicet de xv
stellis, de xv herbis, de xv lapidi-
bus preciosis et de xv figuris
ipsis lapidibus sculpendis," and
Wolfenbiittel 2725, 14th century,
fols. 83-94V; BN 13014, 14th cen-
tury, fol. 174V; Amplon, Quarto
381 (Erfurt), 14th century, fols.
42-45 : for "Enoch's prayer" see
Sloane MS 3821, 17th century,
fols. 190V-193.
Ascribed to Hermes in Harleian
80, Sloane 3847, Royal 12-C-
XVni; Berlin 963, fol. 105;
Vienna 5216, 15th century, fols.
63r-66v; "Dixit Enoch quod 15
sunt stelle / ex tractatu Here-
meth (i- e. Hermes) et enoch
compilatum" ; and in the Cata-
logue of Amplonius (1412 A.D.),
Math. 53. See below, H, 220-21.
The stars are probably fifteen in
number because Ptolemy distin-
guished that many stars of first
magnitude. Dante, Paradiso, XHI,
4, also speaks of "quindici stelle."
See Orr (1913), pp. 154-6, where
Ptolemy's descriptions of the fif-
teen stars of first magnitude and
their modern names are given.
*Digby 67, late 12th century,
fol. 69r, "Prologus de tribiis
Mercuriis." They are also identi-
fied by other medieval writers.
Some would further identify
with Enoch Nannacus or Anna-
cus, king of Phrygia, who fore-
saw Deucalion's flood and la-
mented. See J. G. Frazer (1918),
I, 155-6, and P. Buttmann, Myth-
ologus, Berlin, 1828- 1829, and E.
Babelon, La tradition phrygienne
du deluge, in Rev. d. I hist. d.
religs., XXHI (1891), which he
cites.
Roger Bacon stated that some
would identify Enoch with "the
340
CHAP. XIII
THE BOOK OF ENOCH
341
treatise probably has no direct relation to the Book of
Enoch, which we shall discuss in this chapter and which
was composed in the pre-Christian period. But it is inter-
esting to observe that the same reputation for astrology,
which led the middle ages sometimes to ascribe this treatise
to Enoch, is likewise found in "the first notice of a book of
Enoch," which "appears to be due to a Jewish or Samaritan
Hellenist," which "has come down to us successively through
Alexander Polyhistor and Eusebius," and which states that
Enoch was the founder of astrology.^ The statement in
Genesis that Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years
would also lead men to associate him with the solar year
and stars.
The Book of Enoch is "the precipitate of a literature. Date and
once very active, which revolved . . . round Enoch," and of ^j^g
in the form which has come down to us is a patchwork from 'iterature
ascribed
"several originally independent books." ^ It is extant in the to Enoch.
form of Greek fragments preserved in the Chronography of
G. Syncellus,^ or but lately discovered in (Upper) Egypt,
and in more complete but also more recent manuscripts giv-
ing an Ethiopic and a Slavonic version.^ These last two
versions are quite different both in language and content,
while some of the citations of Enoch in ancient writers
apply to neither of these versions. While "Ethiopic did not
exist as a literary language before 350 A. D.," ^ and none
great Hermogenes, whom the
Greeks much commend and laud,
and they ascribe to him all secret
and celestial science." Steele
(1920) 99.
'R. H. Charles, The Book of
Enoch, Oxford, 1893, p. 33, citing
Euseb. Praep. Evan., ix, 17, 8
(Gaisford).
* Charles (1893), p. 10, citing
Ewald.
*ed. Dindorf, 1829.
* Lods, Ad. Le Livre d'Henoch,
Fragments grecs decouverts a
Akhmin, Paris, 1892.
Charles, R. H., The Book of
Enoch, Oxford, 1893, "translated
from Professor Dillman's Ethi-
opic text, amended and revised
in accordance with hitherto uncol-
lated Ethiopic manuscripts and
with the Gizeh and other Greek
and Latin fragments, which are
here published in full." The Book
of EnocJi, translated anezv, etc.,
Oxford, 1912. Also translated in
Charles (1913) II, 163-281. There
are twenty-nine Ethiopic MSS of
Enoch.
Charles, R. H., and Morfill, W.
R., The Book of the Secrets of
Enoch, translated from the Sla-
vonic, Oxford, 1896. Also by
Forbes and Charles in Charles
(1913) II. 425-69.
"Charles (1893), p. 22.
342 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of the extant manuscripts of the Ethiopic version is earlier
than the fifteenth century/ Charles believes that they are
based upon a Greek translation of the Hebrew and Aramaic
original, and that even the interpolations in this were made
by an editor living before the Christian era. He asserts that
**nearly all the writers of the New Testament were familiar
with it," and influenced by it, — in fact that its influence on
the New Testament was greater than that of all the other
apocrypha together, and that it "had all the weight of a
canonical book" with the early church fathers.^ After
300 A. D., however, it became discredited, except as we
have seen among Ethiopic and Slavonic Christians. Be-
fore 300 Origen in his Reply to Celsus ^ accuses his
opponent of quoting the Book of Enoch as a Christian au-
thority concerning the fallen angels. Origen objects that
"the books which bear the name Enoch do not at all circu-
late in the Churches as divine." Augustine, in the City of
God,'^ written between 413 and 426, admits that Enoch "left
some divine writings, for this is asserted by the Apostle
Jude in his canonical epistle." But he doubts if any of the
writings current in his own day are genuine and thinks that
they have been wisely excluded from the course of Scripture.
Lods writes that after the ninth century in the east and from
a much earlier date in the west, the Book of Enoch is not
mentioned, "At the most some medieval rabbis seem still
to know of it." ^ Yet Alexander Neckam, in the twelfth
century, speaks as if Latin Christendom of that date had
some acquaintance with the Enoch literature. We shall note
some passages in Saint Hildegard which seem parallel to
others in the Book of Enoch, while Vincent of Beauvais in
his Speculum naturale in the thirteenth century, in justify-
ing a certain discriminating use of the apocryphal books,
points out that Jude quotes Enoch whose book is now called
apocryphal.^
'Charles (1913), II, 165-6. "Introd., vi.
' Charles (1893), pp. 2 and 41- "Spec. Nat., I, g. A Latin frag-
• v., 54. ment, found in the British Museum
* XV, 23. in 1893 by Dr. M. R. James and
XIII THE BOOK OF ENOCH 343
The Enoch literature has much to say concerning angels, Angels
and implies their control of nature, man, and the future. fhJ^uni"^
We hear of Raphael, "who is set over all the diseases and verse:
wounds of the children of men"; Gabriel, "who is set over angels,
all the powers" ; Phanuel, "who is set over the repentance and
hope of those who inherit eternal life." ^ The revolution
of the stars is described as "according to the number of
the angels," and in the Slavonic version the number of those
angels is stated as two hundred.^ Indeed the stars them-
selves are often personified and we read "how they keep faith
with each other" and even of "all the stars whose privy
members are like those of horses." ^ The Ethiopic version
also speaks of the angels or spirits of hoar-frost, dew, hail,
snow and so forth.* In the Slavonic version Enoch finds
in the sixth heaven the angels who attend to the phases of
the moon and the revolutions of stars and sun and who
superintend the good or evil condition of the world. He
finds angels set over the years and seasons, the rivers and
sea, the fruits of the earth, and even an angel over every
herb.^
The fallen angels in particular are mentioned in the Book The fallen
of Enoch. Two hundred angels lusted after the comely f"^?|^
•' o J teach men
daughters of men and bound themselves by oaths to marry magic and
them.^ After having thus taken unto themselves wives, they
instructed the human race in the art of magic and the science
of botany — or to be more exact, "charms and enchantments"
and "the cutting of roots and of woods." In another chap-
ter various individual angels are named who taught respec-
tively the enchanters and botanists, the breaking of charms,
astrology, and various branches thereof."^ In the Greek frag-
ment preserved by Syncellus there are further mentioned
pharmacy, and what probably denote geomancy ("sign of
published in the Cambridge Texts ^ Book of Enoch, XLIII; XC,
and Studies, II, 3, Apocrypha 21.
Anecdota, pp. 146-50, "seems to * Ibid., LX, 17-18.
point to a Latin translation of ^Secrets of Enoch, XIX.
Enoch"— Charles (1913) H, 167. 'Caps. VI-XI in both Lods and
^ Book of Enoch, XL, 9. Charles.
* Ibid.,y.U.ll; Secrets of Enoch. 'Book of Enoch, VIII, 3, in
IV. both Charles and Lods.
344 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the earth") and aeromancy {aeroskopia). Through this
revelation of mysteries which should have been kept hid we
are told that men "know all the secrets of the angels, and
all the violence of the Satans, and all their occult power, and
all the power of those who practice sorcery, and the power
of witchcraft, and the power of those who make molten
images for the whole earth." ^ The revelation included,
moreover, not only magic arts, witchcraft, divination, and
astrology, but also natural sciences, such as botany and
pharmacy — which, however, are apparently regarded as
closely akin to magic — and useful arts such as mining metals,
manufacturing armor and weapons, and "writing with ink
and paper" — "and thereby many sinned from eternity to
eternity and until this day." ^ As the preceding remark in-
dicates, the author is decidedly of the opinion that men
were not created to the end that they should write with pen
and ink. "For man was created exactly like the angels
to the intent that he should continue righteous and pure,
. . . but through this their knowledge men are perishing." ^
Perhaps the writer means to censure writing as magical and
thinks of it only as mystic signs and characters. Magic is
always regarded as evil in the Enoch literature, and witch-
craft, enchantments, and "devilish magic" are given a promi-
nent place in a list in the Slavonic version ^ of evil deeds
done upon earth.
In connection with the fallen angels we find the stars
regarded as capable of sin as well as personified. In the
Ethiopic version there is more than one mention of seven
stars that transgressed the command of God and are bound
against the day of judgment or for the space of ten thou-
sand years. ^ One passage tells how "judgment was held
first over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty,
and went to the place of condemnation, and they were cast
into an abyss." ^ A similar identification of the stars with
the fallen angels is found in one of the visions of Saint
"■Book of Enoch, LXV, 6. * Secrets of Enoch, X.
'Ibid., LXV, 7-8; LXIX, 6-9. ^ Book of Enoch, XVIII, XXL
*Ibid., LXIX, lo-ii. "Ibid., XC, 24.
xiii THE BOOK OF ENOCH 345
Hildegard in the twelfth century. She writes, "I saw a
great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it an ex-
ceeding multitude of falling sparks which with the star
followed southward. And they examined Him upon His
throne almost as something hostile, and turning from Him,
they sought rather the north. And suddenly they were all
annihilated, being turned into black coals . . . and cast into
the abyss that I could see them no more." ^ She then in-
terprets the vision as signifying the fall of the angels.
An idea which we shall find a number of times in other Effect of
ancient and medieval writers appears also in the Book of nature.
Enoch. It is that human sin upsets the world of nature,
and in this particular case, even the period of the moon and
the orbits of the stars." Hildegard again roughly parallels
the Enoch literature by holding that the original harmony
of the four elements upon this earth was changed into a
confused and disorderly mixture after the fall of man.^
The natural world, although intimately associated with Celestial
the spiritual world and hardly distinguished from it in the phenomena
Enoch literature, receives considerable attention, and much
of the discussion in both the Ethiopic and Slavonic versions
is of a scientific rather than ethical or apocalyptic character.
One section of the Ethiopic version is described by Charles *
as the Book of Celestial Physics and upholds a calendar
based upon the lunar year. The Slavonic version, on the
other hand, while mentioning the lunar year of 354 days
and the solar year of 365 and ^ days, seems to prefer
the latter, since the years of Enoch's life are given as
365, and he writes 366 books concerning what he has seen
in his visions and voyages.^ The Book of Enoch supposes
a plurality of heavens.*' In the Slavonic version Enoch is
* Singer's translation. Studies " See Morfill-Charles, pp. xxxiv-
in the History and Method of xxxv, for mention of three and
Science, Vol. I, p. 53, of Scivias, seven heavens in the apocryphal
III, I, in Migne, PL, 197, 565. See Testaments of the Twelve Patri-
also the Koran XV, 18. archs, "written about or before
^ Charles, p. 32 and cap. LXXX. the beginning of the Christian
* Singer, 25-26. era," and for "the probability of
*Pp. 187-219. an Old Testament belief in the
^Secrets of Enoch, I and XXX. plurality of the heavens." For the
346
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Mountains
and
metals.
taken through the seven heavens, or ten heavens in one manu-
script, with the signs of the zodiac in the eighth and ninth.
An account is also given of the creation, and the waters above
the firmament, which were to give the early Christian apolo-
gists and medieval clerical scientists so much difficulty, are
described as follows : "And thus I made firm the waters,
that is, the depths, and I surrounded the waters with light,
and I created seven circles, and I fashioned them like
crystal, moist and dry, that is to say, like glass and ice, and
as for the waters and also the other elements I showed each
of them their paths, (viz.) to the seven stars, each of them
in their heaven, how they should go." ^ The order of the
seven planets in their circles is given as follows: in the first
and highest circle the star Kruno, then Aphrodite or Venus,
Ares (Mars), the sun, Zeus (Jupiter), Hermes (Mercury),
and the moon.^ God also tells Enoch that the duration of
the world will be for a week of years, that is, seven thousand,
after which "let there be at the beginning of the eighth
thousand a time when there is no computation and no end ;
neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours." ^
Turning from celestial physics to terrestrial phenomena,
we may note a few allusions to minerals, vegetation, and
-animals. "Seven mountains of magnificent stones" are
more than once mentioned in the Ethiopic version and are
described as each different from the other.* Another pas-
sage speaks of "seven mountains full of choice nard and
aromatic trees and cinnamon and pepper." ° But whether
seven heavens in the apocryphal
Ascension of Isaiah see Charles'
edition of that virork (igoo), xlix.
^Secrets of Enoch, XXVII.
Charles prefaces this passage by
the remark, "I do not pretend to
understand what follows" : but it
seems clear that the waters above
the firmament are referred to from
what the author goes on to say,
"And thus I made firm the circles
of the heavens, and caused the
waters below which are under the
heavens to be gathered into one
place." It would also seem that
each of the seven planets is rep-
resented as moving in a sphere of
crystal. In the Ethiopic version,
LIV, 8, we are told that the water
above the heavens is masculine,
and that the water beneath the
earth is feminine ; also LX, 7-8,
that Leviathan is female and
Behemoth male.
'Secrets of Enoch, XXX.
^ Ibid., 45-46, see also the Ethi-
opic Book of Enoch, XCIII, for
"seven weeks."
*Book of Enoch, XVIII, XXIV.
''Ibid., XXXII.
XIII THE BOOK OF ENOCH 347
these groups of seven mountains are to be astrologically
related to the seven planets is not definitely stated. We are
also left in doubt whether the following passage may have
some astrological or even alchemical significance, or whether
it is merely a figurative prophecy like that in the Book of
Daniel concerning the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his
dream. "There mine eyes saw all the hidden things of
heaven that shall be, an iron mountain, and one of copper,
and one of silver, and one of gold, and one of soft metal, and
one of lead." ^ At any rate Enoch has come very near to
listing the seven metals usually associated with the seven
planets. In another passage we are informed that while
silver and "soft metal" come from the earth, lead and tin
are produced by a fountain in which an eminent angel
stands.^
As for animals we are informed that Behemoth is male Strange
and Leviathan female.^ When Enoch went to the ends of
the earth he saw there great beasts and birds who differed
in appearance, beauty, and voice.* In the Slavonic version
we hear a good deal of phoenixes and chalky dri, who seem
to be flying dragons. These creatures are described as
"strange in appearance with the feet and tails of lions and
the heads of crocodiles. Their appearance was of a purple
color like the rainbow; their size, nine hundred measures.
Their wings were like those of angels, each with twelve,
and they attend the chariot of the sun, and go with him,
bringing heat and dew as they are ordered by God." ^
"■Book of Enoch, LII, 2. * Ibid., XXXIII.
^Ibid., LXV, 7-8. "Secrets of Enoch, XII, XV,
'Ibid., LX, 7. XIX.
CHAPTER XIV
PHILO JUDAEUS
Bibliographical note — Philo the mediator between Hellenistic and
Jewish-Christian thought — His influence upon the middle ages was
indirect — Good and bad magic — Stars not gods nor first causes — But
rational and virtuous animals, and God's viceroys over inferiors —
They do not cause evil; but it is possible to predict the future from
their motions — Jewish astrology — Perfection of the number seven —
And of fifty — Also of four and six — Spirits of the air — Interpretation
of dreams — Politics are akin to magic — A thought repeated by Moses
Maimonides and Albertus Magnus.
^'But since every city in which laws are properly estab-
lished has a regular constitution, it became necessary for
this citizen of the world to adopt the same constitution as
that which prevailed in the universal world. And this con-
stitution is the right reason of nature."
— On Creation, cap. 50.
There probably Is no other man who marks so well the
fusion of Hellenic and Hebrew ideas and the transition
from them to Christian thought as Philo Judaeus.^ He
flourished at Alexandria in the first years of our era —
the exact dates both of his birth and of his death are un-
certain— and speaks of himself as an old man at the time of
* The literature dealing in gen-
eral with Philo and his philosophy
is too extensive to indicate here,
while there has been no study
primarily devoted to our interest
in him. It may be useful to note,
however, the most recent editions
of his works and studies concern-
ing him, from which the reader
can learn of earlier researches.
See also Leopold Cohn, The
Latest Researches on Philo of
Alexandria (Reprinted from The
Jewish Quarterly Review), Lon-
don, 1892. The most recent edi-
tion of the Greek text of Philo's
works is by L. Cohn and P. Wend-
land, Philonis Alexandrini opera
quae supcrsunt, Berlin, 1896-1915,
in six vols. The earlier edition
was by Mangey. Recent editions
of single works are : F. C. Cony-
beare, Philo about the Contempla-
tive Life, critically edited with a
defence of its genuineness, 1895.
E. Brehier, Commentaire alle-
gorique des Saintes Lois apres
l'a:uvre des six jours, Greek and
348
CHAP. XIV
PHILO JUDAEUS
349
his participation in the embassy of Jews to the Emperor
Gaius or CaHguIa in 40 A. D. He repeats the doctrines
of the Greek philosophers and anticipates much that the
church fathers discuss. Before the Neo-Platonists he re-
gards matter as the source of all evil and feels the necessity
of mediators, angels or demons, between God and man.
Before the medieval revival of Aristotle and natural phi-
losophy he tries to reconcile the Mosaic account of creation
with belief in a world soul, and monotheism with astrology.
Before the rise of Christian monasticism he describes in his
treatise On the Contemplative Life an ascetic community
of Therapeutae at Lake Maerotis.^ After Pythagoras he
enlarges upon the mystic significance of numbers. After
Plato he repeats the conception of an ideal city of God
French, 1909. In the passages
from Philo quoted in this chapter
I have often availed myself of the
wording of the English translation
by C. D. Yonge in four vols.,
1854-1855. The Latin translation
of Philo's works made from the
Greek by Lilius Tifernates for
Popes Sixtus IV and Innocent
VIII is preserved at the Vatican
in a series of six MSS written
during the years 1479-1484: Vatic.
Lat., 180-185.
J. d'Alma, Philon d'Alexandrie et
le quatricme Evangile, 1910.
N. Bentwich, Philo-Judaeus of
Alexandria, 1910 (a small
general book).
T. H. Billings, The Platonism of
Philo Judaeiis, 1919.
W. Bousset, JUdisch-Christlicher
Schulbetrieb in Alexandria
und Rom, 1915.
E. Brehier, Les I dees philo so-
phiques et religieuscs de
Philon dAlexandrie, 1908, a
scholarly work with a ten-
page bibliography.
M. Caraccio, Filone dAlessa'ndria
e le sue opere, 191 1, a brief
indication of the contents of
each work.
K. S. Guthrie, The Message of
Philo Judaeus, 1910, popular.
H. Guyot, Les Reminiscences de
Philon le Juif che:: Plotin, 1906.
P. Heinsch, Der EinHuss Philos
auf die dlteste christliche
Exegese, 1908, 296 pp.
H. A. A. Kennedy, Philo's contri-
bution to Religion, 1919.
J. Martin, Philon, 1907, with a
five-page bibliography.
L. H. Mills, Zarathustra, Philo,
the Achaemenids and Israel,
190S, 460 pp.
L. Treitel, Philonische Studicn,
1915, is of limited scope.
H. Windisch, Die Frommigkeit
Philos u>id ihrc Bcdeutung
filr das Christcntutn, 1909.
* The genuineness of this trea-
tise, denied by Graetz and Lucius
in the mid-nineteenth century, was
amply demonstrated by L. Mas-
sebieau, Revue de I'Histoire des
Religions, XVI (1887), 170-98,
284-319; Conybeare, Philo about
the Contemplative Life, Oxford,
1895 ; and P. Wendland, Die
Thcrapeuten und die Philonische
Schrift vom Bcschaulichen Leben,
in Jahrb. f. Class. Philologie,
Band 22 (1896), 693-770. In St.
John's College Library, Oxford,
in a manuscript of the early
eleventh century (MS 128, fol.
215 fif) with Dionysius the
Areopagite on the ecclesiastical
hierarchy, is, Philonis de excir-
cumcisione credentibus in Aegyp-
to Christianis simul et monachis
ex suprascripto ab eo sermone de
vita theorica aut de orantibus.
350 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
which was to gain such a hold upon Christian imagination.^
After the Stoics he proclaims the doctrine of the law of
nature, holds that the institution of human slavery is abso-
lutely contrary to it, and writes "a treatise to prove that
every virtuous man is free" and that to be virtuous is to
live in conformity to nature.^ He had previously written
another treatise designed to show that "every wicked man
"was a slave," ^ and he held a theory which we met in the
Enoch literature and shall meet again in a number of subse-
quent writers that sin was punished naturally by forces of
nature such as floods and thunderbolts. He did not orig-
inate the practice of allegorical interpretation of the Bible
but he is our first great extant example thereof. He even
went so far as to regard the tree of life and the story of
the serpent tempting Eve as purely symbolical, an attitude
which found little favor with Christian writers.* His
effort by means of the allegorical method to find in the books
of the Pentateuch all the attractive concepts and theories
which he had learned from the Greeks became later in the
Christian apologists an assertion that Plato and Pythagoras
had borrowed their doctrines from Abraham and Moses.
His doctrine of the logos had a powerful influence upon the
writers of the New Testament and the theology of the early
church,^ Yet Philo afflrms that no more perfect good than
philosophy exists in human life and in both literary style
and erudition he is a Hellene to his very finger tips. The
recent tendency, seen especially in German scholarship, to
deny the writers of the Roman Empire any capacity for
original thought and to trace back their ideas to unextant
authors of a supposedly much more productive Hellenistic
age has perhaps been carried too far. But if we may not
regard Philo as a great originator, and it is evident that
he borrowed many of his ideas, he was at any rate a great
^ De mundi opificio, caps. 49 is not extant,
and 50. * De mundi opiAcio, caps. 54
' On the Contemplative Life, and 55.
Chapter 9. " Reville, J., Le logos, d'apres
* So he states in the opening Philon d'Alexandrie, Geneve, 1877.
ientences of the other treatise; it
XIV PHILO JUDAEUS 351
transmitter of thought, a mediator after his own heart be-
tween Jews and Greeks, and between them both and the
Christian writers to come. Standing at the close of the
Hellenistic age and at the opening of the Roman period, he
occupies in the history of speculative and theological thought
an analogous position to that of Pliny the Elder in the his-
tory of natural science, gathering up the lore of the past,
perhaps improving it with some additions of his own, and
exercising a profound influence upon the age to come.
Philo's medieval influence, however, was probably more His influ-
indirect than Pliny's and passed itself on through yet other the niiddle
mediators to the more remote times. Comparatively speak- ages was
ing, the Natural History of Pliny probably was more impor-
tant in the middle ages than in the early Roman Empire
when other authorities prevailed in the Greek-speaking
world. Philo's influence on the other hand must soon be
transmitted through Christian, and then again through Latin,
mediums. This is indicated by the fact that to-day many
of his works are wholly lost or extant only in fragments ^
or in Armenian versions,^ and that we have no sure infor-
mation as to the order in which they were composed.^ But
his initial force is none the less of the greatest moment, and
seems amply sufficient to justify us in selecting his writings
as one of our starting points. The extent to which one is
apt to find in the writings of Philo passages which are fore-
runners of the statements of subsequent writers, may be
illustrated by the familiar story of King Canute and the
tide. Philo in his work On Dreams ■* speaks of the custom
of the Germans of charging the incoming tide with their
drawn swords. But what especially concern us are Philo's
* Lincoln College, Oxford, has a perfect Latin version, is not re-
I2th century MS in Greek of the garded as a genuine work, — see
De vita Mosis and De virtutibus, W. O. E. Oesterley and G. H.
— MS 34. Box, The Biblical Antiquities of
'The Alexander sive de animali- Philo, now first translated from
bus and the complete text of the the old Latin version by M. R.
De providentia exist only in James (1917), p. 7.
Armenian translation, — see Cohn ' Cohn (1892), 11.
(1892), p. 16. The Biblical An- *ll, 17.
tiquities, extant only in an im-
352 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
statements concerning magic, astrology, the stars, the per-
fection and power of numbers, demons, and the interpreta-
tion of dreams.
Philo draws a distinction between magic in the good and
bad sense. The former and true magical art is the lore of
learned Persians called Magi who investigate nature more
minutely and deeply than is usual and explain divine virtues
clearly.^ The latter magic is a spurious imitation of the
other, practised by quacks and impostors, old-wives and
slaves, who by means of incantations and the like procedure
profess to change men from love to hatred or vice versa
and who "deceive unsuspecting persons and waste whole
families away by degrees and without making any noise."
It is to this adulterated and evil magic that Philo again
refers when he likens political life to Joseph's coat of many
colors, stained with the blood of wars, and in which a very
little truth is mixed up with a great deal of sophistry akin
to that of the augurs, ventriloquists, sorcerers, jugglers and
enchanters, "from whose treacherous arts it is very difficult
to escape." ^ This distinction between a magic of the wise
and of nature and that of vulgar impostors is one which
we shall find in many subsequent writers, although it was
not recognized by Pliny. Philo also antecedes numerous
Christian commentators upon the Book of Numbers ^ in
considering the vexed question whether Balaam was an evil
enchanter and diviner, or a divine prophet, or whether he
combined magic and prophecy, and thus indicated that the
former art is not evil but has divine approval. Philo's con-
clusion is the more usual one that Balaam was a celebrated
diviner and magician, and that it is impossible that "holy
inspiration should be combined with magic," but that in the
particular case of his blessing Israel the spirit of divine
^ (Quod omnis probus liber sit, a number of other passages of the
cap. xi) ; also The Law Concern- Bible: Deut.. XXIII, 3-6; Joshua,
ing Murderers, cap. 4. XIII, 22; XXIV, 9-10; Nehemiah,
'On Dreams, I, 38. XIII, iflf; Micah, VI, 5; Second
* Numbers XXII-XXV. Ba- Peter, II, 15-16; Jude, 11 ; Revela-
laam is, of course, referred to in tion, II, 14.
XIV PHILO JUDAEUS 353
prophecy took possession of him and "drove all his artificial
system of cunning divination out of his soul." ^
Philo has considerably more to say upon the subject of stars not
astrology than upon that of magic. He was especially con- so^s nor
cerned to deny that the stars were first causes or independent causes,
gods. He chided the Chaldean adepts in genethlialogy for
recognizing no other god than the universe and no other
causes than those apparent to the senses, and for regarding
fate and necessity as gods and the periodical revolutions of
the heavenly bodies as the cause of all good and evil." Philo
more than once exhorts the reader to follow Abraham's
example in leaving Chaldea and the science of genethlialogy
and coming to Charran to a comprehension of the true nature
of God.^ He agreed with Moses that the stars should not
be worshiped and that they had been created by God, and
more than that, not created until the fourth day, in order
that it might be perfectly clear to men that they were not
the primary causes of things.*
Philo, nevertheless, despite his attack on the Chaldeans, But
believed in much which we should call astrological. The national
. . . and virtu-
stars, although not mdependent gods, are nevertheless divine ous ani-
images of surpassing beauty and possess divine natures, al- GocTs vice-
though they are not incorporeal beings. Philo distinguishes foys over
between the stars, men, and other animals as follows. The
beasts are capable of neither virtue nor vice; human beings
are capable of both; the stars are intelligent animals, but
incapable of any evil and wholly virtuous.^ They were
native-born citizens of the world long before its first human
citizen had been naturalized.^ God, moreover, did not post-
* Vita Mosis, I, 48-50. Besides bus and Ilept rov deoTrkfiirTovs elvai
discussion of Balaam in various rovs ovfipovs.
Biblical commentaries, diction- ^ Ibid., Cap. 50. Huet, the noted
aries, and encyclopedias, see Heng- French scholar of the 17th cen-
stenberg, Die Geschichte Bileams tury, states in his edition of
und seine Weissagungen, 1842. Origen that "Philo after his cus-
^De migrat. Abrahanii, cap. 2^. torn repeats an opinion of Plato's
^ Idem, and De somiiiis, cap. 10. and almost his very words for
* De monarchia, I, i. De muiidi ... he asserts that the stars are
opiUcio, cap. 14. not only animals but also the
'^ De mundi opiUcio, caps. 18, 50 purest intellects." Migne PG,
and 24. See also his De giganti- XVII, col. 978.
354
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
They do
not cause
evil : but it
is possible
to predict
the future
from their
motions.
Jewish
astrology.
pone their creation until the fourth day because superiors
are subject to inferiors. On the contrary they are the vice-
roys of the Father of all and in the vast city of this universe
the ruling class is made up of the planets and fixed stars,
and the subject class consists of all the natures beneath the
moon.^ A relation of natural sympathy exists between the
different parts of the universe, and all things upon the earth
are dependent upon the stars. ^
Philo of course will not admit that evil is caused either
by the virtuous stars or by God working through them. As
has been said, he attributed evil to matter or to "the natural
changes of the elements," ^ drawing a line between God
and nature in much the fashion of the church fathers later.
But he granted that "before now some men have conjectu-
rally predicted disturbances and commotions of the earth
from the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and innumerable
other events which have turned out most exactly true." ^
Philo's interest in astronomy and astrology is further sug-
gested by his interpretation of the eleven stars of Joseph's
dream as referring to the signs of the zodiac,^ Joseph him-
self making the twelfth; and by his interpreting the ladder
in Jacob's dream which stretched between earth and heaven
as referring to the air,^ into which earth's evaporations dis-
solve, while the moon is not pure ether like the other stars
but itself contains some air. This accounts, Philo thinks,
for the spots upon the moon — an explanation which I do
not remember having met in subsequent writers.
Josephus '^ and the Jews in general of Philo's time were
equally devoted to astrology according to Miinter, who says :
"Only their astrology was subordinated to theism. The one
God always appeared as the master of the host of heaven.
But they regarded the stars as living divine beings and
^ De monarchia, I, i ; De mundi
opiRcio, cap. 14.
^ De monarchia, I, i; Dc migra-
tione Abrahamij cap. 32; De
mundi opiUcio, cap. 40.
* Eusebius, De praep. Evang.,
cap. 13.
* De mundi opiUcio, cap. 19.
^ De somniis, II, 16.
'Ibid., I, 22.
'De hello Jud., V, 5, 5; Antiq.,
III. 7, 7-8.
XIV
PHILO JUDAEUS
355
powers of heaven." ^ In the Talmud later we read that
the hour of Abraham's birth was announced by the stars
and that he feared from his observations of the constella-
tions that he would go childless. Miinter also gives examples
of the belief of the rabbis in the influence of the stars upon
the destiny of the Jewish people and upon the fate of indi-
vidual men, and of their belief that a star would announce
the coming of the Messiah.^
From Philo's astrology it is an easy step to his frequent Perfection
reveries concerning the perfection and mystic significance number
of certain numbers, — a train of thought which was continued seven,
by many of the church fathers, and is also found in various
pagan writers of the Roman Empire.^ Thomas Browne in
his enquiry into "Vulgar Errors" ^ was inclined to hold
Philo even more responsible than Pythagoras or Plato for
the dissemination of such doctrines. Philo himself recognizes
the close connection between astrolog}' and number mys-
ticism, when, after affirming the dependence of all earthly
things upon the heavenly bodies, he adds : "It is in heaven,
too, that the ratio of the number seven began." ^ Philo
doubts if it is possible to express adequately the glories of
the number seven, but he feels that he ought at least to
attempt it and devotes a dozen chapters of his treatise on
the creation of the world to it,^ to say nothing of other pas-
sages. He notes that there are seven planets, seven circles
of heaven, four quarters of the moon of seven days each,
that such constellations as the Pleiades and Ursa Major
consist of seven stars, and that children born at the end of
^ Der Stern der Weisen (1827),
p. 36. "Nur war ihre Astrologie
dem Theismus untergeordnet.
Der Eine Gott erschien immer als
der Herrscher des Himmelsheeres.
Sie betrachteten aber die Sterne
als lebende gottliche Wesen und
Machte des Himmels."
'Miinter (1827), pp. 38-39, 43,
45, etc. On the subject of Jewish
astrology see also : D. Nielsen,
Die altarabische Mondreligion
und '^'^ mosaische Uberlieferung,
Strasburg, 1904; F. Hommel, Der
Gcstirndienst der alien Araber
und die altisraelitische Uberlie-
ferung, Munich, 1901.
' Such as Aulus Gellius, Mac-
robius, and Censorinus. These
writers seem to have taken it from
Varro. We have also noted num-
ber mysticism in Plutarch's Es-
says.
* Browne (1650) IV, 12.
^ De mimdi opificio, cap. 40.
^ Ibid., caps. 30-42.
356 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
seven months live, while those who see the light in the
eighth month die. In diseases the seventh is a critical day.
Also there are either seven ages of man's life, as Hippocrates
says, or, in accordance with Solon's lines, man's three-score
years and ten may be subdivided into ten periods of seven
years each. The lyre of seven strings corresponds to the
seven planets, and in speech there are seven vowels. There
are seven divisions of the head — eyes, ears, nostrils, and
mouth, seven divisions of the body, seven kinds of motion,
seven things seen, and even the senses are seven rather than
five if we add the vocal and generative organs.^
Philo's ideal sect, the Therapeutae, are wont to assemble
as a prelude to their greatest feast at the end of seven
weeks, "venerating not only the simple week of seven days
but also its multiplied power," ^ but the chief festival itself
occurs on the fiftieth day, "the most holy and natural of
numbers, being compounded of the power of the right-
angled triangle, which is the principle of the origination
and condition of the whole." ^
The numbers four and six, however, yield little to seven
and fifty in the matter of perfection. It was the fourth
day that God chose for the creation of the heavenly bodies,
and He did not need six days for the entire work of crea-
tion, but it was fitting that that perfect work should be
accomplished in a perfect number of days. Six is the product
of the first female number, two, and the first male number,
three. Indeed, the first three numbers, one, two, and three,
whether added or multiplied, give six.^ As for four, there
are that many elements and seasons ; it is the only number
produced by the same number — two — whether added to
^ For the later influence of such having the superior dignity of
doctrines in the Mohammedan Prophet. The last of the forty-
world see D. B. Macdonald, Mus- nine Imans, this Muhammad ibn
lini Theology, Jurisprudence, and Isma'il, is the greatest and last of
Constitutional Theory, 1903, pp. the Prophets."
42-3. concerning the "Seveners" 3^^ ^-^^ contemplativa, cap. 8.
and the Twelvers and the doc- j^ ^jjj ^^ recalled that the fifty
t","?. of the hidden Iman. _ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^. ^^ Justinian
Ilnd., Thus we have a series ^^^ similarly divided.
of seven times seven Imans, the
first, and thereafter each seventh, * De mundi opificio, cap. 3.
XIV PHILO JUDAEUS 357
itself or multiplied by itself ; it is the first square and as such
the emblem of justice and equality; it also represents the
cube or solid, as the number one stands for a point, two for
a line, and three for a surface.^ Furthermore four is the
source of "the all-perfect decade," since one and two and
three and four make ten. At this we begin to suspect, and
with considerable justification, as the writings of other dev-
otees of the philosophy of numbers would show, that the
number of perfect numbers is legion. We may not, how-
ever, follow Philo much farther on this topic. Suffice it to
add that he finds the fifth day fitting for the creation of
animals possessed of five senses,^ while he divides the ten
plagues of Egypt into three dealing with the more solid
elements, earth and water, and performed by Aaron; three
dealing with air and fire which were entrusted to Moses;
the seventh was committed to both Aaron and Moses ; while
the other three God reserved for Himself.^
Philo believed in a world of spirits, both the angels of Spirits of
the Jews and the demons of the Greeks. When God said : the air.
"Let us make man," Philo believed that He was addressing
those assistant spirits who should be held responsible for
the viciousness to which man alone of all creation is liable.*
Of the divine rational natures Philo regarded some as incor-
poreal, others like the stars as possessed of bodies.^ He also
believed that there were spirits in the air as well as afar
off in heaven. He could not see why the air should not be
inhabited when there were stars in the ether and fish in
the sea as well as other animals upon land.^ Indeed he
argued that it would be absurd that the element which was
essential for the vitality even of land and aquatic animals
should have no living beings of its own. That these spirits
of the air must be invisible did not trouble him, since the
human soul is also invisible.
^ Dc mundi opificto, caps. 15-16. 'Vita Mosis, I, 17.
See also on perfect numbers On * De mundi opificio, cap. 24.
the Allegories of the Sacred Laws. ^ Ibid., cap. 50.
^Ibid., cap. 20. '^ De somniis, II, 21-22.
358
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Of Philo's five books on dreams only two are extant.
They suffice to show, however, that he accepted the art of
divination from dreams. Of dreams he distinguished three
varieties : those direct from God which require no inter-
pretation; those in which the dreamer's mind moves in
unison with the world soul, and which are neither entirely
clear nor yet very obscure — an instance is Jacob's vision of
the ladder ; and third, those in which the mind is moved by a
prophetic frenzy of its own, and which require the science
of interpretation — such dreams were Joseph's concerning
his brothers, and those of the butler and the baker at
Pharaoh's court.^
The recent war and its accompaniments and sequels have
brought home to some the conviction that our modern civili-
zation is after all not vastly superior to that of some preced-
ing ages. To those who still imagine that because modern
science has freed us from much past superstition concerning
nature, we are therefore free from political fakirs, from
social absurdities, and from fallacious procedure and reason-
ing in many departments of life, the reading may be recom-
mended of a passage in Philo's treatise on dreams,^ in
which he classifies the art of politics along with that of
magic. He compares Joseph's coat of many colors to "the
much-variegated web of political aflFairs" where along with
"the smallest possible portion of truth" falsehoods of every
shade of plausibility are interwoven; and he compares poli-
ticians and statesmen to augurs, ventriloquists, and sorcerers,
"men skilful in juggling and in incantations and in tricks
of all kinds, from whose treacherous arts it is very difficult
to escape." He adds that Moses very naturally represented
Joseph's coat as blood-stained, since all statecraft is tainted
with wars and bloodshed.
Twelve centuries later we find Philo's association of
politicians with magicians repeated by his compatriot Moses
Maimonides in the More Nevochim or Guide for the Per-
^ De soinniis, II, i.
' Cap. 38.
XIV
PHILO JUDAEUS
359
plexed^ a work which appeared almost immediately in Latin
translation and from which this very passage is cited by
Albertus Magnus in his discussion of divination by dreams.^
There are some men, says Albert, in whom the intellect is
abundant and active and clear. Such men are akin to the
superior substances, that is, to the angels and stars, and
therefore Moses of Egypt, i.e., Maimonides, calls them
sages. But there are others who, according to Albert, con-
found true wisdom with sophistry and are content with
mere probabilities and imaginations and are at home in.
"rhetorical and civil matters." Maimonides, however, de-
scribed this class a little differently, saying that in them the
imaginative faculty is preponderant and the rational faculty
imperfect. "Whence arises the sect of politicians, of legisla-
tors, of diviners, of enchanters, of dreamers, , . . and of
prestidigiteurs who work marvels by strange cunning and
occult arts." ^
^11, Z7.
'Cap. 5.
^ Since I finished this chapter, I
have noted that the "folk-lore in
the Old Testament" has led Sir
James Frazer to write a passage
on "the harlequins of history"
somewhat similar to that of Philo
on Joseph's coat of many colors.
After remarking that friends and
foes behold these politicians of the
present and historical figures of
the future from opposite sides and
A thought
repeated
by Moses
Maimon-
ides and
Albertus
Magnus.
see only that particular hue of the
coat which happens to be turned
toward them, Sir James concludes
(1918), II, 502, "It is for the im-
partial historian to contemplate
these harlequins from every side
and to paint them in their coats
of many colors, neither altogether
so white as they appeared to their
friends nor altogether so black as
they seemed to their enemies."
But who can paint out the blood-
stains ?
CHAPTER XV
THE GNOSTICS
Difficulty in defining Gnosticism — Magic and astrology in Gnosticism
— Simon Magus as a Gnostic — Simon's Helen — The number thirty and
the moon — Ophites and Sethians — A magical diagram — Employment of
names and formulae — Seven metals and planets — Magic of Simon's
followers — Magic of Marcus in the Eucharist— Other magic and occult
lore of Marcus — Name and number magic — The magic vowels — Magic
of Carpocrates — The Abraxas and the number 365 — Astrology of
Basilides — The Book of Helxai — Epiphanius on the Elchasaites — The
Book of the Laws of Countries — Personality of Bardesanes — Sin
possible for men, angels, and stars — Does fate in the astrological sense
prevail? — National laws and customs as a proof of free will — Pistis-
Sophia; attitude to astrology — "Magic" condemned — Power of names
and rites — Interest in natural science — "Gnostic gems" and astrology —
The planets in early Christian art — Gnostic amulets in Spain — Syriac
Christian charms — Priscillian executed for magic — Manichean manu-
scripts— The Mandaeans.
Gnosticism ^ is not easy to define and the term Gnostic
appears to have been applied to a great variety of sects with
a confusing diversity of beHefs, Many of the constituents
and roots at least of Gnosticism were older than Christianity,
and it is now the custom to associate the Gnosis or superior
knowledge and revelation, which gives the movement its
name, not with Greek philosophy or mysteries but with
oriental speculation and religions. Anz ^ has been im-
pressed by its connection with Babylonian star-worship;
Amelineau ^ has urged its debt to Egyptian magic and
* A good account of the Gnostic
sources and bibliography of sec-
ondary works on Gnosticism will
be found in CE, "Gnosticism"
(ig09) by J. P. Arendzen.
* Anz, Zur Frage nach dem
Ursprung des Gnosticismus, 1897,
112 pp., in TU, XV, 4-
^ Amelineau, Essai sur le gnos-
ticisme cgypticn, ses developpe-
mcnts ct son origine egyptienne,
1887, 330 pp., in Musee Guimet,
torn. 14 ; and various other publi-
cations by the same author.
360
CHAP. XV THE GNOSTICS 361
religion ; Bousset ^ has argued for Persian origins. The main
features of the great oriental religions which swept west-
ward over the Roman Empire were shared by Gnosticism:
the redeemer god, even the great mother goddess conception
to some extent, the divinely revealed mysteries, the secret
symbols, the dualism, and the cosmic theory. Gnosticism as
it is known to us, however, is more closely connected with
Christianity than with any other oriental religion or body
of thought, for the extant sources consist almost entirely
either of Gnostic treatises which pretend to be Christian
Scriptures and were almost entirely written in Coptic in
the second or third century of our era,^ or of hostile descrip-
tions of Gnostic heresies by the early church fathers. How-
ever, the philosopher Plotinus also criticized the Gnostics, as
we have seen.
What especially concerns our investigation is the great Magic and
use made, or said to be made, by the Gnostics of sacred ^^ Gnof-
formulae, symbols, and names of demons, and the preva- ticism.
lence among them of astrological theory as shown by their
widespread notion of the seven planets as the powers who
have created our inferior and material world and who rule
over its affairs. Gnosticism was deeply influenced by, albeit
it to some extent represents a reaction against, the Baby-
lonian star- worship and incantation of spirits. The seven
planets and the demons occupy an important place in Gnostic
myth because they intervene between our world and the
world of supreme light, and their spheres must be traversed
— much as in the Book of Enoch and Dante's Paradiso —
both by the redeeming god in his descent and return and by
any human soul that would escape from this world of fate,
darkness, and matter. What encouragement there is for
such views in the canonical Scriptures themselves may be
* Bousset, Hauptprohleme der although announced to be edited
Gnosis, 191 1 ; and "Gnosticism" by C. Schmidt in TU. Grenfell
in EB, nth edition. and Hunt will soon publish "a
*The dating is somewhat dis- small group of 21 papyri . . .
puted. Some of the Gnostic writ- among which is a gnostic magical
ings discovered in 1896 have, I text of some interest" : Grenfell
believe, not yet been published, (1921), p. 151.
362 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
inferred from the following passage in which Christ fore-
tells His second coming: "Immediately after the tribula-
tion of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens shall he shaken. And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." ^
But in order to pass the demons and the spheres of the
planets, who are usually represented as opposed to this, one
must, as in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, know the pass-
words, the names of the spirits, the sacred formulae, the
appropriate symbols, and all the other apparatus suggestive
of magic and necromancy which forms so large a part of
the gnosis that gives its name to the system. This will be-
come the more apparent from the following particular
accounts of Gnostic sects and doctrines found in the works
of the Christian fathers and in the scanty remains of the
Gnostics themselves. The philosopher Plotinus we have
already heard charge the Gnostics with resort to magic and
sorcery, and with ascribing evil and fatal influence to the
stars. At the same time we shrewdly suspect that Gnosticism
has been made a scapegoat for the sins in these regards of
both early Christianity and pagan philosophy.
Simon Simon Magus, of whose magical exploits as recorded by
Magus as many a Christian writer we shall treat in another chapter,
a Gnostic. ...
is also represented by the fathers as holding Gnostic doctrine,
although some writers have contended that Simon the
magician named in Acts was an entirely different person
from Simon the heretic and author of The Great Declara-
tion? Simon declared himself the Great Power of God, or
^ The Gospel of Matthew, ^ St. George Stock, "Simon
XXIV, 29-31. Not to mention Magus," in EB, nth edition. See
Paul's "angels anH principalities also George Salmon in Diet. Chris.
and powers." Biog., IV, 681.
XV
THE GNOSTICS 363
the Being who was over all, who had appeared in Samaria
as the Father, in Judea as the Son, and to other nations as
the Holy Spirit.^ In the Pseudo-Clementines Simon is rep-
resented as arguing against Peter in characteristically Gnos-
tic style that "he who framed the world is not the highest
God, but that the highest God is another who alone is good
and who has remained unknown up to this time." ^ Accord-
ing to Epiphanius Simon claimed to have descended from
heaven through the planetary spheres and spirits in the
manner of the Gnostic redeemer. He is quoted as saying,
"But in each heaven I changed my form in accordance with
the form of those who were in each heaven, that I might
escape the notice of my angelic powers and come down to
the Thought, who is none other than she who is likewise
called Prounikon and the Holy Spirit." Epiphanius further
informs us that Simon believed in a plurality of heavens,
assigned certain powers to each firmament and heaven, and
applied barbaric names to these spirits or cosmic forces.
"Nor," adds Epiphanius, "can anyone be saved unless he
learns this mystic lore and offers such sacrifices to the
Father of all through these archons and authorities." ^
The fathers tell us that Simon went about with a woman Simon's
called Helena or Helen, who Justin Martyr says had for-
merly been a prostitute.^ Simon is said to have called her
the mother of all, through whom God had created the angels
and aeons, who in their turn had formed the world and men.
These cosmic powers had then, however, cast her down to
earth, where she had been confined in various successive
human and animal bodies. She seems to have obtained her
name of Helen from the fact that it was for her that the
Trojan war had been fought, an event which Simon seems
to have subjected to much allegorical interpretation. He
also spoke of Helen as "the lost sheep," whom he, the Great
^ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I, XXI ; Petavius, 55-60 ; Dindorf,
23. II, 6-12.
^Homilies, XVIII, i-.
* Epiphanius, Paiiarion, A-E- * First Apology, cap. 26.
364
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The num-
ber thirty
and the
moon.
Power, had descended from heaven to release from the bonds
of the flesh. She was that Thought or Holy Spirit which
we have heard him say he came down to recover. Simon's
Helen also corresponds to Pistis-Sophia, who in the extant
Gnostic work named after her descends through the twelve
aeons, deceived by a lion- faced power whom they have
formed to mislead her, and then reascends by the aid of
Jesus or the true light. It seems fairly evident that the
fathers ^ have taken literally and travestied by a scandalous
application to an actual woman a beautiful Gnostic myth or
allegory concerning the human soul. At the same time
Simon's Helen reminds us of Jesus's relations with the
woman taken in adultery, the woman of Samaria, and Mary
Magdalene. Mary Magdalene, it may be noted, in the Gnos-
tic writing, Pistis-Sophia, takes a role superior to the twelve
disciples, a fact of which Peter complains to his Lord more
than once. But Simon's Helen was that spirit of truth which
lies latent in the human mind and which he endeavored to
release by means of the philosophy, astrology, and magic of
his time. May modern scientific method prove more suc-
cessful in setting the prisoner free !
We find in the Pseudo-Clementines other details con-
cerning Simon and Helen which bring out the astrological
side of Gnosticism. We are told that John the Baptist had
thirty disciples, a number suggestive of the days of the
moon and also of the thirty aeons of the Gnostics of whom
we elsewhere hear a great deal.^ But the revolution of the
moon does not occupy thirty full days, so that we are not
surprised to learn that one of these disciples was a woman
and furthermore that she was the very Helen of whom we
have been speaking. At least, she is so called in the Homilies
of the Pseudo-Clement ; in the Recognitions she is actually
^ Irenaeus and Epiphanius as
cited above; also Hippolytus,
Philosophumena, VI, 2-15; X, 8.
^ See, for example, Irenaeus,
Against Heresies, I, i, 3. where we
are told among other things that
the disciples of the Gnostic Valen-
tinus affirm that the number of
these aeons is signified by the
thirty years of Christ's life which
elapsed before He began His pub-
lic ministry.
XV THE GNOSTICS 365
called Luna or the Moon.^ After the death of John the
Baptist Simon by his magic power supplanted Dositheus as
leader of the thirty, and then fell in love with Luna and
went about with her, proclaiming- that she was Wisdom or
Truth, "brought down . , . from the highest heavens to
this world." ^ The number thirty is again associated with
Simon and Dositheus in a curiously insistent, although ap-
parently unconscious, manner by Origen, who in one passage
of his Reply to Celsus, written in the first half of the third
century, expresses doubt whether thirty followers of Simon,
the Samaritan magician, can be found in all the world, and
in a second passage, while asserting that "Simonians are
found nowhere throughout the world," adds that of the fol-
lowers of Dositheus there are now not more than thirty in
all.3
Similar to Simon's account of the heavens and of his Ophites
descent through them were the teachings of the Ophites and Sethians.
Sethians who, according to Irenaeus,* held that Christ
"descended through the seven heavens, having assumed the
likeness of their sons, and gradually emptied them of their
power." These heretics also represented the "heavens,
potentates, powers, angels, and creators as sitting in their
proper order in heaven, according to their generation, and
as invisibly ruling over things celestial and terrestrial." All
ruling spirits were not invisible, however, since the Ophites
and Sethians identified with the seven planets their Holy
Hebdomad, consisting of laldabaoth, lao, Sabaoth, Adonaus
(or, Adonai), Eloeus, Oreus, and Astanphaeus, — names
often employed in the Greek magical papyri,^ in medieval
incantations, and in the Jewish Cabbala. The Ophites and
Sethians further asserted that when the serpent was cast
down into the lower world by the Father, he begat six sons
^ Homilies, II, 23-25 ; Recog- " G. Parthey, Zzvei griech. Zau-
nitions, II, 8-9. berpapyri des Berliner Museums,
^Homilies, II, 25. i860, p. 128; C. Wessely, Griech.
^ Reply to Celsus, I, 57, and VI, Zaubcrpapyrus von Paris und
II. London, 1888, p. 115; F. G. Ken-
* Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I, yon, Greek Papyri in the British
30. Museum, 1893, p. 469ff.
366 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
who, with himself, constitute a group of seven corresponding
and in contrast to the Holy Hebdomad which surround the
Father. They are the seven mundane demons who are ever
hostile to humanity. The Sethians of course took their
name from Seth, son of Adam, who in the middle ages was
regarded sometimes, like Enoch, as the especial recipient of
divine revelation and as the author of sacred books. The
historian Josephus states in his Jewish Antiquities that Seth
and his descendants discovered the art of astronomy and
that one of the two pillars on which they recorded their
findings was still extant in his time, the first century.-"-
Under the caption, Sethian Tablets of Curses, Wiinsch has
published some magical imprecations scratched on lead tab-
lets between 390 and 420 A. D. at Rome.^ Eight revela-
tions ascribed to Adam and Seth are also' extant in Ar-
menian
3
A magical In Origen's Reply to Celsus is described a mystic dia-
gram with details redolent of magic and astrological necro-
mancy,"^ which Celsus had laid to the charge of Christians
generally but which Origen declares is probably the product
of the "very insignificant sect called Ophites." Origen him-
self has seen this diagram or one something like it, and
assures his readers that "we know the depth of these un-
hallowed mysteries," but he declares that he has never met
anybody anywhere who put any faith in this diagram. Ob-
viously, however, such a diagram would not have been in
existence if no one had ever had faith in it. Furthermore,
its survival into Origen's time, when he asserts that men
had ceased to use it, is evidence of the antiquity of the sect
and the superstition. In this diagram ten distinct circles
were united by a single circle representing the soul of all
* Josephus, Antiquities, I, ii, 3. Apocrypha, Venice, 1896.
a-D \X7" u r ir ■ • i j/ ''The diagram is described in
R. Wunsch, Sethramsche Ver- ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^i y^ g .^
nuchungstafeln aus Rom, Leip- ^^^ following description I have
zig, i»9«. somewhat aUered the order. An
' E. Preuschen, Die apocryph. attempt to reproduce this diagram
gnost. Adamschrift, 1900. Mechi- will be found in CE, "Gnosticism,"
tarist collection of Old Testament p. 597.
XV THE GNOSTICS z^7
things and called Leviathan. Celsus spoke of the upper
circles, of which at least some were in colors, as "those that
are above the heavens.'' On these were inscribed such words
and phrases as "Father and Son," "Love," "Life," "Knowl-
edge," and "Understanding." Then there were "the seven
circles of archontic demons," who are probably to be con-
nected with the spheres of the seven planets. These seven
ruling demons were represented by animal heads or figures,
somewhat resembling the symbols of the four evangelists
to be seen in the mosaics at Ravenna and elsewhere in Chris-
tian art. The angel Michael was depicted by a sort of
chimaera, the words of Celsus being, "The goat was shaped
like a lion" ; Suriel, by a bull ; Raphael, by a dragon ; Gabriel,
by an eagle; Thautabaoth, by a bear; Erataoth, by a dog;
and Thaphabaoth or Onoel, by an ass. The diagram was
divided by a thick black line called Gehenna and beneath the
lowest circle was placed "the being named Behemoth."
There was also "a square pattern" with inscriptions con-
cerning the gates of paradise, a flaming circle with a flaming
sword as its diameter guarding the tree of knowledge and
of life, "a barrier inscribed in the shape of a hatchet," and a
rhomboid with the words, "The foresight of wisdom."
Celsus further mentioned a seal with which the Father im-
presses the Son, who says, "I have been anointed with white
ointment from the tree of life," and seven angels who con-
tend with the seven ruling demons for the soul of the dying
body.
Origen further informs us of the forms of salutation Employ-
to each ruling spirit employed by "those sorcerers," as they ™ames and
pass through "the fence of wickedness" or the gate to the formulae,
realm of each spirit. The names of the spirits are now
given as laldabaoth, who is the lion-like archon and with
whom the planet Saturn is in sympathy, lao or Jah, Sabaoth,
Adonaeus, Astaphaeus, Aloaeus or Eloaeus, and Horaeus.
The following is an example of the salutations or invoca-
tions addressed to these spirits : "Thou, O second lao, who
shinest by night, who art the ruler of the secret mysteries
368
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Seven
metals and
planets.
Magic of
Simon's
followers.
of Son and Father, first prince of death, and portion of the
innocent, bearing now thine own beard as symbol, I am
ready to pass through thy realm, having strengthened him
who is born of thee by the living word. Grace be with me;
Father, let it be with me!" Origen also states that the
makers of this diagram have borrowed from magic the
names laldabaoth, Astaphaeus, and Horaeus, while the other
four are names of God drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures.
It is worth noting that immediately before this account
of the diagram Celsus had described similar Persian mys-
teries of Mithras, in which seven heavens through which
the soul has to pass were arranged in an ascending scale
like a ladder.^ Each successive heaven was entered by a
gate of a metal corresponding to the planet in question,
lead for Saturn, tin for Venus, copper for Jupiter, iron for
Mercury, a mixed metal for Mars, silver for the moon, and
gold for the sun. This association of metals and planets
became a common feature of medieval alchemy. At the
same time the passage is said to be our chief literary source
for the mysteries of Mithras.^
The Simonians, according to Irenaeus, were as addicted
to magic as their founder had been, employing exorcisms
and incantations, love-philters and enchantments, familiar
spirits and "dream-senders." "And whatever other curi-
ous arts may be resorted to are eagerly employed by them."
Menander, the immediate successor of Simon in Samaria,
was "a perfect adept in the practice of magic" and taught
that by means of it one could overcome the angels who had
created this world. ^ In a treatise on rebaptism, falsely as-
cribed to Cyprian but very likely contemporary with him,
it is stated that the Simonians regard their baptism as su-
perior to that of orthodox Christians, because when they
descend into the water fire appears upon its surface. The
writer thinks that this is done by some trick, or that there
is some natural explanation of it, or that they merely imag-
* Reply to Celsus, VI, 22.
*Anz. (1897), p. 78.
^ Adv. haer., I, 23.
XV THE GNOSTICS 369
ine that they see a flame on the water, or that It is the
work of some evil one and of magic power.^ Epiphanius
states that Simon employed such obscene substances as
semen and menstruum in his magic," but this seems to be a
slander, at least against Gnosticism, since in a passage of
the Gnostic Book of the Saznour, adjoined to the Pistis-
Sophia, Thomas asks Jesus what shall be the punishment of
men who eat ''semen maris et menstruum feminae" mixed
with lentils, saying as they do so, "We believe in Esau and
Jacob," and is told that this is the worst of sins and that
the souls of those committing it will be absolutely blotted
out.^
Next to Simon Magus, Marcus was the Gnostic and Magic of
heretic most notorious as a practitioner of the magic arts, as jn^the^^
Irenaeus states at the close of the second century, and Eucharist.
Hippolytus and Epiphanius repeat in the third and fourth
centuries respectively.* In performing the Eucharist he
would change white wine placed in three wine cups into three
different colors, one blood-red, one purple, and one dark
blue, according to Epiphanius, while Irenaeus and Hippoly-
tus more vaguely state, although they lived closer to Mar-
cus's time, that he gave the wine a purple or reddish hue as
if it had been changed into blood, an alteration which
Marcus himself regarded as a manifestation of divine grace.
Epiphanius attributes the change to an incantation muttered
by Marcus while pretending to perform the Eucharist.
* Wm. Hartel, S. Thasci Caecili * Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I,
Cypriani Opera Omnia, Pars III, 13, et seq.; Hippolytus, Philo-
Opcra Spuria (1870), p. 90, De sophumena, VI, 34, et seq.;
rebaptismate, cap. 16, "quod si Epiphanius, Panarion, ed. Din-
aliquo lusu perpetrari potest, sicut dorf, II, 217, et seq. (ed. Petav.,
adfirmantur plerique huiusmodi 232, et seq.). Concerning Marcus
lusus Anaxilai esse, sive naturale see further TertulHan, De prae-
quid est quo pacto possit hoc con- script., L; Theodoret, Haeret.
tingere, sive illi putant hoc se Fab., I, 9; Jerome, Epist., 29; Au-
conspicere, sive maligni opus et gustine, Haer., xiv. "D'apres
magicum virus ignem potest in Reuvens," says Berthelot (1885),
aqua exprimere." p. 57, "le papyrus n° 75 de Leide
'Contra haercses, II, 2. renferme un melange de recettes
' ' magiques, alchimiques, et d idees
' Pistis-Sophia, ed. Schwartze gnostiques; ces dernieres em-
and Peter mann (1851), pp. 386-7; pruntees aux doctrines de Mar-
ed. Mead (1896), p. 390. cus."
370
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Other
magic and
occult
lore of
Marcus.
Name and
number
magic.
Hippolytus, who ascribes Marcus's feats partly to sleight-
of-hand and partly to demons, in this case charges that he
furtively dropped some drug into the wine. Marcus was
also accustomed to fill a large cup from a smaller one so
that it would overflow, a marvel which Hippolytus again
tries to account for by stating that "very many drugs, when
mingled in this way with liquid substances" temporarily
increase their volume, "especially when diluted in wine."
Irenaeus, who is quoted verbatim by Epiphanius, fur-
ther states that Marcus had a familiar demon by whose aid
he was able to prophesy, and that he pretended to confer
this gift upon others. He also accuses Marcus of seducing
women by means of philters and love potions which he
compounded. Hippolytus does not make these charges, but
unites with the others in describing at length Marcus's the-
ory of mystic names and his symbolical and mystical inter-
pretation of the letters of the alphabet and of numbers.
Marcus made various calculations based upon the number
of letters in a name, the number of letters in the name of
each letter, and so on. When Christ, whose ineffable name
has thirty letters, said, "I am Alpha and Omega," He was
believed by Marcus to have displayed the dove, whose num-
ber is 80 1, These reveries "are mere bits," as Hippolytus
says, of astrological theory and Pythagorean philosophy.
We shall find them perpetuated in the middle ages in the
method of divination known as the Sphere of Pythagoras.
Such symbolism and mysticism concerning numbers and
letters seldom indeed remain a matter of mere theory but
readily lend themselves to operative magic. Thus Hippolytus
can speak in the same breath of "magical arts and Pythag-
orean numbers" or tell that Pythagoras himself "also
touched on magic, as they say, and himself discovered an
art of physiognomy, laying down as a basis certain numbers
and measures." Or note a third passage where Hippolytus
is discussing Egyptian theology based on the theory of
numbers.^ After treating of the monad, duad, and enneads,
* Hippolytus, Philosophumcna, VI, preface; I, 2; and IV, 43-4.
XV THE GNOSTICS 37i
of the four elements in pairs, of the 360 parts of the circle,
of "ascending and beneficent and masculine names" which
end in odd numbers, and of feminine and malicious and
descending- names which terminate in even numbers, Hippo-
lytus continues, "Moreover, they assert that they have cal-
culated the word, 'Deity.' Now this name is an even num-
ber, and they write it down and attach it to the body and
accomplish cures by it. In the same way an herb which
terminates in this number is bound around the body and
operates by reason of a similar calculation of the number.
Nay, even a doctor cures the sick by such calculations."
Similarly Censorinus states that the number seven is as-
cribed to Apollo and used in the cure of bodily ills, while
nine is associated with the Muses and heals mental dis-
eases.^ But to return to Gnosticism.
The seven vowels were much employed by the Gnostics, The magic
undoubtedly as symbols for the seven planets and the spirits
associated with them, but as symbols possessed of magic
power as well as of mystic significance. "The Saviour and
His disciples are supposed in the midst of their sentences to
have broken out in an interminable gibberish of only vowels ;
magic spells have come down to us consisting of vowels by
the fourscore ; on amulets the seven vowels, repeated accord-
ing to all sorts of artifices, form a very common inscrip-
tion." ^ As the seven planets made the music of the spheres,
so the seven vowels seem to have represented the musical
scale, "and many a Gnostic sheet of vowels is in fact a sheet
of music." ^
Other heretics with Gnostic views who were accused of Magic of
magic by the fathers were the followers of Carpocrates, who ^SSg"
employed incantations and spells, philters and potions, who
attracted spirits to themselves and made light of the cosmic
angels, and who pretended to have great power over all
^ Censorinus, De die natali, caps. ' Ruelle et Poiree, Le chant
7 and 14. gnostico-magique, Solesmes, 1901.
'Arendzen, Gnosticism, in CE,
372
MAGIC 'AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The
Abraxas
and the
number
365.
Astrology
of Basi-
lides.
The Book
of Helxai.
things so that they were able by their magic to satisfy
every desire.^
Saturninus and Basilides were charged with "practicing
magic, and employing images, incantations, invocations,
and every other kind of curious art." They also believed
in a supreme power named Abrasax or Abraxas, whose
number was 365 ; and they contended that there were 365
heavens and as many bones in the human body; "and they
strive to set forth the names, principles, angels, and powers
of the 365 imagined heavens," ^
Hippolytus gives further indication of the astrological
leanings of Basilides, who held that each thing had its own
particular time, and supported his view by citing the Magi
gazing wistfully at the star of Bethlehem and the remark of
Christ Himself, "Mine hour is not yet come." ^ I suppose
that by this Hippolytus means to suggest that Basilides held
the astrological doctrine of elections; Basilides further af-
firmed, according to Hippolytus, that Jesus was "mentally
preconceived at the time of the generation of the stars ; and
of the complete return to their starting point of all the sea-
sons in the vast conglomeration," that is, at the end of the
astronomical magmis annus, variously reckoned as of 36,000
or 15,000 years in duration.
In his Refutation of all Heresies * Hippolytus tells of an
Alcibiades from Apamea in Syria who in his time brought
to Rome a book supposed to contain revelations made to a
holy man, Elchasai or Helxai, by an angel ninety-six miles
in height and from sixteen to twenty-four miles in breadth
and leaving a footprint fourteen miles long. This angel
was the Son of God, and was accompanied by a female of
corresponding size who was the Holy Spirit. This appari-
tion and revelation was accompanied by a preaching of a
new remission of sins in the third year of Trajan's reign,
at which time we are led to suppose that the Book of Helxai
* Irenaeus, I, 25 ; Hippolytus,
VII, 20; Epiphanius, ed. Dindorf,
II, 64.
^Irenaeus, I, 24; Epiphanius, ed.
Dindorf, II, 27-8.
^ Hippolytus, VII, 14-15.
*The more correct title for the
Philosophumena, see IX, 8-12.
AV THti GIJSTICS 373
came into existence. It imposed secrecy upon those initiated
into its mysteries. The sect, according to Hippolytus, were
much given to magic, astrology, and the number mysticism
of Pythagoras. The Elchasaites employed incantations and
formulae to cure persons bitten by mad dogs or afflicted with
disease. In such cases and also in the case of rebaptism for
the remission of sins it was customary with them to invoke
or adjure "seven witnesses," not however in this case the
planets, but "the heaven, and the water, and the holy spirits,
and the angels of prayer, and the oil (or, the olive), and
the salt, and the earth." Hippolytus declares that their
formulae of this sort were "very numerous and very ridic-
ulous." They dipped consumptives and persons possessed
by demons in cold water forty times in seven days. They
believed in the astrological doctrine of elections, since their
sacred book warned them not to baptize or begin other im-
portant undertakings upon those days which were governed
by the evil stars. They also seem to have predicted political
events from the stars, foretelling that three years after
Trajan's subjugation of the Parthians "war rages between
the impious angels of the northern (constellations), and on
this account all kingdoms of impiety are in confusion."
In the next century Epiphanius adds one or two further Epipha-
details to Hippolytus' account of the Elchasaites. Besides g^cha-^^^
the list of seven witnesses already given he mentions another saites.
slightly different one: salt, water, earth, wheat, heaven,
ether, and wind. He also tells of two sisters in the time
of Constantine who were supposed to be descendants of
Helxai. One of them was still alive the last Epiphanius
knew, and crowds followed "this witch" to collect the dust
of her footprints or her spittle to use in curing diseases.^
We possess an important document for the attitude of The Book o)
early Christianity and Gnosticism towards astrology in The ^Countries
Dialogue concerning Fate or The Book of the Laws of
Countries of Bardesanes or Bardaisan.- The complete
^Dindorf, II, log-io, 507-9. Haase, Zur hardesanischen Gnosis,
'A. Merx, Bardesanes der Leipzig, 1910, in TU, XXIV, 4.
letste Gnostiker, Jena, 1864. F.
374 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Syriac text is extant ; ^ there is a long and somewhat modi-
fied extract adopted from it in the Latin Recognitions of
Clement,^ and briefer fragments in the Greek fathers.
Strictly speaking, the text seems to be written by some fol-
lower of Bardesanes named Philip who represents his master
as discussing the problem of human free will with Avida,
himself, and other disciples. The bulk of the treatise is in
any case put in Bardesanes' mouth and it probably reflects
his views with fair accuracy. Eusebius ascribed it to Barde-
sanes himself.
Person- Bardesanes (154-222 A. D.) was born in Edessa. He
Barde- Spent most of his life in Mesopotamia but for a time went to
sanes, Armenia as a missionary. His many works in Syriac in-
cluded apologies for Christianity, attacks upon heresies, and
numerous hymns, but the only work extant is the treatise we
are about to examine, with the possible exception of The
Hymn of the Soul ^ ascribed to him and contained in the
Syriac Acts of St. Thomas. His doctrines were regarded
by Ephraem Syrus and others as tainted with Gnostic heresy.
He is often represented as a follower of Valentinus, but the
ancient authorities, such as Epiphanius and Eusebius, dis-
agree as to whether he degenerated from orthodoxy to
Valentinianism or reformed in the opposite direction. In
the dialogue which we consider he is represented as a
Christian, but his remarks have often been thought to have
a Gnostic flavor. F. Nau, however, has argued that he was
not a Gnostic and that the statements in question in the dia-
logue can be explained as purely astrological.^
Sin pos- The treatise opens with the query, why did not God
men ^°^ make men so that they could not sin? The reply of course
angels, is that moral freedom for good or evil is a greater gift of
God than compulsory morality. By virtue of his individual
freedom of action man is equal to the angels, some of whom,
* English translation in AN, Bevan, 1897; F. C. Burkett, 1899;
VIII, 723-34. G. R. S. Mead, 1906.
"Recognitions, IX, 17 and 19- * F. Nau, Une biographic ine-
2Q. dite de Bardesane I'astrologue,
'English translations by A. A. 1897.
XV THE GNOSTICS 375
too, have sinned v^^ith the daughters of men and fallen, and
is superior even to the sun, moon, and signs of the zodiac
v^hich are fixed in their courses. The stars, hov^ever, as in
The Book of Enoch, "are not absolutely destitute of all
freedom" and will be held responsible at the day of judg-
ment. Presently some of them are called evil.
After some discussion v^hether man does wrong from Does fate
his nature, the treatise turns to the question, how far are a^troLgi-
men controlled by fate, that is, by the power of the seven cal sense
. . prevail?
planets m accordance with the doctrine of the Chaldeans,
which is the term here usually employed for astrologers.
Some men attack astrology as "a lying invention" and hold
that the human will is free and that such evils as man can-
not avoid are due to chance or to divine punishment but not
to the stars. Between these extremes Bardesanes takes mid-
dle ground. He believes that there is such a force in the
stars, whom he refers to as Potentates and Governors, as the
fate of which the astrologers speak, but that this fate evi-
dently does not rule everything, since it is itself established
by the one God who imposed upon the stars and elements
that motion in conformity with which "intelligences under-
go change when they descend to the soul, and souls under-
go change when they descend to bodies," a statement which
appears to have a Gnostic flavor. This fate furthermore
is limited by nature on the one hand and human free ^yill
on the other hand. The vital processes and periods which
are common to all men, such as birth, generation, child-
bearing, eating, drinking, old age, and death, Bardesanes
regards as governed by nature. "The body," he says, "is
neither hindered nor helped by fate in the several acts it
performs," a view which most astrologers would probably
not accept. On the contrary, in Bardesanes' opinion wealth
and honors, power and subjection, sickness and health, are
controlled by fate which often disturbs the regular course
of nature. This is because in genesis or the nativity the
stars, some of which work with and some against nature,
Z7^ MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
are in conflict. In short, some stars are good and some are
evil.
National If nature is thus often upset by the stars, fate in its
customs as ^^^^ "^^^ ^^ resisted and overpowered by man's exercise of
a proof will. This assertion Bardesanes proceeds to prove by the
will. argument which has given to the dialogue the title. The Book
of the Laws of the Countries, and which we find much re-
peated in subsequent writers. Briefly it is that in various
nations certain laws are enforced upon, or customs ob-
served by all the people alike regardless of their diverse
individual horoscopes. In illustration of this are listed va-
rious prohibitions and practices fondly supposed by Barde-
sanes and his audience to characterize the Seres, Brahmans,
Persians, Geli, Bactrians, Arabs, Britons, Parthians, Ama-
zons, and other peoples. Savage tribes are mentioned among
whom there are no artists, bankers, perfumers, musicians,
and poets to fit the nativities decreed by the constellations for
certain times. Bardesanes is aware of the astrological the-
ory of seven zones or climes, by which the science of individ-
ual horoscopes is corrected and modified, but he contends
that there are many different laws in each of these zones,
and would be, even if the number were raised to twelve ac-
cording to the number of the signs or to thirty-six after
the decans. He also contends that men retain their laws
or customs when they migrate to other climes, and adduces
the fidelity of Jews and Christians to the commandments
of their respective religions as a further illustration of the
triumph of free will over the stars. He concedes, how-
ever, as before that "in every country and in every nation
there are rich and poor, and rulers and subjects, and peo-
ple in health and those who are sick, each one according as
fate and his nativity have affected him." Incidentally to
the foregoing discussion it is affirmed that the astrology of
Egypt and that of the Chaldeans in Babylon are identical.
At the close of the treatise is appended a note stating that
Bardesanes estimated the duration of the world at six
thousand years on the basis of sixty as the least number of
XV THE GNOSTICS 2>77
years in which the seven planets complete an even number
of revolutions.
If the work ascribed to Bardesanes is not certainly The
Pistis-
Gnostic, the Pistis-Sophia is, and we turn next to it and first Sophia:
of all to its attitude towards astroloe^y. This treatise is attitude to
. astrology,
extant in a Coptic codex of the fifth or sixth century; ^ the
Greek original text was probably written in the second half
of the third century. It gives the revelations made by Jesus
to his disciples after He had ascended to heaven and re-
turned again to them. When He ascended through the heav-
ens, He changed the fatal influence of the lords of the
spheres and made the planets turn to the right for six
months of the year, whereas before they had faced the left
continually." In a long passage near the close of the Pistis-
Sophia proper ^ Jesus asserts the absolute control of human
destiny hitherto by "the rulers of the fate" and describes
how they fashion the new soul, control the process of gen-
eration and of the formation of the child in the womb, and
decree every event of life down to the day and manner of
death. Only by the Gnostic key to the mysteries can one
escape their control.^ In the following Book of the Saviour,
moreover, even the finding of this key is subjected to astral
control, since a constellation is described under which all
souls descending to this world will be just and good and
will discover the mysteries of light.^
The Pistis-Sophia assumes the usual attitude of con- "Magic"
demnation of magic so-called. Among the evils which Jesus denined.
warns his followers to renounce are superstition and invo-
cations and drugs or magic potions.^ One object of his re-
ducing by one-third the power of the lords of the spheres
when He ascended through the heavens was that men might
not henceforth invoke them by magic rites for evil pur-
eed. Coptic and Latin by M. G. manuscript occurs the Book of the
Schwartze and J. H. Petermann, Saviour of which we shall also
1851 ; French translation by E. treat.
Amelineau, 1895; English by G. R. ^Pistis-Sophia, 25-6.
S. Mead, 1896; German by C. 'Ibid., 336-50.
Schmidt, 1905. The Coptic text is * Ibid., 355, et seq.
thickly interspersed with Greek ^ Ibid., 389-90.
words and phrases. In the same "Ibid., 255 and 258,
378
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Power
of names
and rites.
Interest
in natural
science.
poses. Marvels may still, however, be accomplished by
"those who know the mysteries of the magic of the thirteenth
aeon" or power above the spheres.^
But while magic is renounced, great faith is shown in
the power of names and rites. Thus after a description of
the dragon of outer darkness and the twelve main dungeons
into which it divides and the animal faces and names of
the twelve rulers thereof, who evidently represent in an in-
accurate fashion the signs of the zodiac, it is added that
even unrepentant sinners, if they know the mystery of any
one of these twelve names, can escape from these dungeons.^
In the Book of the Saviour Jesus not only utters several
long lists of strange and presumably magic words by way
of invocation to the Power or powers above, but these are
accompanied by careful observance of ceremonial. On both
occasions Jesus and the disciples are clad in linen.^ In the
first case the disciples are carefully grouped with reference
to the points of the compass, towards which Jesus turns suc-
cessively as He utters the magic words standing at a sacri-
ficial altar. The result of this ceremony and invocation was
that the heavens were displaced and the earth left behind
and that Jesus and the disciples found themselves in the
region of mid-air. Before uttering the other invocation
Jesus commanded that fire and vine branches be brought,
placed an offering on the flame, and carefully arranged two
vessels of wine, two cups of water, and as many pieces of
bread as there were disciples. In this case the object was
to remit the sins of the disciples. In the Book of Jeu in
the Bruce Papyrus there is a perfect riot of such magic
names and invocations, seals and diagrams, and accompany-
ing ceremonial.*
The interest of the Gnostics in natural science is seen in
the list of things that will be known by one who has pene-
^ Pistis-Sophia, 29-30. 692 pp., in TU, VIII, 2, with Ger-
' Ibid., 319-35. man translation of the Coptic text
* Ibid., 357-8, 375-6. at pp. 142-223. Portions have been
* Carl Schmidt, Gnostische translated into English by G. R.
Schrifte in koptischer Sprache S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith
aus dem codex Brucianus, 1892, Forgotten, 1900.
XV THE GNOSTICS 379
trated all the mysteries and fully entered upon the inheri-
tance of the kingdom of light. Not only will he understand
why there is light and darkness, and why sin and vice exist
and life and death, but also why there are reptiles and wild
beasts and why they shall be destroyed, why there are birds
and beasts of burden, why there are gems and precious
metals, why there are brass, iron and steel, lead, glass, wax,
herbs, waters, "and why the wild denizens of the sea." Why
there are four points of the compass, why demons and men,
why heat and cold, stars, winds, and clouds, frost, snow,
planets, aeons, decans, and so on and so forth.^
King has shown that many of the so-called "Gnostic "Gnostic
gems" are purely astrological talismans and that "only a fstrology,
very small minority amidst their multitude present any
traces of the influence of Christian doctrines." ^ Many are
for medicinal or magical purposes rather than of a religious
character. Some nevertheless are engraved with the truly
Gnostic figure of Pantheus Abraxas which King regards as
"the actual invention of Basilides." Another common sym-
bol, borrowed from Egypt, is the Agathodaemon, which by
the third century had become the popular designation of the
hooded snake of Egypt, or Chnuphis or Chneph, a great
serpent with a lion's head encircled by a crown of seven
or twelve rays, representing the planets or signs. Often the
seven Greek vowels are placed at the tips of the seven rays.
On the obverse of the gem the letter "s" is engraved thrice
and traversed by a straight rod, a design probably meant
to depict a snake twisting about a wand. We are reminded,
not only with King of the club of Aesculapius, but of
Aaron's rod, the magicians of Pharaoh, and the serpent
lifted up in the wilderness; also of Lucian's tale of the pre-
tended discovery of the god Asclepius by the pseudo-
prophet, Alexander. At least one "Gnostic amulet" has on
the back the legend "lao Sabao" (th).^
^ Pistis-Sophia, 205-15. Precious Stones and Gems, Lon-
' C. W. King, The Gnostics and don, 1865.
their Remains, 1887, pp. xvi- ^ A. B. Cook, Zeus, p. 235, citing
xviii, 215-8. Also his The Natural J. Spon, Miscellanea eruditae an-
History, Ancient and Modern, of tiquitatis, Lyons, 1685, p. 297.
38o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
^AP.
The
planets
in early
Christian
art.
Gnostic
amulets
in Spain.
Syriac
Christian
charms.
The influence of astrology may be seen in other and
more certainly genuine works of early Christian art than
many of the so-called Gnostic gems. On a lamp in the
catacombs Christ is depicted as the good shepherd with a
lamb on His shoulder. Above His head are the seven planets,
although the sun and moon are shown again at either side,
and about His feet press seven lambs, perhaps an indication
that He is freeing the peoples of the seven climes from the
fatal influence of the stars. In the Poemander attributed to
Hermes it is stated that there are seven peoples from the
seven planets. On a gem of perhaps the third century a
similar scene is engraved except that the sun and moon are
not shown apart from the seven planets, and that the lamb on
Christ's shoulders is counted as one of the seven, so that
there are but six at His feet.^
"Gnostic amulets and other works of art" are occasion-
ally found in Spain, especially the Asturian northwest which
remained Christian at the time of the Mohammedan con-
quest of the rest of the peninsula. One ring is inscribed with
the sentence, "Zeus, Serapis, and lao are one." On another
octagonal ring are Greek letters signifying the Gnostic
Anthropos or father of wisdom. A stone is carved with a
candelabrum and the seven planets, "the sacred hebdomad
of the Chaldeans." ^
Gollancz in his Selection of Charms from Syriac Manu-
scripts presents a number of spells and incantations which,
whether any of them are Gnostic or not, certainly seem to
be Christian, since they mention the divine persons of Chris-
tianity, Mary, and various Biblical characters.^
At the close of the fourth century the views of the Gnos-
tics were revived in Gaul and Spain by Priscillian, who
Reitzenstein, Poimandres, pp.
1 1 1-3. On the planets in later
medieval art see Fuchs, Die
Ikonographie dcr 7 Plancten in
der Kunst Italiens bis sum Aus-
gange des Mittelalters, Munich,
1909.
* E. S. Bouchier, Spain under
the Roman Empire, p. 125.
' Hermann Gollancz, Selection
of Charms from Syriac Manu-
scripts, 1898; also pp. 77-97 in
Acts of International Congress of
Orientalists, Sept., 1897; Syriac
text and English translation.
XV THE GNOSTICS 381
seems to have been much influenced by astrology and who Pnscillian
w^as put to death at Treves in 385 A. D. on a charge of magic, for magic.
He confessed under torture, but w^as afterwards thought
innocent. We are not told, however, what the magical prac-
tices were of which he was accused.^ Both Sulpicius Sev-
erus and Isidore of Seville ^ state that he was accused of
maleilcmm, which should mean witchcraft, sorcery, or mag-
ical operations with the intent to injure someone. But fur-
ther details are wanting, except that Sulpicius calls Pris-
cillian a man "more pufifed up than was right with the
knowledge of profane things, and who was further believed
to have practiced magic arts since adolescence," while Isi-
dore states that Bishop Itacius (Ithaicus), who was largely
responsible for pushing the charges against Priscillian,
showed in a book which he wrote against Priscillian's
heresy that "a certain Marcus of Memphis, most learned
in magic art, was a disciple of Mani and master of Pris-
cillian." Priscillian himself states in his extant works that
Itacius had accused him of magic in 380. As the final trial
proceeded, Itacius gave way as accuser to a public prosecutor
{Hsci patronus) who continued the case on behalf of the
emperor Maximus who seems to have had his eye upon
Priscillian's large fortune. St. Martin of Tours in vain
obtained from Maximus a promise that Priscillian should
not be put to death. ^ But his execution brought his per-
secutor Itacius into such bad odor that he was excommuni-
cated and condemned to exile for the rest of his life.
We have just heard that Priscillian was taught by a dis- Manichean
ciple of Mani, while Ephraem Syrus states that Bardesanes ^^^""scnpts,
^ In 1885-1886 eleven tracts by Etudes, Fasc. 169), which super-
Priscillian were discovered by G. sedes the earlier works of Paret,
Schepss in a Wiirzburg MS. They 1891 ; Dierich, 1897; and Edling,
shed, however, little light upon the 1902.
question whether he was addicted ^ Sulpicii Severi Historia Sacra,
to magic. They have been pub- II, 46-51 (Migne, PL, XX, 155, et
lished in Priscilliani quae super- seq.) S. Isidori Hispalensis
sunt., etc., ed. G. Schepss, 1889, Episcopi, De viris itlustrihus. Cap.
in CSEL, XVIII. 15 (Migne, PL, LXXXIII, 1092).
See also E. Ch. Babut, Pris- ' Realencyklopddie fur protes-
cillien et la Priscillienisnie, Paris, tantische Theologie, XVI, 63.
1909 {Bibl. d. l'£cole d. Haute s
382 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
was the teacher of Mani. Augustine in his youth, when a
follower of the Manicheans, had been devoted to astrology.
This connection between Gnosticism and astrology and
Manicheism has been further attested by the fragments of
Manichean manuscripts recently discovered in central Asia.*
In them the sun-god and moon-god and five other planets
play a prominent part. Besides the five planets we have five
elements — ether, wind, light, fire, and water — five plants,
five trees, and five beings with souls — man, quadrupeds, rep-
tiles, aquatic, and flying animals. The five gods or luminous
bodies are represented as good forces who imprisoned five
kinds of demons ; but the devil had his revenge by imprison-
ing luminous forces in man, whom he made a microcosm of
the universe. / nd whereas the good spirit had created sun
and moon, the devil formed male and female. The great
sage of beneficent light then appeared in the world and
brought forth from his own five members five liberators —
pity, contentment, patience, wisdom, and good faith — corre-
sponding to the five elements just as among the Christians
we shall find four virtues and four elements. Then ensued
the struggle of the old man with the new man. Although
we are commonly told that idolatry and magic were strictly
prohibited by the Manicheans, the envoy of light is in one
text represented as "employing great magic prayers" in his
effort to deliver living beings. When men eat living beings,
they offend against the five gods, the earth dry and moist,
the five orders of animate beings, the five different herbs
and five trees. Other numbers than five appear in these
Manichean fragments : four seals of light and four praises,
four courts with iron barriers; three vestments and three
wheels and three calamities; ten vows and ten layers of
heavens above, and eight layers of earth beneath; twelve
* My following statements in the astuanift, Das Bussgebet der Mani-
text are based upon E. Chavannes chder, Petrograd, 1909; A. v. Le
et P. Pelliot, Un traite manicheen Coq, Chuastuanift, ein Sundenbe-
retrouve en Chine, 1913, — they date kenntnis der Manichaischen Au-
the Chinese translation about 900 ditores, Berlin, 1911. There are
A.D. and the MS of it within a further publications on the subject,
century later; W. Radloflf, Chu-
XV THE GNOSTICS 383
great kings and twelve evil natures ; thirteen great luminous
forces and thirteen parts of the carnal body and thirteen
vices, — elsewhere fourteen parts; fifteen enumerations of
sins for which forgiveness is sought; fifty days in the year
to be observed; and so on.
A sect derived either from Gnosticism or from common The Man-
sources seems still to exist in the case of the Mandaeans of ^^^"^•
southern Babylonia.^ They believe that the earth and man
were formed by a Demiurge, who corresponds to the lalda-
baoth of the Ophites, and who was aided by the spirits of
the seven planets. They divide the history of the world
into seven ages and represent Jesus Christ as a false prophet
and magician produced by the planet Mercury. The lower
world consists of four vestibules and three hells proper and
has seven iron and seven golden walls. A dying Mandaean
is clothed in a holy dress of seven pieces. The spirits of
the planets, however, are represented as evil beings, and the
first two of three sets of progeny borne by the spirit of hell
fire were the seven planets and the twelve signs of the zodiac.
The influence of these two numbers, seven and twelve, may
be further seen in the regulation that a candidate for the
priesthood should be at least nineteen years old and have
had twelve years of previous training, which we infer would
normally begin when he reached his seventh year and not
before. Other prominent numbers in Mandaean lore are
five,^ perhaps indicative of the planets other than sun and
moon, and three hundred and sixty, suggestive of the num-
ber of degrees in the circle of the zodiac. Thus the main
manifestations of the primal light are five, and the third
generation produced by the spirit of hell fire was of like
number. The number of aeons is often stated as three hun-
dred and sixty, and the delivering deity or Messiah of the
*The following details are from Anz (1897), pp. 70-8. Fur-
drawn from the articles on the ther bibliography will be found in
Mandaeans in EB, nth edition, by these references.
K. Kessler and G. W. Thatcher, ' The number five also appears
and in ERE by W. Brandt, author in the Pistis-Sophia and other
of Manddische Religion, 1889, and Gnostic literature.
Manddische Schriften, 1893, and
384 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.xv
Mandaeans is said to have sent forth that number of dis-
ciples before his return to the realm of light. We hear of
yet other numbers, such as 480,000 years for the duration
of the world, 60,000, and 240, but these too are commen-
surate, if not identical, with astrological periods such as
those of conjunctions and the magnus annus. A peculiarity
of Mandaean astronomy and astrology is that the other
heavenly bodies are all believed to rotate about the polar
star. Mandaeans always face it when praying; their sanc-
tuaries are built so that persons entering face it; and even
the dying man is placed so that his feet point and eyes gaze
in its direction. Like the Gnostics, the Mandaeans invoke
by many strange names their spirits and aeons who are
divided into numerous orders. Their names for the planets
seem to be of Babylonian origin. Passages from their sa-
cred books are recited like incantations and are considered
more effective in danger and distress than prayer in the
ordinary sense of the word. Such recitations are also em-
ployed to aid the souls of the dead to ascend through vari-
ous stages or prisons to the world of light. Earthenware
vessels have recently been brought to light with Mandaean
inscriptions and incantations to avert evil.-^
^ H. Pognon, Une Incantation ddische Zaubertexte, in Ephemeris
centre les genies malfaisants en f. semit. Epig., I (1902), 89-106.
Manddite, 1893; Inscriptions man- J. A. Montgomery, Aramaic In-
ddites des coupes dc Khonahir, cantation Texts from Nippur,
1897-1899. M. Lidzbarski, Man- 1913.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA
Magic in the Bible — Apocryphal Gospels of the Infancy — Question
of their date — Their medieval influence — Resemblances to Apuleius and
Apollonius in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy — Counteracting magic
and demons — Other miracles and magic by the Christ child — Some-
times with injurious results — Further marvels from the Pseudo-
Matthew — Learning of the Christ child — Other charges of magic against
Christ and the apostles — The Magi and the star — Allegorical zoology of
Barnabas — Traces of Gnosticism in the apocryphal Acts — Legend of
St. John — Legend of St. Sousnyos — Old Testament Apocrypha of the
Christian era.
It is hardly necessary to rehearse here in detail the nu- Magic in
merous allusions to, prohibitions of, and descriptions of the ^ ' ^'
practice of magic, witchcraft, and astrology, enchantments
and exorcisms, divination and interpretation of dreams,
which are to be found scattered through the pages of the
Old and New Testaments. Such passages had a profound
influence upon Christian thought on such themes in the early
church and during the middle ages, and we shall have occa-
sion to mention many, if not most, of such scriptural pas-
sages, in connection with this later discussion of them by
the church fathers and others. For instance, Pharaoh's ma-
gicians and their contests with Moses and Aaron; Balaam
and his imprecations and enchantments and prediction that
a star would come out of Jacob and a scepter out of Israel;
the witch of Endor or ventriloquist and her invocation of
what seemed to be the ghost of Samuel ; the repeated use of
the numbers seven and twelve, suggestive of the planets and
signs of the zodiac, as in the twelve cakes of showbread
and candlestick with seven branches; the dreams and inter-
pretation of dreams of Joseph and Daniel, not to mention
385
386 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the former's silver divining cup ; ^ the wise men who saw
Christ's star in the east; Christ's own allusion to the shak-
ing of "the powers of the heavens" and the gathering of His
elect from the four winds at His second coming ; the accusa-
tion against Christ that He cast out demons by the aid of the
prince of demons; the eclipse of the sun at the time of the
crucifixion ; the adventures of the apostles with Simon Ma-
gus, with Elymas the sorcerer, and with the damsel pos-
sessed with a spirit of divination who brought her mastei
much gain by soothsaying; the burning of their books of
magic by the vagabond Jewish exorcists ; the prohibitions of
heathen divination and witchcraft by the Mosaic law and
by the prophets; the penalties prescribed for sorcerers in
the Book of Revelation ; at the same time the legalized prac-
tice of similar superstitions, such as the ordeal to test a
wife's faithfulness by making her drink "the bitter water
that causeth the curse," ^ the engraved gold plate upon the
high priest's forehead,^ or the use of Paul's handkerchief
and underwear to cure the sick and dispel demons ; the prom-
ise to believers in the closing verses or appendix of The Gos-
pel according to St. Mark that they shall cast out devils,
speak with new tongues, handle serpents and drink poison
without injury, and cure the sick by laying on of hands.
The foregoing scarcely exhaust the obvious allusions or
analogies to astrology and other magic arts in the Bible, to
say nothing of less explicit passages ^ which were later taken
to justify certain occult arts, as Exodus XIH, 9, to support
chiromancy, and the Gospel of John XI, 9, to support the
astrological doctrine of elections. Suffice it for the present
to say that the prevailing atmosphere of the Bible is one of
* Genesis XLIV, 5, and J. G. and also his other works ; for in-
Frazer (1918), II, 426-34. stance, The Magic Art, 191 1, I,
* In the apocryphal Protevan- 258, for the contest in magic rain-
gelium of James, cap. 16, both making between Elijah and the
Joseph and Mary undergo the priests of Baal in First Kings,
test. Chapter XVIII, while I do not
* Joachim consults the plate in understand why Joshua is not
the Protevangelium, cap. 5. mentioned in connection with
* See J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore in "The magical control of the sun,"
the Old Testament, 1918, 3 vols., Ibid., I, 3ii-i9-
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 387
prophecy, vision, and miracle, and that with these go, like
the obverse face of a coin or medal, their inevitable accom-
paniments of divination, demons, and magic.
This is also the case in apocryphal literature of the Apoc-
New Testament which is now so much less familiar and ac- gospels
cessible especially to English readers,^ but which had wide ?f the
. . . infancy,
currency in the early Christian and medieval periods. We
may begin with the apocryphal gospels and more particu-
larly those dealing with the infancy and childhood of Christ.
Of these two are believed to date from the second century,
namely, the Gospel of James or "Gospel of the Infancy"
{Protoevangeliiim lacohi) - and the Gospel of St. Thomas,
which is mentioned by Hippolytus. However, he cites a
sentence which is not in the present text — of which the
manuscripts are scanty and for the most part of late date ^ —
and the gospel as we have it is not Gnostic, as he says it is,
so that our version has probably been altered by some
Catholic.^ Later in date is the Latin gospel of the Pseudo-
Matthew — perhaps of the fourth or fifth century — and the
Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, which is believed to be a
translation from a lost Syriac original. We are the worst
off of all for manuscripts of its text and apparently there
is no Latin manuscript of it now extant, although a Latin
* However, the Apocrypha of Tischendorf is Thilo, Codex apoc-
the New Testament may be read ryphus Novi Testamenti, Leipzig,
in English translation by Alex- 1832; Fabricius, etc.
ander Walker in The Ante-Nicene 'It is ascribed to the second
Fathers (American edition), VIII, century both by Tischendorf
357-598, and in that by Hone in and The Catholic Encyclopedia
1820, which has since been re- ("Apocrypha," 607). There are
printed without change. It in- plenty of fairly early Greek MSS
eludes only a part of the apoc- for it.
rypha now known and presents ^ The Greek MSS are of the
these in a blind fashion without 15th and i6th centuries ; Tischen-
explanation. It differs from Tisch- dorf examined only partially a
endorf's text of the apocryphal Latin palimpsest of it which is
gospels (Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. probably of the fifth century.
Tischendorf, Lipsiae, 1876) both ' So argues The Catholic Ency-
in the titles of the gospels, the clopedia, 608; Tischendorf seems
distribution of the texts under the inclined to date the Gospel of
respective titles, and the division Thomas a little later than that of
into chapters. I have, however, James, and to hold that we pos-
sometimes used Hone's wording sess only a fragment of it.
in making quotations. Older than
388 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
text has reached us through the printed editions. Tischen-
dorf was, however, "unwilHng to omit in this new collec-
tion of the apocryphal gospels that ancient and memorable
monument of the superstition of oriental Christians," and
for the same reason we shall survey its medley of miracle
and magic in the present chapter. Speaking of the flight
into Egypt this gospel says, "And the Lord Jesus performed
a great many miracles in Egypt which are not found recorded
either in the Gospel of the Infancy or in the Perfect Gos-
pel." ^ Tischendorf noted the close resemblance of its first
nine chapters to the Gospel of James and of chapters 36-55
to the Gospel of Thomas, while the intervening chapters
"contain especially fables of the sort you may fittingly call
oriental, filled with allusions to Satan and demons and
sorceries and magic arts." ^ We find, however, the same sort
of fables in the other three apocryphal gospels; there are
simply more of them in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy.
It appears to be a compilation and may embody other earlier
sources no longer extant as well as passages from the pseudo-
James and pseudo-Thomas.
Question There is a tendency on the part of orthodox Christian
date. scholars to defer the writing of apocryphal works to as late
a date as possible, and they seem to have a notion that they
can save the credibility or purity of the miracles of the
New Testament ^ by representing such miracles as those
recorded of the infancy of Christ as the inventions of a later
age. And it is probably true that all these marvels were
not the invention of a single century but of a succession of
* Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 25, were ready enough both to repeat
"fecitque dominus lesus plurima and to invent similar tales,
in Egypto miracula quae neque in ^ It may be noted, however, that
evangelic infantiae neque in evan- the chief miracles of the Gospels
gelio perfecto scripta reperiuntur.'' were attacked as "absurd or un-
' Tischendorf (1876), p. xlviii. worthy of the performer" nearly
As I have already intimated on two centuries ago by Thomas
other occasions, it seems to me no Woolston in his Discourses on the
explanation to call such stories Miracles of our Saviour, 1727-
"oriental." Christianity was an 1730. The words in quotation
oriental religion to begin with. marks are from J. B. Bury's His-
Moreover, as our whole investiga- tory of Freedom of Thought, 1913,
tion goes to show, both classical p, 142.
antiquity and the medieval west
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 389
centuries. On the other hand, I know of no reason for
thinking Christians of the first century any less credulous
than Christians of the fifth century ; it was not until the lat-
ter century that Pope Gelasius' condemnation of apocryphal
books was drawn up, but apocryphal books had long been
in existence before that time; nor for thinking the Chris-
tians of the thirteenth century any more credulous than those
of the other two centuries. It is only in our own age that
Christians have become really critical of such matters.
Moreover, these unacceptable miracles, whenever they were
invented, were presumably invented by and accepted by
Christians, who must bear the discredit for them. What-
ever the century was, the same men believed in them who
believed in the miracles recorded in the New Testament.
If the plant has flowered into such rank superstition, can the
original seed escape responsibility? The Arabic Gospel of
the Infancy is no doubt an extreme instance of Christian
credence in magic, but it is an instance that cannot be over-
looked, whatever its date, place, or language.
These apocryphal gospels of the Infancy, which are in Their
part extant only in Latin, continued to be influential in the j^^fluence.
medieval period. At the beginning of it we find included in
Pope Gelasius' list of apocryphal works, published at a
synod at Rome in 494,^ besides apocryphal gospels of Mat-
thew and of Thomas — which last we are told, "the Mani-
cheans use" — a Liber de infantia Salvatoris and a Liber
de nativitate Salvatoris et de Maria et obstetrice. There
are numerous manuscripts of such gospels in the later me-
dieval centuries but it would not be safe to attempt to iden-
tify or classify them without examining each in detail. As
Tischendorf said, the Latins do not seem to have long re-
mained content with mere translations of the Greek pseudo-
gospel of James but combined the stories told there with
others from the Pseudo-Thomas or other sources into new
*Migne, PL, 59, i62tf. The list con (IV, 15), and in _ the thir-
was reproduced with slight varia- teenth century by Vincent of
tions by Hugh of St. Victor in the Beauvais in the Speculum Natu-
twelfth century in his Didascali- rale (I, 14).
390
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Resem-
blances to
Apuleius
and Apol-
lonius in
the Arabic
Gospel
of the
Infancy.
apocryphal treatises. Thus the extant Latin apocrypha in
no case reproduce the Gospel of James accurately but rather
are imitated after it, and include some of it, omit some of
it, embellish some of its tales, and add to it.^ Male states
in his work on religious art in France in the thirteenth cen-
tury that The Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew and The Gos-
pel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate were the two apocryphal
gospels especially used in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies.^
That the fables of the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy
were at least not fresh from the orient is indicated by the
way in which some of the incidents in the stories of Apuleius
and Apollonius of Tyana are closely paralleled,^ In the par-
lor of a well furnished house where lived two sisters with
their widowed mother stood a mule caparisoned in silk
and with an ebony collar about his neck, "whom they kissed
and were feeding." * He was their brother, transformed
into a mule by the sorcery of a jealous woman one night
a little before daybreak, although all the doors of the house
were locked at the time. "And we," they tell a girl who had
been instantly cured of leprosy by use of perfumed water
in which the Christ child had been washed and who had then
become the maid-servant of the virgin Mary,^ "have applied
to all the wise men, magicians, and diviners in the world,
but they have been of no service to us." ^ The girl recom-
mends them to consult Mary, who restores their brother
to human form by placing the Christ child upon his back.
This romantic episode is then brought to a fitting conclusion
by the marriage of the brother to the girl who had assisted
in his restoration to his right body. As the demon, who
^Tischendorf (1876), pp. xxiii- craft and magic." The resem-
XXIV.
*Male (1913), pp. 207-8.
' Since writing this, I find that
Male has been impressed by the
same resemblance. He writes
(1913)7 P- 207, "Some chapters in
the apocryphal gospels are like
the Life of Apollomus of Tyana
or even like The Golden Ass, per-
meated with the belief in witch-
blance to Apuleius is also noted in
AN, VIII, 353.
* Tischendorf , Evang. Infantiae
Arabicum, caps. 20-21.
"Ibid., cap. 17.
* Ibid., cap. 20, "nullum in mun-
do doctum aut magum aut incan-
tatorem omisimus quin ilium
accerseremus ; sed nihil nobis
profuit."
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 391
in the form of an artful beggar was causing the plague
at Ephesus and whom Apollonius had stoned to death,
turned at the last moment into a mad dog, so Satan, when
forced by the presence of the Christ child to leave the boy
Judas, ran away like a mad dog.^ The reviving of a corpse
by an Egyptian prophet in the Metamorphoses in order that
the dead man may tell who murdered him is paralleled in
both the Arabic Infancy and the gospels of Thomas and the
Pseudo-Matthew by the conduct of Jesus when accused of
throwing another boy down from a house-top. The text
reads : "Then the Lord Jesus going down stood over the
dead boy and said with a loud voice, 'Zeno, Zeno, who threw
you down from the house-top?' Then the dead boy an-
swered, 'Lord, thou didst not throw me down, but so-and-
so did." 2
Many were the occasions upon which the Christ child or Counter-
his mother counteracted the operations of magic or relieved ^aRicand
persons who were possessed by demons. Kissing him cured demons.
a bride whom sorcerers had made dumb at her wedding,^
and a bridegroom who was kept by sorcery from enjoying
his wife was cured of his impotence by the mere presence
of the holy family who lodged in his house for the night.*
Mary's pitying glance was sufficient to expel Satan from a
woman possessed by demons.^ Another upright woman
who was often vexed by Satan in the form of a serpent
when she went to bathe in the river,® which reminds one
somewhat of Olympias and Nectanebus,"^ was permanently
cured by kissing the Christ child. And a girl, whose blood
Satan used to suck, miraculously discomfited him when he
^Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 35, side, on which Judas struck him,
"Extemplo exivit ex puero illo the Jews pierced with a lance."
satanas fugiens cani rabido simi- ^ Ibid., cap. 44; Evang. Thomae
lis." The apocryphal gospel adds, Lat., cap. 7 ; Ps. Matth., cap. 32.
"This same boy who struck Jesus," 'Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 15.
i..e., while he was still possessed ^ Ibid., cap. 19, "qui veneficio
by the demon, "and out of whom tactus uxore f rui non poterat."
Satan went in the form of a dog, ^ Ibid., cap. 14.
was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed "Ibid., cap. 16.
Him to the Jews. And that same ^ See below, chapter 24.
392
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Other
miracles
and magic
by the
Christ
child.
appeared in the shape of a huge dragon by putting upon her
head and about her eyes a swaddHng cloth of Jesus which
Mary had given to her. Fire then went forth and was scat-
tered upon the dragon's head and eyes, as from the Winking
eyes of the artful beggar who caused the plague in the Life
of Apollonins of Tyana, and he fled in a panic.^ A priest's
three-year-old son who was possessed by a great multitude
of devils, who uttered many strange things, and who threw
stones at everybody, was likewise cured by placing on his
head one of Christ's swaddling clothes which Mary had
hung out to dry. In this case the devils made their escape
through his mouth "in the shape of crows and serpents." ^
Such marvels may offend modern taste but have their prob-
able prototype in the miracles wrought by use of Paul's
handkerchief and underwear in the New Testament and il-
lustrate, like the placing of spittle on the eyes of the blind
man, the great healing virtue then ascribed to the perspira-
tion and other secretions and excretions of the human body.
Sick children as well as lepers were cured by the water
in which Jesus had bathed or by wearing coats made of
his swaddling clothes,^ while the child Bartholomew was
snatched from the very jaws of death by the mere smell of
the Christ child's garments the moment he was placed on
Jesus' bed.* On the road to Egypt is a balsam which was
produced "from the sweat which ran down there from the
Lord Jesus." ^ The Christ child cured snake-bite, in the case
of his brother James by blowing on it, in the case of his play-
fellow, Simon the Canaanite, by forcing the serpent who
had stung him to come out of its hole and suck all the poison
from the wound, after which he cursed the snake "so that
it immediately burst asunder and died," ® When the boy
Jesus took all the cloths waiting to be dyed with different
colors in a dyer's shop and threw them into the furnace, the
dyer began to scold him for this mischief, but the cloths all
^ Evang. Inf. Arab., caps. 33-34. ^ Ibid., cap. 24.
^ Ibid., caps. lo-ii. ''Ibid., caps. 42-43; Ps. Matth.,
'Ibid., caps. 27-32. 41; Evang. Thorn. Lat., 14. Colli"
* Ibid., cap. 30. pare pp. 279-80 above.
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 393
came out of the desired colors.^ Jesus also miraculously
remedied the defective carpentry of Joseph, who had v^orked
for tv^o years on a throne for the king of Jerusalem and
made it too short. Jesus and Joseph took hold of the oppo-
site sides and pulled the throne out to the required dimen-
sions.^
The usual result of the Christ child's miracles was that Sometimes
all the bystanders united in praising God. But when his lit- -^j^urious
tie playmates went home and told their parents how he had results.
made his clay animals walk and his clay birds fly, eat, and
drink, their elders said, "Take heed, children, for the future
of his company, for he is a sorcerer; shun and avoid him,
and from henceforth never play with him," ^ Indeed, if
the theory of the fathers is correct that the surest hall-mark
by which divine miracles may be distinguished from feats of
magic is that the former are never wrought for any evil
end while the latter are, it must be admitted that his con-
temporaries were sometimes justified in suspecting the
Christ child of resort to magic. After his playmates had
been thus forbidden to associate with Jesus, they hid from
him in a furnace, and some women at a house near by told
him that there were not boys but kids in the furnace. Jesus
then actually transformed them into kids who came skipping
forth at his command.^ It is true that he soon changed them
back into human form, and that the women worshiped Christ
and asserted their conviction that he was "come to save and
not to destroy." But on several subsequent occasions Jesus
is represented in the apocryphal gospels of the infancy as
causing the death of his playmates. When another boy
broke a little fish-pool which Jesus had constructed on the
Sabbath day, he said to him, "In like manner as this water
has vanished, so shall thy life vanish," and the boy pres-
^ Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 37. Ad-Damiri, translated by A. S. G.
"Ibid., 38-39; Ps. Matth., 37; Jayakar, 1906, I, 703, for a Moslem
Evang. Thorn. Lot., 11. tale of Jews who called Jesus "the
* Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 36; Ps. enchanter the son of the en-
Matth., 27; Evang. Thorn. Lat., 4. chantress," and were transformed
* Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 40. See into pigs.
394
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Further
marvels
from the
Pseudo-
Matthew.
Learning
of the
Christ
child.
ently died.^ When a third boy ran into Jesus and knocked
him down, he said, "As thou hast thrown me down, so shalt
thou fall, nor ever rise;" and that instant the boy fell down
and died.^ When Jesus' teacher started to whip him, his
hand withered and he died. After which we are not sur-
prised to hear Joseph say to Mary, "Henceforth we will
not allow him to go out of the house; for everyone who dis-
pleases him is killed." ^
As has been indicated in the foot-notes many of the
foregoing marvels are recounted in the Pseudo-Matthew and
Latin Gospel of Thomas as well as in the Arabic Gospel of
the Infancy. The Pseudo-Matthew also tells how lions
adored the Christ child and were bade by him to go in peace.*
And how he "took a dead child by the ear and suspended
him from the earth in the sight of all. And they saw Jesus
speaking with him like a father with his son. And his spirit
returned unto him and he lived again. And all marveled
thereat." ^ When a rich man named Joseph died and was
lamented, Jesus asked his father Joseph why he did not help
his dead namesake. When Joseph asked what there was
that he could do, Jesus replied, "Take the handkerchief which
is on your head and go and put it over the face of the corpse
and say to him, 'May Christ save you.' " Joseph followed
these instructions except that he said, "Salvet te lesus," in-
stead of "Salvet te Christiis," which was possibly the reason
why the dead man upon reviving asked, "Who is Jesus ?" ®
While no very elaborate paraphernalia or ceremonial
were involved in the miracles ascribed to the Christ child
in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, it is perhaps worth
noting that he was already possessed of all learning and non-
plussed his masters, when they tried to teach him the alpha-
^Evang. Inf. Arab., 46; Evang.
Thorn. Lat., 4; Ps. Matth., 26,
where Mary afterwards induces
Jesus to restore him to life, and 28.
'Evang. Inf. Arab., cap. 47;
Evang. fhom. Lat., 5 ; Ps. Matth.,
29.
'Evang. Inf. Arab., cap.
49;
Evang. Thorn. Lat., 12;
Ps.
Matth., 38.
*Ps. Matth., caps. 35-36.
^ Ibid., cap. 29.
* Ibid., cap. 40.
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 395
bet, by asking the most abstruse questions. And when he
appeared before the doctors in the temple, he expounded to
them not only the books of the law,^ but natural philosophy,
astronomy, physics and metaphysics, physiology, anatomy,
and psychology. He is represented as telling them "the
number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, as also their
triangular, square, and sextile aspect ; their progressive and
retrograde motion; their twenty- fourths and sixtieths of
twenty-fourths" (perhaps corresponding to our hours and
minutes!) *'and other things which the reason of man had
never discovered." Furthermore, "the powers also of the
body, its humors and their effects; also the number of its
members, and bones, veins, arteries, and nerves; the several
constitutions of the body, hot and dry, cold and moist, and
the tendencies of them; how the soul operates upon the
body; what its various sensations and faculties are; the
faculty of speaking, anger, desire ; and lastly, the manner of
the body's composition and dissolution, and other things
which the understanding of no creature had ever reached." ^
It may be added that in the apocryphal epistles supposed to
have been interchanged between Christ and Abgarus, king
of Edessa, that monarch writes to Christ, "I have been in-
formed about you and your cures, which are performed
without the use of herbs and medicines." ^
Jesus is again accused of magic in The Gospel of Nico- Other
demus or Acts of Pontius Pilate, where the Jews tell Pilate of magic
that he is a conjurer. After Pilate has been warned by his of^J^f
wife, the Jews repeat, "Did we not say unto thee. He is a and the
magician? Behold, he hath caused thy wife to dream." *
In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, to which Tertullian refers
and which are now seen to be an excerpt from the apocry-
^ Later the same gospel (cap. Syriac in the pubHc records of
54) rather inconsistently repre- Edessa. Hone says that it used
sents Jesus as engaged in the to be a common practice among
study of law until his thirtieth English people to have the epistle
year. ascribed to Christ framed and
' Evang. Inf. Arab., caps. 51-52. place a picture of the Saviour be-
' Eusebius states that he dis- fore it.
covered these letters written in * Gospel of Nicodcmiis, I, 1-2.
apostles.
396
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Magi
and the
star.
Alle-
gorical
zoologj' of
Barnabas.
phal Acts of Paul, discovered in 1899 in a Coptic papyrus/
the mob similarly cries out against Paul, "He is a magi-
cian; away with him." In the Acts of Peter and Andrew ^
they are both accused of being sorcerers by Onesiphorus,
who also, however, denies that Peter can make a camel go
through the eye of a needle. Nor is he satisfied when the
feat is successfully performed with a needle and camel of
Peter's selection, but insists upon its being repeated with an
animal and instrument of his own selection. Onesiphorus
also has "a polluted woman" ride upon his camel's back,
apparently with the idea that this will break the magic spell.
But Peter sends the camel through the eye of the needle,
"which opened up like a gate," as successfully as before,
and also back again through it once more from the opposite
direction.
Some details are added by the apocrypha to the account
of the star at Christ's birth. The Arabic Gospel states that
Zoroaster (Zeraduscht) had predicted the coming of the
Magi, that Mary gave the Magi one of Christ's swaddling
clothes, that they were guided on their homeward journey
by an angel in the form of the star which had led them to
Bethlehem, and that after their return they found that the
swaddling cloth would not burn in fire.^ The Epistle of
Ignatius to the EpJiesians states that this star shone with a
brightness far exceeding all others, filling men with fear,
and that with its coming the power of magic was destroyed
and the new kingdom of God ushered in."*
In the apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas occurs some of
that allegorical zoology which we are apt to associate es-
pecially with the Physiologus. In its ninth chapter the hy-
ena and weasel are adduced as examples of its contention
that the Mosaic distinction between clean and unclean ani-
mals has a spiritual meaning. Thus the command not to
eat the hyena means not to be an adulterer or corrupter of
*CE, Apocrypha, p. 611.
' Greek text in Tischendorf,
Apocalypses Apocryph., pp. 161-7;
English translation, The Ante-
Nicene Fathers, VIII, 526-7.
' Evang. Inf. Arab., 7-8.
* Cap. 19 (AN, I, 57).
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 397
others, for the hyena changes its sex annually. The weasel
which conceives with its mouth signifies persons with un-
clean mouths. In the Acts of Barnabas he cures the sick
of Cyprus by laying a copy of the Gospel of Matthew upon
their bodies.^
If we turn again to the various apocryphal Acts, where Traces of
we have already noted charges of magic made against the j^ ^he
apostles, we may find traces of gnosticism which have al- apocryphal
ready been noted by Anz.^ In the Acts of Thomas the Holy
Ghost is called the pitying mother of seven houses whose
rest is the eighth house of heaven. In the Acts of Philip
that apostle prays, "Come now, Jesus, and give me the eter-
nal crown of victory over every hostile power . . . Lord
Jesus Christ . . . lead me on . . . until I overcome all
the cosmic powers and the evil dragon who opposes us. Now
therefore Lord Jesus Christ make me to come to Thee in
the air." The Acts of John, too, speak of overcoming fire
and darkness and angels and demons and archons and
powers of darkness who separate man from God.
We deal in another chapter with the struggle of the Legend
apostles with Simon Magus as recounted in the apocryphal ° •'° "*
Acts of Peter and Paul, and with similar legends of the con-
tests of other apostles with magicians. Here, however, we
may mention some of the marvels in the apocryphal legend
of St. John, supposed to have been written by his disciple
Procharus and "which deluded the Greek Church by its air
of sincerity and its extreme precision of detail," ^ although
it does not seem to have reached the west until the sixteenth
century. John is represented as drinking without injury a
poison which had killed two criminals, and as reviving two
corpses without going near them by directing an incredulous
pagan to lay his cloak over them. A Stoic philosopher had
^ Ante-Nicene Fathers, VIII, 'Male (1913), 299. For the
494. text of this apocryphal work see
' W. Anz, Zur Frage nach Migne, Dictionnaire des Apocry-
deni Ursprung des Gnostisisnus phcs, II, 759, et seq.. or more
(1897), pp. 36-41. Lipsius ct recently, Bonnet, Acta aposto-
Bonnet, Acta apostolorum apoc- lorum apocrypha, 1898, II, 151-
rypha, 1891-. 216.
398
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Legend
of St.
Sousnjnos.
persuaded some young men to embrace the life of poverty
by converting their property into gems and then pounding
the gems to pieces. John made the criticism that this wealth
might have better been distributed among the poor, and
when challenged to do so by the Stoic, prayed to God and
had the gems made whole again. Later when the young men
longed for their departed wealth, he turned the pebbles on
the seashore into gold and precious stones, a miracle which
is said to have persuaded the medieval alchemists that he
possessed the secret of the philosopher's stone. ^ At any
rate Adam of St. Victor in the twelfth century wrote the
following lines concerning St. John in a chant to be used
in the church service :
Cum gemmarum partes fractas
Solidasset, has distractas
Tribuit pauperibus;
Inexhaustum fert thesaurum
Qui de virgis fecit aurum,
Gemmas de lapidibus.^
The brief legend of St. Sousnyos, which Basset has
included in his edition of Ethiopian Apocrypha,^ is all
magic, beginning with an incantation or magic prayer
against disease and demons. There is also a Slavonic ver-
sion. This Sousnyos is presumably the same as the Sisin-
nios who is said by the author of the apocryphal Acts of
Archelans,'^ forged about 330-340 A. D., to have abandoned
Mani, embraced Christianity, and revealed to Archelaus
secret teachings which enabled him to triumph over his ad-
versary.
^Male (1913), 300. But one
would think that they must needs
be Byzantine alchemists, if the
legend did not reach the west until
the sixteenth century.
'HL, XV, 42.
When the gems, all smashed to
pieces.
He had mended, then their prices
To the poor he handed ;
Quite exhaustless was his treasure
Who from sticks made gold at
pleasure,
Gems from stones commanded.
' Rene Basset, Les apocryphes
£thiopiens, Paris, 1893- 1894, vol.
iv.
*See Migne, PG, X (1857), for
the old Latin version; the Greek
text is extant only in fragments ;
the tradition, going back to
Jerome, that there was a Syriac
original is unfounded ; the work is
first cited by Cyril.
XVI THE CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA 399
While on the subject, mention may be made of two Old Testa-
works which properly belong to the apocrypha of the Old ap^ocrypha
Testament, but which first appear during the Christian era of the
and so fall within our period. The Ascension of Isaiah,^ of era.
which the old Latin version was printed at Venice in 1 522,
and which dates back to the second century, is something
like the Book of Enoch, describing Isaiah's ascent through
the seven heavens and vision of the mission of Christ. In
the Book of Bctruch, of which the original version was writ-
ten in Greek by a Christian of the third or fourth century,^
the most interesting episode is the magic sleep into which,
like Rip Van Winkle, Abimelech falls during the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. In the legend of Jere-
miah the prophet's soul is absent from his body on one oc-
casion for three days, while on another occasion he dresses
up a stone to impersonate himself before the populace who
are trying to stone him to death, in order that he may gain
time to make certain revelations to Abimelech and Baruch.
When he has had his say, the stone asks the people why they
persist in stoning it instead of Jeremiah, against whom they
then turn their missiles.^
Such is no exhaustive listing but rather a few examples
of the encouragement given to belief in magic by the Chris-
tian Apocrypha.
* The Ethiopic version, made and Box, Translations of Early
from the Greek between the fifth Documents, Series I, vol. 7.
and seventh centuries, is translated ' The fragments of the Book of
by Basset (1894), vol. iii ; and Baruch by Justin, preserved in
was printed before him by Dill- the Philosophumena of Hippoly-
mann, Asccnsio Isaiae aethiopice tus, are from an entirely different
et latine, Leipzig, 1877, and by Gnostic work.
Laurence, Ascensio Isaiae vatis, * R. Basset, Les apocryphes
opusculum pseudepigraphus, Ox- ^thiopiens, Paris, 1893- 1894, vol,
ford, 1819. See also R. H. i, Le Lizve de Baruch et la
Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, legende de Jeremie.
1900; reprinted 1917 in Oesterley
CHAPTER XVII
THE RECOGNITIONS OF CLEMENT AND SIMON MAGUS
The Pseudo-Clementines — Was Rufinus the sole medieval version?
• — Previous Greek versions — Date of the original version — Internal evi-
dence— Resemblances to Apuleius and Philostratus — Science and re-
ligion— Interest in natural science — God and nature — Sin and nature —
Attitude to astrology — Arguments against genethlialogy — The virtuous
Seres — Theory of demons — Origin of magic — Frequent accusations of
magic — Marvels of magic — How distinguish miracle from magic? —
Deceit in magic — Murder of a boy — Magic is evil — Magic is an art —
Other accounts of Simon Magus : Justin Martyr to Hippolytus — Peter's
account in the Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum — Arnobius,
Cyril, and Philastrius — Apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul — An ac-
count ascribed to Marcellus — Hegesippus — A sermon on Simon's fall —
Simon Magus in medieval art.
"The Truth herself shall receive thee a wanderer and a
stranger, and enroll thee a citizen of her own city."
— Recognitions I, 13.
The The starting-point and chief source for this chapter will
Ckmen^ be the writings known as the Pseudo-Clementines and more
tines. particularly the Latin version commonly called The Recog-
nitions. We shall then note other accounts of its villain-
hero, Simon Magus, in patristic literature.^ The Pseudo-
*Text of The Recognitions \n
Migne, PG, I ; of The Homilies in
PG, II, or P. de Lagarde, Clem-
entina, 1865. E. C. Richardson
had an edition of The Recog-
nitions in preparation in 1893,
when a list of some seventy MSS
communicated by him was pub-
lished in A. Harnack's Gesch. d.
altchr. Lit., I, 229-30, but it has
not yet appeared. In quoting The
Recognitions I often avail myself
of the language of the English
translation in the Ante-Nicene
Fathers.
Since A. Hilgenf eld. Die klement.
Rekogn. u. Homilien, 1848, the
Pseudo-Clementines have pro-
vided a much frequented field of
research and controversy, of
which the articles in CE, EB, and
Realencyklop'ddie (1913), XXIII,
312-6, provide fairly recent sum-
maries from varying ecclesiastical
standpoints. For bibliography see
pp. 4-5 in the recent monograph
of W. Heintze, Der Klemensro-
m,a'n mid seine griechischen Quel-
len, 1914, in TU, XL, 2. In the
same series, TU, XXV, 4, H
400
CHAP. XVII l-t^£* RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 401
Clementines, as the name implies, are works or different
versions of one work ascribed to Clement of Rome, who is
represented as writing to James, the brother of the Lord,
an account of events and discussions in which he and the
apostle Peter had participated not long after the crucifixion.
This Pseudo-Clementine literature has a double character,
combining romantic narrative concerning Peter, Simon
Magus, and the family of Clement with long, argumentative,
didactic, and doctrinal discussions and dialogues in which
the same persons participate but Peter takes the leading and
most authoritative part. Not only the authorship, origin,
and date, but even the title or titles and the make-up and
arrangement of the various versions and their original are
doubtful or disputed matters. The versions now extant
and published seem by no means to have been the only ones,
but we will describe them first. In Greek we have the ver-
sion known as The Homilies in twenty books, in which the
didactic element preponderates. It is extant in only two
manuscripts of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries at Paris
and Rome,^ but is also preserved in part in epitomes. Dif-
ferent from it is the Latin version in which the narrative
element plays a greater part.
This Latin version, now usually referred to as The Rec- Was
ognitions, because the main point in its plot is the successive the sole
bringing together again of, and recognition of one another medieval
° ° version ?
by, the members of a family long separated, is the trans-
lation made by Rufinus, who is last heard from in 410. It
is usually divided into ten books. Numerous manuscripts
of this version attest its popularity and influence in the mid-
dle ages, when we early find Isidore of Seville quoting
Waitz, Die Pseudo-Klementinen, origine Pseudo-Clementinorum,
1904- Diss, inaug., Warsaw, 1866; G. R.
Concerning Simon Magus may S. Mead (Fellow of the Theo-
be mentioned: H. Schlurick, De sophical Society), Simon Magus,
Simonis Magi fatis Romanis; A. 1892; H. Waitz, Simon Magus in
Hilgenfeld, Der Magier Simon, in d. altchr. Lit., in Zeitschr. f. d.
Zeitschr. f. wiss. Thcol., XII neutest. IViss., V (1904), 121-43.
(1869), 353 ff-; G. Frommberger, ' BN, Greek, 930; Ottobon, 443.
De Sitnone Mago, Pars I, De
402 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Clement several times as an authority on natural science.^
Arevalus, however, thought that Isidore used some other
version of the Pseudo-Clementines than that of Rufinus,^ and
in the medieval period another title was common, namely,
The Itinerary of Clement, or The Itinerary of Peter.^
WiUiam of Auvergne, for instance, in the first half of the
thirteenth century cites the Itinerarium dementis or "Book
of the disputations of Peter against Simon Magus." * This
Itinerary of Clement also heads the list of works condemned
as apocryphal by Pope Gelasius at a synod at Rome in 494,^
a list reproduced by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum
naturale in the thirteenth century ^ and in the previous cen-
tury rather more accurately by Hugh of St. Victor in
his Didascalicon.'^ In all three cases the full title is given
in practically the same words, "The Itinerary by the name
of the Apostle Peter which is called Saint Clement's, an
apocryphal work in eight books." ® Here we encounter a
difficulty, since as we have said The Recognitions are in
ten books. We find, however, that in another passage ^ Vin-
cent correctly cites the ninth book of The Recognitions as
Clement's ninth book, and that the number of books into
which The Recognitions is divided varies in the manu-
scripts, and that they, too, more often call it The Itinerary of
Clement or even apply other designations. Rabanus Maurus
in the ninth century quotes an utterance of the apostle
Peter from The History of Saint Clement, but the passage
is found in The Recognitions.^^ Vincent of Beauvais also
* Isidore, De natura rerum, * Vincent of Beauvais, 5'/'ecM^Mfw
caps, xxxi, xxxvi, xxxix-xli (PL, naturale, 1485, I, 14.
83, 1003-12). ■'PL, 176, 787-8, Erudit. Didasc,
'PL, 83, 1003, note, "Sunt haec IV, 15.
lib. VIII Recognitionum sed ap- * "Itinerarium nomine Petri
paret Isidoruni alia interpretatione apostoli quod appellatur sancti
usum ac dubitare posse an ea quae Clementis libri octo apocryphum
circumfertur Rufini sit." (or, apocryphi)."
'See CU, Trinity 1041, 14th ^Speculum naturale, XXXII,
century, fols. 7-105, "Inc. pro- 129, concerning the morality of
logus in librum quern moderni the Seres,
itinerarium beati Petri vocant." " Compare Recognitions, I, 27
*Valois (1880), p. 204. (PG, I, 122) with Rabanus, Com-
'PL, 59, 162, "Notitia librorum ment. in Genesim, I, 2 (PL, 107,
apocryphorum qui non recipiun- 450).
tur."
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS
403
quotes "the blessed apostle Peter in a certain letter attached
to The Itinerary of Clernent." No letter by Peter is pre-
faced to the printed text of The Recognitions, nor does Ru-
finus mention such a letter, although he does speak in his
preface of a letter by Clement which he has already trans-
lated elsewhere. Prefixed to the printed Homilies, how-
ever, and in the manuscripts found also with The Recog-
nitions, are letters of Peter and Clement respectively to
James. But the passage quoted by Vincent does not occur
in either, but comes from the tenth book of The Recogni-
tions} It would seem, therefore, despite variations in the
number of books and in the arrangement of material, that
the Latin version by Rufinus was the only one current in the
middle ages, but we cannot be sure of this until all the ex-
tant manuscripts have been more carefully examined.^
The version by Rufinus differed from previous ones not Previous
only in being in Latin but also in various omissions which yerTions.
he admits he made and perhaps other changes to suit it to
his Latin audience. That there was already more than one
version in Greek he shows in his preface by describing an-
other text than that upon which his translation or adaptation
was based. Neither of these two Greek texts appears to
have been the same as the present Homilies.^ Yet The
Homilies were apparently in existence at that time, since
a Syriac manuscript of 411 A. D. contains four books of
The Homilies and three of The Recognitions,'^ thus in itself
* Speculum naturale, I, 7. Peter
is represented as saying, "When
anyone has derived from divine
Scripture a sound and firm rule of
truth, it will not be absurd if to
the assertion of true dogma he
joins something from the educa-
tion and liberal studies which he
may have pursued from boyhood.
Yet so that in all points he teaches
what is true and shuns what is
false and pretense." This corre-
sponds to the close of the 42nd
chapter of the tenth book of The
Recognitions.
' Since writing this I learn that
Professor E. C. Richardson has
examined most of the known MSS
of The Recognitions and has
found them all to be the version
by Rufinus, except for a few addi-
tional chapters which someone has
added in the French group of
MSS, — chapters which Rufinus
seems to have omitted because they
were difficult to translate.
^ Heintze (1914), 23, however,
argues that the conclusion of The
Recognitions is dependent upon
The Homilies.
* Professor E. C. Richardson,
after kindly reading this chapter
in manuscript, writes me (Sept. 5,
1921) that he doubts if this Syriac
404 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
furnishing an illustration of the ease with which new ver-
sions might be compounded from old. Both The Homilies
and The Recognitions as they have reached us would seem
to be confusions and perversions of this sort, as their inci-
dents are obviously not arranged in correct order. For in-
stance, when the story of The Recognitions begins Christ
is still alive and reports of His miracles are reaching Rome ;
the same year Barnabas pays a visit to Rome and Clement
almost immediately follows him back to Syria, making the
passage from Rome to Caesarea in fifteen days;^ but on
his arrival there he meets Peter who tells him that "a week
of years" have elapsed since the crucifixion and of other in-
tervening events involving a considerable lapse of time. Or
again, in the third book of The Recognitions Simon is said
to have sunk his magical paraphernalia in the sea and gone
to Rome, but as late as the tenth and last book we find him
still in Antioch and with enough paraphernalia left to trans-
form the countenance of Faustus.
Date Yet this late and misarranged version on which Rufinus
°^.^^^ , bases his text must have been already in existence for some
original _ -^
version. time, since he confesses that he has been a long while about
his translation. The virgin Sylvia who "once enjoined it
upon" him to "render Clement into our language" is now
spoken of as "of venerable memory," and it is to Bishop
Gaudentius that Rufinus "after many delays" in his old age
"at length" presents the work. We might thus infer that
the original and presumably more self-consistent Pseudo-
Clementine narrative, which Rufinus evidently does not use,
must date back to a much earlier period. We hear from
other sources of The Circuits or Periodoi of Peter by Clem-
ent, but this may have been the version translated by Ru-
MS is correctly described as three forms in Greek, and there are cer-
books of The Recognitions and tainly other oriental compilations
four books of The Homilies, and not yet brought into comparison
that he thinks it may represent an with the Greek, Latin, and Syriac
earlier form in the evolution than forms."
either of them. He writes further, ^ In The Homilies it is a trip
"I have a strong notion that a only from Alexandria to Caesarea
study of Greek MSS of the Epi- that consumes this number of
tomes will reveal still more variant days.
evidence.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 405
finus.^ Conservative Christian scholars regard as the old-
est unmistakable allusion to the Pseudo-Clementines that by
Eusebius early in the fourth century, who, without giving
any specific titles, speaks of certain "verbose and lengthy
writings, containing dialogues of Peter forsooth and Apion,"
which are ascribed to Clement but are really of recent origin.
As for the date of the original work from which Homilies
and Recognitions are derived,^ from 200 to 280 A. D. is sug-
gested by Harnack and his school, who take middle ground
between the extreme contentions of Hilgenfeld and Chap-
man. But the original Pseudo-Clement is supposed to have
utilized The Teachings of Peter and The Acts of Peter,
which Waitz would date between 135 and 210 A. D.^
The work itself, even in the perverted form preserved Internal
by Rufinus, makes pretensions to the highest Christian an-
tiquity. Not only is it addressed to James and put into
the mouth of Clement, but Paul is never mentioned, and no
book of the New Testament is cited by name, while sayings
of Jesus are cited which are not found in the Bible. Christ
is often alluded to in a veiled and mystic fashion as "the
true prophet," who had appeared aforetime to Abraham and
Moses, and interesting and vivid incidental glimpses are
given of what purports to be the life of an early Christian
community and perhaps is that of the Ebionites, Essenes, or
some Gnostic sect. Emphasis is laid upon the purifying
power of baptism, upon Peter's practice of bathing early
every morning, preferably in the sea or running water, upon
secret prayers and meetings, a separate table for the initi-
ated, esoteric discussions of religion at cock-crow and in
the night, and upon power over demons. All this may be
mere clever invention, but there certainly is an atmosphere
of verisimilitude about it; and it is rather odd that a later
^ About 375 A.D. Epiphanius Gregory, cites a passage on as-
(Dindorf, II, 107-9) describes The trology from the fourteenth book
Circuits in such a way that he of The Circuits which is in the
might have either The Homilies or tenth book of The Recognitions
The Recognitions in mind. On the and not in The Homilies at all,
other hand, the Philocalia, com- ^ Heintze (1914), p. 113.
posed about 358 by BasU ^nd 'Waitz (1904), pp. 151 and 243.
4o6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Resem-
blances to
Apuleius
and Phi-
lostratus.
writer should be "very careful to avoid anachronisms," in
whose account as it now stands are such glaring chronologi-
cal confusions as those already noted concerning Clement's
voyage to Caesarea and Simon's departure for Rome. But,
as in the case of the New Testament Apocrypha, the exact
date of composition makes little difference for our purpose,
for which it is enough that the Pseudo-Clementines played
an important part in the first thirteen centuries of Christian
thought viewed as a whole. Eusebius and Epiphanius may
find them unpalatable in certain respects and reject them as
heretical, but Basil and Gregory utilize their arguments
against astrology. Gelasius may classify them as apocry-
phal, but Vincent of Beauvais justifies a discriminating use
of the apocryphal books in general and cites this one in
particular more than once as an authority, and the incidents
of its story were embodied, as we shall see, in medieval art.
The same resemblance to the works of Apuleius and
Philostratus that we noted in the case of an apocryphal gos-
pel is observable in the Pseudo-Clementines. We see in The
Recognitions the same mixed interest in natural science and
in magic combined with religion and romantic incident that
characterized the variegated and motley page of the author
of the Metamorphoses and the biographer of Apollonius of
Tyana. It is probably only a coincidence that two of the
works of Apuleius are dedicated to a Faustinus whom he
calls "my son," while Clement's father is named Faustus or
Faustinianus, and the legend of Faust is believed to orig-
inate with him and the episodes in which he is concerned.-^
Less accidental may be the connection between Peter's re-
ligious sea-bathing and that purification in the sea by which
the hero of the Metamorphoses began the process by which
he succeeded in regaining his lost human form. More con-
siderable are the detailed parallels to the work of Philps-
tratus.^ Peter corresponds roughly to Apollonius and Clem-
* See E. C. Richardson in
Papers of the American Society
of Church History, VI (1894).
' Neither Philostratus nor Apol-
lonius of Tyana is mentioned,
however, in the index of W,
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 4^7
ent to Damis, while the wizards and magi are ably personi-
fied by the famous Simon Magus. If Apollonius abstained
from all meat and wine and wore linen garments, Peter lives
upon "bread alone, with olives, and seldom even with pot-
herbs; and my dress," he says, "is what you see, a tunic
with a pallium : and having these, I require nothing more." ^
Like Philostratus the Pseudo-Clement speaks of bones of
enormous size which are still to be seen as proof of the ex-
istence of giants in former ages; ^ and the accounts of the
Brahmans and allusions to the Scythians in the Life of
Apollonius of Tyana are paralleled in The Recognitions by
a series of brief chapters on these and other strange races.'
Peter is, of course, a Jew, not a Hellene like Apollonius, but
in his train are men who are thoroughly trained in Greek
philosophy and capable of discussing its problems at length.
They also are not without appreciation of pagan art and
turn aside, with Peter's consent, to visit a temple upon an
island and "to gaze earnestly" upon "the wonderful col-
umns" and "very magnificent works of Phidias." ^ Just as
Apollonius knew all languages without having ever studied
them, so Peter is so filled with the Spirit of God that he is
"full of all knowledge" and "not ignorant even of Greek
learning" ; but to descend from his usual divine themes to
discuss it is considered to be rather beneath him. Clement,
however, felt the need of coaching Peter up a little in Greek
mythology.^ This mingled attitude of contempt for "the
babblings of the Greeks" when compared to divine revela-
tion, and of respect for Greek philosophy when compared
with anything else is, it is hardly necessary to say, a very-
common one with Christian writers throughout the Rom^an
Empire.
The same attitude prevails toward natural science. At Science
the very beginning of the Clementines the curiosity of the religion.
Heintze's Dcr Klemensroman und in the corresponding chapter of
seine griechischen Quellen (1914), The Homilies. VIII, 15.
144 pp. ^ Recogs., IX, 19-29.
^Recogs.,Vll,6. * Recogs., Yll, 12.
^ Recogs., I, 29; not mentioned * Recogs., X, 15, et seq.
4o8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
fnterest
in natural
science.
ancient world in regard to things of nature is shown by the
question which someone propounded to Barnabas when he
began to preach, at Rome according to The Recognitions, at
Alexandria according to The Homilies, of the Son of God.
The heckler wanted to know why so small a creature as a
fly has not only six feet but wings in addition, while the
elephant, despite its enormous bulk, has only four feet and
no wings at all. Barnabas did not answer the question, al-
though he asserted that he could if he wished to, making the
excuse that it was not fitting to speak of mere creatures to
those who were still ignorant of their Creator.^
This unwillingness to discuss natural questions by no
means continues characteristic of the Clementines, however.
Not only does Peter explain to Clement the creation of the
world and propound the extraordinary ^ doctrine that after
completing the process of creation God "set an angel as
chief over the angels, a spirit over the spirits, a star over
the stars, a demon over the demons, a bird over the birds,
a beast over the beasts, a serpent over the serpents, a fish
over the fishes," and "over men a man who is Christ Jesus. ^
Not only does he later in public defend baptism with water
on the ground that "all things are produced from waters"
and that waters were first created.* We also find Niceta
accepting the Greek hypothesis of four elements, of the
sphericity of the universe, and of the motions of the heav-
enly bodies "assigned to them by fixed laws and periods," cit-
ing Plato's Timaeus, mentioning Aristotle's introduction of
a fifth element,^ disputing the atomic theory of Epicurus,^
and alluding to "mechanical science." "^ He further dis-
cusses the generation of plants, animals, and human beings
as evidences of divine design and providence,^ in which con-
nection he collects a number of examples of marvelous gen-
* Recogs., I, 8; Homilies, I, lo.
' Extraordinary, of course, only
in that single animals instead of
angels, as in the Enoch literature,
are set over birds, beasts, serpents,
etc.
' Recogs., I, 27 and 45.
* Recogs., VI, 8.
'Recogs., VIII, 9, 20-22.
^Recogs., VIII, 15-17.
"Recogs., VIII, 21.
"Recogs., VIII, 25-32.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 409
eration of animals such as moles from earth and vipers from
ashes, and affirms that "the crow conceives through the
mouth and the weasel generates through the ear." ^ Simon
Magus declared himself immortal on the theory, which we
shall find cropping out again in the thirteenth century in
Roger Bacon and Peter of Abano, that his flesh was "so
compacted by the power of his divinity that it can endure
to eternity." ^ On the other hand, Niceta describes the ac-
tion of the intestines in a fairly intelligent manner,^ and tells
how the blood flows like water from a fountain, "and first
borne along in one channel, and then spreading through in-
numerable veins as through canals, irrigates the entire ter-
ritory of the human body with vital streams." ■* A little
later on Aquila gives a natural explanation of rainbows.^
There is noticeable, it is true, a tendency, common in God and
patristic literature and found even among those fathers who "^^"'^^•
hold the dualism of the Manichees in the deepest detesta-
tion, to make a distinction between God and nature and to
attribute any flaws in the universe to the latter.® Niceta
cannot agree with "those who speak of nature instead of
God and declare that all things were made by nature" ; he
holds that God created the universe. But Aquila, who sup-
ports his brother in the discussion, seems to think that God's
responsibility for the universe ceased, at least in part, after
it was once created. At any rate he admits that "in this
world some things are done in an orderly and some in a dis-
orderly fashion. Those things therefore," he continues,
"that are done rationally, believe that they are done by Prov-
idence ; but those that are done irrationally and inordinately,
believe that they befall naturally and happen accidentally." '''
But even nature sometimes rises up against the sins of Sin and
mankind according to Peter and his associates, Aquila be-
^On the other hand, in the * Recogs.,ll, y.
apocryphal Epistle of Barnabas, ' Recogs., VIII, 31.
IX, 9, it is stated that the weasel * Recogs., VIII, 30.
conceives with its mouth and '^ Recogs., VIII, 42.
hence typifies persons with un- ' Recogs., VIII, 34,
clean mouths. ' Recogs., VIII, 44.
4IO MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
lieves that the sins of men are the cause of pestilences;^
that "when chastisement is inflicted upon men according to
the will of God, he" (i. e. the Sun, already called "that good
servant" and whom the early Christians found it difficult to
cease to personify) "glows more fiercely and burns up the
world with more vehement fires" ; ^ and that "those who
have become acquainted with prophetic discourse know when
and for what reason blight, hail, pestilence, and such like
have occurred in every generation, and for what sins these
have been sent as a punishment." ^ Peter gives the impres-
sion that nature sometimes acts rather independently of God
in thus punishing the wicked. He says : "But this also I
would have you know, that upon such souls God does not
take vengeance directly, but His whole creation rises up and
inflicts punishments upon the impious. And although in the
present world the goodness of God bestows the light of the
world and the services of the earth alike upon the pious and
the impious, yet not without grief does the Sun afford his
light and the other elements perform their services to the
impious. And, in short, sometimes even in opposition to
the goodness of the Creator, the elements are worn out by
the crimes of the wicked ; and hence it is that either the fruit
of the earth is blighted, or the composition of the air is
vitiated, or the heat of the sun is increased beyond measure,
or there is an excess of rain or cold." * This is a close
approach to the notion of The Book of Enoch that human
sin upsets the world of nature, and an even closer approach
to the theory of the Brahmans in The Life of Apollonius of
Tyana that prolonged drought is a punishment visited by the
world-soul upon human sinfulness.
Attitude Such vestiges of the world-soul doctrine, such a tend-
trology. ^^^y ^^ ascribe emotion and will to the elements and planets,
to personify them, and to think of God as ruling the world
indirectly through them, prepare us to find an attitude rather
favorable to astrological theory. Indeed, in the first book
^Recogs., VIII, 45. * Recogs., VIII, 47.
'Recogs.. VIII, 46. * Recogs., V, 27,
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 4"
of The Recognitions ^ we are told in so many words that
the Creator adorned the visible heaven with stars, sun, and
moon in order that "they might be for an indication of
things past, present, and future," and that these celestial
signs, while seen by all, are "understood only by the learned
and intelligent." Astrology is respectfully described as
"the science of mathesis," ^ and, as was common in the
Roman Empire, astrologers are called mathematici.^ A de-
fender even of the most extreme pretensions of the art is
not abused as a charlatan but is courteously greeted as "so
learned a man," * and all admire his eloquence, grave man-
ners, and calm speech, and accord him a respectful hearing.^
Astrology, far from being regarded as necessarily contrary
to religion, is thought to furnish arguments for the exist-
ence of God, and it is said that Abraham, "being an astrolo-
ger, was able from the rational system of the stars to recog-
nize the Creator, while all other men were in error, and
understood that all things are regulated by His Provi-
dence."'® The number seven is somewhat emphasized '^ and
the twelve apostles are called the twelve months of Christ
who is the acceptable year of the Lord.^ Somewhat simi-
larly the Gnostic followers of the heretic Valentinus made
much of the Duodecad, a group of twelve aeons, and be-
lieved, according to Irenaeus, "that Christ suffered in the
twelfth month. For their opinion is that He continued to
preach for one year only after His baptism." ^ Peter, too,
has a group of twelve disciples. ^*^ Niceta speaks of "man
who is a microcosm in the great world." ^^ It is admitted
that the stars exert evil as well as good influence,^ ^ and that
the astrologer "can indicate the evil desire which malign
^ Recogs., I, 28. ' Recogs., I, 32.
' Recogs., VIII, 57, "f rater meus ^Recogs., I, 21, 43, 72.
Clemens tibi diligentius responde- 'Recogs., IV, 35.
bit qui plenius scientiam mathesis " Irenaeus, I, 3.
attigit; IX, 18, "quoniam quidem ^'' Recogs., Ill, 68.
scientia mihi mathesis nota est." ^Recogs., VIII, 28, "qui eat
'Recogs., X, 11-12. parvus in aHo mundus."
-Recogs., IX, 18. "Recogs., VIII, 45.
'Recogs., VIII, 2.
412 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
virtue produces." -^ But it is contended that, "possessing
freedom of the will, we sometimes resist our desires and
sometimes yield to them," and that no astrologer can pre-
dict beforehand which course we will take.
Argu- In fine, astrology is criticized adversely only when it
against &o^s to the length of contending that "there is neither any
genethli- God, nor any worship, neither is there any Providence in the
world, but all things are done by fortuitous chance and
genesis"; that "whatever your genesis contains, that shall
befall you" ; ^ and that the constellations force men to commit
murder, adultery, and other crimes.^ On this point Niceta
and Aquila, and finally Clement himself, have long discus-
sions with an aged adept in genethlialogy which fill a large
portion of the last three books of The Recognitions, and
include a dozen chapters which are little more than an ex-
tract from The Laws of Countries of Bardesanes. Divine
Providence and human free will are defended, and
genethlialogy is represented as an error which has received
confirmation through the operations of demons.^ It is
asserted that men can be kept from committing crimes by
fear of punishment and by law, even if they are naturally
so inclined, and races like the Seres (Chinese) and
Brahmans are adduced as examples of entire races of men
who never commit the crimes into which men are supposed
to be forced by the constellations. The argument is also
advanced, "Since God is righteous and since He Himself
made human nature, how could it be that He should place
genesis in opposition to us, which should compel us to sin,
and then that He should punish us when we do sin ?" ^ It is
further charged that the constellations are so complicated,
^ Recogs., X, 12. In Homilies, Homilies, however, Peter argues
XIV, 5, the existence of astrologi- that, even if Genesis prevails,
cal medicine is implied wlien which he does not admit, still he
Peter promises to cure by prayer can "worship Him who is also
to God any bodily ill, even "if it is Lord of the stars," and that the
utterly incurable and entirely be- doctrine of genesis is far more
yond the range of the medical destructive to polytheism and
profession — a case, indeed, which pagan worship,
not even the astrologers profess to " Recogs., IX, 16-17.
cure." * Recogs., IX, 6 and 12.
'Recogs., VIII, 2. In The " Recogs., IX, 30.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 413
that for any given moment one astrologer may infer a favor-
able and another a disastrous influence/ and that most suc-
cessful explanations of the effects of the stars are made
after the event, like dreams of which men can make nothing
at the time, but "when any event occurs, then they adapt
what they saw in the dream to what has occurred." ^ Finally
the aged defender of genesis, who believed that his own
fate and that of his wife had been accurately prescribed
by their horoscopes, turns out to be Faustinianus (called
Faustus in The Homilies) , the long-lost father of Clement,
Niceta, and Aquila; is also restored to his wife; and learns
that his previous interpretation of events from the stars was
quite erroneous.^
The ideal picture of the Seres or Chinese, "who dwell The
at the beginning of the world," which The Recognitions Seres,
apparently borrows from Bardesanes, is perhaps worth re-
peating here as an odd admission that a non-Christian peo-
ple can attain a state of moral perfection and sinlessness,
as well as an interesting bit of ancient ethnology. "In all
that country which is very large there is neither temple nor
image nor harlot nor adulteress, nor is any thief brought to
trial. But neither is any man ever slain there. . . . For
this reason they are not chastened with those plagues of
which we have spoken; they live to extreme old age, and
die without sickness." ^ Perhaps these virtuous Seres are
the blameless Hyperboreans in another guise.
Demons and angels abound in The Recognitions. One Theory of
may be rebuked and scourged at night by an angel of God.^
Peter says that every nation has an angel, since God has
divided the earth into seventy-two sections and appointed
an angel as governor and prince of each.^ Once, before be-
ginning to preach, Peter expelled demons from a number of
persons in the audience.''' In another passage is described
the cure of a girl of twenty-seven who for twenty years
^ Recogs., X, 11. ' Recogs., X, 66.
'Recogs., X, 12. ' Recogs., II, 42.
' Recogs.j IX, 32-7. ^ Recogs., IV, 7.
*Recogs., IX, 19, and VIII, 48.
414 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
had been vexed by an unclean spirit and had been shut up
in a closet in chains because of her violence and superhuman
strength. The mere presence of Peter put this demon to
rout and the chains fell off the girl of their own accord.^
Besides these personal encounters with demons, the theory
of demoniacal possession is discussed more than once, and
anything of which the author does not approve, such as the
art of horoscopes, heathen oracles, the excesses of pagan
rites and festivals, and the animal gods of the Egyptians,
is attributed to the influence of demons.^ One becomes sus-
ceptible to demoniacal possession who eats meat sacrificed
to idols or who merely eats and drinks immoderately.^
Demons are apt to get into the very bowels of those who
frequent drunken banquets.^ Incontinence, too, is accom-
panied by demons whose "noxious breath" produces *'an
intemperate and vicious progeny. , . . And therefore par-
ents are responsible for their children's defects of this sort,
because they have not observed the law of intercourse." '^
As much care should be taken in human generation as in the
sowing of crops. But while demons abound, God has given
every Christian power over them, since they may be driven
out by uttering "the threefold name of blessedness." ^ More-
over, "what is spoken by the true God, whether by prophets
or varied visions, is always true; but what is foretold by
demons is not always true." "^
Origin of With demons is associated the origin of the magic art.
"Certain angels .. . . taught men that demons could be made
to obey man by certain arts, that is, by magical invoca-
tions." ^ The first magicians were Ham and his son Mes-
raim, from whom the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians
are descended, and who tried to draw sparks from the stars ®
but set himself on fire "and was consumed by the demon
* Recogs., IX, 38. ' Recogs., IV, 21.
*Recogs., IX, 6 and 12; IV, 21; "Recogs.. IV, 26.
V, 20 and 31. ' "Reminding one of Benjamin
'Recogs., II, 71; IV, 16. Franklin's more successful at-
* Recogs., IV, 30. tempt to "snatch the thunderbolt
'^Recogs., IX, 9. from heaven."
* Recogs., IV, 32-33.
I nagic.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 415
whom he had accosted with too great importunity." ^ But
on this account he was called Zoroaster or "living star"
after his death. Moreover, the magic art did not perish
but was transmitted to Nimrod "as by a flash." ^ With this
may be compared the slightly different account of the origin
of magic given by Epiphanius in the Panarion, written about
374-375 A. D. Magic is older than heresy and was already
in existence before the time of Ham or Mesraim in the
antediluvian days of Jared, when it coexisted with "phar-
macy," a term here used to cover sorcery and poisoning-,
licentiousness, adultery, and injustice. After the flood
Epiphanius mentions Nimrod (NejSpcbS) as the first tyrant
and the inventor of the evil disciplines of astrology and
magic. He states that the Greeks incorrectly confuse him
with Zoroaster whom they regard as the founder of magic
and astrology. According to Epiphanius, "pharmacy" and
magic passed from Egypt to Greece in the time of Cecrops.^
In The Recognitions everyone. Christian, heretic, pagan. Frequent
and philosopher, condemns or professes to condemn magic, accusa-
and reference is made to the laws of the Roman emperors magic,
against it.* But Christians, pagans, and heretics, while
claiming divine power and protection for themselves, freely
accuse one another of the practice of magic. An unnamed
person, by whom Paul is perhaps meant, stirs up the people
of Jerusalem to persecute the apostolic community there as
"most miserable men, who are deceived by Simon, a
magician." ^ The guards at the sepulcher, unable to pre-
vent the resurrection, said that Jesus was a magician, a
charge which is repeated by one of the scribes and by Simon
Magus. Simon also calls Peter a magician on more than
one occasion.® Peter, of course, makes similar charges
against Simon; he had been especially sent by James to
Caesarea in order to refute this magician who was giving
himself out to be the Stans or Christ.'^ The gods of Greek
^Recogs., IV, 2y, and I, 30.
*Recogs., IV, 29.
•Dindorf, I, 282, 286-7.
*Recogs., X. 55; III, 64.
' Rccogs., I, 70.
'Recogs., I, 42 and 58; III, 12,
47, and 73 ; X, 54.
' Recogs., I, 72.
4i6 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
mythology, too, are accused of having resorted to magic
transformations and sorcery,^ Philosophy, however, es-
capes the accusation of magic in The Recognitions,^ and it
was a philosopher who deterred Clement, before the latter
liad become a Christian, from his plan of investigating the
problem of the immortality of the soul by hiring an Egyp-
tian magician to evoke a soul from the infernal regions by
the art of necromancy.^ The philosopher condemned such
an attempt as unlawful, impious, and "hateful to the
Divinity." *
Marvels But while magic is condemned, its great powers are ad-
of magic, mitted. Simon Magus makes great boasts of the marvels
which he can perform. These include becoming invisible,
boring through rocks and mountains as if they were clay,
passing through fire without being burned, flying through
the air, loosing bonds and barriers, transformation into ani-
mal shapes, animation of statues, production of new plants
or trees in a moment, and growing beards upon little boys.^
He also asserted that he had formed a boy by turning air
into water and the water into blood, and then solidifying
this into flesh, a feat which he regarded as superior to the
creation of Adam from earth. Later Simon unmade him
and restored him to the air, "but not until I had placed his
image and picture in my bedchamber as a proof and me-
morial of my work.^ Not only does Simon himself make
such boasts ; Niceta and Aquila, who had been his disciples
before their conversion by Zaccheus, also bear witness to
^ Recogs., X, 22 and 25. sias.
' But by no means always in Necromancy is given as a proof
early Christian writings : thus of the immortality of the soul in
Clement of Alexandria (ciso- Justin's First Apology, cap. 18,
C220) in the Stromata, II, i, as- where we read, "For let even
serts that the Greeks eulogize necromancy, and the divinations
"astrology and mathematics and you practise by means of immacu-
magic and sorcery" as the highest late children, and the evoking of
sciences. departed human souls ... let
* In contrast to Lucian's Menip- these persuade you that even after
pus or Necromancy, in which the death souls are in a state of sen-
Cynic philosopher Menippus re- sation."
sorts to a Magus at Babylon in * Recogs., I, 5.
order to gain entrance to the ^Recogs., II, 9.
lower world and question Teire- ° Recogs., II, 15.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 417
his amazing feats. "Who would not be astonished at the
wonderful things which he does? Who would not think
that he was a god come down from heaven for the salvation
of men?" ^ He can fly through the air, or so mingle him-
self with fire as to become one body with it, he can make
statues walk and dogs of brass bark. "Yea, he has also
been seen to make bread of stones," ^ When Dositheus tried
to beat Simon, the rod passed through his body as if it had
been smoke.^ The woman called Luna who goes about with
Simon was seen by a crowd to look out of all the windows
of a tower at the same time,"* an illusion possibly produced
by mirrors. When Simon fears arrest, he transforms the
face of Faustinianus into the likeness of his own, in order
that Faustinianus may be arrested in his place. ^
So great, indeed, are the marvels wrought by Simon How dis-
and by magicians generally that Niceta asks Peter how they rniracie
may be distinguished from divine signs and Christian ^'"o"? .,
. . . magic ?
miracles, and in what respect anyone sins who infers from
the similarity of these signs and wonders either that Simon
Magus is divine or that Christ was a magician. Speaking
first of Pharaoh's magicians, Niceta asks, "For if I had
been there, should I not have thought, from the fact that
the magicians did like things (to those which Moses did),
either that Moses was a magician, or that the feats dis-
played by the magicians were divinely wrought? . . . But
if he sins who believes those who work signs, how shall it
appear that he also does not sin who has believed on our
Lord for His signs and occult virtues?" Peter's reply is
that Simon's magic does not benefit anyone, while the Chris-
tian miracles of healing the sick and expelling demons are
performed for the good of humanity. To Antichrist alone
among workers of magic will it be permitted at the end of
the world to mix in some beneficial acts with his evil marvels.
Moreover, "by this means going beyond his bounds, and
^ Recogs., II, 6. * Recogs., II, 12.
'^ Recogs., Ill, 57, "Recogs., X, 53, et seq.
^Recogs., II, 11.
4i8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
being divided against himself, and fighting against himself,
he shall be destroyed." ^ Later in The Recognitions, how-
ever, Aquila states that even the magic of the present has
found ways of imitating by contraries the expulsion of
demons by the word of God, that it can counteract the
poisons of serpents by incantations, and can effect cures
"contrary to the word and power of God." He adds, "The
magic art has also discovered ministries contrary to the
angels of God, placing the evocation of souls and the fig-
ments of demons in opposition to these." -
Deceit in But while the marvels of magic are admitted, there is a
magic. feeling that there is something deceitful and unreal about
them. The teachings of the true prophet, we are told, "con-
tain nothing subtle, nothing composed by magic art to de-
ceive," ^ while Simon is "a deceiver and magician." "* Nor
is he deceitful merely in his religious teaching and his op-
position to Peter; even his boasts of magic power are partly
false. Aquila, his former disciple, says, "But when he spoke
thus of the production of sprouts and the perforation of the
mountain, I was confounded on this account, because he
wished to deceive even us, in whom he seemed to place con-
fidence; for we knew that those things had been from the
days of our fathers, which he represented as having been
done by himself lately." ^ Moreover, not only does Simon
deceive others; he is himself deceived by demons as Peter
twice asserts : ^ "He is deluded by demons, yet he thinks
that he sees the very substance of the soul." "Although in
this he is deluded by demons, yet he has persuaded himself
that he has the soul of a murdered boy ministering to him
in whatever he pleases to employ it."
This story of having sacrificed a pure boy for purposes
of magic or divination was a stock charge, which we
have previously heard made against Apollonius of Tyana
and which was also told of the early Christians by their
^Recogs., Ill, 57-60; X, 66. *Recogs., II, 5.
'Recogs., VIII, 53. ' Recogs., II, 10.
'Recogs., VIII, 60. 'Recogs., II, 16, and III, 49.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 419
pagan enemies and of the Jews and heretics in the middle
ages. Simon is said to have confessed to Niceta and Aquila,
when they asked how he worked his magic, that he received
assistance from "the soul of a boy, unsullied and violently
slain, and invoked by unutterable adjurations." He went
on to explain that "the soul of man holds the next place after
God, when once it is set free from the darkness of the body.
And immediately it acquires prescience, wherefore it is in-
voked in necromancy." When Aquila asked why the soul
did not take vengeance upon its slayer instead of perform-
ing the behests of magicians, Simon answered that the soul
now had the last judgment too vividly before it to indulge
in vengeance, and that the angels presiding over -such souls
do not permit them to return to earth unless "adjured by
someone greater than themselves." ^ Niceta then indig-
nantly interposed, "And do you not fear the day of judg-
ment, who do violence to angels and invoke souls?" As a
matter of fact, the charge that Simon had murdered or vio-
lently slain a boy is rather overdrawn, since the boy in ques-
tion was the one whom he had made from air in the first
place and whom he simply turned back into air again, claim-
ing, however, to have thereby produced an unsullied human
soul. According to The HonCilies, however, he presently
confided to Niceta and Aquila that the human soul did not
survive the death of the body and that a demon really
responded to his invocations.^
Nevertheless, the charge of murder thus made against Magic is
Simon illustrates the criminal character here as usually as- ^^*'-
scribed to magic. Simon is said to be "wicked above meas-
ure," and to depend upon "magic arts and wicked devices,"
and Peter accuses him of "acting by nefarious arts." ^
^ Similarly, in a passage con- names of superior angels, who in
tained only in The Homilies, V, their turn may be adjured by the
5, Appion, recommending to Clem- name of God.
ent a love incantation which he * Concerning this boy see
had learned from an Egyptian Recogs., II, 13-15; III, 44-45;
who was well versed in magic, Homilies, II, 25-30.
explains that demons obey the ^Recogs., II, 6; III, 13.
magician when invoked by the
420 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Simon in his turn calls Peter "a magician, a godless man,
injurious, cunning, ignorant, and professing impossibili-
ties," and again "a magician, a sorcerer, a murderer." ^
Magic is A further characteristic of magic which comes out
an art. clearly in The Recognitions is that it is an art. Demons
and souls of the dead may have a great deal to do with it,
but it also requires a human operator and makes use of
materials drawn from the world of nature. It was by
anointing his face with an ointment which the magician had
compounded that the countenance of Faustinianus was
transformed into the likeness of Simon, while Appion and
Anubion, who anointed their faces with the juice of a cer-
tain herb, were thereby enabled still to recognize Faus-
tinianus as himself.^ In another passage one of Simon's
disciples who has deserted him and come to Peter tells how
Simon had made him carry on his back to the seashore a
bundle "of his polluted and accursed secret things." Simon
took the bundle out to sea in a boat and later returned
without it.^ Simon not only employed natural materials
in his magic, but was regarded as a learned man, even by
his enemies. He is "by profession a magician, yet exceed-
ingly well trained in Greek literature." * He is "a most
vehement orator, trained in the dialectic art, and in the
meshes of syllogisms ; and what is most serious of all, he
is greatly skilled in the magic art." ^ And he engages with
Peter in theological debates. It is also interesting to note
as an illustration of the connection between magic and
experimental science that Simon, in boasting of his feats
of magic, says, "For already I have achieved many things
by way of experiment." ^
In the Pseudo-Clementines we are told that Simon in-
tended to go to Rome, but The Recognitions and The
Homilies deal only with the conflicts between Peter and
Simon in various Syrian cities and do not follow them to
* Recogs., Ill, 73 J X, 54. " Recogs., II, 5.
'Recpgs., X, 58. _ "Recogs., II, 9, "Multa etenim
'Recogs., Ill, 63. iam mihi experimenti causa con-
* Recogs., II, 7. summata sunt."
xvii THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 421
Rome, where, as other Christian writers tell us, they had yet Other
other encounters in which Simon finally came to his bitter of Simon
end. Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the second ^^sus:
century, states that Simon, a Samaritan of Gitto, came to Martyr to
Rome in the reign of Claudius and performed such feats of tus_
magic by demon aid that a statue was erected to him as a god.
In this matter of the statue Justin is thought to have con-
fused Semo Sancus, a Sabine deity, with Simon. Justin adds
that almost all Samaritans and a few persons from other
nations still believe in Simon as the first God, and that a
disciple of his, named Menander, deceived many by magic at
Antioch. Justin complains that the followers of these men
are still called Christians and on the other hand that the em-
perors do not persecute them as they do other Christians, al-
though Justin charges them with practicing promiscuous
sexual intercourse as well as magic. ^ Irenaeus gives a very
similar account.^ Origen, as we have seen, denied that there
were more than thirty of Simon's followers left,^ but his con-
temporary Tertullian wrote, "At this very time even the
heretical dupes of this same Simon are so much elated
by the extravagant pretensions of their art, that they under-
take to bring up from Hades the souls of the prophets them-
selves. And I suppose that they can do so under cover of
a lying wonder." ^ But Origen and Tertullian add nothing
to the story of Simon Magus himself. Hippolytus, too,
implies that Simon still has followers, since he devotes a
number of chapters to stating and refuting Simon's doc-
trines and to "teaching anew the parrots of Simon that
Christ . . . was not Simon." ® But Hippolytus also gives
further details concerning Simon's visit to Rome, stating
that he there encountered the apostles and was repeatedly
opposed by Peter, until finally Simon declared that if he
were buried alive he would rise again upon the third day.
'^ First Apology, caps. 26 and * Tertullian, De anima, cap. 57,
56; Dialogue ii-ith Trypho, 120. in PL, II, 794; De idolatria, cap.
'Adv. itaer., I, 23. 9-
'See above, chapter 15, p. 365. ^ Philosophumena, VI, 2-15.
422
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Peter's
account
in the
Didascalia
et Cousti-
tntioncs
Aposto-
lorum.
His disciples buried him, as they were directed, but he never
reappeared, "for he was not the Christ."
Peter himself is represented as briefly recounting his
struggle at Rome with Simon Magus in the Didascalia
Apostolorum, an apocryphal work of probably the third
century, extant in Syriac and Latin, and more fully in
the parallel passage of the Greek Constitutioncs Apostolo-
rum, written perhaps about 400 A. D.^ Peter found
Simon at Rome drawing many away from the church
as well as seducing the Gentiles by his "magic operation and
virtues," or, in the Greek version, "magic experiments and
the working of demons." ^ In the Syriac and Latin ac-
count Peter then states that one day he saw Simon flying
through the air. "And standing beneath I said, 'In the virtue
of the holy name, Jesus, I cut off your virtues.' And so
falling he broke the arch (thigh?) of his foot (leg?)." ^
But he did not die, since Peter goes on to say that while
"many then departed from him, others who were worthy
of him remained with him." In the longer Greek version
Simon announced his flight in the theater. While all eyes
were turned on Simon, Peter prayed against him. Mean-
while Simon mounted aloft into mid-air, borne up, Peter
says, by demons, and telling the people that he was ascending
to heaven, whence he would return bringing them good tid-
ings. The people applauded him as a god, but Peter stretched
forth his hands to heaven, supplicating God through the
Lord Jesus to dash down the corrupter and curtail the
power of the demons. He asked further, however, that
Simon might not be killed by his fall but merely bruised.
Peter also addressed Simon and the evil powers who were
supporting him, requiring that he might fall and become a
laughing-stock to those who had been deceived by him.
Thereupon Simon fell with a great commotion and bruised
* F. X. Funk, Didascalia ct Con- *". . . in una die procedens vidi
stitutiones Apostolorum, 1905, I, ilium per aera volantem et_ fere-
320-1. batur. Et subsistcns dixi : In
' TO. hi Wv7) f^i(TT03v /xa7"<S eMTfipt^i virtutc sancti nominis lesu excido
Ktti bainovM- ivtpytlq.. virtutcs tuas. F.t sic rucns femur
pedis sui fregit."
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS
423
his bottom and the soles of his feet. It will be noted that
here, as in the accounts by some other authors, Peter alone
struggles with Simon Magus, lending color to the Tiibingen
theory once suggested in connection with the Pseudo-
Clementines, that Simon Magus is meant to represent the
apostle Paul.
Arnobius, writing about 300 A. D., gives a somewhat
different account of Simon's mode of flight and fall. He
says that the people of Rome "saw the chariot of Simon
Magus and his four fiery horses blown away by the mouth
of Peter and vanish at the name of Christ. They saw, I
say, him who had trusted false gods and been betrayed
by them in their fright precipitated by his own weight and
lying with broken legs. Then, after he had been carried
to Brunda, worn out by his shame and sufferings, he again
hurled himself down from the highest ridge of the roof," *
Cyril of Jerusalem, 315-386 A. D., also speaks of Simon's
being borne in air in the chariot of demons, "and is not
surprised that the combined prayers of Peter and Paul
brought him down, since in addition to Jesus's promise to
answer the petition of two or three gathered together it is
to be remembered that Peter carried the keys of heaven and
that Paul had been rapt to the third heaven and heard secret
words.^ Philastrius, another writer of the fourth century,
describes Simon's death more vaguely, stating that after
Peter had driven him from Jerusalem he came to Rome
where they engaged in another contest before Nero. Simon
was worsted by Peter on every point of argument, and,
"smitten by an angel died a merited death in order that the
falsity of his magic might be evident to all men." ^ But
it is hardly worth while to pile up such brief allusions to
Simon in the writings of the fathers.^
Arnobius,
Cyril, and
Philas-
trius.
Arnobius, Adversus gentes, II,
12.
"Cyril, Cathechesis, VI, 15, in
PG 33, 564.
* Filastrii diversarum hereseon
liber, cap. 23, ed. F. Marx, 1898,
in CSEL; also in PL, vol. 12.
* Sulpicius Severus, 363-420,
Chron., II, 28, and Theodoret,
0386-456, Haereticarum fabularum
compendium, I, i (PG 83, 344)
have nothing new to say.
424 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Apocry- Other fuller accounts of Simon's doing's at Rome are
oh^l Acts
of Peter contained in the Syriac Teaching of Simon Cephas ^ and in
and Paul. ^^^ apochryphal Acts of Peter and Paitl.^ In the former
Peter urges the people of Rome not to allow the sorcerer
Simon to delude them by semblances which are not realities,
and he raises a dead man to life after Simon has failed
to do so. In the latter work Simon opposes Peter and Paul
in the presence of Nero and as usual they charge one another
with being magicians. Simon also as usual affirms that he
is Christ, and we are told that the chief priests had called
Jesus a wizard, Simon had already made a great impres-
sion upon Nero by causing brazen serpents to move and
stone statues to laugh, and by altering both his face and
stature and changing first to a child and then to an old man.
Nero also asserts that Simon has raised a dead man and
that Simon himself rose on the third day after being be-
headed. It is later explained, however, that Simon had
arranged to have the beheading take place in a dark corner
and through his magic had substituted a ram for himself.
The ram appeared to be Simon until after it had been de-
capitated, when the executioner discovered that the head was
that of a ram but did not dare report the fact to Nero.
When Simon met the apostles in Nero's presence, he caused
great dogs to rush suddenly at Peter, but Peter made them
vanish into air by showing them some bread which he had
been secretly blessing and breaking. As a final test Simon
promised to ascend to heaven if Nero would build him a
tower in the Campus Martins, where "my angels may find
me in the air, for they cannot come to me upon earth among
sinners." The tower was duly provided, and Simon, crowned
with laurel, began to fly successfully until Peter, tearfully
entreated by Paul to make haste, adjured the angels of
Satan who were supporting Simon to let him drop. Simon
then fell upon the Sacra Via and his body was broken into
*AN, VIII, 673-5. Greek scholar, Constantine Las-
' Ibid., 477-85 ; Greek text in caris, translated part of the work
Tischendorf, Acta Apostolorum into Latin in 1490.
Apocrypha, 1851, pp. 1-39. The
XVII THE RECOGNiriONS AND SIMON MAGUS 425
four parts. ^ Nero, however, chose to regard the apostles
as Simon's murderers and put them to death, after which
a Marcellus, who had been Simon's disciple but left him to
join Peter, secretly buried Peter's body.
To this Marcellus is ascribed a very similar narrative An
which is found in an early medieval manuscript and was ascribed to
perhaps written in the seventh or eighth century.^ Fabricius Marcellus.
and Florentinus give its title as, Of the marvelous deeds
and acts of the blessed Peter and Paid and of Simon s magic
arts.^ I have read it in a Latin pamphlet printed at some
time before 1500, where the full title runs : The Passion of
the Apostles Peter and Paul, and their disputation before
the emperor Nero against Simon, a certain magician, who,
when he saw that he could not resist the utterances of St.
Peter, cast all his books of mugic into the sea lest he be
adjudged a magician. Then when the same Simon Magus
presumed to ascend to heaven, overcome by St. Peter he
fell to earth and perished most miserably. At its close occurs
the statement, "I, Marcellus, a disciple of my lord, the
apostle Peter, have written what I saw." When this Mar-
cellus began to desert his former master, Simon, to follow
Peter, Simon procured a big dog to keep Peter away from
Marcellus, but at Peter's order the dog turned upon Simon
himself. Peter then humanely forbade the beast to do Simon
any serious bodily injury, but the dog tore the magician's
clothing off his back, and Simon was chased from town
by the mob and did not venture to return until after a
year's time.*
*Mead (1892), p. 37, notes that Synodi ad Imp. Const. Act. 18)
Dr. Salmon (article Simon Ma- compare Simon's flight with that
gus in Diet. Chris. Biog. IV, of Icarus.
686) "connects this with the story, ' Tischendorf (1851), p. xix.
told by Suetonius and Dio Chrys- ' "De mirificis rebus et actibus
ostom, that Nero caused a beatorum Petri et Pauli, et de
wooden theater to be erected in magicis artibus Simonis :" Fab-
the Carnpus, and that a gymnast ricius, Cod. apocr., Ill, 632; Flo-
who tried to play the part of rentinus, Martyrologium Hiero-
Icarus fell so near the emperor nymi, 103.
as to bespatter him with blood." * A slightly different version of
Hegesippus {De bello judaico, III, the dog incident is found in the
2), Abdias {Hist, i), and Maxi- Acts of Nereus and Achilles {AS,
mus Taurinensis {Pair. Vl, May III, 9).
426
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Hege-
sippus.
A ser-
mon on
Simon's
fall.
A chapter is devoted to Simon Magus in the History of
the Jewish War of the so-called Hegesippus, a name which
is thought to be a corruption of Josephus, since the work in
large measure reproduces that historian. At any rate it
was not written until the fourth century and is probably
a translation or adaptation by Ambrose. Its account of
Simon Magus combines the story of his competition with
Peter in raising the dead, "for in such works Peter was held
most celebrated," with that of his flight and fall. He is
represented as launching his flight from the Capitoline Hill
and leaping off the Tarpeian rock. The people marveled
at his flight, some remarking that Christ had never per-
formed such a feat as this. But when Peter prayed against
him, "straightway his propeller was tangled up in Peter's
voice, and he fell, nor was he killed, but, weakened by a
broken leg, withdrew to Aricia and died there." ^
Finally, passing over other Latin accounts of the con-
test between the apostles and Simon Magus to be found in
the Apostolic Histories of the Pseudo-Abdias ^ and in a
work ascribed to Pope Linus,^ we may note a sermon which
has been variously ascribed in the manuscripts and printed
editions to Augustine, Ambrose, and Maximus.* This ser-
mon, intended for the anniversary of the day of martyrdom
of Peter and Paul, proceeds to inquire the cause of their
death and finds it in the fact that among other marvels they
"prostrated by their prayers that magician Simon in a
headlong fall from the empty air. For when the same
Simon called himself Christ and asserted that as the Son
he could ascend unto the Father by flying, and, suddenly
^Hegesippus, III, 2 ed. C. F.
Weber and J. Caesar, Marburg,
1864, "et statim in voce Petri im-
pHcatiis remigiis alarum quas
sumserat corruit, nee exanimatus
est, sed fracto debilitatus crure
Ariciam concessit atque ibi mor-
tuus est." I earnestly recommend
this passage to those who delight
in finding ancient precursors of
modern inventions as an example
of remarkable insight into the
effect of air-waves upon delicate
mechanisms.
^ ed. Fabricius, Cod. apocr., I,
411 ; AS, June V, 424.
^ Biblioth. Patrum, Cologne,
1618, I, 70.
* Printed PL, 39, 2121-2, among
the works of Augustine, Ser-
moncs Supposititi, CCII. The
greater number of MSS assign it
to Maximus.
XVII THE RECOGNITIONS AND SIMON MAGUS 427
raised up by magic arts, began to fly, then Peter on his knees
prayed the Lord, and by sacred prayer overcame the magical
levitation. For the prayer ascended to the Lord before the
flier, and the just petition arrived ere the iniquitous presump-
tion. Peter, I say, though placed on the ground, obtained
what he sought before Simon reached the heaven towards
which he was tending. So then Peter brought him down
Hke a captive from high in air, and, falling precipitately
upon a rock, he broke his legs. And this in contumely of
his feat, so that he who just before had tried to fly, of a sud-
den could not even walk, and he who had assumed wings
lost even his feet. But lest it appear strange that, while the
apostle was present, that magician should fly through the
air even for a while, let it be explained that this was due to
Peter's patience. For he let him soar the higher in order
that he might fall the farther ; for he wished him to be car-
ried aloft where everyone could see him, in order that all
might see him when he fell from on high." The preacher
then draws the moral that pride goes before a fall.
The struggle of Peter and Paul with Simon Magus at Simon
Rome appears in The Golden Legend, compiled by Jacopo medieval
de Voragine in the thirteenth century, and was likewise a ^''*-
favorite theme of Gothic stained glass. At Chartres and
Angers Peter may be seen routing Simon's dogs by blessing
bread; at Bourges and Lyons Simon and Peter compete in
raising the dead; while windows at Chartres, Bourges,
Tours, Reims, and Poitiers show the apostles praying and
Simon falling and breaking his neck.^ This last scene and
also the disputation before Nero are represented in the
earlier mosaics of the eleventh or twelfth century which
the Norman rulers of Sicily had executed in the cathedral
of Monreale and the royal chapel of their castle at Palermo.^
* Male, Religious Art in France, legend reads, "Hie praecepto Petri
1913, p. 297, notes 3 and 4; p. oratione Pauli Simon Magus
298, note I. cccidit in terrain," — "Here at
' The two representations are Peter's command and Paul's
essentially identical. Simon falls prayer Simon Magus falls to
head first, and the accompanying earth."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN AND SOME SIMILAR STORIES
The Confession of Cyprian— His initiation into mysteries — His thor-
ough study of nature, divination, and magic — The lore of Egypt — And
of Chaldea — Cyprian's practice of magic at Antioch — A Christian virgin
defeats the magic of the demons — Summary of Cyprian's picture oi
magic — Christians accused of magic — A story from Epiphanius —
Joseph's experience of miracle and magic — Legend of St. James and
Hermogenes the magician — Other contests of apostles and magicians
in The Golden Legend.
TheCon- To the accounts of the contests of Peter and Paul with
Cyprian. Simon Magus which were recorded in our last chapter we
shall add in this some other encounters of early Christians
with magicians, and to the picture of magic contained in
the Pseudo-Clementines that presented by Cyprian in his
Confession. If Simon Magus died impenitent in the midst
of his magic, very different was the end of Cyprian, a
magician by profession in the third century, who, after being
educated from childhood in heathen mysteries and the magic
art, repented and was baptized, became bishop of Antioch,
and finally achieved a martyr's crown. In the Confession ^
current under his name and which most critics agree was
composed before the time of Constantine ^ is described his
* Greek and Latin text in Cyprian von Antiochen, ed. O. v.
parallel columns in AS, Sept. Lamm, 1899, Ethiopic, Greek, and
Vn (1867), pp. 204fif. For an ac- German, in Petrograd Acad.
count of previous editions see Scient. Imper. Mcmoires, VIII
Ibid., p. 182. Bishop John Fell scrie, CI. hist, philol., IV, 6. Ilpa-
published a Latin text from three {ts twi' ayio^v iiaprvpccv Kvirpiavov Kal
Oxford MSS. In Digby 30, 15th Iouo-tii'tjs, with an Arabic version, ed.
century, fol. 29-, which I have Margaret D. Gibson, 1901, in
examined, the wording differed Stndia Sinaitica, No. 8.
considerably from that of the 'Ibid., p. 180, "ipsa S. Cypriana
Latin text in AS. The brief nomine vulgata Confessio quam
Martyrium of Cyprian and Jus- ante Constantini aetatem scriptam
tina follows in the same volume esse critici plurimi etiam rigidi-
of AS at pp. 224-6. Sahidische ores fatentur."
BruchstUcke der Legende von
428
CHAP. XVIII THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN
429
education in and subsequent practice of magic. For us per-
haps the most interesting feature of his account of his edu-
cation is the association of magic, not only with pagan
mysteries and the operations of demons, but also with
natural science.
"I am Cyprian," says the author, "who from a tender
age was consecrated a gift to Apollo and while yet a child
was initiated into the arts of the dragon." When not yet
seven years old, he entered the mysteries of Mithra, and at
ten his parents enrolled him a citizen at Athens, and he car-
ried a torch in the mysteries of Demeter and "ministered
to the dragon on the citadel of Pallas." When not yet
fifteen, he also visited Mount Olympus for forty days, and
"was initiated into sonorous speeches and noisy narra-
tions." ^ There he saw in phantasy trees and herbs which
seemed to be moved by the presence of the gods, spirits
who regulated the passage of time, and choruses of demons
who sang, while others waged war or plotted, deceived, and
permeated.^ He saw the phalanx of each god and goddess,
and how from Mount Olympus as from a palace spirits were
despatched to every nation of the earth. He was fed only
after sunset and upon fruits, and was taught the efficacy of
each of them by seven hierophants.
Cyprian's parents were determined that he should learn
whatever there was in earth and air and sea, and not merely
the natural generation and corruption of herbs and trees
and bodies, but also the virtues implanted in all these, which
the prince of this world impressed upon them in order that
he might oppose the divine constitution. Cyprian also par-
ticipated at Argos in the sacred rites of Hera, and saw the
union of air with ether and of ether with air, also of earth
with water, and water with air. He penetrated the Troad
and to Artemis Tauropolos who is at Lacedaemon to learn
His initia-
tion into
mysteries.
His
thorough
study of
nature,
divination,
and magic.
* Ihid., p. 205, "et initiatus sum
sonis sermonum ac strepitum nar-
rationibus." L. Preller in Phi-
lologus, I (1846), 349ff-, and A.
.R. Cook, Zeus, iio-i, suggest that
these rites on Mount Olympus
were Orphic.
'"Et aliorum insidiantium de-
cipientium permiscentium. . . ."
430 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
how matter was confused and divided "and the profundities
of sinister and cruel legends." From the Phrygians he
learned liver divination; among the barbarians he studied
auspices and the significance of the movements of quad-
rupeds, and how to interpret omens and the language of
birds, and the sounds made by every kind of wood and stone,
or by the dead in tombs and the creaking of doors. He
became acquainted with the palpitations of the limbs, the
movement of the blood and pulse in bodies, all the exten-
sions and corollaries of ratios and numbers, diseases simu-
lated as well as natural, "and oaths which are heard yet are
not audible, and pacts for discord." There was, in fine,
nothing whatever in earth or sea or air that he did not
know, whether it w^as a matter of science or phantasy, of
mechanics or artifice, "even down to the magic translation
of writings and other things of that sort."
The lore At twenty Cyprian was admitted to the shrines at ancient
of Egypt. ]\Iemphis in Eg}'pt and learned what communication and
relationship existed between demons and earthly things and
"in what stars and laws and objects they delight." He wit"
nessed imitations of earthquakes, rain, and storms at sea.
He saw the souls of giants held in darkness and fancied
that they sustained the earth as a load on their shoulders.
He saw the communications of serpents with demons, ideas
of transfigurations, impious piety, science without reason,
iniquitous justice, and things topsy-turvy generally. Be-
sides the forms of various sins and vices, such as fornica-
tion and avarice, which suggest the medieval personification
of the seven deadly sins, he saw the three hundred and sixty-
five varieties of ailments, "and the empty glory and the
empty virtue" with which the priests of Egypt had deceived
the Greek philosophers.
And of At thirty Cyprian left Eg^-pt for Chaldea in order to
Chaldea. acquire its lore concerning air, fire, and light. Here he
was instructed in the qualities of stars as well as of herbs,
and their "choruses like drawn-up battle lines." He was
taught the house and relationships of each star and its
XVIII THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN 431
appropriate food and drink. Also the meetings of spirits
with men in Hght, the three hundred and sixty-five demons
who divide as many parts of the ether between them, and
the sacrifices, Hbations, and words appropriate to each.
Cyprian's education had now advanced to such a point that
the devil himself hailed him, mere youth as he was, as a
new Jambres, a skilful and reliable practitioner, and worthy
of communication with himself. Cyprian again explains
at this point that in all the stars and plants and other works
of God the devil has bound to himself likenesses in prep-
aration to wage war with God and His angels, but these
likenesses are shadowy images, 'not solid substances. The
devil's rain is not water, his fire does not burn, his fish are
not food, and his gold is not genuine. The devil obtains
the material for his products from the vapors of sacrifices,
Cyprian now returned from Chaldea and wrought mar- Cyprian's
vels at Antioch "like one of the ancients," and "made many of^niagic
experiments of magic and became celebrated as a magician at Anti-
and philosopher endowed with vast knowledge of things
invisible." Men came to him to be taught magic or to
secure their ends by his assistance. And he easily helped
them all, some to the gratification of pleasure, others to
triumph over their adversaries or even to slay their rivals.
His conscience sometimes pricked him at the evil deeds
which he thus wrought with the aid of demons, but as yet
he did not doubt that the devil was all powerful.
But then the case of the Christian girl Justina revealed a Chris-
to him the weakness and fraud of the devil. Determined defeats^'"
to dedicate herself to a life of virginity, Justina repulsed the magic
the love of the youth Agla'ides, who sought Cyprian's assist- demons,
ance. But in vain : the demon failed to alter Justina's deter-
mination and was not even able to give another girl the
form of Justina and so deceive Agla'ides. Justina was shown
the form of her lover, but she called upon the Virgin, and the
devil was forced to vanish in smoke. Nor did disease and
other plagues and torments affect her resolution. Her par-
ents, however, were similarly afflicted until they besought
432
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Summary
of Cypri-
an's pic-
ture of
magic.
her to marry Aglaides, but instead she cured them of their
ailments by the sign of the cross. The devil then inflicted
a plague on the entire community and delivered an oracle
to the effect that the pest could be stayed only by the mar-
riage of Justina and Aglaides, but her prayers turned the
wrath of the public from herself against Cyprian. When
the magician in disgust cursed the demon for the evil pass
to which he had thus brought him, the demon made a fero-
cious attack upon him, from which Cyprian saved himself
just in the nick of time by calling upon God for aid and
making the sign of the cross. He then publicly confessed
his crimes as a magician, burned his books of magic, and
was baptized into the Christian faith. ^
Cyprian's Confession thus represents magic as a very
elaborate art, requiring long study and a thorough knowl-
edge of natural objects and processes. The magician has
his books, and he must also be able to read the book of
nature. Astrology and other arts of divination are integral
parts of magic. But magic is also represented as the work
of evil spirits. This involves not merely a Neo-Platonic
sort of association of demons with natural forces and
regions of earth or sky, but also the specific association of
the devil for evil purposes with objects in nature, a doctrine
which we shall find again in the works of a medieval saint,
Hildegard of Bingen. Furthermore, magic aids in the com-
mission of crime and is dangerous even to the magician
against whom the devil may turn. While magic involves
study of nature and use of natural forces and associations,
and we also hear of "many experiments of magic," it is
scarcely represented as operating scientifically in the Confes-
sion. It is mystic, confused, shadowy, imitative, imaginary,
lacking in solidity and reality, fraudulent and deceptive.
Finally, this complex art, this universal system of knowl-
edge, is easily balked and overthrown by the far simpler
* Shelley, it may be recalled, in
1822 translated some scenes, pub-
lished in 1824, from Calderon's
Magico Prodigioso, in which
Cyprian, Justina, and the demon
figure.
XVIII THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN 433
counter-magic of Christianity, by such methods as a prayer
to the Virgin, calHng on the name of God, or merely making
the sign of the cross.
Such counter-magic was apt to be regarded as magic by Christians
the pagans, and the account of the martyrdom of Cyprian of magic,
states that the devil, that "very bad serpent," suggested to
the Count of the Orient that Cyprian, together with a cer-
tain virgin who is assumed to be Justina, was destroying
the ancient worship of the gods by his magic tricks as well
as stirring up the orient and the whole world by his epistles.
He was accordingly arrested and finally beheaded. Ac-
cording to one account he and Justina were first placed
together in a cauldron of tallow and pitch over a fire. But
when they sang a hymn, the flames left them uninjured
and instead shot out and caused the death of an unreformed
magician who happened to be standing near by.^ Another
case of Christian martyrs who were probably accused of
magic is found in Spain about 287 A. D. Two Christian
sisters who were dealers in pottery refused to sell their
earthenware for purposes of pagan worship. One day, as
a pagan religious procession passed by their shop, the crowd
trampled upon their wares which were exposed for sale.
But thereupon the idol which was being borne in the pro-
cession fell and broke in pieces. "Being probably suspected
of magical practices," the two sisters were arrested; one
died in prison and the other was strangled; whereupon the
bishop rescued their bones, and these were cherished as the
remains of martyrs.-
Epiphanius in the next century tells a story similar to A story
that of Cyprian, Aglaides, and Justina, of a youth who vvas Ep^pha-
led astray by evil companions who employed magic arts, "*"s.
love philters, and incantations to force free women to
gratify their licentious desires. By means of magic the
youth went through the air to a very beautiful woman in
* Bouchier, Syria as a Roman " Bouchier, Spain Under the Ro-
Province, p. 237. man Empire, p. 123, citing AS,
July 19.
434
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Joseph's
experience
of miracle
and magic.
Legend of
St. James
and Her-
mogenes
the
magician.
the public bath, but she repelled him by making the sign of
the cross. His companions then tried to devise some more
powerful magic for his benefit, and took him at sunset to
a cemetery full of caves where for three successive nights
the wizards vainly plied their arts in the attempt to gratify
his lust. But in every instance they were foiled by the
name of Christ and the sign of the cross. ^
Joseph, the guardian of this same young man, finally
became converted to Christianity after Christ had appeared
repeatedly to him in dreams and cured him of diseases and
after he himself, by employing the name of Jesus, had cured
a man of a demoniacal possession which made him go
shamelessly about the town in a nude state. After his con-
version, Joseph started to complete as a Christian church
an unfinished structure in Tiberias called the Adrianaion,
which the citizens previously had tried to convert into a
public bath. When the Jews endeavored to ruin his un-
dertaking by bewitching the furnaces which he had erected
for the preparation of quick-lime, he counteracted their
magic by making the sign of the cross, sprinkling his fur-
naces with holy water, and saying in the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, ''Let there be power in this water to counteract
all pharmacy and magic employed by these men and to
instill sufficient energy into the fire to complete the house
of the Lord." With that his fires blazed up violently.^
Very similar both to the Confession of Cyprian and the
story of Simon Magus is the legend of St. James the Great
^ Epiphanius, Panarion, ed. Din-
dorf, II, 97-104; ed. Petavius,
131A-137C.
' Idem. The attempt to bewitch
the furnaces reminds one of the
fourteenth Homeric epigram, in
which the bard threatens to curse
the potters' furnaces if they do
not pay him for his song, and to
summon "the destroyers of fur-
naces,"— Hivrpiff o/iojs Xnapayop
re Kal "AajSerov -qbi lia^aKTrjv, —
words usually interpreted as names
for mischievous Pucks and brawl-
ing goblins who smash pottery.
But the two middle names sug-
gest the stones, smaragdus or
emerald, and asbestos. The poet
also invokes "Circe of many
drugs" to cast injurious spells,
and appeals to Chiron to com-
plete the work of destruction.
He further prays that the face of
any potter who peers into the fur-
nace may be burned. This epi-
gram is probably of late date.
See A. Abel, Homeri Hymni, Epi-
grammata, Batrachomyomachia,
Lipsiae, 1886, pp. 123-4,
XVIII
THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN
435
and Hermogenes the magician, which is found in The Golden
Legend and which was often reproduced in medieval stained
glass windows.^ James converted to Christianity a disciple
of Hermogenes whom the magician had sent against him
when he was preaching in Judea. When the angry wizard
cast a spell over his erstwhile disciple, the latter was freed
by means of St. James's cloak. When the magician sent
demons to fetch both the convert and the saint, James made
them bring Hermogenes to him instead, but then set him
free, telling him that Christians returned good for evil.
Hermogenes now feared the vengeance that the demons
would take upon himself, and so James gave his staff to
him to protect himself with. Soon afterwards Hermogenes
threw all his books of magic into the sea and was baptized.
"In The Golden Legend," in fact, as Male says, "almost
all the apostles have to contend with magicians. But it is St.
Simon and St. Jude who strive with the most formidable of
sorcerers, and they challenge him even in the very sanctuary in The
of magic art, the temple of the Sun at Suanir, near Babylon. ^^^Jj^
Undismayed by the science of Zoroaster and Aphaxad, they
foretell the future, they cause a new-born babe to speak,
they subdue tigers and serpents, and from a statue they
cast out a demon, which shows itself in the shape of a black
Ethiopian and flees uttering raucous cries." ^ If this last
exorcism reminds us somewhat of the exploits of Apollonius
of Tyana, still more do the performances of St. An-
drew, who "must surpass all the marvels of the magicians
before he can convert Asia and Greece. He drives away
seven demons who in the shape of seven great dogs desolate
the town of Nicaea, and he exorcises a spirit which dwells
in the thermae and is wont to strangle the bathers." ^
Other con-
tests of
apostles
and
magicians
* Male, Religious Art in France,
1913, pp. 304-6.
"Male (1913), p. 306.
"Ibid.j p. 307.
CHAPTER XIX
ORIGEN AND CELSUS
Celsus' charges of magic against Christianity — Hebrew magic as
depicted by Celsus — Various recriminations of magic — Origen's distinc-
tion between miracles and magic — Origen frees Jews as well as Chris-
tains from the charge of magic — Celsus' sceptical description of magic
— Celsus suggests a connection between magic and occult virtues in
nature — Celsus on magicians and demons — Origen ascribes magic to
demons — Magic is an elaborate art — The Magi of Scripture were jiot
different from other magicians — Origen's Biblical commentaries —
Balaam and the power of words — Limitations to the power of Pharaoh's
magicians — Was Balaam a prophet of God or a magician? — Balaam's
magic experiments — Limitations to his magic power — Divine prophecy
distinct from magic and divination — The ventriloquist really invoked
Samuel for Saul — Christians less affected by magic than philosophers
are — Their superstitious methods against magic — Incantations — The
power of words — Origen admits a connection between the power of
words and magic — Jewish and Christian employment of powerful narnes
is really magic — Celsus' theory of demons — Origen calls demons wicked
— But believes in presiding angels — A law of spiritual gravitation —
Attitude of Celsus toward astrology — Attitude of Origen toward as-
trology— Further discussion in his Commentary on Genesis — Problems
of the waters above the firmament and of one or more heavens —
Augury, dreams, and prophecy— Animals and gems — Origen later ac-
cused of countenancing magic.
charges ^^ ^^^ Celebrated work of Origen Against Celsus,^ writ-
of magic ten in the first half of the third century, the subject of
Chri"ti- magic is often touched upon, largely because Celsus in his
anity. True Discourse had so frequently brought charges of magic
against Jesus, His Christian followers, and the Jewish peo-
ple from whom they had sprung. Celsus had called Jesus
* Greek text in Migne PG, Vol. ferung dcr Biicher des Origenes
XL English translation in the gegen Celsus in den Handschrif-
Antc-Nicene Fathers, of which I ten dieses VVcrkes und der Phi-
generally make use in quota- lokalia. Prolegomena zu einer
tions from the work. On the kritischen Ausgabe, 1889, 157 pp.,
MSS of the Against Celsus see (TU, VI, i).
Paul Koetschau, Die TextUberlie-
436
CHAP. XIX O RIG EN AND C ELS US 437
"a wicked and God-hated sorcerer" ; ^ had contended that
His miracles were wrought by magic, not by divine power ; ^
and had compared them unfavorably, as less wonderful, to
the tricks performed by jugglers and Egyptians in the mid-
dle of market-places.^ It was the opinion of Celsus that
Jesus in warning His disciples that "there shall arise false
Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and
wonders," had tacitly convicted Himself of the same magical
practices.^ Celsus, for his part, warned the Christians that
they "must shun all deceivers and jugglers who will intro-
duce you to phantoms" ; ^ he accused them of employing in-
cantations and the names of certain demons ; ^ he asserted
that he had seen in the hands of Christian presbyters "bar-
barous books containing the names and marvelous opera-
tions of demons," and that these presbyters "professed to
do no good, but all that was calculated tO' injure human
beings." '^
Celsus regarded Moses equally with Jesus as a wizard,^ Hebrew
and he evidently, like Juvenal and other classical writers, depicted^
considered the Jews and Syrians as a race of charlatans, ^^ Celsus
especially given to superstition, sorcery, incantations, am-
biguous oracles and conjuration of spirits. "They worship
angels," he declared, "and are addicted to sorcery, in which
Moses was their instructor." ^ He stated that the Jews
traced back their origin to "the first generation of lying
wizards," by which phrase Origen thinks he referred to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose names Origen admits
are much employed in the magic arts.-^^ Celsus further
characterized the Jews as "blinded by some crooked sorcery,
or dreaming dreams through the influence of shadowy
specters," ^^ and as "induced to bow down to the angels in
heaven by the incantations employed by jugglery and
* I, 71 ; also II, 32.
' VI, 40.
M, 38; also VIII, 9; 11,48.
'V. SI.
'1,68; III, 52.
"1,26.
*II,49.
"IV, 33.
'VII, 36.
"V, 6.
-1.6.
438
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Various
recrimina-
tions of
magic.
Origen's
distinction
between
miracles
and magic.
sorcery, in consequence of which certain phantoms ap-
pear in obedience to the spells employed by the magicians." *
Celsus, also, in describing the many self-styled prophets,
Redeemers, and Sons of God in the Phoenicia and Pales-
tine of his own time, states that they make use of "strange,
fanatical, and quite unintelligible words, of which no rational
person can find any meaning," ^ and that those prophets
whom he himself had heard had afterwards confessed to
him that these words "really meant nothing." ^ Yet even
the Christians — Celsus complains — who condemn all other
oracles, regard as marvelous and accept unquestioningly
"those sayings which were uttered or were not uttered in
Judea after the manner of that country, as indeed they are
still delivered among the peoples of Phoenicia and Pales-
tine." ^
To these accusations of Celsus Origen himself adds that
the Jews affirm that Jesus passed Himself off as Christ by
means of sorcery,^ while the Egyptians charge Moses and
the Hebrews with the practice of sorcery during their stay
in Egypt.® Origen, on the other hand, speaks of "the
magical arts and rites of the Egyptians" and holds that it
was by divine aid and not by superior magic that Moses
prevailed over Pharaoh's magicians.'^ Celsus for his part
had accused Jesus during His residence in Egypt of "hav-
ing there acquired some miraculous powers, on which the
Egyptians greatly pride themselves." ^
Origen repudiates the charges of magic made against
Christ and His followers as slanders. He asserts that Chris-
tianity on the contrary strictly forbids the practice of magic
arts,^ and that these lost much of their force at the birth
of Christ. ^*^ He contends that no magician would teach such
noble doctrines as those of Christianity.^^ Origen goes so
far as to deny that even the "false Christs and false
*V, 9. 'Ill, 46; IV, 51.
*VII, 9. '1,28.
'VII, II.
*VII, 3.
" III, I.
•III. s.
• I, 38.
" I, 60.
"I. 38.
XIX O RIG EN AND C ELS US 439
prophets," who "shall show great signs and wonders," will
be sorcerers, and he states that no sorcerer has ever claimed
to be Christ ^ — an amazing assertion in view of his own
allusions to Simon Magus. Works of magic and miracles,
Origen affirms, are no more alike than are a wolf and a
dog or a wood-pigeon and a dove. They are, however, so
closely related that if one admits the reality of magic he
must also believe in divine miracles, just as the existence
of sophistry proves that there is such a thing as sound argu-
ment and an art of dialectic.^ Moreover, in one passage
Origen admits that "there would indeed be a resemblance"
between miracles and magic, "if Jesus, Hke the dealers in
magic arts, had performed His works only for show; but
now there is not a single juggler who, by means of his pro-
ceedings, invites his spectators to reform their manners, or
trains those to the fear of God who are amazed at what
they see, nor who tries to persuade them so to live as men
who are to be justified by God." ^ On the contrary, Origen
asserts that the magicians' "own lives are full of the grossest
and most notorious sins."
Since it is one of Origen's chief concerns to uphold Origen
Hebrew prophecy as a proof of Christ's divinity, although as wellTs^
Celsus subjects the argument from prophecy to ridicule; ^^hnstians
to defend the Old Testament against Celsus' attacks as an charge of
. . magic,
mspired record of greater antiquity than Greek philosophy,
history, and literature, which he asserts have stolen truths
from it; and to maintain that "there is no discrepancy be-
tween the God of the Gospel and the God of the Law" : ^ —
since this is so, it is incumbent upon him to rebut also the
accusations of magic laid by Celsus at the door of the
Jews. Origen therefore asserts that the Jews "despised
all kinds of divination as that which bewitches men to no
purpose," and cites the prohibition of Leviticus (xix, 31)
against wizards and familiar spirits.^
'11,49. "Vll, 25.
•11,51. '•V,42.
•1,68.
440 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Celsus' The Reply to Cclsus is of especial interest to us because
descHpdon it presents as it were in parallel columns for our inspection
of magic, ^he classical and the Christian conceptions of and attitudes
towards magic. Before proceeding, therefore, to inquire
how far justified Origen seems to be in thus acquitting, or
Celsus, on the other hand, in condemning Christians and
Jews on the charge of magic, it is essential to note what
magic means for either author. Both evidently regard it
as a term of reproach and as usually evil in character.^
Celsus lists as feats of magic the expelling of demons and
diseases from men, or the sudden production of tables,
dishes, and food as for an expensive banquet, or of animals
who move about as if alive. Celsus, however, seems to
speak with a sneer of "their most venerated arts" and de-
scribes the banquet dishes as "dainties having no real exist-
ence" and the animals as "not really living but having
only the appearance of life." Therefore the ensuing com-
ment of Origen seems unusually stupid or unfair, when
he tries to convict Celsus of inconsistency on the ground
that "by these expressions he allows as it were the existence
of magic," whereas Origen hints that it was he "who wrote
several books against it." "These expressions" are, on the
contrary, precisely those which a man who had attacked
magic as deceptive would use. Celsus further stated that
an Egyptian named Dionysius had told him that magic arts
had power "only over the uneducated and men of corrupt
morals," but had no effect upon philosophers, "because they
were careful to observe a healthy manner of life." ^ Celsus
himself observed that "those who in market-places perform
most disreputable tricks and collect crowds around them
. . . would never approach an assembly of wise men." ^
It was at the request of a Celsus, moreover, that the second
century satirist Lucian wrote his Alexander or Pseudo-
mantis ^ in which some of the tricks of a magician-impostor
and oracle-monger are exposed, and in which allusion is
M, 68. '111,52.
* VI, 41. 'See cap. 21.
XIX 0 RIG EN AND C ELS US 44i
made to the "excellent treatises against the magicians" writ-
ten by Celsus himself. It seems reasonably certain that
the Celsus of Lucian and the Celsus of Origen are identical,
as there are no chronological difiEiculties and the same point
of view is ascribed in either case to Celsus, whom both
Lucian and Origen regard as an Epicurean or at least in
sympathy with the Epicureans. Galen, in a treatise in which
he lists his own writings, mentions an "Epistle to Celsus the
Epicurean." ^ This, too, might be the same man.
Another passage in which Celsus, according to Origen at Celsus
least, "mixed up together matters which belong to magic connection
and sorcery" runs as follows : "What need to number up between
all those who have taught methods of purification, or expia- occult vir-
tory hymns, or spells for averting evil, or images, or re- Jj'^^^^'g
semblances of demons, or the various sorts of antidotes
against poison in clothing, or in numbers, or stones, or
plants, or roots, or generally in all kinds of things?" ^ In
another passage Celsus again closely connected sorcery with
the knowledge of occult virtues in nature, arguing that men
need not pride themselves upon their power of sorcery when
serpents and eagles know of antidotes to poisons and amulets
and the virtues of certain stones which help to preserve their
young." ^ Origen objects that it is not customary to use
the word sorcery (jorjTeia) for such things, and suggests
that Celsus is such an "Epicurean," i. e., so sceptical, that
he wishes to discredit all those other beliefs and practices
"as resting only on the professions of sorcerers." But we
have already had proof enough in other chapters that Celsus
was not unjustified in connecting the occult virtue of nat-
ural objects with magic, if not with sorcery.
Celsus, as we shall see, believed in the existence of Celsus on
demons whom, however, he did not regard as necessarily ^^j' *^^^"^
evil spirits, and whom he probably regarded as above any demons.
connection with magic. Origen once says that if Celsus
^Kiihn, XIX, 48 (de libris pro- 'VI, 39.
priis) . Merpod'-'pov kirL(TTo\ri -rrpos Kk\- 'IV, 86.
ffoi> 'ETriKo'jpeiov.
442 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
"had been acquainted with the nature of demons" and their
operations in the magic arts, he would not have blamed
Christians for not worshiping them.^ The natural infer-
ence from this statement is that Celsus did not associate
demons with magic. Origen, however, depicts him as
**speaking of those who employ the arts of magic and
sorcery and who invoke the barbarous names of demons," ^
and we liave already heard him censure certain Christian
presbyters for their ''barbarous books containing the names
and marvelous doings of demons." ^ It therefore becomes
evident that magicians attempt to avail themselves of the
aid of demons, whether Celsus believes that they succeed in
their attempt or not.
Origen Origen at any rate believes that magicians are aided
magic to by evil spirits, and for him demons became the paramount
demons. factor in magic, just as it is they who are v/orshiped in
pagan temples as gods and who inspire the pagan oracles.*
Indeed, just as Celsus has kept calling the Christians sor-
cerers, so Origen is inclined to label all heathen religions,
rites, and ceremonies as magic. He quotes the Psalmist as
saying that "all the gods of the heathen are demons." ^ He
states that the dedication of pagan temples, statues, and the
like are accompanied by "curious magical incantations . . .
performed by those who zealously serve the demons with
magic arts." ^ Divination in general, he believes, "proceeds
rather from wicked demons than from anything of a better
nature." '^ He does not think of magic as a deception, he
does not endeavor to expose its frauds, he accepts its mar-
vels as facts, but declares that "magic and sorcery are pro-
duced by wicked spirits, held spellbound by elaborate
incantations and yielding themselves to sorcerers." ^ Origen
seems in doubt whether the demons are coerced by the spells
and charms of magic or yield themselves willingly.®
* VII, 67. 'V, 42.
»VI, 39. 'II. 51. See also V, 38; VI, 45;
'VI, 40. VII, 69; VIII, 59; I, 60.
*VII, 3 and 35. 'See VII, 67, "demons . . .
" Ps. xcvi, 5. and their several operations,
•VII, 69. whether led on to them by the
XIX ORIGEN AND CELSUS 443
As we shall see, Origen is at least ready to attribute Magic
great power to incantations, and he does not deny that elaborate
magic is an elaborate art. With such various arts of magic ^'■*-
he contrasts the simplicity of Christian prayers and adjura-
tions "which the plainest person can use," or the Christian
casting out of demons which is performed for the most
part by "unlettered persons." ^ Origen also suggests that
the natural properties of plants and animals are a factor in
magic, when he cites Numenius the Pythagorean's descrip-
tion of the Egyptian deity Serapis. "He partakes of the
essence of all the animals and plants that are under the
control of nature, that he may appear to have been fashioned
into a god, not only by the image-makers with the aid of
profane mysteries and juggling tricks employed to invoke
demons, but also by magicians and sorcerers ( nayoiv Kal
(papixaKoiv) and those demons who are bewitched b}' their
incantations." ^ Another passage pointing in the same di-
rection is Origen's description of "the man who is curiously
inquisitive about the names of demons, their powers and
agency, the incantations, the herbs proper to them, and the
stones with the inscriptions graven on them, corresponding
symbolically or otherwise to their traditional shapes." ^
Thus although Origen lays the emphasis upon demons, we
see that he admits most of the other customary elements in
magic.
Origen does not, like Philo Judaeus, Apuleius and some The Magi
Christian writers, distinguish two uses of the word magic, °ure were
one good and one evil. He does not differentiate between not differ-
vulgar magic and malignant sorcery on the one hand and other
the lore of learned Magi of the east on the other hand. He magicians.
conjurations of those who are choose certain forms and places,
skilled in the art, or urged on by whether because they are detained
their own inclinations. . . ." there by virtue of certain charms,
Also VII, 5, "those spirits that or because for some other pos-
are attached for entire ages, as 1 sible reason they have selected
may say, to particular dwellings those haunts. . . ."
and places, whether by a sort of ^VII, 4. 0:$ tiriirav yip idiuraird
magical force or by their own toiovtov TrparTovtri,.
natural inclinations." ''V, 38.
Also VII, 64, ". . . the demons " VIII. 61.
444 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
simply says that the art of magic gets its name from the
Magi and that from them its evil influence has been trans-
mitted to other nations.^ Celsus had ranked the Magi
among divinely inspired nations but Origen objects to this.
Yet he recognizes that the wise men of the east who fol-
lowed the star of Bethlehem and came to worship the infant
Christ were Magi.^ But he seems to regard them as ordi-
nary magicians, who were accustomed to invoke evil
spirits.^ He thinks that the coming of Christ dispelled the
demons and hindered the Magi's spells and charms from
working as usual. Trying to find the reason for this, they
would note the new star in the sky. Origen will not adrnit
that they could do all this by means of astrology, nor even
that they were astrologers at all; he accuses Celsus of
blundering in calling them Chaldeans or astrologers.*
Rather he thinks that they could find an explanation of
the star in the prophecies of Balaam ^ which they possessed
and which predicted, as Moses too records,^ "There shall
arise a star out of Jacob, and a man (or, as in the King
James' version, a scepter) shall rise up out of Israel." ^
In another treatise than the Reply to Celsus Origen further
explains that the Magi were descended from Balaam and
so owned his written prophecies.^ Balaam was perhaps
alluding to these very Magi descended from him who came
to adore Jesus when he prophesied that his seed should
*VI, 80. wiss den sieben Planetfiirsten ge-
^I, 58. widmet."
'I, 60. " Numbers, XXIV, 17.
* I, 58. The Magi had been '' Similarly an English version
confused with the Chaldeans sev- (in an Oxford MS of the early
eral centuries before by Ctesias 15th century, Laud Misc., 658) of
in his Persica. cap. 15; see D. F. The History of the Three Kings
Miinter, Der Stern der Weisen: of Cologne, or medieval account
Untersuchungen i'tber das Ge- of the translation of the relics of
hurts jahr Christi, Kopenhagen the Magi, in forty-one chapters
(1827), p. 14. with a preface, opens its first
* Balaam himself was something chapter with the words, "The
of an astrolo.crer according to mater of these three worshipful
Miinter, Der Stern der Weisen, and blissid kingis token the be-
1827, p. 31. "Die sieben Altare gynnyng of the prophecye of
die der moabitische Seher Bileam Balaam."
an verschiedenen Orten errichtete ^ In Numeros Homilia XIII, in
(IV B. Mose, XXIII) waren ge- Migne, PG, XII, 675.
XIX O RIG EN AND C ELS US 445
be as the seed of the just.^ Origen seems to have been the
first of the church fathers to state the number of these
Magi as three, which he does in one of his homihes on the
Book of Genesis.-
At this point indeed, we may well turn for a little while g-uP"!*
from the Reply to Celsus to those Biblical commentaries of commen-
Origen where he discusses such Old Testament passages
connected with magic as the stories of Balaam and of the
witch of Endor or ventriloquist. The commentary of Origen
upon the Book of Numbers is extant only in the Latin trans-
lation by Rufinus, who literally snatched it for posterity as
a brand from the burning, for he did not refrain from this
learned and literary labor, although as he plied his pen in
]Messina in 410 A. D. he could see the invading barbarians
ravaging the fields and burning Reggio just across the nar-
row strait which separates Sicily from Italy.^
In commencing to speak of Balaam and his ass * Origen ^^j^^J"
implies that much has already been written on this thorny power of
theme and that he approaches it with considerable diffidence.
He prays God again and again for grace to be able to
explain it, not by means of fabulous Jewish narrations — ■
by which expression he perhaps alludes to commentaries
of the rabbis such as have reached us in the Talmud —
but in a sense that shall be reasonable and worthy of the
divine law. To begin with he admits the power of words,
and not merely that of holy words or words of God, but of
certain words used by men. That such words are in some
respects more powerful than bodies is shown by the fact
that Balaam's cursing could accomplish what armies and
weapons could not effect. This calls to mind one of the
Mohammedan tales concerning Balaam to the effect that
by reading the books of Abraham he learned "the name
^ In Numeros Hoinilia XV, col. * Origenis in Numeros Homilia
689. XIII, Migne, PG, XII, 670-677.
* In Genesim Homilia XIV, 3, In at least one medieval manu-
in PG, XII, 238. script we find the homily upon
^Origenis in Numeros Hoiiii- Balaam preserved separately, BN
liae, Prologus RiiUni Interpret is ad 13350, 12th century, fol. 92V, et
Ursacium. Migne, PG, XII, 583-86. omeliae de Balaham et Balach.
words.
446
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Limita-
tions to
the power
of Pha-
raoh's ma-
gicians.
Was
Balaam a
prophet of
God or a
magician ?
Yahweh by virtue of which he predicted the future, and
got from God whatever he wished." ^
The magicians of Egypt, too, who withstood Moses and
Aaron before Pharaoh, were able to turn rods into snakes
and water into blood, feats which no man could accomplish
by mere bodily strength. Indeed, because the king of Egypt
knew that his magicians could do such things by a human
art of words, he thought, at first at least, that Moses too
was doing the same things not by the help of God but by
the magic art. There was, however, a very serious limita-
tion to the magicians' power. By the aid of demons they
could turn good into evil but they could not repair the dam-
age which they had done or restore the evil to good. The
rod of Moses, on the other hand, not only devoured theirs
but turned back from a snake into its original form,^ and it
was necessary for Moses to pray to God in order to stay the
other plagues.
Origen classifies Balaam as a magician, not as a prophet.
This seems'to have been the prevalent patristic and medieval
view, although the Biblical account in Numbers represents
Balaam as in close and constant communication with God
and the Second Epistle of Peter ^ calls him a prophet al-
though it condemns his temporary madness in seeking "the
wages of unrighteousness." Josephus too calls him the
best prophet of his time but one who yielded to temptation.*
A fifteenth century treatise on the translation of the relics of
the three kings to Cologne tells us that "concerning this
Balaam there is an altercation in the east between the
Christians and the Jews" ; the Jews holding that he was
no prophet but a diviner who predicted by magic and
diabolical arts, the Christians asserting that he was the
first prophet of the Gentiles.^ The problem continued to
*W. H. Bennett, Balaam, in
EB, nth edition.
* One cannot help wondering
whether Pharaoh's magicians lost
their rods for good as a result
of this manoeuvre, but it is a
point upon which the Scriptural
narrative fails to enlighten us.
"11, 1S-16.
*Antiq., IV, 6.
" Johannis Hildeshemensis, Liber
de trium regum translatione, 1478,
cap. 2.
XIX
OKI GEN AND C ELS US
447
exercise the ingenuity of Lutherans and theologians of the
Reformed Churches, and in 1842 was the main theme of a
treatise of 290 pages in which Hebrew words and quota-
tions from Calvin abound,^
Origen remarks that magicians differ in the amount of
power they possess. Balaam was a very famous and ex-
pert -one, known throughout the whole orient. He had
given many experimental proofs {experimenta) of his skill
and Balak had frequently employed him. The translator
Rufinus's repeated use of the words experimenta and ex~
pertus here is an interesting indication of the close connec-
tion between magic and experiment.^
Great, however, as was Balaam's fame and power, he
could only curse and not bless, an indication that he oper-
ated by the agency of demons who also only work evil
and not good. It is true that King Balak said to him:
*'I know that whom you bless will be blessed," but Origen
regards this as false flattery. Magicians employ the serv-
ices of evil spirits, but cannot invoke such angels as Michael,
Raphael, and Gabriel, much less God or Christ. Christians
alone have the power to do this, and they must cease entirely
from the invocation of demons or the Holy Spirit will flee
from them.
It is true also that God in the end did speak through
the mouth of Balaam and that he blessed instead of cursed
Israel. Origen will not admit, however, that Balaam was
worthy of this, or that a man can be both a magician and
a prophet; if God spake through Balaam, it was only to
prevent the demons from coming and helping Balaam to
curse Israel. Origen also attempts to solve the difficulties
Balaam's
magic ex-
periments.
Limitation
to his
magic
power.
Divine
prophecy
distinct
from
magic and
divination.
* E. W. Hengstenberg, Die Ge-
schichte Bileains und seine JVeis-
sagungen, Berlin, 1842. Hengsten-
berg tried to take middle ground
between Philo Judaeus, Ambrose,
Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa,
Theodoret, and others who re-
garded Balaam as a godless false
prophet and magician, and the
contrary opinion of TertuUian,
Jerome, and some moderns who
hold that Balaam was originally
a devout man and true prophet
who fell through his covetousness.
' "Et ideo quasi expertus in tali-
bus in opinione erat omnibus qui
erant in Oriente . . . Certus ergo
Balach de hoc et frequenter ex-
pertus."
448
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The ven-
triloquist
really
invoked
Samuel
for Saul.
Christians
less af-
fected
by magic
than phi-
losophers
are.
and inconsistencies involved in the repeated appearances and
conflicting commands of God and the angel to Balaam.
Finally we may note that Origen sees the similarity be-
tween the use of cauldron-shaped tripods in human arts
of divination and the donning of the ephod by the prophets
described in the Old Testament.^ But he affirms that divine
prophecy and divination are two different things and cites
the Biblical prohibition of the latter.
In his commentary upon the First Book of Samuel,^
Origen takes the ground that when Saul consulted the witch
or ventriloquist (kyyaaTpinvdos) , Samuel's ghost really appeared
and spoke to Saul, for the Scriptural account plainly says
that the woman saw Samuel ^ and that Samuel spoke to
Saul. Consequently Origen cannot agree with those who
have held that the woman deceived Saul or that both she
and he were deluded by a demon who assumed the guise of
Samuel. No demon, he thinks, could have prophesied that
the kingdom would pass to David. It has been objected
that the enchantress could not raise the spirit of Samuel
from the infernal regions because he was a good man, but
Origen holds that even Christ descended to hell and that
all before Him had their abode there until He came to
release them. From this position not even the parable of
Dives and of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom with the great
gulf fixed between them can shake Origen.
Origen disputes the statement of Celsus that philo-
sophers are not affected by the magic arts by pointing out
that in Moiragenes's Life of Apolloniiis of Tyana, who was
himself both a philosopher and magician, it is affirmed that
other philosophers were won over by his magic power "and
resorted to him as a sorcerer." * On the other hand Origen
makes the counter-assertion that the followers of Christ
"who live according to His gospel, using night and day con-
^In Homily XIV.
"Migne, PG, XII, 1011-28.
'J. G. Frazer (1918), II, 522,
note, however, says of I. Samuel,
XXVIII, 12: "It seems that we
must read, 'And when the woman
saw Saul,' with six manuscripts
of the Septuagint and some mod-
ern critics, instead of, 'And when
the woman saw Samuel.' "
*VI, 41-
XIX
0 RIG EN AND CELSUS
449
tions.
tinuously and becomingly the prescribed prayers, are not
carried away either by magic or demons."
If these "prescribed prayers" were set forms of words, Their
super-
they would seem not far removed in character from the m- stitious
cantations of the magicians which they were supposed to ^^^^j^°^^
counteract. An even clearer example of preventive magic is magic.
seen in Origen's explanation that the practice of circum-
cision was a safeguard against some angel {s!ic) hostile to
the Jewish race.^
If demons are for Origen of primary importance in Incanta-
magic, incantations run a close second, since it is chiefly
through them that men are able to utilize the power of the
demons. Some of the barbarians, Origen tells us, "are
admired for their marvelous powers of incantation." ^
And when he mentions the miraculous releases of Peter and
Paul and Silas from prison, he adds that if Celsus had read
of these events he "would probably say in reply that there
are certain sorcerers who are able by incantations to unloose
chains and to open doors." ^ But Celsus did not say this;
we must therefore attribute the thought rather to Origen
himself. Speaking elsewhere in his own person Origen more
than once informs us that "almost all those who occupy
themselves with incantations and magical rites" and "many
who conjure evil spirits" employ in their spells and incan-
tations such expressions as "God of Abraham." * Origen
grants that these phrases are used by the Jews themselves
in their prayers to God and exorcisms, and that the names
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possess great efficacy "when
united with the word of God." ^ Yet he will not acknowl-
edge that the Jews practice magic. He also denies the charge
of Celsus that Christians use incantations and the names of
' V, 48.
' I, 30.
"11, 34.
*IV, 33, and I, 22.
"IV, 33. On the use of mystic
names of God among the Jews of
this period and "the new and
greatly developed angelology that
flourished at that time in Egypt
and Palestine" see the Introduc-
tion to M. Caster's edition of The
Szvord of Moses, 1896, — a book
of magic found in a I3-I4th cen-
tury Hebrew MS, but which is
mentioned in the nth century and
which he would trace back to
ancient times.
450 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
certain demons, although he admits that Christians ward off
magic by regular use of prescribed prayers and frequently
expel demons by repetition of "the simple name of Jesus,
and certain other words in which they repose faith, accord-
ing to the holy Scriptures," or "the name of Jesus accom-
panied by the announcement of the narratives which relate
to Him" (presumably a repetition of the names of the four
Evangelists).^ It is even possible for persons who are not
true Christians to make use of the name of Jesus to work
wonders just as magicians use the Hebrew names.^
The power Origen, however, does not try to justify these Hebrew
o wor s, ^^^ Christian formulae, adjurations, and exorcisms on the
ground that they are simply prayers to God, who Himself
then performs the cure or miracle without compulsion.
Origen believes that there is power in the words themselves,
as we have already heard him state in speaking of Balaam.
This is seen from the fact that when translated into an-
other language they lose their operative force, as those who
are skilled in the use of incantations have noted. ^ Thus not
what is signified by the words, but the qualities and peculi-
arities of the words themselves, are potent for this or that
effect. It seems strange that Origen should thus cite en-
chanters, when in the sentence just preceding he had spoken
of "our Jesus, whose name has been manifestly seen to have
driven out demons from souls and bodies. . . ." Was the
divine name alone and not God the cause of the miracle ? It
may be added, however, that Origen denied that languages
were of human origin.^ But he has already gone far along
this line and in the previous chapter has stated that "the
nature of powerful names" is a "deep and mysterious sub-
ject." ^ Some such names, he goes on to say, "are used by
the learned amongst the Egyptians, or by the Magi among
the Persians, and by the Indian philosophers called Brah-
mans."
* I, 6. It also, however, suggests ' II, 49.
the efficacy ascribed by the Man- * I, 25 ; V, 45.
daeans to the repetition of pas- *V, 45.
sages from their sacred books. * I, 24,
XIX
O RIG EN AND C ELS US
451
Later on in the work, in a passage which we have
already cited, Origen waxed indignant with Celsus for
speaking favorably of the Magi, inventors of the destructive
magic art. But now he speaks almost in a tone of respect
of magic, stating that if "the so-called magic also is not, as
followers of Epicurus" (i. e., men like Celsus whom Origen
accuses of being an Epicurean) "and Aristotle think, an en-
tirely chaotic affair but, as those skilled in such matters
show, a connected system comprising words known to very
few persons," then such names as Adonai and Sabaoth
"pertain to some mystic theology," and, "when pronounced
with that attendant train of circumstances which is appro-
priate to their nature, are possessed of great power."
These last clauses make it clear that Jews and Chris-
tians were guilty both of incantations and magic, however
much Origen may protest to the contrary. It can hardly
be argued that Origen means to distinguish this "so-called
magic" from the magic art which he condemns in other
passages, for not only is it evident that the followers of Epi-
curus and Aristotle make no such distinction, but Origen
himself in other passages ascribes the employment of such
Hebrew names to ordinary magicians and declares that such
invocations of God are "found in treatises on magic in many
countries." ^ Origen also states in his Commentary upon
Matthew ^ that the Jews are regarded as adepts in adjura-
tion of demons and that they employ adjurations in the He-
brew language drawn from the books of Solomon. More-
over, he continues in the present passage, "And other names,
again, current in the Egyptian tongue, are efficacious against
certain demons who can only do certain things; and others
in the Persian language have corresponding power over
other spirits ; and so on in every different nation, for differ-
ent purposes." ". . . And when one is able to philosophize
about the mystery of names, he will find much to say re-
specting the titles of the angels of God, of whom one is
Origen
admits a
connection
between
the power
of words
and magic.
Jewish
and Chris-
tian em-
ployment
of power-
ful names
is really
magic.
*IV, 33; I, 22, etc.
'In Math. XXVI, 23 (Migne. PG, XIII, 1757).
452 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
called Michael, and another Gabriel, and another Raphael,
appropriately to the duties which they discharge in the world.
And a similar philosophy of names applies also to our Jesus."
Between such mystic theology and philosophy of names, the
Gnostic diagram of the Ophites,^ and the downright incan-
tations of the magicians, there is surely little to choose.
Celsus' From the names of God and angels, by uttering which
demons^ ^^^^^ wonders may be performed, we turn to the spirits
themselves. Celsus seems to think of demons as spiritual
beings who act as intermediaries between the supreme Deity
and the world of nature and human society. He believes
that "in all probability the various quarters of the earth
were from the beginning allotted to different superintend-
ing spirits." ^ He warns the Christians that it is absurd for
them to think that they can escape the demons by simply
refusing to eat the meat that has been offered to idols; the
demons are everywhere in nature, and one cannot eat bread
or drink wine or taste fruit or breathe the very air withput
receiving these gifts of nature from the demons to whom
the various provinces of nature have been assigned.^ The
Egyptians teach that even the most insignificant objects are
committed to demon care, and they divide the human body
into thirty-six parts, each in charge of a demon of the air
who should be invoked in order to cure an ailment of that
particular part.^ Celsus mentions some of the names of
these thirty-six demons : Chnoumen, Chnachoumen, Cnat,
Sicat, Biou, Erou, and others. Celsus, however, does not
accept this Egyptian doctrine without qualification. He sus-
pects, Origen tells us, that it leads toward magic, and hence
adds "the opinion of those wise men who say that most of
the earth-demons are taken up with carnal indulgence, blood,
odors, sweet sounds and other such sensual things; and
therefore they are unable to do more than heal the body,
or foretell the fortunes of men and cities, and do other such
*See p. 366 in Chapter XV on *VIII. 28.
Gnosticism. 'VIII, 58.
*V, 25.
XIX
0 RIG EN AND C ELS US
453
things as relate to this mortal life." ^ Celsus himself, how-
ever, seems as unwilling to accept this Egyptian view as he is
to condone magic, and concludes that "the more just opinion
is that the demons desire nothing and need nothing, but that
they take pleasure in those who discharge toward them of-
fices of piety." ^ Celsus believes that divine providence reg-
ulates the acts of the demons and so asks : "Why are we
not to serve demons?" ^
Origen's reply to this question is that the demons are
wicked spirits and concerned with magic and idolatry. He
maintains that not only Christians "but almost all who
acknowledge the existence of demons" regard them as evil
spirits.^ His own attitude toward them is invariably one
of hostility. The thirty-six spirits who, as the Egyptians
believe, have charge of different parts of the human body,
Origen spurns as "thirty-six barbarous demons whom the
Egyptian Magi alone call upon in some unknown way." ^
Really we probably have here to do with the astrological
decans or sub-divisions of the signs of the zodiac into sec-
tions of ten degrees each.
Yet Origen's notion of the spiritual world rather closely
resembles that of Celsus, for he is ready to ascribe to angels
or other good invisible beings much the same functions
which Celsus attributed to demons. He does not, for ex-
ample, dispute the theory that different parts of the earth
and of nature are assigned to different spirits. Instead he
"ventures to lay down some considerations of a profounder
kind, conveying a mystical and secret view respecting the
original distribution of the various quarters of the earth
among different superintending spirits." ® He quotes the
Septuagint version of Deuteronomy, "When the most High
divided the nations. . . . He set the bounds of the people ac-
cording to the number of the angels of God." '^ He nar-
rates how after Babel, men "were conducted by those angels
^VIII, 60.
' VIII, 63.
"VII, 68.
"VIII, 59.
'V, 28.
' V, 29; see Deut. xxxii, 8.
Origen
calls
demons
wicked.
But be-
lieves in
presiding
angels.
454 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
who imprinted on each his native language to the different
parts of the earth according to their deserts." ^ He con-
cludes by saying, "These remarks are to be understood as
being made by us with a concealed meaning," ^ but there
seems little doubt as to his substantial agreement with the
view of Celsus. Indeed, later when Celsus asserts that
Christians cannot eat, drink, or breathe without being in-
debted to demons, Origen responds, "We indeed also main-
tain . . . the agency and control of certain beings whom we
may call invisible husbandmen and guardians; . . . but we
deny that those invisible agents are demons." ^
In his fourteenth homily on Numbers, as extant in Ru-
finus's translation,* Origen again speaks of presiding angels
in these words. "And what is so pleasant, what is so mag-
nificent as the work of the sun or moon by whom the world
is illuminated? Yet there is work in the world itself too for
angels who are over beasts and for angels who preside over
earthly armies. There is work for angels who preside over
the nativity of animals, of seedlings, of plantations, and
many other growths. And again there is work for angels
who preside over holy works, who teach the comprehension
of eternal light and the knowledge of God's secrets and the
science of divine things." How this passage might be used
to encourage a belief in magic is made evident by the para-
phrase of it in The Occult Philosophy of Henry Cornelius
Agrippa,^ written in 1510 at the close of the middle ages.
He represents Origen as saying, "There is work in the
world itself for angels who preside over earthly armies, king-
doms, provinces, men, beasts, the nativity and growth of
animals, shoots, plants, and other things, giving that virtue
which they say is in things from their occult property."
In the treatise De Principiis,^ Origen states that particu-
lar offices are assigned to individual angels, as curing dis-
eases to Raphael, and the conduct of wars to Gabriel. This
notion he perhaps derived from the Book of Enoch which,
' V, 30. ' Migne, PG, XII, 680.
*V, Z2. "HI, 12.
•VIII, 31. '1.8-
XIX OKI GEN AND CELSUS 455
however, he states in his Reply to Celsus is not accepted by
the churches as divinely inspired.^ He further declares on
the authority of passages in the New Testament that to one
angel the Church of the Ephesians was entrusted; to an-
other, that of Smyrna; that Peter had his angel and Paul
his, — nay that "every one of the little ones of the Church"
has his angel who daily beholds the face of God.^
Origen advances a further theory concerning spirits, A law of
which may be described as a sort of law of spiritual grav- g^avka-
itation. It is that when souls are pure and "not weighted tion.
down with sin as with a weight of lead," they ascend on
high where other pure and ethereal bodies and spirits dwell,
"leaving here below their grosser bodies along with their
impurities." Polluted souls, on the contrary, have to stay
close to earth where they wander about sepulchers as ghosts
and apparitions.^ Origen therefore infers that pagan gods
"who are attached for entire ages to particular dwellings
and places" on earth, are wicked and polluted spirits. Ori-
gen of course will not admit that Christians or Jews bow
down even to angels; such worship they reserve for God
alone.^
Both Celsus and Origen closely associate with the world Attitude
of invisible spirits, whether these be angels or demons, the toward^^
visible heavenly bodies, and thus lead us from magic, which astrology.
Origen makes so dependent upon demons, to the kindred
subject of astrology, the pseudo-science of the stars. Celsus
had censured the Jews and by implication the Christians
for worshiping heaven and the angels, and even apparitions
produced by sorcery and enchantment, and yet at the same
time neglecting what in his opinion formed the holiest and
most powerful part of the heaven, namely, the fixed stars and
the planets, "who prophesy to everyone so distinctly, through
whom all productiveness results, the most conspicuous of
supernal heralds, real heavenly angels." ^ This shows that
Celsus was much more favorably inclined toward astrology
' V, 54; see Book of Enoch, XL, " VII, 5.
9. " V, 6-9.
'Matthew. XVIII, 10. 'V, 6.
4S6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Attitude
of Origen
toward
astrology.
than toward magic and less sceptical concerning its validity.
Origen also represents Celsus — and furthermore the Stoics,
Platonists, and Pythagoreans — as believing in the theory of
the magnnis anmis, according to which, when the celestial
bodies all return to their original positions after the lapse of
some thousands of years, history will begin to repeat itself
and the same events will occur and the same persons live
over again. ^ Origen also complains that Celsus regards
as a divinely-inspired nation the Chaldeans, who were the
founders of "deceitful genethlialogy," - as well as the Magi
whom Celsus elsewhere identified with the Chaldeans or
astrologers, but whom Origen as we have seen regards
rather as the founders of magic.
Origen is opposed both to this art of casting horoscopes
and determining the entire life of the individual from his
nativity, and to the theory of the magnus annus, ^ because he
is convinced that to admit their truth is to annihilate free-
will. But he is far from having freed himself fundamen-
tally from the astrological attitude toward the stars ; indeed
he still shows vestiges of the old pagan tendency to worship
them as divinities. He is convinced that the celestial bodies
are not mere fiery masses, as Anaxagoras teaches.^ The
body of a star is material, it is true, but also ethereal. But
furthermore Origen is inclined to agree, both in the De prin-
cipiis ^ and in the Contra Celsiim,^ that the stars are ra-
tional beings {\oyLKa Kal (nrovdala — the latter word had al-
ready been applied to them by Philo Judaeus) possessed of
free-will and "illuminated with the light of knowledge by
that wisdom which is the reflection of everlasting light."
He interprets a passage in Deuteronomy "^ to mean that the
stars have in general been assigned by God to all the na-
tions beneath the heaven, but asserts that from this system
of astral satrapies God's chosen people were exempted. He
*IV, 67; V, 20-21,
»VI, 80.
*Duhem (1913-1917) H 447,
treats of "Les Peres de I'figlise et
la Grande Annec."
'V, II. _
° De principiis, I, 7.
"V, 10.
' Dent., IV, 19-20.
XIX
OKI GEN AND C ELS US
457
is willing to admit that the stars foretell many things, and
puts especial faith in comets as omens. ^ He states that they
have appeared on the eve of dynastic changes, great wars,
and other disasters, and inclines also to agree with Chaere-
mon the Stoic that they may come as signs of future good,
as in the case of the star announcing the birth of Christ.^
But while Origen will grant reasoning faculties and a cer-
tain amount of prophetic power to the stars, he refuses to
permit worship of them. Rather he is persuaded "that the
sun himself and moon and stars pray to the supreme God
through his only begotten Son." ^
Pierre Daniel Huet (i 630-1 721), the learned bishop of
Avranches and editor of Origen, in his commentaries upon
Origen ^ cites other works, commentaries on Matthew, the
Psalms, the Epistle to the Romans, and Ezekiel, in which
Origen again states that the stars are reasoning beings,
honor God, praise and pray to Him, and even that they
are capable of sin, a point upon which he agrees with the
Book of Enoch and Bardesanes but not with Philo Judaeus.
Nicephorus ^ states that Origen was condemned in the fifth
synod for his error concerning the stars being animated.
Sometimes, however, Huet points out, Origen leaves it
an open question whether the heavenly bodies are animated
or not.^ Huet also asserts that in his own time such great
men as Tycho Brahe and Kepler have defended the view
that the stars are animated beings.
In a fragment from Origen's Commentary on Genesis Further
preserved by Eusebius we have a further discussion of the pscussion
stars and astrology.'^ Here he represents even Christians Commen-
as troubled by the doctrine that the stars control human Genesis.
affairs absolutely. This theory he attacks as destructive to
all morality, as rendering prayer to God of no avail, and
as subjecting even such events as the birth of Christ and
*V, 12.
'I, 59.
"V, II.
* P. D. Huet, Origenianorum
Lib. II, Cap. II, Quaestio VIII,
De astris, in Migne, Patrologia
Gracca, XVII, 973, et seq.
"XVII, 28.
' "In prooemio libri prioris
eiusdem Ilepi apx^v, num. 10."
' Eusebius, Praep. Evang., VI,
II, in Migne, PG, XXI, 477-506.
4S8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the conversion of each individual to Christianity to fatal
necessity. Like Philo Judaeus Origen holds that the stars
are merely signs instituted by God, not causes of the future,
and quotes passages from the Old Testament in support of
his view; like the Book of Enoch he holds that men were
instructed in the interpretation of the stars' significations
by the fallen angels. He argues at length that divine fore-
knowledge does not impose necessity. While, however, God
instituted the stars as signs of the future, He intended that
only the angels should be able to read them, and deemed
it best for mankind to remain in ignorance of the future.
"For it is a much greater task than lies within human power
to learn truly from the motion of the stars what each per-
son will do and suffer." ^ The evil spirits have, however,
taught men the art of astrology, but Origen believes that it
is so difficult and requires such superhuman accuracy that
the predictions of astrologers are more likely to be wrong
than right. His tone toward astrology is thus distinctly
more unfavorable here than in the Reply to Celsus. In ar-
guing that the stars are merely signs, Origen asks why men
admit that the flight of birds and condition of entrails in
augury and liver-divination are only signs and yet insist that
the stars are causes of future events.^ The answer, of
course, is simple enough: all nature is under the control of
the stars which alike produce the events signified and the
action of the birds or condition of the liver signifying them.
But the question is notable because it was also put by Plo-
tinus a little later in the same century.
In explaining the Book of Genesis Origen said that celes-
tial and infernal virtues were represented by the waters
above and below the firmament respectively. This figurative
interpretation gave offence to many later Christian writers,
although some of them were ready to interpret the waters
above as celestial virtues, but not to take the waters below
as signifying evil spirits.^ Concerning the question of a
* PG, XXI, 489.
'Ibid., 501-502.
•P. D. Huet,
Origenianorum
Lib., II, ii, V. 10, cites Basil,
Homil. 3 in Hexaem.; Epiphanius,
Hacr., LXIV, 4, and Epist. ad
XIX 0 RIG EN AND CELSUS 459
plurality of heavens Origen says in the Reply to Celsus,
"The Scriptures which are current in the Churches of God
do not speak of seven heavens or of any definite number at
all, but they do appear to teach the existence of heavens,
whether that means the spheres of those bodies which the
Greeks call planets or something more mysterious." ^
Of other pagan methods of divination than astrology Augury,
Origen disapproved and classed them, as we have seen, as and^"^^'
the work of demons. He was impressed by the weight of prophecy,
testimony to the validity of augury,^ although he states that
it has been disputed whether there is any such art, but he
attributed the truth of the predictions to demons acting
through the animals and pointed out that the Mosaic law
forbade augury ^ and classified as unclean the animals com-
monly employed in divination. The true God, he held,
would not employ irrational animals at all to reveal the
future, nor even any chance human being, but only the purest
of prophetic souls. Origen would appear for the moment
to have forgotten Balaam's ass! Moreover, he himself ac-
cepted other channels of foreknowledge than holy prophecy,
and believed that dreams often were of value in this respect.
When Celsus, criticizing the Scriptural story of the flight
into Egypt, stated that an angel descended from heaven to
warn Joseph and Mary of the danger threatening the Christ
child, Origen retorted that the angelic warning came rather
in a dream — an occurrence which seemed in no way mar-
velous to him, since **in many other cases it has happened
that a dream has shown persons the proper course of ac-
tion." ^ Origen grants that all men desire to ascertain the
future and argues that the Jews must have had divine
prophets, or, since they were forbidden by the Mosaic law to
consult "observers of times and diviners," they would have
Joan. Jerosolymit., cap. 3; Jerome, 'VI, 21.
Epist. 61 ad Pammach., cap. 3 ; * IV, 90-95.
Gregory Nyss., Kb. in Hexaem.; ' Origen quotes, "Ye shall not
Augustine, Confess.. XIII, 15; practise augury nor observe the
Isidore, Origin., VII, 5. flight of birds," which is found in
See also Duhem (1913-1917) II, the Septuagint, Lezit., XIX, 26.
487, "Les eaux supracelestes." * I, 66.
and gems.
460 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
had no means of satisfying this universal human craving.
It was to slake this popular curiosity concerning the future,
Origen thinks, that the Hebrew seers sometimes predicted
things of no religious significance or other lasting impor-
tance.^ Once Origen alludes to physiognomy, saying, "If
there be any truth in the doctrine of the physiognomists,
whether Zopyrus or Loxus or Polemon." ^
Animals The allusions to natural science in the Reply to Celsus
are not numerous. There are a few passages where animals
or gems are mentioned. The remarks concerning animals
mention the usual favorites and embody familiar notions
which we either have already met or shall meet again and
again. Celsus speaks ^ of the knowledge of poisons and
medicines possessed by animals, of predictions by birds, of
assemblies held by other animals, of the fidelity with which
elephants observe oaths, of the filial affection of the stork,
and of the Arabian bird, the phoenix.'* Origen implies the
belief that the weasel conceives through its mouth when he
says, "Observe, moreover, to what pitch of wickedness the
demons proceed, so that they even assume the bodies of
weasels in order to reveal the future." ° Origen also ad-
duces the marvelous methods of generation of several kinds
of animals in support of the virgin birth of Jesus. ^ Ori-
gen's allusions to gems can scarcely be classified as natural
science. He contends that Plato's statement that our pre-
cious stones are a reflection of gems in that better land is
taken from Isaiah's description of the city of God."^ In an-
other passage Origen again quotes Isaiah regarding the
walls, foundations, battlements, and gates of various pre-
cious stones, but states that he cannot stop to examine their
spiritual meaning at present.® In one of his homilies on
the Book of Numbers Origen displays a favorable attitude
towards medical and pharmaceutical investigation, saying,
* I, 36. Apuleius assume the bodies of
''I, 33- weasels in order to rob a corpse.
" IV, 86-88. ' I, 37.
* IV, 98. ' VII, 30.
•IV, 93; it will be recalled that *VIII, 19-20.
the witches in The Golden Ass of
XIX ORIGEN AND CELSUS 461
"For if there is any science from God, what will be more
from Him than the science of health, in which too the vir-
tues of herbs and the diverse properties of juices are de-
termined." ^
Ori gen's belief that the stars were rational beings con- Origen
tinned to be held by the sect called Origenists and also by '^^er ac
the heretic Priscillian and his followers in the later fourth counte-
century. Priscillian, as we have seen, was accused of magic tnagic.^
and executed in 385. But we are surprised to find The-
ophilus of Alexandria, who attacked some of Origen's views
as heretical and persuaded Pope Anastasius to do the same,
accusing Origen in a letter written in 405 and translated into
Latin by Jerome, of having defended magic. ^ Theophilus
states that Origen has written in one of his treatises, "The
magic art seems to me a name for something which does
not exist" — a bold and admirable assertion, but one which,
as we have seen, the Epicurean Celsus would have been
much more likely to make than the Christian Origen — "but
if it does, it is not the name of an evil work." Theophilus
cannot understand how Origen, who vaunts himself a Chris-
tian, can thus make himself a protector of Elymas the ma-
gician who opposed the apostles and of Jamnes and Mambres
who resisted Moses. Huet, the learned seventeenth century
editor of Origen, knew of no such passage in his extant
works as that which Theophilus professes to quote. ^
* Homily 18 on Numbers, Migne, ^ Epistola 96 in Migne, PL,
PG, XII, 715. XXII, 78.
' Migne, PG, XVII, 1091-92.
CHAPTER XX
OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION OF MAGIC BEFORE AUGUSTINE
Plan of this chapter — Tertullian on magic — Astrology attacked-^
Resemblance to Minucius Felix — Lactantius — Hippolytus on magic and
astrology — Frauds of magicians in answering questions — Other tricks
and illusions — Defects and merits of Hippolytus' exposure of magic
and of magic itself — Hippolytus' sources — Justin Martyr and others
on the witch of Endor — Gregory of Nyssa and Eustathius con-
cerning the ventriloquist — Gregory of Nyssa Against Fate — Astrology
and the birth of Christ — Chrysostom on the star of the Magi — Sixth
Homily on Matthew — The spurious homily — Number, names, and home
of the Magi — Liturgical drama of the Magi; Three Kings of Cologne —
Another homily on the Magi — Priscillianists answered — Number and
race of the Magi again.
Plan of In this chapter we shall supplement the picture of the Chris-
chapter. *^^^ attitude towards magic supplied us in preceding chap-
ters by some accounts of magic in other Christian writers of
the period before Augustine. After giving the opinions
of a few Latin fathers, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and Lac-
tantius, we shall consider the exposure of magic devices in
Hippolytus' Refutation of All Heresies, then compare the
utterances of other fathers concerning the witch of Endor
with those of Origen, and finally discuss the treatment of
the Magi and the star of Bethlehem in both the genuine and
the spurious homily of Chrysostom on that theme, adding
some account of the medieval development of the legend of
the three Magi, although leaving until later the statements
of medieval theologians and astronomers concerning the
star of the Magi. This makes a rather omnibus chapter,
but its component parts are too brief to separate as distinct
chapters and they all supplement the preceding chapter on
Origen and Celsus.
462
CHAP. XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 463
Some important features of Origen's account of magic Tertullian
are duplicated in the writings of the western church father, °" magic.
TertulHan, who wrote at about the same time or perhaps a
few years before Origen. Again the Jews are represented
as calHng Christ a magician/ and when TertulHan challenges
the emperors to allow a Christian exorcist to appear before
them and attempt to expel a demon from someone so pos-
sessed and force the spirit to confess its evil character, he
expects that his Christian exorcist will be accused of em-
ploying magic.^ Again divination and magic are attributed
to the fallen angels; in fact, Tertullian follows the Book '
of Enoch in stating that men were instructed by the fallen
angels in metallurgy and botany as well as in incantations
and astrology.^ The demons are represented as invisible
and "everywhere in a moment." Living as they do in the
air near the clouds and stars, they are enabled to predict
the weather. They send diseases and then pretend to cure
them by the recommendation of novel remedies or prescrip-
tions quite contrary to accepted medical practice.^ "There
is hardly a human being who is unattended by a demon." ^
Magicians are described by Tertullian as producing phan-
tasms, insulting the souls of the dead, injuring boys for
purposes of divination, sending dreams, and performing
many miraculous feats by their complicated jugglery.*
"The science of magic" is well defined as "a multiform con-
tagion of the human mind, an artificer of every error, a de-
stroyer of safety and soul." As examples of well-known
magicians Tertullian lists Ostanes and Typhon and Dar-
danus and Damigeron "^ and Nectabis ^ and Berenice. Ter-
^ Tertullian, Apology, cap. 21 ; Lithica, and in the Apology of
so also Cyprian, Liber de idolorum Apuleius, cap. 45 ; is cited in the
vanitate, cap. 13. Latin text of Geoponica, and was regarded by
Tertullian in PL, vols. 1-2; Eng- V. Rose as the Greek source of
lish translation in AN, vol. 3. the Latin "Evax" and Marbod on
'Apology, cap. 23. stones. BN 7418, 14th century,
^ De cultu feminarum, I, 2. Amigeronis de lapidibus, was
* Apology, cap. 22. printed by Pitra, Spic. Solcsm.,
^ De anima, cap. 57. Ill, 324-35, and Abel, Orphei
^Apology, cap. 23. Lithica, p. 157, et seq. See fur-
'' De anima, cap. 57. Damigeron ther PW, "Damigeron."
is mentioned in the Orphic poem, * Presumably Nectanebus.
464 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
tullian states that a literature is current which promises to
evoke ghosts from the infernal regions, but that in such
cases the dead are really impersonated by demons, as was
the fact when the p)rthoness seemed to show Samuel to Saul,
a point on which Tertullian disagrees with Origen. Magic is
therefore fallacious, a point which Tertullian emphasizes
more than Origen did, although Tertullian is not very ex-
plicit. He avers that "it is no great task to deceive the
outer eye of him whose mental insight it is easy to blind."
The rods of Pharaoh's magicians seemed to turn into snakes,
"but Moses' ^ reality devoured their deceit."
Astrologj- Tertullian further diverges from Origen in definitely
classifying astrology as a species of magic along with that
other variety of magic which works miracles. Astrology is
an art which was invented by the fallen angels and with
which Christians should have nothing to do. Tertullian
would not mention it but for the fact that recently a certain
person has defended his persistence in that profession, that
is, presumably after he had become a Christian. Tertul-
lian states, again unlike Origen, that the Magi who came
from the east to the Christ child were astrologers — "We
know the union existing between magic and astrology" —
but that Christ's followers are under no obligation to as-
trology on their account, although he again implies the ex-
istence of Christian astrologers in the sarcastic remark,
"Astrology now-a-days, forsooth, treats of Christ; is the
science of the stars of Christ, not of Saturn and Mars."
As Origen affirmed that the power of the demons and of
magic was greatly weakened by the birth of Christ, so Ter-
tullian affirm,s that the science of the stars was allowed to
exist until the coming of the Gospel, but that since Christ's
birth no one should cast nativities. "For since the Gospel
you will never find sophist or Chaldean or enchanter or
diviner or magician who has not been manifestly pun-
ished." ^ Tertullian rejoices that the mathematici or as-
*It is Aaron's rod in the King ^ De idolatria, cap. 9.
James version.
XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 465
trologers are forbidden to enter Rome or Italy, the reason
being, as he states in another passage,^ that they are con-
sulted so much in regard to the life of the emperor.
Tertullian's account of magic is perhaps borrowed from Resem-
the dialogue entitled Octavius by M. Minucius Felix, ^ which Mlnucius
is generally regarded as the oldest extant work of Christian Felix.
Latin literature and was probably written in the reign of
Marcus Aurelius. Some of the words and phrases used by
Tertullian and Minucius Felix in describing magic are almost
identical,^ and a third passage of the same sort appears in
Cyprian of Carthage in the third century.* Ostanes, one of
Tertullian's list of magicians, is also mentioned as the first
prominent magician by both Minucius Felix and Cyprian.
Minucius Felix ascribes magic to demons and seems to re-
gard it as a deceptive and rather unreal art, saying, "The
magicians not only are acquainted with demons, but what-
ever miraculous feats they perform, they do through
demons; under their influence and inspiration they produce
illusions, making things seem to be which are not, or mak-
ing real things seem non-existent."
A century after Tertullian Lactantius of Gaul treats of Lactan-
magic and demons in about the same way in his Divine In- **"^*
stitntes,^ written at the opening of the fourth century. He
denies that Christ was a magician and declares that His
miracles differed from those attributed to Apuleius and
Apollonius of Tyana in that they were announced before-
hand by the prophets. **He worked marvels," Lactantius
says to his opponents, "and we should have thought Him a
magician, as you think now and as the Jews thought at the
time, had not all the prophets with one accord predicted that
Christ would do these very things." ^ Lactantius believes
^Apology, cap. 35. edunt ... si multa miracula cir-
" PL, vol. 3 ; AN, vol. 4, culatoriis praestigiis ludunt."
" Thus Minucius Felix says, * Cyprian, Liber de idolorum
Octavius, cap. 26, "Magi . . . vanitate, caps. 6-7.
quidquid miraculi ludunt ... * PL, vol. VI ; AN, vol. VII ; the
praestigias edunt," while Ter- following references are all to
tullian. Apology, cap. 23, writes, this work.
"Porro si et magi phantasmata * V, 3,
466
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Hippoly-
tus on
magic and
astrology.
that the offspring of the fallen angels and "the daughters of
men" were a different variety of demon from their fathers
and more terrestrial. Be that as it may, he affirms that the
entire art and power of the magicians consist in invocations
of demons who "deceive human vision by blinding illusions
so that men do not see what does exist and think that they
see what does not exist," ^ the very expression that we have
just heard from Minucius Felix. More specifically Lactan-
tius regards necromancy, oracles, liver-divination, augury,
and astrology as all invented by the demons.^ Like Origen
he emphasizes the power of the sign of the cross and the
name of Jesus against the evil spirits,^ and he implies the
power of the names of spirits when he states that, although
demons may masquerade under other forms and names in
pagan temples and worships, in magic and sorcery they are
always summoned by their true names, those celestial ones
which are read in sacred literature.*
From these accounts of magic in Latin fathers, which
do little more than reinforce the impressions which we had
already gained concerning the Christian attitude, we come
to a very different discussion by Hippolytus who wrote in
Greek although he lived in Italy. Eusebius and Jerome
state that Origen as a young man heard Hippolytus preach
at Rome; in 235 he was exiled to Sardinia; the next year
his body was brought back to Rome for burial. In Hippoly-
tus, instead of attacks upon astrology as impious, immoral,
and fatalistij:, and upon magic as evil and the work of
demons, we have an attempt to prove astrology irrational
and impracticable, and to show that magic is based upon
imposture and deceit. In the first four of the nine books
of his Philosophiimena or Refutation of All Heresies ^ Hip-
polytus set forth the tenets of the Greek philosophers, the
system of the astrologers, and the practice of the magicians
'II, IS.
'II, 17.
•IV, 27.
MI, 17.
"The work was discovered in
1842 at Mount Athos and edited
by E. Miller in 1851, Duncker and
Schneidewin in 1859, and Abbe
Cruice in i860. Greek text in PG,
vol. XVI, part 3 ; English transla-
tion in AN, vol. V.
XX
OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION
467
In order later to be able to show how much the various here-
tics had borrowed from these sources. His second and third
books are not extant ; it is in the fourth book or what is left
of it that we have portions of his discussion of astrology and
magic.^
In exposing the frauds of magicians Hippolytus uses the
word judTos, and not yo-qs, a sorcerer. He tells how the
magicians pretend that the spirits give response through a
medium to questions which those consulting them have
written on papyrus, perhaps in invisible ink, and folded up,
after which the papyrus is placed on coals and burned. The
magician, however, operating in semi-darkness and making
a great noise and diversion and pretending to invoke the
demon, is really occupied in sprinkling the burnt papyrus
with a mixture of water and copperas (vitriol?) or fumi-
gating it with vapor of a gall nut or employing other meth-
ods to make the concealed letters visible. Having by some
such method discovered the question, he instructs the me-
dium, who is now supposed to be possessed of demons and
is reclining upon a couch, what answer to give by whis-
pering to him through a long hidden tube constructed out
of the windpipe of a crane or ten brass pipes fitted together.
It will be recalled that it was by such a tube made of the
windpipes of cranes that Alexander the false prophet, ac-
cording to Lucian, caused the artificial head of his god to
give forth oracles. Hippolytus adds that at the same time
the magician produces alarming flames and liquids by such
chemical mixtures as fossil salts and Etruscan wax and a
grain of salt. "And when this is consumed, the salts bound
upward and give the impression of a strange vision." ^
Hippolytus also reveals how magicians secretly fill eggs
with dyes, how they cause sheep to behead themselves against
a sword by smearing their throats with a drug which makes
them itch, how a ram dies if its head is merely bent back
facing the sun, how they obstruct the ears of goats with
* R. Ganschinietz, Hippolyto^ text.
Frauds of
magicians
in answer-
ing ques-
tions.
Other
tricks and
illusions.
Capitel gegen die Magier, 1913, in
TU, 39, 2, is a commentary on the
28.
'Refutation of All Heresies, IV,
468
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Defects
and merits
of Hippo-
lytus' ex-
posure of
magic and
of magic
itself.
wax SO that they cannot breathe and presently die of suffo-
cation, how out of sea foam they make a compound which,
like alcohol, will itself burn but not consume the objects
over which it is poured.-^ He tells how the magician pro-
duces stage thunder, how he is able to plunge his hand into
a boiling cauldron or walk over hot coals without being
burnt, and how he can set a seeming pyramid of stone on
fire. He tells how the magicians loosen seals and seal them
up again, just as Lucian did in his Alexander or The Pseudo-
Prophet; how by means of trap-doors, mirrors, and the like
devices they show demons in a cauldron; how they pretend
to show flaming demons by igniting drawings which they
have sketched on the wall with some inflammable substance
or by loosing a bird which has been set on fire. They make
the moon appear indoors and imitate the starry sky by at-
taching fish scales to the ceiling. They produce the sensa-
tion of an earthquake by burning the ordure of a weasel
with the stone magnet upon an open fire. They construct a
false skull from the caul of an ox, some wax, and some gum,
make it speak by means of a hidden tube, and then cause it
suddenly to collapse and disappear or to burn up.^
This exposition of the frauds of the magicians by Hippo-
lytus is rather broken and incoherent, at least in the form
in which his text has reached us.^ Also we do not have
much more faith in some of the methods by which he says
the feats of magic are really done than he has in the ways
by which the magicians claim to perform them. But while
his notions of the chemical action of certain substances and
of the occult virtue of others may be incorrect, the note-
* Since writing this sentence I
have found an article by Diels on
the discovery of alcohol in So-
cietas Regia Scientiarum, Abhandl.
Philos.-Hist. Classe, Berlin, 1913,
in which he argues from this
passage in Hippolytus that the
discovery was made in the Alex-
andrian period and that it reached
western Europe again only
through the Arabs about the
twelfth century, since alcohol is
not mentioned in the older
Schlettstadt version of the Mappae
clazncufa. If this be so, Adelard
of Bath was perhaps the first to
introduce it from the Arabs or
the orient, although Diels does
not say so.
^Refutation of All Heresies, IV,
29-41.
' In some places the text is il-
legible.
XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 469
worthy point is that he endeavors to explain magic either
as a deception or as employing natural substances and forces
to simulate supernatural action, and that his exposure of
magic devices leaves no place for the action of demons.
Moreover, v^e see that magic fraud involves chemical ex-
periment and considerable knowledge or error in the field
of natural science. Under the guise or tyranny of magic
experimental science is at work.
The question then arises whether Hippolytus himself Hippoly
discovered these tricks of the magicians or whether he is sources,
simply copying his explanations of them from some previous
work. An examination of the earlier chapters of his fourth
book is sufficient to solve the question. His arguments
against the practice of the Chaldean astrologers of predict-
ing man's life from his horoscope at the time of his birth
are drawn from the pages of the sceptical philosopher, Sextus
Empiricus, whom he follows so closely that his editors are
able to rectify his text by reference to the parallel passage
in Sextus. We are therefore probably safe in assuming,
especially in view of the resemblances to the Alexander of
Lucian which have already been noted, that Hippolytus'
attack on magic is also largely indebted to some classical
work, possibly to that very treatise against magic by Celsus
to which both Origen and Lucian refer, or perhaps to some
account of apparatus with which to work marvels like Hero's
Pneumatics.
Turning back now to the subject of the witch of Endor, Justin
we find that some of the church fathers agree with Origen ^,^Y ^^
rather than Tertullian that the witch really invoked Samuel, others on
Before Origen' s time Justin Martyr in The Dialogue zvitJi of Endor.
Trypho ^ had mentioned as a proof of the immortality of
the soul "the fact that the soul of Samuel was called up by
the witch, as Saul demanded." Huet, who edited the writ-
ings of Origen, lists other Christian authors ^ who agreed
^ Cap. 105. Anastasius Antiochenus, '05riy6s,
*Leo Allatius "in syntagmate" quaest., 112; "et eorum quos lau-
De engastrimytho, cap, 7 ; Sulpicius dat Bellarminus liber IV de
Severus, Historia sacra, liber I; C/imfo, cap. 11."
470 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
with Origen on this question, and further informs us that
the ancient rabbis were wont to say that a soul invoked with-
in a year after its death as Samuel's was, would be seen by
the ventriloquist but not heard, and heard by the person
consulting it but not seen, an observation which suggests
that Saul was deceived by ventriloquism, while by others
present the ghost would be neither seen nor heard.
Gregory Two ecclesiastics of the fourth century composed spe-
° dE^-^ cial treatises upon the ventriloquist or witch of Endor in
stathius which they took the opposite view from that of Origen.
the ven- The briefer of these two treatises is by Gregory of Nyssa •"■
tnloquist. Y^i^Q states, without mentioning Origen by name, that some
previous writers have contended that Samuel was truly in-
voked by magic with divine permission in order that he
might see his mistake in having called Saul the enemy of ven-
triloquists. But Gregory believes that Samuel was already
in paradise and hence could not be invoked from the in-
fernal regions; but that it was a demon from the infernal
regions who predicted to Saul, "To-morrow you and Jona-
than shall be with me," The longer treatise of Eustathius
of Antioch is a direct answer to Origen's argument as its
title, Concerning the Ventriloquist against Origen,^ indi-
cates. Eustathius holds that it was illegal to consult ven-
triloquists in view of Saul's own previous action against
them and other prohibitions in Scripture, and that Origen's
remarks are to be deplored as tending to encourage simple
men to resort to arts of divination. Eustathius contends that
the witch did not invoke Samuel but only made Saul think
that she did, and that Saul himself did not see Samuel.
Pharaoh's magicians similarly deceived the imagination with
shadows and specters when they pretended to turn rods into
snakes and water into blood. Eustathius does not agree
with Origen that Samuel was in hell. He holds that the
predictions made by the pseudo-Samuel were not impossible
for a demon to make, and indeed were not strictly accurate,
^HeplT^s 'eyya<TTpi.ix{)dov,VG, XLV, '^ Migne, PG, XVIII, 613-74.
107-14.
XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 471
since Saul did not die the very next day but the day after
it, and since not only Jonathan but his three sons were slain
with him.^ Furthermore, David was already so prominent
in public affairs that a demon might easily guess that he
would succeed Saul.
Gregory of Nyssa also composed a treatise, entitled Gregory
Against Fate," in the form of a disputation between a pagan Agams^
philosopher and himself at Constantinople in 382 A. D. His ■^"^^•
opponent holds that the life of man is determined by the con-
stellations at his nativity, upon whose decree even conver-
sion to Christianity would thus be made dependent. Greg-
ory assumes the position of one hitherto ignorant of the
principles of the art of astrology, of which the philosopher
has to inform him, but on general grounds it seems very
unlikely that he really was as ignorant as this of such a wide-
spread superstition. Furthermore, he is sufficiently read in
the subject to incorporate some of Bardesanes' arguments,
of whose treatise both Gregory's title and dialogue form are
reminiscent. Some of Gregory's reasoning, however, might
well be that of a tyro and is scarcely worth elaborating here.
When the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew Astrology
included the story of the wise men from the east who had birth of
seen the star, there can be little or no doubt that he in- ^^nst.
serted it and that it had been formulated in the first place,
not merely in order to satisfy the ordinary, unlearned reader
with portents connected with the birth of Jesus, but to secure
the appearance of support for the kingship of Jesus from
that art or science of astrology which so many persons then
held in high esteem. To an age whose sublimest science was
star-gazing it would seem fitting and almost inevitable that
God should have announced the coming of the Prince of
Peace in this manner, and the account in the Gospel of Mat-
thew is in a sense an attempt to present the birth of Christ
in a way to comply with the most searching tests of contem-
^ The King James version, First be with me," instead of "thou and
Samuel, XXVIII, 19, reads, "and Jonathan."
to morrow shalt thou and thy sons ^ Migne, PG, XII, 143-74.
472 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
porary science. But the early Christians were relatively
rude and unlettered, and this effort to construct a royal horo-
scope for Jesus is a crude and faulty one from the astrologi-
cal standpoint. For this, however, the author of the Gos-
pel and not the art of astrology is obviously responsible. As
a result, however, of the Gnostic reaction against astrologi-
cal fatalism or of an orthodox Christian opposition to both
Gnostics and astrologers, most of the early fathers of the
church denied that this passage implied any recognition of
the truth of astrology and attempted to explain away its
obvious meaning. In doing this they often made the crude
and imperfect astrology of the Gospel a criterion for criti-
cizing the art of astrology itself.
Chrysos- Of patristic commentaries upon the passage in the Gos-
star of P^^ ^^ Matthew dealing with the Magi and the star of Beth-
the Magi, lehem one of the fullest and most frequently cited by me-
dieval writers is that attributed to Chrysostom. I say ''at-
tributed," because in addition to his genuine sixth homily
upon Matthew ^ there was generally ascribed to Chrysostom
in the middle ages another homily which is extant only in
Latin ^ and has been thought to be the work of some Arian.
The famous St. John Chrysostom was born at Antioch
about 347 A. D. and there studied rhetoric under the noted
sophist Libanius. From 398 to 404 he held the office of
patriarch of Constantinople; then he was exiled to Cappa-
docia where he died in 407. One detail of his boyhood may
be noted because of its connection with magic. When he
was a lad, the tyrants in the city became suspicious of plots
against them and sent soldiers to search for books of magic
and sorcery. One of the men who was arrested and put. to
death had tried to rid himself of the damaging possession
of a book of magic by throwing it into the river. Chrysos-
tom and a playmate later unsuspectingly fished an object out
of the water which turned out to be this very book, and
* Migne, PG, LVI, 61, et seq. nomine circumfertur." Ibid., 602,
* Migne, PG, LVI, 637, et seq. et seq., for opinions of various
Homily II, "Opus imperfectum in past writers as to its authenticity.
Matthacum quod Chrysostonii
XX
OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION
473
when a soldier happened to pass by just then, they were very
frightened lest he should see what they had and they should
be severely punished for it.^
In his sixth homily upon Matthew Chrysostom recog-
nizes the difficulties presented by the Scriptural account of
the Magi and the star, and approaches the task of expound-
ing it with prayers to God for aid. Some, he informs us,
take the passage as an admission of the truth of astrology.
It is this opinion which he is concerned to refute. He ar-
gues that it is not the function of astronomy to learn from
the stars who are being born but merely to predict from the
hour of birth what is going to happen, which seems a quite
fallacious distinction upon his part. He also criticizes the
Magi for calling Jesus the king of the Jews, when as Christ
told Pilate His kingdom was not of this world. He further
criticizes them for coming to Christ's birthplace when they
might have known that it would cause difficulties with
Herod, the existing king, and for coming, making trouble,
and then immediately going back home again. But these
shortcomings would seem to be those of the Scriptural nar-
rative rather than of the art of astrology, although of course
Chrysostom is trying to make the point that the Magi had
not foreseen what would happen to themselves. He fur-
ther argues that the star of Bethlehem was not like other
stars nor even a star at all," as was proved by its peculiar
itinerary, its shining by day, its rare intelligence in hiding
itself at the right time, and its miraculous ability in stand-
ing over the head of the child. Chrysostom therefore con-
^Migne. PG, LX, 274-5, in the
38th homily on the Book of Acts.
^ On the other hand, D. Fried-
rich Miinter, Der Stern der Wei-
sen: Untersuchungen iiber das
Geburtsjahr Christi, Kopenhagen,
1827, adopted the astrological
theory that the star of Bethlehem
was really a major conjunction of
Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces,
which Jewish tradition, too, seems
to have regarded as the sign of
the Messiah, and that therefore
Jesus was born in 6 B. C. This
view had already been advanced
by Kepler, but recent writers seem
to prefer a conjunction in Aries:
see H. G. Voigt, Die Geschichte
Jesu und die Astrologie, Leipzig,
191 1 ; Kritzinger, Der Stern der
Weisen, Giitersloh, 191 1; von
Oefele, Die Angaben der Berliner
Planetcntafel P827g verglichen mit
der GebiirtsgeschicJite Christi im
Berichte des Matthdus, Berlin,
1903, in Mitteil. d. V orderasiati-
schen Gesellschaft.
Sixth
homily on
Matthew.
474 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
eludes that some invisible virtue put on the form of a star.
He thinks that the star appeared to the Magi as a reflection
upon the Jews, who had rejected prophet after prophet,
whereas the apparition of a single star was sufficient to bring
barbarian Magi to the feet of Christ. At the same time he
believes that God especially favored the Magi in vouchsafing
them a star, a sign to which they were accustomed, as the
mode of announcement. Thus he comes dangerously near
to admitting tacitly what he has just been denying, namely,
that the stars are signs of the future and that there is some-
thing in the art of astrology. In short, the star appeared
to the Magi because they as astrologers would comprehend
its meaning. Chrysostom denies this openly and does his
best to think up arguments against it, but he cannot rid his
subconscious thought of the idea.
The The other homily ascribed to Chrysostom repeats some
spurious q£ |-j^g points made in the genuine homily, but adds others.
The preacher has read somewhere, perhaps in Origen where
we have already met the suggestion, that the Magi had
learned that the star would appear from the books of the
diviner Balaam, "whose divination is also put into the Old
Testament : *A star shall arise from Jacob and a man shall
come forth from Israel, and he shall rule all nations.' " But
the preacher does not state why it is any better to have such
a prediction made by a diviner than by an astrologer. The
preacher has also heard some cite a writing, which is not
surely authentic but yet is not destructive to the Faith and
rather pleasing, to the effect that in the extreme east on
the shores of the ocean live a people who possess a writing
inscribed with the name of Seth and dealing with the ap-
pearance of this star and the gifts to be offered. This
writing was handed down from father to son through suc-
cessive generations, and twelve of the most studious men of
their number were chosen to watch for the coming of the
star, and whenever one died, another was chosen in his
place. They were called Magi in their language because
they glorified God silently. Every year after the threshing
XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 475
of the harvest they climbed a mountain to a cave with de-
lightful springs shaded by carefully selected trees. There
they washed themselves and for three days in silence prayed
and praised God. Finally one year the star appeared in
the form of a little child with the likeness of a cross above
it; and it spoke with them and taught them and instructeji
them to set out for Judea.^ When they had set out, it went
before them for two years, during which time food and
drink were never lacking in their wallets. On their return
they worshiped and glorified God more sedulously than
ever and preached to their people. Finally, after the resur-
rection, the apostle Thomas visited that region and they
were baptized by him and were made his assistant preachers.
This tale is indeed pleasing enough, and it saves the Magi
from all imputation of magic arts and employment of
demons and even denies that they were astrologers. But
as a device to escape the natural inference from the Gospel
story that the birth of Christ was announced by the stars
and in a way which astronomers could comprehend it is cer-
tainly far-fetched, and shows how Christian theologians
were put to it to find a way out of the difficulty. The
homily goes on to advance some of the usual arguments
against astrology, such as that the stars cannot cause evil,
that the human will is free, and that a science of individual
horoscopes cannot account for all men worshiping idols
before Christ and abandoning idolatry and other ancient
customs thereafter, or for the perishing in the deluge of
all men except the family of Noah, or for national customs
such as circumcision among the Jews and incest among
the Persians. Here we again probably see the influence
of Bardesanes.
We have already noted that Origen seems to have been
the first of the fathers to state the number of the Magi as
* Male, Religious Art in France, in the thirteenth century. We
1913, p. 208, was not able to trace shall, however, find it mentioned
the legend that the star of the in the twelfth century by Abelard,
Magi appeared with the face of a who derived it from this spurious
child beyond The Golden Legend homily of Chrysostom.
compiled by James of Voragine
476
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Number,
names,
and home
of the
Magi.
three, whereas the homily just considered imphes that there
were twelve of them. Their representation in art as three
in number did not become general until the fourth century,^
while the depiction of them as kings was also a gradual
and, according to Kehrer, later growth.^ Bouche-Leclercq,
citing an earlier monograph,^ states that the royalty of the
Magi was invented towards the sixth century to show the
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies,^ and that Bede is
the first who knows their names. But Male says, "Their
mysterious names are first found in a Greek chronicle of
the beginning of the sixth century translated into Latin by
a Merovingian monk," and are "Bithisarea, Melichior,
Gathaspa." ^ The provenance of the Magi was variously
stated by the Christian fathers : ® Arabia according to Justin
Martyr, Epiphanius, and Tertullian or Pseudo-Tertullian;
Persia according to Clement of Alexandria, Basil, and Cyril;
Persia or Chaldea according to Chrysostom and Diodorus
of Tarsus ; Chaldea according to Jerome and Augustine and
the philosopher Chalcidius in his commentary upon Plato's
Timaeus.'^ The homily which we were just considering
gave the impression that they came from India.
In the middle ages the Magi appeared in liturgical drama
as well as in art. An early instance is a tenth century
lectionary from Compiegne, now preserved at Paris, ^ where
^ They are twice so represented creche {sic! see Luke, II, 12 and
on the elaborately carved Chris-
tian sarcophagus in the museum
at Syracuse, Sicily, where also the
manger, ox, and ass are shown
(compare note 4 below).
^ Hugo Kehrer, Die Heiligen
drei Konige in Litlcratiir und
Kunst, Leipzig, 1908, 2 vols. An
earlier work on the three Magi is
Inchofer, Tres Magi Evangelici,
Rome, 1639.
*J. C. Thilo, Eusebii Alexan-
drini oratio Hfpl iLarpovonoiv (prae-
missa de magis et stclla qtiacs-
tione) e Cod. Reg. Par. primum
edita, Progr. Halae, 1834.
* A. Bouche-Leclercq, L'As-
trologie grecque, 1899, p. 611, "La
royaute des Mages fut inventee
(vers le Vie siecle), comme la
16), le boeuf et I'ane pour mpn-
trer I'accomplissement des prophe-
ties."
" Religious Art in France, 1913,
p. 214 note, following, I presume,
Kehrer's work, as he does on p.
213.
° For detailed references see
M (inter, Der Stern der Weisen,
1827, p. 15; and Bouche-Leclercq,
1S99, p. 61 r, where they are stated
somewhat differently.
^ Comm. in Platonis Timaeum,
II, vi, 125; quoted by Miinter
(1827), pp. 27-8.
*BN 16819, fol. 49r. Corpus
Christi 134, early 12th century,
fol. I v., has a brief "Magorum
trium qui Domino Infanti aurum
obtulore nomina ct descriptio."
XX
OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION
A77
after homilies by various fathers there is added in a hand
only slightly later the liturgical drama of the adoration
of the Magi. In the later middle ages there came into exist-
ence the History or Deeds of the Three Kings of Cologne,
as the Magi came to be called from the supposed transla-
tion of their relics to that city. Their bodies were said to
have been brought by the empress Helena from India to
Constantinople, whence they were transferred to Milan,
and after its destruction by Barbarossa, to Cologne. This
"fabulous narration," as it has well been entitled,^ also has
much to say of the miracles of the apostle Thomas in India
and of Prester John, to whom we shall devote a later chap-
ter. It asserts that the three kings reached Jerusalem on
the thirteenth day after Christ's birth by a miraculously
rapid transit by day and by night of themselves and their
armies to the marvel of the inhabitants of the towns through
which they passed, or rather, flew.^ After they had re-
turned home and had successively migrated to Christ above,
another apparition of a star marked this fact.^ The treatise
exists in many manuscripts ■* and was printed more than
once before 1500.
'Cotton Galba E, VIII, isth
century, fols. 3-28, Fabulosa nar-
ratio de tribus magis qui Chris-
tum adorarunt sive de tribus
regibus Coloniensibus.
^ Cap. 12 in the 1478 edition.
^ Ibid., cap. 34.
*At Munich all the following
MSS are 15th century: CLM
18621, fol. 135, Liber tritim regum,
fol. 215, Legenda trium regum ex-
cerpta ex praccedenti; 19544, fols.
314-49, and 26688, fols. 157-92,
Laudcs et gesta trium regum, etc.;
21627, fols. 212-31, Historia de
tribus regibus; 23839, fols. 112-37,
and 24571, fols. 50-104, Gesta
trium regumr,' 25073, fols. 260-83,
de nativiiate domini et de tribus
regibus. At Berlin MSS 799 and
800, both of the iSth century, have
the Gesta trium regum ascribed to
John of Hildesheim. So Wolfen-
btittel 3266, anno 1461. The
printed edition of 1478 in 46
chapters and about 30 folios is
also ascribed to John of Hildes-
heim. We read on the binding,
"loannis Hildeshemensis Liber de
trium regum translatione." The
Incipit is : "Reverendissimo in
Christo patri ac domino domino
florencio de weuelkouen divina
providencia monasteriensis ec-
clesie episcopo dignissimo." The
colophon is : "Liber de gestis ac
trina beatissimorum trium regum
translacione . . . per me Johan-
nem guldenschoff de moguncia."
Some other MSS, also of the 15th
century, are : Vatic. Palat. Lat.
859, de gestis et translationibus
trium regum, and at Oxford, Uni-
versity College 2>2), Liber collectus
de gestis et translationibus sanc-
torum trium regum de Colonia;
Laud Misc., 658, The history of
the three kings of Cologne, in
forty-one chapters with a preface.
It is thus seen that the number of
Liturgical
drama of
the Magi:
The Three
Kings of
Cologne.
478
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Another
homily on
the Magi.
Priscil-
lianists
answered.
Finally we may note the contents of the homily on the
Magi which immediately precedes the liturgical drama con-
cerning them in the above mentioned tenth century lection-
ary,^ The Magi are said to have come on the thirteenth
day of Christ's nativity. That they came from the Orient
was fitting since they sought one of whom it had been
written, Ecce vir oriens. It was also fitting that Christ's
coming should be announced to shepherds of Israel by a
rational angel, to Gentile Magi by an irrational star. This
star appeared neither in the starry heaven nor on earth but
in the air ; it had not existed before and ceased to exist after
it had fulfilled its function. Although he has just said that
the star appeared in the air and not in the sky, the preacher
now adds that when a new man was bom in the world it
was fitting that a new star should appear in the sky. He
also, in pointing out how all the elements recognized that
their Creator had come into the world, states that the sky
sent a star, the sea allowed Him to walk upon it, the sun
was darkened, stones were broken and the earth quaked
when He died.
Since the heretics known as Priscillianists have adduced
the star at Christ's birth to prove that every man is born
under the fates of the stars, the preacher endeavors to
answer them. He holds that since the star came to where
Jesus lay He controlled it rather than vice versa. Then
follow the usual arguments against genethlialogy that many
men born under the sign Aquarius are not fishermen, that
sons of serfs are born at the same time as princes, and the
chapters varies. Coxe's catalogue
of the Laud MSS states that the
Latin original was printed at
Cologne in quarto in 1481, and
that it is very different from the
version printed by Wynkyn de
Worde. "The Story of the Magi,"
in Bodleian (Bernard) 2325,
covers only folio 68. At Amiens
is a MS which the catalogue dates
in the 14th century and ascribes
to John of Hildesheim, and its
Incipit is practically that of the
printed edition : Amiens 481, f ols.
1-58, "Reverendissimo in Christo
Patri ac domino domino Floren-
tino de Wovellonem (sic) divina
providencia Monasteriensis ec-
clesie episcopo dignissimo. Cum
venerandissimorum triuni Ma-
gorum, ymo verius trium Regum."
The work ends in the MS with
the words, ". . . summi Regis
servant legem incole Colonic.
Amen. Explicit hystoria."
^ BN 16819, lOth century, fols.
46r-49r.
XX OTHER CHRISTIAN DISCUSSION 479
case of Jacob and Esau. The star was merely a sign to the
Magi and by its twinkhng illuminated their minds to seek
the new-born babe. It seems scarcely consistent that a star
which the preacher has called irrational should illuminate
minds.
The homily goes on to say that opinions differ as to Number
who the Magi were and whence they came. Owing to ^ the '^^
the prophecy that the kings of Tarsus and the isles offer Magi again.
presents, the kings of the Arabs and Sheba bring gifts, some
regard Tarsus, Arabia, and Sheba as the homes of the
Magi. Others call them Persians or Chaldeans, since Chal-
deans are skilled in astronomy. Others say that they were
descendants of Balaam. At any rate they were the first
Gentiles to seek Christ and they are well said to have
been three, symbolizing faith in the Trinity, the three virtues,
faith, hope and charity, the three safeguards against evil
thoughts, words and works, and the three Gentile contribu-
tions to the Faith of physics, ethics, and logic, or natural,
moral, and rational philosophy. The preacher then indulges
in further allegorical interpretation anent Herod and what
was typified by the gifts of the Magi.^
* Marco Polo (I, 13-14, ed. Yule See also F. W. K. Miiller,
and Cordier, 1903, vol. I, 78-81), Uigurica, I, i, Die Anbetung der
who _ located the Magi in Saba, Magier, ein Christliches Bruch-
Persia, _ recounts further legends stuck , Berlin, 1908.
concerning them and their gifts.
CHAPTER XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE : BASIL, EPIPHANIUS,
AND THE PHYSIOLOGUS
Lactantius not a fair example — Commentaries on the Biblical -account
of creation — Date and delivery of Basil's Hexaemeron — The Hexaem-
eron of Ambrose — Basil's medieval influence — Science and religion —
Scientific curiosity of Basil's audience — Allusions to amusements — Con-
flicts with Greek science — Agreement with Greek science — Qualification
of the Scriptural account of creation — The four elements and four
qualities — Enthusiasm for nature as God's work — Sin and nature —
Habits of animals — Marvels of nature — Spontaneous generation — Lack
of scientific scepticism — Sun worship and astrology — Permanence of
species — Final impression from the Hexaemeron — The Medicine Chest
of Epiphanius — Gems in the high priest's breastplate — Some other
gems — The so-called Physiologus; problem of its origin — Does the title
apply to any one particular treatise? — And to what sort of a treatise?
— Medieval art shows almost no symbolic influence of the Physiologus
— Physiologus was more natural scientist than allegorist.
Lactantius The opposition of early Christian thought to natural
science has been rather unduly exaggerated. For instance,
Lactantius, one of the least favorable to Greek philosophy
and natural science of the fathers, should hardly be cited
as typical of early Christian attitude in such matters. Nor
does his opposition impress one as weighty.^ He ridicules
the theory of the Antipodes,^ which he perhaps understands
*Beazley, Dawn of Modern here, too, I wonder if he is not
Geography, I, 274, says, "Angus- following Letronne, Des Opinions
tine and Chrysostom felt and Cosmographiques des Peres, with-
spoke in the same way, though in out having examined the citations,
more measured language, and Certainly no such attitude is found
nearly all early Christian writers in Basil's Hexaemeron, Hom. 3
who touched upon the matter did and 9 as the citation implies. I
so to echo the voice of authorities have not seen Marinelli, La
so unquestioned." But I cannot gcographia e i Padri delta Chiesa,
agree with this statement. He estratto dal Bollettino della Societd
goes on to imply that a majority geografica italiana, anno 1882, pp.
of the fathers, like Cosmas Indi- 11-15.
copleustes, attacked the belief in " Diznn. Instit., Ill, 24.
the sphericity of the earth ; but
480
CHAP. XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 481
none too well, asking if anyone can be so inept as to think
that there are men whose feet are above their heads, al-
though he knows very well that Greek science teaches that
all weights fall towards the center of the earth, and that
consequently if the feet are nearer the center of the earth
that they must be below the head. He continues, however,
to insist that the philosophers are either very stupid, or just
joking, or arguing for the sake of arguing, and he declares
that he could show by many arguments that the heaven
cannot possibly be lower than the earth — which no one has
asserted except himself — if it were not already time to
close his third book and begin the fourth. Apparently
Lactantius is the one who is arguing for the sake of arguing,
or just joking, or else very stupid, and I fear it is the last.
But other Christian fathers were less dense, and we already
have heard the cultured pagan Plutarch scoff at the notion
of a spherical earth and of antipodes. We may grant, how-
ever, that the ecclesiastical writers of the Roman Empire
and early medieval period normally treat of spiritual rather
than material themes and discuss them in a religious rather
than a scientific manner.
But in the commentaries upon the books of the Bible Commen-
which the fathers multiplied so voluminously it was neces- the Bibli-
sary for them, if they began their labors with Genesis, to cal account
deal at the very start in the first verses of the first book of tion.
the Bible with an explanation of nature which at several
points was in disagreement with the accepted theories of
Greek philosophy and ancient science. Such comment upon
the opening verses of Genesis sometimes developed into a
separate treatise called Hexaemeron from the works of the
six days of creation which it discussed. Of the various
treatises of this type the Hexaemeron of Basil ^ seems to
have been both the best ^ and the most influential, and will be
considered by us as an example of Christian attitude towards
*Migne, PG, vol. 29; PN, vol. 8. work as "a la fois plus sobre, plus
"Duhem (1914) II, 394, how- concis, et plus philosophique. . . ."
ever, prefers Gregory of Nyssa's
482
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Date and
delivery of
Basil's
Hexaem-
eron.
The
Hexacm-
eron of
Ambrose.
the natural science and, to some extent, the superstition of
the ancient world.
Basil died on the first day of January, 379 A. D., and
was born about 329. When or where the nine homilies
which compose his Hexaemeron were preached is not known,
but from an allusion to his bodily infirmity in the seventh
homily and his forgetfulness the next day in Homily VIII
we might infer that it was late in life. To all appearances
these sermons were taken down and have reached us just
as they were delivered to the people, to whose daily life
Basil frequently adverts. The sermons were delivered early
in the morning before the artisans in the audience went to
their work and again at the close of the day and before
the evening meal, since Basil sometimes speaks of the ap-
proach of darkness surprising him and of its consequently
being time to stop.^ One of the surest indications either
that the sermons were delivered extemporaneously, or that
Basil was repeating with variations to suit the occasion
and present audience sermons which he had delivered so
often as to have practically memorized, occurs in the
eighth homily where he starts to discuss land animals,
forgetting that the last day he did not get to birds, but is
presently brought to a realization of his omission by the
actions of his audience and, after a pause and an apology,
makes a fresh start upon birds. The Hexaemeron was
highly praised by Basil's contemporaries and was regarded
as the best of his works by later Byzantine literary collectors
and critics.
Basil's work, however, was not the first of its kind, as
Hippolytus and Origen, at least, are known to have earlier
composed similar treatises, and still earlier in the treatise
* Homily I was delivered in the
morning, II in the evening; III
was in the morning and speaks of
a coming evening address. At the
close of Homily VII Basil urges
his hearers to talk over at their
evening meal what they have
heard this morning and this eve-
ning. If we regard Homily VI
as the morning address referred
to, we shall have Homily V left to
cover an entire day. Homily VI,
however, is the longest of the
nine. In any case Homily VIII is
clearly preached in the morning,
and IX at evening.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 483
of Theophilus To Aiitolyciis we find a few chapters ^ de-
voted to the six days of creation. In one of his letters
Jerome states that "Ambrose recently so compiled the
Hexaemeron of Origen that he rather followed the views
of Hippolytus and Basil." ^ This Latin work of Ambrose
is extant and seems to me to follow Basil very closely. At
times the order of presentation is slightly varied and the
work of Ambrose is longer, but this is due to its more
verbose rhetoric and greater indulgence in Biblical quotation,
and not to the introduction of new ideas. The Benedictine
editors of Ambrose admit that he has taken a great deal
from Basil but deny that he has servilely imitated him.^
But a striking instance of such servile imitation is seen in
Ambrose's duplicating even Basil's mistake in omitting to
discuss birds and then apologizing for it, reminding one of
the Chinese workman who made all the new dinner plates
with a crack and a toothpick stuck in it, like the old broken
plate which he had been given as a model. It is true that
Ambrose does not first discuss land animals for a page as
Basil did, but makes his apology more immediately. The
opening words of the eighth sermon in the twelfth chapter
of his fifth book are, "And after he had remained silent
for a moment, again resuming his discourse, he said . . ."
Then comes his apology, expressed in different terms from
Basil's and to the effect that in his previous discourse upon
fishes he became so immersed in the depths of the sea as to
forget all about birds. Thus the incident which in Basil
had every appearance of a natural mistake, in Ambrose has
all the earmarks of an affected imitation. It is barely possi-
ble, however, that Origen made the original mistake and
that Basil and Ambrose have both imitated him in it. On
the other hand, we are told that the Hexaemerons of Origen
* Bk. II, caps. 10-17. ment of the work of creation,
* Epistola 65, ad Pamniachium. continues to comment on the text
Augustine's De Gcncsi ad litteram, up to Adam's expulsion from
which Cassiodorus (Institutes, I, Paradise.
i) esteemed above the commen- ^ Migne, PL, 14, 131-2. The most
taries of Basil and Ambrose upon recent edition of the Hexaemeron
Genesis, is a som.ewhat similar of Ambrose is by C. Schenkl.
work, but, after a briefer treat- Vienna, 1896.
484
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Basil's
medieval
influence.
and Basil differed fundamentally in this respect, that Origen
indulged to a great extent in allegorical interpretation of the
Mosaic account of creation/ while Basil declares that he
"takes all in the literal sense," is "not ashamed of the
Gospel," and "admits the common sense of the Scriptures." ^
At any rate, Basil's Hexaemeron seems to have sup-
planted all such previous treatises in Greek, while its west-
em influence is shown not only by Ambrose's imitation of
it so soon after its production, but by Latin translations of
it by Eustathius Afer in the fifth, and perhaps by Dionysius
Exiguus in the sixth century. Medieval manuscripts of it
are fairly numerous and sometimes of early date,^ and
include an Anglo-Saxon epitome ascribed to Aelfric in the
Bodleian Library, Bartholomew of England * in the thir-
teenth century quotes "Rabanus who uses the words of
Basil in the Hexaemeron" for a description of the empyrean
heaven which I have been unable to find in the works of
*Fialon, £tude sur St. Basile,
1869, p. 296.
"" Homily IX.
* For example, in the catalogue,
published in 1744, of MSS in the
then Royal Library at Paris there
are listed five copies of Eustathius'
Latin translation, dating from the
ninth to the fourteenth century —
2200, 4; 1701, i; 1702, i; 1787A,
2 ; 2633, I ; and fifteen copies of
the Hexaemeron of Ambrose —
1718; 1702, 2; 1719 to 1727 in-
clusive ; 2387, 4 ; 2637 and 2638.
I have not noted what MSS of
the Hexaemerons of Basil and
Ambrose are found in the British
Museum and Bodleian libraries.
Some other medieval copies of
Basil's in Latin translation are :
BN 12134, 9th century Lombard
hand; Vendome 122, nth cen-
tury, fols. I v-60; Soissons 121,
I2th century, fol. 97, Eustathius'
prologue and a part of his trans-
lation; Grenoble 258, 12th cen-
tury, fols. 1-45, "Eustathii trans-
latio. . . ."
The Hexaemeron of Ambrose,
since written originally in Latin,
is naturally found oftener. The
oldest MS is said to be CU
Corpus Christi 193, large Lom-
bard script of the 8th century
which closely resembles BN 3836.
Other MSS are: BN 11624, nth
century; BN 12135, 9th century;
BN 12136, i2-i3th century; BN
13336, nth century; BN 14847,
I2th century, fol. 163; BN nouv.
acq. 490, i2th century; Vatican
269-273 inclusive, io-i5th centu-
ries ; Alenqon 10, 12th century ;
Vendome 129, 12th century, fols.
48-126; Semur, 10, 12th century;
Chartres 63, 10- nth century, fols.
3-46; Orleans 35, nth century;
Orleans 192, 7th century, part of
the first two books only ; Amiens
fonds Lescalopier 30, 12th cen-
tury; le Mans 15, nth century;
Brussels 1782, loth century; CLM
2549, I2th century; CLM 3728,
loth century; CLM 6258, loth
century; CLM 13079, 12th cen-
tury ; CLM 14399, I2th century ;
Novara 40, 12th century; and
many other MSS of later date in
these and other libraries.
* De proprietatibus rerum, VIII,
4-
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
485
either Rabanus or Basil. Bede, in a similar, though much
abbreviated, work of his own, states that while many have
said many things concerning the beginning of the Book of
Genesis, the chief authorities, so far as he has been able
to discover, are Basil of Caesarea, whom Eustathius trans-
lated from Greek into Latin, Ambrose of Milan, and Augus-
tine, bishop of Hippo. These works, however, were so long
and expensive that only the rich could afford to purchase
them and so profound that only the learned could read and
understand them. Bede had accordingly been requested to
compose a brief rendition of them, which he does partly
in his own words, partly in theirs.^
The general tenor of Basil's treatise may be described Science
as follows. He accepts the literal sense of the first chapter religion.
of Genesis as a correct account of the universe, and, when
he finds Greek philosophy and science in disagreement with
the Biblical narrative, inveighs against the futilities and
follies and conflicting theories and excessive elaborations
of the philosophers. On such occasions the simple state-
ments of Scripture are sufficient for him. "Upon the essence
of the heavens we are contented with what Isaiah says.
... In the same way, as concerns the earth, let us resolve
not to torment ourselves by trying to find out its essence.
... At all events let us prefer the simplicity of faith to
the demonstrations of reason." ^ These three quotations
illustrate his attitude at such times. But at all other times
he is apt to follow Greek science rather implicitly, accepting
without question its hypothesis of four elements and four
qualities, and taking all his details about birds, beasts, and
fish from the same source.
Moreover, while Basil may affirm that the edification Scientific
of the church is his sole aim and interest, it is evident that '^"''iP^'tX
1 , . , . of Basil 3
his audience are possessed by a lively scientific curiosity, audience.
* Bede, Hexaemeron, sive libri
quatuor in principium Genesis
usque ad nativitatem Isaac et
electionem Ismaelis, in Migne, PL,
Qi, 9-100. Bede originally in-
tended to carry his work only to
the expulsion of Adam from
Paradise, but subsequently added
three more books.
'Homilies I, VIII, and X.
486
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chaf.
and that they wish to hear a great deal more about natural
phenomena than Isaiah or any other Biblical author has to
offer them. "What trouble you have given me in my pre-
vious discourses," exclaims Basil in his fourth homily, "by
asking me why the earth was invisible, why all bodies are
naturally endued with color, and why all color comes under
the sense of sight? And perhaps my reason did not appear
sufficient to you. . . , Perhaps you will ask me new ques-
tions." Basil gratifies this curiosity concerning the world
of nature with many details not mentioned in the Bible
but drawn from such works as Aristotle's Meteorology and
History of Animals. This scientific curiosity displayed by
Basil's hearers is the more interesting in that artisans who
had to labor for their daily bread appear to have made up a
large element in his audience.-^ It is perhaps on their ac-
count that Basil often speaks of God as the supreme artisan
or artificer or artist,^ or calls their attention to "the vast
and varied workshop of divine creation," ^ and makes other
flattering allusions to arts which support life or produce
enduring work, and to waterways and sea trade.* He also
seems to have a sincere appreciation of the arts and admira-
tion of beauty, which he twice defines.^
At the risk of digression, it is perhaps worth noting
further that Basil's hearers seem to have been very familiar
with, not to say fond of, the amusements common in the
cities of the Roman Empire. Twice he opens his sermons
with allusions to the athletes of the circus and actors of
the theater,® apparently as the surest way of quickly catch-
ing the attention of his audience, while on a third occasion,
in concluding his morning address on what appears to have
been a holiday, he remarks that if he had dismissed them
earlier, some would have spent the rest of the day gambling
with dice, and that "the longer I keep you, the longer you
are out of the way of mischief." ^ He also alludes to the
* Homily III, i and lO.
M, 7; III, 5 and lo.
'IV, I.
M, 7; HI, 5; IV, 3, 4, and 7;
VI, 9; VII, 6.
*II, 7; III, 10.
•IV. i; VI, I.
'VIII, 8.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
487
spinning of tops and to what was apparently the game of
push-ball.-^
Taking up the contents of the Hexaemeron more in
detail, we may first note those points upon which Basil sup-
ports the statements of the Bible against Greek science and
philosophy. He of course insists that the universe was
created by God and is not co-existent, much less identical,
with Him.- He also denies that the form of the world
alone is due to God and that matter is of separate origin.^
Nor will he accept the arguments of the philosophers who
"would rather lose their tongues" than admit that there is
more than one heaven. Basil is ready to believe not merely
in a second, but a third heaven, such as the apostle Paul
speaks of being rapt to. He regards a plurality of heavens
as no more difficult to credit than the seven concentric
spheres of the planets, and as much more probable than the
philosophic theory of the music of the spheres which he
decries as "ingenious frivolity, the untruth of which is evi-
dent from the first word." ■* He also defends the statement
of Scripture that there are waters above the firmament, not
only against the doctrines of ancient astronomy,^ but also
against "certain writers in the church," among whom he
probably has Origen in mind, who interpret the passage
figuratively and assert that the waters stand for "spiritual
and incorporeal powers," those above the firmament repre-
senting good angels and those below the firmament standing
for evil demons. "Let us reject these theories as we would
the interpretations of dreams and old-wives' tales." ^
In connection with Basil's defense of the plurality of
the heavens it may be noted that R. H. Charles presents
evidence to show "that speculations or definitely formulated
views on the plurality of the heavens were rife in the very
cradle of Christendom and throughout its entire develop-
ment," and that "the prevailing view was that of the seven-
Conflicts
with
Greek
science.
* Homily V, 10; IX, 2
*ni, 3.
\l ^■
" II, 4, et sea.
' II. I.
* III, 9.
488
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Agree-
ment with
Greek
Qualifica-
tion of the
Scriptural
account of
creation.
fold division of the heavens," ^ He fails, however, to dis-
criminate between the doctrine of Greek philosophy that
the universe was one, although the circles of the planets are
seven, and the plurality of the heavens, which Basil insists
that the philosophers deny; and very probably the Jewish
and early Christian notions of successive heavens full of
angels and spirits developed from the spheres of the planets.
Among the various early heresies described by the fathers
are also found, of course, many allusions to these seven
spheres or heavens. The disciples of Valentinus, for ex-
ample, according to Irenaeus and Epiphanius, "affirm that
these seven heavens are intelligent and speak of them as
angels . . . and declare that Paradise, situated above the
third heaven, is a powerful angel." ^
On the other hand, we may note some points where
Basil is in accord with Greek science. He warns his hearers
not to "be surprised that the world never falls; it occupies
the center of the universe, its natural place." ^ He advances
numerous proofs of the immense size of the sun and moon.*
He accepts the hypothesis of four elements but abstains
from passing judgment upon the question of a fifth ele-
ment of which the heavens and celestial bodies may be
composed.^ He thinks that "it needs not the space of a
moment for light to pass through" the ether.^
Moreover, Basil finds it necessary to qualify some of
the statements in the first chapter of Genesis. He inter-
prets the command, "Let the waters under the heaven be
gathered together unto one place," to apply only to the sea
or ocean, which he contends is one body of water, and not
to pools and lakes,'^ recognizing that otherwise "our ex-
planation of the creation of the world may appear contrary
to experience, because it is evident that all the waters did
not flow together in one place." In this connection he
* Charles, The Book of the ' Homily I, lO.
Secrets of Enoch, Introduction, * VI, 9-1 1.
pp. xxxi, xxxix. * I, II.
' Irenaeus, I, 5 ; Epiphanius, ed. ' II, 7.
Petavius t86AB. 'IV, 2-4.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
489
states that "although some authorities think that the
Hyrcanian and Caspian Seas are enclosed in their own
boundaries, if we are to believe the geographers, they com-
municate with each other and together discharge them-
selves into the Great Sea." He speaks of "the vast ocean,
so dreaded by navigators, which surrounds the isle of Brit-
ain and western Spain." ^ Later he contends that "sea water
is the source of all the moisture of the earth." ^ He has
also to meet the following objection made to the eleventh
and twelfth verses of the first chapter of Genesis: "How
then, they say, can Scripture describe all the plants of the
earth as seed-bearing, when the reed, couch-grass, mint,
crocus, garlic, and the flowering rush and countless other
species produce no seed? To this we reply that many
vegetables have their seminal virtue in the lower part and
in the roots." ^
Basil regards the words of Genesis, "God called the
dry land earth," as a recognition of the fact that drought
is the primal property of earth, as humidity is of air ; cold,
of water; and heat, of fire. He adds, however, that "our
eyes and senses can find nothing which is completely singu-
lar, simple, and pure. Earth is at the same time dry and
cold; water, cold and moist; air, moist and warm; fire,
warm and dry." ^ Indeed, as he has already stated in the
previous homily, the mixture of elements in actual objects
is even more intricate than this last sentence might seem
to indicate. Every element is in every other, and we not
only do not perceive with our senses any pure elements but
not even any compounds of two elements only.^
Basil is alive to the absorbing interest of the world of
nature and to the marvelous intricacies of natural science.
He tells his hearers that as "anyone not knowing a town is
taken by the hand and led through it," so he will guide them
"through the mysterious marvels of this great city of the
universe." ^ As he had said in the preceding homily, "A
'Homily IV, 4. ■• I V, 5.
The four
elements
and four
qualities.
Enthusi-
asm for
nature as
God's
work.
IV, 6.
V. 2.
Ill, 4.
VI, I.
490
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
single plant, a blade of grass is sufficient to occupy all your
intelligence in the contemplation of the skill which pro-
duced it." ^ He sees "great wisdom in small things." ^
Thus by the argument from design he is apt to work back
from nature to the Creator, so that his enthusiasm cannot
be regarded as purely scientific. Going a step farther than
Galen's argument from design, he contends that "not a
single thing has been created without reason; not a single
thing is useless." ^
Basil also cherishes the notion, which we have already
found both in pagan and Christian writers, that human sin
leaves its stain or has its effect upon nature. The rose was
without thorns before the fall of man, and their addition to
its beauty serves to remind us that "sorrow is very near
to pleasure." *
Basil discusses the habits of animals largely in order
to draw moral lessons from them for human beings and he
has several passages in the style supposed to be charac-
teristic of the Physiologus. But he also refers in a num-
ber of places to the ability of animals to find remedies with
which to cure themselves of ailments and injuries, or to
their power of divining the future. The sea-urchin fore-
tells storms; sheep and goats discern danger by instinct
alone. The starling eats hemlock and digests it "before its
chill can attack the vital parts"; and the quail is able to
feed on hellebore. The wounded bear nurses himself, filling
his wounds with mullein, an astringent plant; "the fox
heals his wounds with droppings from the pine tree" ; the
tortoise counteracts the venom of the vipers it has eaten
by means of the herb marjoram; and "the serpent heals sore
eyes by eating fennel." ^
Indeed, far from being led by his acquaintance with
Greek science into doubting the marvelous, Basil finds "in
nature a thousand reasons for believing in the marvelous." ^
He is ready to ascribe astounding powers to animals, and
* Homily V, 3. *V, 6.
"V, 9. "vii, s;ix. 3.
'V. 4. • VIII, 6.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
491
Spon-
taneous
genera-
tion.
believes, like Pliny, that "the greatest vessels, sailing with
full sails, are easily stopped by a tiny fish." ^ He tells us
that nature endowed the lion with such loud and forceful
vocal organs "that often much swifter animals are caught
by his roaring alone." ^ He also repeats in charming style
the familiar story of the halcyon days. The halcyon lays
its eggs along the shore in mid-winter when violent winds
dash the waves against the land. Yet winds are hushed
and waves are calm during the seven days that the halcyon
sits, and then, after its young are hatched and in need of
food, "God in his munificence grants another seven days
to this tiny animal. All sailors know this and call these days
halcyon days." ^
Like most ancient scientists, Basil believes that some ani-
mals are spontaneously generated. "Many birds have no
need of union with males to conceive," a circumstance which
should make it easy for us to believe in the Virgin birth of
Christ.^ Grasshoppers and other nameless insects and some-
times frogs and mice are "born from the earth itself," and
"mud alone produces eels," ^ a theory not much more amaz-
ing than the assertion of modern biologists that eels spawn
only in the Mediterranean Sea. Basil states that "in the
environs of Thebes in Egypt after abundant rain in hot
weather the country is covered with field mice," but with-
out noting that abundant rain in upper Egypt in hot weather
would itself be in the nature of a miracle.
Basil is less sceptical than Apollonius of Tyana in
regard to the birth of lions and of vipers, repeating iin-
questioningly the statement that the viper gnaws its way ticism
out of its mother's womb, and that the lioness bears only one
whelp because it tears her with its claws. ^ Of purely scien-
tific scepticism there is, indeed, little in the Hexaemeron.
Basil does, however, question one of the powers ascribed
to magicians, and this is his only mention of the magic
* Homily VII, 6.
'IX, 3.
*VIII, 5. See also Aristotle,
History of Animals, V, 8.
Lack of
scientific
scep-
* Homily VIII, 6.
"IX, 2.
IX, s.
492 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
art. Discussing the immense size of the moon and its
great influence upon terrestrial nature, he declares ridiculous
the old-wives' tales which have been circulated everywhere
that magic incantations "can remove the moon from its
place and make it descend to the earth." ^
Sun worship still existed in Basil's time and he hails
the fact that the sun was not created until the fourth day,
after both light and vegetation were in existence, as a
severe blow to those who reverence the sun as the source
of life.^ However, he does "not pretend to be able to
separate light from the body of the sun." ^ Theophilus in
his earlier discussion of creation had stated, perhaps copy-
ing Philo Judaeus, that the luminaries were not created until
the fourth day, "because God, who possesses foreknowledge,
knew the follies of the vain philosophers, that they were
going to say, that the things which grow on earth are pro-
duced from the heavenly bodies" — which is, indeed, a funda-
mental hyopthesis of astrology — "so as to exclude God. In
order, therefore, that the truth might be obvious, the plants
and seeds were produced prior to the heavenly bodies, for
what is posterior cannot produce that which is prior." ^
Basil does not make this point against the rule of inferior
creation by the heavenly bodies, but in a succeeding homily
he feels it necessary to devote several paragraphs ^ to refuta-
tion of the "vain science" of casting nativities, which some
persons have justified by the words of God concerning sun,
moon, and stars in the first chapter of Genesis, "And let
them be for signs.'' Basil questions if it be possible to
determine the exact instant of birth, declares that to at-
tribute to the constellations and signs of the zodiac the
characteristics of animals is to subject them to external in-
fluences, and defends human free will in much the usual
fashion. He is ready, however, to grant that "the variations
of the moon do not take place without exerting great influ-
ence upon the organization of animals and of all living
'Homily VI, li. * Ad Autolvcum, II, 15.
»V, I, ^Homily VI, S-7.
•VI, 3.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 493
things," and that the moon makes "all nature participate
in her changes." ^
Basil's utterances concerning the world of nature are
not always consistent. In describing the creation of vege-
tation he asserts that species are unchanging, affirming that
"all which sprang from the earth in the first bringing forth
is kept the same to our time, thanks to the constant repro-
duction of kind." ^ Yet a few paragraphs later we find
him saying, "It has been observed that pines, cut down or
even submitted to the action of fire, are changed into a
forest of oaks." ^ Nevertheless in the last homily he again
asserts that "nature, once put in motion by divine command,
. . . keeps up the succession of kinds through resemblance
to the last. Nature always makes a horse succeed to a horse,
a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each
animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it
to the end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiari-
ties destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature,
as though it had just been constituted, follows the course
of ages forever young." ■*
Concerning Basil in conclusion we may say that while
he can scarcely be called much of a scientist, he is a pretty
good scientist for a preacher. His knowledge of, and
errors concerning, the world of nature will probably com-
pare quite as well with the science of his day as those of
most modern sermons will with the science of our days. His
occasional flings at Greek philosophy are probably not to
be taken too seriously. But what interests us rather more
' Homily VI, lo.
""V, 2.
' V, 7. But perhaps he simply
means that oaks will grow where
pines used to.
Tertullian, De pallio, cap. 2,
dwelling on the law of change,
speaks of the washing down
of soil from mountains, the
alluvial formation by rivers, and
of sea-shells on mountain tops as
a proof that the whole earth was
once covered by water. He seems
to have in mind a gradual process
of geological evolution rather than
Noah's flood, and Sir James
Frazer states that Isidore of
Seville is the first he knows of
the many writers who have ap-
pealed "to fossil shells imbedded
in remote mountains as witnesses
to the truth of the Noachian tra-
dition,"— Origines, XIII, 22, cited
by J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore in the
Old Testament (1918), I, 159, who
cites the passage in Tertullian at
PP- 338-9-
' Homily IX, 2.
Perma-
nence of
species.
Final im-
pression
from the
Hexaent-
eron.
494
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Medi-
cine Chest
of Epipha-
nius.
than Basil's attitude is that of his audience, curious con-
cerning nature. Just as it is evident that many of them
go to theaters and circuses, or play with dice, despite Basil's
denunciation of the immoral songs of the stage and the
evils of gambling; just so, we suspect, it was the attractive
morsels of Greek astronomy, botany, and zoology which he
offered them that induced them to come and listen further
to his argument from design and his moral lessons based
upon these natural phenomena. Nor were they likely to
observe his censure of incantations and nativities more
closely than his condemnation of theater and gaming. It
would be rash to infer that they always practiced what he
preached. By the same token, even if the church fathers
had opposed scientific investigation — and it hardly appears
that they did — they would probably have been no more suc-
cessful in checking it than they were in checking the com-
merce of Constantinople, although "S. Ambrose regards the
gains of merchants as for the most part fraudulent, and S.
Chrysostom's language has been generally appealed to in a
similar sense." ^
The same recognition of an interest In nature on the
part of his audience and the same appeal to their scientific
curiosity, which we have seen in Basil's sermons, is shown
by Epiphanius of Cyprus (315-403) writing in 374-375
A. D.^ He calls his work against heresies the Panarion,
or "Medicine Chest," his idea being to provide antidotes
and healing herbs in the form of salubrious doctrine against
the venom of heretics whose enigmas he compares to the
bites of serpents or wild beasts. This metaphor is more or
less adhered to throughout the work, and particular heresies
are compared to the asp, basilisk, dipsas,^ buprestis,* lizard,
dog-fish or shark, mole, centipede, scorpion, and various
* Cunningham, Christian Opinion
on Usury, p. 9.
' Twice in the course of the
Panarion (Dindorf, I, 280, and II,
428; Petavius, 2D and 404A) he
gives the year of the reign of
Valentinian and Valens. namely,
the eleventh and the twelfth.
^ Lucian's De dipsadibus will be
recalled; see also Pliny, NH,
XXIII, 80; Lucan, Pharsalia, IX,
* Pliny, NH, XXIII, 18; XXX,
10.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 495
vipers. We are further told of substances that drive away
serpents, such as the herbs dictamnon, abrotonum, and
lihanotis, the gum storax,^ and the stone gagates. As his
authorities in such matters Epiphanius states that he uses
Nicander for the natures of beasts and reptiles, and for
roots and plants Dioscorides, Pamphilus, Mithridates the
king, Callisthenes and Philo, lolaos the Bithynian, Hera-
cleides of Tarentum, and a number of other names. ^
If in his Panarion Epiphanius makes use of ancient Gems in
botany, medicine, and zoology for purposes of comparison, pj-^ests
in his treatise on the twelve gems in the breastplate of the breast-
Hebrew high priest ^ he perhaps gives an excuse and sets
the fashion for the Christian medieval Lapidaries. This
work was probably composed after the Panarion, and in
the opinion of Fogginius even later than 392 A. D.^ This
treatise probably was better known in the middle ages than
the Paimrion, since the fullest version of it extant is the
old Latin one, while the Greek text which has survived
seems only a very brief epitome. The Greek version, how-
ever, embodies a good deal of what is said concerning the
gems themselves and their virtues, but omits entirely the
long effort to identify each of the twelve stones with one of
the twelve tribes of Israel, which is left unfinished even
in the Latin version. Epiphanius shows himself rather
chary in regard to such virtues attributed to gems as to
calm storms, make men pacific, and confer the power of
divination. He does not go so far as to omit them entirely,
but he usually qualifies them as the assertion of "those who
construct fables" or "those who believe fables." It is with-
out any such qualification, however, that he declares that
the topaz, ^ when ground on a physician's grindstone, al-
though red itself, emits a white milky fluid, and, moreover,
* Pliny, NH, XXV, 53; XXI, edition of the Opera of Epipha-
92; XIX, 62; XII, 40 and 55. nius, vol. IV, pp. 141-24S, with
' Dindorf , II, 450; Petavius, the preface and notes of Foggi-
422C. nius, and both the Latin and
^ Liber de XII gemmis ration- Greek versions.
alis summi sacerdotis Hebraeo- * Ibid., 160-62.
rum, published in Dindorf's " P. 174.
496 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
that as many vessels as one wishes may be filled with this
fluid without changing the appearance or shape or lessening
the weight of the stone. Skilled physicians also attribute
to this liquid a healing effect in eye troubles, in hydrophobia,
and in the case of those who have gone mad from eating
grape-fish.
Some Epiphanius mentions a few other gems than those in the
other high priest's breastplate. Among these is the stone
hyacinth ^ which, when placed upon live coals, extinguishes
them without injury to itself and which is also beneficial
to women in childbirth, and drives away phantasms. Cer-
tain varieties of it are found in the north among the bar-
barous Scythians. The gems lie at the bottom of a deep
valley which is inaccessible to men because walled in com-
pletely by mountains, and moreover from the summits one
cannot see into the valley because of a dark mist which covers
it. How men ever became cognizant of the fact that there
are gems there may well be wondered but is a point which
Epiphanius does not take into consideration. He simply
tells us that when men are sent to obtain some of these
stones, they skin sheep and hurl the carcasses into the val-
ley where some of the gems adhere to the flesh. The odor
of the raw meat then attracts the eagles, whose keener sight
is perhaps able to penetrate the mist, although Epiphanius
does not say so, and they carry the carrion to their nests
in the mountains. The men watch where the eagles have
taken the meat and go there and find the gems which have
been brought out with it. In the middle ages we find this
same story in a slightly different form told of Alexander
the Great on his expedition to India. Epiphanius has one
thing to tell of India himself in connection with gems,
which is that a temple of Father Liber (Bacchus) is located
there which is said to have three hundred and sixty-five
steps, — all of sapphire.^
'Pp. 190-91. 'Ibid., 184.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 497
The problem of an early Christian work entitled The so-
Physiologiis is no easy one, although much has been writ- physiolo-
ten concerning: it ^ and more has been taken for granted, f"-^-' vjpb-
r 1-1,1 • lem of Its
For instance, one often meets such wild and sweepmg state- origin.
ment as that "the name Physiologus" was "given to a cyclo-
pedia of what was known and imagined about earth, sea,
sky, birds, beasts, and fishes, which for a thousand years
was the authoritative source of information on these matters
and was translated into every European tongue." ^ My
later treatment of medieval science will make patent the in-
accuracy of such a statement. But to return to the prob-
lem of the origin of Physiologus. The original Greek
text,^ which some would put back in the first half
of the second century of our era, if it ever existed, is
now lost, and its previous existence and character are
inferred from numerous apparent citations of it, possible
extracts from it, and what are taken to be imita-
tions, abbreviations, amplifications, adaptations, and trans-
lations of it in other languages and of later date. Thus we
have versions or fragments in Armenian,* Syriac,^
* Pitra, Spicilegium Solesme'nse, XXXIX (1897), 49-55. J. Strzy-
Paris, 185s, III, xlvii-lxxx. K. gowski, D e r Bilderkreis des
Ahrens, Zur Geschichte des so- griechischen Physiologus, in Bys.
genannten Physiologus, 1885. M. Zeitsch. Erganzungsheft, I (1899).
F. Mann, Bestiaire Divin de E. P. Evans, Animal Symbolism in
Guillaume Le Clerc. Heilbronn, Ecclesiastical Architecture, 1896, is
1888, pp. 16-33, "Entstehung des disappointing, being mainly com-
Physiologus und seine Entwick- piled from secondary sources and
lung im Abendlande." F. Lau- having little to say on ecclesias-
chert, Geschichte des Physioloaiis, tical architecture.
Strassburg, 1889. E. Peters, Der ' EB, nth ed., "Arthropoda."
griechische Physiologus und seine ^Lauchert (1889), pp. 229-79,
orientalise hen Uehersetzungen, attempts a critical edition of the
Berlin, 1898. M. Goldstaub, Der Greek text.
Physiologus und seine Weiter- * Pitra (1855), III, 374-90;
bildung, besonders in dcr_ latein- French translation in Cahier,
ischcn und in der byzantinischen Nouveaux melanges (1874), I,
Litteratur, in Philologus, Suppl. 117, ct seq.
Bd. yill (1898-1901), 337-404- °0. G. Tychsen, Physiologies
Also in Verhandl. d. 41 Ver- Syrus, 1795; from an incomplete
sammlung deutscher Philologen Vatican AIS. Land, Otia Syriaca,
u. _ Schulmdnner in MUnchen, p. 31, et seq., or in Anecdota
Leipzig (1892), pp. 212-21. V. Syriaca, IW , lis, et seq., g\vts tha
Schultze, Der Physiologus in der complete text with a Latin trans-
kirchlichen Kunst des Mittelal- lation.
ters, in Christliches Kunstblatt,
498
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Ethiopian/ and Arabic ; ^ a Greek text from medieval manu-
scripts, mostly of late date ; ^ various Latin versions in
numerous manuscripts from the eighth century on ; * in Old
High German a prose translation of about looo A. D. and
a poetical version later in the same language ; ^ and
Bestiaries such as those of Philip of Thaon ^ and William
^ Hommel, Die aethiopische
Uebersetzung des Physiologus,
Leipzig, 1877. A bit of it was
translated by Pitra (1855), III,
416-7.
* Land, Otia Syriaca, p. 137, et
seq., with Latin translation. A
fragment in Pitra (1855), III,
535.
^ Pitra (1855), HI, 3Z^-72„ used
MSS from the 13th to 15th cen-
tury. The earliest known illu-
minated copies are of iioo A. D.
and later : see Dalton, Byzantine
Art and Archaeology, Oxford,
191 1, pp. 481-2.
*The oldest Latin MSS seem
to be two of the 8th and 9th cen-
turies at Berne. Edited by Mai,
Classici auctores, Rome, 1835,
VII, 585-96, and more completely
by Pitra (1855), III, 418; also
by G. Heider, in Archiv f.
Kunde osterreich. Geschichtsquel-
len, Vienna, 1850, II, 545 ; Cahier
et Martin, Melanges d'archeologie,
Paris, II (1851), 85fif., Ill (1853),
203ff., IV (1856), 55fif. Cahier,
Nouveaux melanges (1874), p,
io6ff.
Mann (1888), pp. 37-73, prints
the Latin text which he regards as
William le Clerc's source from
Royal 2-C-XII, and gives a list of
other MSS of Latin Bestiaries in
English libraries.
Other medieval Latin Bestiaries
have been printed in the works of
Hildebert of Tours or Le Mans
(Migne, PL, 171, 1217-24: really
this poem concerning only twelve
animals is by Theobald, who was
perhaps abbot at Monte Cassino,
1022-T035, and it was printed
under the name of Theobald be-
fore 1500, — see the volume num-
bered lA. 12367 in the British
Museum and entitled, Phisiologus
Theobaldi Episcopi de natiiris
duodecim animalium. Indeed, it
was printed at least nine times
under his name, — see Hain,
15467-75) : and in the works of
Hugh of St. Victor (Migne, PL,
''^77, 9-164, De bestiis et aliis rebus
libri quatuor). Both of these
versions occur in numerous MSS,
as does a third version which
opens with citation of the remark
of Jacob in blessing his sons,
"Judah is a lion's whelp." The
author then cites Physiologus as
usual concerning the three natures
of the lion. See Wolfenbiittel
4435, nth century, fols. 159-68V,
Liber bestiarum. "De leone rege
bestiarum et animalium (est)
etenim iacob benedicens iudam ait
Catulus leonis iuda. De leone.
Leo tres naturas habet." Laud.
Misc. 247, I2th century, fol.
140-, . . . caps. 36, praevia tabula
. . . Tit. "De tribus naturis
leonis." Incip. "Bestiarium seu
animalium regis ; etenim Jacob
benedicens filium suum Udam
ait Catulus leonis Judas filius
meus quis suscitabit eum ; Fisiolo-
gus dicit, Tres res naturales
habere leonem. . . ." Library of
Dukes of Burgundy 10074, loth
century, "Etenim Jacob benedi-
cens." CLM 19648, 15th century,
fols. 180-95, "Igitur Jacob bene-
dicens." CLM 237S7, 15th cen-
tury, fols. 12-20, "Igitur Jacob
benedicens." CU Trinity 884,
13th century in a fine hand, with
107 English miniatures, fol. 89-,
"Et enim iacob benedicens filium
suum iudam ait catulus leonis est
iudas filius meus"; this MS ends
imperfectly.
''Printed by Lauchert (1889),
pp. 280-90.
* Max F. Mann, Der Physiolo-
gus des Philipp von Thaon und
seine Quellen, Halle, 1884, 53 pp.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
499
the Clerk ^ in the Romance languages ^ and other vernacu-
lars.^ The Physiologus has been thought to have originated
in Alexandria because of its use of the Egyptian names for
the months and because Clement of Alexandria and Origen
are supposed to have made use of it. But it is difficult
to determine whether the church fathers drew passages con-
cerning animals and nature from some such work or whether
it was a collection of passages from their writings upon
such themes. Ahrens, who thought he found the original
form of the work in a Syriac Book of the Things of Nature,"^
regarded Origen as its author. In a medical manuscript
at Vienna is a Physiologus in Greek ascribed to Epiphanius
of Cyprus,^ of whom we have just been treating, while we
hear that Pope Gelasius at a synod of 496 condemned as
apocryphal a Physiologus which was written by heretics
and ascribed to Ambrose,® who so closely duplicated the
Hexaemeron of Basil. A work on the natures of animals is
also attributed to John Chrysostom.'^ I am not sure whether
* Mann, Bestiaire Divin de
Guillaume Le Clerc, Heilbronn,
1888, in Fransosische Studien, VI,
2, pp. 201-306. Most recent edition
by Robert, Leipzig, 1890.
' Besides the two foregoing see
Goldstaub und Wendriner, Ein
tosco-venes. Bestiarius, Halle, 1892,
Magliabech. IV, 63, 13th century,
mutilated, 53 fols., bestiario mo-
ralizato, in Italian prose. E.
Monaci, Rendiconti dell' Accad.
dei Lincei, Class e di scien::e
morali, storiche e filol, vol. V,
fasc. 10 and 12, has edited a
Bestiario in 64 sonetti on as many
animals from a private MS at
"Gubbio neir archivio degli avvo-
cati Pietro e Oderisi Lucarelli,"
MS 25, fols. 112-27. See also M.
Carver and K. McKenzie, // Bes-
tiario Toscano secondo la lesione
dei codice di Parigi e di Roma, in
Studi romansi, Rome, 1912; Mc-
Kenzie, Unpublished Manuscripts
of Italian Bestiaries, in Modern
La'nguage Publications, XX
(1905), 2; and Carver, "Some
Supplementary Italian Bestiary
Chapters," in Romanic Review,
XI (1920), 308-27.
^ For instance, A. S. Cook, The
Old English Elene, Phoenix, and
Physiologus, Yale University
Press, 364 pp., 1919.
* K. Ahrens, Das "Buch der
Naturgegenstdnde," 1892.
* Cod. Vind. Med. 29, tov ayiov
'Kin4>avlov eTrLaKoirov lK.virpov irepl ttjs
Xe^ecos Trdfrcof to3v fcowc <l)V(TLo\oyos.
In the edition of Ponce de Leon,
Rome, 1587, there are twenty ani-
mals described, and the symbolic
interpretation is very short com-
pared to later versions. Heider
(1850), p. 543, regarded this as
the oldest version and as extant in
complete form.
^Mansi, Condi, VIII, 151,
"Liber Physiologus ab hereticis
conscriptus et beati Ambrosii
nomine presignatus apocryphus."
'Hejder (1850), II, 541-82,
"Physiologus nach einer Hand-
schrift des XI Jahrhunderts" : the
text opens at p. 552, "Incipiunt
Dicta Johannis Chrysostomi de
naturis bestiarum." Lauchert used
another MS, Vienna 303, 14th
century, fol. 124V-, which was
500 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
a PhysiologMS ascribed to John the Scot in a tenth century
Latin manuscript is the same work.^
TDoes the The Physiologus is commonly described as a symboUc
to any^one bestiary, in which the characteristics and properties of ani-
particular mals are accompanied by Christian allesrories and instruc-
treatise? • <- i i i
tion. Some have almost gone so far as to hold that any
passages of this sort are evidence of an author's having
employed the Physiologus, which some have held influenced
the middle ages more than any other book except the Bible.
But Pitra's point is well taken that the Physiologus is one
thing and the allegorical interpretation thereof another. In
the case of the discordant versions or fragments which he
gathered and published from different manuscripts, cen-
turies, and languages, he noted one common feature, that
the allegorical interpretation was sharply separated from
the extracts from Physiologus and sometimes omitted en-
tirely. This is what one would naturally expect since a
physiologus is a natural scientist on whose statements con-
cerning this or that the allegorical interpretation is presum-
ably based and added thereto. But this suggests another
difficulty in identifying Physiologus as a single work. The
abbreviations for the word in medieval manuscripts are very
easily confused with those for philosophers or phisici (phys-
ical scientists), and just as medieval writers often cite what
the philosophers say or the phisici say without having refer-
ence to any particular book, so may they not cite what
physiologi or even physiologus says without having any
particular writer in mind? In the De hestiis ascribed to
considerably different and was erit et scriba doctus in regno
furthermore combined with the celorum qui profert de thesauro
Physiologus of Theobald. An suo noua et uetera. Expliciunt
earlier SlS than either of the dicta Johannis Crisostomi." A
foregoing is CLM 19417, Qth cen- Paris MS of the same is BN 2780,
tury, fols. 29-71, Liber Sancti 13th century, 14, Sancti loannis
Johannis episcopi regiae urbis Chrysostomi liber qui physiologus
Constantinopoli . . . Crisostomi appellatur.
quern de naturis animalium or- ^Additional 11,035, Johannis
dinavit. Another Vienna MS is Scottigenae Phisiologiae liber.
2511, 14th century, fols. 135-40, In the same^MS are Macrobius'
"Incipiunt dicta Johannis Chry- Dream of Scipio and the poems of
sostomi de naturis animalium et Prudentius.
primo de leone .../... Sic
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 501
Hugh of St. Victor of the twelfth century physici are cited ^
as well as Physiologiis. When Albertus Magnus states in the
thirteenth century in his work on minerals that the physi-
ologi have assigned very different causes for the marvelous
occult virtue in stones, he evidently simply alludes to the opin-
ions of scientists in general and has no such work or works as
the so-called Physiologus in mind.^ This is also clearly
the case in a fragment from the introduction to a Latin
translation from the Arabic of some treatise on the astrolabe,
in which we find phisiologi cited as astronomical authori-
ties.^ Furthermore, even in works which deal with the
natures of animals and which either have the word Physiolo-
gus in their titles or cite it now and then in the course of
their texts, there exists such diversity that it becomes fairly
evident not only that it is impossible to deduce from them
the list of animals treated in the original Physiologiis or
the details which it gave concerning each, but also that it
is highly probable that the title Physiologus has been applied
to different treatises which did not necessarily have a com-
mon origin. Or at least the greatest liberties were taken
with the original text and title,^ so that the word Physiologus
came to apply less to any particular book, author, or au-
thority than to almost any treatment of animals in a certain
style.
But of what style? It has too often been assumed that And to
theology dominated all medieval thought and that natural ^ f a ^
science was employed only for purposes of religious sym- treatise?
holism. Of this general assumption the Physiologus has
been seized upon as an apt illustration and it has been repre-
sented as a symbolic bestiary which influenced the middle
ages more than any other book except the Bible ^ and whose
allegories accounted for the animal sculpture of the Gothic
^De hestiis et aliis rebus, II, i ''Thus even Lauchert (1899), P-
(Migne, PL 177, 57). "Physici 105, admits that Bartholomew of
denique dicunt quinque natu- England, the thirteenth century-
rales res sive naturas habere Latin encyclopedist, cites Physi-
leonem. . . ." ologus for much which does not
'Mineral., II, i, i (ed. Borgnet, come from Physiologus.
V, 24). 'Goldstaub (1899-1901), p. 341.
* Bubnov ( 1899) , p. 372,
502
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Medieval
art shows
almost no
symbolic
influence
of the
Physiolo-
gies,
Physiolo-
gus was
more
natural
scientist
than
allegorist.
cathedrals and the strange or familiar beasts in the borders
of the Bayeux Tapestry, the margins of illuminated manu-
scripts, and so on and so forth.
The more recent scientific study of medieval art has
largely dissipated this latter notion. It has become evident
that in the main medieval men represented animals in art
because they were fond of animals, not because they were
fond of allegories. Their art was natural, not symbolic.
They were, says Male, "craftsmen who delighted in nature
for its own sake, sometimes lovingly copying the living
forms, sometimes playing with them, combining and con-
torting them as they were led by their own caprice." St.
Bernard, although "the prince of allegorists," saw no sense
in the animal sculptures in Romanesque cloisters and in-
veighed against them. In short, with the exception of the
symbols of the four evangelists, "there are few cases in
which it is permissible to assign symbolic meaning to animal
forms," and it is "evident that the fauna and flora of
medieval art, natural or fantastic, have in most cases a value
that is purely decorative." "To sum up," concludes Male,
"we are of the opinion that the Bestiaries of which we hear
so much from the archaeologists had no real influence on art
until their substance passed into Honorius of Autun's bopk
(Speculum ecclesiae, c. 1090-1120) and from that book
into sermons. I have searched in vain (with but two ex-
ceptions) for representations of the hedgehog, beaver, tiger,
and other animals which figure in the Bestiaries but which
are not mentioned by Honorius." ^
These assertions concerning medieval art hold true also
to a large extent of medieval literature and medieval science,
although they were perhaps less natural and original than
it and more dependent on past tradition and authority. But
medieval men, as we shall see, studied nature from scientific
curiosity and not in search for spiritual allegories, and even
Goldstaub recognizes that by the thirteenth century the
*This and the preceding quotations in the paragraph are from Male
(1913), pp. 48, 35, 49. 4S.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 503
scientific zoology of Aristotle submerged that of the
Physiologies in writers like Thomas of Cantimpre and
Albertus Magnus who, although they may still embody por-
tions of the Pkysiologus, divest it of its characteristic re-
ligious elements.^ But were its characteristic elements ever
religious ? Were they not always scientific or pseudo-scien-
tific? Ahrens holds that the title was taken from Aristotle
in the first place, and that Pliny was the chief source for
the contents. The allegories do not appear in such early
texts as the Syriac version or the fragments preserved in
the Latin Glossary of Ansileubus. Not even the introduc-
tory scriptural texts appear in the Greek version ascribed
to Epiphanius. Moreover, in the Bestiaries where the alle-
gorical applications are included, it is for the natures of
the animals, the supposedly scientific facts on which the
symbolism is based, and for these alone that Physiologus is
cited in the text. Thus the symbolism would appear to be
somewhat adventitious, while the pseudo-science is constant.
It is obvious that the allegorical applications cannot do with-
out the supposed facts concerning animals; on the other
hand, the supposedly scientific information can and does
frequently dispense with the allegories. We do not know
who was responsible for the allegorical interpretations in
the first instance. Hommel would carry the origin of their
symbolism back of the Christian era to the animal worship
of Persia, India, and Egypt. ^ But we are assured over and
over again that Natural Scientist or Physiologus vouches
for the statements concerning the natures of animals. Thus
the symbolic significance of the literature that has been
grouped under the title Physiologus has been exaggerated,
while the respect for and interest in natural science to which
it testifies have too often been lost sight of.
* Goldstaub (1899-1901), pp. cent of Beauvais and Bartholo
350-1. The same statement could mew of England.
be made with equal truth of Vin- 'Hommel (1877), pp. xii, xv.
CHAPTER XXII
AUGUSTINE ON MAGIC AND ASTROLOGY
Date and influence of Augustine — Christianity and magic — Censure
of magic and theurgy as well as Goetia — Magic due to demons — Mar-
vels wrought by magic — Cannot be equalled by most Christian^ —
Miracles of heretics — Theory of demons — Limitations to the power of
magic — Its fantastic character — Samuel and the witch of Endor —
Natural marvels — Relation between magic and science — Superstitions
akin to magic — Survival of pagan superstition among the laity — Augus-
tine's attack upon astrology — Fate and free will — Argument from twins
— Defense of the astrologers — Elections — Are animals and plants under
the stars? — Failure to disprove the control of nature by the stars —
Natural divination and prophetic visions — The star at Christ's birth
— Nature of the stars — Orosius on the Priscillianists and Origenists —
Augustine's letter — Attitude toward astronomy — Perfect numbers.
Date and The utterances of Augustine concerning magic and astrol-
of Augus- '^Sy have been reserved for separate treatment in this
tine. chapter, partly because of his late date, 354 to 430 A. D.,
partly because of the voluminousness of his writings, but
especially because of his approach to and influence upon
the thought of the middle ages. It is, moreover, in his
epoch-making book, The City of God, which better than any
other single event marks, or at least sums up, the transition
from classical to medieval civilization, from the life of the
ancient city to that of the medieval church, that he descants
with especial fulness upon magic, demons, and astrology,
although he often also refers to these themes in his other
treatises, which we shall cite as well. I separate the words,
magic and astrology, here because Augustine, like most of
the fathers, does so. Of Augustine's discussion of the
Biblical account of creation in his Confessions and De Genesi
ad litteram I shall not treat, having already presented Basil's
Hexaemeron as an example of this type of work and of
504
CHAP. XXII
AUGUSTINE
505
the Christian attitude toward natural science.^ But later
in treating of medieval writers on nature I may have occa-
sion to point out certain passages in which they may have
been influenced by Augustine.
Even though writing in the fifth century Augustine still
finds it necessary to defend Christ against those who imagine
that He has converted peoples to Himself by means of the
magic art.^ And he tells us of books of magic which are
ascribed to Christ Himself or to the apostles Peter and Paul.^
In reply to such charges or assertions he insists that Chris-
tians have nothing to do with magic, and that their miracles
"were wrought by simple confidence and devout faith, not
by incantations and spells compounded by an art of de-
praved curiosity." ^ And he brings the counter-charge
against Roman religion that King Numa, its founder,
learned its secrets and sacred rites by means of hydromancy
or necromancy.^ He admits, however, that condemnation
of magic and legislation against it had begun before Chris-
tianity.®
Augustine uniformly speaks of magic with censure and
several times adverts to "the crimes of magicians." '^ He
speaks, however, of goetia or sorcery as "a more detestable
name" than magia and of "theurgy" as "an honorable
name." He also states that some persons draw a distinc-
tion between the malefici or sorcerers or practitioners of
goetia, whom they call truly guilty of illicit arts and de-
serving of condemnation, and those who practice theurgy,
whom they call praiseworthy. Porphyry, for instance, had
^Duhem, II (1914), 314, seems
to me to have over-estimated the
significance of Confessions, V, 5,
and De Gencsi ad litteram, I, 19,
in saying, "L'assurance ayec
laquelle les Basile, les Gregoire de
Nysse, les Ambroise, les Jean
Chrysostome opposaient aux en-
seignements de la Physique pro-
fane les naives assertions de leur
science puerile contristait fort
rfiveque de Hippone." There is
nothing, I think, to indicate that
Augustine had these men or men
of their stamp in mind, and I
doubt if his scientific attainments
were superior to Basil's.
^De co'nsensu Evangelistarutn,
I, 11; in Migne, PL 34, 1049-50.
^ Ibid., I, 9-10.
*De civitate Dei, X, 9; PL vol.
^ Ibid., VII, 34-35; and see Ar-
nobius, Against the Heathen, V, i,
for Augustine's probable source.
'De civ. Dei, VIII, 19.
'Ibid., VIII, 18, 19, 26; IX, I.
Christi-
anity and
magic.
Magic and
theurgy
censured
as well as
Goetia.
So6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic due
to demons.
Marvels
wrought
by magic.
Stated that theurgy was useful to purge the soul and pre-
pare it to receive spirits and to see God. Augustine, how-
ever, holds that in other passages Porphyry condemned
theurgy, and in any case he himself refuses to sanction it.-^
He stoutly denies that "souls are purged and reconciled to
God through sacrilegious likenesses and impious curiosity
and magic consecrations." ^ Very possibly Augustine would
have classed as improper theurgy some of the use of power-
ful names described by Origen.
At any rate Augustine declares that theurgists and sor-
cerers alike "are entangled in the deceitful rites of demons
who may masquerade under the names of angels." ^ For
it is to demons that Augustine, like most of our Christian
writers, attributes both the origin and the success of magic.
The demons are enticed by men to work marvels, not by
ciferings of food, as if they were animals, but by symbols
which conform to the individual taste of each as a spirit,
namely, various stones, plants, trees, animals, incantations,
and ceremonies,* — a good brief summary of the materials
and methods of magic. Augustine believes that the spirits
had first to instruct men what rites to perform and by what
names to call them in order to summon them.
But when once the demons have revealed their secrets,
henceforth the charms of the magic art have efficacy. Of
the marvels worked by means of magic Augustine has little
doubt ; to deny them would indeed in his opinion be to deny
the truth of the Scriptures, to whose accounts of Pharaoh's
magicians,^ the witch of Endor, and the Magi and the star,
he adverts many times in his various works. If actors in
the theater and performers in spectacles are able by art
and exercise to display astounding alterations in the appear-
ance of their earthly bodies, why may not the demons with
* De civ. Dei, X, 9-10.
*De trinitate, IV, 11; in Migne,
PL 42, 897.
* De civ. Dei, X, 9.
*De civ. Dei, XXI, 6.
" In Grenoble 208, 12th century,
containing works of Augustine,
there is listed separately at fol.
S4V, "De magis Pharaonis," to
which the MSS catalogue adds,
"et de CLIII piscibus." Probably
it is an extract from one of
Augustine's longer works as it
covers only one leaf.
XXII
AUGUSTINE
507
tians.
their aerial bodies produce marvelous changes in elementary
substances or by occult influence construct phantom images
to delude human senses ? ^ Augustine even grants that the
magicians are able to terrify the inferior spirits into obedi-
ence to their commands by adjuring them by the names of
superior spirits, and thereby with divine permission "to
exhibit to the eye of sense certain results which seem great
and marvelous to men who through weakness of the flesh
are incapable of beholding things eternal." He does not re-
gard this as inconsistent with the assertion of Jesus that
Satan cannot cast out Satan, since while it may be that thus
demons are expelled from sick bodies, the evil one thereby
only the more surely takes possession of the soul,^
Augustine further grants that magicians, although Cannot be
stained with crime, can at present work miracles which most by"mo^st
Christians and even most saints cannot perform. For this, Chris-
however, he finds Scriptural precedent. Pharaoh's magicians
performed feats which none of the Children of Israel could
equal except Moses who excelled them by divine aid. Au-
gustine, like earlier fathers, usually fails to mention Aaron
in this connection.^ This superiority of magicians to most
Christians in working marvels Augustine believes is divinely
ordained so that Christians may remain humble and practice
works of justice rather than seek to perform miracles.
Magicians seek their own glory; the saints strive only for
the glory of God. And the more marvelous are the feats
of magic, the more Christians should shun them ; the greater
the power of the demons, the closer Christians should cling
to that Mediator who alone can raise men from the lowest
depths.*
Like Origen, Augustine further distinguishes the mir-
acles wrought by heretics both from magic and from the
miracles of true Christians. He holds that every soul in
PL 38, 562,
"Moyses et
Miracles
of here-
tics.
^De trinitate, IV, 11.
'De diversis quaestionibus, cap.
79; Migne, PL 40, 92-3.
' See also De cataclysmo (per-
haps spurious), cap. 5, Migne,
PL 40, 696 ; and Sermo VIII, PL
38, 74. Sermo XC,
however, speaks of
Aaron."
*De civ. Dei, XXI, 6; XVIII,
18.
5o8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Theory of
demons.
Limita-
tions to
the power
of magic.
part controls itself and exercises as it were a private juris-
diction, in part is subject to the laws of the universe just
as any citizen is amenable to public jurisdiction. Therefore
magicians perform their marvels by private contracts with
demons; good Christians perform theirs by public justice;
bad Christians perform theirs by the appearance or signs
of public justice.^ This view would seem to indicate that
God, like the demons, regards the signs alone and not the
character and purpose of the performer, so that Christian
miracles, if they can be duplicated by heretics, would appear
to be largely a matter of procedure and art, like magic.
For his theory of demons and their characteristics Au-
gustine seems largely indebted to Apuleius, whom he cites in
several chapters of the eighth and ninth books of The City
of God. In his separate treatise, The Divination of
Demons,^ he explains their ability to predict the future and
to perform marvels by the keenness of their sense, their
rapidity of movement, their long experience of nature and
life, and the subtlety of their aerial bodies. This last quality
enables them to penetrate human bodies or affect the
thoughts of men without men being aware of their presence.
Augustine, however, of course does not believe that the
world of nature is completely under the control of the
demons. God alone created it and He still governs it, and
the demons are able to do only as much as He permits.^
There were, for example, some things which Pharaoh's
magicians could not do and in which Moses clearly ex-
celled them. They were able to change their rods into
snakes but his snake devoured theirs. How the magicians
got their rods back, if at all, neither Augustine nor the
Book of Exodus informs us. But whether with or without
their magic wands, they were still able to duplicate one or two
of the plagues sent upon Egypt. Augustine explains that
neither they nor the demons who helped them really created
snakes and frogs, but that there are certain seeds of life
^De divcrsis quaestionibus, cap.
79; De doctrina Christiana, II,
20, in Migne, PL 34, 50. 875.
Migne, PL 40, 581-92.
De trinitate, III, 8; PL, ^
XXII
AUGUSTINE
509
hidden away In the elemental bodies of this world of which
they made use. But their magic failed them when it came
to the reproduction of minute insects. ■*• Augustine further-
more has some hesitation about accepting the stories of
magic transformations of men into animals, which he repre-
sents as current in his own day as well as in times past, so
that certain female inn-keepers in Italy are said to transform
travelers into beasts of burden by a magic potion admin-
istered in the cheese, just as Circe transformed the copi-
panions of Ulysses and as Apuleius says happened to him-
self in the book that he wrote under the title, The Golden
Ass. These stories, in Augustine's opinion, "are either
false or such uncommon occurrences that they are justly
discredited," ^ He does not believe that demons can truly
transform the human body into the limbs and lineaments
of beasts, but the strange personal experiences of reliable
persons have convinced him that men are deceived by
dreams, hallucinations, and fantastic images.
Thus, as we have already seen over and over again, the Its fan-
fantastic and deceptive character of magic is dimly realized, character
Usually, however, when Augustine represents "the powers
of the air" as deceiving men by magic, the deceit consists
merely in the magicians' imagining that they are working
the marvels which are really performed by demons, or in
men being lured into subjection to Satan and to their ulti-
mate and eternal damnation through the attractions of the
magic art.^
Augustine twice responded to questions concerning the Samuel
witch of Endor's apparent invocation of the spirit of Sam-
* De trinttate, III, 7-8. It seems
strange to me that they should
have failed on minute insects who
in ancient and medieval science
are often represented as produced
by spontaneous generation. The
Talmudists also, however, state
that the Egyptians were unable to
duplicate the plague of lice, as
their art did not extend to things
smaller than a barleycorn.
'De civitate Dei, XVIII, 22.
In commenting on Genesis (PL
34, 445) he speaks even more
harshly of "that absurd and harm-
ful notion of the changing of
souls and of men into beasts, or
of beasts into men" ; but perhaps
he has reference to the doctrine of
transmigration of souls rather
than to magic transformations.
* Confessions, X, 42, in PL vol.
Z2.
and the
witch of
Endor.
Sio MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
uel, repeating in his De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus "^ what
he had already said in De diversis quaestionibus ad Sim-
plicianum.^ In certain respects Augustine's treatment of the
problem differs from those which we have previously ex-
amined. What, he asks, if the impure spirit which possessed
the pythonissa was able to raise the very soul of Samuel
from the dead? Is it not much more strange that Satan
was allowed to converse personally with God concerning
the tempting of Job, and to raise the very Christ aloft upon
a pinnacle of the temple? Why then may not the soul of
Samuel have appeared to Saul, not unwillingly and coerced
by magic power but voluntarily under some hidden divine
dispensation? Augustine, however, also thinks it possible
that the soul of Samuel did not appear but was impersonated
by some phantasm and imaginary illusion made by diabolical
machinations. He can see no deceit in the Scripture's call-
ing such a phantom Samuel, since we are accustomed to call
paintings, statues, and images seen in dreams by the names
of the actual persons whom they represent. Nor does it
trouble him that the spirit of Samuel or pretended spirit
predicted truly to Saul, for demons have a limited power of
that sort. Thus they recognized Christ when the Jews knew
Him not, and the damsel possessed of a spirit of divination
in The Acts testified to Paul's divine mission. Augustine
leaves, however, as beyond the limits of his time and strength
the further problem whether the human soul after death can
be so evoked by magic incantations that it is not only seen
but recognized by the living. In his answer to Dulcitius he
further calls attention to the passage in Ecclesiasticus (xlvi,
23) where Samuel is praised as prophesying from the dead.
And if this passage be rejected because the book is not in
the Hebrew canon, what shall we say of Moses who ap-
peared to the living long after his death?
Augustine had some acquaintance with ancient natural
science and in one passage rehearses a number of natural
marvels which are found in the pages of Pliny and Solinus
*Qaaest. VI; PL 40, 162-5. *II, 3; PL 40, 142-4.
XXII
AUGUSTINE
5"
in order to show pagans their inconsistency in accepting
such wonders and yet remaining incredulous in regard to
analogous phenomena mentioned in the Bible. So Augustine
rehearses the strange properties of the magnet; asserts that
adamant can be broken neither by steel nor fire but only
by application of the blood of a goat; tells of Cappadocian
mares who conceive from the wind ; and hails the ability of
the salamander to live in the midst of flames as a token
that the bodies of sinners can subsist in hell fire. Augustine
also admits "the virtue of stones and other objects and the
craft of men who employ these in marvelous ways." ■"■ He
denies, however, that the Marsi who charm snakes by their
incantations are really understood by the serpents. There
is some diabolical force behind their magic, as when Satan
spoke to Eve through the serpent.^
Once at least, however, Augustine associates science and
magic. In his Confessions, after speaking of sensual pleas-
ure he also censures "the vain and curious desire of investi-
gation" through the senses, which is "palliated under the
name of knowledge and science." This is apt to lead one
not only into scrutinizing secrets of nature which are beyond
one and which it does one no good to know and which men
want to know just for the sake of knowledge, but also
"into searching through magic arts into the confines of
perverse science." ^
Of this dangerous borderland between magic and science
Augustine has more to say in some chapters of his Christian
Doctrine.'^ After mentioning as prime instances of human
superstition idolatry, other false religions, and the magic
arts, he next lists the books of soothsayers (aruspices) and
augurs as of the same class, "though seemingly a more
permissible vanity." In his Confessions,^ however, he tells
of a soothsayer who offered not only to consult the future
for him, but to insure him success in a poetical contest in
^De civitate Dei, XXI, 4-6; PL
41, 712-6.
'De Genesi ad Utteram, XI, 28-
9; PL 34, 444-5.
• Confessions, X, 35 ; in PL vol.
32.
*II, 20 and 29.
•IV. 2-3.
Relation
between
magic and
science.
Super-
stitions
akin to
magic.
512
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Curvival
of pagan
super-
stition
among
the laity.
which he was to engage in the theater. The incident is a
good illustration of the fact that prediction of the future
and attempting to influence events go naturally together,
and that arts of divination cannot be separated either in
theory or practice from magic arts. In the Christian Doc-
trine Augustine is inclined further to put in the same class
all use of invocations, incantations, and characters, which
he regards as signs implying pacts with evil spirits, and
the use of which in working cures he asserts is condemned
by the medical profession. He is also suspicious of ligatures
and suspensions, and states that it is one thing to say, "If
you drink the juice of this herb, your stomach will not
ache," and is another thing to say, "If you suspend this
herb from the neck, your stomach will not ache. For in
one case a healing application is worthy of approval, in
the other a superstitious signification is to be censured."
Augustine recognizes, however, that such ligatures and sus-
pensions are called "by the milder name of natural remedies
(physica)" ; and if they are applied without incantations
or characters, possibly they may heal the body naturally by
mere attachment, in which case it is lawful to employ them.
But they may involve some signal to demons, in which case
the more efficacious they are, the more a Christian should
avoid them.
The same attitude toward superstitious medicine is
shown in a sermon attributed to Augustine but probably
spurious.^ Here a tempter is represented as coming to
the sick man and saying, "If you had only employed that
enchanter, you would be well now; if you would attach these
characters to your body, you could recover your health."
Or another comes and says, "Send your girdle to that
diviner ; he will measure and scrutinize it and tell you what
to do and whether you can recover. Or a third visitor may
recommend someone who is skilled in fumigation. The
preacher warns his hearers not to succumb to such advice
or they will be sacrificing to the devil; whereas if they refuse
' PL 39, 2268-72.
XXII
AUGUSTINE
513
such treatment and die, it will be a glorious martyr's death.
The preacher, however, is not over-sanguine that his advice
will be heeded, as he has often before admonished his hearers
against pagan superstitions, and yet reports keep coming to
him that some are continuing such practices. He therefore
"warns them again and again" to forsake all diviners,
aruspices, enchanters, phylacteries, augury, and observance
of days, or they will lose all benefit of the sacrament of
baptism and will be eternally damned unless they perform
a vast amount of penance. The observance of days other
than the Lord's Day is here condemned on the ground that
God made the other six days without distinction. In another
supposititious sermon ^ the practice of diligently observing
on which day of the week to set out on a journey is censured
as equivalent to worshiping the planets, or rather the pagan
gods whose names they bear and who are said here to have
originally been bad men and women who lived at the time
that the Children of Israel were in Egypt. The preacher is
even opposed to naming the days of the week after such
persons or planets and exhorts his hearers to speak simply
of the first day, second day, and so on.
Nor will Augustine, to return to his remarks in the Augus-
Christian Doctrine,^ exempt "from this genus of pernicious {^"k^upon
superstition those who are called genethliaci from their con- astrology.
sideration of natal days and now are also popularly termed
mathematici." He holds that they enslave human free will
by predicting a man's character and life from the stars, and
that their art is a presumptuous and fallacious human inven-
tion, and that if their predictions come true, this is due either
to chance or to demons who wish to confirm mankind in its
error.^ In his youth, when a follower of the Manichean
sect, Augustine had been a believer in astrology and thereby
"sacrificed himself to demons" at the same time that, owing
to his Manichean scruples against animal sacrifice, he re-
fused to employ a haruspex.^ Perhaps on this account he
^ Scrmo CXXX, PL 39, 2004-5.
'11, 21-3; PL 34, S1-3.
* De civitate Dei, V, 7.
* Confessions, VII, 6.
SH
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Fate and
free will.
felt the more bound to warn his readers against astrology
in his old age. He often attacks the casters of horoscopes
in his works and especially in the opening chapters of the
fifth book of The City of God, on which we may center our
attention as being a rather more elaborate discussion than
the other passages and including almost all the arguments
which he advances elsewhere. These arguments are not
original with him, but his presentation of them was perhaps
better known in the middle ages than any other.^
The objection to astrology as fatalistic does not come
with the best grace from Augustine, the great advocate of
divine prescience and of predestination, and in his discussion
in The City of God he is forced to recognize this fact. He
holds that the world is not governed by chance or by fate,
a word which for most men means the force of the con-
stellations, but by divine providence. He starts to accuse
the astrologers of attributing to the spotless stars, or to the
God whose orders the stars obediently execute, the causing
of human sin and evil ; but then recognizes that the astrolo-
gers will answer that the stars simply signify and in no way
cause evil, just as God foresees but does not compel human
sinfulness.
Thus thwarted in his attempt to show that the astrologers
enslave the human will, although in other passages he still
gives us to understand that they do,^ Augustine adopts an-
other line of argument, that from twins, an old favorite,
which he twists first one way and then another, proposing
to the astrologers a series of dilemmas as he finds them
likely to escape from each preceding one. He seems to
have been much impressed by the thought that at the same
instant and hence with the same horoscope persons were
born whose subsequent lives and characters were different.
He brings forward Esau and Jacob as examples, and states
that he himself has known of twins of dissimilar sex and
* Unless otherwise noted, the
ensuing arguments are found in
The City of God, V, 1-7.
'De Genesi ad litteram, II, 17;
PL 34, 278. De diversis quaes-
tionibus, cap. 45 ; PL 40, 28-9.
Epistola 246; PL 2)Z< 1061. Ser-
mo 109; PL 38, 1027.
XXII AUGUSTINE 515
life. Moreover, he tells us in his Confessions that he was
finally induced to abandon his study of the books of the
astrologers, from which the arguments of "Vindicianus, a
keen old man, and of Nebridius, a youth of remarkable in-
tellect," had failed to win him, by hearing from another
youth that his father, a man of wealth and rank, had been
born at precisely the same moment as a certain wretched
slave on the estate.-^
But the astrologers reply that even twins are not bom Defense
at precisely the same instant and do not have the same astrolo-
horoscope, but are born under different constellations, so gers.
rapidly do the heavens revolve, as the astrologer Nigidius
Figulus neatly illustrated by striking a rapidly revolving
potter's wheel two successive blows as quickly as he could
in what appeared to be the same spot. But when the wheel
was stopped and examined, the two marks were found to
be far apart. Augustine's counter argument is that if
astrologers must take into account such small intervals of
time, their observations and predictions can never attain
sufficient accuracy to insure correct prediction; and that if
so brief an instant of time is sufficient to alter the horo-
scope totally, then twins should not be as much alike as they
are nor have as much in common as they do, — for instance,
falling ill and recovering simultaneously. To this the
astrologers are likely to respond that twins are alike because
conceived at the same instant, but somewhat dissimilar in
their life because of the difference in their times of birth.
Augustine retorts that if two persons conceived simultane-
ously in the same womb may be born at different times and
have different fates after birth, he sees no reason why per-
sons who are born of different mothers at the same instant
with the same horoscope may not die at different dates and
lead different lives. But he does not recognize that very
likely the astrologers would agree with him in this, since
they often held that the influence of the stars was received
variously by matter. He also asks why a certain sage is
^Confessions, IV, 2-3.
Si6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
said to have selected a certain hour for intercourse with
his wife in order to beget a marvelous son — possibly an in-
accurate allusion to the story of Nectanebus ^ — unless the
hour of conception controls the hour of birth, and conse-
quently twins conceived together must have the same horo-
scope. He also objects that if twins fall sick at the same
time because of their simultaneous conception, they should
not be of opposite sex as sometimes happens.
Elections. With this Augustine turns from the case of twins to
urge the inconsistency of the astrological doctrine of elec-
tions, suggested by the story of the sage who chose the
favorable moment for intercourse with his wife. He holds
that this practice of choosing favorable times is inconsistent
with the belief in nativities which are supposed to have de-
termined and predicted the individual's fate already. He
also inquires why men choose certain days for setting out
trees and shrubs or breeding animals, if men alone are sub-
ject to the constellations.
This last clause indicates how exclusively Augustine's
attacks are directed against the prediction of man's life from
the stars, and how little he has to say regarding the stars'
control of the world of nature in general. He now goes
on to consider this latter possibility, but interprets it too in
the narrow sense of horoscope-casting, and as implying that
every herb and beast must have its fate absolutely deter-
mined by the constellations at its moment of birth. This
appears, however, to have been a widespread belief then,
since he tells us that men are accustomed to test the skill
of astrologers by submitting to them the horoscopes of
dumb animals, and that the best astrologers are able not
only to recognize that the reported constellations mark the
birth of a beast rather than that of a human being, but also
to state whether it was a horse, cow, dog, or sheep. Never-
theless, Augustine feels that he has reduced the art of cast-
ing horoscopes to an absurdity, as he feels sure that beasts
and plants which are so numerous must frequently be born
* See below, chapter 24.
XXII
AUGUSTINE
517
disprove
the control
of nature
by the
stars.
at precisely the same instant as human beings. Further-
more, it is plain that crops which are sown and ripen simul-
taneously meet with very diverse fates in the end. Augus-
tine thinks that by this argument he will force the astrologers
to say that men alone are subject to the stars, and then he
will triumphantly ask how this can be, when God has en-
dowed man alone of all creatures with free will. Having
thus argued more or less in a circle, Augustine regains the
point from which he had started, or rather, retreated,
Augustine cannot then be said to have advanced any Failure to
telling arguments against some sort of control of inferior
nature by the motions and influence of the heavenly bodies.
He leaves the fundamental hypothesis of astrology unre-
butted. His attention is concentrated upon genethlialogy,
the superstition that the time and place of birth and nothing
else determine with mathematical certainty and mechanical
rigidity the entirety of one's life. This seems nevertheless
to have been a superstition which was very much alive in
his time, which he felt he must take pains repeatedly to
refute, and to which he himself had once been in bondage.
But he could not have studied the books of the astrologers
very deeply, as he ascribes views to them which many of
them did not hold. Also he seems never to have read the
Tetrabihlos of Ptolemy. His attack upon and criticism
of astrology was therefore narrow, partial, and inadequate,
and did not prevent medieval men from devoting them-
selves to that subject, although they might cite his objec-
tions against ascribing to the constellations an influence
subversive of human free will. But he cannot be said to
have admitted the control of the stars over the world of
nature. Apparently the most that he was willing to con-
cede was that it was not absurd to say that the influence of
the stars might produce changes in material things, as in the
varying seasons of the year caused by the sun's course and
the alternating augmentation and diminution of tides and
shell-fish due, as he supposed, to the moon's phases. He
concludes his discns?ion of the subject in The Citv of God
5i8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Natural
divination
and
prophetic
visions.
by saying that, all things considered, if the astrologers make
many marvelously true predictions, they do so by the aid
and inspiration of the demons and not by the art of noting
and inspecting horoscopes, which has no sound basis.
In another work Augustine tells of some young men
who, while traveling, as a boyish prank pretended to be
astrologers and either by mere chance or by natural and
innate power of divination hit upon the truth in the predic-
tions which they supposed that they were inventing. In
the same context he proceeds to discuss in a credulous way
the possibility of marvelous prophetic visions, concerning
which he tells one or two other tall tales from his personal
experience. He is, however, doubtful how far the human
soul itself possesses the power of divination, which he is
inclined to attribute rather to spirits, good or bad. But
owing to Satan's ability in disguising himself as an angel
of light it is often very difficult to tell to which sort of
spirit to ascribe the vision in question.^
In Augustine's time there were those who held that
Christ Himself had been "born under the decree of the
stars," because of the statement in the Gospel according to
Matthew that the Magi had seen His star in the east. Of
this matter Augustine treats in several of his works. ^ He
denies that this would be true even if other men were subject
to the fatal influence of the stars, which he denies as usual
on the ground of free will. He contends that the star was
not one of the planets or constellations but a special crea-
tion, since it did not keep to a regular course or orbit, but
came to where the child lay. But how did the Magi know
that it was the star of Christ when they saw it in the east,
unless by astrology? Augustine can only suggest that this
was revealed to them by spirits, whether good or bad he does
not know.^ Augustine further affirms that the star did not
^De Genesi ad litteram, XII, ' Sermones 199 and 374; PL 38,
22 and 17 and 12; PL 34, 472-3, 1027-8, and 39, 1666. Contra
467-9, 464-5. See also the marvel- Faustum, II, 15 ; PL 42, 212.
ous divinations of Albicerius re- ' In Quaestiones ex Novo Tes-
counted in Contra AcademicoSj 1, tamento, Quaest. 63, PL 35, 2258,
6; PL 32, 914-5. which is probably a spurious
XXII
AUGUSTINE
519
cause Christ to live a marvelous life, but Christ caused the
star to make its marvelous appearance. "For, when born
of a mother, He showed earth a new star in the sky, Who,
when born of the Father, formed both heaven and earth."
And, "when He is bom, new light is revealed in a star;
when He dies, old light is veiled in the sun." But these
rhetorical flourishes and antitheses seem to attest rather
than dispute the significance of celestial phenomena, so
that Augustine cannot be said to have answered the
astrological contention anent Christ's birth very satisfac-
torily.
The problem of the nature of the stars is one which Nature of
Augustine prefers to leave unsolved, although it comes up ^^^^^'
several times in his writings.^ Whether they are simply
lucid bodies without sense or intelligence, as some think;
or have happy intellectual souls of their own, as Plato
taught; whether they are to be classed with the Seats,
Dominions, Principalities, and Powers of whom the
apostle speaks; and whether they are ruled and animated
by spirits : all these are questions which Augustine puts, but
concerning whose answers he feels uncertain. His fullest
discussion of the matter is in a letter against the Priscillian-
ists to which we now come.
An interchange of letters between Augustine and his Orosius
Spanish disciple Orosius deals with the error of the Pris- p".*^^
cillianists and Origenists.^ Nothing is said to convict them lianists
of magic, which was, however, the charge on which Pris- genists.~
work but was cited as Augustine's
by Thomas Aquinas {Sunima,
III, 36, v), Balaam is said to
have warned the Magi to watch
for the star. It is also asserted,
however, that "these Chaldean
Magi watched the course of the
stars, not from malevolence, but
curiosity concerning nature" (Hi
Magi chaldaei non malevolentia
astrorum cursum sed rerum curi-
ositate speculabantur).
^Enchiridion, sive de fide, spe,
et charitate, I, 58; PL 40, 259-60.
De civitate Dei, XIII, 16; PL 41,
388. De Gene si ad litteram, II,
18; PL 34, 279-80.
' Orosii ad Augustinum Consul-
tatio sive C ommonitorium de
errore Priscillianistarutn et Ori-
genistarum, PL 31, 1211-22; also
in G. Schepss (1889), in CSEL
XVIII. Augustini ad Orosium
contra Priscillianistas et Origenis-
tas, PL 41, 669, et scq. Augustine
also discusses the Priscillianists in
Epistle 237, PL 33, 1034, et seq.,
where he makes no charge either
of magic or astrology against
them.
520 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
cillian was put to death, but astrological tenets are ascribed
to them. Orosius states that Priscillian taught that the soul
was born of God and instructed by angels, but that it de-
scended through certain circles of the heavens and was
caught by evil principalities and thrust into different bodies;
and that it remained subject to Mathesis or the laws of
astrology until Christ set it free by His passion on the cross.
Like the astrologers, continues Orosius, Priscillian associated
the signs of the zodiac with the different members of the
human body, Aries and the head, Taurus and the neck, and
so on ; ^ and he also taught that the names of the patriarchs
of the twelve tribes were "members of the soul," Reuben
in the head, Judah in the breast, Levi in the heart, and so
on. Orosius adds that the Origenists regard the sun, moon,
and stars not as elemental luminaries but as rational powers ;
and we have seen that Origen himself did so.
Augustine in his reply states that we can see that the
sun, moon, and stars are celestial bodies, but not that they
are animated. He agrees firmly with Paul that there are
Seats, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers in the heavens,
"but I do not know what they are or what the difference
is between them." On the whole, Augustine is inclined to
regard this state of ignorance as a blissful one. He is some-
what troubled by the verses in the Book of Job, "How
shall man be just in the sight of God, or how shall one born
of woman purify himself? If He commands the moon and
it does not shine, and if the stars are not pure before Him,
how much more is man rottenness and the son of man a
worm?" From this passage the Priscillianists infer that
the stars have a rational spirit and are not free from sin,
yet are placed in the heaven because their fault is less than
that of sinful mankind. Origen too had argued, "H the
stars are living and rational beings, there will undoubtedly
appear among them both an advance and a falling back.
For the language of Job, 'the stars are not clean in His
*This charge was later repeated by St. Leo, Epistola XV; see With-
ington, History of Medicine, 1894, p. 178; but the offense would seem
a trivial one in any case.
XXII
AUGUSTINE
521
sight,' seems to me to convey some such idea." * Augustine
evades this difficulty by questioning whether this passage is
to be received as of divine authority, since it is uttered by
one of Job's comforters and not by Job himself, of whom
alone it is said that he had not sinned with his lips against
God.
So set is Augustine against astrology that he even holds Attitude
that Christians may well leave the subject of astronomy astron-
alone, "because it is related to the most pernicious error of omy.
those who utter a fatuous fatalism," although he recognizes
that there is nothing superstitious in predicting the future
positions of the stars themselves from knowledge of their
past movements. But except that to know the course of the
moon is useful in determining the date of Easter, knowl-
edge of the stars is of little or no help in interpreting the
divine Scriptures.^ In another passage Augustine is some-
what perturbed by the assertion of astronomers that there
are many stars equal to or greater than the sun in size, but
which seem smaller because they are farther off, — an asser-
tion which seems to conflict with the statement of Genesis
that in creating the sun and moon "God made two great
lights." Augustine, however, does not stop to contest the
point at length but leaves it with the excuse that Christians
have many better and more serious matters to occupy their
time than such subtle investigations concerning the relative
magnitude of the stars and the intervals of space between
them.^
Augustine himself, however, was not above occupying Perfect
his readers' time with discussion of the occult significance "umbers,
of numbers, towards belief in which he shows himself in-
clined. Six was a perfect number in his estimation, since
God had created the world in six days, although He might
have taken less or more time ; and the Psalmist made no idle
remark in saying that the Deity had ordered all things ac-
^De principiis, I, 7.
' De doctrina Christiana, II, 29,
in Migne, 34, 57-
*De Genesi ad litteram, II, 16,
in Migne, 34, 277.
522 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.xxii
cording to measure, number, and weight. Also six is the
first number which can be obtained from adding together
its factors: one, two, and three. Augustine was going on
to say that seven was also a perfect number, when he
checked himself lest he digress at too great length and seem
"too eager to display his smattering of science." Hence he
merely added that one indication of seven's perfection was
its composition of the first complete odd number, three, and
the first complete even number, four.^ It is therefore not
surprising to find ascribed to Augustine a sermon on the cor-
respondence between the ten plagues of Egypt and the ten
commandments which opens by remarking that it is not with-
out cause that the number of precepts in God's law is the
same as the number of plagues with which Egypt was af-
flicted.2
^De civitate Dei, XI, 30-31. He et decern plagarum Egypti, Non
says about the same things con- est sine causa, fratres dilectissimi,
cerning six and seven in De quod preceptorum legis Dei
Genesi ad litteram, IV, 2. numerus cum numero jplagarum
' Sermo supposititius 21, in quibus Aegyptus percutitur ex-
Migne, PL XXXIX, 1783, "De aequari videtur."
convenientia decern preceptorum
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FUSION OF PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IN THE
FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES
Need of qualifying the patristic attitude — Plan of this chapter —
Julius Firmicus Maternus — Date of the Mathesis — Are the attitudes in
Firmicus' two works incompatible? — De errore is not unfavorable to
astrology — Attitude of both works to the emperors — Religious attitude
of the Mathesis — An astrologer's prayer — Christian objections to as-
trology met — Astrology proved experimentally — Information to be
gained from the third and fourth books — Religion and magic; exorcists
— Divination — Magic as a branch of learning — Interest in science —
Diseases in antiquity — Place of Firmicus in the history of astrology —
Libanius accused of magic — Declamation against a magician — Faith of
Libanius in divination — Magic and astrology in Pseudo-Quintilian dec-
lamations— Fusion of Christianity and paganism in Synesius of Cyrene
— His career — His interest in science — Belief in occult sympathy be-
tween natural objects — Synesius on divination and astrology — Synesius
as an alchemist — Macrobius on number, dreams, and stars — Martianus
Capella — Absence of astrology — Orders of spirits — The Celestial
Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite.
In reading the writings of the Christian fathers one is Need of
impressed by the fact that their tone is almost invariably Jj^^^"y*"S
that of the preacher. In estimating therefore the practical patristic
effect of their utterances it is well to remember that these
are counsels of perfection which were probably often not
realized even by those who gave utterance to them. This is
not to accuse the fathers of being pharisaical, but to sug-
gest that as both clerics and apologists they were profession-
ally bound to take up an irreproachable position morally and
dogmatically. Basil has shown us that the audience who
listened to his sermons were still under the spell of Roman
amusements, dice, theater, and arena. And the average lay
Christian mind was probably more easy-going in its attitude
toward magic and superstition than Augustine. Not merely
523
524 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
laymen, moreover, but Christian clergy and apologists of
the declining Roman Empire might still hold to divination
and astrology. It was a time, as has often been remarked,
of religious syncretism, of fusion of pagan and Christian
thought, when it is not always easy to tell whether the author
of an extant writing is Christian or Neo-Platonist or both.
Mr. Gwatkin states that "the surface thought" of Con-
stantine's time, "Christian as well as heathen, tended to a
vague monotheism which looked on Christ and the sun as
almost equally good symbols of the Supreme." ^ Others
believed that astrology was the truth back of all religions.^
In this chapter we shall therefore consider some writers
of the fourth and fifth century who attest the existence of
magic and astrology then, the influence of paganism on
Christianity and of Christianity on paganism, and the fu-
sion of Neo-Platonism, Christianity, and astrological the-
ory. This, indeed, we have already done to some extent, as
our previous chapters on Neo-Platonism and on the Chris-
tian fathers have carried us more or less into those cen-
turies. But now as an offset to Augustine we take up other
writers who have not yet been treated : Firmicus, the Latin
Christian apologist and the astrologer of the mid- fourth
century; Libanius, the Greek sophist of the same century;
Macrobius and Synesius, Neo-Platonists writing respectively
in Latin and Greek at the beginning of the fifth century,
and of whom one was a Christian bishop; and probably in
the same century the discussion of spirits by Martianus Ca-
pella in Latin and the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in
Greek. Except for Libanius and Synesius, these authors
were very influential in medieval Latin learning and might
serve as well for an introduction to our following book on
The Early Middle Ages as for a conclusion to this.
^Cambridge Medieval History, in astrology at this period, since
I^ g. F. Boll, Heidelherger Akad. Sitsb.,
''The Greek work, Hermippus 1912, No. 18, has shown it to be a
or Concerning Astrology, how- fourteenth century work of John
ever, can no longer be regarded Katrarios, who makes use of a
as an example of Christian belief Greek translation of Albumasar.
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 525
Julius Firmlcus Maternus ^ flourished during the reigns Julius
of Constantine the Great and his sons. Sicily was his native Maternus
land; he was of senatorial rank and very well educated for
his time, showing interest in natural philosophy, literature,
and rhetoric. Two works are extant under his name : one.
On the Error of Profane Religions,^ is addressed to Con-
stantius and Constans, 340-350 A. D., and urges them to
eradicate pagan cults. The other, Mathesis,^ is a work of
astrology written at the request of a similarly cultured
friend, Lollianus or Mavortius, who is spoken of in the
preface as ordinario considi designato,'^ an office which we
know that he held in 355 A. D. The writing of two such
works by one man has long given critics pause, and is a
splendid warning against taking anything for granted in
our study of the past. Not long ago the general opinion
was that there must have been two different authors by the
name of Firmicus. This very unlikely theory has now been
universally abandoned, as unmistakable similarities in style
and wording have been noted in the two works. But it is
still maintained that "there is no question but that he was a
pagan when he wrote his astrological book." ^ This in-
volves two considerations, whether the attitude expressed in
* For bibliography see F. Boll's noted. Earlier editions, which I
"Firmicus" in PW. It does not used for the later books before
include my article written subse- 1913, are the editio princeps,
quently on "A Roman Astrologer Julius Firmicus de nativitatibus,
as a Historical Source : Julius . . , Impressum Venetiis per Sy-
Firmicus Maternus," in Classical monem papienscm dictum bivi-
Pkilology, VIII, No. 4, pp. 415- laqua, 1497 die 13 lunii, cxv
35, October, 1913. For bibliog- fols. ; the Aldine edition of 1499
raphy see also Kroll et Skutsch, containing apparent interpolations,
II, xxxiv. Julii Firmici Astronomicorum
'The edition of De errore pro- libri octo integri et emendati ex
fanarum religionum by K. Ziegler, Scythicis oris ad nos niiper al-
Leipzig, 1907, is more critical than lati . . ."; and the Basel editions
that in Migne, PL. of 1533 and 1551 by M. Pruckner
^ lulii Firmici Materni Mathe- which reproduce the Aldine text.
seos Libri VIII, ed. W. Kroll et See Kroll et Skutsch, II, xxxiii,
F. Skutsch, Fasciculus prior for another reproduction of the
libros IV prior es et quinti Aldine text, printed in 1503, and
prooemium continens, Leipzig, p. xxviii for a partial edition of
1897; Fasciculus alter libros IV books 3-5 of the Mathesis in 1488
posteriores cum praefatione et and 1494 in Opus Astrolabii
indicibus continens, 1913. My plani ... a lohanne Angeli.
references will be by page and * Kroll et Skutsch, I, 3, 27.
line to this text, unless otherwise * Boll in PW, VI, 2365.
526 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the two works Is really incompatible and whether the Ma-
thesis was written before or after the De err ore.
Mommsen contended that "it is beyond doubt" * that the
Mathesis was written between 334 and 337 A. D., relying
chiefly upon several apparent mentions of Constantine the
Great as still living. The names, Constantine and Constan-
tius are frequently confused in the sources, however,^ and
even while the words, "Constantinuni maximum principem
et huius invictissimos liheros, domines et Caesares nostras,"
seem to refer unmistakably to Constantine, it must be re-
membered that they occur in a prayer to the planets and to
the supreme God that Constantine and his children may "rule
over our posterity and the posterity of our posterity through
infinite succession of ages." As this is simply equivalent
to expressing a hope that the dynasty may never become
extinct, it is scarcely proof positive that Constantine the
Great was still living when Firmicus published his book.
On the other hand, to maintain the early date Mommsen was
forced to treat the mention of Lollianus as ordinario con-
suli designato as mere prophetic flattery or as an appoint-
ment held up by Constantius for eighteen years. We know
that Firmicus addressed the De errore to Constantius and
Constans, probably between 345 and 350; we know that
Lollianus was city prefect of Rome in 342, consid ordinarius
in 355, and praetorian prefect in the following year; whereas
we know nothing certainly of either of them before 337.
Furthermore Firmicus explicitly states that the writing of
the Mathesis has been long delayed,^ and when the promise
to compose it was first made, it is evident that neither he
nor Lollianus was a young man. Lollianus was already
consularis of Campania and according to inscriptions had
^Hermes, XXIX, 468-72. The Constantini Ulius," might as well
treatise could not have been com- be rendered, "Constantius, son_ of
posed before 334 since Firmicus Constantine," as "Constantine,
(I, 13, 23) refers to an eclipse in son of Constantius."
the consulship of Optatus and M, i, 3, "Olim tibi hos libellos,
Paulinus which occurred in that Mavorti decus nostrum, me dica-
year. turum esse promiseram verum diu
' For instance, at I, 37, 25, "Con- me inconstantia verecundiae retar-
stantinus scilicet maximus divi davit."
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 527
previously held a number of other offices ; while still in this
position Lollianus had frequently to spur his friend on to
the task which Firmicus as frequently "gave up in despair."
Then Lollianus became Count of all the Orient and con-
tinued his importunities. Finally, after Lollianus has be-
come proconsul and ordinary consul elect, Firmicus com-
pletes the work and presents it to him. Meanwhile
Firmicus himself — who had formerly "resisted with un-
bending confidence and firmness" factious and wicked and
avaricious men, "who from fear of law-suits seemed ter-
rible to the unfortunate"; and who "with liberal mind, de-
spising forensic gains, to men in trouble . . . displayed a
pure and faithful defense in the courts of law," by which
upright conduct he incurred much enmity and danger ; ^ — has
retired from the sordid sphere of law courts and forum
to spend his leisure with the divine men of old of Egypt
and Babylon and to purify his spirit by contemplation of
the everlasting stars and of the God who works through
them. Yet we are asked to believe — if we accept a date be-
fore 337 for the Mathesis — not merely that he writes a
vehement invective against "profane religions" a decade
later, but also that twenty years after Lollianus is still a
vigorous administrator.^ It is possible, but seems unlikely.
Certainly the date of the Mathesis should be determined Are the
without any assumption as to what Firmicus' religion was ^ttitudes
when he wrote it. For, if we regard his attitudes in Mathe- micus'two
sis and De errore as incompatible, it will be as difficult to jncom-
explain how he could write the De errore after having com- patible?
posed the Mathesis as vice versa. After the steadfast af-
firmation of astrological principles in the Mathesis it is no
easier to explain the fierce spirit of intolerance toward pa-
ganism in the De errore than it is after the mention of Christ
in the De errore to explain the omission of that name in the
Mathesis. But are the two works really incompatible ? My
answer is, No. The divergences are such as may be ex-
* I, 195-6. praefectus praetorio, vir sublimis
* Ammianus Marcellinus, XVI, constantiae, crimen acri inquis-
8, 5, "iubetur Mavortius, tunc itione spectari."
528
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
plained by the different character of the two works and
the different circumstances under which they were written.
De errore is an impassioned polemic very possibly delivered
as an oration before the emperors; Mathesis is a learned
compilation on a pseudo-scientific subject composed at lei-
sure for a friend with the help of previous treatises on the
subject. Why should Firmicus mention Christ in the Ma-
thesis? Does Boethius, after nearly two centuries more of
Christian growth and although he wrote a work on the
Trinity, mention Christ in The Consolation of Philosophy?
Some apparent petty inconsistencies there may be between
Firmicus' two works, but if we accept a host of contradic-
tions in Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor,
why balk at some inconsistency in a writer who urges Con-
stantine's children against profane cults? On the other
hand, there are some striking correspondences between the
De errore and Mathesis.
It is noteworthy in the first place that in the De errore
Firmicus does not attack astrology. But if he had been con-
verted to Christianity since writing the Mathesis and had
abandoned the astrological doctrine there expounded, would
he have failed to attack the error of that art like Augustine
who testified that he had once believed in nativities? It is
therefore obvious that Firmicus does not regard astrology
as an error even at the time when he is penning the De errore
as a Christian apologist. Moreover, his view of nature in
the De errore is quite in accord with that of the astrologer,
and he manifests the respect for natural science or physica
ratio which one would expect from the author of the Ma-
thesis. Thus we find him criticizing certain pagan cults as
sharply for their incorrect physical notions as he does others
for travestying Christian mysteries. In its opening chapters
certain oriental religions are criticized for exalting each
some one of the four elements above the others, and for
neglecting that superior control of the world of terrestrial
nature in which both Christian and astrologer confided. An-
other argument against pagan worships is that they include
XXIII
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
529
human and immoral elements which cannot be explained as
based upon natural law ^ and the rule of that supreme God
or "God the fabricator," "who composed all things by the
orderly method of divine workmanship," — phrases which,
as Ziegler has shown,^ occur both in the De errore and Ma-
thesis. Furthermore, in the De errore Firmicus' allusions
to the planets, which include a representation of the Sun
making a reproachful address to certain pagans,^ indicate
that he regarded the stars as of immense importance in the
administration of the universe.
It is also worth remarking that in both works Firmicus
sets the emperors above the rest of mankind and closely as-
sociates them with the celestial bodies and "the supreme
God." If in Mathesis he prays for the perpetuation of the
line of Constantine and forbids astrologers to make predic-
tions concerning the emperor on the ground that his fate is
not subject to the stars but directly to the supreme God, "and
inasmuch as the whole surface of the earth is subject to
the emperor, he too is reckoned in the number of those gods
whom the principal divinity has established to perform and
preserve all things":'* — if he says this in Mathesis, in De
errore he repeatedly addresses the emperors as "most holy" ^
and in one passage says, "You now, O Constantius and
Constans, most holy emperors, and the virtue of your ven-
erated faith must be implored. It is erected above men and,
separated from earthly frailty, joins in alliance with things
celestial and in all its acts so far as it can follows the will
of the supreme God. . . . Your felicity is joined with God's
virtue, with Christ fighting at your side you have triumphed
on behalf of human safety." ^
If the author of De errore is not unfavorable to astrology
the author of the Mathesis is strongly inclined towards mon-
^ Ziegler, p. 7, "Physica ratio
quam dicis, alio genere celetur" ;
p. 9, "quod dicant physica ratione
conpositum."
'Ziegler, p. 5.
" Ziegler, p. 23.
*Kroll et Skutsch, I, 86, 12-21.
'Ziegler, pp. 15,. 3.8, 39, 64, 67,
81, 82, "sacratissimi imperatores";
pp. 31, 40, "sacrosancti principes";
p. 65. "sanctarum aurium vestra-
rum."
•Ziegler, pp. 53-4.
Attitude
of both
works to
the em-
perors.
Religious
attitude
of the
Mathesis.
530 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
otheism and decidedly religious. He indignantly repels
the accusation that astrology, which teaches that "all our
acts are arranged by the divine courses of the stars," draws
men away "from the cult of the gods and of religions."
"We cause the gods to be feared and worshiped, we demon-
strate their might and majesty." ^ The passage just quoted
and some others are suggestive of polytheism, and Firmicus
frequently speaks of the planets as "gods." Probably in
this he is reproducing the phraseology and reflecting the at-
titude of the astrological works which he uses as his au-
thorities and which belong to the period of the pagan past.
His apotelesmata, too, or predictions of nativities for various
horoscopes, give little or no indication of being especially
adapted to a Christian society, although in some other re-
spects they fit his own age.^ But while the work contains
a considerable residue of paganism, its prevailing conception
of deity is one supreme God, the rector of the planets, "who
composed all things by the arrangement of everlasting law," ^
and who made man the microcosm from the four elements.*
He is prayed to thus :
"But lest my words be bereft of divine aid and the envy
of some hateful man impugn them by hostile attacks, who-
ever thou art, God, who continuest day after day the course
of the heavens in rapid rotation, who perpetuatest the mobile
agitation of ocean's tides, who strengthenest earth's solidity
in the immovable strength of its foundations, who re freshest
with night's sleep the toil of our earthly bodies, who when
our strength is renewed returnest the grace of sweetest light,
who stirrest all the substance of thy work by the salutary
breath of the winds, who pourest forth the waves of streams
and fountains in tireless force, who revolvest the varied
seasons by sure periods of days : sole Governor and Prince
of all, sole Emperor and Lord, whom all the celestial forces
* Kroll et Skutsch, I, 17-18. ^ I, 16, 20, "Summo illi ac rec-
^ See my "A Roman Astrologer tori dec, qui omnia perpetua
as a Historical Source," Classical legis dispositione composuit. . . ,"
Philology, VIII, 415-35, especially *I, 16, 14; I, 57, 2; I, 90, 1 1, to
p. 421. 91, ID.
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 531
serve, whose will is the substance of perfect work, by whose
faultless laws all nature is forever adorned and regulated;
thou Father alike and Mother of every thing, thou bound
to thyself, Father and Son, by one bond of relationship; to
Thee we extend suppliant hands, Thee with trembling sup-
plication we venerate ; grant us grace to attempt the explana-
tion of the courses of thy stars ; thine is the power that some-
how impels us to that interpretation. With a mind pure and
separated from all earthly thoughts and purged from every
stain of sin we have written these books for thy Romans." ^
Doubtless these words might have been written by a Neo-
Platonist or a pagan, but it also seems likely that they were
penned by a Christian astrologer.
Firmicus provides not only for divine government of Christian
the universe and creation of the world and man, but also to"'as-'°"^
for prayer to God and for human free will,^ since by the di- trology
vinity of the soul we are able to resist in some measure the
decrees of the stars. He also holds that human laws and
moral standards are not rendered of no avail by the force
of the stars but are very useful to the soul in its struggle by
the power of the divine mind against the vices of the body.^
Indeed, not only is the astrologer himself urged at consider-
able length to lead a pure, upright, and unselfish life, but "to
show the right way of living to sinful men, so that, reformed
by your teaching, they may be freed from the errors of their
past life." * The human soul is also immortal, a spark of
that same divine mind which through the stars exerts its
influence upon terrestrial bodies.^ All this may be consis-
tent or not both with itself and with the art of astrology, but
it meets the chief objections that Christians might make and
had made to the art.
These and other objections to the art of nativities are Astrology
the theme to which the first of the eight books of the Ma- P^^o^^^
* expen-
iT r. o r . r 1 ■ r mentally.
I, 280, 2-28. for the successful continuance of
* Besides the prayer just quoted, the dynasty of Constantine.
see I, 18, 10-13. See also the long * I, 18, 25-9.
prayer at the end of the first book *I, 85-89 (Book II, chapter 30).
to the planets and supreme God * I, 17, 2-23.
532
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Informa-
tion to be
gained
from the
third and
fourth
books.
thesis is devoted. Firmicus points out that some of the other
objections to astrology do not correctly state the doctrines
of that art; others he admits are ingenious arguments which
sound well on paper but he insists that if the opponents of
astrology, instead of protesting that the influence of the
stars at a given instant is incalculable, would put the matter
to the test experimentally,^ they would soon be convinced of
the truth of astrologers' predictions, although he grants that
unskilful astrologers sometimes give wrong responses. But
he insists that persons who have not tested astrology experi-
mentally are unfit to pass upon its merits.^ He affirms that
the human spirit which has discovered so many other sci-
ences and to which so much of divinity and religion has been
revealed is capable also of casting horoscopes, and that as-
trological prediction is a relatively easy task compared to
the mapping out of the whole heavens and courses of the
stars which the mathematici have already performed so suc-
cessfully.^ And he does not see why anyone persists in
denying the power of fate in human affairs when all about
him he can see the innocent suffering and the guilty escap-
ing; the best men such as Socrates, Plato, and Pythagoras
meeting an ill fate ; and unprincipled persons like Alcibiades
and Sulla prospering.*
The remaining seven books of the Mathesis are given
over to the art of horoscope casting. The second book con-
sists chiefly of preliminary directions, but the others state
what men will be bom under various constellations. Of
these the last four books are extant only in manuscripts of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while the first four are
found in manuscripts going back to the eleventh century.
Moreover, although books five to eight cover more pages
than books three and four, they do not supply so many de-
tails or so satisfactory a picture of human society in their
predictions. These divergences, which are mainly ones of
omission, do not invalidate the results which we gain from
* I, 10, 3-.
•I, 11,7".
'Book I, Chapter 4 (I, ii-iS).
*Book I, Chapter 7 (I, 19-30).
xxiii PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 533
an analysis of the third and fourth books, but do raise the
question whether the later books, especially the fifth and
sixth, are genuine. In them the wording becomes vaguer,
little knowledge is shown of conditions at the time that Fir-
micus wrote, the predictions are more sensational and rhetori-
cal. Only the latter part of the eighth book carries the con-
viction of reality that books three and four do. These two
books are both independent units and through their predic-
tions of the future supply a general picture of human so-
ciety, presumably that of Firmicus' own time or not long
before. One naturally assumes that those matters to which
Firmicus devotes most space and emphasis are the promi-
nent features of his age. Let us see what his picture is of
religion, divination, the occult science and magic, natural
science and medicine.^
To religion Firmicus gives less space than to politics. Religion
There are no clear references to Christianity, but there are i^^gic;
few allusions to any particular cults. Firmicus, however, exorcists
indicates the existence of many cults, speaking five times of
the heads of religions, and characterizing men as "those who
regard all religions and gods with a certain trepidation,"
"those devoted to certain religions," "those who cherish the
greatest religions," and so on. Temples,^ priests, and div-
ination ^ are the three features of religion that he mentions
most. Magic and religion are closely associated in his pre-
dictions, for instance, "temple priests ever famed in magic
lore." Sacred or religious literatures and persons devoted
to them are mentioned thrice, while in a fourth passage we
** For a fuller exposition of this marking that H. O. Taylor, The
quantitative method of source- Classical Heritage, 1901, p. 80,
analysis and the results obtained notes that Synesius about 400
thereby see Thorndike (1913), pp. A. D. speaks of the Christian
415-35. churches at Constantinople as
' Temple-robbers, 5 ; servile or "temples."
ignoble employ in temples, 5; ^ Chief priests, 5; priests, 9; of
spending one's time in temples, provinces, i ; priestess, i ; priests
4 ;_ builders of temples, 3; bene- of Cybele (archigalli), 3; Asi-
ficiaries of temples, 3 ; temple archae, 1 ; priest of some great
guards, 2; neocori, 3; and so on, goddess, i; illicit rites, i. There
making 35 references to temples are 27 passages concerning divina-
in all. It is perhaps worth re- tion.
534
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Divina-
tion.
Magic as a
branch of
learning.
hear of men "investigating the secrets of all religions and
of heaven itself." Other interesting descriptions ^ are of
those who "stay in temples in an unkempt state and always
walk abroad thus, and never cut their hair, and who would
announce something to men as if said by the gods, such as
are wont to be in temples, who are accustomed to predjct
the future"; and of "men terrible to the gods and who de-
spise all kinds of perjuries. Moreover, they will be terrible
to all demons, and at their approach the wicked spirits of
demons flee; and they free men who are thus troubled, not
by force of words but by their mere appearing; and how-
ever violent the demon may be who shakes the body and
spirit of man, whether he be aerial or terrestrial or infernal,
he flees at the bidding of this sort of man and fears his pre-
cepts with a certain veneration. These are they who are
called exorcists by the people." Religious games and con-
tests are mentioned four times : the carving, consecrating,
adoring, and clothing of images of the gods, twice each;
porters at religious ceremonies, thrice; hymn singers, twice;
pipe-players once. Five passages represent persons profes-
sionally engaged in religion as growing rich thereby.
We are told that men "predict the future either by the
divinity of their own minds or by the admonition of the
gods or from oracles or by the venerable discipline of some
art." ^ Augurs, aruspices, interpreters of dreams, mathema-
tici (astrologers), diviners, and prophets are mentioned.
Once Firmicus alludes to false divination but he usually im-
plies that it is a valid art.
From religion and divination we easily pass to the occult
arts and sciences, and thence to learning and literature in
general, from which occult learning is scarcely distinguished
in the Mathesis. Magicians or magic arts are mentioned no
less than seven times in varied relations with religion, phi'
losophy, medicine, and astronomy or astrology, showing that
magic was not invariably regarded as evil in that age, and
* Kroll et Skutsch, I, 148, 8 and
123, 4-
Kroll et Skutsch, I, 201, 6.
science.
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 535
that it was confused and intermingled with the arts and phi-
losophy as well as with the religion of the times, ^ There are
a number of other allusions to secret and illicit arts or writ-
ings; these, however, appear to be more unfavorably re-
garded and probably largely consist of witchcraft and poi-
soning.
The evidence of the Mathesis suggests that the civiliza- Interest in
tion of declining Rome was at least not conscious of the in-
tellectual decadence and lack of scientific interest so gener-
ally imputed to it. We find three descriptions of intellectual
pioneers who learn what no master has ever taught them,
and one other instance of men who pretend to do so. We
also hear of "those learning much and knowing all, also in-
ventors," and of those "learning everything," and "desiring
to learn the secrets of all arts." This curiosity, it is true,
seems to be largely devoted to occult science, but it also seems
plain that mathematics and medicine were important fac-
tors in fourth-century culture as well as the rhetorical
studies whose role has perhaps been overestimated. Let us
compare the statistics. Oratory is mentioned eighteen times,
and it is to be noted that literary attainments and learning
as well as mere eloquence are regarded as essential in an
orator. Men of letters other than orators are found in six
passages, and poets in only three. A passage reading "philol-
ogists or those skilled in laborious letters" suggests that
four instances of the phrase difficiles litter ae should perhaps
be classed under linguistic rather than occult studies. There
are four allusions to grammarians and two to masters of
grammar, as against one description of "contentious, con-
* Cumont says {Oriental Re- that Firmicus does not use the
ligions in Roman Paganism, p. word "theurgy." Cumont also
188) : "But the ancients expressly states (p. 179) that in the last
distinguished 'magic,' which was period of paganism the name phi-
always under suspicion and dis- losopher was finally applied to all
approved of, from the legitimate adepts in occult science. But in
and honorable art for which the Firmicus, while magic and phi-
narne 'theurgy' was invented." losophy are associated in two
This distinction was made by passages, there are five other allu-
Porphyry and others, and is sions to magic and three separate
alluded to by Augustine in the mentions of philosophers.
City of God, but it is to be noted
536 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
tradictory dialecticians, professing that they know what no
teaching has acquainted them with, mischievous fellows, but
unable to do any effective thinking."'^ On the other hand,
there are fourteen allusions to astronomy and astrology
(not including the mathematici already listed under divina-
tion), three to geometry, and six to other varieties of mathe-
matics.^ Philosophers are mentioned five times; practition-
ers of medicine, eleven times ; ^ surgeons, once ; and botan-
ists, twice. These professions seem to be well paid and are
spoken of in complimentary terms.
Diseases Death, injury, and disease loom up large in Firmicus'
tiquity. prospectus for the human race, making us realize the bene-
fits of nineteenth-century medicine as well as of modern
peace.* No less than 174 passages deal with disease and
many of them list two or more ills. Mental disorders are
mentioned in 37 places ; ^ physical deformities in six. Other
specific ailments mentioned are as follows : blindness and
eye troubles, 10; deafness and ear troubles, 5; impediments
of speech, 4 ; baldness, i ; foul odors, i ; dyspeptics, 4 ; other
stomach complaints, 7 ; dysentery, 2 ; liver trouble, i ; jaun-
dice, I ; dropsy, 5 ; spleen disorders, i ; gonorrhoea, 2 ; other
diseases of the urinary bladder and private parts, 6; con-
sumption and lung troubles, 6; hemorrhages, 6; apoplexy,
3 ; spasms, 5 ; ills attributed to bad or excessive humors, 12;
leprosy and other skin diseases, 6 ; ague, i ; fever, i ; pains
in various parts of the body, 6; internal pains and hidden
diseases, 9; diseases of women, 5. There remain a large
number of vague allusions to ill-health: 21 to debility, 12
to languor, 3 to invalids, and 49 other passages. Only eight
passages allude to the cure of disease. Among the methods
suggested are cauterizing, incantations, ordinary remedies,
* Kroll et Skutsch, I, 161, 26. ^ Acstus animi, 5; insanity, 13;
'Computus, 3; calculus, 2; and lunatics, 10; epileptics, 8; melan-
"those who excel at numbers," i. cholia, 3 ; inflammation of the
"Including two mentions of brain (frenetici), 4; delirium, de-
court physicians (archiatri). See mentia, demoniacs, alienation, and
Codex Thcod., Lib. XIII, Tit. 3, madness, one or two each; vague
passim, for their position. allusions to mental ills and in-
*I leave this sentence as I wrote juries, 5.
it in 1913.
XXIII
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
537
and seeking divine aid, which last is mentioned most often.
The eleven references to medical practitioners should, how-
ever, be recalled here. The predictions as to length of life
are inadequate to the drawing of conclusions on that point.
Firmicus regards his work as a new contribution so far Place of
as the Latin-speaking world is concerned.^ Not that there j^ ^he his-
had not been previous writing- in Latin on the subject. ^°[y 9^
•^, _ , ° •' astrology.
Fronto "had written predictions very accurately," but "as
if he were addressing persons already perfect and skilled in
the art, and without first instructing in the elements and
practice of the art." ^ Firmicus supplies this essential pre-
liminary instruction, which hardly anyone of the Latins had
given, and corrects Fronto's faulty presentation of antiscia,
in which he followed Hipparchus, by the correcter method
of Navigius (Nigidius?) and Ptolemy.^ Firmicus gives no
systematic account of his authorities "* but occasionally cites
them for some particular point and in general professes to
follow not only the Greeks but the divine men of Egypt and
Babylon, chief among whom seem to be Nechepso and Peto-
siris and the Hermetic works to or by Aesculapius and Ha-
nubius. An Abram or Abraham is also cited several times.
But Firmicus also gives the Sphaera Barharica, "unknown
to all the Romans and to many Greeks," and which escaped
the notice even of Petosiris and Nechepso.^ Firmicus him-
self is named by no ancient author ^ but was well known in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as we shall see. In the
Mathesis he cites two previous astrological treatises of his
* In his last chapter he says,
"Take then, my dear Mavortius,
what I promised you with extreme
trepidation of spirit, these seven
books composed conformably to
the order and number of the
seven planets. For the first book
deals only with the defense of
the art ; but in tlie other books
we have transmitted to the Ro-
mans the discipline of a new
work," (II, 360, 10-15). And in
<he introduction to the fifth book
he writes, "We have written these
books for your Romans lest, when
every other art and science had
been translated, this task should
seem to remain unattempted by
Roman genius," (I, 280, 28-30).
'I, 41, 7 and 15; I, 40, 9-11,
^I, 41, 5 and II ; I, 40, 8.
* They are listed by Kroll et
Skutsch, II, 362, Index auctorum.
"* II, 294, 12-21.
' Kroll et Skutsch, II, p. iii.
538
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Libanius
accused
of magic.
Declama-
tion
against a
magician.
own ^ and expresses his intention of composing another
work in twelve books on the subject of Myrio genesis.^ The
astrologer Hephaestion of Thebes, who wrote later in the
fourth century, seems also to have been a Christian, so that
Firmicus was not a solitary case or an anomaly.^
The writings of Libanius, 314-391 A. D., the sophist and
rhetorician, throw some light on the relations between magic
and learning in the fourth century, show that sorcery and
divination were actually practiced, and largely duplicate im-
pressions already received from Apuleius, Apollonius, and
Galen, and a Christian like John Chrysostom as well as just
now from Firmicus. Libanius tells us how Bemarchius, a
rival of his at Athens, who would have poisoned him if he
could, instead circulated reports that he (Bemarchius) was
the victim of enchantments, and that Libanius had consulted
against him an astrologer who was able to control the stars,
so that he could confer benefits upon one man and work sor-
cery against another. This incidentally is another good il-
lustration of how easily astrology passed from mere pre-
diction of the future to operative magic, and of the essential
unity of all magic arts. The mob was aroused against Li-
banius and a praetor who tried to protect him was ousted
and another installed at daybreak who was ready to put Li-
banius to death. Torture was prepared and Libanius was
advised to leave Athens, if he did not wish to die there, and
took the advice and left.*
Among the declamations of Libanius is one against a
magician,^ supposed to have been delivered under the fol-
lowing circumstances. The city was afflicted with a pesti-
* I, 258, 10, "in singulari libro,
quern de domino geniturae et
chronocratore ad Murinum nos-
trum scripsimus" ; II, 229, 23, "ex-
eo libro qui de fine vitae a nobis
scriptus est."
MI, 18, 24; II, 283, 19.
* Engelbrecht, Hcphdstion von
Theben und sein astrologischcs
Comp-endium, Vienna, 1887.
* De vita sua, in Libanii sophis-
tae praeliidia oratoria LXXII
declamationcs XLV et disserta-
tioncs morales, Fedcricus Morellus
regius inter pres e MSS maxime
reg. biblioihecae nunc primum
edidit idemque Latine vertit . . .
ad Hcnricuni IV regent Christian-
issimuni, Paris, 1606, II, 15-18.
^ Magi accusatio. Ibid., I, 898-
911.
xxiii PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 539
lence and finally sent an embassy to the Delphic oracle to
learn how to escape the scourge. Apollo replied that they
must sacrifice the son of one of the inhabitants who should
be determined by lot, and the lot fell to the son of a magician.
The father then offered to stay the plague by means of his
magic art, if they would agree to spare his son. Against
this proposal Libanius argues, urging the people to carry out
their original decision and not to anger the Delphic god by
violating his oracle, whose reliability is attested by "long
time and much experience and common testimony." He
declares that magic is an evil art, and that magicians make
no one happy but many wretched, ruining homes, bringing
disaster to persons who have never harmed them, and dis-
turbing even the spirits of the dead. He also censures the
magician for not having offered to save the city from the
plague before, and expresses some scepticism as to his magic
power, asking why he did not prevent the fatal lot from
falling to his son, or why he does not save him now by
causing him to vanish from sight, or vouchsafe some other
unmistakable sign of his magic power. It appears that the
magician had asked a delay, saying that he must wait for
the moon before he could operate against the plague. Li-
banius points out that meanwhile the citizens are perishing
and that fulfillment of Apollo's oracle will bring instant
relief. It would seem, however, that some of the citizens
had more faith in the magician than in the god, which sup-
ports the oft-made general assertion that the magic arts
waxed as pagan religion and its superstitious observances
waned. Libanius concludes his oration or imaginary ora-
tion with the cutting and heartless witticism that the ma-
gician can lose his son more easily than can anyone else,
since he will of course still be able to invoke his spirit from
the dead.
Libanius' own faith in divination is not only suggested Faith of
by the attitude toward the Delphic oracle in the foregoing {„ dlvina-
declamation but is attested by two passages in his autobiog- tion.
raphy. His great-great-grandfather had so excelled in
540
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic and
astrology
in the
pseudo-
Quintilian
declama-
tions.
Fusion of
Christian-
ity and
paganism
in Syne-
sius of
Cyrene.
mantike that he foresaw that his children would die by steel,
although they would be handsome and great and good speak-
ers. It also was rumored that a celebrated sophist had pre-
dicted many things concerning Libanius himself, which Li-
banius assures us had since come to pass.^
Of the same type as Libanius' declamation against the
magician is the fourth pseudo-Quintilian declamation in
Latin concerning an astrologer's prediction, which we shall
later in the twelfth -century find Bernard Silvester enlarging
upon in his poem entitled Mathematicus. In another of the
pseudo-Quintilian declamations the word experimentum is
used of a magician's feat. "O harsh and cruel magician, O
manufacturer of our tears, I would that you had not given
so great an experiment ! We are angry at you, yet we must
cajole you. While you imprison the ghost, we know that
you alone can evoke it." ^
That more than fifty years after Firmicus adherence to
Christianity might be combined with trust in divination of
the future, occult science, and magical invocation of spirits,
and with various other pagan and Neo-Platonic beliefs, is
well illustrated by the case of Synesius of Cyrene,^ a fel-
low-African and contemporary of Augustine. Synesius,
however, traced his descent from the Heracleidae, wrote in
Greek, and displayed a Hellenism unusual for his time,* and,
^ De vita sua, Opera, II, 2-3.
"X, ig6, II, De sepulcro incan-
tato.
^ My citations of Synesius'
works, unless otherwise noted, are
from the edition : Syncsii Cyrenaei
Quae Extant Opera Omnia, ed. J.
G. Krabinger, Landshut, 1850, vol.
I, which has alone appeared. The
older edition of Petavius with
Latin translation is reprinted in
Migne PG, vol. 66, 1021-1756. For
a French translation, with several
introductory essays, see H. Druon,
Gluvrcs de Synesius, Paris, 1878.
The Letters and Hymns have
often been published separately.
For this and other further bibli-
ography see Christ, Gesch. d.
griech. Litt., 1913, II, ii, 1 167-71,
where, however, no note is taken
of Berthelot's discussion of Syne-
sius as a reputed author of al-
chemistic treatises.
Some works on Synesius are :
H. Druon, Etudes sur la zne et les
auvres de Synesius, Paris, 1859;
R. Volkmann, Synesius von
Cyrene, Berlin, 1869; W. S. Craw-
ford, Synesius the Hellene, Lon-
don, X901 ; G. Griitzmacher, Syne-
sios von Kyrcne, Leipzig, 1913.
In periodicals : F. X. Kraus in
Theol. Quartalschrift, 1865 and
1866; O. Seeck, in Philologus,
1893.
* See Crawford, op. ctt., and
monographs listed in Christ, op.
cit., p. 1168, notes 4 and 8.
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 541
while he did not find the Athens of his day entirely to his
taste, continued the philosophical and rhetorical traditions
of the sophists of the Roman Empire, like Libanius of whom
we have just spoken. His extant letters show that Hypatia
was numbered among his friends and had been his teacher
at the Neo-Platonic and mathematical school of Alexandria.
Hypatia was murdered by the fanatical Christian mob of
that city in 415. But very different was the attitude of the
people of Ptolemais to the like-minded Synesius. A few
years before they had elected him bishop ! ^ Moreover, he
distinctly stipulated ^ that he should not renounce his wife
and family nor his philosophical opinions, which seem to
have involved a sceptical attitude towards miracles and the
resurrection, and a belief in the eternity of the world and
pre-existence of the soul rather than in creation,^ in addi-
tion to the views which we are about to set forth. It has
been observed also that his doctrine of the Trinity is more
Neo-Platonic than Christian.*
The dates of Synesius' birth and death are uncertain. Career of
He seems to have been born about 370. His last dateable y"^"*^^-
letter appears to be written in 412, but some give the date
of his death as late as 430. Others contend that he did not
live to hear of Hypatia's murder. Before he was made
bishop he had been to Constantinople on a mission to the
emperor to secure alleviation of the oppressive taxation in
Cyrene. He had lived in Athens and Alexandria as a
student, and in Cyrene on his country estate. Here, if in
his fondness for books and philosophy he constituted a sur-
vival of the past, in his fondness for the chase and dogs
and horses and his repulsion of an invasion of Libyan ma-
rauders he was the forerunner of many a medieval feudal
^ The date is variously stated as IVahl und Weihe sum Bischof, in
411, 406, or 410. Hist. Jahrb., XXIII (1902), pp.
'A. J. Kleflfner, Synesius von 751-74.
Cyrene . . . und sein angeblicher * Christ, op. cit., p. 1168, note i.
Vorbehalt bet seiner IVahl und * Ibid., p. 1170, citing K. Prach-
Weihe sum Bischof von J'tole- ter, in Genethliakon fiir C.
mats, Paderborn, 1901. H. Koch, Robert, 1910, p. 244, ct scq.
Synesius von Cyrene bei seiner
542
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
His inter-
est in
science.
Belief in
occult
sympa-
thies
between
natural
obj ects.
bishop. And after he became bishop, he launched an excom-
munication against the tyrannical prefect Andronicus.
But our particular interest is less in his political and
more purely literary activities than in his taste for mathema-
tics and science. He knew some medicine and was well ac-
quainted with geometry and astronomy. He believed him-
self to be the inventor of an astrolabe and of a hydroscope.
With this interest in natural and mathematical science
went an interest in occult science and divination. His belief
that the universe was a unit and all its parts closely corre-
lated not only led him to maintain, like Seneca, that what-
ever had a cause was a sign of some future event, or to hold
with Plotinus that in any and every object the sage might
discern the future of every other, and that the birds them-
selves, if endowed with sufficient intelligence, would be able
to predict the future by observing the movements of human
bipeds.^ It led him also to the conclusion that the various
parts of the universe were more than passive mirrors in
which one might see the future of the other parts ; that they
further exerted, by virtue of the magic sympathy which
united all parts of the universe, a potent active influence over
other objects and occurrences. The wise man might not only
predict the future; he might, to a great extent, control it.
"For it must be, I think, that of this whole, so joined in
sympathy and in agreement, the parts are closely connected
as if members of a single body. And does not this explain
the spells of the magi? For things, besides being signs of
each other, have magic power over each other. The wise
man, then, is he who knows the relationships of the parts of
the universe. For he draws one object under his control by
means of another object, holding what is at hand as a pledge
for what is far away, and working through sounds and mate-
rial substances and forms." ^ Synesius explained that plants
^Ilepl kvvirvlcov (On dreams), ch. 2. fi&yccv Ivyyes avrai', Kai yap deXyt-
'llcpi ivviruiuv {On Dreams), ch.
3. "E6ft yap, olixai, tov iravros tovtov
cvpLiradovi Tt ovros Kal avinrvov to, (JLtprf
irpoarfKnv dXXijXois, are cvos oKov tA
/utXij Tvyx^fovTa. Koi m^? Trore ai
rat Trap' dXXjjXcoi', axnrep crrnxaiveTai'
Kal <ro06s 0 eidtos Trjv tC>v tiepwv tov
K6ap.ov crvyyeveiav. "EX/cei yap fiXXo
8V aWov, ix'^" tfkxvpa irapovra tChv
ifKelaTov airovruv, Kai <j>uvas, Kal ii\as
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 543
and stones are related by bonds of occult sympathy to the
gods who are within the universe and who form a part of
it, that plants and stones have magic power over these gods,
and that one may by means of such material substances
attract those deities.^ He evidently believed that it was
quite legitimate to control the processes of nature by invok-
ing demons.
The devotion of Synesius to divination has been already Synesius
implied. He regarded it as among the noblest of human tion and
pursuits.^ Dreams, on which he wrote a treatise, he viewed astrology,
as significant and very useful events. They aided him, he
wrote, in his every-day life, and had upon one occasion
saved him from magic devices against his life.^ Warned
by a dream that he would have a son, he wrote a treatise for
the child before it was born.^ Of course, he had faith in
astrology. The stars were well-nigh ever present in his
thought. In his Praise of Baldness he characterized comets
as fatal omens, as harbingers of the worst public disasters.^
In On Providence he explained the supposed fact that his-
tory repeats itself by the periodical return to their former
positions of the stars which govern our life.^ In On the
Gift of an Astrolabe he declared that "astronomy" besides
being itself a noble science, prepared men for the diviner
mysteries of theology.'^
Finally, he held the view common among students of Synesius
magic that knowledge should be esoteric ; that its mysteries alchemist.
and marvels should be confined to the few fitted to receive
them and that they should be expressed in language incom-
prehensible to the vulgar crowd.^ It is perhaps on this
Kal ffx^M^Ta Evidently 4iroSe£|6is iardiv tov fiapreiav kv rols
Synesius did not regard the magi &pI<ttols elvai. twv eTnTrjSevo/ievwy dr-
as mere imposters. Bpicirois.
*nepi kvvirvluv, ch. 3. Kai 5i) Kal ' Ibid., ch. 18.
Bec^ Tivl Tcov tiaco tov Koafiov'Kidos kvQkv- * Alwv rj irepl Trjs /car' avrov Siayu-
Se Kal fioT&VT} irpocrriKei, ols bixoioiraOoiv f^S.
elKti rfi (pixrei. Kal yoriTeverai. In his °<i>aXd/cpos kyK(l}fJii.op, ch. 10.
Praise of Baldness (€>aXdKpas kyKu- ' Alyvimoi fj wepl vpovolas, bk. ii,
fiiov), ch. 10, Synesius tells how ch. 7.
the Egyptians attract demons by ''UposHaiovLovwepiTov So:pov, ch. S'
magic influences. 'A/wv, ch. 7. Ilepi ivuiri'iwj'.ch. 4.
*Jl€pl b>viri>luv, ch. I. AuTtti fib' 'EiriffToXal, 4, 49, and 142.
544 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
account that one of the oldest extant treatises of Greek
alchemy is ascribed to him. Berthelot, however, accepted it
as his, stating that "there is nothing surprising in Synesius'
having really written on alchemy." ^
Macrobius Synesius influenced the Byzantine period but probably
dreams^^'^' "°^ *^^ western medieval world. But the Commentary of
and stars. Macrobius on The Dream of Scipio by Cicero is one of the
treatises most frequently encountered in early medieval Latin
manuscripts. In the twelfth century Abelard made frequent
reference to Macrobius and called him "no mean philoso-
pher"; in the thirteenth Aquinas cited him as an authority
for the doctrines of Neo-Platonism.^ Macrobius himself
affirmed that Vergil contained practically all necessary
knowledge ^ and that Cicero's Dream of Scipio was a work
second to none and contained the entire substance of philos-
ophy.^ Macrobius believed that numbers possess occult
power. He dilated at considerable length upon every num-
ber from one to eight, emphasizing the perfection and far-
reaching significance of each. He held the Pythagorean
doctrine that the world-soul consists of number, that num-
ber rules the harmony of the celestial bodies, and that from
the music of the spheres we derive the numerical values
proper to musical consonance.^ His opinion was that
dreams and other striking occurrences will reveal an occult
meaning to the careful investigator.^ As for astrology, he
regarded the stars as signs but not causes of future events,
just as birds by their flight or song reveal matters of which
they themselves are ignorant.'^ So the sun and other planets,
though in a way divine, are but material bodies, and it is
not from them but from the world-soul (pure mind), whence
they too come, that the human spirit takes its origin.® In
*0n Synesius as an alchemist Scipio, II, 17, "Universa phi-
see Berthelot (1885), pp. 65, 188- losophiae integritas"; ed. Nisard,
90; (1889), p. ix. Paris, 1883.
'T. R. Glover, Life and Letters "Ibid., I, 5-6; II, 1-2.
in the Fourth Century A. D., Cam- 'Ibid., I, 7-
bridge, 1901, p. 187, note i. ''Ibid., I, 19.
* Saturnalia, I, xvi, I2. "Ibid., I, 14.
* Commentary on the Dream of
XXIII
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
545
his sole other extant work, the Saturnalia, Macrobius dis-
plays some belief in occult virtues in natural objects, as when
Disaurius the physician answers such questions as why a
copper knife stuck in game prevents decay. ^
The medieval vogue of the fifth century work of Marti-
anus Capella, The Nuptials of Philology and Mercury, and
the Seven Liberal Arts,^ has been too frequently demon-
strated to require further emphasis here, although it is still
a puzzle just why a monastic Christian world should have
selected for a text book in the liberal arts a work which con-
tained so much pagan mythology, to say nothing of a mar-
riage ceremony. Nor need we repeat its fulsome allegorical
plot and meager learned content. Cassiodorus tells us that
the author was a native of Madaura, the birth-place of Apu-
leius, in North Africa, and he appears to be a Neo-Platonist
who has much to say of the sky, stars, and old pagan gods,
often, however, by way of brief and vague poetical allusion.
Of astrology there is very little trace in Capella's work.
In a discussion of perfect numbers in the second book the
number seven evokes allusion to the fatal courses of the
stars and their influence upon the formation of the child in
the womb ; but the eighth book, which is devoted to the theme
of astronomy as one of the liberal arts, is limited to a purely
astronomical description of the heavens.
The chief thing for us to note in the work is the account
of the various orders of spiritual beings and their respective
location in reference to the heavenly bodies.^ Juno leads
the virgin Philology to the aerial citadels and there instructs
her in the multiplicity of diverse powers. From highest
ether to the solar circle are beings of a fiery and flaming sub-
stance. These are the celestial gods who prepare the secrets
of occult causes. They are pure and impassive and immor-
tal and have little or no direct relation with mankind. Be-
Martianus
Capella.
Absence
of as-
trology.
Orders of
spirits.
* Glover (1901), p. 178.
* De nuptiis philologiae et mer-
curii et de sept em artibus Hberali-
bus libri novem, Lugduni apud
haeredes Simonis Vificentii, 1539;
ed. U. F. Kopp, Frankfurt, 1836;
ed. F. Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, 1866.
' It occurs toward the close of
the second book.
546 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
tween sun and moon come spirits who have especial charge
of soothsaying, dreams, prodigies, omens, and divination
from entrails and auguries. They often utter warning voices
or admonish those who consult their oracles by the course
of the stars or the hurling of thunderbolts. To this class
belong the Genii associated with individual mortals and
angels "who announce secret thoughts to the superior
power." All these the Greeks call demons. Their splendor
is less lucid than that of the celestials, but their bodies are
not sufficiently corporeal to enable men to see them. Lares
and purer human souls after death also come under this cate-
gory. Between moon and earth the spirits subdivide into
three classes. In the upper atmosphere are demi-gods.
"These have celestial souls and holy minds and are begotten
in human form to the profit of the whole world." Such
were Hercules, Ammon, Dionysus, Osiris, Isis, Triptolemus,
and Asclepius. Others of this class become sibyls and seers.
From mid-air to the mountain-tops are found heroes and
Manes. Finally the earth itself is inhabited by a long-lived
race of dwellers in woods and groves, in fountains and lakes
and streams, called Pans, Fauns, satyrs, Silvani, nymphs,
and by other names. They finally die as men do, but pos-
sess great power of foresight and of inflicting injury. ■■• It
is evident that Capella's spiritual world is one well fitted
for astrology, divination, and magic.
TheCeles- Very different are the orders of spirits described in
ar^h^Zi' ^^^ Celestial Hierarchy, supposed to be the work of Dio-
Dionysius nysius the Areopagite, where are set forth nine orders of
pagite. spirits in three groups of three each : Seraphim, Cherubim,
and Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; Princes,
Archangels, and Angels. The threefold division reminds
us of Capella, but there the resemblance ceases. The pseudo-
Dionysius takes all his suggestions from the Old and New
Testaments, rather than from classical mythology and such
previous classifications of spirits as that of Apuleius. And
* In Kopp's edition pp. 202-23 are almost entirely taken up with notes
setting forth other passages in the classics concerning such spirits.
XXIII PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 547
while his starting from such verses of the Bible as "Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending
from the Father of lights," and "Jesus Christ the true light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and his
using such phrases as "archifotic Father" and "thearchic
ray," lead us to expect some Gnostic-like scheme of associa-
tion of the spirits with the various heavens and celestial
bodies, in fact he throughout speaks of the spirits solely as
celestial and deiform and hypercosmic minds, and unspeak-
able and sacred enigmas of whose invisibility, transcend-
ence, infinity, and incomprehensibility any description can
be merely symbolic and figurative. Their functions seem
to consist chiefly in contemplation of the deity or their su-
perior orders and illumination of man and their inferior
orders. They are not specifically associated by Dionysius
with the celestial bodies, much less with any terrestrial ob-
jects, and so his account lays no foundation for magic and
astrology, unless as its transcendent mysticism might pique
some curious person to attempt some very immaterial vari-
ety of theurgy and sublimated theosophy. Although the
Pseudo-Dionysius wrote in Greek,^ his work was made avail-
able for the Latin middle ages by the translation of John
the Scot in the ninth century.^
* Greek text in Migne, PG 3, 119-370.
'Migne, PL 122, 1037-70.
BOOK III. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
Chapter 24. The Story of Nectanebus.
25. Post-Classical Medicine.
26. Pseudo-Literature in Natural Science of the
Early Middle Ages.
27. Other Early Medieval Learning.
28. Arabic Occult Science of the Ninth Century.
29. Latin Astrology and Divination, Especially
in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Cen-
turies.
" 30. Gerbert and the Introduction of Arabic As-
trology.
31. Anglo-Saxon, Salernitan, and other Latin
Medicine in Manuscripts from the Ninth to
the Twelfth Century.
" 32. Constantinus Africanus.
33. Treatises on the Arts before the Introduction
of Arabic Alchemy.
" 34. Marbod.
549
CHAPTER XXIV
THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS
OR
THE ALEXANDER LEGEND IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES ^
The Pseudo-Callisthenes — Its unhistoric character — Julius Valerius
— Oriental versions — Medieval epitomes of Julius Valerius — Letters of
Alexander — Leo's Historia de pracliis — Medieval metamorphosis of an-
cient tradition — Survival of magical and scientific features — Who was
Nectanebus ?— A scientific key-note — Magic of Nectanebus — Nectanebus
as an astrologer — A magic dream — Lucian on Olympias and the serpeht
— More dream-sending; magic transformation — An omen interpreted —
The birth of Alexander — The death of Nectanebus — The Amazons and
Gymnosophists — The Letter to Aristotle.
The oldest version of the legend or romance of Alexan- The
der is naturally believed to have been written in the Greek Cailis-'
language but is thought to have been produced in Egypt thenes.
at Alexandria. But the Greek manuscripts of the story are
* The following bibliography in- thenes and other writers. D.
eludes the editions of the texts Carrarioli, La leggenda di Ales-
concerned and the chief critical sandro Magna, 1892. G. G. Cillie,
researches in the field. A. Aus- De lulii Valerii epitoma Oxonien-
f eld, Zur Kritik des griechischen si, Strasburg, 1905. _ G. Favre,
Alexanderromans ; Untersuchung- Recherches sur les histoires fabu-
en iiber die unechten Telle der leuses d'Alexandre le Grand, in
altesten Ueberlieferung, Karls- Melanges d'hist. litt., II (1856), 5-
ruhe, 1894. A. Ausfeld and W. 184. Ethe, Alexanders Zug zur
Kroll, Der griechische Alexan- Lebensquelle ini Lande der Fin-
derroman, Leipzig, 1907. H. sterniss, in Atti dell' Accadcniia di
Becker, Die Brahindnnen in der Monaco, 1871. B. Kiibler, Julius
Alexandersage, Konigsberg, 1889, Valerius; Res gestae Alexandri
34 pp. E. A. W. Budge, History Maccdonis, Leipzig, 1888 (see pp.
of Alexander the Great, Cam- xxv-xxvi for further bibliog-
bridge University Press, 1889; the raphy). Levi, La legende d'Alex-
Syriac version of the Pseudo- aiidre dans le Talmud, in Revue
Co//ij^/i^n^^ edited from five MSS, des Etudes juives, I (1880),
with an English translation and 293-300. Meusel, Pseudo-Callis-
HOtes. E. A. W. Budge, The Life thenes nach der Leidener Hand-
and Exploits of Alexander the schrift herausgegeben, Leipzig,
Great, Cambridge University 1871. M. P. H. Meyer, Alexandre
Press, 1896; Ethiopic Histories of le Grand dans la litterature fran-
Alexander by the Pseudo-Callis- gaise du moyen age, 2 vols., Paris,
551
552
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
all of the medieval or Renaissance period; indeed, none of
them antedates the eleventh or twelfth century. Further-
more, they differ very considerably in content and arrange-
ment, so that the problem of distinguishing or recovering
the original text of the Pseudo-Callisthenes, as the work is
commonly called, and of dating it, is one with which vari-
ous scholars have grappled. It has been held that the orig-
inal Greek text which lies back of the later versions was
written not later than 200 A. D. But Basil, writing in
Greek in the fourth century and well-versed in Greek cul-
ture, is apparently unfamiliar with the story of Nectanebus,
since he says, "Without doubt there has never been a king
who has taken measures to have his son born under the star
of royalty," ^ Fortunately we are less interested in the orig-
inal version than in the medieval development of the tradi-
tion. It should, however, perhaps be premised that certain
features of the Alexander legend may be detected in embryo
in Plutarch's Life of him.
the Mechitarists, Venice, 1842. F.
Pfister, Kleine Texte zum Alex-
anderroman, Heidelberg, 1910;
Sammlung vulgdrlateinischer Tex-
te herausg. v. W. Heraeus u. H.
Morf, 4 Heft. Spiegel, Die Alex-
andersage bei den Orientalen,
Leipzig, 1851. Vogelstein, Adno-
tationes quaedam ex litteris
orientalibus petitae quae de Alex-
andra Magna circumferuntur,
Warsaw, 1^5. A. Westermann,
De Callisthene Olynthia et
Pseudo-Callisthene Cammentatio,
1 838- 1842. J. Zacher, Pseudo-
Callisthenes: Forschungen zur
Kritik und Geschichte der dl-
t est en Aufscichnung der Alcxan-
dersage, Halle, 1867 (see pp. 2-3
for further bibliography of works
written before 1851). J. Zacher,
Julii Valerii Epitome, sum ersten
tnal herausgcgeben, Halle, 1867.
^ Hexacmeron, VI, 7. On the
other hand, Augustine, De civitate
dei, V, 6-7, alludes to the sage who
selected a certain hour for inter-
course with his wife in order that
he might beget a marvelous son.
1886. C. Miiller, Scriptores rerum^
Alexandri Magni, Firmin-Didot,
Paris, 1846 and 1877 (bound with
Arrian, ed. Fr. Diibner) ; the first
edition of the Greek text of the
Pseudo-Callisthenes from three
Paris MSS, also Julius Valerius,
etc. Noeldeke, Beitrdge zur Ge-
schichte des Alexanderromatis,
Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen
Akademie der Wissenschaften in
Wien, Philos. Hist. Classe, vol. 38,
Vienna, 1890; Budge says of this
work, "Professor Noeldeke dis-
cusses in his characteristic mas-
terly manner the Greek, Syriac,
Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic ver-
sions, and ably shows how each is
related to the other, and how
certain variations in the narrative
have arisen. No other writer be-
fore him was able to control, by
knowledge at first hand, the state-
ments of both the Aryan and
Semitic versions ; his work is
therefore of unique value." Pad-
muthiun Achcksandri Makcto-
nazwui, I Wenedig i dparani
serbuin Chazaru, Hami, 1842; the
Armenian version published by
acter.
XXIV THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS 553
The true Callisthenes was a historian who accompanied
Alexander upon his Asiatic campaigns but then offended the
conqueror by opposing his adoption of oriental dress, abso-
lutism, and deification, and was therefore cast into prison on
a charge of treason, and there died in 328 B. C. either from
ill treatment or disease.^ Since Callisthenes was also a
relative and pupil of Aristotle, his name was an excellent
one upon which to father the romance. However, the old-
est Latin version of it professes to employ a Greek text by
one Aesopus, possibly because Aesop's fables accompany the
story of Alexander in some of the manuscripts. Yet other
versions cite an Onesicritus,^ and the Pseudo-CaUisthenes
has also been attributed to Antisthenes, Aristotle, and Ar-
rian.
Perhaps no better single illustration of the totally un- Its unhis-
historical and romantic character of the Pseudo-Callisthenes j^"*;^ ^^"
can be given than the perversion of Alexander's line of
march in most of the Greek and all of the Latin versions.
He is represented as first proceeding to Italy and receiving
royal honors at Rome ; then he goes to Carthage and reaches
the shrine of Ammon by traversing Libya; next he passes
through Egypt into Syria and destroys Tyre, after which he
crosses Arabia and has his first battle with Darius. Pres-
ently he is found back in Greece sacking Thebes and dealing
with Corinth, Athens, and Sparta. Then his Asiatic con-
quests are resumed.
The oldest Latin version of the Alexander romance is Julius
the Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis of Julius Valerius.
Who he was and when he lived are matters still veiled in
obscurity ; but it is customary to place him in the early fourth
century on the basis of Zacher's contention that the Res ges-
tae is copied in certain portions of the Itinerarium Alexan-
dri, which was written during the years 340-345 A. D. This
* Seneca in the Natural Ques- outweigh, — a passage which did
tions (VI, 23) called the death of not keep Nero from forcing
Callisthenes "the eternal crime" of Seneca to commit suicide.
Alexander which all his military ^ Reitzenstein, Pohnandres, Leip-
victories and conquests could not zig, 1904, pp. 308-309.
Valerius.
554 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
dating would also serve to explain why Basil, writing in
Greek before 379, had never heard of a king who had taken
steps to have his son born under the star of royalty, while
Augustine, writing in Latin between 413 and 426, men-
tions the story of a sage who selected a certain hour for in-
tercourse with his wife in order that he might beget a mar-
velous son. This would also suggest that the Latin version
was older than the Greek, as in fact the extant manuscripts
of it are. The oldest manuscript of Valerius, however, is a
badly damaged palimpsest of the seventh century at Turin.
Other manuscripts are one at Milan of the tenth century
and another at Paris dating about 1200.^ The text of Va-
lerius differs considerably from the Greek Pseudo-Callis-
thenes and was to undergo further alteration in later me-
dieval Latin versions.
Before speaking of these we may mention other oriental
versions of the story. An Armenian text dates from the
fifth century. A Syriac version, which dates from the sev-
enth or eighth century and was "much read by the Nestori-
ans," was itself derived from an earlier Persian rendering.
It seems to make use of both the Greek Pseudo-Callisthenes
and Julius Valerius since it includes incidents from either
which are not found in the other. And it omits a consider-
able section of the Greek version besides adding episodes
which are not found in it, although contained in Julius Va-
lerius. We hear further of Arabic and Hebrew versions of
the romance, while manuscripts of recent date supply an
Ethiopic version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes of unknown
authorship and date, together with other Ethiopic histories
and romances of Alexander. These are based partly upon
Arabic and Jewish works but take great liberties with their
sources in making alterations to suit a Christian audience,
omitting for example, as Budge points out, Alexander's vic-
^Res gestae of Alexander of twelfth centuries: Royal 13-A-I,
Macedon, contained in three MSS Royal 12-C-IV, and Royal 15-C-
of the Royal Library in the British VI, are not the full text of Julius
Museum, dating according to the Valerius, but the epitome of which
catalogue from the eleventh and I shall soon speak.
XXIV
THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS
555
tory in the chariot race, and transforming Philip and Alex-
ander into Christian martyrs, or the Greek gods into patri-
archs and prophets like Enoch and Elijah. Even the Greek
version did not remain unaltered in the Byzantine period
v^^hen two recensions in prose and two more in verse are dis-
tinguished. Indeed, none of the Greek manuscripts of the
work antedates the eleventh or twelfth century, they differ
greatly, and some of them ascribe the romance to Alexander
himself.
Such variations in the eastern versions of the story of
Alexander illustrate how the middle ages made the classical
heritage their own and prepare us for similar alterations in
the Latin account current in western Europe. The work of
Julius Valerius, though written in the rhetorical style char-
acteristic of the declining Roman Empire and composed al-
most on the verge of the middle ages, was to undergo fur-
ther alterations to adapt it more closely to medieval taste and
use. By the ninth century, if not earlier, two epitomes of it
had been made, and, beginning with that century, manu-
scripts of the shorter of these epitomes become far more
numerous than those of the original Valerius.^
Two sections of the Alexander legend were omitted in
the Epitome, not because medieval men had lost interest in
them but because they had become so fond of them as to
enlarge upon them and issue them as distinct works. They
often, however, accompany the Epitome in the manuscripts.
One of these was the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle on
the Marvels of India. ^ It is longer than the corresponding
* The longer epitome is known
from an Oxford MS, Corpus
Christi MS 82, and was believed
by Meyer to be intermediary be-
tween Valerius and the other
briefer epitome. Cillie, however,
tries to prove the shorter epitome
to be the older.
' Alexandri Magni Epistola ad
Aristoteletn de mirabilibus Indiae,
first printed with Synesii Epis-
tolae, graece: adcedunt aliorum
Epistolae, Venice, 1499; then
Bologna, 1501; Basel, 1517; Paris,
1520, fols. I02V-I4V, following the
Pseudo-Aristotle, Secret of Se-
crets; etc. These early printed
editions give the oldest Latin text,
dating back as we have seen to
at least 800.
Some MSS of the same version
are :
BM Royal 13-A-I, fols. 5iv-78r,
a beautifully clear MS of the late
nth century with clubbed strokes.
The Epistola is preceded by the
Medieval
epitomes
of Julius
Valerius.
Letters
of Alex-
ander.
556 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
chapter of Valerius ^ where a letter of Alexander to Aris-
totle is quoted and also differs from any known Greek text.
The fact that reference is made to it in the longer Epitome
leads to the conclusion that the Letter is older. This would
also seem to be the case with the other work, a short series
of letters interchanged between Alexander and Dindimus,
the king of the Brahmans, since the Epitome omits the two
chapters of Valerius which tell of Alexander's interview
with the Brahmans. It is believed that Alcuin, who died in
804, in one of his letters to Charlemagne speaks of sending
these epistles exchanged between Alexander and Dindimus
along with the equally apocryphal correspondence of the
apostle Paul and the philosopher Seneca. No such letters are
found in the Pseudo-Callisthenes, for the ten chapters on
the Brahmans found in one Greek codex are interpolated
from the treatise of Palladius, likewise in the form of a
correspondence.^ Julius Valerius does not even mention
Dindimus, but a third epistolary discussion of the Brahmans
exists in Latin, De moribus Brachnmnnorum, ascribed to St.
Ambrose.^
Epitome of Valerius and followed and followed at fol. 97 by the
by the correspondence with Din- Dindimus.
dimus. In the library of Eton College
Royal 12-C-IV, I2th century. an imperfect copy of the Epistola
Royal 15-C-VI, i2th century. follows Orosius in a MS of the
Cotton Nero D VIII, fol. 169. early 13th century, 133, BL 4, 6,
Sloane 1619, 13th century, fols. fols. Ssr-S/.
12-17. A somewhat different and later
Arundel 242, 15th century, fols. version of the Letter to Aristotle
160-83. was published in 1910 at Heidel-
BL Laud. Misc. 247, 12th cen- berg by Friedrich Pfister from a
tury, fol. 186; preceded at fol. 171 Bamberg MS of the nth cen-
by the "Ortus vita et obitus Alex- tury, together with Palladius and
andri Macedonis," and followed the correspondence with Dindi-
at fol. 196V by the letter to Din- mus. Pfister believed all these to
dimus. be translations from the Greek.
BN MSS 2874, 4126, 4877, 4880, An Anglo-Saxon version of the
5062, 6121, 6365, 6503, 6831, 7561, Letter to Aristotle was edited by
8518, 8521 A, Epistola de itinere et Cockayne in 1861 (see T. Wright,
situ Indiae; 8607, Epistolae eius RS 34; xxvii).
nomine scriptae; and 269SA, * III, 17.
6186, 6365, 6385, 6811, 6831, 8501A, 'First published by Joachim
for Responsio ad Dindimum. Camerarius about 1571.
CLM 11319, 13th century, fol. 'Published with Palladius by
88, Alexandri epistola ad Aris- Sir Edward Bisse in 1665; MSS
totelem de rebus in India gestis, are numerous,
preceded at fol. 72 by the Epitome
XXIV
THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS
557
Leo, an archpriest of Naples, who went to Constanti-
nople about 941-944 on an embassy for two dukes of Cam-
pania, John and Marinus, brought back with him a History
containing the conflicts and victories of Alexander the Great,
King of Macedon. Later Duke John, who was fond of sci-
ence, had Leo translate this work from Greek into Latin,
in which tongue it is entitled Historia de praeliis. We learn
these facts from its prologue which is found only in the
oldest extant manuscript, a Bamberg codex of the eleventh
century,^ and in a manuscript of the twelfth or thirteenth
century at Munich. The location of these two manuscripts
suggests that the work was early carried from Italy to Ger-
many, lands then connected in the Holy Roman Empire. Of
the De praeliis apart from the prologue there came to be
many copies, but most of them date from the later middle
ages, and the importance of the work as a source for the
vernacular romances of Alexander has been somewhat over-
estimated, since Meyer has shown that no manuscript of it
is found in France until the thirteenth century and since the
manuscripts of the Epitome are far more numerous.^
In the foregoing observations we may seem to have di-
gressed too far from our main theme of science and magic
into the domain of literary history. But the development of
the Alexander legend, which happens to have been traced
more thoroughly than perhaps any other one thread in the
medieval metamorphosis of ancient tradition, throws light
at least by analogy upon many matters in which we are in-
terested : the state of medieval manuscript material, the
continuity and yet the alteration of ancient culture during
the early middle ages, the process of translation from the
Greek which went on even then, and the varying rapidity
or slowness with which books circulated and ideas perme-
ated.
Leo's His-
toria de
praeliis.
* From this same MS Pfister
published the Letter to Aristotle
and other treatises mentioned
above.
' Its influence would therefore
seem to have been upon the later
prose romances and not upon
French vernacular poetry. Known
at first only in Italy and Ger-
many, its popularity became gen-
eral in western Europe toward
the close of the middle ages.
Medieval
metamor-
phosis of
ancient
tradition.
558
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap-
Survival
of magi-
cal and
scientific
features.
Who was
Nectane-
bus?
Moreover, the story of Alexander, especially as adapted
by the middle ages, contained a large amount of magic and
science, more especially the former. The Epitome might
omit a great deal else, but it kept intact the opening portion
of the Pseudo-Callisthenes and of Julius Valerius concern-
ing the adventures of Nectanebus, the sage and magician
from Egypt, the astrologer and the natural father of Alex-
ander, Indeed, the titles in some manuscripts suggest that
Nectanebus came to rival Alexander for medieval readers as
the hero of the story. Thus we find a History of Alexander,
King of Macedon, and of Nectanebo, King' of Egypf,^ or
an account Of the Life and Deeds of Neptanabus, astrono-
mer of Egypt/ or a Latin metrical version by "Uilikinus"
or Aretinus Quilichinus of Spoleto in 1236 entitled. The
History of the Science of the Egyptians and of Neptana-
bus their king who afterwards was the true father of Alex-
ander.^
Pliny in the Natural, History describes the obelisk of
Necthebis, king of Egypt, whom he places five centuries be-
fore Alexander the Great.* Plutarch, however, in his life
of Agesilaus and Nepos in his life of Chabrias mention a
Nectanebus II who struggled against Persia for the throne
of Egypt about 361 B. C. and later was forced to flee to
Ethiopia. In the Alexander romance, however, it is to
Macedon that Nectanebus retreats. A Nectabis is listed as
a magician along with Ostanes, Typhon, Dardanus, Dami-
geron, and Berenice, by Tertullian, writing about 200 A. D.^
As a matter of fact, in the Thirtieth Dynasty were two kings
named respectively Nektanebes or Nekht-Har-ehbet, who
ruled 378 to 361 B. C, and Nektanebos or Nekhte-nebof,
who ruled 358 to 341 B. C. Both have left considerable
* Harleian 527, fols. 47-S6.
^Amplon. Quarto 12, fols. 200-
201 ; presumably it includes only
those chapters concerned with
Nectanebus.
'CUL 1429 (Gg. I, 34), 14th
century, No. 5, 35 fols. Also in
CU Trinity 1041, 14th century,
fols. 200V-2I2V,
mago quomodo
"De Nectanabo
magnum genu-
erit Alexandrum. Egipti sapien-
tes ."
* NH XXXVI, 14 and 19.
^ De anitna, cap. 57, in Migne,
PL II, 792.
XXIV THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS 559
buildings.^ It is the latter who was forced by the Persians
to flee to Ethiopia nine years before Alexander conquered
Egypt and who is the hero of our story. The stele of Met-
temich is covered with magical formulae ascribed to Nec-
tanebo.^
A note suggestive of both natural science and occult sci- A scien-
ence is struck by the opening passage of the Latin epitomes note. ^^'
and of the oldest Greek manuscript ; the first page of Julius
Valerius is missing and has to be supplied from the epitomes.
The first words are "The Egyptian sages," and the first sen-
tence describes their scientific ability in measuring the earth
and in tracing the revolutions of the heavens and numbering
the stars. "And of them all Nectanabus is recognized to
have been the most prudent . . . for the elements of the
universe obeyed him." In the opening sentences of the
oldest Greek version and of the Ethiopic version even more
emphasis is laid than in the Epitomes upon the learning of
the Egyptians in general and of Nectanebus in particular,
and of the close connection of that learning with astrology
and magic.^ We read, "Now there lived in the land of
Egypt a king who was called Bektanis, and he was a famous
magician and a sage, and he was deeply learned in the wis-
dom of the Egyptians. And he had more knowledge than
all the wise men who knew what was in the depths of the
Nile and in the abysses, and who were skilled in the knowl-
edge of the stars and of their seasons and in the knowledge
of the astrolabe and in the casting of nativities. . . . And by
his learning and by his observations of the stars Nectanebus
was able to predict what would befall anyone who was about
to be born." ^ In one Latin manuscript of the fifteenth cen-
tury the History of Alexander the Great begins with the
^ The former built a Temple of tanebos before the Temple of the
Isis, now a heap of ruins, at Eighteenth Dynasty at Medinet
Behbit el-Hagar and a colonnade Habu.
to the Temple of Hibis in the ' Berthelot (1885), pp. 29-30.
oasis of Khirgeh ; and his name ^ The Syriac version, on the
appears upon a gate in the Temple contrary, emphasizes this point
of Mont at Karnak. Besides the less.
Vestibule of Nektanebos at * Budge's translation of the
Philae there is a court of Nek- Ethiopic version.
56o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic of
Nectane-
bus.
Nectane-
bus as an
astrologer.
sentence, "Books tell us how powerful the race of the
Egyptians were in mathematics and the magic art." ^
Next we are told, and the account Is practically the same
in all the versions of the story, how by means of his basin
filled with water, his wax images of ships and men, his rod or
wand of ebony, and the incantations with which he addressed
the gods above and below, Nectanebus had been hitherto able
to destroy all the armies and to sink all the fleets that had
come against him. But when one day he found his magic
unavailing to save him, he shaved his head and beard and fled
to Macedon, where in linen garb he plied the trade of an
astrologer.
In this he soon became so celebrated that the fame of his
predictions reached the ears of the queen Olympias, who con-
sulted him during an absence of Philip. When she asked
Nectanebus by means of what art he divined the future so
truthfully, he answered that there were many varieties of
divination. Julius Valerius and the Latin epitomes mention
specifically only interpreters of dreams and astrologers, but
the Greek, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions give more elab-
orate lists of various kinds of diviners.^ Nectanebus next
produced an astrological tablet adorned with gold and ivory
and with each planet and the horoscope represented by a dif-
ferent stone or metal. With the aid of this he read the
*CLM 215, fols. 176-94, "Egip-
tiorum gentem in mathematica
magica quam in arte fuisse valen-
tem littere tradunt."
^ Pseudo-Callisthenes, 1, 4, "cast-
ers of horoscopes, readers of
signs, interpreters of dreams,
ventriloquists, augurs, genethli-
alogists, the so-called magi to
whom divination is an open book."
Budge, Syriac version, p. 4, "The
interpreters of dreams are of
many kinds and the knowers of
signs, those who understand
divination, Chaldean augurs and
casters of nativities ; the Greeks
call the signs of the zodiac 'sor-
cerers' ; and others are counters
of the stars. As for me, all of
these are in my hands and I my-
self am an Egyptian prophet, a
magus, and a counter of the
stars." Budge, Ethiopic Histories,
p. II, "Then Nectanebus answered
and said unto her, 'Yea. Those
who have knowledge of the orbs
of heaven are of many kinds.
Some are interpreters of dreams,
and some have knowledge of
what shall happen in the future,
and some understand omens, and
some cast nativities, and there
are besides all those who know
magic and who are renowned be-
cause they are learned in their
art, and some are skilled in the
motion of the stars of heaven :
but I have full knowledge of all
these things.' "
XXIV
THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS
561
queen's horoscope and told her that she would have a son
by the God Ammon and w^ould be forewarned soon to that
effect in a dream. Olympias replied that if such a dream
came to her, she would no longer employ Nectanebus as a
magus but honor him as a god.
Nectanebus thereupon sought for herbs useful to com-
mand dreams, plucked them, and pressed a syrup out of them.
He placed a wax image of the queen inscribed with her name
upon a little couch, lighted lamps, and poured his syrup over
the wax figure, muttering a secret and efficacious incanta-
tion the while. By this means he brought it about that the
queen would dream or think she dreamed whatever he said
to the wax image of her. Later Nectanebus himself played
the part of the god Ammon, announcing his coming before-
hand to Olympias by making by his "science" a dragon
which glided into her presence.
Lucian of Samosata in the second century tells us that
it was a common story in his time that Olympias had lain
with a serpent before giving birth to Alexander. He sug-
gests as the explanation of how this tale originated the fact
that at Pella in Macedonia there is a breed of large serpents,
"so tame and gentle that women make pets of them, children
take them to bed, they will let you tread on them, have no
objection to being squeezed, and will draw milk from the
breasts like infants. ... It was doubtless one of these that
was her bedfellow." ^ As is apt to be the case in ancient
efforts to give a natural explanation of what purports to be
miraculous or supernatural, Lucian's biology is only slightly
less incredible than Nectanebus's magic transformations.
As the queen became pregnant, "Nectanebus consecrated
a hawk and told it to go to Philip," who was still absent, "to
stand by him through the night and to instruct him in a
dream as it was ordered." ^ The vision in question was ex-
^ From Fowler's translation of
Alexander: the False Prophet.
See also Plutarch's Alexander.
' The Syriac and Ethiopic ver-
sions are somewhat more de-
tailed as to the magic by which
Philip's dream was produced.
Budge, Syriac version, p. 8, "Then
Nectanebus . . . brought a hawk
and muttered over it his charms
and made it fly away with a small
Quantity of a drug, and that night
A magic
dream.
Lucian on
Olympias
and the
serpent.
More
dream-
sending :
magic
transfor-
mation.
S62
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
An omen
inter-
preted.
The
birth of
Alex-
ander.
plained by an interpreter of dreams to Philip as signifying
that his wife would have a son by the god Ammon. Never-
theless Philip was somewhat suspicious and hastened to
bring his wars to a close and hurry home. Nectanebus, how-
ever, rendering himself invisible by means of the magic art,
continued to deceive both king and queen. Once he terri-
fied the court by appearing again in the form of a huge hiss-
ing serpent, but put his head in Olympias's lap and then
kissed her. Thereupon he turned from a serpent into an
eagle and flew away. Philip was then really convinced that
his wife's lover was the god Ammon.
Before the birth of Alexander the following omen befell
Philip. As he sat absorbed in thought in a place where there
were many birds flying about, one of them laid an egg in his
lap. It rolled to the ground, the shell broke, and a snake
issued forth. It circled about the egg-shell but when it
tried to reenter the shell was prevented by death. When
Antiphon, the interpreter of omens, was consulted concern-
ing this portent, he said that it signified that a son should be
born who would conquer the world but die before he could
regain his native land.
The day of Olympias's delivery now approached and
Nectanebus, in his office of astrologer, stood by her side to
tell her when the favorable moment had arrived for the birth
of her child. Once he urged her to wait, since a child bom
at that moment would be a slave and a captive. Again he
bade her restrain herself, for at that moment an effeminate
would be born. At last the favorable instant came for the
birth of a world conqueror, and Alexander was born amid
an earthquake, thunder, and lightning. In this case, there-
fore, the moment of birth is regarded as controlling the des-
tiny. Many astrologers, however, considered the moment
of conception as of greater importance; we have already
it shewed Philip a dream."
Budge, Ethiopic Histories, p. 21,
"Then Nectanebus took a swift
bird and muttered over it certain
charms and names, and ... in
one day and one night it traversed
many lands and countries and
seas, and it came to Philip by
night and stopped. And it came
to pass at that very hour . . .
that Philip saw a marvelous
dream."
XXIV THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS 563
heard Augustine tell of the sage who chose a certain hour
for intercourse with his wife in order to beget a marvelous
son; and in the thirteenth century Albertus Magnus, in his
treatise on animals, informs us that "Nectanebus, the natural
father of Alexander, in having intercourse with his mother
Olympias, observed the time when the sun was entering Leo
and Saturn was in Taurus, since he wished his son to receive
the form and power of those planets." ^
The death of Nectanebus was as closely in accord with The
the stars as was the birth of Alexander. At the age of Nectane-
twelve Alexander found Nectanebus in consultation with bus.
Olympias and, attracted by his astrological tablet, made him
promise to show him the stars at night. Then as Nectanebus
walked along star-gazing, Alexander pushed him into a steep
pit which they chanced to pass, and Nectanebus lay there with
a broken neck. When he asked Alexander the reason for
his act, the boy replied that it was in order to convince him
of the futility of his art, since he gazed at the stars unmind-
ful of what threatened him from the ground. But Nectane-
bus rebuts this revised version of the maid servant's taunt
to Thales by telling Alexander that he had been forewarned
by the stars that he should be killed by his own son, and by
revealing to Alexander the secret of his birth.^
In concluding the story of Nectanebus it is perhaps worth
while to emphasize the fact that the epitomes and Julius
Valerius often use the word magus of Nectanebus as an as-
trologer and that in general magic, astrology, and divina-
tion are indissolubly connected.
^ In another place, however, Nectanebus into the pit, but only
Albert calls Philip Alexander's fulfills it. In the Ethiopia ver-
father, De causis et proprietatibus sion Nectanebus is represented as
elementorum et planetarum, II, educating Alexander from his
ii, I. seventh year on in "philosophy
' The story is better told in the and letters and the working of
Syriac version (Budge, 14-17), magic and the stars and their
where Alexander does not push seasons." Aristotle becomes Alex-
Nectanebus into the pit until after ander's tutor only after the death
he has asked the astrologer if he of Nectanebus. Aristotle, too, is
knows his own fate and has been represented as an adept in as-
told that Nectanebus is to be slain trology, amulets, and the use of
by his own son. Alexander then magic wax images. (Budge,
attempts to foil fate by pushing Ethiopic Histories, pp. 31, xlv).
564
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Ama-
zons and
Gymno-
sophists.
The letter
to Aris-
totle.
Some account is given both in Julius Valerius and the
longer epitome of Alexander's exchange of letters with the
Amazons and of questions which he put to the Gymnoso-
phists of India (i. e. the Brahmans) and their replies. Nei-
ther of these promising themes, however, results in the in-
troduction of any magic or occult science. We also find in
the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria ^ a list of ten ques-
tions which Alexander propounded to ten of the Gymnoso-
phists of India and their ingenious answers given under
pain of death if their responses proved unsatisfactory.
Nor does Alexander's letter to Aristotle on the marvels
of India reveal many specific instances of superstition that
are at all interesting. For the most part it recounts his
marches, the sufferings of his army from thirst, combats
with wild beasts, serpents, and hippopotamuses, and the
treasures which he captured. Alexander states that "in for-
mer letters I informed you about the eclipse of the sun and
moon and the constancy of the stars and the signs of the
air." ^ He tells now, however, of a place where there are two
trees of the sun and moon, speaking Indian and Greek, one
masculine and the other feminine, from which one may learn
what the future has in store for good or evil. As to this
Alexander was inclined to be incredulous, but the natives
swore that it was true, and his companions urged him "not
to be defrauded of the experience of so great a thing." Ac-
cordingly he made his way to the spot despite the innumer-
able beasts and snakes which beset his path. Chastity was
essential in order to approach the trees, and he also had to
lay aside his rings, royal robes, and shoes. The sun tree
then told him at dawn that he would never see home or his
mother and sisters again. At eventide the moon tree added
that he would die at Babylon.^ The third and final response,
'VI, 4.
'Royal 13-A-I, fol. 53V.
Mn CU Trinity 1446 (1250
A. D.) The Romance of Alex-
ander in French verse by Eu-
stache (or Thomas) of Kent,
among 152 pictures listed by
James (III, 483-91) are two rep-
resenting the hero's colloquy with
the moon tree (fol. 3ir). Marco
Polo also tells of these marvelous
trees. And see Roux de Rochelle,
"Notice sur I'Arbre du Soleil, ou
Arbre Sec, decrit dans la relation
XXIV THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS 565
vouchsafed by the sun tree, was that his death would be
from poison, but the name of the poisoner the oracular tree
refused to divulge lest Alexander try to kill him first and
thus cheat the three Fates. Alexander has consequently had
to content himself, as he informs Aristotle in the closing sen-
tence of his letter, with building a monument to perpetuate
his name among all mortals.^
Of other spurious treatises ascribed to Alexander in the
middle ages, works of alchemy and works of astrology, we
shall treat in a later chapter on the Pseudo-Aristotle.
des voyages de Marco Polo," in edition and Royal 13-A-I, which
Bulletin de la Societe de geog- follow the early Latin version.
raphie, serie 3, III (1845), 187- As stated above, Pfister's edition
94. (Heidelberg, 1910) gives a later
^ For the Letter to Aristotle I version probably translated from
have employed the Paris, 1520 the Greek,
CHAPTER XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
Three representatives of post-classical medicine — Bibliographical
note — Medical compendiums : Oribasius and Paul of Aegina — Aetius
of Amida — How superstitious are Aetius and Alexander of Tralles? —
Compound medicines — Aetius merely reproduces the superstition of
Galen — Occult science mixed with some scepticism — Alexander of
Tralles — Originality of his work — His medieval influence — His per-
sonal experience — Extent of his superstition — Physica — Occult virtue
of substances applied externally — Other things used as ligatures and
amulets — Astrology and sculpture of rings — Incantations — Conjura-
tion of an herb — Medieval version seems less superstitious than the
original text — Marcellus: date and identity — "Marcellus Empiricus" —
Superstitious character of his medicine — Preparation of goat's blood
— A rabbit's foot — Magic transfer of disease — Pliny and Marcellus
compared on green lizards as eye-cures — More lizardry — Use of stones
and an herb — Right and left: number — Incantations and characters —
The art of medicine survives the barbarian invasions.
Three
repre-
sentatives
of post-
classical
medicine.
In this chapter as representatives of post-classical medicine
and its influence upon medieval Latin medicine we shall
consider three writers whose works date from the close of
the fourth to the middle of the sixth century, Marcellus of
Bordeaux or Marcellus Empiricus, Aetius of Amida in
Mesopotamia, and Alexander of Tralles in Asia Minor.-^
They have just been mentioned in their chronological order,
* There appears to have been no
complete edition of Aetius in
Greek. The first eight of his six-
teen books were printed at Venice
in 1534, and the ninth at Leipzig
in 1757, but for the entire sixteen
books one must use the Latin
translation of Cornarius, Basel,
1542, etc., which I have read in
Stephanus, Medicae artis prin-
cipes, 1567.
Recent editions of portions of
Aetius are : kinov 'Koyos SuSeKaros
TtpoiTOv vvv eKSoOeis viro Teupyiov A.
KuxTTonoipov, pp. 112, 131, Paris,
1802.
Die Augenheilkunde des Aetius
aus Amida, Griechisch und
deutsch herausg. von J. Hirsch-
berg, pp. xi, 204, Leipzig, 1899.
Aetii sermo sextidecimus et
ultimiiS (Aeriov irtpi tuv ev fJ.iiTp(f.
iradoiv etc.). Erstens aus HSS
veroffentl. mit Abbildungen, etc.,
V. S. Zervos, pp. k', 172, Leipzig,
1901.
KiTLov AfjtiSivov Aoyos SeKaros irenw-
Tos, ed. S. Zerbos, 1909, in EiriaTt]-
fiOVLKT) Eraipeto, KO-qva, Vol. 21.
My references to Alexander of
Tralles are both to the text of
Stephanus (1567) and the more
■^66
CHAP. XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
567
but although Marcellus antedates the other two by a full
century, we shall consider him last, since he wrote in Latin
while they wrote in Greek, and since he includes Celtic words
and probably Celtic folk-lore, and since he seems to have
recent edition by Theodor Pusch-
mann, Alexander von Tralles,
Originaltext und Uberseizung
nebst einer einleitenden Abhand-
liing, Vienna, 1878-9, 2 vols. This
gives a more critical text than any
previous edition, but unfortu-
nately Puschmann adopted still
another arrangement into books
than those of the MSS and previ-
ous editions, and also in my
opinion did not make a sufficient
study of the Latin MSS. His in-
troduction contains information
concerning Alexander's life and
the MSS and previous editions of
his works.
A valuable earlier study on
Alexander was that of E. Mil-
ward, published in 1733 under the
title, A Letter to the Honourable
Sir Hans Sloane Bart., etc., and
in 1734 as Trallianus Reviyi-
sccns, 229 pp. Milward was pre-
paring an edition of Alexander
of Tralles, but it was never pub-
lished. His estimate of Alex-
ander's position in the history of
medicine furnishes an incidental
picture of interest of the state of
medicine in his own time, the
early eighteenth century.
The old Latin translation of
Alexander of Tralles was the
first to be printed at Lyons, 1504,
Alexandri yatros practica cunt
expositione glose interlinearis
Jacobi de Partibus et {Simonis)
Januensis in margine posite; also
Pavia, 1520 and Venice 1522.
Next appeared a very free Latin
translation by Torinus in 1533 and
1541, Paraphrases in libros omnes
Alexandri Tralliani. The Greek
text of Alexander was first
printed by Stephanus (Robert
fitienne) in 1548 (ed. J. Goupyl).
The Latin translation by Guinther
of Andernach, which is included
in Stephanus (1567), first ap-
peared in 1549, Strasburg, and
was reprinted a number of times.
Another work by Puschmann
may also be noted : Nachtrdge zu,
Alexander Trallianus. Frag-
mente aus Philuinenus und Phi-
lagrius nebst eincr bisher noch
ungedruckten Abhaiidlung iiber
Augenkrankheitcn, Berlin, 1886,
in Berliner Studien f. class. Philol.
und Archaeol., V, 2; 188 pp., in
which he segregates as fragments
of Philumenus and Philagrius
portions of the text of Alexander
as found in the Latin MSS.
My references for the De
medicamentis of Marcellus apply
to Helmreich's edition of 1889 in
the Teubner series. This edition
is based on a single MS of the
ninth century at Laon which
Helmreich followed Valentin
Rose in regarding as the sole ex-
tant codex of the work. As a
result Rose indulged in ingenious
theories to explain how the editio
princeps by lanus Cornarius,
Basel, 1536, included the prefa-
tory letter and other preliminary
material not found in the Laon
MS, whose first leaves and some
others are missing.
But as a matter of fact BN
6880, a clear and beautifully writ-
ten MS of the ninth century, con-
tains the De medicamentis entire
with all the preliminary letters.
Moreover, it is evident that the
editio princeps was printed di-
rectly from this MS, which con-
tains not only notes by Cornarius
but the marks of the compositors.
The text of the edition of 1536
was reproduced in the medical
collections of Aldus, Medici
antiqui, Venice, 1547, and Steph-
anus, Medicae artis principes,
^567.
Jacob Grimm, Uber Marcellus
Burdigalensis, in Abhandl. d. kgl,
Akad. d. Wiss. 2. Berlin (1847),
pp. 429-60, discusses the evidence
for placing Marcellus under the
older Theodosius, lists the Celtic
568
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Medical
compen-
diums:
Oribasius
and Paul
of Aegina.
been a native of Gaul, if not of Bordeaux,^ and thus is geo-
graphically closer to the scene of medieval Latin learning.
Aetius and Alexander have the closer connection not only
with the eastern and Greek v^orld but also with the past
classical medicine of Galen and so will provide a better
point of departure. Presumably from the places and periods
in which they lived, all three of our authors were Christians,
but it must be said that the chief evidence of Christianity
in their works is the use of Christian or Hebrew proper
names in incantations, and there are some analogous relics
of pagan superstition.
As Tribonian and Justinian boiled down the voluminous
legal literature of Rome into one Digest, so there was a
similar tendency to reduce the past medical writings of the
Greeks into one compendious work. Paul of Aegina, writ-
ing in the seventh century, observes in his preface ^ that
it is not right, when lawyers who usually have plenty of time
to reflect over their cases have handy summaries of their
subject to which they can refer, that physicians whose cases
often require immediate action should not also have some
words and expressions found in
the De medicamentis, and also
one hundred specimens of its
folk-lore and magic. This article
was reprinted in Kleinere Schrif-
ten, II (1865), 114-51, where it is
followed at pp. 152-72 by a sup-
plementary paper, Ubcr die Mar-
cellischen Formeln, likewise re-
printed from the Academy
Proceedings for 1855, pp. 51-68.
The magic of Marcellus was
further treated of by R. Heim,
De rebus magicis Marcelli medici,
in Schedae philol. Hermanno
Usener oblatae (1891), pp. 119-37,
v/here he adds nova magica ex
Marcelli libris collata which
Grimm had omitted.
^ Marcellus is often called of
Bordeaux, notably in Grimm's
article, Vber Marcellus Burdiga-
lensis, 1847 ; also by C. W. King,
The Gnostics and their Remains,
1887, p. 219; and by J. G. Frazer,
The Golden Bough, I, 23 ; but
there seems to be no definite
proof that he was from that city.
Jules Combarieu, La musique et
la magie, 1909, p. 87, says in ref-
erence to the following incanta-
tion recommended by Marcellus,
tetunc resonco bregan gresso,
"Je remarque en passant qu'il faut
frotter I'oeil en disant ce carmen,
et que dans le patois du Midi,
bregua ou brege, signifie frotter.
Marcellus, si je ne me trompe,
etait de Bordeaux."
Grimm, however (1847), p. 455,
interpreted bregan as "lies" —
"breigan gen. pi. von breag liige,"
and the whole line as in modern
Irish teith uainn ere soin go
breigan grcasa ("fleuch von uns
staub hinnen zu der liigen genos-
sen !").
^Stephanus (1567),!, 347, . ^^
seq. For an English translation
of the text see F. Adams, The
Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta,
London, 1844-1847.
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 569
convenient handbook, and the more so since many of them
are called upon to exercise their profession not in large cities
with easy access to libraries, but in the country, in desert
places, or on shipboard. Oribasius, friend and physician
of the emperor Julian, 361-363 A. D., had made such a com-
pendium by that emperor's order. In this he embodied so
much of Galen's teachings that he became known as "the ape
of Galen," ^ although he also used more recent writers.
But Paul of Aegina regarded this work of Oribasius as too
bulky, since it originally comprised seventy-two books al-
though only twenty-five are now extant, and so essayed a
briefer compilation of his own. Two centuries ago, how-
ever, Friend and Milward protested against regarding Paul,
Aetius, and Alexander as mere compilers and maintained
that they "were really men of great learning and experi-
ence" ^ who "have described distempers which were omitted
before; taught a new method of treating old ones; given an
account of new medicines, both simple and compound ; and
made large additions to the practice of surgery." ^ Pusch-
mann more recently states that Paul's compendium was
"composed with great originality and independence" and
is of great value "particularly in its surgical sections." *
After Paul, however, the Byzantine medical writers, such
as Palladius, Theophilus, Stephen of Alexandria, Nonus,
and Psellus, were of an inferior caliber.^ With Paul's
work, however, we are not now further concerned, nor with
that of Oribasius, but with the somewhat similar com-
pendiums of Aetius and Alexander which lie chronologically
between these other two. It is Aetius and Alexander whom
Payne accuses of "introducing into classical medicine the
magical elements derived from the East" ^ and whom we
^Simia Galieni, according to *Puschmann, History of Medi-
Guinther in his translation of cal Education, 1891, p. 153.
Alexander of Tralles, Stephanus ^Milward (i733), P- H-
(1567), I, 131. °J. F. Payne, English Medicine
* Milward (1733), 9-11. in Anglo-Saxon Times, 1904. PP-
*John Friend (or Freind), His- 102-8.
iory of Physick (1725), I, 297.
Amida.
570 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
might therefore expect to possess an especial interest for
our investigation.
Aetius of Of the life and personality of Aetius we know very little,
but inasmuch as he mentions St. Cyril, archbishop of Alex-
andria, and Peter the Archiater, a physician of Theodoric,
while he himself is cited by Alexander of Tralles, he seems
to have lived at the end of the fifth and beginning of the
sixth century.^ And since Alexander cites him only in his
book on fevers which seems to have been composed after
the rest of his work, it seems probable that Aetius was al-
most contemporary with him and wrote in the sixth rather
than the fifth century. His Tetrabihlos — each of the four
books subdivides into four sections and often these are
spoken of as sixteen books — occupies a middle position not
only in time but in length between the works of Oribasius
and Paul, and resembles the latter in making a great deal
of use of the former. Aetius' extracts from the older
writers are shorter than those of Oribasius, however, and
he also differs from him in combining several authorities in
a single chapter, the method usually adopted by the medieval
Latin encyclopedists. It has been noted that the wording
of the original authorities was often preserved in the oldest
medieval manuscripts of Aetius, until the copyists of the
time of the Italian Renaissance began to touch up the style
in accordance with their erroneous notions of what consti-
tuted classical Greek. ^ It may also be said that these sys-
tematically arranged handbooks of Oribasius, Aetius, and
the rest, where one could find what one was looking after,
were far superior in systematic and orderly presentation
to the discursive works of Galen which, like many other
classical writings, often seem rambling and without any
particular plan.^ This more logical, if somewhat cut-and-
* Milward (1733), p. 19; Pusch- to find confirmed by Milward
mann (1878), I, 104. {'i^72>Z), p. 29, in the particular
^ Ch. Daremberg, Histoire des case of Alexander of Tralles, of
Sciences Medicates, Paris, 1870, I, whom he writes : "As our
242. author's stile is excellent, so like-
' This general impression re- wise is his method, and there is
ceived from reading many classi- no respect in which he is more
cal and medieval works I was glad distinguished from the other
XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
571
dried method, was also to be a virtue of medieval Latin
learning. Whether Aetius directly influenced the Latin mid-
dle ages is doubtful, since no early Latin translation of him
seems to be known. ^ The work of Oribasius, however,
exists in Latin translation in manuscripts of the seventh cen-
tury as well as in others of the ninth and twelfth.^
The works of Aetius and Alexander of Tralles do not
impress me as containing an unusually large amount of
superstitious medicine. Much less am I inclined to agree
with Payne that they are responsible for the introduction
into classical medicine of magical elements derived from
the east. These elements, whether derived from the orient
any more than any other feature of classical civilization or
not, at any rate had been a prominent feature of classical
medicine long before the days of Aetius and Alexander, as
Pliny's review of medicine before his time abundantly
proved and as is also shown by the extraordinary virtues
which Pliny himself, his contemporary Dioscorides, and
even the great Galen attributed to medicinal simples.
It is true that Aetius and Alexander abound in recipes
for elaborate medical compounds composed of numerous in-
gredients. Of such concoctions one example must suffice, a
plaster which Aetius recommends for tumors, hard lumps,
and gout. "Of the terebinth-tree, of the stone of Asia, of
bitumen three hundred and sixty drams each; of washing-
soda {spumae nitri), calf-fat, wax, laurel berries, ammonia,
and thyme three hundred and forty drams each; of the
stone pyrites and quick-lime one hundred and twenty drams
each; of the ashes of asps which have been burned alive one
Greek writers in physick than in
this. The works of Hippocrates,
Galen, and indeed of all of them
except it be Aretaeus are not
only very voluminous but put to-
gether with little or no order, as
is evident enough to all such as
have been conversant with them."
'Daremberg (1870), I, 258-9,
said that a mass of MSS in a
score of European libraries con-
tained as vet unidentified Latin
translations of Greek medical
writers.
^BN 10233, 7th century uncial;
BN nouv. acq. 1619, 7-8th cen-
tury, demi-uncial ; BN 9332, 9th
century, fol. i-, Oribasii synopsis
medica; CLM 23535, 12th cen-
tury, fols. 72 and 112. V. Rose,
Soranus, 1882, pp. iv-v, speaks of
a sixth century Latin version of
Oribasius.
How
super-
stitious
are Aetius
and Alex-
ander?
Compound
medicines.
572
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Aetius
merely re-
produces
the super-
stition of
Galen.
hundred and forty drams; of old oil two pounds. First
liquefy the oil and wax, then the bitumen, which should
have first been pulverized. Add to these the fat, and pres-
ently the ammonia and terebinth; and when these are taken
off the fire mix in the lime and stone of Asia, then the
laurel berries and washing-soda, and finally after the medica-
ment has cooled sprinkle the ashes of asps upon it." ^ Such
concoctions are to a large extent borrowed by Aetius, Alex-
ander, and Marcellus from earlier writers. Moreover, while
Pliny had excluded such compounds from the pages of his
Natural History, he had also made it abundantly evident
that they were already in general use by his time, and they
are to be found in great numbers in the works of Galen
who cites many from preceding writers.
Indeed, it was from Galen himself and not from the east
that Aetius at least derived his most strikingly superstitious
passages. This was accidentally and convincingly proven
by my own experience. It so happened that I wrote an ac-
count of the passages in the Tetrahihlos of Aetius before
I had read extensively in Galen's works. When I came
to do so, I found that almost every passage that I had
selected to illustrate the superstitious side of Aetius was
contained in Galen : for example, the use as an amulet of a
green jasper suspended from the neck by a thread so as to
touch the abdomen;^ the story of the reapers who found
the dead viper in their wine and cured instead of killing
the sufferer from elephantiasis to whom they gave the wine
to drink; ^ the tale of his preceptor who roasted river crabs
to an ash in a red copper dish in August during dog-days on
the eighteenth day of the moon, and administered the powder
daily for forty days to persons bitten by mad dogs.'* Such
* Tetrabiblos, IV, iii, 15.
^ Ibid., I, iv, 9, where Galen is
not cited, and III, i, 9, where
Galen is cited. In Galen, De sini-
plicibus, IX, ii, 19 (Kiihn, XII,
207).
^Ibid., I, ii, 170, where Galen is
not cited ; De simplicibus , XI, i,
I (Kiihn, XII, 31 1-4).
* Tetrabiblos I, ii, 175; Kiihn
XII, 356-9. Galen is not cited in
this, nor in any of the following
passages from the Tetrabiblos
listed in the notes, unless this is
expressly stated.
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 573
passages are usually repeated by Aetius in such a way as to
lead the reader to think them his own experiences, a fact
which warns us not to accept the assertions of ancient and
medieval authors that they have experienced this or that
at their face value, and which makes us wonder if Friend
and Milward were not too generous in regarding Aetius
at least as more than a compiler. He also repeats some of
Galen's general observations anent experience as that the
virtues of simples are best discovered thus, and that he
will not discuss all plants but only those **of which we have
information by experience." ^ He further reproduces
Galen's attitude of mingled credulity and scepticism con-
cerning the basilisk, combining the two passages into one ; ^
also Galen's questioning the efficacy of incantations and tell-
ing of having seen a scorpion killed by the mere spittle of a
fasting man without any incantation,^ Like Galen again,
he omits all injurious medicaments and expresses the opinion
that men who spread the knowledge of such drugs do more
harm than actual poisoners who perhaps cause but a single
death.* Like Galen he announces his intention to omit all
"abominable and detestable recipes and those which are pro-
hibited by law," mentioning as instances the eating of human
flesh and drinking urine or menses muliehres.^ But also
like Galen, he devotes several chapters to the virtues of
human and animal excrement, especially recommending that
of dogs after they have been fed on bones for two days.^
Somewhat similar to Galen's recommendation to fill cavities
in the teeth with roasted earthworms is the recipe of Aetius
for painless extraction of teeth "without iron." The tooth
must first be thoroughly scraped or the gum cut loose about
it, and then sprinkled with the ashes of earthworms. "There-
fore use this remedy with confidence, for it has already often
* Tetrabihlos at the beginning,
pp. 6-7 in Stephanus (1567).
* Tetrabiblos IV, i, 33 ; Kiihn
XIV, 233, and XII, 250-1.
^Tetrabiblos I, ii, 109; Kiihn
XII, 288.
* Tetrabiblos
I, ii, 84;
Kiihn
XII, 253.
° Tetrabiblos
I, ii, 84;
Kiihn
XII, 248, 284-S.
* Tetrabiblos
I, ii, III;
Kiihn
XII, 291-3.
574
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Occult
science
mixed
with some
scepticism.
been celebrated as a mystery." ^ Such use of earthworms
continued a feature of medieval dentistry.
Of my original selections from Aetius very few are now
left, and it is not unlikely that they too might be found
somewhere in Galen's works if one looked long enough.
Aetius asserts that drinking bitumen or asphalt in water
will prevent hydrophobia from developing,^ and recommends
for wounds inflicted by sea serpents an application of lead
with a slice of the serpent itself.^ He takes the following
prescription from Oribasius. To cure impotency anoint
the big toe of the right foot with oil in which the pulverized
ashes of a lizard have been mixed. To check the operation
of this powerful stimulant one has merely to wash off the
ointment from the toe.* On the other hand, an instance
of a sceptical tendency is the citation of the view of Posi-
donius that the so-called incubus is not a demon but a dis-
ease akin to epilepsy and insanity and marked by suffoca-
tion, loss of voice, heaviness, and immobility.^ It may also
be noted that in discussing the medicinal virtues of the
beaver's testicles Aetius does not include the story of its
biting them off in order to escape its hunters.® He does,
however, cite several authorities, Piso, Menelbus, Simonides,
Aristodemus, and Pherecydes for instances of the remark-
able powers of certain animals in discovering the presence
of poisons and preserving themselves and their owners from
this danger: a partridge who made a great noise and fuss
whenever any medicament or poison was being prepared
in the house; a pet eagle who would attack anyone in the
house who even plotted such a thing ; a peacock who would
go to the place where the dose had been prepared and raise
oil in which earthworms have
^ Tetrabiblos II, iv, 34; Kiihn
Xll, 860. Perhaps a closer cor-
respondence than this could be
found. In his preceding 33rd
chapter, headed Curatio erosorum
dentium ex Galeno, Aetius in-
cludes use of the tooth of a dead
dog pulverized in vinegar, which
is to be held in the mouth, or
filling the ear next the tooth with
"fumigated earthworms" or with
m
been cooked.
* Tetrabiblos I, ii, 49.
' Tetrabiblos IV, i, 39.
* Tetrabiblos III, iii, 35-
" Tetrabiblos II, ii, 12. Mar-
cellus, cap. 20 (p. 188) also speaks
of "those who often think that
they are made sport of by an in-
cubus."
' Tetrabiblos, I, ii, 177.
XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
575
a clamor, or upset the receptacle containing the potion, or
dig up a charm, if it had been buried underground; and a
pet ichneumon and parrot who were endowed with very-
similar gifts, ^ Aetius shows a slight tendency in the direc-
tion of astrological medicine, giving a list of "times or-
dained by God" for the risings and settings of various stars,
since these affect the air and winds, and since "the bodies
of persons in good health, and much more so those of the
sick, are altered according to the state of the air." ^ But on
the whole, of our three authors, Aetius seems to contain the
smallest proportional amount of superstitious medicine and
occult science.
Alexander of Tralles was the son of a physician and, Alex-
according to the Byzantine historian, Agathias,^ the young- Tralles.
est of a group of five distinguished brothers, including
Anthemius of Tralles, architect of St. Sophia at Constanti-
nople, and Metrodorus the grammarian, whom Justinian
summoned also to his court. Alexander had visited Italy,
Gaul, and Spain as well as all parts of Greece * before set-
tling down in old age, when he could no longer engage in
active medical practice,^ to the composition of his magnum
opus in twelve books beginning with the head, eyes, and ears,
and ending with gout and fever. Aside from his citation of
Aetius in the book on fevers, the latest writer named by
Alexander is Jacobus Psychrestus, physician to Leo the
Great about 474.^ It seems rather strange that Alexander
says nothing of the pestilence of 542.'^
Alexander embodied the results of his own practice to a Origin-
much greater extent than Oribasius and Aetius. His book his^work.
is more a record of his own medical observations and experi-
ences than a compilation from past writings, a fact recog-
' Tetrabiblos, IV, i, 86.
' Tetrabiblos I, iii, 164. This
passage was printed separately in
the Uranologion of D. Petavius,
Paris, 1630 and 1703.
^ Agathias, De imperio et rebus
gestis Justiniani, Paris, i860, p.
149.
*Milward (1733), p. I7, "he
travel'd through Greece, Gaul,
Spain, and several other places
whose mention we find up and
down in his works."
^ Puschmann ( 1878) , 1, 288, Si6 Kai
ykpoiv XoiTTov -Trei^apxw Kal K&nvtLV
ovKtTi Swafxevos . . .
"Milward (i733),P-25.
'Puschmann (1878), 1,83.
576 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE cHAr.
nized in the first edition which entitled it Practica, and
"though he pays a due deference to the ancients, yet he is
so far from putting an impHcit faith in what they have
advanced that he very often dissents from their doctrines." ^
Puschmann regarded him as the first doctor for a long time
who had done any original thinking,^ and esteemed his
pathology as highly as his therapeutics had been esteemed
by his sixteenth century translator, Guinther of Ander-
nach.^ Friend wrote of him in the early eighteenth cen-
tury, "His method is extremely rational and just and after
all our discoveries and improvements in physick scarce any-
thing can be added to it." * Alexander seems to have been
a practitioner of much resource and ingenuity, stopping
hemorrhage of the nose by blowing down or fuzz up the
nostrils through a hollow reed, and directing patients, a
thousand years before the discovery of the Eustachian tube,
to sneeze with mouth and nose stopped up in order to dis-
lodge a foreign object from the ear.^ According to Mil-
ward, Alexander was the first Greek medical writer to men-
tion rhubarb and tape-worms, and the first practitioner to
open the jugular veins. ^ Indeed, Alexander advises blood-
letting a great deal, but Milward, whose age still approved
of that practice, notes that he was "no ways addicted to
those superstitious rules of opening this or that vein in
particular cases which several of the ancients and some
even among the moderns have been so very fond of." "^
Finally, Alexander's concise and orderly method of presenta-
tion compares favorably with that of the classical medical
writers.
His Alexander's book traveled west, as its author had done,
influence. ^"<^ ^^s current in a free and abbreviated Latin translation
from an early date.^ In fact, it was from the Latin version
* Milward (1733), p. 27. ''Ibid., pp. 48-9.
''Puschmann (1891), 152-3, * See V. Rose, Hermes, VIII,
'Stephanus (1567), I, 131. 39; Anecdota, II, 108. I presume
* Friend (1725), I, 106. that BN 9332, 9th century, fol.
"Milward (1733), pp. 65-6, 57 139, "Alexandri hiatrosofiste
et seq. therapeut(i)con" (libri tres) is
^ Ibid., pp. 104, 92-3, 71. the free Latin translation in a
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
S77
that the work was translated into Hebrew and Syriac.^
Not only are Latin manuscripts of Alexander's work
as a whole or of extracts from it - found from the ninth
century on, while printed editions in Latin were numerous
through the sixteenth century, but it was much used and
cited by medieval writers such as Constantinus Africanus,
Gariopontus,^ and Gilbert of England.'* It is not, how-
ever, always safe to assume that citations of Alexander
Paris MS of the ninth century
alluded to by Daremberg (1870),
I, 258-9. Puschmann (1878) I,
91-2, in a blind and inadequate
account of the Latin MSS, does
not mention it, but lists a Monte
Cassino codex (97) of the 9-ioth
century and an Angers MS of the
lo-iith century. He also alludes
to a MS at Chartres without giv-
ing any number or date for it,
but probably has reference to
Chartres 342, 12th century, fols.
1-139, "Libri tres Alexandri
Yatros." He alludes to BN 6881
and 6882, both 13th century, libri
tres de morbis et de morborum
curatione ; but not to CLM 344,
I2-I3th century, fols. 1-60, libri
ni de medicina, — integra versio
Latina Lugduni a. 1504 edita.
Other MSS are: Gonville and
Caius 400, early 13th century, fols.
4V-83V, "Inc. Alexander yatros
sophista"; Royal 12-B-XVI, late
13th century, fol. 113, Practica
Alexandri.
It will be noted that the text in
all these Latin MSS is in only
three books, but it follows the
same order as the twelve books.
It is also, at least in the edition
of 1504, not as abbreviated as one
might infer from Rose. Rather
the later editors, Albanus Tori-
nus and Guinther of Andernach,
seem to have taken greater liber-
ties with, and made unwarranted
additions to Alexander's text. At
the same time the early Latin
text treats of some topics such as
toothache which are not included
in Puschmann's Greek text, and
also includes (II, 79-103, and 104-
50) treatments of diseases of the
abdomen and spleen for which
there seems to be no genuine
Greek text and which Pusch-
mann, Nachtr'dge, 1886, has pub-
lished separately as fragments of
Philumenus and Philagrius, medi-
cal writers of the first and fourth
centuries. His chief reason seems
to be that cap. 79 is entitled, De
reumate ventris iilominis, and cap.
104, Ad splencni philogrius, while
cap. 151 is headed, Causa que est
ydropicie alexandri. These pas-
sages are, however, found in the
Latin MSS of Alexander's work
from the first, and the use of
Romance words by the unknown
Latin translator indicates that the
translation was made in the early
medieval period, — Puschmann
(1886), p. 12.
* Puschmann (1878), I, 91.
^As in Vendome 109, nth cen-
tury, fol. I, Mulsa Alexandri
(Tralliani), fol. 68v, "De reuma
ventris, de libro Alexandri" (not
here ascribed, it will be noted, to
Philumenus), fol. 71, "De secundo
libro Alexandri de cura nefreti-
corum." The Mulsa Alexandri is
found also in two other nth cen-
tury MSS of the same library:
Vendome 172, fol. i, and 175, fol. 2.
In Royal 12-E-XX, 12th cen-
tury, fols. 146V-151V, "Incipit
liber dietarum diversarum medi-
corum, hoc est Alexandri et
aliorum." This extract, made up
of a number of Alexander's chap-
ters on the diet suitable in differ-
ent ailments, is often found in
the MSS, as here, with the
Pseudo-Pliny and was printed as
its fifth book in 1509 and 1516.
* Puschmann (1878), I, 97.
*Milward (1773), P- I79-
sonal ex-
perience
578 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
medicus, encountered in thirteenth century writers on the
nature of things like Thomas of Cantimpre and Bartholo-
mew of England, have reference to Alexander of Tralles,
since a treatise on fevers is also ascribed to Alexander of
Aphrodisias/ while a work on the pulse and urine in
fevers is thought to be by some medieval Alexander.^ And
medical treatises are sometimes ascribed even to Alexander
the Great of Macedon in the medieval manuscripts.^
His per- We have already said that Alexander is no mere com-
piler but embodies the results of his own observation and
experience during a long period of travel and medical
practice. He frequently asserts that he has tested this or
that for himself, or that the prescription in question has
been "approved by long use and experience," ^ so that it
is not surprising that we find the name Alexander still as-
sociated with medical "experiments" in manuscripts dating
from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.^ One of his cures
for epilepsy he learned "from a rustic in Tuscany"
(Thtisciaif) but afterwards often employed with success
himself.^ "It is a marvelous and exceptional medicine
which you will communicate to no one," concludes Alexan-
*Thus in Vendome 109 (see ra magni Alexandri Macedonii
note 2, p. 577) besides the extracts quod facit stomaticis epilenticis."
from Alexander of Tralles we Steinschneider, cited by Pusch-
find at fol. 58, "Alexander (Aph- mann (1878) I, 106, has also
rodisiensis) amicus veritatis in noted the attribution in Hebrew
tertio libro suo ubi de febribus MSS to Alexander the Great of
commemorat." The Arabs seem a work on fever, urine, and pulse,
to have confused these two presumably identical with that
Alexanders : see Steinschneider mentioned in the foregoing note.
(1862), p. 61; Puschmann (1878), * Stephanus (1567) I, 176, 204,
I, 94-5. 216, 225; and Puschmann, II, 575,
' See the discussion by Choulant are a few specimens.
in Janus (1845), p. 52, and ^Amplon. Quarto 204, I2-I3th
Henschel in De Renzi (1852-9) century, fols. 90-S, Experimento-
II, II, of a I2th century MS at rum Alexandri medici collectio
Breslau, "Liber Alexandri de succincta. Digby 79, 13th cen-
agnoscendis febribus et pulsibus tury, fols. 180-92V, "Alexandrina
et urinis" ; also Puschmann experimenta de libro percompen-
(1878) I, 105-6, concerning BN diose extractata meliora ut no-
Greek MS 2316, which seems to bis visum est ad singulas egritu-
be a late Greek translation of it, — dines." Additional 341 11, 15th
another instance that a Greek text century, fol. 77, "Experimenta
is not necessarily the original. Alexandri," in English.
'Corpus Christi 189, ii-i2th ° Steplianus I, 156; Puschmann
century, fols. 1-5, "Antidotum pig- II, 563.
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 579
der, a rather surprising prohibition in view of the fact that
it was a popular remedy to begin with. Folk-lore, however,
is often supposed to be kept secret. Another general rule
which holds true in Alexander's case is that these empirical
remedies are apt to be the most superstitious, and conversely
that marvels are apt to be supported by solemn assurance
of their experimental testing.
Two centuries ago Mil ward wrote of Alexander of Extent
Tralles, "But there is another objection to our author's super-
character which I cannot pretend to say much in defence stition.
of, and that is, his being addicted to charms and amulets.
It is very surprising that one who discovers so much judg-
ment in other matters should show so much weakness in
this," ^ Alexander certainly devotes more space to super-
stition relatively to the length of his book than Aetius does
and also is hospitable to a wider range of more or less
magical notions and practices. One notices, however, in
his book that the treatment of certain diseases, such as
epilepsy, colic, gout, and quartan fever, is more likely to
involve magical and astrological procedure than that of
other ailments such as earache and disorder of the spleen.
This is also apt to be the case with other ancient and
medieval medical works. But it is doubtful if the distinc-
tion can be sharply drawn that magic was resorted to more
in those diseases which seemed most mysterious and incur-
able.
The chief circumstance which renders some parts of Physica.
Alexander's work more superstitious than others is that
he sometimes, after concluding the usual medical descrip-
tion of the disease and prescriptions for it, adds a list
of what he calls physical or natural medicines (^uo-t/cd),
which are for the most part ligatures and suspensions but
involve also the employment of incantations and engraved
images or characters. Apparently he calls these remedies
physica, because they supposedly act by some peculiar prop-
erty or occult virtue of the substance which is bound on
^Milward (1733), p. 168.
58o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Occult
virtue of
substances
applied
externally.
or suspended and constitute a sort of natural magic. Alex-
ander explains that "since some cannot observe a diet nor
endure medicine, they compel us in the case of gout to
employ physical remedies and ligatures; and in order that
the well-trained physician may be instructed in every side
of his art and able to help all sick persons in every way, I
come to this subject." ^ This rather apologetic tone and
the fact that he separates the physica from his other remedies
show that he regards them as not quite on the same level
with normal medical procedure. He goes on to say, how-
ever, that although there are many of these "physical"
remedies which are efficacious, he will write down only
those proved true by long use. In discussing fevers he again
justifies the inclusion of physica in much the same way and
says that those now mentioned were learned by him during
a long-extended practice and experience.^ It is to be noted
that some of these chapters on physical ligatures do not
appear in the Latin version in three books, at least as it was
printed in 1504.
One ligature which is "quite celebrated and approved by
many" and which instantly lessens the pain of ulcers in the
feet, makes use of muscles from a wild ass, a wild boar,
and a stork, binding the right muscles about the patient's
right foot and the left muscles about the left foot. Some
persons, however, do not intertwine the muscles of the stork
with the others but put them separately into the skin of a
sea-calf. Also they take care to bind the other muscles
about the patient's feet when the moon is in the west or in a
sterile sign and approaching Saturn. Others bind on the
tendons and claws of a vulture, or the feet of a hare who
should remain alive. ^ Alexander seems to regard the carcass
of the ass as especially remedial in the case of epilepsy. In
Spain he learned to use the skull of an ass reduced to ashes
and he recommends employing the forehead and brain of an
* Stephanus I, 312; Puschmann
n, 579-
* Stephanus I, 345, see also 296
and 339; Puschmann I, 407, 437.
'Stephanus I, 312; Puschmann
II, 579.
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 581
ass as amulets.^ A suspension for quartan fever consists
of a live beetle firmly fastened on the outside of a red linen
cloth and hung about the neck. "This is true and often
tested by experience," Alexander assures us. Also excellent
for this purpose are hairs from a goat's cheek or a green
lizard combined with clippings of the patient's finger nails
and toe nails. It is confirmed by the testimony of all
"natural" physicians that the blood qui primus a virgine
fuerit excretus is naturally hostile to quartan fever. Even
if the girl is not chaste, the blood will be efficacious, if
applied to the patient's right hand or arm.^ Alexander knew
a man who treated quartan fever by giving an undergarment
of the patient to a woman in childbirth to wear, after which
the patient wore it again and was cured "miraculously by
some antipathy and occult influence." ^
The materials employed in Alexander's therapeutics are Other
sometimes those which we associate especially with magic l^^^^l^
arts, such as the hair and nail-parings already mentioned, ligatures
Against epilepsy he employs nails from a cross or wrecked amulets,
ship, or the blood-stained shirt of a gladiator or criminal
who has been slain. The nails are bound to the patient's
arm ; the shirt is burned and the patient given the ashes in
wine seven times. The use of a nail from a cross is a
method ascribed to Asclepiades. Other materials recom-
mended by Alexander against gout and epilepsy include
the herb night-shade, the stones magnet and aetites, blood
of a swallow and urine of a boy, chameleons in varied forms,
and the stones found in dissected swallows of which we
have heard before and shall hear yet again. For Alexander
these stones are black and white, but he states that they are
not found in all young swallows but are said to appear only
in the first-born, so that one often has to dissect a great
many birds before one finds any. In these passages on
Physica Alexander cites such authors of magical reputation
* Stephanus I, 156; Puschmann I, 437.
' Stephanus I, 345; Puschmann rtft (cat Xo-yw dpp7T;o.
S82
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Incanta-
tions.
as Ostanes and Democritus, and tells how the latter suffered
in youth from epilepsy until an oracle from Delphi instructed
him to make use of the worms in goats' brains. When a
goat sneezes violently, some of these worms are expelled
into his nostrils, whence they should be carefully extracted
in a cloth without allowing them to touch the ground.
Either one or three of them should then be worn about the
epileptic's neck wrapped in the thin skin of a black sheep.-^
One passage has already been cited where astrological
conditions were observed. Alexander sometimes prescribes
the day of the month upon which things shall be done; an
oil, for instance, is to be prepared on the fifth of March.^
In one place Alexander advises engraving upon a copper
die a lion, a half -moon, a star, and the name of the beast.
This is to be worn enclosed in a gold ring upon the fourth
finger.^ That the lion may not stand for a sign of the
zodiac is suggested by another instruction concerning an
engraved stone to be set in a gold ring, and which is to be
carved with a figure of Hercules suffocating a lion.* For
gout, however, one writes a verse of Homer on a copper
plate when the moon is in Libra or Leo.^ For colic one in-
scribes upon an iron ring with an octangular circumference
a charm beginning, "Flee, flee, colic." ^
The employment of such incantations is expressly justi-
fied by Alexander, who maintains that even "the most
divine" Galen, who once thought that incantations were of
no avail, came after a long time and much experience to
be convinced that they were of great efficacy. Alexander
then quotes from a treatise which is not extant but which
he asserts is a work by Galen entitled. On medical treatment
in Homer.'^ "So some think that incantations are like old-
wives' tales and so I thought for a long while, but in process
* For the passages in this para-
graph see Stephanus I, 156-7,
313; Puschmann I, 561, S^7-73-
^ Stephanus I, 312.
* Stephanus I, 281 ; Puschmann
11, 475.
* Stephanus I, 296; Puschmann
n, 377-
' Stephanus I, 313.
" Stephanus
11, 377-
' Stephanus
n, 475.
296 ; Puschmann
281 ; Puschmann
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 583
of time from perfectly plain instances I have become per-
suaded that there is force in them, for I have experienced
their aid in the case of persons stung by scorpions. And
no less in the case of bones stuck in the throat, which were
straightway expelled by an incantation." Alexander him-
self thereupon continues, "If such is the testimony of
divinest Galen and many other ancients, what prevents us
too from communicating to you those which we have learned
from experience and which we have received from trust-
worthy friends?"
Both incantations and observance of astrological condi- Conjura-
tions play an important part in the instructions given by an"herb
Alexander for digging and plucking with imprecations an
herb to be used in the treatment of fluxions of hands or
feet. "When the moon is in Aquarius under Pisces, dig
before sunset, not touching the root. After digging with
two fingers of the left hand, namely, the thumb and middle
finger, say, 'I address you, I address you, sacred herb. I
summon you to-morrow to the house of Philia to stay the
fluxion of feet and hands of this man or this woman. But
I adjure you by the great name, laoth, Sabaoth, God who
established the earth and fixed the sea abounding in fluid
floods, who desiccated Lot's wife and made her a statue of
salt, receive the spirit of thy mother earth and its powers,
and dry up this fluxion of feet or of hands of this man or
woman.' On the morrow ere sunrise, taking the bone of
some dead animal, dig up the root, and holding it say, *I
adjure you by the sacred names, laoth, Sabaoth, Adonai,
Eloi,' and sprinkle a pinch of salt on that root, saying, 'As
this salt is not increased, so be not the ailment of this man
or of this woman.' Then bind one end of the root to the
patient, taking care that it is not moist, and suspend the rest
of it over the fire for 360 days." ^ The mention of mother
earth in this charm perhaps indicates an ultimate pagan
origin, but the allusions to one God, and to incidents in the
Old Testament, and the use of names of spirits show Jewish
* Stephanus I, 314; Puschmann II, 585.
584
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Medieval
version
seems less
super-
stitious
than the
original
text.
Mar-
cellus :
date and
identity.
or Christian influence, while the number 360 perhaps points
to the Gnostics.
While in conformity with the character of our investiga-
tion we have emphasized those passages in Alexander which
are suggestive of magic and its methods, it should be said
that many of the passages which we have cited are appar-
ently ^ not found in the medieval Latin versions which seem
to omit many, although not all, of the chapters devoted to
physical ligatures. Here then apparently is a case where
the early medieval translator and adapter, instead of re-
taining and emphasizing the superstition of the past, has
largely purged his text of it. But we have next to consider
a Latin work, written apparently about the year 400 A. D.
and known to us through two manuscripts of the ninth
century, in which magic is far more rampant than in any
version of Alexander of Tralles. Judging, however, from
the small number of extant manuscripts, it was less influen-
tial through the medieval period than was Alexander's book.
The De medicamentis opens in one of the two extant
manuscripts with a dedicatory letter from "Marcellus, an
illustrious man of the main office of Theodosius the
Elder (?)" to his sons.^ This ascription is generally ac-
cepted as genuine, and Grimm believed this to be the same
Marcellus as the physician who is gratefully mentioned, to-
gether with his sons, then mere infants, in the letters of
Libanius, whose severe headaches Marcellus had alleviated,
and as the Marcellus magister officioriim who is mentioned
twice in the Theodosian Code under the year 395. The
date of the De medicamentis may be further fixed from its
including "a singular remedy for spleen which the patriarch
Gamaliel recently revealed from proved experiments." This
^If the MSS, which I have not
examined, agree with the 1504
edition.
' Both in BN 6880 and the edi-
tion of Basel, 1536, "Marcellus
vir inluster ex magno officio Theo-
dosii Sen. filiis suis salutem
d(icit)." In the MS, however,
a later hand has written above
the now faded line an incorrect
copy in which "Theodosii Sen."
is replaced by "theodosiensi."
Helmreich (1889), on the other
hand, has replaced "ex magno
officio" by "ex magistro officio."
It is perhaps open to doubt
whether the "Sen." goes with
"Theodosii" or "Marcellus."
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 585
Gamaliel was Jewish patriarch at Constantinople from some
time before 395 on to 415 or later. The question, however,
of Marcellus' authorship is complicated by the fact that he
is twice cited in the work itself. One of these passages
concerns an "oxyporium which Nero used for the digestion,
which Marcellus the eminent physician revealed, which we
too have tested in practice." ^ This sounds as if some later
person had had a hand in the work as it has reached us, since
Marcellus himself would scarcely have cited another person
of the same name without some distinguishing epithet.
Furthermore Aetius cites a Marcellus for a passage which
does not appear in the De medicamentis concerning wolfish
or canine insanity, in which men imagine themselves to be
wolves or dogs and act like them during the night in the
month of February. But the De medicamentis as a whole
is of the character promised by Marcellus in the introduc-
tory letter to his sons and so may be taken as his work.
The empiricism which we have already noted in Alex- "Mar-
ander of Tralles becomes most pronounced and most ex-
treme in Marcellus, who indeed is often called Marcellus
Empiricus on this account, and many of whose chapter and
other headings ^ terminate with these words descriptive of
their contents, "various rationa-1 and natural remedies
learned by experience" (remedia rationabilia et physica
diversa de experimentis) . In his preface, too, he speaks of
his book not as De medicamentis but as De empiricis. He
has, it is true, utilized "the old authorities of the medical
art set down in the Latin language," and likewise more
recent writers and "the works of studious men" who were
not especially trained in medicine ; but he also includes what
he has learned from hearsay or from personal experience,
and "even remedies chanced upon by rustics and the popu-
lace and simples which they have tested by experience."
One prescription, which he characterizes as efficacious be-
yond human hope and incapable of being satisfactorily
'Cap. 20 (1889), p. 204. those which mark the openings
^ In BN 6880 there are other of the 36 chapters,
headings written in capitals than
celhis Em-
piricus."
S86 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
lauded, he purchased from an old-wife of Africa who cured
many at Rome by it, while the author himself has employed
it in the cure of "several persons neither of humble rank
nor unknown, whose names it is superfluous to mention."
This remedy is a concoction of such things as ashes of deer-
horn, nine grains of white pepper, a little myrrh, and an
African snail pounded shell and all while still alive in a
mortar and then mixed with Falernian wine. Very detailed
and explicit directions are given as to its preparation and
administration, including an instruction to drink the dose
facing towards the east.^ In another passage Marcellus
says of certain compounds, "If there is any faith, both I
myself have always found them by experience to be useful
remedies and I can state that others are of the same mind;
and I will add this, that other medicines can not compare to
this liniment, which in similar cases several of my friends,
whom I trust as I do myself, have affirmed on oath they
have found by experience a remarkable cure." ^ Of an eye-
remedy he remarks, "And that we may believe the author
of this remedy from experience, he states that after he had
been blind for twelve years it restored his sight within
twenty days." ^ Marcellus also frequently couples marvel-
ousness with experimentation, saying, "You will experience
a wonderful remedy." In one passage he uses the word
"experiment as a verb rather than as a noun, coining a new
expression, experimentatum remedium/ but his commonest
expressions are de experimento or de experimentis, ex-
pertum, and experieris or experietur.^ Some of his "experi-
'Cap. 29 (1889), pp. 304-6. 123, is; 129, 21; 133, 10; 145, 33;
'Cap. 35 (1889), p. 361. 148, 25; 149, 26; 160, 18; 176, 5;
'Cap. 8 (1889), p. 80. 178, 25; 186, 15; 190, 20; 192, 31;
*Cap. 5 (1889), p. 49. 211, i; 222, 18; 224, 31; 230, 3;
''For such mentions of experi- 235, 15; 236, 14; 239, 8 and 26;
ence and experiment see the fol- 242, 8 and 23; 248, 20; 256, 9;
lowing passages in the 1889 edi- 258, 5; 264, 21; 276, 35; 281, 19
tion, numbers referring to page and 27; 282, 15; 308, 21; 312, 6
and line: 31, 7; 34, 3; 35, 14; and 19 and 22; 314, 25; 326, 28;
44, 2; 53, i; 58, 21; 64, 34; 65, 30; 327, 13; 334, 29; 343, 23; 351, 23
66, 26; 72, 22; 73, 7; 74, 2; 77, 9; and 25; 353, 4; 354, 19; 356, 6;
80, 28; 81, 29; 89, 3 and 29; 362, 32; 370, 22 and 37.
96, 14 and 31; 102, 27; 120, 32;
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 587
ences" really are purposive experiments, as where one .dis-
covers whether a tumor is scrofulous by applying an earth-
worm to it. Then put the worm on a leaf and if the tumor
was scrofulous, the worm will turn into earth.^ The follow-
ing experiment indicates that sufferers from spleen should
drink in vinegar the root or dried leaves of the tamarisk.
Give tamarisk to a pig to eat for nine days, then kill the
animal and you will find it without a spleen.^
As Marcellus appeals the most to experience, so he is Super-
by far the most given to superstition and folk-lore of our character
three authors. Practically his entire work is of the char- of his
acter of the passages devoted to Physic a by Alexander of
Tralles. He indulges in no medical theory, he does not
diagnose diseases, nor prescribe a regimen of health in the
form of bathing, diet, and exercise. His work is wholly
composed of medicaments and for the most part empirical
ones. Besides the elaborate compounds which were
so frequent in Aetius and Alexander, he is extremely
addicted to absurd rigmarole and all sorts of superstitious
practices in the application or administration of medicinal
simples. His pharmacy includes not only herbs and gems,
to which he attributes occult virtue and which he sometimes
directs to have engraven with characters and figures, such
as SSS or a dragon surrounded with seven rays ^ — the
emblem of the Agathodaemon, but also all kinds of animals,
reptiles, and parts of the same, after the fashion of Pliny's
medicine. He is constantly calling into requisition such
things as the ashes of a mole, the blood of a bat, the brains
of a mouse, the gall of a hyena, the hoofs of a live ass, the
liver of a wolf, woman's milk, sea-hares, a white spider
with very long legs, and centipedes or multipedes, especially
the variety that rolls up into a ball when touched. But it is
scarcely feasible to separate Marcellus' materials from his
procedure, so we will begin to consider them together in
some prescriptions where animals play the leading part.
*Cap. 15 (1889), p. 146. "Caps. 20 and 24 (1889), pp.
'Cap. 23 (1889), p. 239. 208 and 244.
588
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
For those suffering- from stone is recommended a remedy
prepared in the following fashion. In August shut up in a
dry place for three days a goat, preferably a wild one who
is one year old, and feed him on nothing but laurel and
give him no water to drink ; finally on the third day, which
should fall on a Thursday or Sunday, kill him. Both the
person who kills the goat and the patient should be chaste
and pure. Cut the goat's throat and collect his blood — it
is best if the blood is collected by naked boys — and burn it
to an ash in an earthen pot. After combining it with vari-
ous herbs and drugs, there are further directions to follow
as to how it may best be administered to the patient. Mar-
cellus, by the way, affirms that adamant can be broken only
by goat's blood.^
The following prescription involves the familiar super-
stition that a rabbit's foot is lucky : "Cut off the foot of a
live rabbit and take hairs from under its belly and let it go.
Of those hairs or wool make a strong thread and with it
bind the rabbit's foot to the body of the patient and you will
find a marvelous remedy. But the remedy will be even more
efficacious, so that it is hardly credible, if by chance you find
that bone, namely, the rabbit's ankle-bone, in the dung of a
wolf, which you should guard so that it neither touches the
earth nor is touched by woman. Nor should any woman
touch that thread made of the rabbit's wool." Marcellus
further recommends that in releasing the rabbit after taking
its wool you should say, "Flee, flee, little rabbit, and take the
pain away with you." ^
Of such magical transfer of disease to other animals or
objects there are a number of examples. Toothache may
be stopped by standing on the ground under the open sky
and spitting in a frog's mouth and asking it to take the
toothache away with it and then releasing it.^ Even con-
sumptives who seem certain to die and who labor continually
with an unbearable cough, may be cured by giving them
*Cap. 26 (1889), pp. 264-6.
'Cap. 29 (1889), p. 311; and
see cap. 28, p. 29I
' Cap. 12, p. 123.
XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
589
to drink for three days the saliva or foam of a horse. "You
will indeed cure the patient without delay, but the horse-
will die suddenly." ^ Splenetic persons are benefited by
imposing anyone of three kinds of fish upon the spleen and
then replacing the fish alive in the sea.^ Warts may be
got rid of by rubbing them with something the moment you
see a star falling in the sky; but if you rub them with your
bare hand, you will simply transfer them to it.^ Another
superstition connected with falling stars which Marcellus
records is that one will be free from sore eyes for as many
years as he can count numbers while a star is falling,* The
first time you hear or see a swallow, hasten silently to a
spring or well and anoint your eyes with the water and pray
God that you may not have sore eyes that year, and the
swallows will bear away all pain from your eyes.^ With
slight variations the same procedure may be employed to
prevent toothache. In this case you fill your mouth with
water, rub your teeth with the middle fingers of both hands,
and say, "Swallow, I say to you, as this will not again be
in my beak, so may my teeth not ache all year long." ^
Marcellus advises anyone whose nose is stuffed up to blow
it on a piece of parchment, and, folding this up like a letter,
cast it into the public way,'^ — which would very likely spread
the germs, if not take away the cold.
In his preface Marcellus refers to Pliny as one of his piiny and
authorities and many of his quaint animal remedies will compared
be found substantially duplicated in the Natural History, pn green
-^ lizards as
Both, for example, state that one can stop one's nose from eye cures.
running by kissing a mule.^ Marcellus, however, adds much
from other sources or of his own. This may be illustrated
by comparing their accounts of the use of lizards to cure eye
diseases.^ Marcellus omits the following portion of Pliny's
account : "Some shut up a green lizard in a new earthen pot,
* Cap. 16, p. 166.
"Cap. 23, p. 238.
' Cap. 34, P- 357-
* Cap. 8, p. 69.
' Cap. 8, p. 66.
Cap. 12, p. 125.
Cap. 10, p. 113.
Cap. 10, p. 112; NH 30, II.
Cap. 8, p. 68; NH 29, 38.
590 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
and they mark the Httle stones called cinaedia, which are
bound on for tumors of the groin, with nine signs and take
out one daily. On the ninth day they let the lizard go, and
keep the pebbles for pains of the eyes." Pliny next proceeds :
"Others put earth under a green lizard that has been blinded
and shut it up in a glass vase with rings of solid iron or gold.
When through the glass the lizard is seen to have recovered
its sight, it is released and the rings are used for sore eyes."
This recipe is in Marcellus who, however, words it dif-
ferently and adds that the lizard must be blinded with a
copper needle, that the rings may be of silver, electrum,
or copper, that the vase must be carefully sealed and opened
on the fifth or seventh day following, and that one should
not only wear the rings afterwards on one's fingers but also
frequently apply them to one's eyes and strengthen the sight
by looking through them. He further cautions to leave the
vase in a clean grassy spot, to collect the rings only after
the lizard has departed, to catch the lizard in the first place
on a Thursday in September between the nineteenth and
twenty-fifth day of the moon, and to have the operation per-
formed by a very pure and chaste man, Marcellus also
states that an amulet made either of the eyes of the said
lizard enclosed in a lead bull or gold coin, or of its blood
caught on clean wool and wrapped in purple cloth will
effectually prevent eye diseases. Meanwhile Pliny for his
part has gone on to tell how efficacious the ashes of green
lizards are.
More Marcellus employs green lizards in other connections
hzardry. which are not paralleled in Pliny. To stay colic one binds
about the patient three times with an incantation a string
with which a copper needle has been threaded and drawn
through a lizard's eyes, after which the reptile is released
at the same point where it was captured.^ In another pas-
sage Marcellus recommends the drawing by a silver needle
of threads of nine different colors other than black or white
through the eyes of a new-born puppy before they open and
' Cap. 29, p. 313.
XXV POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE 59i
ita ut per anum eiiis exeunt, after which the puppy is to be
thrown into the river.^ But to return to our Hzards. For
those suffering from Hver complaint the Hver of a Hzard
is to be extracted with the point of a reed and bound in
purple or black cloth to the patient's right side or suspended
from his arm, while the lizard is to be dismissed alive with
these words, "Lo, I send you away alive; see to it that no
one whom I touch henceforth has liver complaint." ^ To
insure a wife's fidelity one touches her with the tip of a
lizard's tail which has been cut off by the left hand.^ Here
again the lizard is released but apparently is not expected
to survive for long, since one is instructed to "hold the tail
shut in the palm of the same hand until it dies." In a
fourth example the lizard is neither mutilated nor released
but hung in the doorway of a splenetic's bedroom where it
will touch his head and left hand as he comes and goes.^
One or two other prescriptions may be added where the Use of
procedure is connected with herbs or stones rather than and"an
with animals. On entering a city one is advised to pick up herb,
some of the pebbles lying in the road before the city gate,
stating that they are being collected for headache. Then
bind one of them on the head and throw the others behind
your back without looking around.^ A certain herb must
be gathered on Thursday in a waning moon. When it is
administered in drink, the recipient must take it standing
and facing the east. He receives the cup from the right
hand and then, in order not to look back, returns it to the
left to him who gave it. Only these two persons should
touch the drink.^
Right and left, as just illustrated, are much observed Right
in Marcellus' medicine. When a tooth aches on the left numb^er
side of the mouth, a hot cooked dried bean is applied to
the right elbow for three days, a process which is reversed
_ * Cap. 29, p. 314. Pliny has a rendaque eius dum cum ea cois
similar procedure with a frog and tange."
a reed. ■* Cap. 23, p. 239.
'Cap. 22, p. 230. ° Cap. I, p. 34.
' Cap. 2)3, P- 347, "mulierem ve- ° Cap. 25, p. 247.
592
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Incanta-
tions and
charac-
ters.
if the tooth is on the right side.^ The following exercise
recommended for a stiff neck would seem to stand more
chance of success than most of Marcellus' prescriptions.
While fasting the patient should spit on his right hand and
rub his right thigh, and then do the same with his left
hand and thigh. Thrice repeated this is warranted to work
an immediate cure.^ A ring worn on the middle finger of
the left hand is said to stop hiccough.^ The power of the
planets or of mere number is indicated in the advice, given
several times, to make seven knots in a string.* Once in-
structions are given to make as many knots as there are
letters in the patient's name.^
Incantations and characters, as has already been inci-
dentally illustrated, abound in Marcellus' pages. Some are
in Greek, some in Latin, some perhaps in Celtic; many,
as we have seen, are coherent statements, commands, or
requests; many others are to all appearance a jargon of
meaningless words, like the jingle, Argidam, margidam,
sturgidam,^ which is to be repeated seven times on Tuesday
and Thursday in a waning moon to cure toothache. Mar-
cellus well calls one of these carmen idioticumJ For stom-
ach and intestinal troubles he recommends pressing the
abdomen with the left thumb and saying, "Adam, bedam.
alam, betur, alem, botum." This is to be repeated nine
times, then one touches the earth with the same thumb and
spits, then says the charm nine more times, and again for a
third series of nine, touching the ground and spitting nine
times also. Alahanda, alahandi, alamho is another incanta-
tion, variously repeated thrice with hands clasped above
and below the abdomen. Yet another consists in rubbing
the abdomen with the left thumb and two little fingers and
saying, "A tree stood in the middle of the sea and there
hung an urn full of human intestines; three virgins went
* Cap. 12, p. 126.
'Cap. 18, p. 178.
' Cap. 17, p. 176.
*Cap. 32, pp. 22,7, 338, 340.
'Cap. 8, p. 70.
° Cap. 12, p. 123.
' Cap. 3^, p. 379. Marcellus em-
ploys the phrase, of course, to
indicate a private or personal in-
cantation, and as a matter of fact
it is somewhat less absurd than
a number of others.
XXV
POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
593
around it, two make it fast, one revolves it." As you
repeat this thrice, you touch the ground thrice and spit, but
if the charm is for veterinary purposes, for the words
"human intestines" should be substituted "the intestines of
mules" or horses or asses as the case may be.^ The fol-
lowing is a specimen of the characters prescribed by Mar-
cellus : ^
A^MGKI A
A^M e KI A
A^M GKI A
It is perhaps worth while to point out in concluding this The art of
chapter that apparently at no time during the period of sm-vives^
barbarian invasions and early medieval centuries did medical the bar-
1- • 1 • 1 TUT- 1 banan
practice or literature cease entirely in the west. We have invasions.
seen that there is reason to suspect that portions of the work
ascribed to Marcellus may be contributions of the centuries
following him, and that there were early medieval Latin
translations of the works of Oribasius and Alexander of
Tralles. Furthermore, the laws of the German kingdoms,
the allusions of contemporary chroniclers and men of letters,
the advice of Gregory the Great to a sick archbishop to seek
medical assistance, and many other bits of evidence ^ show
that physicians were fairly numerous and in good repute,
and that medieval Christians at no time depended entirely
upon the healing virtues of relics of the saints or other
miraculous powers credited to the church or divine answer
to prayer.
' Cap. 28, p. 301.
*Cap. 29, p. 310. For further
instances of incantations and char-
acters in the De medicamentis see
page no, Hnes 18-27; in, 26-33;
112, 29 - 113, 2; n6, 8-n ; 133, 18-
22, 26-31; 139, 17-26; 142, 19-26;
149, 4-11; 151, 18-33; 152, 9-14,
19-24; 180, 1-3; 220, 11-20; 221,
2-6; 223, 15-18; 241, 1-6, 14-22;
244, 26-28; 248, 16-19; 260, 22-
24; 295, 18-22; 333, 9-is; 382,
16-18.
^Daremberg (1870) I, 257-8.
CHAPTER XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN NATURAL SCIENCE OF THE EARLY
MIDDLE AGES
General character — Medicine of Pliny — Herbarium of Apuleius —
Specimens of its occult science — A "Precantation of all herbs" — Other
treatises accompanying the Herbarium — Cosmography of Aethicus —
Its medieval influence — Character of the work — Its attitude to marvels
— The Geoponica — Magic and astrology therein — Dioscorides — Textual
history of the De materia medica — Alterations made in the Greek text
— Dioscorides little known to Latins before the middle ages — Partial
versions in Latin — De herbis femininis — The fuller Latin versions —
Peter of Abano's account of the medieval versions — Pseudo-Dioscorides
on stones — Conclusions from the textual history of Dioscorides — Macer
on herbs; its great currency — Problem of date and author — Virtues
ascribed to herbs — Experiments of Macer.
General A CLASS of writings which seems to have been very char-
character, ^(^tej-jsi-jc Qf ^i^g waning culture of the decHning Roman
Empire and the scanty erudition of the early medieval period
were the brief epitomes of, or disorderly collections of frag-
ments from, the writers of the classical period. Such
works often passed under the name of some famous author
of the previous period and sometimes are more or less based
upon his writings. Most of the works in the field of nat-
ural science are of such derivative or pseudo-authorship : the
Medicine of the Pseudo-Pliny, the Herbarium of the Pseudo-
Apuleius, the geographical work ascribed to Aethicus, the
Geoponica, the treatises on herbs attributed to Macer and
Dioscorides. Indeed, the whole textual history of the lat-
ter's De nmteria medica is so full of vicissitudes and un-
certainties that I have postponed its treatment until this
chapter. The names of the actual compilers or abbreviators
of these works are usually unknown and it is also usually
impossible to date them with any approach to accuracy.
594
CHAP. XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 595
Roughly speaking of them as a whole, they may be said to
have gradually taken on their present form at almost any
time between the third and tenth centuries. In the case of
these works of natural science at least, it is not quite fair
to class them all as brief epitomes or disorderly collections.
In some we see an obvious attempt to rearrange the old
materials in a form more convenient for present use. In
others to the stage of abbreviation from ancient authors has
succeeded another stage of later additions from other
sources.
The Medicina, or Art of Medicine, of the Pseudo-Pliny ^ Medicine
consists of three books in which medical passages, drawn °' ^^^'
from Pliny's Natural History, are rearranged according to
diseases instead of, as in the genuine Pliny, by simples. The
first two books deal with diseases of the human body in
descending order from top to toe and from headache to
gout, a favorite arrangement throughout the course of
medieval medicine. The last book then considers afflictions
which are not necessarily connected with any particular part
of the body, such as wounds and fevers. Thus this com-
pilation attests Pliny's medieval influence and the practical
use made of his work, while it of course continues much
of his medical magic and superstition. The compiler's re-
arrangement is an essential one, if the medical recommenda-
tions of the Natural History were to be made available for
ready reference. In this case, therefore, the epitomizer has
rather improved upon than disordered the arrangement of
the original. This compilation is believed to have been used
by Marcellus Empiricus, and a Letter of Pliniiis Secundus
to his friends about medicine, which Marcellus gives along
with other medical epistles, is thought to be the preface of
the abbreviator, who in that case depicts himself as com-
posing his volume so that his friends and himself when
traveling may avoid the payment of exorbitant fees asked
by strange physicians. If we can regard everything in the
* PKnii Secundi lunioris de me- Medicina Plinii," in Hermes,
dicina lihri ires, ed. V. Rose, I«ip- VIII (1874) 19-66.
siae, 1875. V. Rose, "Ueber die
596 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
work of Marcellus as we have it as having been written by
400, the Medicine of Pliny must have been written during
the declining Roman Empire. The manuscripts used by
Rose in his edition were of the tenth and twelfth centuries.
There is also a later version of the Medicine of Pliny in
five books/ of which the two last are entirely new additions,
the fifth being an extract from the old Latin translation of
Alexander of Tralles. And in the first three books the
earlier Pseudo-Pliny has been worked over with additions.
The Pseudo-Pliny is also embodied with alterations and
accompanied by some prayers and incantations in a tenth
century manuscript at St. Gall.^
The Her- Several works besides the six commonly regarded as
Apuleius. genuine ^ were attributed to Apuleius in the middle ages,
grammatical * and rhetorical ^ treatises, the Hermetic
Asclepius,^ a treatise on physiognomy,"^ and the very
widespread Sphere of Life and Death, of which we shall
treat in another chapter.^ We shall now consider the
Herbarium of Apuleius,^ the one of his spurious works,
which has most to do with the world of nature, and, with
the exception of the brief Sphere, the one which occurs
most often in the manuscripts. The Herbarium was first
printed about 1480 by the physician of Pope Sixtus IV
*C. Plinii Secundi Medicina, ^ See Schanz (1905), 139-40,
ed. Thomas Pighinuccius, Rome, * See below p. 683. Schanz fails
1509. to mention it among the apocryphal
^ Codex St. Gall 751; described works of Apuleius.
by V. Rose, Hermes, VIII, 48-55 ; * H. Kobert, De Pseudo-Apulei
Anecdota II, 106. herbarum medicaminibus, Bay-
^ For the list of his six genuine reuth, 1888. Schanz (1905) 138,
works see above p. 222. mentions only continental MSS,
* De nota aspirationis and De although there are numerous MSS
diphthongis, ed. Osann, Darm- of it in the British Museum and
stadt, 1826, with De orthographia, Bodleian libraries, some of which
a forgery by a sixteenth century have been used and others de-
humanist. _ _ scribed by O. Cockayne in his
° neptepyu'7>'«ias, sometimes printed edition of the Herbarium and the
as the third book of the De other treatises accompanying it
dogniate Platonis. Some scholars, in his Leechdoms, Wortcunning,
however, regard it as genuine, and and Starcraft of Early England,
there are a number of MSS of Vol. I (1864) in RS XXXV.
it from the 9th, loth, and nth cen- Nor does Schanz note Cockayne's
turies. See Schanz (1905), 127-8. book.
' See above p. 290.
XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE
597
from a manuscript at Monte Cassino, and then, after vari-
ous other editions, was included in 1547 in the collection
of ancient Latin medical writers issued by the Aldine Press.
We are told, however, that with the close of the fifteenth
century the Apuleius began to be superseded by German
herbals. The medieval manuscripts of the Herharimn are
often noteworthy for their illuminations of the herbs in
vivid colors. Those of the mandragora root are especially
interesting, showing it as a man standing on the back of
a dog or a human form with leaves growing on the head
and led by a dog chained to his waist, ^ The oldest manu-
scripts are of the sixth century, and there are some in
Anglo-Saxon, but as one would expect, the work underwent
many additions and alterations, and different manuscripts
of it vary considerably. The author is usually spoken of
as Apuleius the Platonist and is sometimes said to have re-
ceived his work from the centaur Chiron, the master of
Achilles, and from Esculapius.^
In the Herbarium the plants are listed and described Specimens
and their virtues, especially medicinal, stated. Usually the occult
names for each herb in several languages or regions are science,
given — Latin, Greek, Punic, Biblical (by the Prophets),
^ See Sloane 1975, a vellum MS
of the I2th or early 13th century
written in fine large letters and
beautifully illuminated; Ashmole
1431, end of nth century, and
1462, 13th century, fol. 45r. Har-
leian 4986, Apuleii Platonici de
medicamentis cum figuris pictis, is
another early illuminated English
MS. Cockayne I, Ixxxii, does not
date it, but the MSS catalogue
lists it as tenth century. In CU
Trinity 1152, 14th century, James
(III, 162-3) estimates the number
of colored drawings as between
800 and 1000 ; he describes only a
few. Singer (1921) reproduces a
number of such illuminations
from MSS of the Herbarium and
of Dioscorides.
* Lucca 236, 9-ioth centu-ry,
"Herbarium Apuleii Platonici
quem accepit a Chironi magistro
Achillis et ab Escolapio explicit
feliciter." In Cotton Vitellius
C-III, early nth century, in
Anglo-Saxon, although the title
reads, "The Herbarium of Apu-
leius the Platonist which he re-
ceived from Esculapius and Chi-
ron the centaur, the master of
Achilles," a full page painting
shows Plato and Chiron receiv-
ing the volume from Aesculapius
(Cockayne, I, Ixxxviii). And
Sloane 1975 and Harleian 1585
speak of the Herbarium as "Li-
ber Platonis Apoliensis." In a
15th century MS (Rawlinson C-
328, fol. 113V-, Incipit de herbis
Galieni Apolei et Ciceronis) Ga-
len and Cicero, who perhaps re-
place Chiron and Aesculapius,
are associated with Apuleius as
authors.
598 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Egyptian, Syrian, Gallic, Dacian, Spanish, Phrygian,
Tuscan. By no means all of these are listed in every case,
however. The virtues of the herbs, often operate in an
occult manner, or procedure suggestive of magic is in-
volved in collecting or applying them. Often diseases are
cured merely by holding an herb in the hand, wearing it
with a string about the neck, or placing it behind one ear,
or wearing it in a ring. Lunatics, for example, are treated
by binding an herb about the neck with red cloth when
the moon is waxing in the sign of the bull or the first part
of the scorpion. Not only does observance of astrology
assist the medicinal application of herbs; plants are in turn
of assistance in the pursuit of astrology. To learn under
the rule of what star you are, be in a state of purity, pluck
the herb Montaster, keep it in a bit of clean linen until you
find a whole grain of wheat in a loaf of bread, then place
this with the herb under your pillow and pray to the seven
planets to reveal your guardian star to you in your sleep.
Indeed prayers and incantations are frequently employed
and in one case must be repeated nine times. Sometimes
the herb itself is addressed, as in the conjuration, "Herb
Erystion, I implore you to aid me and cheerfully afford
me all your virtues and cure and make whole all those ills
which Aesculapius and Chiron the centaur, masters of
medicine, healed by means of you." Sometimes the earth
is conjured as in the prayer beginning, "Holy goddess
Earth." Such prayers are scarcely consonant with Chris-
tianity and in some manuscripts have been omitted and re-
placed by the Lord's Prayer or other Christian forms, or
left in with their wording shghtly ahered to avoid pagan-
ism.^ Personal purity and clean clothing are often en-
*Daremberg (1853), 11-12, said century hand has added a pas-
that the pagan incantations were sage in Latin which may be trans-
preserved intact in a number of lated : "In the name of Christ,
MSS at Oxford and Cambridge. Amen. I conjure you, herb, that
Conjurations of herbs are not lim- I may conquer by lord Peter etc.
ited to the Pseudo-Apuleius in by moon and stars etc. and may
medieval MSS but sometimes oc- you conquer all my enemies, pon-
cur singly as in Perugia 736, 13th tiff and priests and all layrncn
century, where at fol. 267 a 14th and all women and all lawyers
XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE
599
joined upon those gathering the herbs and such instruc-
tions are added as to mark the circle about the plant with
gold, silver, ivory, the tooth of a wild boar, and the horn
of a bull, or to fill the hole with honeyed fruits. Some
herbs protect their bearers from all serpents or even from
all evils. Others, like asparagus if you use a dry root of it
to sprinkle the patient with spring water, break the spell of
witchcraft. Asparagus is also beneficial for toothache and
wonderfully relieves a tumor or bladder trouble, if it is
boiled in water and drunk by the patient fasting for seven
days and also used in bathing for a number of days. But
one must be careful not to go out in the cold during this
time nor to take cold drinks.^
In some manuscripts a "Precantation of all herbs" is
placed at the beginning of the treatise.^ It prescribes such
procedure as holding a mirror over the herb before plucking
it before sunrise under a waning moon. The person pluck-
ing the herb and uttering the incantation must be barefoot,
ungirded, chaste, and wear no ring. The plant is adjured
not only "by the living God" and "the holy name of God,
Sabaoth," but also by Seia, the Roman goddess of sowing,
and by "GS," which presumably stands for Gaia Seia, an
expression which is once written out in full. Some mean-
ingless words are also repeated.
The Herbarium is often accompanied in the manu-
scripts by other treatises on herbs ascribed to Dioscorides
and Macer, of which we shall speak presently; by a work
on the medicinal properties of animals, or more particularly
of quadrupeds, by Sextus Papirius Placidus ^ Actor * — an
who are against me etc." In
Sloane 1571, 15th century, fols.
1-6, at the close of fragments of
a Latin-English dictionary of
herbs is a Latin prayer entitled,
Benedictio omnium herbarum.
* The above passages are from
Sloane 1975 and the edition of
1547.
'Ashmole 1431, nth century,
fol. 3r, "In nomine domini incipit
herboralium apuleii platonis quod
accepit ascolapio et chirone cen-
tauro magistro. Lege feliciter.
Precantatio omnium herbarum ad
singulas curas." CU Trinity 1152,
14th century, fol. i. Gonville and
Caius 345, 14th century, fol. Sgv.
' Or Papyriensis Placitus.
* Perhaps merely for "auctor."
ed. Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. XIII,
395-423, Sexti Placiti liber de me-
dicina ex animalibus.
A "Pre-
cantation
of All
Herbs."
Other
treatises
accom-
panying
the Her'
barium.
6oo
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Cosmog-
raphy of
Aethicus.
Otherwise quite unknown personage ; ^ by a "letter concern-
ing a little beast" from the king of Egypt or Aesculapius to
the emperor Octavian Augustus ; " and by introductory let-
ters, such as we find prefaced to the De medicamentis of
Marcellus Empiricus, of "Hippocrates to his Moecenas" ^
and "Antonius Musus to Moecenas Agrippa." The epistle
of the Egyptian king or Aesculapius to Augustus, however,
really forms the introduction or opening chapter to the
treatise of Sextus Papirius Placidus on the medicinal prop-
erties of animals, and after the little beast or quadruped
called mela or taxo * follow fast the stag, serpent, fox, hare,
scorpion, and so forth. As for the taxo, Augustus is told
that by means of it he can protect himself from sorcerers,
avoid defections in his army, and preserve his troops from
the pestilence which the barbarians bring, and the city of
Rome from both pestilences and fires. To this end a lus-
tration should be performed with its flesh, and it should
then be buried at the city gates. One way to appropriate
its virtue is to extract its large teeth, repeating a jargon of
strange words the while.
Another characteristic product of declining antique
learning and of early medieval effort is found in the field
of geography in the Cosmography of Aethicus Istricus,
translated into Latin by the priest Jerome (Hieronymus
Presbyter). The oldest manuscript is one of the eighth
^In Montpellier 277, 15th cen-
tury, "Liber Sesti platonis de ani-
malibus," perhaps because the
Apuleius of the Herbarium is
called a Platonist. In Digby 43,
late 14th century, fol. 15, "Liber
Septiplanti Papiensis de bestiis
et avibus medicinalis." In Raw-
linson C-328, 15th century, fol.
128, "Incipit liber Papiriensis ex
animalibus ex avibus." The work
is sometimes found in juxtaposi-
tion with a somewhat similar
"Liber medicinalis de secretis Ga-
lieni," concerning which see below,
chapter 64, II, 761.
'V. Rose (187s) 337-8 suggests
that this is a fragment from a
fuller work of Aesculapius to
Augustus cited by Thomas of Can-
timpre, Albertus Magnus, and
Vincent of Beauvais. See also
Peter of Abano, De venenis, cap.
5, "in epistola Esculapii philosophi
ad Octavianum." But perhaps
these writers refer to the entire
work of Sextus Papirius.
' Ed. Ruellius, with Scribonius
Largus, Paris, 1529.
* In a later medieval vocabulary
taxus is given as a synonym for
the animal called camaleon: Al-
phita, ed. Daremberg from BN
6954 and 6957 in De Renzi, Col-
lectio Salernitana, III, 272-322.
XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 6oi
century in the British Museum/ where it is also found in
several other fairly early manuscripts ^ in the respectable
company of Vitruvius, Vegetius, Sallust, and Suetonius,*
as well as with the more congenial work of Solinus. This
Cosmographia was not printed until 1852, when it was ed-
ited at Paris by M. d'Avezac and again in 1854 at Leipzig
by M. H. Wuttke. It is an entirely different work from
what had hitherto been repeatedly printed as the Cosmog-
raphy of Aethicus but is really to be identified with frag-
ments of Julian Honorius and Orosius. The Latin trans-
lator of our treatise had been identified in the middle ages
with St. Jerome, the church father, and Wuttke still as-
cribed it to him, but Bunbury protested against this,^ and
Mommsen placed our treatise not earlier than the seventh
century.^
Bunbury added, however, that the Cosmography "ap- Its
pears to have been much read in the middle ages, and is influence
therefore not without literary interest." The apparent
greatness of the names on the title page seems to have given
the middle ages an exaggerated notion of the work's im-
portance. Aethicus himself is spoken of as from Istria and
according to the Explicit of at least one manuscript ® was a
Scythian, but this does not mean that his attitude towards
learning was that of a Hun, for the same Explicit goes on
to inform us that he was of noble lineage and, if I correctly
* Cotton Vespasian B, X, #6. M. Wuttke can attach any value
* Harleian 3859, called tenth to such a production is to me quite
century in the Harleian catalogue incomprehensible ; still more that
which is often incorrect in its he should ascribe the translation
dating, but nth or 12th century to the great ecclesiastical writer,"
by d'Avezac, Mommsen in his Jerome. Bunbury believed that
edition of Solinus, and Beazley, the work was not earlier than the
Dawn of Geography, I, 523. seventh century. Beazley, Daivn
Royal 15-B-II and 15-C-IV, both of Geography, I, 355-63, is of the
of the I2th century. For other same opinion.
MSS at Paris, Leyden, and Rome ^ In his edition of Solinus, p.
see Beazley, op. cit. xxvii, he contends that certain
* But after all is Suetonius any passages which Wuttke pointed
more respectable a historian than out as common to Aethicus and
Aethicus and Solinus are geog- Solinus are borrowed by Aethicus
raphers? from Isidore who died in 636.
■* Bunbury, History of Ancient ° Harleian 3859.
Geography, II, Appendix : "How
602
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Character
of the
work.
Its atti-
tude to
marvels.
interpret the faulty syntax of its Latin, that from him the
ethical philosophy of other sages drew its origins. Some-
what later Roger Bacon said in discussing faults in the study
of theology in his day, "From the authorities of the philoso-
phers whom the saints cite I shall abstain, except that I will
strengthen the utterances of Ethicus the astronomer and
Alchimus the philosopher by the authority of the blessed
Jerome, since no one could credit that they had said so many
marvelous things about Christ and the angels and demons
and men who are to be glorified or damned unless Jerome
or some other saint proved that they had said so." ^
As Bacon's words indicate, Christian influence is mani-
fest in the Cosmography, although, as they also indicate,
the original Aethicus is not supposed to have been a Chris-
tian, but, as one manuscript informs us, an Academic phi-
losopher.^ Oriental influence, too, is perhaps shown in flights
of poetical language and unrestrained imagination, in a
number of allusions to Alexander the Great, and in an ex-
traordinary ignorance of early Roman history which leads
the author to tell how Romulus invaded Pannonia and fought
against the Lacedaemonians. "How great carnage," he
exclaims, "in Lacedaemonia, Noricum and Pannonia, Istria
and Albania, northern regions near my home, first at the
hands of the Romans and the tyrant Numitor, then under
the brothers Romulus and Remus, and later under the first
Tarquin, the Proud." The author eulogizes Athens as well
as Alexander, and mentions a people called Turchi, but
whether or not he has Turks in mind would be hard to say.
As we have it, the Cosmography cites both the Ethicus
and the Alchimus to whom Roger Bacon referred. Indeed,
our treatise does not pretend to be the original work of Ae-
* Steele, Opera hactenus inedita,
1905, Fasc. I, pp. 1-2.
*CUL 213, 14th century, fols.
IO3V-14, "Qui hunc librum legit
intelligat Ethicum philosophum
non omnia dixisse que hie scrip-
ta sunt, set Solinus (so James, but
Jeronimus in d'Avezac, p. 237) qui
eum transtulit sententias veritati
consonas ex libro eiusdem ex-
cerpsit et easdem testimonias
scripture nostre confirmavit. Non
enim erat iste philosophus Chris-
tianus sed Ethnicus»et professions
Achademicus."
XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 603
thicus, which it repeatedly cites, but is apparently the work
of some epitomizer or abbreviator who intersperses remarks
and comments of his own, and, according to one manuscript,
makes the statements of Aethicus conform to Christian
Scripture. From the volumes of the original work he makes
only a few excerpts, professing to omit what is unheard of
or unknown or seems too formidable, and including only
with hesitancy a few bits concerning unknown races on the
testimony of hearsay. The enigmas of Aethicus and other
philosophers often give our abbreviator pause, and he re-
gards as incredible the story of Aethicus that the Amazons
nurse young minotaurs and centaurs who fight for them in
return. Aethicus also tells of the wonderful armor of the
Amazons which they treat with bitumen and the blood of
their own offspring. In Crete Aethicus found herbs un-
known in other lands which ward off famine. Very beau-
tiful gems are mentioned, including those extracted from
the brains of immense dragons and basilisks, but little is said
of their virtues, occult or otherwise. Indeed, the amount
either of specific information or specific misinformation in
the book is very scanty. It deals largely in uncouth rhet-
oric, glittering generalities, and obscure allusion anent the
wanderings of Aethicus over the face of the earth and the
strange marvels which he encountered in distant lands. He
is described as well versed in astrology and as reproving
the astrologers of Scythia( ?) and Mantua ( ?), and one pas-
sage vaguely speaks of the stars as signs of the present and
future; but otherwise the abbreviator gives little evidence
of knowledge of the subject, although Roger Bacon ^ cited
Ethicus Astronomiciis in Cosmographia as one of his au-
thorities when discussing the question of Jesus Christ's
nativity and its relation to the stars, and although Pico della
Mirandola ranked the Cosmography as one of the most ab-
surd of astrological works. ^ As for magic, in one passage
malefici and magi are censured along with idolaters, and the
* Bridges I, 267-8. * Cited by d'Avezac, pp. 257 and 267.
6o4
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Geo-
Ponica.
Magic and
astrology
therein.
author presently speaks of vain characters and supersti-
tious doctrines. But elsewhere a magician {Pirronius
magus) is named as the inventor of ships and discoverer of
purple. On the whole, in its loose and hazy way the Cos-
mography not only is romantic and religious enough to ap-
peal to medieval readers, it also is of a character to offer en-
couragement, if not data, to a later and more detailed in-
terest in alchemy, occult virtues, astrology, and magic.
Upon the subject of agriculture in the early middle ages
we have the collection known as the Geoponica. It properly
belongs to Byzantine literature and perhaps had little direct
influence upon western Europe. Nevertheless at least a por-
tion of it upon vineyards was translated into Latin by Bur-
gundio of Pisa in the twelfth century.^ In any case as the
"only formal treatise on Greek agriculture" extant it is a
rather important historical source; it also is a good speci-
men of early medieval compilations from classical works;
and in its inclusion of superstitious and magical details it
is probably roughly representative of the period, whether
in east or west. In the form which we now possess it was
published about 950 A. D. and dedicated to the Byzantine
emperor, Constantine VII or Porphyrygennetos. But this
issue was perhaps little more than an abbreviated revision
of the work of Cassianus Bassus of the sixth century, whose
introductory words to his son are still given at the begin-
ning of the seventh book. Cassianus is believed in his turn
to have been especially indebted to two fourth century
writers, Vindanius Anatolius of Beirut, whose agricultural
teaching was of a sober and rational sort, and Didymus of
Alexandria, who was more given to superstition and magic.^
Nevertheless, magic and astrology find no place in the
index to the most recent edition of the work.^ A survey,
however, of the text itself reveals some indications of the
'Vienna 2272, i^ih. century, fol. siani Bassi scholastici de re rus-
92, De vindemiis a Burgundione tica eclogae, Lipsiae, Teubner,
translatus : Pars Geoponicorum. 1895. PW criticizes this edition as
^ Such is the view set forth in "Icidcr vollig verfehlten." Its
PW Geoponica. preface lists the earlier editions.
' H. Beckh, Geoponica sive Cas-
XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 605
presence of both. The very first of its twenty books deals
v^ith astrological prediction of the w^eather and cites some
spurious w^ork or works by Zoroaster a great deal. In later
books, too, Zoroaster is sometimes cited for semi-astrologi-
cal advice, such as guarding wine jars against sun or moon-
beams when opening them, or testing seed by exposing it to
the rays of the dog-star.^ Zoroaster is also used as an au-
thority on the sympathy and antipathy existing between
natural objects. ^ Damigeron and Democritus are other
names cited which are suggestive of the occult and magical.^
There are not, however, many cases of extreme superstition
in the Geoponica. Something is said of the marvelous prop-
erties of gems, of the effect of a hyena's shadow falling upon
a dog by moonlight, and how dogs will not attack a person
who holds a hyena's tongue in his hand.^ Incantations of a
sort are occasionally recommended.^ To keep wine from
turning sour one is directed to write the divine words,
"Taste and see that the Lord is good" upon the wine-jar.^
Another passage advises a person who finds himself in
a place full of fleas to cry, "Ouch ! Ouch !" and then they will
not bite him.'^
Perhaps the chief ancient work on pharmacology was Dioscor-
the De materia medica or Ilept vkq^ iaTpLKrjs of Pedanius ^ ^^*
Dioscorides of Anazarba. Galen, as we have seen, found
things to criticize in it but nevertheless made great use of
it in his own work on medicinal simples. Dioscorides of
course had his previous sources but seems to have surpassed
them in fulness and orderliness of arrangement. Of the
man himself his preface tells us all that we know, and his
dedication shows that he probably wrote during the reign
of Nero. He was born in Cilicia near Tarsus, he had trav-
eled in many lands as a soldier, and his work was based
^Geoponica, VII, 5; II, 15. zig, 1893, pp. 463-576, drew from
'VII, 11; XV, I. the Geoponica 13 out of his total
'I, 12; VII, 13; etc. of 24s instances of incantations
* XV, I. from Greek and Latin literature.
" R. Heim, Incantamenta magica " VII, 14.
graeca latina, in Jahrb. f. class. ' XIII, 15.
Philologie, Suppl. Bd. 19, Leip-
6o6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Textual
history of
the De
materia
medico.
Altera-
tions
made in
the Greek
text.
partly upon personal observation and experience as well as
previous books.
Dioscorides' influence continued and even increased as
time went on; but if future centuries were deeply influenced
by his book, it was also seriously affected by them, for it
seems to have been subjected to a long series of repeated
abbreviations and omissions, additions and interpolations,
changes in form and in order. Thus all sorts of versions
of what was called Dioscorides came into being, but which in
some cases can hardly be regarded as more than compila-
tions from all the favorite pharmacies of the time, in which
the genuine Dioscorides constituted but a remnant or a core.
Thus most early printed editions of what purports to be the
De materia medica must be handled with great caution, and
it may perhaps be doubted if even the latest effort of Max
Wellmann to recover the original Greek text has been en-
tirely successful.^ Of the five books regarded as genuine
and original the first dealt with spices, salves, and oils ; the
second, with parts of animals and animal products like milk
and honey, with grains, vegetables, and pot-herbs. Other
plants and roots were considered in the third and fourth
books, while the last dealt with wines and minerals.^
Whether we now possess Dioscorides' original text or
not, at any rate the oldest Greek manuscripts do not contain
it, but only that portion dealing with herbs. Moreover, this
has been rearranged in alphabetical order and has been
adapted to fit a set of pictures of plants which were perhaps
taken over from the work of Crateuas, one of Dioscorides'
chief sources. Such is the famous early sixth century il-
luminated manuscript made for Juliana Anicia, daughter of
the emperor Olybrius (472 A. D.) and wife of the consul
*The first two volumes, pub-
lished at Berlin in 1907, 1906, cov-
ered the first four of the five genu-
ine books. A previous attempt
was K. Sprengel's edition in vols.
25-26 of C. J. Kiihn's Medici
Graeci, Leipzig, 1829. On the tex-
tual history and jprohlems see
further Wellman's articles :
"Dioskurides" in Pauly-Wissowa,
and in Hermes, XXXIII, (1898)
36off.
' Jl(pl ^oravcbv, rrepl fo"^'' iravTolosv,
irtpl iravToicov eXalcou, Trepl v\i}s Sep-
8poov, irepl o'lvuv Kal 'KWcav, is another
order suggested.
XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE
607
Areobindus (about 512 A. D.).^ The alphabetical re-
arrangement of the Greek text of Dioscorides was made at
some time between Galen and Oribasius, who cites from it
in the fourth century. Not only were the five books of the
genuine De materia niedica interpolated, but additional
spurious books were added "On Harmful Drugs" and "On
Poisons." ^ The work on medicinal simples attributed to
Dioscorides is extant in no manuscript earlier than the four-
teenth century and some versions of it are much more inter-
polated than others. As Galen does not cite it while Ori-
basius and Aetius do use it, it is assumed that it was com-
*The MS is said by Singer
(1921) 60, to have now been
removed from Vienna to St.
Mark's Library at Venice; it
was procured from Constantinople
in 155s for the future Emperor
MaximiHan II (1564-1576). A
photographic copy was published
in 1906 in the Leiden Collection,
Codices Graeci et Latini, by A. W.
Sijthoff, with an introduction by
A. von Premerstein, C. Wessely,
and J. Mantuani (C. Wessely,
Codex Anciae lulianae, etc., 1906).
See also A. v. Premerstein in the
Austrian Jahrbuch (1903) XXIV,
I05ff.
I have examined the fac-simile
of this MS and found the large
but faded and partially obliterated
illuminations which precede the
text rather disappointing after
having read the description of
them in Dalton's Byzantine Art,
(1911) 460-61, which, however,
I presume is accurate and so re-
produce here. These large illumi-
nations include a portrait of Ju-
liana Anicia, an ornamental pea-
cock with tail spread, groups of
doctors engaged in medical dis-
cussions, and Dioscorides himself
seated writing, and again seated
on a folding stool receiving the
herb marvdragora (which, of
course, was a medieval favorite)
from a female figure personify-
ing Discovery (Euprjcris), "while in
the foreground a dog dies in
agony," presumably from the
fatal efifects of the herb. There
are rough reproductions of this
last picture in Woltmann and
Woermann, History of Painting,
I, 192-3, and Singer (1921) ,62.
When the text proper begins the
illuminations are confined to
medicinal plants.
Other early Greek manuscripts
are the Codex Neapolitanns, for-
merly at Vienna, now at St.
Mark's, Venice, an eighth cen-
tury palimpsest from Bobbio, and
a Paris codex, (BN Greek 2179)
of the ninth century. An Arabic
translation from the Greek seems
to have been made about 850; a
century later the Byzantine em-
peror sent a Greek manuscript of
Dioscorides to the caliph in Spain.
For the full text of the De ma-
teria medica we are dependent on
MSS of the nth, 12th, 13th and
later centuries.
^Ilepi drjXrjTTipLwP <f>apfiaKuv and
irepl io^b\oiv, edited by Sprengel
in Kiihn (1830), XXVI, as was
the TLtpi e\nropl(TTO)v air\€iv re /cat avv-
6eT(x)V (jjapfxaKuv. The Ilepi 4>app.aKCi3V
i/jLireipias. ("Experimental Phar-
macy"), of which a Latin version,
Alpliabctum empiricum, sive Dios-
coridis et Stcphani AtLeniensis
. . . de remediis expertis, was
edited by C. Wolf, Zurich, 1581, is
an alphabetical arrangement by
diseases ascribed to Dioscorides
and Stephen of Athens (and other
writers).
6o8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Dioscor-
ides little
known to
Latins be-
fore the
middle
ages.
Partial
versions
in Latin.
posed in the third or early fourth century with a forged ded-
ication to a contemporary of Dioscorides, but that it made
considerable use of the genuine Dioscorides, to which it bore
much the same relation as the Medicina Plinii did to the
Historia Naturalis. Later, however, some Byzantine com-
piler of the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth century intro-
duced a great deal of new material from Galen's genuine
and spurious works in that field and from John of Damas-
cus.^
What more especially concern us are the medieval Latin
versions of Dioscorides. As a matter of fact, although the
De materia medica was from the start highly regarded and
widely used by Greek physicians, it seems to have been lit-
tle known to Latin writers until the verge of the medieval
period. Gargilius Martialis, a Roman writer on agricul-
ture in the third century of our era, was the only old Latin
author to cite Dioscorides, which he did, however, no less
than eighteen times in his Medicinae ex olerihiis et pomis.
This has led to the suggestion that he was perhaps responsi-
ble for the first Latin translation or version of Dioscorides ;
but it seems unlikely that the work had been put into Latin
as early as his time, since it is not cited again by a Latin
writer until the sixth century and is not used by such medi-
cal authors as Serenus Sammonicus, Cassius Felix, Theo-
dorus Priscianus, and Marcellus Empiricus.
But at least a portion of Dioscorides seems to have been
translated into Latin by the time of Cassiodorus, who, writ-
ing in the first half of the sixth century, states that those
who cannot read Greek may consult the Herbarium Diosco-
ridis.^ This naturally suggests a version limited to medic-
inal plants like the early Greek text in the manuscript of
Juliana Anicia. This impression is confirmed by the preface
to some early Latin version of Dioscorides, which Rose dis-
covered in one of the manuscripts of the Herbarium of
* Max Wellmann, Die Schrift
des Dioskurides Uepl airXchp
<f>apiJ.6.Kui>, 1914, and col. 1140 of
his article "Dioskurides" in Pauly-
Wissowa.
'^De inst. div. lit. cap. 31.
XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE
609
Apiileius in the British Museum.^ This preface implies that
the translation which it introduced was limited to the bo-
tanical books of Dioscorides and states that it was accom-
panied by illustrations of herbs.
Based upon this partial translation rather than identical De herbis
with it is believed to have been the De herbis femininis,^ jemimms.
which was ascribed to Dioscorides in the middle ages and
which often accompanies the Herbarium of the Pseudo-Apu-
leius in the manuscripts. In this case the herbs of the
Pseudo-Apuleius are sometimes called masculine, but as a
matter of fact only a minority of those in the Pseudo-
Dioscorides seem to be distinctly feminine. Of seventy-one
plants Kaestner classed fifteen or sixteen as feminine, while
in only thirty cases are they prescribed for female com-
plaints. Rose dated this work before Isidore of Seville by
whom he believed it was used.^ It seems to combine a free
Latin translation of excerpts from the genuine Dioscorides
with numerous additions from other sources.
Besides such abbreviated and interpolated Latin versions The fuller
or perversions of Dioscorides, there was also in existence in versions.
the early middle ages a literal translation of all five books
* V. Rose in Hermes VIII, 38A.
Harleian 4986, fol. 44V, ". . .
marcelline libellum botanicon ex
dioscoridis libris in latinum ser-
monem conversum in quo depicte
sunt herbarum figure ad te
misi . . ."
^ Heinrich Kaetsner, Kritisches
und Exegctisches zti Pseudo-
Dioskorides de herbis femininis,
Regensburg, 1896; text in Hermes
XXXI (1896) 578-636. Singer
(1921) 68, gives as the earhest
MS, Rome Barberini IX, 29, of 9th
century. Some other MSS are:
BN 12995, 9th century; Addi-
tional 8928, nth century, fol. 62V-;
Ashmole 1431, end of nth century,
fols. 31V-43, "Incipit liber Dios-
coridis ex herbis f eminis" ; Sloane
1975, I2th or early 13th century,
fols. 49V-73; Harleian 1585, 12th
century, fol. 79- ; Harleian 5294,
I2th century; Turin K-IV-3, 12th
century, #5, "Incipit liber dios-
coridis medicine ex herbis femi-
ninis numero LXXI . . / . . Liber
medicine dioscoridis de herbis
femininis et masculinis explicit
feliciter."
In Vienna 5371, 15th century,
fols._i2iv-i24v, is a briefer Latin
treatise ascribed to Dioscordes,
which begins with the herb aris-
tologia and mentions silk (seri-
cum) at its close. I have not
seen the MS but from the title,
Quid pro quo, and the fact that
the writer dedicates it to his uncle,
one might fancy that it was a
work written by Adelard of
Bath's nephew in return for the
Natural Questions of his uncle.
(See below, chapter 36).
^Hermes VIII, 38, comparing
Etymologies XVII, 93, with cap.
30 of the De herbis femininis.
6io
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Peter of
Abano's
account
of the
medieval
versions.
of the De materia me die a. It is full of Latinisms and bar-
barisms but otherwise reproduces the complete and genuine
Dioscorides, or is supposed to do so. Rose and Wellmann ^
say that it was current from the sixth century on, and the
few extant manuscripts of it date from the early medieval
period.^ One reason for this seems to be that this literal
translation was replaced by another Latin version which in
a Bamberg manuscript ^ is ascribed to Constantinus Afri-
canus, the medical translator and writer of the eleventh cen-
tury. In this version the items are arranged alphabetically,
and additions are embodied from other sources. This ver-
sion apparently became much better known than the earlier
literal translation and has been called "the most widely dis-
seminated handbook of pharmacy of the whole later middle
ages." * It is stated by Rose to be identical with the "Dyas-
corides," upon which Peter of Abano lectured and com-
mented about 1300 and which was printed at CoUe in 1478
and again at Lyons in 1512.^
Peter of Abano tells us in his preface ^ that in his
time there were current two different versions, although
both had the same preface. One of these was in five books
with a great many short chapters, so short in fact that often
the treatment of a single thing was scattered over several
chapters. This version was rare in Latin. The other ver-
sion contained fewer but longer chapters with material added
from Galen, Pliny, and other writers. This version was
^ Anecdota graeca et graeco-
latina, Berlin, 1864, II, 115 and
119; Hermes VIII, 38; Wellmann
(1906), p. xxi.
*BN 9332, 8th century; CLM
337. 9-ioth century from Monte
Cassino ; ed. T. M. Auracher et
H. Stadler, in Rom. Forsch. I,
49-105; X, 181-247 and 368-446;
XI, 1-121 ; XII, 161-243.
«Cod. Bam. L-III-9.
* PW "Dioskurides." A fairly
early MS is CU Jesus 44, I2-I3th
century, fols. I7-I45r, "diascorides
per modum alphabeti de virtutibus
herbarum et compositione ole-
rum." I have not seen it but, if
correctly dated, it and Bologna
University Library 378, 12th cen-
tury, which is said to differ from
the printed editions, are too early
to be Peter of Abano's version.
^Explicit dyascorides quern
petrus paduanensis legendo co-
rexit et exponendo quae utiliora
sunt in luccm deduxit, Colle,
1478. Dioscorides digestus al-
phabctico ordine odditis annota-
tiunculis brevihus et tractatu
aquarum, Lugduni, 15 12. And see
Chap. 70, Appendix II.
®I have read it in BN 6820,
fol. ir, as well as in the 1478 edi-
tion.
XXVI
PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE
6ii
arranged alphabetically. It was this version which Aggre-
gator ^ had followed and imitated, but sometimes there were
chapters in either "Dyascorides" which were missing in
Aggregator. Peter had also seen an alphabetical version of
Dioscorides in Greek.
There seems also to have been current, at least in the
later middle ages, a Pseudo-Dioscorides on stones, drawn
in part, like the Feminine Herbs, from the genuine De ma-
teria medica, whose discussion of the virtues of stones is
incredible enough.^ This Dioscorides on Stones is cited by
Arnold of Saxony and Bartholomew of England in the
thirteenth century, and portions at least of the work are ex-
tant in manuscripts at Erfurt and Montpellier.^ A work
on physical ligatures is ascribed to Dioscorides in a late
manuscript,^ but is really a collection of items from various
authors since Dioscorides on the marvelous virtues of ani-
mals, herbs, and stones, especially when bound on the body,
held in the hand, or worn around the neck.
The history of the medieval versions of Dioscorides,
even in the brief and incomplete outline given here, is in-
structive, showing us in general the vicissitudes to which
the transmission of the text of any ancient author may have
been subjected, but more especially proving that the mid-
dle ages, whether Latin or Byzantine, were ready to take
great liberties with ancient authorities and to adapt them
to their own taste and requirements. And indeed, why
should they not rearrange and make additions to their
* A work by Serapion which
Simon Cordo of Genoa translated
from Arabic into Latin with the
help of Abraham, a Jew of Tor-
tosa. Serapion states at the be-
ginning that his work is a com-
bination of Dioscorides and of the
work of Galen on medicinal
simples. Aggregator was printed
in 1479, Liber Scrapionis ag-
gregatus in medicinis simplici-
bus. Translatio Sytnonis lanucn-
sis interprete Abraani iudco tor-
tiiosiensi de, arabico in latinum.
^ Ruska (1912), p. 5, says that
Pseudo-
Dioscor-
ides on
stones.
Conclu-
sions
from the
textual
history of
Dioscor-
ides.
Dioscorides, V, 84-133, among
other things describes "eine ganze
Reihe von hochst zweifelhaften
Steinen mit unglaublichen Wir-
kungen die in den Arabischen
Arzneimittelverzeichnissen und
Steinbiichern niederkehren."
^Amplon. Folio 41, fols. 36-7;
Montpellier 277, caps. 46-67 of the
treatise entitled, Liber aristotelis
de lapidibus preciosis secundum
verba sapicntium antiquorum.
* Sloane 3848, 17th century, fols.
36-40.
6l2
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Macer
on herbs;
its great
currency.
Problem
of date
and
author
Dioscorides? After all it was a compilation to begin with.
But the case of Dioscorides has also taught us that we do
not have to wait until the medieval period for the appear-
ance of new versions of an ancient author.
With the possible exception of the Herbarium of the
Pseudo-Apuleius, probably the best known single and dis-
tinct treatment of the virtues of herbs produced during the
middle ages was the poem De virihiis herbarum.' which cir-
culated under the name of Macer Floridus.^ It was often
cited by the medieval encyclopedists and other writers on
nature and medicine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. ^
It is found in an Anglo-Saxon version ^ and was even trans-
lated into Danish in the early thirteenth century.^ Manu-
scripts of it are very numerous ^ and there are many early
printed editions.^ Even as recently as the first half of the
nineteenth century a historian of medicine and natural sci-
ence, in the preface of his edition of Macer, stated as one
argument for the modern study of medieval medicine that
much might be learned from writings of that period con-
cerning the virtues of herbs.'^
The poem was certainly not written by the classical poet,
Aemilius Macer, who was a friend of Vergil and Ovid, and
whose descriptions of plants, birds, and reptiles are cited
by Pliny in his Natural History and also preserved in some
extracts by the grammarians. Proof of this is that our
* Macer Floridus de viribus her-
barum una cum Walafridi Stra-
bonis, Othonis Creinonensis et
loannis Folcs carminibus similis
argumcnti, ed. Ludovicus Chou-
lant, 1832.
^ V. Rose himself corrected
{Hermes, VIII, 330-1) the strange
statement which he had made
{Hermes, VIII, 63) that the
name "Macer" is not found in
connection with this work until
MSS of the 14th and 15th centu-
ries. Both the treatise and the
name are frequent in the earlier
MSS.
'Cotton, Vitellius C, III.
* The Dane, Harpestreng, who
died in 1244, translated and com-
mented upon the poem ; published
by Christian Molbech, Copenha-
gen, 1826.
" There are a large number in
the MSS collections of the Brit-
ish Museum alone. Some said to
be of the 12th century are Har-
leian 4346, and at Erfurt Amplon.
Octavo 62a and 62b.
° See the British Museum cata-
logue of printed books. I have
used besides Choulant's text of
1832 an illustrated octavo edition
probably of 1489. The poem also
appears in medical collections
such as Medici antiqui omncs.
Aldus, Venice, 1547, fols. 223-46.
' Choulant (1832) Preface.
XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 613
poem cites Pliny; in fact, it cites him more frequently than
any other author. It also cites Galen six times, Dioscorides
four, and as late an author as Oribasius twice.^ But Ori-
basius is not the latest author cited since Walafrid Strabo
is also used.^ Strabo was born about 806, became abbot of
Reichenau in 842, and died in 849. In his Hortulus, a poem
dedicated to Grimoald, the abbot of St. Gall, he described
twenty-three herbs in 444 hexameters.^ Indeed Stadler holds
that the Pseudo-Macer uses the De gradibus of Constantinus
Africanus who did not die until 1087.* The true author of
our poem ascribed to Macer is said on the authority of cer-
tain manuscripts to have been an Odo of Meung on the
Loire, apparently the same town as the birthplace of Jean
Clopinel or de Meun, the learned author of the latter por-
tion of The Romance of the Rose. Choulant, however, did
not regard this as sufficiently proved, and Stadler has re-
cently noted that some manuscripts ascribe the poem to a
physician, Odo of Verona; and others to the Cistercian, Odo
of Morimont, who died in 1161.^ In any case, unless
the mentions of Strabo are later interpolations, the author
must be regarded as post-Carolingian, while he cannot be
later than the eleventh century in view of a remark of
Sigebertus Gemblacensis in 1112,^ the Anglo-Saxon ver-
sion, the many twelfth century manuscripts, and the fre-
quent use of his poem in the Regimen Salernitaniim\ Al-
though Macer seems a pseudonym to begin with, the original
poem, consisting of 2269 lines in which yy herbs are dis-
cussed, is sometimes accompanied by additional lines re-
garded as spurious.^
^Choulant (1832) Prolegomena librum. de viribus herbarum," —
ad Macrum, p. 14. Stadler (1909), 65.
^ See the description of Ligus- ' It was, however, a good deal
ticuni. lines 900-6. subject to later interpolation.
^ Often printed: ed. F. A. Reuss, 'Choulant (1832) adds as Mac-
W-iirzburg, 1834; in Migne PL ri spuria 487 lines concerning
114, 1 1 19-30. twenty herbs.
*H. Stadler, Die Quellcn dcs In Vienna 3207, 15th century,
Macrr F/on(/M.y, in Sudhoff (1909). fols. 1-50, Macer Floridus, De
* Stadler, op. cit.; Gioulant viribus herbarum ; fols. SO-52,
(1832), p. 4. _ _ Pseudo-Macer, De animalibus et
* "Macer scripsit metrico stilo lignis.
6i4
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Virtues
ascribed
to herbs.
Our poet does not appear to have much of his own to
offer on the subject of the virtues of herbs. When he does
not cite his authority by name, he usually qualifies the state-
ment made by a vaguer "they say" or "it is said." He does
not connect certain herbs with certain stars or otherwise
introduce anything that can be called astrological. He re-
peats Pliny's statement of the powers ascribed to vervain by
the magi, such as to gain one's desires, win the friendship of
the powerful, and dispel disease and fever. Pliny had spoken
of the magi as "raving about this herb" ; our poet says :
"Although potent Nature can grant such virtues,
Yet they really seem to us idle old-wives' tales." ■*■
Nevertheless he himself about fifteen lines before had said
of the vervain:
"If, holding this herb in the hand, you ask the patient,
'Say, brother, how are you?' and the patient answers, 'Well,'
He will live; but if he says '111,' there is no hope of safety." ^
Our poet not only thus associates with herbs the virtue of
divination, but is guilty of sympathetic magic when he be-
lieves that the ancients learned by experience that Dragontea
or snake-weed dispels poisons, wards off snakes, and is good
for snake-bite from observing the similarity between the
spotted rind of the herb and the skin of a snake. ^ Odo or
Macer repeats Galen's story of curing an epileptic boy by
suspending a root of peony about his neck,'* and later as-
serts the same virtue for the herb pyrethrum.^ Even more
magical is the ceremony for curing toothache which he takes
from Pliny and which consists in digging up the herb 5*?-
necion without use of iron, touching the aching tooth with it
three times, and then replacing the plant in the place where
it came from so that it will grow again. ^ Pliny is also cited
* Lines 1901-2, Quae, quamvis sponderit eger, Vivet, si vera
natura potens concedere posset male, spes est nulla salutis.
Vana tamen nobis et anilia iure ^ Herb 54. lines 1728-.
videntur. * Herb 49, lines 1617-27.
' Lines 1881-3, Hanc herham " Herb 67, lines 2095-.
gestando manu si queris ab egro 'Herb 51, lines 1685-9.
Die frater quid agis? bene si re-
XXVI PSEUDO-LITERATURE IN SCIENCE 615
concerning the swallow's restoring the sight of its young by
swallow-wort.^ Our poet also repeats such beliefs as that
the herb Buglossa preserves the memory,- or that the smoke
of Aristochia dispels demons and exhilarates infants.^ If
the hives are anointed with the juice of the herb Barrocus,
the bees will not desert them ; while carrying that plant with
one is a protection against the stings of bees, wasps, and
spiders.^ Among the virtues most frequently attributed to
herbs are expelling or killing worms, curing pestiferous
bites or poisons, and provoking urine or vomiting. On the
whole, "Macer" contains only a moderate amount of super-
stition, although rather more proportionally than Walafrid
Strabo.
Although Odo or Macer seems to make no original con- Experi-
tribution to botany, cites authorities frequently, and speaks ^Macer.
often of the ancients or rnen of old, he also at least once
cites "experts" ^ and we have also seen his belief that the
ancients had tested the virtues of plants by experience. This
rather slight experimental character of the work is further
emphasized in some manuscripts of it, where the title is
"Experiments of Macer" and the matter seems to have
been re-arranged under diseases instead of by herbs. ^
' Herb 52. 106-17, "Experimenta Macri. Ad
^ Herb 34, lines 1 135-8. dolorem capitis. Accipe balsamum
^ Herb 41, lines 1421-2. et instilla .../... adde sucum
■* Herb 50, lines 1641-63. celidonie et superpone vulneri-
* Herb 69, Cyminum, lines 2118- bus."
9, "Hoc orthopnoicis miram praes- Arundel 295, 14th century, fols.
tare medelam Experti dicunt cum 222-33, "Experimenta Macri col-
pusce saepius haustum." lecta sub certis capitulis a Gote-
' Vienna 2532, 12th century, fols. f rido."
CHAPTER XXVII
OTHER EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING I
BOETHIUS, ISIDORE, BEDE, GREGORY THE GREAT
Aridity of early medieval learning — Historic importance of The Con-
solation of Philosophy — Medieval reading — Influence of the w^orks of
Boethius — His relation to antiquity and middle ages — Attitude to the
stars — Fate and free vi^ill — Music of the stars and universe — Isidore
of Seville — Method of the Etymologies — Its sources — iSlatural marvels
"-Isidore is rather less hospitable to superstition than Pliny — Portents
—Words and numbers — History of magic — Definition of magic — Future
influence of Isidore's account of magic — Attitude to astrology — In the
De natura rerum — Bede's scanty science — Bede's De natura rerum —
Divination by thunder — Riddles of Aldhelm — Gregory's Dialogues —
Signs and wonders wrought by saints — More monkish miracles — A
monastic snake-charmer — Basilius the magician — A demon salad — In-
cantations in Old Irish — The Fili.
The erudite fortitude of students of the Merovingian
period commands our admiration, but sometimes inclines us
to wonder whether anyone without a somewhat dry-as-dust
constitution could penetrate far or tarry long in the desert
of early medieval Latin learning without perishing of intel-
lectual thirst. As a rule the writings of the time show no
originality whatever, and least of all any scientific investi-
gation; they are of value merely as an indication of what
past books men still read and what parts of past science
they still possessed some interest in. Under the same cate-
gory of condemnation may be placed most of the Carolingian
period so far as our investigation is concerned. We shall
therefore traverse rapidly this period of sparse scientific
productivity and shall be doing it ample justice, if from its
meager list of writers we select for consideration Boethius
of Italy at the opening of the sixth century and Gregory
the Great at its close, Isidore of Spain at the opening of the
6l6
CHAP. XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING
617
seventh century, and Bede in England at the beginning of
the eighth century, with some brief allusion to the riddles
of Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, and to Old Irish litera-
ture. We should gain little or nothing by adding to the list
Alcuin at the close of the eighth century and Rabanus Mau-
rus in the ninth century, although it may be noted nov^ that
later medieval writers cite Rabanus for statements which I
have failed to find in his printed works. In general it may
be said that the writers whom we shall consider are those
during the period who are most cited by the later medieval
authors.
Of the distinguished family and political career of Boe-
thius who lived from about 480 to 524 A. D., and his final
exile, imprisonment, and execution by Theodoric the East
Goth, we need scarcely speak here. Our concern is with his
little book. The Consolation of Philosophy, one of those
memorable writings which, like The City of God of Augus-
tine, stand out as historical landmarks and seem to have
been written on the right subject by the right man at the
most dramatic moment. The timely appearance of such
works, produced in both these cases not under the stimulus
of triumphant victory but the sting of bitter defeat, is never-
theless perhaps less surprising than is their subsequent pres-
ervation and enormous influence. We often are alternately
amused and amazed by the mistakes concerning historical
and chronological detail found in medieval writers. Yet
medieval readers showed considerable appreciation of the
course of history, of its fundamental tendencies, and of its
crucial moments by the works which they included in their
meager libraries.
But were medieval libraries as meager as we are wont to
assume? Bede and Alcuin both tell of the existence of
sizeable libraries in England,^ and Cassiodorus urged those
monks whose duty it was to tend the sick to read a number
of standard medical works.^ I sometimes wonder if too
Historic
impor-
tance of
The Con-
solation
of Phi-
losophy.
Medieval
reading.
*R. L. Poole, Medieval Thought,i8S4, pp. 19, 21.
*Migne, PL 70, 1146.
6i8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
much attention has not been given to medieval writing and
too Httle to medieval reading, of which so much medieval
writing, in Latin at least, is little more than a reflection. We
get their image, faint perhaps and partial ; but they had the
real object. It has been assumed by some modern scholars
that medieval writers had usually not read the works, es-
pecially of classical antiquity, which they profess to cite
and quote, but relied largely upon anthologies and florilegia.
In the case of various later medieval authors we shall have
occasion to discuss this question further. For the present
I may say that in going through the catalogues of collec-
tions of medieval manuscripts I have noticed few florilegia
or anthologies from the classics in medieval Latin manu-
scripts,— perhaps Byzantine ones from Greek literature are
more common — and few indeed compared to the number of
manuscripts of the old Latin writers themselves. We owe
the very preservation of the Latin classics to medieval
scribes who copied them in the ninth and tenth centuries;
why deny that they read them ? Latin florilegia of any sort
do not exist in impressive numbers, but other kinds are as
often met with as are those from classic poets or prose
writers, for instance, selections from the church fathers
themselves. On the whole, the impression I have received
is that those authors included in florilegia, commonplace
books, and other manuscripts made up of miscellaneous ex-
tracts, were likewise the authors most read in toto. I am
therefore inclined to regard the florilegia as a proof that the
authors included were read rather than that they were not.
But from extant Latin manuscripts one gets the impression
that the whole matter of florilegia is of very slight impor-
tance, and that the theory hitherto based upon them is a
survival of the prejudice of the classical renaissance against
"the dark ages."
At any rate, however scanty medieval libraries may
have been, they were apt to include a copy of The Consola-
tion of Philosophy, and however little read some of their
volumes may have been, its pages were certainly well
XXVII
EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING
619
thumbed. Lists of its commentators, translators, and imi-
tators, and other indications of its vast medieval influence
may be found in Peiper's edition.^ Other writings of Boe-
thius were also well known in the middle ages and increased
his reputation then. His translations and commentaries
upon the Aristotelian logical treatises ^ are of course of great
importance in the history of medieval scholasticism. His
translations and adaptations of Greek treatises in arithme-
tic, geometry, and music occupy a similar place in the his-
tory of medieval mathematical studies.^ Indeed, his treatise
on music is said to have "continued to be the staple requisite
for the musical degree at Oxford until far into the eight-
eenth century." ^ The work on the Trinity and some other
theological tracts, attributed to Boethius by Cassiodorus and
through the middle ages, are now again accepted as genuine
by modem scholars and place Boethius' Christianity beyond
question.^
Boethius has often been regarded as a last representative His rela-
of Roman statesmanship and of classical civilization. His antiquity
defense of Roman provincials against the greed of the Goths, ^1^
his stand even unto death against Theodoric on behalf of the ages,
rights of the Roman senate and people, his preservation
through translation of the learned treatises of expiring an-
^ Anicii Manlii Severini Boetii
Philosophiae Consolationis Libri
quinque, ed. R. Peiper, Lipsiae,
1871, pp. xxxix-xlvi, li-lxvii. See
also Manitius (1911), pp. 33-5.
It was by seeking comfort in
The Consolation of P-hitosophy
after the death of Beatrice that
Dante was led into a new world
of literature, science, and phi-
losophy, as he tells us in his Con-
vivio; cited by Orr (1913), p. i.
^Manitius (1911), pp. 29-32.
''Ibid., 26-8. At the time I
went through the various cata-
logues of MSS in the British Mu-
seum item by item it was not my
intention to include Boethius in
this investigation, and I am there-
fore unable to say whether the
Museum has MSS which may
throw further light upon the
problems connected with the
mathematical treatises ascribed to
Boethius. Manitius mentions no
English MSS in this connection,
but there are likely to be some at
London, Oxford, or Cambridge.
* Boethius' Consolation of Phil-
osophy, translated from the Latin
by George Colville, 1556; ed. with
Introduction by E. B. Box, Lon-
don, 1897, p. xviii.
* Manitius (1911) pp. 35-6;
Usener, Anccdota Holdcri, Bonn,
1877, pp. 48-59; E. K. Rand, Der
dent Boethius sugcschriebene
Traktat De fide catholica, 1901.
The De fide catholica, however,
is not mentioned by Cassiodo-
rus and is regarded as spurious.
620 MAGIC 'AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
tiquity, and the almost classical Latin style and numerous
allusions to pagan mythology of The Consolation of Phi-
losophy:— all these combine to support this view. But the
middle ages also made Boethius their own, and several
points may be noted in which The Consolation of Philosophy
in particular foreshadowed their attitude and profoundly in-
fluenced them. Both a Christian and a classicist, both a
theologian and a philosopher, Boethius set a standard which
subsequent thought was to follow for a long time. The
very form of his work, a dialogue part in prose and part in
verse, remained a medieval favorite. And the fact that this
sixth century author of a work on the Trinity consoled his
last hours with a work in which Christ and the Trinity are
not mentioned, but where Phoebus is often named and where
Philosophy is the author's sole interlocutor : — this fact, com-
bined with Boethius' great medieval popularity, gave per-
petual license to those medieval writers who chose to dis-
cuss philosophy and theology as separate subjects and from
distinct points of view. The great medieval influence of
Aristotle and Plato, and in particular of the latter's Timaeus,
also is already manifest in The Consolation of Philosophy.
Aristotle, it is true, appears to be incorrectly credited by
Boethius with the assertion that the eye of the lynx can see
through solid objects,^ but this ascription of spurious state-
ments to the Stagirite also corresponds to the attribution of
entire spurious treatises to him later in the middle ages.
Of the ways in which The Cofisolation of Philosophy
influenced medieval thought that which is most germane to
our investigation is its attitude toward the stars and the
problem of fate and free will. The heavenly bodies are
apparently ever present in Boethius' thought in this work,
and especially in the poetical interludes he keeps mention-
ing Phoebus, the moon, the universe, the sky, and the starry
constellations. Per ardna ad astra was a true saying for
those last days in which he solaced his disgrace and pain
with philosophy. It is by contemplation of the heavens
^De consol. philos., Ill, 8, 21.
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 621
that he raises his thought to lofty philosophic reflection;
his mind may don swift wings and fly far above earthly
things
"Until it reaches starry mansions
And joins paths with Phoebus." ^
He loves to think of God as ruling the universe by perpetual
reason and certain order, as sowing stars in the sky, as bind-
ing the elements by number, as Himself immovable, yet re-
volving the spheres and decreeing natural events in a fixed
series.^ The attitude is like that of the Timaens and Aris-
totle's Metaphysics, closely associating astronomy and the-
ology, favorable to belief in astrology, in support of which
later scholastic writers cite Boethius.
We may further note the main points in Boethius' ar- Pate and
gument concerning fate and free will, providence and pre- ^^^^ ^'^^•
destination,^ which was often cited by later writers. He
declares that all generation and change and movement pro-
ceed from the divine mind or Providence,* while fate is the
regular arrangement inherent in movable objects by which
divine providence is realized.^ Fate may be exercised
through spirits, angelic or daemonic, through the soul or
through the aid of all nature or "by the celestial motion of
the stars." ® It is with the last that Boethius seems most in-
clined to identify fati series mohilis. "That series moves
sky and stars, harmonizes the elements one with another,
and transforms them from one to another." More than
that, "It constrains human fortunes in an indissoluble chain
of causes, which, since it starts from the decree of immov-
able Providence, must needs itself also be immutable." '^
Boethius, however, does not believe in a complete fatalism,
astrological or otherwise. He holds that nothing escapes
^ De consol. philos., IV, i. solet." To the ensuing argument
^ Ibid., III. 9, i; III, 12, 14; are devoted the sixth and seventh
III, 9, 10; III, 12, 99; II, 8, 13. chapters of Book IV and all of
'Ibid., IV, 6, 10, "In hac enim Book V.
de providentiae simplicitate, de * Ibid., IV, 6, 21.
fati serie, de repentinis casibus, ^ Ibid., IV, 6, 30.
de cognitione ac praedestinatione ^ Ibid., IV, 6, 48.
divina, de arbitrii libertate quaeri ' Ibid., IV, 6, yy.
622
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Music of
the stars
and uni-
verse.
divine providence, to which there is no distinction between
past, present, and future.^ As the human reason can con-
ceive universals, aUhough sense and imagination are able to
deal only with particulars, so the divine mind can foresee the
future as well as the present. But there are some things
which are under divine providence but which are not sub-
ject to fate.^ Divine providence imposes no fatal necessity
upon the human will, which is free to choose its course.^
The world of nature, however, existing without will or rea-
son of its own, conforms absolutely to the fatal series pro-
vided for it. As for chance, Boethius agrees with Aristotle's
Physics that there is really no such thing, but that what is
commonly ascribed to chance really results from an unex-
pected coincidence of causes, as when a man plowing a field
finds a treasure which another has buried there.* Thus
Boethius maintains the co-existence of the fatal series ex-
pressed in the stars, divine providence, and human free will,
a thesis likely to reassure Christians inclined to astrology
who had been somewhat disturbed by the fulminations of
the fathers against the genethliaci, just as his constant rhap-
sodizing over the stars and heavens would lead them to re-
gard the science of the stars as second only to divine worship.
Indeed, his position was the usual one in the subsequent
middle ages.
The stars also come into Boethius' treatise on music,
where one of the three varieties of music is described as
mundane, where the music of the spheres is declared to
exist although inaudible to us, and where each planet is con-
nected with a musical chord. Plato is quoted as having
said, not in vain, that the world soul is compounded of
musical harmony, and it is affirmed that the four diff'erent
and contrary elements could never be united in one system
unless some harmony joined them.^
^ De consol philos., V, 4-6.
=■ Ibid., IV, 6, 58.
'Ibid., V, 2-3 and 6, 110, "tam-
etsi nullam naturae habeat neces-
sitatem atqui deus ea futura quae
ex arbitrii libertate proveniunt
praesentia contuetur."
*Ibid.,V, I.
^ De musica libri quinque, I,
1-2 and 27; in Migne, PL 63, 1167-
1300.
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 623
Isidore was bom about 560 or 570, became bishop of Isidore of
Seville in 599 or 600, and died in the year 636. Although
mention should perhaps be made of his briefer De natura
rerunv,^ a treatise dedicated to King Sisebut who reigned
from 612 to 620, Isidore's chief work from our standpoint
is the Etymologiae? His friend, bishop Braulio, writing
after Isidore's death, says that he had left unfinished the
copy of this work which he made at his request, but this was
apparently a second edition, since in a letter written to Isi-
dore probably in 630, Braulio speaks of copies as already
in circulation, although he describes their text as corrupt
and abbreviated. But apparently the work had been com-
posed seven years before this.^ The Etymologies was un-
doubtedly a work of great importance and influence in the
middle ages, but one should not be led, as some writers have
been, into exaggerated praise of Isidore's erudition on this
account.'* For the work's importance consists chiefly in
showing how scanty was the knowledge of the early middle
ages. Its influence also would seem not to have been en-
tirely beneficial, since writers continued to cite it as an au-
thority as late as the thirteenth century, when it might have
been expected to have outlived its usefulness. We suspect
that it proved too handy and convenient and tended to en-
courage intellectual laziness and stagnation more than any
anthology of literary quotations did. Arevalus listed ten
^Migne, PL 83, 963-1018. In Dark Ages; Isidore of Seville,
Harleian 3099, 1134 A. D., the 1912, in Columbia University
Etymologies at fols. i-iS4. are Studies in History, etc., vol. 48, pp.
followed by the De natura rerum, 1-274. For Isidorean bibliography
the last chapter of which (fol. see pp. 17, 22-3, 46-7 of Brehaut's
164V) is numbered 42 instead of introduction.
48 as in Migne. But up to chap- ' Manitius (1911), pp. 60-61;
ter 27, Utrum sidera animam ha- Brehaut (1912), p. 34.
beant, the division into chapters * To say, for example, that "so
seems the same as in the printed hospitable an attitude toward pro-
text, fane learning as Isidore displayed
* Migne, PL 82, 73-728, a reprint . . . was never surpassed through-
of the edition of Arevalus, Rome, out the middle ages" (Brehaut,
1796. Large portions of the Ety- p. 31), is unfair to many later
mologies have been translated into writers, as our discussion of the
English with an introduction of natural science of the twelfth and
some seventy pages by E. Bre- thirteenth centuries will show.
haut, An Encyclopedist of the
Seville.
624
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Method
of the
Etymolo-
gies.
Its
sources.
printed editions of it before 1527, showing that it was as
popular in the time of the Renaissance as in the middle ages.
The Etymologies is little more than a dictionary, in
which words are not listed alphabetically but under subjects
with an average of from one to a half dozen lines of deriva-
tion and definition for each term. The method is, as Brehaut
well says, "to treat each subject by , . . defining the terms
belonging to it." ^ Pursuing this method, Isidore treats of
various arts and sciences, human interests and natural phe-
nomena : the seven liberal arts, medicine, and law ; chro-
nology and bibliography ; the church, religion, and theology ;
the state and family, physiology, zoology, botany, mineral-
ogy, geography, and astronomy; architecture and agricul-
ture ; war and sport ; arms and armor ; ships and costume and
various utensils of domestic life. Such is the classification
which later medieval writers were to adopt or adapt rather
than the arrangement followed in Pliny's Natural History.
Isidore's association of words and definitions under topics
makes an approach, at least, to the articles of encyclopedias :
sometimes there is a brief discussion of the general topic
before the particular terms and names are considered ; some-
times there are chronological tables, family trees, or lists
of signs and abbreviations. In short, Isidore forms a con-
necting link between Pliny and the encyclopedists of the
thirteenth century.
In a prefatory word to Braulio Isidore describes the
Etymologies as a collection made from his recollection and
notes of old authors,^ of whom he cites a large number in
the course of the work. It has been suspected that some of
these writers were known to Isidore only at second or third
hand ; at any rate he has not made a very discriminating se-
lection from their works and he has been accused more than
once of not clearly understanding what he tried to abridge.
On the other hand, Isidore seems to me to display a notable
'Brehaut (1912), p. 34. lectum, atque ita in quibusdam
' Migne, PL 82, 73, "Opus de locis adnotatum, sicut exstat con-
origine quarumdam rerum, ex scriptum stylo maiorum."
veteris lectionis recordatione col-
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 625
power of brief generalization, of terse expression and telling
use of words. We should not have to go back to the middle
ages for textbook writers who have written more and said
less. This power of condensed expression probably ac-
counts for Isidore's being so much cited. Many of the deri-
vations proposed for words are so patently absurd that we
would fain ascribe them to Isidore's own perverse ingenuity,
but it is doubtful if he possessed even that much originality,
and they are probably all taken from classical grammarians
such as Varro.^ Isidore, however, still displays a consider-
able knowledge of the Greek language. And again it may
be said in excuse of Isidore and his sources that the absurd
etymologies are usually proposed in the case of words whose
derivation is still problematic.
In the passages dealing with natural phenomena and sci-
ence Isidore borrows chiefly from Pliny and Solinus, some-
times from Dioscorides, giving us a faint adumbration of
their much fuller confusion of science and superstition. Oc-
casionally bits of information or misinformation are bor-
rowed through the medium of the church fathers. A work
of Galen, for instance, is cited ^ through the letter of
Jerome to Furia against widows remarrying. Galen, in-
deed, is seldom mentioned by Isidore who draws his unusu-
ally brief fourth book on medicine chiefly from Caelius Au-
relianus.^
In his treatment of things in nature Isidore seldom gives Natural
their medicinal properties as Pliny does, and this reduces "^^.rvels.
correspondingly the amount of space devoted to marvelous
virtues. Indeed, of the twenty books of the Etymologies
but one is devoted to animals other than man, one to vege-
tation which is combined in the same book with agriculture,
and one to metals and minerals. The book on animals is
the longest and is subdivided under the topics of domestic
* See, for example, EtymoL, who cared for the sick to read
VIII, 7, 3, "Vates a vi mentis ap- Hippocrates and Galen as well as
pellatos, Varro auctor est." Dioscorides and Caelius Aurelia-
" Etymol, XX, 2, 37. nus ; Brehaut (1912), p. 87, note,
^ Cassiodorus, however, urged citing PL 70, 1146, in the De instit.
the monks of the sixth century divin. littcrarum.
626
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Isidore is
rather
less hos-
pitable to
super-
stition
than
Pliny.
animals, wild beasts, minute animals, serpents, worms, fish,
birds, and minute flying creatures. Isidore also tends to
ascribe more marvelous virtues to animals than to plants
or stones. From Pliny and Solinus are repeated the tales
of the basilisk, echeneis, and the like,^ while Augustine's
Commentary on the Psalms is cited for the story of the asp
resisting the incantations of its charmers by laying one ear
to the ground and stopping up the other ear with the end of
its tail.^ On the other hand, Isidore omits Pliny's super-
stitious assertions concerning the river tortoise and gives
only his criticism that the statement that ships move more
slowly if they have the foot of a tortoise aboard is incred-
ible.^ Even in the books on minerals and vegetation we
still hear of animal marvels : * how the coloring matter, cin-
nabar, is composed of the blood shed by the dragon in its
death struggle with the elephant, how the fiercest bulls grow
tame under the Egyptian fig-tree, how swallows restore the
sight of their young with the swallow-wort, or of the use of
fennel and rue by the snake and weasel respectively, the
former tasting fennel to enable him to shed his old skin, and
the latter eating rue to make him immune from venom in
fighting the snake. All these items, too, are from Pliny.
But on the whole I should estimate that Isidore contains
less superstitious matter even proportionally to his meager
content than Pliny does in connection with the virtues of
animals, plants, and stones. In discussing plants he says
nothing of ceremonial plucking of them and he contains
practically no traces of agricultural magic. He describes
as a superstition of the Gentiles the notion that the herb
scylla, suspended whole at the threshold, drives away all
evils. ^ He mentions the use of mandragora as an anaes-
thetic in surgical operations, and remarks that its root is of
human form, but says nothing of its applications in magic.^
In his discussion of stones he repeats after Pliny and So-
^ Etymol., XII, 4, 6 and 6, 34.
^Ibid., XII, 4, 12.
^Ibid., XII, 6, 56.
*lbid., XVII, 7, 17 and 9, 2>^;
XIX, 17, 8.
" Ibid., XVII, 9, 85.
Ubid., XVII, 9, 30.
XXVII
EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING
627
linus the marvelous virtues ascribed to a number of them,
but follows Pliny's method of making the magicians re-
sponsible for these assertions or of inserting a word of cau-
tion such as "if this is to be believed" with each statement.
Finally he introduces together a number of cases of mar-
velous powers ascribed to stones with the introduction,
"There are certain gems employed by the Gentiles in their
superstitions." ^
Isidore lists a number of mythical monsters as well as Portents,
cases of portentous births in the third chapter, De portentis,
of his eleventh book. He there affirms that God sometimes
wishes to signify future events by means of monstrous births
as well as by dreams and oracles, and declares that this "has
been proved by numerous experiences." ^
Brehaut is impressed by Isidore's "confidence in words," Words
which he thinks "really amounted to a belief, strong though numbers
perhaps somewhat inarticulate, that words were transcen-
dental entities." ^ Isidore's faith in the power of words
does not seem, however, to have led him to recommend the
use of any incantations; he was content with etymologies
and allegorical interpretation. He was also a great believer
in the mystic significance of numbers and wrote a separate
treatise upon those numbers which occur in the sacred
Scriptures. In the Etymologies, too, he more than once
dwells upon the perfection of certain numbers. We have
already heard how perfect most of the numbers up to twelve
are, but this is our first opportunity to hear the Pythagorean
method applied to the number twenty-two. However, Isi-
dore is not the first to do this ; he is, indeed, simply quoting
one of the fathers, Epiphanius.^ "The modiits is so-called
because it is of perfect mode. For this measure contains
forty-four pounds, that is, twenty-two sextarii. And the
reason for this number is that in the beginning God per-
formed twenty-two works. For on the first day He made
^Etymol, XVI, 15, 21-26.
^ Ibtd., XI, 3, 4, "quod plurimis
etiam experimentis probatum est."
' Brehaut (1912), p. 3.
* EfymoL, XVI, 26, 10, from
Epiphanius, Liber de ponderibus
et mensuris.
628 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
seven works, namely, unformed matter, angels, light, the
upper heavens, earth, water, and air. On the second day
only one work, the firmament. On the third day four things :
the seas, seeds, grass, and trees. On the fourth day three
things: sun and moon and stars. On the fifth day three:
fish and aquatic reptiles and flying creatures. On the sixth
day four : beasts, domestic animals, land reptiles, and man.
And all twenty-two kinds were made in six days.^ And there
are twenty-two generations from Adam to Jacob. . . . And
twenty-two books of the Old Testament. . . . And there
are twenty-two letters from which the doctrine of the divine
law is composed. Therefore in accordance with these ex-
amples the modius of twenty-two sextarii was established
by Moses following the measure of sacred law. And al-
though various peoples have added something to or igno-
rantly subtracted something from its weight, it is divinely
preserved among the Hebrews for such reasons." With
such mental magic and pious "arithmetic," as Isidore's
friend Braulio called it, might the Christian attempt to sate
the inherited thirst within him for the operative magic and
pagan divination in which his conscience and church no
longer allowed him to indulge.
History Isidore's chapter on the Magi or magicians, which oc-
curs in his eighth book on the church and divers sects, is a
notable one, of whose great future influence we shall pres-
ently speak. His own borrowing here is only in small part
from Pliny's famous passage on the same theme. On such
a subject Isidore naturally has recourse mainly to Christian
writers : Augustine, Jerome, Lactantius, Tertullian. From
the occasional similarity of his wording to these authors it
seems fairly certain that his account is a patchwork from
their works, and the context is too Christian to have been
drawn in toto from some Roman encyclopedist now lost to
us. Perhaps the most noteworthy point about Isidore's chap-
ter is that he has made magic and magicians the general and
* Hence, presumably, the sextarii, from sex.
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 629
inclusive head under which he presently lists various other
minor occult arts and their practitioners for separate defi-
nition. But first we have a longer discussion, though long
only by comparison, of magic in general. Its history is
sketched; Zoroaster and Democritus, as in Pliny, are men-
tioned as its founders, but it is not forgotten that the bad
angels were really responsible for its dissemination. From
the first Isidore identifies magic and divination; after stating
that the magic arts abounded among the Assyrians, he quotes
a passage from Lucan which speaks of the prevalence of
liver divination, augury, divination from thunder, and as-
trology in Assyria. Also the magic arts are said to have
prevailed over the whole world for many centuries through
their prediction of the future and invocation of the dead.
Brief allusion is further made to Moses and Pharaoh's ma-
gicians, to the invocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor,
to Circe and the comrades of Ulysses, and to several other
passages in classical literature anent magic.
Next comes a formal definition of the Magi. They are Definition
"those who are popularly called maleiici or sorcerers on ac- ° i"ag*c.
count of the magnitude (a characteristic bit of derivation)
of their crimes. They agitate the elements, disturb men's
minds, and slay merely by force of incantation without any
poisoned draught. Hence Lucan writes, 'The mind, though
polluted by no venom of poisoned draught, perishes by en-
chantment.' ^ For, summoning demons, they dare to work
their magic so that anyone may kill his enemies by evil arts.
They also use blood and victims and sometimes corpses."
After this very unfavorable, although sufficiently credulous,
definition of magic, which is represented as seeking the
worst ends by the worst means, Isidore goes on to list and
briefly define a number of subordinate or kindred occult arts.
First come necromancers; then hydromancy, geomancy,
aeromancy, and pyromancy; next diviners, those employing
incantations, arioli, aruspices, augurs, auspices, pythones,
astrologers and their cognates, the genethliaci and mathe-
^"Mens hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni
Incantata peril . . ."
630
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Future in-
fluence of
Isidore's
account
of magic.
matici, who as Isidore notes are spoken of in the Gospel as
Magi, and horoscopi. "Sortilegi are those who profess the
science of divination under the pretended guise of rehgion
through certain devices called sortes sanctorimi and predict
by inspection of certain scriptures." Salisatores are those
who predict from the jerks of their limbs. To this list of
magic arts Isidore adds in the words of Augustine all liga-
tures and suspensions, incantations and characters, which
the art of medicine condemns and which are simply the work
of the devil. With mention of the origin of augury among
the Phrygians, the discovery of praestigium^ which deceives
the eye by Mercury, and the revelation of aruspicina by Ta-
gus to the Etruscans, Isidore closes the chapter. Some of
its items will be found again in his De diiferentiis verborum,^
listed under the appropriate letters of the alphabet. It may
also be noted that he briefly treats of transformations worked
by magic in the fourth chapter of the eleventh book of the
Etymologies.
We turn to the future influence of this account of magic
which seems to have been first patched together by Isidore.
Juiceless as it is, it seems to have become a sort of stock or
stereotyped treatment of the subject with succeeding Chris-
tian writers down into the twelfth century. Somewhat al-
tered by omission of poetical quotations or the insertion of
transitional sentences, it was otherwise copied almost word
for word by Rabanus Maurus (about 784 to 856), in his
De consanguine orum nuptiis et de magorum praestigiis
falsisque divinationihus tractatus, and by Burchard of
Worms and Ivo of Chartres (died 11 15) in their respective
collections of Decreta, while Hincmar of Rheims in his De
divortio Lotharii et Tetbergae copied it with more omis-
sions.^ It was also in substance retained in the Decretum of
»Migne, PL 83, 9-
'For Rabanus' account see
Migne, PL no, 1097-1110; Bur-
chard, PL 140, 839 et seq.; Ivo,
PL 161, 760 et seq.; Hincmar, PL
125, 716-29. Moreover, Bur-
chard continues to follow Raba-
nus word for word for some ten
columns after the conclusion of
their mutual excerpt from Isi-
dore, while Ivo is identical with
Burchard for fifteen more col-
umns. In "Some Medieval Con-
ceptions of Magic," The Monist.
XXVII
EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING
631
Gratian in the twelfth century, when, too, Hugh of St. Vic-
tor probably made use of it and John of Salisbury made it
the basis of his fuller discussion of the subject. Isidore's
account of magic, like his discussion of many other topics,
sounds as if he had ceased thinking on the subject, and it
must have meant still less to those who copied it. John of
Salisbury is the first of them to put any life into the sub-
ject and give us any assurance that such arts were still prac-
ticed in his day. We have, however, other evidence that
magic continued to be practiced in the interval. And such
practices as the sortes sanctorum, though included in Isi-
January, 1915, XXV, 107-39, I
stated (p. 109, note 2) that I
thought that I was the first to
point out the identity of these
four accounts with Isidore's.
Since then, however, I have no-
ticed that Manitius (1911), p. 299,
notes the identity of Rabanus
with Isidore, "Dass Hraban sich
auch sonst ganz an Isidor anlehnt,
beweist er in der Schrift De con-
sanguineorum nuptiis im Ab-
schnitt de magicis artibus (Migne,
109, I097ff.) der aus Etym. 8, 9
stammt." Also Mr. C. C. I. Webb,
in his 1909 edition of the Poly-
craticus notes John of SaUsbury's
borrowings from Isidore and Ivo
of Chartres. Finally, J. Hansen,
Zauberwahn, Inquisition, und
Hexenprozess im Mittelalter, 1900,
at p. 49 notes that Isidore's sketch
of the history of magic keeps re-
curring in medieval writings, at
p. 71 the dependence of Rabanus
and Hincmar upon Isidore, and
perhaps he somewhere notes the
identity with the foregoing of the
accounts of magic in Burchard
and the other decretalists, but in
the absence of an index to his
volume I do not find such a pas-
sage. At p. 128, however, he
notes that John of Salisbury's de-
scription of magic is in part taken
word for word from Isidore and
Rabanus.
Professor Hamilton, in one of
his papers on Storm-Making
Springs, which appeared at about
the same time as my article {Ro-
manic Reznew, V, 3, 1914; but,
owing probably to war conditions,
this issue did not actually appear
until after the number of The
Monist containing my article),
came near noting the same thing
when he spoke (p. 225) of Isi-
dore's chapter as "quoted at
length" by Gratian — who seems
to me, however, to give the sub-
stance of Isidore's chapter rather
than his exact wording — and
further noted that four lines of
Latin which he quoted were found
alike in Rabanus, Hincmar, Ivo,
and the Polycraticus of John of
Salisbury.
In my article I also stated :
"Professor Burr, in a note to his
paper on 'The Literature of
Witchcraft' (American Historical
Association Papers, IV (1890)2 p.
241) has described the accounts
of Rabanus and Hincmar but
without explicitly noting their
close resemblance, although he
characterizes Rabanus' article as
'mainly compiled.' " Professor
Burr subsequently wrote to me,
"That I did not mention the re-
lation in my old paper on "The
Literature of Witchcraft" was
partly because they borrowed
from other sources as well and
partly because Isidore is himself
a compiler. I hoped to come back
to the matter in a more careful
study of the whole genesis of
these stock passages."
632
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Attitude
to as-
trology.
In the De
natura
rerum.
dore's stock definition of magic, were probably not generally-
regarded as reprehensible.^
Isidore's repetition of the views of the fathers concern-
ing demons is so brief and trite ^ that we need not further
notice it, but turn to his attitude toward astrology. We have
just heard him associate astrologers with practitioners of
the magic arts, but in his third book in discussing the
quadrivium he states that astrology is only partly supersti-
tious and partly a natural science. The superstitious variety
is that pursued by the mathematici who augur the future
from the stars, assign the parts of the soul and body to the
signs of the zodiac, and try to predict the nativities and
characters of men from the course of the stars. Such super-
stitions "are without doubt contrary to our faith; Chris-
tians should so ignore them that they shall not even appear
to have been written." Mathesis, or the attempt to predict
future events from the stars, is denounced, according to Isi-
dore, "not only by doctors of the Christian religion but also
of the Gentiles, — Plato, Aristotle, and others." Isidore also
states that there is a distinction between astronomy and as-
trology, but what it is, especially between astronomy and
natural astrology, he fails to elucidate.^
In the preface to his De natura rerum, which deals chiefly
with astronomical and meteorological phenomena, Isidore
asserts that "it is not superstitious science to know the na-
ture of these things, if only they are considered from the
standpoint of sane and sober doctrine." He also states that
,his treatise is a brief sketch of what has been written by
the men of old and especially in the works of Catholics. In
it some of the stock questions which gave difficulty to
Christian scientists are briefly discussed, for instance, "Con-
cerning the waters which are above the heavens," and
"Whether the stars have souls?" ^ Isidore rejects as "ab-
* See below, chapter 60 on Aqui- astronomy in Etymol., Ill, 27. In
nas. Etymol., Ill, 25, he ascribes the
'Etymol., VIII, II, 15-17; Dif- invention of astronomy to the
ferentiarum, II, 14. Egyptians and that of astrology
* Indeed, Differentiarum, II, 39, to the Chaldeans,
he defines astrology as he had * Caps. 14 and 27.
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 633
surd fictions" imagined by the stupidity of the Gentiles their
naming the days of the week from the planets, "because by
the same they thought that some effect was produced in
themselves, saying that from the sun they received the
spirit, from the moon the body, from Mercury speech and
wisdom, from Venus pleasure, from Mars ardor, from
Jupiter temperance, from Saturn slowness." ^ Yet later in
the same treatise we find him saying that everything in na-
ture grows and increases according to the waxing and wan-
ing of the moon.^ Moreover, he calls Saturn a cold star
and explains that the planets are called errantia, not be-
cause they wander themselves but because they cause men
to err.^ He also describes man as a microcosm,^ Like
most ecclesiastical writers, no matter how hostile they may
be to astrologers, he is ready to assert that comets signify
political revolutions, wars, and pestilences,^ In the Ety-
mologies he not only attributes racial and temperamental
differences among the peoples of different regions to "force
of the star" ^ and "diversity of the sky," '^ phrases which
seem to imply astrological influence rather than the mere
influence of climate in our sense. He also encourages as-
trological medicine when he says that the doctor should
know astronomy, since human bodies change with the qual-
ities of the stars and the change of times. ^ Isidore might
as well have taken the planets as signs in the astrological
sense as have ascribed to them the absurd allegorical sig-
nificance in passages of Scripture that he did. He states
that the moon is sometimes to be taken as a symbol of this
world, sometimes as the church, which is illuminated by
Christ as the moon receives its light from the sun, and which
has seven meritorious graces corresponding to the seven
forms of the moon.^
^De nat. rer., Ill, 4; PL 83, 71, 16.
968. "EtymoL, XIV, 5, "vim sideris."
''Ibid., XIX, 2. ''Ibid., IX, 2, "secundum diver-
^ Ibid., XXII, 2-3. sitatem enim coeli."
*Ibid., IX, 1-2. 'Ibid., IV, 13, 4-
'Ibid., XXVI, 15; EtymoL, III, " De nat. rcrum, XVIII, 5-7.
634 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Bede's The scientific acquisitions of Bede have too often been
sdence. referred to in exaggerated terms. Sharon Turner said of
him, "He collected and taught more natural truths with
fewer errors than any Roman book on the same subjects
had accomplished. Thus his work displays an advance,
not a retrogradation of human knowledge; and from its
judicious selection and concentration of the best natural
philosophy of the Roman Empire it does high credit to the
Anglo-Saxon good sense." ^ Dr. R. L. Poole more mod-
erately says of Bede, "He shows an extent of knowledge in
classical literature and natural science entirely unrivalled
in his own day and probably not surpassed for many genera-
tions to come." ^ Bede perhaps knew more natural science
than anyone else of his time, but if so, the others must have
known practically nothing; his knowledge can in no sense
be called extensive. As a matter of fact, we have evidence
that his extremely brief and elementary treatises in this
field were not full enough tO' satisfy even his contemporaries.
In the preface to his De temporum ratione ^ he says that
previously he had composed two treatises, De natura rerum
and De ratione temporum, in brief style as he thought fitting
for pupils, but that when he began to teach them to some
of the brethren, they objected that they were reduced to a
much briefer form than they wished, especially the De tem-
poribus, which Bede now proceeds to revise and amplify.
It is noteworthy that in order to fulfill the monks' desire for
a fuller treatment of the subject he found it necessary to do
some further reading in the fathers. In addition to Bede's
own statement of his aim, the frequency with which we
find manuscripts of early date * of the De natura rerum and
^History of the Anglo-Saxons, BN 15685, 9th century; BN nouv.
Ill, 403. acq. 1612, 1615, and 1632, all 9th
''Illustrations of the History of or loth century; Amiens 222, 9th
Medieval Thouffht, 1884, p. 20; p. century; Cambrai 925, 9th cen-
18 in 1920 edition. tH^'y: J^rea 3, 9th century ; Ivrea
6, loth century; Berlin 128, 8-9th
Migne, PL 90, 293-4. century; Berlin 130, 9-ioth cen-
"A few MSS, chiefly from tury; CLM 18158, nth century;
France, earlier than the 12th cen- CLM 21557, nth century,
tury, are: BN 5543, 9th century; I have not noted the MSS of
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 635
De tempofibus suggests that they were employed as text-
books in the monastic schools of the early middle ages. As
the Carolingian poet expressed it,
Beda del famulus nostri didasculus evi
Fake pia sophie veterum sata lata peragrans.
Of Bede's Hexaemeron we spoke in an earlier chapter.
His chief extant genuine scientific treatise is the aforesaid
De natura rerum,^ a very curtailed discussion of astronomy
and meteorology. It is very similar to Isidore's treatise of
the same title, but is even briefer, omitting for the most
part the mention of authorities and the Biblical quotations
and allegorical applications which make up a considerable
portion of Isidore's brief work. One of the few authorities
whom Bede does cite is Pliny in a discussion of the circles
of the planets.^ Like Isidore he accepts comets as signs
of war and political change, of tempests and pestilence.*
He also states that the air is inhabited by evil spirits who
there await the worse torments of the day of judgment.*
In his Biblical commentaries Bede briefly echoes some of the
views of the fathers concerning magic and demons, for in-
stance, in his treatment of the witch of Endor.^
Bede also translated into Latin a treatise on divination Divina-
from thunder, perhaps from the works of the sixth century t^^nder
Greek writer, John Lydus. In the preface to Herefridus,
at whose request he had undertaken the translation, he speaks
of it as a laborious and dangerous task, sure to expose him
to the attacks of the invidious and detractors who will per-
haps insinuate that he is possessed of an evil spirit or is a
practitioner of magic. The three chapters of the treatise
give the significance of thunder for the four points of the
compass, the twelve months of the year, and the seven days
of the week. For instance, if thunder arises in the east,
Bede in the British Museum and 'Ibid., Cap. 24.
Bodleian collections. * Ibid., Cap. 25.
^ PL go, 187-278 ; the text occu- " In Sanvuelem prophetam al-
pies but a small portion of these legorica expositio, IV, 7; PL 91,
columns. 701.
^ Ibid., Cap. 14.
636 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
according to the traditions of subtle philosophers there will
be in the course of that year copious effusion of human
blood. Each signification is introduced with some bombas-
tic phraseology concerning the agile genius or sagacious in-
vestigation of the philosophers who discovered it.^ Other
tracts on divination which were attributed to Bede are prob-
ably spurious and will for the most part be considered later
in connection with other treatises of the same sort.^
Riddles of Some interest in and knowledge of natural science is
displayed in the metrical riddles ^ of St. Aldhelm, abbot of
Malmesbury and bishop of Sherborne, who died in 709, "the
first Englishman who cultivated classical learning with any
success and the first of whom any literary remains are pre-
served." Most of them are concerned with animals, such
as silkworms, peacock, salamander, bee, swan, lion, ostrich,
dove, fish, basilisk, camel, eagle, taxo, beaver, weasel,
swallow, cat, crow, unicorn, minotaur, Scylla, and elephant;
or with herbs and trees, such as heliotrope, pepper, nettles,
hellebore, and palm ; or with minerals, such as salt, adamant,
and magnet ; or with terrestrial and celestial phenomena, such
as earth, wind, cloud, rainbow, moon, Pleiades, Arcturus,
Lucifer, and night. There is a close resemblance between
some of these riddles and a score of citations from an Ad-
helmus made in the thirteenth century by Thomas of Cantim-
pre in his De natiira rerum} Pitra,^ however, suggested
^De tonitruis libcllus ad Here- ing onocentaur do not correspond
fridum, PL 90, 609-14. to the riddle De monocero sive
^ See below, chapter 29. unicorni; the two accounts of
* The Aenigmatum Liber forms Scylla are diflferent; and I do
a part of the Liber de septenario not find cacus or onager or harpy
et de metris in Aldhelm's works or siren or locust or the Indian
as edited by Giles, Oxford, i8z|4, ants larger than foxes in the Rid-
and reprinted in Migne, PL 89, dies as edited by Giles.
183-99. The passages in which Thomas
■* Cantimpre's citations of Ad- of Cantimpre cites Adhelmus are
helmus seem almost certainly printed together by Pitra (1855)
drawn from the Aenigmata in III, 425-7.
the cases of Leo, ciconia, hirun- ° Pitra (1855) III, xxvi. Only
dinus, nycticorax, salamander, lu- in the case of the salamander
ligo (or, loligo), perna, dragun- does Pitra say, "Thomas hue ad-
tia lapis (natrix), myrmicoleon, duxit Adhelmi Shirbrunensis
colossus, and molossus. On the aenigma de Salamandra vatemgue
other hand, the citations concern- a philosopho clare distinxit."
XXVII EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING 637
that the Adhelmus cited by Thomas of Cantimpre was a
brother of John the Scot of the ninth century.
The total lack of originality and the extremely abbrevi- Gregory's
, , . , . r • T • • • 1 Dialogues.
ated character of the infrequent scientmc writmg in the west
is not, however, a fair example of the total thought and
writing of early medieval Latin Christendom, When we
turn to the lives of the saints, to the miracles recorded of
contemporary monks and missionaries, we find that in the
field of its own supreme interests the pious imagination of
the time could display considerable inventiveness and was
by no means satisfied with brief compendiums from the
Bible and earlier Fathers. Here too the superstition and
credulity, which had been held back by fear of paganism in
the case of natural and occult science, ran luxuriant riot.
Such literature lies rather outside the strict field of this in-
vestigation, but it is so characteristic of the Christian thought
of the period that we may consider one prominent specimen,
the Dialogues of Gregory the Great,^ pope from 590 to 604.
We shall sufficiently illustrate the nature of this farrago of
pious folk-lore by a resume of the contents of the opening
pages of the first of its four books. We need not dwell upon
the importance of Gregory in the history of the papacy, of
monasticism, and of patristic literature, further than to em-
phasize the point that so distinguished, influential, and for
his times great, a man should have been capable of writing
such a book. Similar citations which might be multiplied
from other authors of the period could not add much force
to this one impressive instance of the naive pious credulity
and superstition of the best Christian minds of that age.
Not only were the Dialogues well known throughout the
medieval period in the Latin reading world, but they were
translated into Greek at an early date and in 779 from
that language into Arabic, while King Alfred made an
Anglo-Saxon translation of the Latin in the closing ninth
century.
* I have used the text in Migne, PL vol. 77.
638
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
In the Dialogues Gregory narrates to Peter the Deacon
some of the virtues, signs, and marvelous works of saintly
men in Italy which he has learned either by personal experi-
ence or indirectly from the statements of good and trust-
worthy witnesses. The first story is of Honoratus, the son
of a colonus on a villa in Samnium. When the lad evinced his
piety by abstaining from meat at a banquet given by his
parents, they ridiculed him, declaring that he would find no
fish to eat in those mountains. But when the servant pres-
ently went out to draw some water, he poured a fish out of
the pitcher upon his return which provided the boy with
enough food for the entire day. Subsequently the lad was
given his freedom and founded a monastery on the spot.
Still later he saved this monastery from an impending ava-
lanche by frequent calling upon the name of Christ and use
of the sign of the cross. By these means he stopped the
landslide in mid-course and the rocks may still be seen look-
ing as if they were sure to fall.
A tale follows of Goths who stole a monk's horse, but
found themselves unable to force their own horses to cross
the next river to which they came until they had restored
his horse to the monk. In another case where Franks came
to plunder this same monk, he remained invisible to them.
This same monk was a disciple of the afore-mentioned Hon-
oratus and once raised a woman's child from the dead by
placing upon its breast an old shoe of his master which he
cherished as a souvenir. Thus he contrived to satisfy the
mother's pleading and at the same time preserve his own
modesty and humility. Gregory does not doubt that the
woman's faith also contributed to the miracle. Gregory
adds, however, that he thinks the virtue of patience greater
than signs and miracles and tells another story of the same
monk to illustrate that virtue.
We may pass on, however, to the third chapter which
contains a story of the gardener of a monastery who set a
snake to catch a thief who had made depredations upon the
garden, adjuring the snake as follows: 'Tn the name of
XXVII
EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING
639
Jesus I command you to guard this approach and not permit
the thief to enter here." The serpent obediently stretched
its length across the path, and when the gardener returned
later, he found the thief hanging head first from the hedge,
in which his foot had caught as he was climbing over it and
had been surprised by the sight of the serpent. The monk of
course then freely gave the thief what he had come to steal,
but also of course gave him a brief moral lecture which was
perhaps less welcome.
After a brief account of a miraculous release from sexual
passion Gregory comes to a tale of Basilius the magician.
This is the same man concerning whose arrest and trial on
the charge of practicing magic and sinister arts we find
directions given in two of the letters of Cassiodorus.^ Ac-
cording to Gregory he took refuge with the aid of a bishop
in a monastery, although the abbot saw something diabolical
about him from the very start. Soon a virgin who was
under the charge of the monastery became so infatuated
with Basilius as to call publicly for him, declaring that she
should die unless he came to her aid. The abbot then ex-
pelled him from the monastery, on which occasion Basilius
confessed that he had often by his magic arts suspended the
monastery in mid-air but that he had never been able to in-
jure anyone who was in it. This is more detailed informa-
tion concerning the nature of Basilius' magic than Cassi-
odorus gives us. Gregory further adds that not long after
Basilius was burned to death at Rome by the zeal of the
Christian people.
A female servant of this same monastery once ate a let-
tuce in the garden without making the sign of the cross
first, and became possessed of a demon straightway. When
the abbot was summoned, the demon attempted to excuse
himself, exclaiming, "What have I done? what have I
done ? I was just sitting on a lettuce when she came along
and ate me." The abbot nevertheless indignantly proceeded
to drive the evil spirit out of his serf.
* Variorum IV, Epist. 22-23, Migne, PL 69, 624-25.
640 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap xxvii
Such are a few specimens of the monkish magic that was
considered perfectly legitimate and rapturously admired at
the same time that men like Basilius were burned at the
stake on charges of magic by the zealous Christian populace.
We may add a word at this point concerning Old Irish
literature ^ which, as it has reached us, is almost entirely
religious in character,^ produced and preserved by the Chris-
tian clergy. Yet we find a number of traces of magic in
these remains of Celtic learning and literature during the
dark ages. Indeed, the sole document in the Irish lan-
guage which is ascribed to St. Patrick is a Hymn or incan-
tation in which he invokes the Trinity and the powers of
nature to aid him against the enchantments of women,
smiths, and wizards. By repeating this rhythmical formula
Patrick and his companions are said to have become invisible
to King Loigaire and his Druids. The spell is perhaps as
old as Patrick's time. Three other incantations for urinary
disease, sore eyes, and to extract a thorn are contained in
the Stowe Missal. An Irish manuscript of the eighth or
ninth century in the monastery of St. Gall has four spells
for similar purposes and another is found in a ninth cen-
tury codex preserved in Carinthia.
The Irish had their Fili corresponding somewhat to the
Druids of Gaul or Britain. They were perhaps less closely
connected with heathen rites, since the church seems to have
been less opposed to them than to the Druids. They were
poets and learned men, and a large part of their learning, at
least originally, seems to have consisted of magic and div-
ination. There are many instances in Irish literature of their
disfiguring the faces of their enemies by raising blotches
upon them by the power of words which they uttered. St.
Patrick forbade two of their three methods of divination.
* I derive the following facts whether preserved in Ireland,
from E. C. Qiiiggin, "Irish Lit- Scotland, or elsewhere, . . . are
erature," in EB V, 622 et seq., all, or nearly all, of foreign ori-
where further bibliography is gin" : — Mackinnon, in the Inter-
given, national Congress of Medicine^
' "The Gaelic medical MSS, London, 1913, p. 413.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE OF THE NINTH CENTURY
Plan of the chapter — ^Works of Alkindi — On Stellar Rays, or The
Theory of the Magic Art — Radiation of occult force from the stars —
Magic power of words — Problem of prayer — Figures, characters, and
sacrifice — Experiment and magic — Alkindi's medieval influence —
Divination by visions and dreams — Weather prediction — Alkindi as an
astrologer — Alkindi on conjunctions — Alkindi and alchemy — Astro-
logical works of Albumasar — The Experiments of Albumasar —
Albumasar in Sadan — Book of Rains — Costa ben Luca's translation of
Hero's Mechanica — Latin versions of his Epistle concerning Incanta-
tion— Form of the epistle — Incantations directly affect the mind alone
— Men imagine themselves bewitched — How are amulets effective? —
Citations from the lapidary of the Pseudo-Aristotle — From Galen and
Dioscorides — Occult virtue — On the Difference between Soul and Spirit
— The nature of spiritus — Thought explained physiologically — Views of
other medieval writers — Thebit ben Corat — The Sabians — Thebit's Re-
lations to Sabianism — Thebit as encyclopedist, philosopher, astronomer
— His occult science — Astrological and magic images — Life of Rasis —
His 232 works — Charlatans discussed — His interest in natural science
— Rasis and alchemy — Titles suggestive of astrology and magic —
Conclusion.
In this chapter we shall consider a number of learned men pian
who wrote in Arabic or other oriental languages in the ninth ^jj^^^gj.
and early tenth century : Alkindi, Albumasar, Costa ben
Luca, Thebit ben Corat, and Rasis — to mention for the pres-
ent only the brief and convenient form of their names by
which they were commonly designated in medieval Latin
learning. Not all of these men were Mohammedans; not
one was an Arab, strictly speaking; but they lived under
Mohammedan rule and wrote in Arabic. We shall note
especially those of their works which deal with occult science
and which were plainly influential upon the later medieval
Latin learning. Indeed, most of the works of which we
shall treat seem to be extant only in Latin translation. This
641
6+2
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Works of
Alkindi.
chapter aims at no exhaustive treatment of Arabic science
and magic in the ninth century, but merely, by presenting
a few prominent examples, to give some idea of it and of
its influence upon the middle ages. In subsequent chapters
we shall have occasion to mention many other such medieval
translations from Arabic and other oriental languages.
One of the great names in tlie history of Arabic learn-
ing is that of Alkindi (Yalcub ibn Ishak ibn Sabbah al-
Kindi), who died about 850 or 873 A, D.^ Comparatively
few of his writings have come to us, however, although
some two hundred titles prove that he covered the whole
field of knowledge in his own day. He translated the works
of Aristotle and other Greeks into Arabic, and wrote upon
philosophy, politics, mathematics, medicine, music, astron-
omy, and astrolog}-, discriminating little between science
and superstition in his enthusiasm for extensive knowledge.
The first treatise of his to appear in print was an astrological
one on weather prediction in Latin translation.^ In 1875 Loth
printed an Arabic text of his treatise on the theory of
conjunctions. More recently Nag}- has edited Latin versions
of some of his philosophical opuscula, and Bjornbo has
published an optical treatise by him entitled De spectaculis.
On Stellar In a manuscript of the closing fourteenth century are
■^^^y^?^,, , contained several sets of errors of Aristotle and various
I lie 1 neory
of the Arabs, also others condemned at Paris in 1348 and 1363,
^^ ^ ' dX Oxford in 1376. and so on. Among these are listed the
*G. Flugel, Alkindi, genannt der
Philosoph der Araher, ein Vorbild
seiner Zeit, Leipzig, 1857.
F. Dieterici, Die Naturan-
scliouung und N^aturphilosophie
der Araber im zehnten Jahrhun-
dert, Berlin, 1861.
O. Loth, Al-Kindi als Astrolog.
in Morgenldndisehe Forschungcn.
Festschrift fiir Fleisclter, Leip-
zig. 1875. pp. 263-309.
A. Nagy, Die philosophischen
Abhandlungen des Al-Kindis,
1897 in Beitr'dge z. Gesch." d.
Philos. d. Mittclalt., II, 5.
A. A. Bjornbo and S. VogI, Al-
kindi, Tidevs, und Pseudo-Euclid,
Drei Optische IVerke, Leipzig,
1911, in Abhandl. z. Gesch. d.
Math, ll'iss.. XXVI, 3.
For further bibUography see
the last-named work and Stein-
schneider (1905) 23-4, 47, (1906)
31-33-
The Apology of Al Kindy (Sir
Wm. Muir. London, 1882) is a
defense of Christianity by another
writer of about the same time.
' Astrorum iudicis Alkindi, Ga-
phar de pluviis imbribus et ventis
ac aeris tnutatione, ex officina
Petri Liech tenstein : Venetiis, 1507.
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
643
Errors of Alkindi in the Magic Art} The allusion is to a
treatise by Alkindi, variously styled The Theory of the
Magic Art or On Stellar Rays, which is found in Latin
version in a number of medieval manuscripts,^ but v^hich
has never been published or described at all fully.
Alkindi begins the treatise by asserting the astrological Radiation
doctrine of radiation of occult influence from the stars.
The diversity of objects in nature depends upon two things,
the diversity of matter and the varying influence exerted by
the rays from the stars. Each star has its own peculiar
force and certain objects are especially under its influence,
while the movement of the stars to new positions and "the
colhsion of their rays" produce such an infinite variety of
combinations that no two things in this world are ever
found alike in all respects. The stars, however, are not
*Amplon. Quarto 151, fols. 17-
19.
'In the 1412 catalogue of Am-
plonius, Math. 48 was "Theorica
Alkindi de radiis stellicis seu ar-
cium magicarum vel de phisicis li-
gaturis" ; and at present Amplon.
Quarto 349, 14th century, fols.
47v, 65V, 66r-v, i6r-v, 29r, con-
tains "Liber Alkindi de radiis
Omnes homines qui sensibilia /
Explicit theorica artis ma^is
isic). Explicit Alkindi de radiis
stellicis."
Harleian 13, 13th century, given
by John of London to St. Augus-
tine's Abbey, Canterbury (Si 166,
James, 330-1), fols. 166-74, "de
radiis stellicis Omnes homines
qui sensibilia / explicit Theoria
Artis Magice Alkindi."
Digby 91, i6th century, fols.
66-80, Alkindus de radiis stella-
rum, "Omnes homines qui sen-
sibilia sensu percipiunt. . . ."
Digby 183, end 14th century,
fols. 38-45.
Selden supra y6 (Bernard 3464),
fols. 47r-6ov, "Incipit theoreita
artium magicarum. Capitulum
de origine scientie. Omnes homi-
nes qui sensibilia sensu percip-
iunt. . . ." ; Selden 3467, #4.
Canon. Misc. 370, fols. 240-59,
"Explicit theoria magice artis
sive libellus Alkindi de radiis stel-
latis anno per me Theod. scriptus
Domini 1484. . . ."
Rawlinson C-117, 15th century
(according to Macray, but since
the MS once belonged to John of
London it is more likely to be
13th century), fols. 157-69, "Incip-
it theorica Alkindi et est de
causis reddendis circa operationes
karacterum et conjurationes et
suffumigationes et ceteris huius-
modi quae pertinent ad artem
magicam. 'Omnes homines qui
sensibilia.' . . ."
BN nouv. acq. 616, 1442 A.D.,
Liber Jacobi Alchindi de radiis.
CU Trinity 936 (R. 15, 17) 17th
century, Alkyndus de Radiis.
Ste. Genevieve 2240, 17th cen-
tury, fol. 32 (?) — since the trea-
tise is listed between two others
which begin at fols. 68 and 112,
respectively — "Alkyndus de
radiis ; de virtute verborum."
Steinschneider (1906), 22, has
already listed four of these MSS,
but was mistaken in thinking Cot-
ton Appendix VI, fols. 63v-70r,
"Explicit lacob alkindi de theo-
rica planetarum," the same trea-
tise as The Theory of the Magic
Art.
644 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the only objects which emit rays; everything in the world
of the elements radiates force, too. Fire, color, and sound
are examples of this. The science of physics considers the
action of objects upon one another by contact, but the sages
know of a more occult interaction of remote objects sug-
gested by the power of the magnet and the reflection of an
image in a mirror. All such emanations, however, are in
the last analysis caused by the celestial harmony, which
governs by necessity all the changes in this world. Thus
the men of old, by experiments and by close scrutiny of
the secrets of both superior and inferior nature and of the
disposition of the sky, came to comprehend many hidden
things in the world of nature and were able to discover
the names of those who had committed theft and adultery.
The bor- Alkindi has thus prepared the reader's mind for the con-
between sideration of phenomena beyond the realm of ordinary
science physical action. At the same time he has approached the
occult by arguing on the analogy of natural phenomena
and he has laid down as a fundamental scientific premise
what we now regard as a superstition of astrologers. In
other words, he is not unaware of a difference in method
and character between physics and astrology, between sci-
ence and superstition, yet he tries to formulate a scientific
basis for what is really a belief in magic.
Magic Although Alkindi does not, as I recall, use the word
of ^ords. iTiagic, he next argues in favor of what is commonly called
the magic power of words. He affirms that the human
imagination can form concepts and then emit rays which will
affect exterior objects just as would the thing itself whose
image the mind has conceived. Muscular movement and
speech are the two channels by which the mind's conceptions
can be transformed into action. Frequent experiments have
proven clearly the potency of words when uttered in exact
accordance with imagination and intention, and when ac-
companied by due solemnity, firm faith, and strong desire.
The effect produced by words and voices is heightened if
they are uttered under favorable astrological conditions,
xxviii ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 645
Some go best with Saturn, others wtih the planet Jupiter,
some with one sign of the zodiac and others with another.
The four elements are variously affected by different voices ;
some voices, for instance, affect fire most powerfully. Some
especially stir trees or some one kind of tree. Thus by
words motion is started, accelerated, or impeded; animal
life is generated or destroyed; images are made to appear
in mirrors; flames and lightnings are produced; and other
feats and illusions are performed which seem marvelous
to the mob.
Alkindi even ventures to touch upon the subject of Problem
prayer. He states that the rays emitted by the human mind ° ^^^^
and voice become the more efficacious in moving matter, if
the speaker has fixed his mind upon and names God or
some powerful angel. Human ignorance of the harmony
of nature also often necessitates appeal to a higher power
in order to attain good and to avoid evil. Faith, and ob-
servance of the proper time and place and attendant circum-
stances have their bearing, however, upon the success or
failure of prayer as well as of other utterances. And
there are some authorities who would exclude spiritual in-
fluence entirely in such matters and who believe that words
and images and prayers as well as herbs and gems are
completely under the universal control exercised by the
stars.
The treatise concludes by discussing the virtues of fig- Figures,
ures, characters, images, and sacrifices in much the same ^nd
way as it has treated of the power of words. We are as- sacrifice,
sured that "The sages have proved by frequent experiments
that figures and characters inscribed by the hand of man on
various materials with intention and due solemnity of place
and time and other circumstances have the effect of motion
upon external objects." Every such figure emits rays hav-
ing the peculiar virtue which has been impressed upon it
by the stars and signs. There are characters which can
be employed to cure disease or to induce it in men or ani-
mals. Images constructed in conformity with the con-
646
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
stellations emit rays having something of the virtue of the
celestial harmony. Alkindi also defends the practice of
animal sacrifice. Whether God or spirits are placated there-
by or not, none the less the sacrifice is efficacious, if made
with human intent and due solemnity and in accordance
with the celestial harmony. The star and sign which are
dominant when any voluntary act of this sort is begun, rule
that work to its finish. The material and forms employed
should be appropriate to the constellation, or the effect pro-
duced will be discordant and perverted.
It will have been noted that Alkindi more than once
asserts that his conclusions have been demonstrated experi-
mentally. Thus we have one more example of the connec-
tion, supposititious or real, between magic and experimental
method.
The doctrine here set forth by Alkindi of the radiation
of force and his explanation of magic by astrology were
both to be very influential conceptions in Latin medieval
learning. We shall find Roger Bacon, for example, re-
peating the same views in almost the same language con-
cerning stellar rays and the power of words, and it is
appropriate that in two manuscripts his utterances are placed
together with those of Alkindi.-"-
Alkindi's treatise De somno et visione, as we have it in
the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona,^ accepts clair-
voyance and divination by dreams as true and asks why we
see some things before they happen, why we see other things
which require interpretation before they reveal the future,
and why at other times we foresee the contrary of what is
to be.^ His answer is that the mind or soul has innate
* In Digby 91 Roger Bacon on
Perspective is followed by Al-
kindi on the rays of the stars,
while in Digby 183 a marginal
note to Alkindi's treatise reads
"Nota hoc quod est extractum de
libro Rogeri Bakun de celo et
mundo, capitulo de numero celo-
rum," and following the work
of Alkindi we have Bacon on the
retardation of old age and per-
haps also de radiis solaribus.
» Edited by Nagy ( 1897) . A MS
of the late 12th or early 13th cen-
tury which Nagy fails to note is
Digby 40, fols. iSv-25, de somno
et visionibus.
' Nagy, p. 18, "Quare autem vi-
deamus quasdam res antequam
sint? et quare videamus res cum
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
647
natural knowledge of these things, and that "it is itself
the seat of all species sensible and rational." Vision is
when the soul dismisses the senses and employs thought,
and the formative or imaginative virtue of the mind is more
active in sleep, the sensitive faculties when one is awake.
While by some persons, at least, opinions of Alkindi in
his Theory of the Magic Art were regarded as erroneous,
Albertus Magnus in his Speculum astronomiae listed
among works on judicial astrology with which he thought
that the church could find no fault "a book of Alchindi"
which opened with the words Rogatiis fui} This is a
work on weather prediction which still exists in a number
of manuscripts ^ and was printed in 1 507 at Venice, and in
1540 at Paris, together with a treatise on the same theme
by Albumasar, of whom we shall say more presently.^
interpretatione significantes res
antequam sint? et quare videamus
res facientes nos videre contra-
rium earum?"
" Spec, astron. cap. 7. Mora
fully the Incipit is, "Rogatus
fui quod manifestem consilia phil-
osophorum. . . ."
" Digby 68, 14th century, f ols.
124-35, Liber Alkindii de impres-
sionibus terre et aeris accidentibus.
CU Clare College 15 (Kk. 4, 2),
c. 1280, fols. 8-13, "In nomine dei
et eius laude Epistola Alkindi de
rebus aeribus et pluviis cum ser-
mone aggregate et utili de arabico
in latinum translata."
Steinschneider (1906) 32 gives
the title as De imprcssionibus
aeris, and suggests that it is the
same as a De pluviis or De
nubibus, which seems to be the
case, as they have the same In-
cipit— Steinschneider (1905) 13 —
as does a De imbribus in Digby
176, 14th century, fols. 61-63.
Steinschneider also suggested that
BN 7332, De imprcssionibus
planetarum was probably the
same treatise; and this is shown
to be true by the Explicit of Al-
kindi's treatise in another MS,
Cotton Appendix VI, fol. 6j,w,
"Explicit liber de imprcssionibus
planetarum secundum iacobum al-
kindi." See also BN 7316, 7328,
7440, 7482. _
The opening words of an anony-
mous Tractatus de meteorolo-
gia in Vienna 2385, 13th century,
fols. 46-49, show that it is the
Alkindi. A very similar treatise
on weather prediction, De subra-
diis planetarum or De pluviis,
is ascribed to Haly and exists in
three Digby MSS (67, fol. I2v;
93, fol. 183V; 147, fol. ii7v) and
in some other MSS noted by
Steinschneider. It belongs, I
suspect, together with a brief
Haly de dispositione aeris (Dig-
by 92, fol. 5) which Steinschnei-
der listed separately.
^ Some notion of the number
of these astrological treatises on
the weather may be had from the
following group of them in a
single MS.
Vienna 2436, 14th century,
fols. 134-6, "Finitur Hermanni
liber de ymbribus et pluviis"
136-8, lohannes Hispalensis, Trac-
tatus de mutatione aeris
139, Haomar de pluviis
139-40, Idem de qualitate aeris et
temporum
140, de pluvia, fulgure, tonitruis
et vento
on con-
junctions.
648 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Alkindi A majority, indeed, of the works by Alkindi extant in
astrologer. Latin translation are astrological.^ Several were translated
by Gerard of Cremona, and one or two by John of Spain
and Robert of Chester,^ Geomancies are attributed to
Alkindi in manuscripts at Munich.^ Loth notes concern-
ing Alkindi's astrology what we have already found to be
the case in his theories of radiation and magic art and of
divination by dreams; namely, that while he believes in
astrology unconditionally, he tries to pursue it as a science
in a scientific way, observing mathematical method and
physical laws — as they seemed to him — while he attacked
the vulgar superstitions which were popularly regarded as
astrology.
Alkindi The astrological treatise by Alkindi, of which Loth
edited the Arabic text, is a letter on the duration of the
empire of the Arabs. This bit of political prediction was,
as far as Loth knew, the first instance of the theory of
conjunctions in Arabian astrology. The theory was that
lesser conjunctions of the planets, which occur every twenty
years, middling conjunctions which come every two hun-
dred and forty years, and great conjunctions which occur
only every nine hundred and sixty years, exert a great in-
fluence not only upon the world of nature but upon po-
litical and religious events, and, especially the great con-
junctions, open new periods in history. Thus, as Loth says,
the conjunction is for the macrocosmos what the horoscope
is for man the microcosmos ; the one forecasts the fate of
140-1, Dorochius, De hora pluvie Achalis de Baldac philosophi de
et ventorum caloris et f rigoris f uturorum scientia ; Corpus Chris-
141, Idem, De hora pluvie ti 254, fol. 191, "de aspectibus" —
141-2, Alkindus, alias Dorochius, a fragment from a 14th century
De aeris qualitatibus MSS.
142, Idem, De imbribus * MSS of Robert's translation
143, Jergis, De pluviis of Alkindi's Judgments are nu-
198, 206, lacobus Alkindus, Liber merous in the Bodleian library :
de significationibus planeta- Digby 91, fol. 80-; Ashmole 179;
rum et eorum naturis, alias 209; 369; 434; and extracts from
de pluviis." it in other MSS. It opens,
* Their titles are listed by "Quamquam post Euclidem."
Steinschncider (1906) 99; 31-3. ^ CLM 392, 15th century, fol.
We may note EN 6978, 14th cen- 80-; 489, i6th century, fols, 207-21.
tury, Incipit epistola Alkindi
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
649
the individual ; the other, that of society. Loth knew of no
Latin translation of Alkindi's letter, and medieval writers in
Latin cite Albumasar usually as their authority on the sub-
ject of conjunctions. But Loth held that Albumasar, who
was a pupil of Alkindi, merely developed and popularized
the astrological theories of his master, and Loth showed that
Albumasar embodied our letter on the duration of the
Arabian empire in large part in his work On Great Con-
junctions without mentioning Alkindi as his authority.
Although a believer in astrology to the point of magic, Alkindi
and not unacquainted with metals as his work On the Prop- alchemy.
erties of Swords shows, Alkindi regarded the art of alchemy
as a deception and the pretended transmutation of other
metals into gold as false.^ He affirmed this especially in his
treatise entitled. The Deceits of the Alchemists, but also in
his other writings.^
Something further should be said concerning the Astrologi-
astrological treatises of Albumasar (Abu Ma'shar Ja'far of Albu-^
ben Muhammad al-Balkhi) whence also his briefer appella- ™asar.
tions, Japhar and D ja'far. He died in 886 and has been
called the most celebrated of all the ninth century Bagdad
astrologers, although he has also been accused of plagiarism,
as we have seen. In 1489 at Augsburg Erhard Ratdolt
published three of his works, the Greater Introduction to
Astronomy in eight books, the Flowers — which Roger Bacon
cites as severely condemning physicians who do not study
astrology ^ — and the eight books concerning great con-
junctions and revolutions of the years. Of these the Intro-
duction was translated both by John of Spain and Hermann
of Dalmatia, but the former translation, although found in
many manuscripts, remains unprinted. The Flores is found
in numerous manuscripts and was reprinted in 1495. The
'O. Loth (187s), pp. 271-2; at
280-2 he gives the Latin of the
passage in question from Albu-
masar, following the Arabic of
Alkindi at 273-9.
* E. Wiedemann in Journal f.
praktische Chemic, 1907, p. y3.
et seq.; cited by Lippmann (1919)
p. 399-
^ Bridges, Opus Mains, I, 262,
note.
6so
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
work on conjunctions and revolutions was printed again in
15 1 5 and also exists in many manuscripts.^ A French trans-
lation which Hagins the Jew, working for Henri Bate of
Malines, made in 1273 of "Le livre des revolutions de
siecle," of whose six chapters he translated only four,^
probably applied to a part of this work.
Albertus Magnus in the Speculum astronomiae, in listing
irreproachable works of astronomy and astrology, mentions
a "Book of Experiments" by Albumasar instead of the Con-
junctions and Revolutions along with his Flowers and Intro-
duction.^ This book of experiments by Albumasar is often
met with in the manuscripts. It is a different and shorter
work than that in eight parts on Conjunctions, but itself
^ Steinschneider (1905), p. 47.
" HL 21, 499-503.
^Spec. astron. cap. 6. He gives
the Incipit of the Experiments of
Albumasar as "Scito horam introi-
tus" which serves to identify it
with the following :
Amplon. Quarto 365, 12th cen-
tury, fols. 1-18, liber experimen-
torum.
Ashmole 369-V, 13th century,
fols. 103-23V, ". . . . incipit liber
in revolutione annorum mundi.
Perfectus est liber experimento-
rum . . ."
Ashmole 393, isth century, fol.
95v, "Item Albumasar de revolu-
tionibus annorum mundi sive de
experimentis . . ."
BN 16204, 13th century, pp. 302-
333. "Revolutio annorum mundi
. . . Perfectus est liber experi-
mentorum Albumasar . . ."
Arsenal 880, 15th century, fol. i-.
Arsenal 1036, 14th century, fol.
1 04V.
Dijon 1045, iSth century, fol.
81-.
Other MSS containing Experi-
ments of Albumasar but where I
am not sure of the wording of
the Incipit are :
Laud. Misc. 594, I4-I5th cen-
tury, fol. 123-, Liber experimen-
torum.
Harleian i, fols. 31-41, de ex-
perimentis in revolutione anno-
rum mundi.
CLM SI, 1487, and 1503.
Vienna 2436, 14th century, fol-
lowing John of Spain's translation
of the Introductorium magnum at
fols. 1-85 and a Liber magnarum
coniunctionum at fols. 144-98,
comes at fol. 242, "Liber experi-
mentorum seu Capitula stellarum
oblata regi magno Sarracenorum
ab Albumasore." The Incipit
here is "Dispositio est ut dicam
ab ariete sic initium" but the
treatise is incomplete.
In some MS at Oxford which
I cannot now identify the Flores
of Albumasar close with the state-
ment that the book of Experi-
ments will follow. A different
hand then adds "The following
work is Albumazar on the revo-
lutions of years," while a third
hand adds the explanation, "And
according to some authorities it
and the book of experiments are
one," which is the case.
In some MSS, however, another
treatise on revolutions accom-
panies the Experiments. In
Amplon. Quarto 365 it is fol-
lowed at fols. 18-27 by Sentencie
de revolucione annorum, while in
Laud. Misc. 594 it is preceded at
fol. 106 by Liber Albumasar de
revolutionibus annorum, collectus
a Aoribus antiquorum philosopho-
rum, which is the same as the
Flores.
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
6si
deals with the subject of revolutions. It is not, however,
to be confused with still another work by Albumasar on
revolutions as connected with nativities.^
Another work on astrology with which the name of Albu-
Albumasar is connected is cited by medieval writers, notably Sadan^^
Peter of Abano,^ as Albumasar in Sadan (or Sadam),
and is also found in Latin manuscripts where it is also
called "Excerpts from the Secrets of Albumasar." ^ Stein-
schneider regarded the Latin translation as a shortened or
incomplete version of an Arabic original entitled al-Mudsa-
karef, or Memorabilia by Abu Sa'id Schadsan, who wrote
down the answers of his teacher to his questions."* There
is also a Greek text, entitled Mysteries, which differs con-
siderably from the Latin and of which Sadan perhaps made
use.^ The Latin version might be described as a miscel-
laneous collection of astrological teachings, anecdotes, and
actual cases of Albumasar gathered up by his disciples and
somewhat resembling Luther's Table-Talk in form.
We have already alluded to the treatise on weather pre- Book of
diction by Albumasar which was printed with a similar *'^*"'^-
' The distinction between these
various works is made quite clear
in BN 16204, 13th century, where
at pp. 1-183 is John of Spain's
translation of the Liber introduc-
torius maior in eight parts ; at
183-302 the Conjunctions, also in
eight parts ; at 302-333 the Revo-
lutio annorutn mundi or Liber
experitncntorum ; at 333-353 the
Flores, and at 353-369 the De revo-
lutione annorutn in revolutione
nattT/itatum, which opens "Omne
tentpus breve est operandi . . . "
At the same time the Explicit of
this treatise bears witness to the
ease with which these works of
Albumasar are confused, for it
was at first written, "Explicit liber
albumcLsar de revolutione anno-
rutn tnundi," and some other hand
has crossed out this last word and
substituted "natizntatis."
'Conciliator, Diff. 156.
'Laud. Misc. 594, i4-i5th cen-
tury, fols. 137-41, Liber Sadan, sive
Albumasar in Sadan. "Dixit
Sadan, Audivi Albumayar dicen-
tem quod omnis vita viventium
post Deum est sol et luna /
Expliciunt excerpta de secretis
Albumasar."
Cat. cod. astrol. Graec. V, i,
142, quotes from a 15th century
MS, "Expliciunt excerpta de sec-
retis Albumasaris per Sadan dis-
cipulum cuius (eius?) et vocatur
liber Albumasaris in Sadan."
The treatise, according to
Steinschneider (1906), 36-8, is
also found in Amplon. Quarto 352.
CLM 826, 14th century, written
and illuminated in Bohemia, fols.
27-Z2, Tractatus de nativitatibus,
"Dixit Zadan : audivi Albumazar
dicentem . . .'[
■"Steinschneider (1906), 36-38.
" Cat. cod. astrol. Graec. V, 1,
142. In Vienna MS 10583, 15th
century, 99 fols., we find a "de
revolutionibus nativitatum" by
Albumasar "greco in latinum."
652 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
work by Alkindi in 1507 and 1540, and also often accom-
panies it in the manuscripts. In this "book of rains accord-
ing to the Indians" ^ Albumasar is variously disguised
under the names of Gaphar, Jafar, and lafar and is called
an Indian, Egyptian, or Babylonian.^ In his Latin transla-
tion of it Hugo Sanctellensis tells his patron, the "antistes
Michael" that the treatise was written by Gaphar, an ancient
astrologer of India, and has since been abbreviated by a
Tillemus or Cilenius or Cylenius Mercurius.^ To Japhar is
also attributed a Minor Isagoga to astronomy in seven lec-
tures or sernwnes, which Adelard of Bath is said to have
translated from the Arabic.^
We turn next to Costa ben Luca, or Qusta ibn Luqa, of
Baalbek, and especially to his treatise On Physical Ligatures,
or more fully, The Epistle concerning Incantations, Adjura-
tions, and Suspensions from the Neck. The scientific im-
portance of Costa ben Luca may be seen from the circum-
stance that the Mechanica of Hero of Alexandria, of which
the Greek text is for the most part lost, has been preserved
in the Arabic translation which Costa prepared in 862-866
* BN 7316, 15th century, #13, iudicia prout Indorum . . ."
liber imbrium secundos Indos ... ^ The text printed in 1507 and
authore Jafar; so too BN 7329, 1540 is Hugo's translation. So
15th century, #6; BN 7316 S16, is Bodleian 463 (Bernard 2456)
de mutatione temporum secun- 14th century, fols. 2or-24r, "In-
dum Indos, seems, however, to be cipit liber imbrium editum a lafar
another anonymous treatise on astrologo et a lenio et mer-
the same subject. Perhaps the curio (Cilenio Mercurio) correc-
following, although not so listed to." See also Savile 15 (Bernard
in the catalogue, is by Albumasar. 6561), Liber imbrium ab antiquo
Digby 194, fol. 147V- "Sapientes Indorum astrologo nomine Jafar
Indi de pluviis indicant secundum editus, deinde a Cylenio Mercurio
lunam, considerantes ipsius man- abbreviatus.
siones / quum dominus aspectus ■• Digby 68, 14th century, fol.
aspicit dominum vel est ei con- 116- "Ysagoga minor Japharis ma-
junctus." thematici in astronomiam per Ad-
^ Corpus Christi 233, I3-I5th helardum Bathoniencem ex Ara-
century, fol. 122- "Japhar philo- bico sumpta. Quicunque philoso-
sophi ct astrologi Aegyptii. Cum phie scienciam altiorem studio
multa et varia de nubium congre- constanti inquireris . . ."
gatione precepta Indorum traxit Sloane 2030, fols. 83-86V, ac-
auctoritas . . ." cording to Haskins in EHR
Cod. Cantab. Ii-I-13, "Incipit (1913), but my notes, which it is
liber Gaphar de temporis muta- now too late to verify, suggest
tione qui dicitur Geazar Babilo- that it is a fragment occupying
niensis. Universa astronomiae less than a page at fol. 87.
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
653
for the caliph al-Musta. Several manuscripts of this Arabic
text are still extant at Cairo, Constantinople, Leyden, and
London, and it has been twice printed.^
The vi^ork in which we are more especially interested has Latin ver-
also been printed in editions of the works of Galen, of Con- l\^^^ 9^ ,
. ' • his Eptstle
stantinus Africanus, of Arnald of Villanova, and of Henry
Cornelius Agrippa.^ The treatise is also attributed to Rasis
in the library at Montpellier.^ Its inclusion among Galen's
works is a manifest error; in the edition of Agrippa it is
appended as The Letter of an Unknown Author (Epistola
incerti authoris) ; while Arnald is represented as translating
the work from Greek — a language of which he was ignorant
— into Latin. He could read Arabic, however, and per-
haps rendered the treatise from that language.* But it had
certainly been translated before his time,, the end of the thir-
teenth century, and presumably by Constantinus Africanus,
cioi 5-1087, since it not merely appears in his printed works
but is found together with an imperfect copy of his Pantegni
in a manuscript of the twelfth century.^ In a fifteenth cen-
tury manuscript Unayn or Honein ben Ishak is named as
the author of our treatise, but this seems to be a mistake.®
Albertus Magnus in the middle of the thirteenth century
cites our treatise both in his Vegetables and Plants,'^ where
he alludes to "the books of incantations of Hermes the
philosopher and of Costa ben Luca the philosopher, and the
books of physical ligatures," and in his Minerals,^ where
* By Carra de Vaux in lournal
asiatique, pe scrie, I, 386, II, 152,
420, with a French translation ;
and by Nix, Leipzig, 1900, with
a German translation, also printed
separately in 1894.
^ Galen, ed. Chart. X, 571 ; Con-
stantinus Africanus, ed. Basel,
1536, pp. 317-21 ; Arnald of Vil-
lanova, Opera. Lyons, 1532, fol.
295, and also in other editions of
his works ; H. C. Agrippa, Occult
Philosophy, Lyons, 1600, pp. 637-
40.
"HL XXVIII, 78-9.
* Idem.
"Additional 22719, 12th century,
fol. 200V, "Quesivisti fili karissime
de incantatione adjuratione cplli
suspensione . . ." In view of tkis
and the citations of the work by
Albertus Magnus who wrote be-
fore Arnald of Villanova, I can-
not agree with Steinschneider
(1905), pp. 6 and 12, in denying
that Constantinus translated the
work and in ascribing the trans-
lation exclusively to Arnald.
"Florence II, III, 214, 15th
century, fols. 72-4, "Liber Unayn
de incantatione. Quesisti fili karis-
sime . . ."
' De vegetahilibus, V, ii, 6.
^Mineral. II, ii, 7, and II, iii, 6.
654
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Form
of the
epistle.
Incanta-
tions
directly
afifect
the mind
alone.
the Liber de ligaturis physicis, as he calls it, is the source
whence he has borrowed statements concerning gems as-
cribed to Aristotle and Dioscorides.
Our treatise is in the form of a reply by Costa ben Luca
to someone whom he addresses as "dearest son" and who
has asked him what validity there is in incantations, adjura-
tions, and suspensions from one's neck, and what the books
of the Greeks and Indians have to say upon these matters.
The wording of Costa's epistle varies considerably in the
printed editions owing probably to careless interpretation
of the manuscripts or careless copying by the earlier scribes,
but its general tenor is the same.
Costa first affirms that all the ancients have agreed that
the virtue of the mind affects the state of the body. Galen
in particular is cited as to the effect of passions upon health
and the advisability of the physician's cheering the minds
of gloomy patients even by resort to deception to a limited
extent, if it seems necessary. A perfect mind generally goes
with a perfect body and an imperfect mind with an imper-
fect body, as is seen in the case of children, old men, and
women, or in the inhabitants of the intemperate zones,
either torrid Ethiopia or the frozen north. Here one text
specifies Scotland (Scotie) ; another, Schytie, which is per-
haps intended for Scythia. Costa therefore argues that if
anyone believes that an incantation will help him, he will at
least be benefited by his own confidence. And if a person is
constantly afraid that incantations may be directed against
him, he may easily fret himself into a fever. This, Costa
thinks, was what Socrates had in mind when he described
incantations as "words deceiving rational souls by their in-
terpretation or by the fear they produce or by despair."
According to Albertus Magnus, who embodies a good deal
of Costa's Epistle in his Minerals, Socrates said more fully
that incantations, or perhaps better, enchantments, were
made in four ways, namely, by suspending or binding on
objects, by imprecations or adjurations, by characters, and
by images; and that they dement rational souls so that they
XXVIII ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 655
fall into fear and despair or rise to joy and confidence; and
that through these accidents of the mind bodies are altered
either in the direction of heahh or of chronic infirmity.^
Costa states that the medical men of India believe that in-
cantations and adjurations are beneficial. But he says noth-
ing to indicate that they, much less the Greeks or himself,
have faith in the efficacy of incantations or words to work
changes in matter per se or directly, nor does he say any-
thing to indicate that demons may be summoned and given
orders by this method. Perhaps his discussion of incanta-
tions is a trifle constrained and not sufficiently outspoken,
but it is moderate and scientific and shows a fair degree of
scepticism for that period, especially when we compare it
with Alkindi's attitude towards the power of words.
Costa ben Luca's attitude towards sorcery seems the Men
same as towards incantations. He concludes his discussion [^itm^
of this point by a story of "a certain great noble of our selves be-
country" who had convinced himself that he had been be-
witched and consequently became impotent. After vainly
endeavoring to convince him that this was simply due to
his imagination, Costa decided that there was nothing to
do but humor him in his delusion. He therefore showed
him a passage in The Book of Cleopatra which prescribed
as an aphrodisiac the anointing of the entire body with the
gall of a crow mixed with sesame.^ The noble followed the
prescription and had so much faith in it that his imaginary
complaint disappeared.
Finally Costa considers the question of the validity of How are
amulets, or ligatures and suspensions, which we have heard efifective?
Socrates class with incantations, adjurations, characters, and
images. Costa says that he has read in many works by the
ancients that objects suspended from the neck are potent
not through their natural, but their occult properties. He
will not deny that this may be so, but is inclined as before
^Mineral. II, iii, 6 (ed. Borgnet, word: it is sizamelon in one text,
V, 55-6). sesameleon in another.
*I am not certain as to this
6s6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Citations
from the
lapidary
of the
Pseudo-
Aristotle.
From
Galen and
Dioscor-
ides.
Occult
virtue.
to attribute the result rather to the comforting effect which
such things have upon one's mind. He proceeds, however,
to list a number of suspensions recommended by ancient
writers.
First he cites from "Aristotle in the Book of Stones," a
spurious treatise of which we shall have more to say in the
chapter on Aristotle in the middle ages, a number of ex-
amples of the marvelous powers of gems worn suspended
from the neck or set in a ring upon the finger. One augments
the flow of saliva, another checks the flow of blood. The
stone hyacinth enables its bearer to pass safely through a
pestilent region, and makes him honored in men's thoughts
and procures the granting of his petitions by rulers. The
emerald wards off epilepsy, "wherefore we often prescribe
to nobles that their children should wear this stone hung
about the neck lest they incur this infirmity."
Costa also cites some recommendations of ligatures and
suspensions from Galen, such as curing stomach-ache by
suspending coral about the neck or abdomen, or the dung
of wolves who have eaten bones, which should preferably
be bound on with a thread made from the wool of a sheep
eaten by that wolf. To Dioscorides are attributed such
amulets as the teeth of a mad dog who has bit a man, which
will safeguard their wearer from ever being so bitten —
and it would be somewhat of a coincidence, if he were —
and the seed of wild saffron which, held in the hand or worn
about the neck, is good for the stings of scorpions. The
Indians are cited for what is a recipe rather than an amulet :
stercum elephantiniim cum melle mixtum et in i/ulva
midieris podtum numquam permittit concipere. And some
say that a woman who spits thrice in a frog's mouth will
not conceive for a year. A number of other examples are
given without mention of any particular authority. Some
of them, indeed, are very familiar and could be found in
many authors, and we shall meet them in other contexts.
Costa concludes by saying that he himself has not tested
these statements extracted from the works of the ancients,
xxviii ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 657
but that neither will he deny them, since there exist in nature
many strange phenomena and inexplicable forces. We
would not believe that the magnet attracts iron, if we had
not seen it. Similarly lead breaks adamant which iron can-
not break. There is a stone which no furnace can consume
and a fish which paralyzes the hand of the person catching
it. These strange properties act in some subtle and mighty
fashion which is not perceptible to our senses and which we
cannot account for by reasoning.^ But it is noteworthy that
as in discussing incantations Costa said nothing of demons,
so he fails to ascribe occult virtue to the influence of the
stars.
Another treatise by Costa ben Luca, On the Difference On the
between Soul and Spirit," has little to do with occult science, ^^ff^^^^<^^
' ' ^ ' between
but gives too good a glimpse of medieval notions in the Soul and
field of physiological psychology to pass it by. It was trans-
lated into Latin by John of Spain for Archbishop Raymond
of Toledo in the twelfth century,^ and is found in many
manuscripts, often together with the works of Aristotle.*
Probably by a confusion of the names Costa ben Luca and
Constantinus ^ it was printed among the latter's works,®
* "Quorum enim actio ex pro- or 14th century mostly: BN 6319,
prietate est non rationibus, unde Itii; 6322, Sri; 6323, S6; 6323A;
sic comprehendi non potest. Ra- 6325, #17; 6567A; 6569; 8247;
tionibus enim tantum comprehen- 16082; 16083; 16088; 16142; 16490.
duntur que sensibus subministran- ° Specific illustrations of such
tur. Aliquando ergo quedam sub- confusions between the two names
stantie habent proprietatem ratione in the MSS are: BN 6296, 14th
incomprehensibilem propter sui century, ttis, "... authore filio
subtilitatem et sensibus non sub- Lucae Medici Constabolo" ; Brus-
ministratum propter altitudinem sels, Library of Dukes of Bur-
sui magnam." I doubt if these gundy 2784, 12th century, "Con-
last three words refer to the in- staben" ; Sloane 2454, late 13th
fluence of the stars. century, "Liber differentiae inter
^ Liber de differentia spiritus animam et spiritum quern Con-
et animae, or De differentia inter stantinus Luce amico suo scrip-
animam et spiritum. The pro- tori Regis edidit."
logue opens : "Interrogasti me — ° Constantinus Af ricanus, Ope-
honoret te Deus ! — de differen- ra, Basel, 1536, pp. 307-17, "Qui
tia . . ." voluerit scire differentiam, que est
* Steinschneider (1866), p. 404; inter duas res .../.. . Hec
(1905), p. 43, "wovon ich das igitur de differentiis spiritus et
Original in Gotha 1158 erkannte." anime tibi dicta sufficiant, valeto."
■"So in Corpus Christi 114, late Edited more recently by S
13th century, fol. 229, and at Paris Barach, Innsbruck, 1878, pp. 120-
in the following MSS of the 13th 39.
658 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
and indeed we find very similar views in his Pantegni ^ and
in his treatise On Melancholy. The work has also been as-
cribed to Augustine,^ Isaac,^ Avicenna,^ Alexander Neckam,
Thomas of Cantimpre, and Albertus Magnus.^ A different
work with a similar title and somewhat similar contents is
the De spiritu et anima, which is printed with the works
of Augustine ® but which cites such later authors as Boe-
thius, Isidore, Bede, Alcuin, St. Bernard, and Hugh of St.
Victor, to whom also it has been attributed.'^ Thomas
Aquinas called it the work of an anonymous Cistercian.^
But to return to our treatise.
The na- Costa ben Luca has, as we have hinted, some diverting
^spkitus passages in the fields of physiological psychology. He be-
lieves in the existence of spiritus, which is not spirit in one
of our senses of that word, but "a subtle body," unlike the
soul which is incorporeal. This subtle spiritus perishes when
separated from the body and it operates most of the vital
processes of the body such as breathing and the pulse, sensa-
tion and movement. The two former processes are operated
by spiritus "arising from the heart and borne in the pulsat-
ing veins to vivify the body." The two latter processes are
caused by spiritus which arises from the brain and operates
through the nerves. Thus spiritus is the cause of life in
the body and it leaves this mortal frame with our dying
gasp. The clearer and more subtle this spiritus is, the more
readily it lends itself to mental processes, while the more
perfect the human body, the more perfect the spiritus and
the human mind. Hence the intellectual powers of children
and women are inferior, and the same is true of races sub-
jected to excessive heat or cold like the Ethiopians or Slays.
* Theorica, III, 12. de differencia spiritus et anime."
* Corpus Christi 154, late 13th " So says Coxe, anent Corpus
century, pp. 356-74, ascribed to Christi 114, and Steinschneider
Augustine in both Titulus and (iQOS), P- 43-
Explicit. ° Migne, PL 40, 779-^32.
^ S. Marco 179, 14th century, ' By Trithemius ; but earlier so
fols. 57-9, 83, Liber Ysaac de dif- cited by Vincent of Beauvais
ferentia spiritus et animae. (PL 40, 779-80). See also Exon.
* CU Gonvillc and Caius 109, 23, 13th century, fol. ig6v.
13th century, fols. i-6v, "Avicenna "Migne, PL 40, 779-80.
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
659
Here we have the same views repeated as in the Epistle con-
cerning Incantation. Some physicians and philosophers
think that there are two vessels in the heart and that there
is more spiritus than blood in the left hand vessel and more
blood than spiritus in the right hand vessel. The spiritus
in the brain becomes more subtle and apt to receive the
virtues of the soul by its passage from one cavity of the
brain to another. The less subtle spiritus the brain uses
for the five senses; Costa speaks of "hollow nerves" from
the brain to the eye through which the spiritus passes for
the purpose of vision. The most subtle spiritus is employed
in the higher mental processes such as imagination, memory,
and reason.
Costa ben Luca gives an amusing explanation of how
these processes take place in the brain. The opening be-
tween the anterior and posterior ventricles of the brain is
closed by a sort of valve which he describes as "a particle
of the body of the brain similar to a worm." When a man
is in the act of recalling something to memory, this valve
opens and the spiritus passes from the anterior to the pos-
terior cavity. Moreover, the speed with which this valve
works or responds dififers in different brains, and this fact
explains why some men are of slow memory and why others
answer a question so much sooner. The habit of inclining
the head when deep in cogitation is also to be explained
as tending to open this valve. However, the relative
subtlety of the spiritus is another important factor in intel-
lectual ability.
Other medieval writers differed somewhat from these
views of Costa ben Luca as to the nature of spiritus and
the cavities of the brain. For instance, Constantinus
Africanus in his treatise On Melancholy states that the
spiritus of the brain is called the rational soul, which is
inconsistent with the distinction drawn between soul and
spirit in the other treatise. In the eleventh century both
Constantinus in his Pantegni and Anatomy or De humana
Thought
explained
phj'sio-
logically.
Views of
other
medieval
writers.
66o MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
natura,^ and Petrocellus the Salemitan in his Practica; ^ in
the twelfth century both Hildegard of Bingen ^ and the
Pseudo-Augustinian Liber de spiritu et anima; ^ in the
thirteenth century both Bartholomew of England, who
seems to cite Johannitius (Hunain ibn Ishak) on this point,^
and Vincent of Beauvais agree that the brain has three main
cavities. The first is phantastic, from which the senses are
controlled, where the sensations are registered, and where
the process of imagination goes on. The middle cell is
logical or rational, and there the forms received from the
senses and imagination are examined and judged. The
third cell retains such forms as pass this examination and
so is the seat of memory.® The Pseudo-Augustine, however,
represents it further as the source of motor activity. Con-
stantinus and Vincent of Beauvais, who quotes him in the
thirteenth century, further distinguish the phantastic cavity
as hot and dry, the logical cell as cold and moist, and the
seat of memory as cold and dry. Moreover, the phantastic
cell which multiplies forms contains a great deal of spiritus
and very little medulla, while the cell of memory which re-
tains the smaller number of forms selected by reason con-
tains much medulla and little spiritus. Thus the general
point of view of these other authors resembles that of Costa
ben Luca despite the divergence from him in details. They
perhaps also owe something to Augustine, who in his genuine
works speaks of the three cells of the brain but makes the
* Both passages were excerpted ® Similarly E. G. Browne (1921),
by Vincent of Beauvais, Specu- p. 123, writing of Arabian medi-
lum naturale, XXIX, 41. cine and Avicenna, says, "Corre-
" De Renzi (1852-9) IV, 189; sponding with the five external
Petrocellus is very brief on the senses, taste, touch, hearing,
cells of the brain. smelling, and seeing, are the five
'Singer (1917), pp. 45 and 51, internal senses, of which the first
has noted that Hildegard's de- and second, the compound sense
scription of the brain as divided (or 'sensus communis') and the
into three chambers is anteceded imagination, are located in the an-
by the Liber de humana natura terior ventricle of the brain; the
of Constantinus, and contained "in third and fourth, the co-ordinat-
the writings of St. Augustine." ing and emotional faculties, in the
* PL 40, 795, cap. 22. mid-brain ; and the fifth, the mem-
'^De proprietatibus rerum, III, cry, in the hind-brain." Galen had
10 and 16; V, 3. somewhat similar ideas.
XXVIII ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 66i
hind-brain the center of motor activity, and the mid-brain
the seat of memory.^
Thabit ibn Kurrah ibn Marwan ibn Karaya ibn Ibrahim Thebit
ibn Marines ibn Salamanos (Abu Al Hasan) Al Harrani ^orat
or Thabit ben Corrah ben Zahrun el Harrani, or Tabit ibn
Qorra ibn Merwan, Abu'l-Hasan, el-Harrani, or Thabit ben
Qorrah or Thabit ibn Qurra, or Tabit ibn Korrah, or Thabit
ben Korra, as he is variously designated by modern
scholars ; - or Thebit ben Corat, or Thebith ben Corath, or
Thebit filius Core, or Thebites filius Chori, also Tabith, Te-
bith, Thabit, Thebeth, Thebyth, and Benchorac, ben corach,
etc., as we find it in the medieval Latin versions — Thebit
ben Corat seems the prevalent medieval spelling and so
will be adopted here — was born at Harran in Mesopotamia
about 836, spent much of his life at Bagdad, and lived until
about 901.^ He wrote in Arabic as well as Syriac, but was
not a Mohammedan, and Roger Bacon alludes to him as
"the supreme philosopher among all Christians, who has
added in many respects, speculative as well as practical, to
the work of Ptolemy." "* As a matter of fact, he was a
heathen or pagan, a member of the sect of Sabians, whose
chief seat was at his birth-place, Harran.
The Sabians appear to have continued the paganism The
and astrology of Babylonia, but also to have accepted the
Agathodaemon and Hermes of Egypt,^ and to have had
relations with Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism. They seem
to have laid especial stress upon the spirits of the planets,^
to whom they made prayers, sacrifices, and suffumigations,^
while days on which the planets reached their culminating-
* De Gencsi ad litteram, VII, 18 tain whether the length of his
(PL 34, 364). life is given in lunar or solar
^The fullest treatment of him years: see Chwolson, I, 532-3,
will be found in D. A. Chwolson, 547-8. _
Die Ssabier und der Ssabismns, ''Bridges, I, 394.
Petrograd, 1856, 2 vols., passim. ^ Carra de Vaux, Azncenne,
For a list of his v^orks see Stein- Paris, 1900, p. 68.
Schneider. Zeitschrift f. Math., "Chwolson, II, 406, 422, 431,
XVIII, 331-38. 440, 453, 610, 703.
'There is some difficulty with 'Ibid.. I. 741; II, 7, 258, 386,
these dates or their Arabic equiv- 677, etc.
alents, because we are not cer-
Sabians.
662
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Thebit's
relations
to Sabi-
anism.
points were celebrated as festivals.^ They observed the
houses and stations of the planets, their risings and settings,
conjunctions and oppositions, and rule over certain hours
of the day and night,^ Some planets were masculine, others
feminine ; some lucky, others unlucky ; ^ they were related
to different metals ; * the different members of the human
body were placed under different signs of the zodiac;^
and in general each planet had its own appropriate figures
and forms, and ruled over certain climates, regions, and
things ® in nature. Most of this, however, is astrological
commonplace whether of pagans, Mohammedans, or Chris-
tians. Nor were the Sabians peculiar in associating in-
tellectual substances or spirits with the planets.'^ It was
only in worshiping these and denying the existence of one
God and in their practice of sacrificial divination that they
could be distinguished as heathen or pagan. However, they
seem to have devoted a rather unusual amount of attention
to astrology and other forms of magic such as oracular
heads, ^ magic knots and figures,® and seal-rings carved
with peculiar animal figures. These last they often buried
with the dead for a time in order to increase their virtue. -^^
Thebit, at any rate, seems to have prided himself upon
being a descendant of pagan antiquity. In a passage prais-
ing his native town he said, "We are the heirs and posterity
of heathenism," ^^ and he described with veneration a ruined
Greek temple at Antioch,^^ He had, however, some religious
disagreement with the Sabians of Harran and was finally
forced to leave. ^^ He met a philosopher who took him to
Bagdad where he became one of the Caliph's astronomers ^*
and founded there a Sabian community to his own taste.
'Chwolson, II, 386-97, 500, 525,
530, 676.
"Ibid., I, 737,
'Ibid., II, 30, 373.
*Ibid., II, 411, 658, 839.
Ubid., II, 253.
"Ibid., I, 738.
'Ibid., I, 733-4,
^Ibid., II, 19, 148, 150.
''Ibid., II, 21, 138-9,
"^Ibid., I, 526; II, 141,
" Quoted by Bishop Gregory
Bar-hebraeus in his Syrian Chron-
icle: Chwolson, I, 177-80.
"Chwolson, I, 195; II, 623,
"Ibid., I, 482-3.
" Again there seems to be un-
certainty as to dates, since the
Arabic sources name a caHph who
was not contemporary with the
philosopher in question : Chwol-
son, I, 548-9,
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
663
His numerous religious writings show the value which he
attached to various Sabian usages and rites : ceremonials
at burials, hours of prayer, rules of purity and impurity
and concerning the animals to be sacrificed, readings in
honor of the difTferent planets.^
Thebit was a writer of encyclopedic range and trans-
lated from the Greek ^ into Arabic or Syriac such authors
as Apollonius, Archimedes, Aristotle, Euclid, Hippocrates,
and Galen. He "was famed above all as a philosopher," ^
but most of his philosophical works are lost, but some geo-
metrical treatises by him are extant, and a work on weights
appears in Latin translation.'* A group of four astronomical
treatises by him also occurs with fair frequency in medieval
manuscripts.^ On the basis of these specimens of his as-
tronomy Delambre was not moved to assign him any great
place in the history of the science ; ^ Chwolson objects that
they are too brief to do him justice,''^ but they are probably
the cream of his own contributions to the subject or the
middle ages would not have translated and preserved them
so sedulously.
Whatever Thebit's contributions to positive knowledge
may or may not have been, there is no dispute as to the fact
that he was given to occult science and even superstition.
His attitude towards alchemy, indeed, is doubtful, as a
work of alchemy is ascribed to him in one manuscript of
'Chwolson, I, 485. Chwolson ® Harleian 13, fol. 118- Thebit
perhaps lays himself open a little de motu octave spere; fol. I20v-
to the charge of arguing in a cir-
cle, since Thebit's writings are his
main source concerning Sabian-
ism.
^ Ibid., I, 553-64, for a list of his
translations of, extracts from, and
commentaries upon Greek works.
^Ibid., I, 484.
■•BN 10260, i6th century, "In-
cipit liber Karastoni de ponderi-
bus .../... editus a Thebit
filio Core." Also in BN ysyyB, 14-
15th century, S3; 7424, 14th cen-
tury, S6; Vienna 5203, 15th cen-
tury, fols. 172-80. For other MSS
see Bjornbo (1911) 140.
Liber Thebith ben Corath de his
qui indigent expositione ante-
quam legitur Almagestum ; 123-
Liber Thebit de ymaginatione
spere et circulorum eius diver-
sorum ; 124V- Liber Thebith de
quantitatibus stellarum et plane-
tarum.
Also in Harl. 3647, #11-14;
Tanner 192, 14th century, fol.
103- ; BN 7195, 14th century, S12-
15; Magliabech. XI-117, 14th cen-
tury; CUL 1767 (li. Ill, 3) 1276
A. D., fols. 86-96; and many other
MSS.
'Delambre (1819) 73.
' Chwolson, I, 551.
Thebit
as ency-
clopedist,
philoso-
pher, as-
tronomer.
His occujt
science.
664
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the fourteenth century and some notes against the art in
another.^ But of his adhesion to astrology there is no
doubt," and Chwolson notes his interest in the mystic power
of letters and magic combinations of them.^ But the one
outstanding example of his occult science is his treatise on
images, which seems to have been a favorite with the Latin
middle ages, since it appears to have been translated into
Latin twice, by Adelard of Bath ^ and by John of Seville,^
*BN 6514, #10, Thebit de alchy-
mia; Amplon. Quarto 312, written
before 1323 A. D., fol. 29,
Notule Thebith contra alchimiam.
^A work on judgments is as-
cribed to him in a Munich MS,
CLM 588, 14th century, fol. 189-
Thebites de iudiciis; followed by,
220- Liber iudicialis Ptolomei, 233-
Libellus de iudiciis, and 238-
Modus iudicandi. The treatise
on fifteen stars, fifteen herbs, and
fifteen stones, which as we have
seen is usually ascribed to Hermes
or Enoch, is attributed to Thebit
in at least one MS, BN 7^37, page
129-.
'I, 551.
* Lyons 328, fols. 70-74, Liber
prestigiorum Thebidis (Elbidis)
secundum Ptolemeum et Herme-
tem per Adhelardum bathonien-
sem translatus, opening, "Qui-
cunque geometria atque philosopia
peritus astronomiae expers fuerit
ociosus est." In this MS the
treatise closes with the words, "ut
prestigiorum artifex facultate
non decidat." This seems to be
the only MS known where the
translation is ascribed to Adelard
of Bath. It seems to have once
been part of Avranches 235, 12th
century, where the same title is
listed in the table of contents.
Haskins, in EHR (1911) 495, fails
to identify the work, calling it
"a treatise on horoscopes." It is
to be noted, however, that Al-
bertus Magnus in listing bad nec-
romantic books on images in the
Speculum astronomiae (cap. xi,
Borgnet, X, 641) gives the same
Incipit for a liber praestigiorum
by Hermes, "Qui geometriae aut
philosophiae peritus, expers astro-
nomiae fuerit . . .** Undoubtedly
the two were the same.
® Of John of Seville's translation
the MSS are more numerous. The
following will serve as a repre-
sentative. Royal 12-C-XVIII,
14th century, fols. I0v-i2r, "Dixit
thebyth bencorat et dixit aristo-
teles qui philosophiam et geomet-
riam exercet et omnem scien-
tiam legit et ab astronomia va-
cuus fuerit erit occupatus et
vacuus quod dignior geometria et
altior philosophia est ymaginum
scientia. / Explicit tractatus de
imaginibus Thebith Bencorath
translatus a lohanne Hyspalensi
atque Limiensi in Limia ex Ara-
bico in Latinum. Sit laus dec
maximo."
This is the version cited by
Michael Scot in his Liber Intro-
duct orius (Bodleian 266, fol. 200)
where he gives the Incipit, "Dixe-
runt enim thebith benchorath et
aristoteles quod si quis philoso-
phiam . . . ," etc., substantially as
above.
But now comes a good joke on
Albertus, who has listed among
good astronomical books of
images (Speculum astronomiae,
cap. xi, Borgnet, p. 642) the work
of "Thebith eben chorath" open-
ing "Dixit A. qui philosophi-
am . . ." which of course is that
just mentioned. Thus he con-
demns one translation of the same
book and approves the other ; is
he perhaps having some fun at
the expense of the opponents of
both astrology and necromancy?
It will be noted that it is Aris-
totle, rather than Hermes or
Ptdiuny, who is cited at the start
ii; jo'.iu of Seville's translation. I
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
66s
since the manuscripts of it are numerous/ and it also was
printed,^ and since Thebit is cited as an authority on the
subject of images by such medieval writers as Roger Bacon,
Albertus Magnus,^ the author of Picatrix,^ Peter of Abano,^
and Cecco d'Ascoli.^
The work begins by emphasizing the need of a knowl-
edge of astronomy in order to perform feats of magic
(praestigia) . The images described are astronomical or
astrological and must be constructed under prescribed con-
stellations in order to fulfill the end sought. Often, how-
ever, they are human forms rather than astronomical figures.
It is not necessary to engrave them upon gems; Thebit ex-
pressly states that the material of which they are made or
therefore am uncertain whether
Chwolson has our Jreatise in
mind, when he speaks of Thebit's
commenting upon "eine pseudo-
hermetische Schrift iiber TaHs-
mane u.s.w." In the printed text
of 1559 Aristotle and Ptolemy are
cited in the first paragraph, but in
the MSS Aristotle is cited twice.
^ Some other MSS differ slight-
ly from the foregoing in their
opening words, but perhaps not
enough to sjuggest a third transla-
tion:
Ashmole 346, i6th century, fols.
113-15V, "Incipit liber de ymagi-
nibus secundum Thebit. In no-
mine pii et misericordis Dei.
Dixit Thebit qui geometric aut
philosophic expers fuerit."
Bodleian 463 (Bernard 2456),
written in Spain, 14th century,
fols. 75r-75v, "Dixit thebit ben-
corat Ar. qui legit phylosophiam
et geumetriam et omnem scien-
tiam et alienus fuerit ab astrono-
mia erit impeditus vel occupatus."
The following MSS ascribe the
translation to John of Spain and
have the usual opening words,
"Dixit Thebit ben Corat, Dixit
Aristoteles, qui philosophiam, etc."
Digby 194, 15th century, fol.
I45V-.
S. Marco XI-102, 14th century,
fols. 150-53.
Berlin 963, 15th century, fol.
140- "Dixit thebit ben corach
Cum volueris operari de ymagi-
nibus," but then at fol. 199, w.ith
the usual Incipit.
Harleian 80 has the first part
missing but ends, fol. 76r, like
John's translation.
Still other MSS are:
Harleian 3647, 13th century,
Sloane 3S46, fols. 86V-93; 3847;
and 3883, fols. 87-93 : all three 17th
century.
Amplon. Quarto 174, 14th cen-
tury, fols. 120-1.
BN 7282, 15th century, #4, in-
terprete Joanne Hispalensi.
Berlin 964, 15th century, fols.
213-5-
Vienna 2378, 14th century, fols.
41-63.
CLM 27, I4-I5th century, fols.
7'^-77', 59, 15th century, fols. 239-
43.
Florence II-iii-214, 15th century,
fols. 1-4, "Incipit liber Thebit
Benchorac de scientia omigarum
et imaginum. (D) ixit Aristot-
tiles qui."
^De tribus imaginibus magicis,
Frankfurt, 1559.
^Mineral. II, iii, 3.
* Magliabech. XX-2Q, fol. I2r;
Sloane 1305, fol. igr.
" Conciliator, Diff. X., fol. 16GH,
in ed. Venice, 1526.
° Commentary on the Sphere,
cap. 3.
Astrologi-
cal and
magic
images.
666 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
upon which they are engraved is unimportant, and that lead
or tin or bronze or gold or silver or wax or mud or any-
thing you please will do. The essential thing and "the per-
fection of mastery" is careful conformity to astrological
conditions. This science of images is indeed, as Aristotle
and Ptolemy have testified, the acme of astrology. Never-
theless, after the image has been properly constructed, there
is usually some non-astrological ceremony to be executed in
connection with it which savors of magic. Often the image
is to be buried, not however in a grave as in the case of
the ancient curses upon lead tablets, but in the house of
someone concerned. Once two images are to be placed facing
each other and wrapped in a clean cloth before burying
them. Instructions are also given as to the direction in
which the person burymg the image should face. Also
forms of words are prescribed which are to be repeated as
the image is buried. Once the name of the person whom
it is desired to injure is to be written with "names of hate
on the back of the image." Among the objects supposed
to be achieved by such images are driving off scorpions, de-
stroying a given region, causing misfortunes to happen to
others, recovery of stolen objects, success in business or
politics, protection from possible injury at the hands of
the king, or the causing of an enemy's death by bringing
him into disfavor with the monarch. The treatise closes,
{it least in the printed text, with an admission of its essen-
tially magic character by saying, "And this is what God
the highest wished to reveal to his servants concerning
magic, that His name may be honored and praised and ever
exalted through the ages." But no mention is made of
demons, unless an instruction to name one image "by a
famous name" alludes to some spirit.
We shall now conclude the present survey with some
account of Rasis and his writings, with the exception of a
number of books of experiments ascribed to him, but which
it is impossible to separate from those ascribed to Galen
XXVIII ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 667
and other authors, and of which we shall treat later under
the head of such experimental literature.
The full name of Rasis or Rhazes was Abu Bakr Life of
Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi/ the last word indicating
his birthplace in Persia. The date of his birth is uncertain,
perhaps about 850. He died in 923 or 924.^ For the facts
of his life we are dependent upon two Arabic writers of
the thirteenth century ^ who do little except tell one "good"
story after another about him, or quote his famous sayings,
most of which sound as if culled from the works of Galen.
When about thirty years of age Rasis came to Bagdad and
is said to have been attracted to the study of medicine by
hearing how an inflamed and swollen forearm which gave
great pain was marvelously cured by the application of an
herb, which came to be called "the vivifier of the world."
In the early years of the tenth century Rasis served as physi-
cian in the hospital at Bagdad. According to Withington
he has been called "the first and most original of the great
Moslem physicians." He also was interested in philosophy
and alchemy, as his writings will show.
There has come down to us a list of some 232 works His 232
ascribed to Rasis. ^ Some of them are probably merely dif- '"^^o''^^-
ferent wordings of the same title, others are very likely
chapters repeated from his longer works, but at any rate
they serve to give us some idea of his interests and the
^Also given as Muhammad ibn the general account of the life
Zakariya (Abu Bakr) ar-Razi and and works of Rasis which fol-
Abu Bekr Mohammed ben Zac- lows I am indebted to G. S. A.
hariah. _ Ranking's "The Life and Works
* Withington in his Medical His- of Rhazes," pp. 237-68, in Trans-
tory, 1894, gives the date as 932, actions of the Seventeenth Inter-
perhaps by a misprint. national Congress of Medicine,
/Ibn Abi Usaibi'a (1203-1269, Section XXIII, London, 1913.
himself a physician and son of "The list is reproduced by
an oculist) "Sources of Informa- Ranking (1913) in Arabic and
tion concerning Classes of Phy- Latin, largely on the basis of a
sicians," compiled at Damascus, MS at the University of Glasgow,
1245-1246, ed. by Midler, Cairo, which contains a Latin transla-
1882; and Ibn Khallikan (1211- tion by a Greek priest, who died
1282), "Obituaries of Men of in 1729, of the Arabic work of
Note," written between 1256 and Usaibi'a, or part of it, mentioned
1274. _ in the previous note : Hunterian
For these titles and most of Library, MS 44, fols. i-igv.
668 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ground he covered, although of course some may be in-
correctly attributed to him. Editions of the Latin trans-
lations of some of his chief medical works were printed
before the end of the fifteenth century at Milan in 1481 and
Bergamo in 1497.-^ These contain the famous Liber Alman-
soris or Liber El-Mansuri dictus with its ten subordinate
treatises: (i) introduction to medicine and discussion of
human anatomy, (2) the doctrine of temperaments and
humors and a discussion of the art of physiognomy,^ with
a chapter on how to select slaves, (3) diet and drugs, (4)
hygiene, (5) cosmetics, (6) rules of health and medicines
for travelers, (7) surgery or "the art of binding up broken
bones and concerning wounds and ulcers," (8) poisons, (9)
treatment of diseases from head to foot, (10) fevers. Fol-
lowing this in both editions come his works on Divisions,
on diseases of the joints, on the diseases of children, and
his Aphorisms or six books of medicinal secrets. Other
writings by Rasis found in one or both of the printed edi-
tions are a brief treatise on Surgery, Cautery, and Leeches,^
the book of Synonyms, the table of antidotes, and some
others which we shall have occasion to mention later. His
treatise on the pestilence or on smallpox and measles was
printed many times from the fifteenth to sixteenth century.
Char- In the list of 232 titles are three works which all seem
discussed ^^ ^^^^ °^ ^^^ same point and are perhaps different descrip-
tions of one treatise, or else show that this was a favorite
theme with Rasis. The idea in all three seems to be that no
physician is perfect or can cure all diseases of all patients,
*I have examined both these duced separately: see Wolfenbiit-
editions at the British Museum ; tel 2885, 15th century, f ol. i,
Withington does not mention Phisonomia Rasis, fol. 2, Phiso-
them in his History of Medicine, nomia Aristetehs, Rasis et Philo-
but cites editions of the Conti- menis, summorum magistrorum
nens, Venice, 1542, and Opera in philosophia.
Parva, 1510, and a modern edi- ^ It occupies but a little over
tion (1858) by the Sydenham So- three pages in the 1481 edition,
ciety of On the Small Pox and Since in the middle of the treatise
Measles. The pages are not we read "Magister rasis fecit cau-
numbered in the edition of 1481, terizari quidem artheticum . . . ,"
so that I shall not be able to give etc., it is perhaps by a disciple
exact references to them. rather than Rasis himself.
' This was sometimes repro-
XXVIII
ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE
669
that this is why many persons go to charlatans, and why
sometimes quacks, old-wives, and popular practice succeed
in certain cases where the most learned doctors have failed.^
Other titles show that Rasis was interested in natural His
science and not merely in the practice of medicine. Besides n"afj"l *"
what would appear to have been a general treatise entitled, science.
Opinions concerning^ Natural Things, he wrote on optics,
holding that vision was not by rays sent forth from the
eye, and discussing some of the figures in the work on optics
ascribed to Euclid. In a letter he inquired into the reason
for the creation of wild beasts and venomous reptiles ; and
in a third treatise wrote of the magnet's attraction for iron
and of vacuums.^ His interest in natural philosophy of a
rather theoretical sort is indicated by an Explanation of the
book of Plutarch or commentary on the book of Timaeus.^
Other titles attest his experimental tendency.^
Eight titles deal with alchemy ^ and show that Rasis Rasis
regarded transmutation as possible. One is a reply to alchemy.
Alkindi who held the opposite opinion.^ None of these
writings seem to be extant in Arabic, however, and the Latin
works of alchemy ascribed to Rasis are generally regarded
as spurious. The thirteenth century encyclopedist, Vincent
* 79, Dissertatio de causis quae
plerorumque hominum anifnos a
praestantissimts ad viliores quos-
que medicos solent deAectere.
124, Liber, Quod nicdicus acu-
tus no'n sit ille qui possit omnes
curare morbos quoniam hoc non
est in hominum potestate . . . ,
125, Epistola, Quod artifex om-
nibus mim-eris absoluttis in qua-
cumque arte non existat nedum,
in medicina speciatitn: et de causa
cur invperiti medici, vulgns, et
etiam mulieres in civitatibus, foe-
liciores sint in sanandis quihusdam
morbis quant znri doctissimi et de
excusatioiie medici hoc propter.
There appears to be a German
translation by Steinschneider of
this work by Rasis on the suc-
cess of quacks and charlatans in
Virchow's Archiv f. Patholo-
gische Anatomie,XXX\l, 570-S6.
'' Ranking (1913), #180, 15, 138,
163.
^ Ibid., tfi37; also 145, Supple-
mentuni libris Plutarchi.
* Ibid. $126, Liber, De probatis
et experientia compertis in arte
medica; per modtim syntagmatis
est digcstus. #205, Liber, Quod
in morbis qui determinari atque
explicari non possunt oporieat ut
medicus sit assiduus apud aegro-
tantem et debeat uti experimentis
ad illos cognoscendos. Et de me-
dici ifuctatione.
^ Ibid. S25, 26, 32-35> 38, 40. I
should guess that 201, Arcanum
arcanorum de sapientia, was the
same as 35, Arcanum arcanorum.
^ Ibid. ^40, Responsio ad philo-
sophum cl-Kendi eo quod artem
al-Chymi in impossibili posue-
rit.
670 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
of Beauvais, made a number of citations from the treatise
De salibus et aluminibus attributed to Rasis, but Berthelot ^
regarded this work as later than Rasis and it is not found
among our eight titles. The Lumen luminis, which is as-
cribed to Rasis ^ and seems to have been translated by
Michael Scot ^ in the early thirteenth century, is also mainly
devoted to these two substances, salts and alums. A Book
of Seventy is ascribed to Rasis as well as to Geber. Berthe-
lot was inclined to think that a Book of Secrets perhaps
went back to Rasis. At least some good stories are told
by Arabic chroniclers of Rasis' connection with alchemy.
One is to the effect that he abandoned the art as a result
of a sound beating to which the caliph subjected him when
he failed to transmute metals at order. Another states that
in preparing the elixir he injured his eyes with its vapors
and was cured by a physician who charged him a fee of
five hundred dinars. Rasis paid the doctor's bill, but, re-
marking that at last he had discovered the true alchemy
and the best art of making gold, devoted the remainder of
his life to the study and practice of medicine.^
Titles sug- Rasis also wrote treatises on mathematics and the stars
asSoIo^^ but it is not always easy to infer their contents from the
and magic, titles which have alone reached us or to tell when mathe-
matica means astrology. In one work he seems to have
shown the excellence and utility of mathematica, but to have
confuted those who extolled it beyond measure.^ In a
letter he denied that the rising and setting of the sun and
other planets was because of the earth's motion and held
that it was due to the movement of the celestial orb.^ In
another letter he discussed the opinion of natural philoso-
phers concerning the sciences of the stars and whether or
* Berthelot (1893), I, 68 and latus a magistro michahele scotto
286-7. On the alchemy of Rasis philosopho." Printed by J. Wood
see further in this same volume Brown (1897), p. 240 et seq.
the chapter, L'Alchimie de Rasis * Lippmann (1919), P- 400, cit-
et du Pseudo-Aristote. ing the Biographies of Albaihaqi
'BN 6514 and 7156. (1105-1169).
'Riccardian 119, fol. 35v, "Inci- "Ranking, #8.
pit liber luminis luminum trans- 'Ibid. #107.
XXVIII ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE 671
not the stars were living beings.^ Rasis also discussed the
difference between dreams from which the future can be
forecast and other dreams.^ The title, Of exorcisms, fasci-
nations, and incantations, under which, according to Negri's
Latin translation Rasis discussed the causes and cures of
diseases by these methods and magic arts, should, in Ran-
king's opinion, be more accurately translated as The Book
of Dimsions and Branches.^ A work On the Necessity of
Prayer is also included in the list of 232 works ascribed
to Rasis,* while a Lapidary produced for Wenzel II of
Bohemia (1278-1305) cites Rasis On the mrtues of words
and characters.^
Herewith we conclude our present survey of Arabian Conclu-
occult science especially in the ninth century, although in
the following chapters we shall frequently encounter its
influence. We have found the occult science closely asso-
ciated with natural science and difficult to sever from it.
In the authors and works reviewed we have found both
scepticism and superstition, both rationalism and empiricism.
But perhaps the most impressive point is that even super-
stition pretends to be or attempts to be scientific.
* Ranking, #134. Other titles 'Ibid. fii3.
in mathematics and astronomy ^ Ibid. S51.
are: 73, Liber de sphaeris et men- * Ibid. #158, De 'necessitate pre-
suris compendiosis; 128, De scp- cationis.
tern planetis et de sapientia; 155, " Printed as the Lapidary of
De quadrato in mathesi epistola; Aristotle, Merseburg, 1473, p. 2.
also 109 and no.
CHAPTER XXIX
LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION : ESPECIALLY IN THE
NINTH, TENTH, AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES
Astrology in Gaul before the twelfth century — Figures of astro-
logical medicine — The divine quaternities of Raoul Glaber — Celestial
portents and other marvels — An eleventh century calendar — Astrology
and divination in ecclesiastical compoti — Notker on the mystic date of
Easter — Prediction from the Kalends of January — Other divination by
the day of the week — Divination by the day of the moon — Authorship
of moon-books — Spheres of life and death: in Greek — Medieval Latin
versions — Survival of such methods in medical practice of about 1400 —
Egyptian days — Their history — Medieval attempts to explain them —
Other perilous days — Firmicus read by an archbishop of York — Rela-
tion of Latin astrology to Arabic — Appendix L Some manuscripts of
the Sphere of Pythagoras or Apuleius — Appendix IL Egyptian days
in early medieval manuscripts.
Astrology
in Gaul
before the
twelfth
century.
Astrology had continued to flourish in Gaul in the last de-
clining days of the Roman Empire, despite the strictures
of Christian writers and clergy,^ and it was one of the
first subjects to revive after the darkness of the Mero-
vingian period. Two centuries ago Goujet in a treatise
on the state of the sciences in France from the death of
Charlemagne to that of King Robert noted that from the
reign of Charlemagne astronomy continued to be increas-
ingly studied. "The councils in their decrees, the bishops
in their statutes, the kings in their capitularies, expressly
recommended the study of it to the clergy." ^ With the
study of astronomy naturally developed a belief in as-
trology. According to the Histoire Littcrairc dc la France
it became quite the fashion during the reign of Louis the
* See De la Ville de Mirmont,
L'Astrologie chez les Gallo-Ro-
mains, Bordeaux, 1904; also pub-
lished in Revue des Etudes an-
ciennes, 1902, p. 115- ; 1903, p.
25s- ; 1906, p. 128-.
^Goujet (1737), p. 50; cited by
C. Jourdain (1838), pp. 28-9.
672
CHAP. XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 673
Pious, Charlemagne's successor, when we are told that there
was no great lord but had his own astrologer. Adalmus,
before he became abbot of Castres, wasted much time upon
this pseudo-science, and Rabanus Maurus showed tendencies
in that direction. In the tenth century such celestial phe-
nomena as comets and eclipses were feared as sinister por-
tents, and men resorted to enchantments, auguries, and other
forms of divination,^ A brief treatise in a manuscript of the
ninth century in the Vatican library also develops the thesis
that comets signify disasters.^ In the eleventh century Engel-
bert, a monk of Liege, and Odo, teacher at Tournai, were
devoted to the study of the stars; and Gilbert Maminot,
bishop of Lisieux, and for a time chaplain and physician ^to
William the Conqueror, would rather spend his nights in
star-gazing than in sleep. "But what was the outcome of
all this toil and study?" inquires the Histoire Litteraire and
replies to its own question, ''The making of some wretched
astrologers and not a single true astronomer !" ^
These words were written nearly two hundred years Figures of
ago, but such a recent investigation of manuscripts in French cal'^medi-
libraries as that of Wickersheimer on figures illustrative of cme.
astrological medicine from the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
centuries has on the whole confirmed the importance of
astrology in the meager learning of that time.^ The manu-
scripts in English libraries, I have found, tell a similar story.
Of the human figures marked with the twelve signs of the
zodiac, which become so common in the manuscripts by the
fourteenth century, and in which the head rests upon the
* HL IV, 274-5; V, 182-3; VI, siccles, in Transactions of the
g-io. Seventeenth International Con-
' Palat. Lat. 487, fol. 40, open- gress of Medicine, Section XXIII,
ing, "Nouo et insolito siderum History of Medicine, London,
ortu infausta quaedam uel tristi- 1913. P- 3i3 et seq. I have not
tia potius quam laeta uel prospera seen A. Fischer Aberglauhe iinter
miseris uentura significari morta- den Angelsaclisen, Meiningen,
libus pene omnia ueterum aesti- 1891, or M. Forster, Die Klcin-
mauit auctoritas." littcratur des Abcrglauhens im
' HL VII, 137. Altenglischen, in Archiv. f. d. Stu-
* Ernest Wickersheimer, Ft- dium d. Netier. Sprachen, vol.
gures mcdico-astrologiques des no, pp. 346-5S.
neuvieme, di'xieme et onzicme
674
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The divine
quaterni-
ties of
Raoul
Glaber.
Ram, the feet on Pisces, while the intervening members of
the body are marked by their respective signs, — of these
Wickersheimer found none before the twelfth century. But
in a medical manuscript of the eleventh century the twelve
signs with their names and the names of the parts of the
human body to which they apply are grouped about a half
figure of Christ, who has His right hand raised to bless,
while about His head is a halo or sun-disk with twelve rays.^
Less favorable to astrology is the accompanying legend,
"According to the ravings of the philosophers the twelve
signs are thus denoted." On the page following the text de-
scribes the twelve signs "according to the Gentiles." Schemes
in which the world, the year, and man were associated, and
where are shown the four elements, four seasons, four
humors, four temperaments, four ages, four cardinal
points, and four winds, are frequently found in extant manu-
scripts of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.^
Such association reminds one of the opening of the
chronicle of Raoul Glaber, written in the eleventh century,
"Since we are to treat of events in the four quarters of
the earth, it will be well to touch first upon the power of
divine and abstract quaternity." There are four elements,
he gives us to understand, four virtues and four senses.
There are four Gospels and they have their relation to
the four elements. Matthew, dealing with Christ's incarna-
tion, corresponds to earth; Mark to water, since it empha-
sizes baptism ; Luke to air, because it is the longest Gospel ;
* Charles Singer, Studies in the
History and Method of Science,
Oxford, 1917, Plate XV, opposite
p. 40, reproduces this illumination.
The MS, BN 7028, seems to have
once belonged to the abbey of St.
Hilary at Poitiers.
' Besides those in France men-
tioned by Wickersheimer may be
noted two of the tenth century at
Munich: CLM 18629, fol._ 105,
"Tabula cosmica cum nominibus
ventorum, germanicorum quo-
que"; CLM 18764, fols. 79-80.
"Schema de genitura mundi."
Also Vatic. Lat. 645, 9th century,
fol. 66, Ventorum imagines et m
circulo Adam in medio f erarum ;
fol. 66v, Planetarum figura. This
same MS contains a conjuration
written in a later hand of the
eleventh or twelfth century:
fol. 4v, "In nomine patris. . . .
Tres angeli ambulaverunt in
monte. ..."
For such an astrological dia-
gram in an Arabic work of the
tenth century see E. G. Browne
(1921), 1 17-8.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 675
and John to fire or ether as the most spiritual. In like
manner can be associated with the four cardinal virtues
those four famous rivers which had their sources in Para-
dise : Phison and prudence, Geon and temperance, the Tigris
and fortitude, the Euphrates and justice. Finally the ages
of the world are found to be four by Raoul, instead of the
six eras corresponding to the days of creation which we
find in Isidore, Bede, and other medieval historians ; and
these four ages also relate to the four virtues. The days of
Abel, Enoch, and Noah were days of prudence; but on
leaving Noah we have temperance marking the age of Abra-
ham and the patriarchs ; fortitude is the feature of the time
of Moses and the prophets; while justice characterizes the
period since the incarnation of the Word.
The faith of Raoul and his contemporaries in the mystic Celestial
significance of numbers, if not also in astrology, and the a°a*other
fact that they were constantly on the lookout for portents marvels,
and prodigies, are further attested by the stress laid in his
chronicle upon the thousandth anniversaries of Christ's birth
and of His passion. Says Raoul, "After the multiplicity
of prodigies which, although some came a little before and
some a trifle afterwards, happened in the world around the
thousandth year of Christ the Lord, there were many in-
dustrious men of sagacious mind who prophesied that there
would be others not inferior to these in the thousandth year
of our Lord's passion." That they were not mistaken in
this premonition he shows later by several chapters, includ-
ing an account of the eclipse of the sun in that year. Like
many another medieval historian, Raoul is careful to note
the appearance of comets — in the Bayeux tapestry of the
same century one marks the death of Edward the Confessor;
Raoul also believes that if a living person is visited by
spirits, either good or evil, it is a sign of his approaching
death ; he holds the usual view that demons may sometimes
work marvels by divine permission, and tells of a magician-
impostor whom he saw work miracles upon pseudo-relics.
676
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
An
eleventh
century
calendar.
Astrology
and divi-
nation in
ecclesias-
tical
Compoti.
But from the superstition of medieval chroniclers we must
turn back to astrological manuscripts proper.
An eleventh century calendar at Amiens ^ reveals both
a simple form of astrological medicine and a belief in some
peculiar significance of the number seven, whether as a
sacred or an astrological number. At the head of each
month are brief instructions as to what herbs to use during
that month, as to bleeding and bathing, and what disease
may most easily be cured then.^ In the same manuscript
one miniature shows someone striking seven bells with a
hammer, perhaps as notes in a scale, and another miniature
represents a seven-branched candlestick, of which the
branches are respectively labeled, "Spirit of piety, Spirit of
fortitude, Spirit of intellect, Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of
prudence, Spirit of science, Spirit of the fear of God." ^
Indeed works of astrology and divination are especially
likely to be found in the same manuscripts with ecclesiastical
calendars and coniputi. Computus or compotus, as one
manuscript states, was "the science considering times." *
For example, in a brief compotus of the ninth century ^ a
divining sphere of Pythagoras occurs twice, and we have
also a moon book, an account of the Egyptian days, and a
method of divination from winds. In a twelfth century
manuscript,^ sandwiched in between calendars and reckon-
ings of Easter and eclipses and Bede's work On the Natures
of Things, are a sphere of divination, an account of Egyp-
tian days, a method of divination from thunder, and a por-
tion of a work on judicial astrology beginning with the
eleventh chapter which tells how to determine whether any-
one will be poor or rich by inspection of the planet in his
nativity.'^
* Amiens, fends Lescalopier, 2,
nth century, fols. 1-12.
^ For instance, for February,
"Bibe agrimoniam et apii semen ;
oculos turbulentos sanare debes" :
for March, "Merum dulce primum
bibe, assum balneum usita, san-
guinem non minuas, ruta et leves-
tico utere."
^ Ibid., fols. II and 19.
■• Pembroke 278, early 14th cen-
tury, fol. 25, "Compotus est sci-
encia considerans tempora."
° BN nouv. acq. 1616, 14 leaves.
'BN 7299 A.
' BN 7299A, fols, 35v, 37V, s6r.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION
677
The very dating of Easter itself might be the occasion
for indulging in mystic speculation of a semi-astrological
nature. Thus Notker Labeo, c 950-1022, the well-known
monk of St. Gall/ in a treatise to his disciple Erkenhard
on four questions of compotus,~ states that the principal
problem, with which all others are connected, is that of
the date of Easter. He gives the time as in the first full
moon after the vernal equinox, but adds that this is
because of a certain mystery. For if there were no mys-
tery connected with the date of Easter, and it merely cele-
brated like other festivals the memory of an event which
once happened, there is no doubt but that it would occur
every year without variation upon the twenty-seventh of
March, which was the day of the Lord's resurrection. But
as after the vernal equinox the days grow longer than the
nights, and as at the full of the moon its splendor is revolved
on high, so we should overcome the darkness of sin by the
light of piety and faith and turn our minds from earthly
to celestial things, if we wish to celebrate Easter worthily.
But let us consider in more detail the methods of divina-
tion found in such manuscripts. Simplest of all perhaps
are predictions as to the character of the ensuing year ac-
cording to the day of the week upon which the first of
January falls. For example, "If the kalends of January
shall be on the Lord's day, the winter will be good and
mild and warm, the spring windy, and the summer dry.
Good vintage, increasing flocks; honey will be abundant;
the old men will die; and peace will be made." ^ In some
^ Notker is especially famed for
his translations with learned com-
mentaries from Latin into Ger-
man, of which five are extant,
namely: The Consolation of Phi-
losophy of Boethius, The Mar-
riage of Mercury and Philology
of Martianus Capella, the Psalter,
and Aristotle, De catcgoriis and
De hiterprctatione : see Piper, Die
Schriften Notkers, Freiburg, 1882-
1883, vols. MIL
^ BN nouv. acq. 229, fols. lov-
14V. Notker erkenhardo dis-
cipulo de nil guestionibus com-
poti. It seems not to have been
printed.
'Cotton Tiberius A, III, a MS
written in various hands before
the Norman conquest, partly in
Latin and partly in Anglo-Saxon,
and containing among other
things the Colloquy of Aelfric
Our item occurs at fol. 34r in
Notker
on the
mystic
date of
Easter.
Prediction
from the
Kalends
of Janu-
ary.
678
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
manuscripts these predictions concerning the weather, crops,
wars, and king for the ensuing year are called Suppiitatio
Esdrae or signs which God revealed to the prophet Esdras.^
In another manuscript " the weather for winter and summer
is predicted according to the day of the week upon which
Christmas falls and Lent begins. Christmas of course was
sometimes regarded as the first day of the new year and in
any case it falls on the same day of the week as the following
first of January. In a ninth century manuscript ^ predic-
tions for the ensuing year are made according as there is
wind in the night on Christmas eve and the eleven nights
following. For instance, "If there is wind in the night
on the night of the natal day of our Lord Jesus Christ, in
Latin with an Anglo-Saxon inter-
linear version, and at fol. 39V in
Anglo-Saxon only.
Cotton Titus D, XXVI, loth
century, fols. lov-iiv, gives a
slightly different version for some
days of the week.
^ Harleian 3017, lOth century,
fols. 63r-64v, CLM 6382, nth
century, fol. 42, Supputatio
Esdrae; Incipit, "Kal. Jan. si
fuerint dominico die hiems bona
erit."
Vatican, Palat. Lat. 235, lO-iith
century, fol. 39, "Subputatio quam
subputavit Esdras in templo Hie-
rusalem," opening, "Si in prima
feria fuerint kl. lanuarii hiemps
bona erit."
Also found in Egerton 821, fol.
ir, which is of the twelfth cen-
tury and adds a more elaborate
method of divination according to
what planet rules the first hour of
the first night of January and
which of its 28 mansions the moon
is in.
CLM 9921, I2th century, fol. i,
is a calendar with verses begin-
ning, "Jani prima dies et septima
fine timctur."
* Sloane 475, this portion per-
haps nth century, fol. 2i7r. Other
MSS of later date than the period
we are now considering are :
Harleian 2258, fol. 191, "prog-
nostica a die nativitatis Domini
a luna et somniis petita," pre-
dictions from Christmas, the
moon, and dreams. CUL 1338,
15th century, fol. 65V, Prognosti-
cations derived from the day on
which Christmas falls (in Latin) ;
fol. 74V, Prognostications drawn
from the day of the week on
which the year commences, CU
Trinity 1109, 14th century, fol.
148, "Prognostica anni sequentis
ex die natalium Domini."
^ BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th cen-
tury, fol. I2V. Similar later MSS
are :
Digby 86, 13th century, fols.
32-4, Prognosticatio ex vento in
nocte Natalis Domini, and fols.
40v-4ir, "Les singnes del jour do
Nouel," predictions in French ac-
cording to the day of the week on
which Christmas falls.
Digby 88, 15th century, fol. 77,
"Howe all ye yere ys rewlyde by
the day that Christemas day
fallythe on," and fol. 4or, "Prog-
nostication from the sight of the
sun on Christmas and the ten days
following" (Prognosticatio ex
visione solis in die Natalis Dom-
ini et in decern diebus subsequen-
tibus), and_ fol. 75, a poem of
prognostications for Christmas
day. This same MS contains a
large number of other brief
anonymous treatises in the fields
of astrology and divination.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 679
that year kings and pontiffs will perish," and "If on twelfth
night there shall be wind, kings will perish in war."
Divination from thunder is another form of judicial Other
astrology, if it may so be called, found in these early manu- by the
scripts. Perhaps the simplest variety of it is according to ^^y °^
the day of the week on which thunder is heard. ^ Pre-
dictions were also made according to the month in which
thunder was heard,^ or the direction from which it was
heard.^ It may be recalled that the three chapters of Bede's
translation of some work on divination from thunder had
been respectively devoted to these three methods by the di-
rection from which the thunder is heard, the month, and the
day of the week. Nativities of infants are also given ac-
cording to the day of the week on which they are born, and
further taking into account whether the hour of birth is
diurnal or nocturnal.'* It is also regarded as important to
note upon which day of the week the new moon occurs,^
and we are further informed of the various hours of the
days of the week when it is advisable to perform blood-
letting.® In a method of divination according to the day
of the week and the letters in the boy's or girl's name the
Lord's day is assigned the number thirteen, the day "of
the moon" eighteen, and that "of Mars" fifteen."^ Since
* Titus D, XXVI, fol. 9v. Ti- we are told of what the Egyptians
berius A, III, fols. 38r and 35r. write, and of famine in Babylon.
Cockayne, Leechdonis etc.. Ill, In CUL 1687, I3-I4th century,
150-295, in RS vol. 35, published fols. 68v-69r, Latin verses con-
this and a number of other ex- taining prognostications concern-
tracts from Tiberius A, III, and ing thunder are followed by "a
other early English MSS. list of the number of quarters of
Vienna 2245, 12th century, fols. flour, beer, etc., used in the year
59r-69v are devoted to various at the monastery" and by "a note
prognostications, beginning with, on the symbolism of the pastoral
"Three days are to be observed staff."
above all others," and ending ^ Combined with the method by
with, "Thunder at dawn signifies the day of the week in BN 7299A,
the birth of a king." A dream 12th century, fol. 37V.
book by Daniel follows at fols. * Tiberius A, III, fol. 63r ; Vati-
69V-75r. can Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 40.
'Vatican Palat. Lat. 235, fol. ° Tiberius A, III, fol. 38V.
40, "In mense lanuario si tonitru " Sloane 475, fol. I35v.
fuerit." In Egerton 821, 12th ^ Sloane 475, fol. i33r. The
century, the significance of thun- method is almost identical with
der is given according to the that of the spheres of life and
twelve signs of the zodiac, and death, of which we shall speak
68o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
the days of the week bore the names of the planets, it was
not strange that they should have been credited with some-
thing of the virtues of the stars.
A commoner method of divination and one more nearly
approaching approved astrological doctrine was that by the
day of the month or moon. Briefest of such moon-books
is that which merely designates each of the thirty days as
favorable or unfavorable.^ We also find a Lunarium for
the sick, stating the patient's prospects from the day of
the moon on which he contracted his illness ; ^ a work as-
cribed to "Saint Daniel" on nativities by the day of the
moon; ^ and an equally brief interpretation of dreams upon
the same basis. ^ Or all these matters may be considered in
the same treatise and each of them somewhat more fully,
and we may be told whether the day is a good one on which
to buy and sell, to board a ship, to enter a city, to operate
upon a patient, to send children off to school, to breed ani-
mals, to build an aqueduct or mill, or whether it is best to
presently. In CU Trinity 987,
The Canterbury Psalter, about
1150 A. D., the value assigned
Dies So lis is 24.
^ Vatic. Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 40,
"De lunae observatione : Luna I
omnibus rebus agendis utilis."
Tiberius A, III, fol. G^r, where,
however, such parts of the day
as morning and evening are fur-
ther distinguished.
Vatic. Palat. Lat. 485, 9th cen-
tury, fol. 15V, "Ad sanguinem
minuendum," merely states which
days of the moon are favorable
or unfavorable for blood-letting.
St. John's 17, 1 1 10 A. D., fol. 4,
Luna quibus diebus bona est et
quibus non; fol. 154V, a table of
lucky and unlucky numbers.
' Harleian 3017, fol. sSv ; the
Incipit states that it is by the same
author as the preceding Sphere of
Pythagoras and Apuleius.
Titus D, XXVI, fol. 8.
Cotton Caligula A, XV, loth
century, fol. 121V, Latin and
Anglo-Saxon.
Egerton 821, fol. 32r, is a
twelfth century instance.
The method seems combined or
confused with the Egyptian days
in Vatic. Palat. Lat. 485, 9th cen-
tury, fol. 13V, "Dies aegyptiaci.
Signa in quibus aegrotus an peri-
clitare aut evadere non potest,"
but opening, "Luna I. qui ceciderit
in infirmitatem difficile euadit."
* Harleian 3017, fol. 58V, "In-
cipit lunarium sancti danihel de
nativitate infantium. Luna I qui
f uerit natus vitalis erit ; Luna
II, mediocris erit . . . Luna IIII,
tractator regum erit . . . Luna
XII, religiosus erit . . . Luna
XXX, negotias multas tracta-
bit."
Tiberius A, III, fols. 63r and
34V.
Titus D, XXVI, fols. 7v and
6v.
'Tiberius A, III, fol. 33v-
Titus D, XXVI, fol. 9r. CLM
6382, nth century, fol. 42, De
somni ueris uel mendosis quidam
incipiunt in aetatibus lunae ex-
ploratis.
XXIX
LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION
68i
abstain on it from most business. Also such predictions as
that the boy born on that day will be illustrious, astute, wise,
and lettered ; that he will encounter danger on the water, but
will live to old age if he escapes; while the girl born on the
same day will be "chaste, benign, good-looking, and pleasing
to men." That anyone who takes to his bed on that day
will suffer a long sickness, but that it is a favorable day for
blood-letting, and that one should not worry about dreams
he has then, since they possess no significance either for
good or evil. Also what chance there is of recovering
articles stolen on that day.-^ In later manuscripts at least it
is further stated that certain Biblical characters were born
on this day or that day of the moon : Adam on the first. Eve
on the second, Cain on the third, Abel on the fourth, and so
2
on
* Tiberius A, III, fols. 30V-33V,
"Finiunt somnia danielis proph-
ete."
Sloane 475, fols. 21 1-6, is almost
identical, but I believe does not
mention Daniel as its author.
Vatic. Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 39V.
BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th cen-
tury, is roughly similar but names
no author and does not distinguish
the fates of boys and girls. It
usually states whether slaves who
run away and thieves who steal
on the day in question will be
caught or escape. It opens and
closes thus : "Luna prima qui in-
cenditur in ipsa sanabitur et bona
et in omnibus dare et accipere et
nubere et navigare in mare et
vendere et emere et omnis qui-
cumque fugerit in ipsa aut servus
aut liber non poterit sed capitur
aut qui incendit incendio sana-
bitur (presumably an allusion to
the medical practice of cauteriza-
tion) et qui natus fuerit vitalis
erit .../... Luna XXX bona
est ambulare in piscatione et qui
fugit post multos annos rever-
titur in loco suo et qui natus
fuerit dives erit et honoratissimus
erit et qui incadit aut manducet
aut non vivet periculo mortis
habebit."
Titus D, XXVII, fols. 22-25r,
"judicia de diebus quibusdam
cuiusque mensis" ; fols. 27-9, "ar-
gumentum lunare, quando et
qualiter observentur tempora ad
res agendas."
Of the twelfth century, Vienna
2532, fols. 55-9, "Luna I. Hec dies
omnibus egrotantibus utilis est
.../... Puer natus negotia
multa sectabit."
' Sloane 2461, end of 13th cen-
tury, fols. 62-4. No Biblical char-
acter is mentioned for the fifth
and sixth days, but we are told
that on the seventh day of the
moon Abel was slain by Cain.
BN 3660A, i6th century, fols.
53r-57r, ascribes the birth of
Nebuchadnezzar to the fifth day,
leaves the sixth blank, has Abel
slain on the seventh, Methusaleh
born on the eighth, Lamech on the
ninth, and so on.
Egerton 821, 12th century, fol.
I2r, "Natus est Samuel proph-
eta. . . ."
Digby 88, 15th century, fol. 62r,
has English verses beginning:
"God made Adam the fyrst day
of the moone,
And the second day Eve good
dedis to doone."
A similar poem occurs at fol. 64
of the same MS and in Ashmole
189, fol. 213V.
682
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
In the early manuscripts moon-books are anonymous or
ascribed to Daniel, but in later medieval manuscripts other
authors are named. The name of Adam is coupled with
that of Daniel in both of two rather elaborate moon-books
in a fourteenth century manuscript,^ where Adam is said
to have worked out these " lunations" "by true experience."
A fifteenth century one is attributed to a philosopher, as-
trologer, and physician named Edris,^ perhaps the Esdras
of the method of divination by the kalends of January rather
than the Arab Edrisi. It briefly predicts from the relation
of the moon to the twelve signs whether patients will re-
cover and captives escape. In a sixteenth century manu-
script at Paris are "Significations of the days of the moon
which the most excellent astronomer Bezogar revealed to
his disciples and transmitted to them as a very great secret
and most precious gift." ^ But such an ascription is rather
obviously a late fiction.
Determining the fate of the patient from the day of the
moon upon which his illness was incurred enters also into
certain spheres of life and death which were much em-
ployed in the early middle ages. But in these the number
of the day of the moon is combined with a second number
obtained by a numerical evaluation of the letters forming
the patient's name. This method came down from the
ancient Greek-speaking world, as in a "Sphere of Democ-
ritus, prognostic of life and death" found in a Leyden
papyrus,* while the very similar Sphere of Petosiris, the
^Ashmole 361, mid 14th cen-
tury, fols. 156V-158V, "Iste sunt
lunaciones quas Adam primus
homo disposuit secundum veram
experientiam quam etiam suis
filiis tradidit et quam maxima
Abel et ceteris de posteritate ad
quos etiam concordavit Daniel
propheta . . ."; fol. 159, "Modo
agitur de numero lune ad viden-
dum que sit bona vel que mala et
usum istarum lunacionum invene-
runt Adam et Daniel propheta."
'Canon. Misc. 517, fol. 3Sr,
"Incipit scientia edita ab edri
philosopho astrologo et medico."
'BN 3660A, fols. 53r-57r. In
the catalogue of Ashburnham
MSS at Florence the name of
Giovannino di Graziano is con-
nected with a moon-book in Ash-
burnham 130, I3-I5th century,
fols. 25-6, "Luna prima Adam
natus fuit. . , ." But perhaps
this name should go only with
some prognostications, exorcisms,
and recipes which occur at the
close of the predictions for the
thirty days of the moon.
*Ed. Leemans, 1833-18S5.
versions.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 683
mythical Egyptian astrologer, is variously dated by W.
Kroll from the second century before Christ, by E. Riess
from the first century before Christ, and by F. Boll in the
first century of our era.^ The so-called "Sphere" is really
only a wheel of fortune, circle, or other plane figure divided
into compartments where different numbers are grouped
under such headings as "Life" and "Death." Having
calculated the value of a person's name by adding together
the Greek numerals represented by its component letters,
and having further added in the day of the moon, one
divides the sum by some given divisor and looks for the
quotient in the compartments. This method of divination
was also employed in regard to fugitive slaves and the out-
come of gladiatorial combats.^
In the medieval Latin versions of these Spheres of life Medieval
and death the numerical value of the Greek letters was nat-
urally usually lost and arbitrary numerical equivalents were
assigned to the Roman letters or some other method of
calculation was substituted. The Sphere of Petosiris was
perpetuated in the form of a letter by him to Nechepso,
king of Egypt. ^ But more common than this in manu-
scripts of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries was the
Sphere of life and death of Apuleius or Pythagoras or
both'* which replaced that of Democritus. Like it, it con-
sisted of the numbers from one to thirty arranged in six
compartments, three above a line each containing six num-
bers, and three below the line having four each. John
of Salisbury, in the twelfth century, presumably refers to
''Bouche-Leclercq (1899), 537- of Nechepso and Petosiris (Phi-
42; (1879- 1882), I, 258-65. Ber- lologus, Suppl. VI, 1891-1893,
thelot, Alchiniistcs grecs (1888), pp. 382-3) from Cod. Laur.
I, 86-90. K. Sudhoff (1902), pp. XXXVIII, 24, 9-ioth century, fol.
4-6. 174V. Wickersheimer (1913), PP-
^Arundel 319, 13th century, fol. 315-7, notes BN 17868, loth cen-
2r, Versus de faustis vel infaus- tury, fol. 13. For other MSS see
tis nominibus pugnantium, is a Appendix I to this chapter,
medieval Latin example. ■* Printed by Paul Lehmann,
' Printed among treatises of Apidciusfragmente, Hermes
dubious or spurious authorship XLIX (1914), 612-20. For a list
with Bede's works, Migne, PL 90, of some MSS of it see Appendix
963-6; and more recently in I at the close of this chapter.
Riess' edition of the fragments
684
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
it when he speaks of divination or lot-casting "by inspec-
tion of the so-called Pythagorean table" ; ^ and it continues
to be found with great frequency in the manuscripts of
subsequent centuries.^ It is not to be confused, however,
with the Prenostica Pitagorice, a more elaborate, although
somewhat similar, method of divination by means of
geomantic tables, of which we shall treat later in the chapter
on Bernard Silvester. A Sphere ascribed to St. Donatus
in a twelfth century manuscript includes instructions how
to determine the sign of the zodiac under which a person
was born by computing the difference between his name
and his mother's name. If this amounts to four letters,
he was born under the fourth sign, and so on.^
The survival of such superstitious methods of divina-
tion into the later middle ages is attested not only by the
frequent recurrence of the Sphere of Apideius and the
divinations from the kalends of January in manuscripts of
the later centuries, but by the medical notebook, written
in middle English, of John Crophill, who practiced medicine
in Suffolk under Henry IV.* Besides a record of his
patients and the sums of money due from them, rules of
dieting and blood-letting for the twelve months of the year,
and his "more regular and masterly observations upon
Urin," his notes include a treatise on astrological medicine
which, in the sarcastic language of the old catalogue of
the Harleian Manuscripts, concludes "with a masterpiece
of art, namely, a tretys or chapter of 'Calculation to know
^ Polycraticus I, 13, ed. Webb,
I, 54. Mr. Webb in a note refers
to an article in a German periodi-
cal (K. Gillert, Neues Archiv d.
Gesellschaft f. altere deutsche
Geschichtskunde, V, 254) concern-
ing a MS of the Sphere of Py-
thagoras preserved at Petrograd,
but says nothing of the MSS in
the British Museum listed in Ap-
pendix I to this chapter, — a good
illustration of the unnecessary ob-
sequiousness of English towards
German scholarship which has
frequently prevailed in the past.
* A few of them will be found
listed in Appendix I to this chap-
ter.
^ Egerton 821, 12th century, f ol.
i5r, "Hec est spera quod fecit
sanctus Donatus. Quicumque
egrotare incipit. . . ." It is fol-
lowed on the next page by the
usual figure for the Sphere of
Apulcius.
* Harleian 1735 ; the passages
referred to in the following ac-
count occur at fols. 36V, 41, 43,
29, 44V, 40, and 39V respectively.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 685
what thou wilt,' and this by observation of persons' names."
The notebook also contains "Oracular Answers prepared
beforehand by this great Doctor for those of both Sexes
who shall come to consult him in the momentous affair of
Matrimony; according to the several Months of the year
wherein they should apply themselves." Further contents
are an incantation in Latin for women in child-birth, and
"The names of the 12 signs with such marks as shew that
this John Crophill was a dabbler in Geomancy."
Brief lists of "Egyptian Days" are of rather common Egyptian
occurrence in both Latin and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of ^^^"
the ninth, tenth, and succeeding centuries.^ Often it is
merely stated what days of the year they are; sometimes
it is simply added that the doctor should not bleed the pa-
tient upon them. As early as a ninth century manuscript.^
however, we are further warned not to take a walk or plant
or carry on a lawsuit or do any work upon these days.
And under no circumstances, no matter what the seeming
necessity, is it permitted to bleed man or beast on these
days. Two Egyptian days are then listed for each month,
one reckoned as so many days from the beginning and the
other as so many days before the close of the month. Eleven
days is the farthest removed that any Egyptian day is from
the first of the month and twelve the most from the close,
so that they never fall in the middle of a month nor on the
very first or last day. Our ninth century manuscript then
mentions three of these days in April, August, and Decem-
ber as especially dangerous. Whoever falls ill or receives
a potion on them is sure to die soon. Whoever, male or
female, is born on one of them will die an evil and painful
death. "And if one drinks water on those three days, he
will die within forty days." The account then closes with
the statement that on the Egyptian days the people of Egypt
were cursed with Pharaoh. In another ninth century manu-
*See Appendix II to this chap- notes.
ter for a list of MSS other than ^ BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th cen-
those mentioned in the following tury, fol. I2r.
686 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
script a bare list of the Egyptian days is followed by a
somewhat similar account of the three which must be ob-
served with especial care.^ In a calendar of saints' days in
this same manuscript only the third of March and the third
of July are marked dies egiptiaffus.^ Egyptian days are
also marked in the calendar of Marianus Scotus, the well-
known chronicler and chronologist.^ A somewhat different
account in a twelfth century manuscript states that "these
are the days which God sent without mercy." It also, how-
ever, lists two of them for each month and distinguishes the
three in April, August, and December as especially dan-
gerous.*
Their There seems to be no doubt that these Egyptian days
history. -were a relic of the unlucky days in the ancient Egyptian
calendar,^ of which we learn from several papyri, although
of course the ancient Egyptians were also accustomed to
distinguish further the three divisions of each day as lucky
or unlucky. The Egyptian days are noted in official calen-
dars of the Roman Empire about 354 A. D., and in the
Fasti Philocaliarci there are twenty-five in all, of which three
fall in January. In the middle ages, as has already been
illustrated, there were usually but twenty-four, two to each
month.® They were mentioned in the Life of Proclns by
Marinus, and both Ambrose and Augustine testified that
many Christians still had faith in them.'^ Indeed, they
passed into the ecclesiastical calendar, as the Franciscan,
Bartholomew of England, states in the thirteenth century.^
*Digby 63, end of 9th century, another isth century MS.
f ol. 36. "" Cited by Bouche-Leclercq,
'Ibid., fols. 40-5. L'Astrologie grecque, 1899, pp.
"CU Trinity 1369, nth century, 485-6, 623.
fol. IV. ^ De proprietatibus rerum, 1488,
*BN" 7299A, i2th century, fol. Lindelbach, Heidelberg, IX, 20.
37V. This is not to say, however, that
"For further information on they always appear in medieval
this point see Budge, Egyptian calendars; I did not find them in
Magic. 1899, pp. 225-8; Webster, any of the 14th and isth century
Rest Days, 1916, pp. 295-7. calendars from Apulia and
"Webster (1916), pp. 300-301, lapygia published by G. M. Gio-
however, speaks of 30 in a 14th vene, Kalcndaria Vetera, Naples,
century MS, 32 in an English MS 1828. His calendars consist of lit-
of Henry VI's reign, and 31 in tie save saints' days, although
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 687
By that time the notion had become prevalent that they Medieval
were anniversaries of the days upon which God afflicted ^^ explain
Egypt with plagues, as our citations from the manuscripts them,
have shown. Bartholomew, indeed, is at pains to explain
that the days are placed in the church calendar, "not be-
cause one should omit anything upon them more than upon
other days, but in order that God's miracles may be recalled
to memory." The circumstance that there are twenty-four
days does not embarrass him; he simply explains that this
proves that God sent more plagues upon Egypt than the ten
which are especially famed. Our citations from earlier
manuscripts have shown that most people would not agree
with Bartholomew that nothing should be omitted on these
days. Moreover, other explanations of their origin had
been already given in the middle ages than that from the
plagues of Egypt. Honorius of Autun stated in the twelfth
century that th^y were called Egyptian days because they
had been discovered by the Egyptians, and since Egypt
means dark/ they are called tenebrosi, because they are
declared to bring the incautious to the shadows of death. ^
The Dominican, Vincent of Beauvais,^ who probably wrote
his encyclopedia soon after that of Bartholomew, did not
find the discrepancy between ten plagues and twenty-four
days so easy to explain away. He states that of the two
Egyptian days in each month one comes near the beginning
and the other near the close, as we have already learned.
He adds that some call them lucky days, while others say
that the astrologers of Egypt discovered that they were un-
lucky. Yet another explanation of their origin is that on
these days the Egyptians were accustomed to sacrifice to
demons with their own blood, a circumstance which would
not seem to recommend them for inclusion in the ecclesias-
tical calendar. Bernard Gordon, a medical writer at the
in some of them the beginning of country,
dog-days is marked and when the 'Imago mundi, II, 109.
sun enters each sign of the zodiac. 'Speculum natiirale, XVI, 83,
^ "Black earth" was the name printed by Anth. Koburger,
given by the Egyptians to their Niirnberg, 1485.
688 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
end of the thirteenth century, reverts to the position that
the Egyptian days were in memory of the plagues in Egypt.
He declares that there is no sense in the prohibition of
blood-letting upon these days, since they have no astrological
significance, but are the anniversaries of miracles worked
by special providence.^ Gilbert of England, earlier in the
thirteenth century, had advised against bleeding on Egyptian
days, if the moon was then influenced by any evil planet.^
Other On the other hand, not only did the twenty-four Egyptian
days. days and the three in April, August, and December which
were considered especially dangerous, continue to be listed
in the fourteenth and fifteenth century manuscripts, but
imitations of them appeared. Thus in a fourteenth cen-
tury manuscript we read of forty perilous days which should
be observed with the utmost care and which Greek masters
have tested by experience ; ^ while in a second manuscript
of the closing medieval period appear fifty-eight dangerous
days "according to the Arabs." * Of the Greek days only
twenty-nine are actually listed, seven in January, three in
February, and so on, omitting the months of July and Au-
gust entirely, which perhaps should contain the missing
eleven days.^ The Arabic days vary in number per month
from seven in March, which is the first month listed, to three
in February. "And there are four other days and nights
according to Bede on which no one is ever born or con-
^ HL 25, 329. My impression is 75. Ad-Damiri states in his zoo-
that some medieval astronomers logical lexicon, (ed. A. S. G.
also denied to these Egyptian days Jayaker, 1906, I, 134) that Mo-
any astrological importance, since hammed is reported to have sgid,
they always came upon the same "Be cautious of twelve days in the
days of the months without ref- year, because they are such as
erence to the phases of the moon cause the loss of property and
or courses of the other planets : bring on disgrace or dishonor."
but I cannot put my hand on such ^ M. Hamilton, Greek Saints
passages. and Their Festivals, 1910, p. 187,
*And is approvingly cited to states that "in all parts of (mod-
that effect by Arnald of Villanova, ern) Greece on certain days of
Regulae generates curationis mor- August and March it is consid-
borum. Doctrina IV. ered necessary to abstain from
'Ashmole 361, mid 14th century, particular kinds of work in order
fols. 158V-1S9. to avoid disaster."
*BN 7iZ7, I4-I5th century, p.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 689
ceived, and if by chance a male is conceived or bom, its
body will never be freed from putridity." ^
That astrological knowledge in England, at least soon Firmicus
after the Norman conquest, was not limited to such meager arch- '^ ^"
and simple treatises as the moon-books described above from bishop of
X ork
Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, is seen from the closing incident
in the career of Gerard, a learned and eloquent man, bishop
of Hereford under William Rufus and archbishop of York
under Henry I, whom he supported in the investiture strug-
gle with Anselm and the pope. The story goes that Gerard,
who had been feeling slightly indisposed, lay down to rest
and enjoy the fresh air and fragrance of the flowers in a
garden near his palace, asking his chaplains to leave him
for a while. On their return after dinner they found him
dead, and beneath the cushion upon which his head rested
was a copy of the astrological work of Julius Firmicus
Maternus. Gerard had not been popular with the inhabi-
tants of York, and when his corpse was brought back to
town, boys stoned the bier and the canons refused it burial
within the cathedral, which, however, his successor granted.
"His enemies," we are told, "interpreted his death, without
the rites of the church, as a divine judgment for his addic-
tion to magical and forbidden arts." At any rate the story
shows that the work of Firmicus was well known by this
time; it is from the eleventh century that the oldest manu-
scripts of it date; and we suspect that some of his enemies
were rather hypocritical in the horror which they expressed
at a bishop's reading such a book. "Too independent a
thinker for his contemporaries," writes Miss Bateson, "his
opponents held up their hands in horror that an astrological
^ Mention may perhaps be made citizens of Abbeville won a law-
in this connection of the "Tobias suit with the bishop of Amiens
nights," three nights of abstinence who claimed the right to grant
which newly wedded couples were dispensations from the observance
sometimes accustomed to observ^e of the Tobias nights and re-
in the middle ages in order to quired that fees be paid him for
defeat the demons. The practice that purpose. See J. G. Frazer
is mentioned in the Vulgate, but (1918), I, 498-520, where analo-
not in most ancient versions of gous practices of primitive tribes
the Book of Tobit. In 1409 the are listed.
690
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Relation
of Latin
astrology
to Arabic.
work by Julius Firmicus Maternus should be found under
his pillow when he died." ^ The style of Firmicus is much
imitated by the anonymous author of The Laws of Henry I
and another legal work entitled Quadripartitus written in
1 1 14. F. Liebermann states that the author was in the serv-
ice of archbishop Gerard aforesaid.^
Charles Jourdain once made the generalization that be-
fore the translation of the Quadripartite of Ptolemy and the
works of the Arabian astrologers into Latin in the twelfth
century, astrology had little hold among men of learning
in western Europe.^ An even more erroneous assertion was
that in Burckhardt's Die Kultur der Renaissance in Itcdien
that "at the beginning of the thirteenth century" the super-
stition of astrology "suddenly appeared in the foreground
of Italian life." ^ Even Jourdain's assertion the entire pres-
ent chapter tends to disprove, but since it has been quoted
with approval by a subsequent writer on the thirteenth cen-
tury,^ we may deal with it a little farther. The reason which
Jourdain added in support of his generalization was that
before the translations from the Arabic "those who culti-
vated astrology had no other guides than Censorinus, Manil-
ius, and Julius Firmicus, who might indeed seduce a few
* Bateson, Medieval England,
1904, p. 72; I have in the main
followed the fuller account in
DNB "Gerard," from which the
previous quotation is taken. Wil-
liam of Malmesbury, Gesta Pon-
tiiicum Anglorum, III, 118 (ed.
N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS, vol.
52, 1870) does not say definitely
that the book found under
Gerard's pillow was Firmicus.
Also he says nothing of boys
stoning the bier or of Gerard's
enemies interpreting his death as
a divine judgment, and in his
autograph copy of the Gesta Pon-
tificum he afterwards erased the
statements that rumor accused
Gerard of many crimes and lusts,
and that he was said to practice
sorcery because he read Julius
Firmicus on the sly before the
mid-day hours, and that people
say that a book of curious arts
was found beneath his pillow
when he died. This, the late
medieval chroniclers say, was
Firmicus : see Ranulf Higden, ed.
Lumby, VII, 420, and Knyghton,
ed. Twysden, X, SS., 2375.
'Firmicus Maternus, ed. Kroll
et Skutsch, II (1913), p. iv; and
F. Liebermann, ed. Quadripartitus,
Halle, 1892, p. 36, and Die
Gesetze der Angelsachsen, Halle,
1903-1906, I, 548.
' C. Jourdain, Nicolas Oresme
et les astrologues a la cour de
Charles V , in Revue des Ques-
tions Historiques, 1875, p. 136.
* English translation, ed. of
1898, p. 508.
'N. Valois (1880), p. 305.
XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 691
isolated dreamers but did not have enough weight to con-
vince philosophers. Ptolemy and the Arabs, on the con-
trary, appeared as masters of a regular science having its
own principles and method." This sounds as if Jourdain
had not read Firmicus who gives a more elaborate presenta-
tion of the art of astrology than the elementary Quadripar-
tite of Ptolemy. It is true that Ptolemy had a great scien-
tific reputation from his other writings, but Manilius is a
poet of no small merit, and there would be no reason why
an age which accepted Ovid and Vergil as authorities con-
cerning nature and regarded such works as De vetula and
the Secret of Secrets as genuine works of Ovid and Aris-
totle, should draw delicate distinctions between Firmicus
and Albumasar or Manilius and Alkindi. It was because
reading Firmicus and even practicing the cruder modes of
divination which we have described had already aroused an
interest in astrology that other works in the field were sought
out and translated. Moreover, there is an even more cogent
objection to Jourdain's generalization which will be de-
veloped in the following chapter, and it is that the taking over
of Arabic astrology had already begun long before the
twelfth century. We have, indeed, in the present chapter
told only half the story of astrology in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, and must now turn back to Gerbert and the intro-
duction of Arabic astrology.
APPENDIX I
SOME MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SPHERE OF PYTHAGORAS OR
APULEIUS
Besides the copies noted by Wickersheimer (191 3) in
French manuscripts from the ninth to the eleventh centuries,
such as Laon 407, Orleans 276, and BN nouv. acq. 161 6,
where in fact it occurs twice : at f ol. 7v, "Ratio spere phyta-
gor philosophi quern epulegiis descripsit," and at fol. 14T,
"Ratio pitagere de infirmis," — the following may be listed.
BN 5239, loth century, jf 12.
Harleian 3017, loth century, fol. s8r, "Ratio spherae Pythagorae
philosophi quam Apuleius descripsit."
Cotton Tiberius C, VI, nth century, fol. 6v, Imagines vitae et
mortis quarum utraque rotulum tenet longum literis et numeris
quae ad sphaeram Apuleii ad latera adscriptis, cum versibus
pagina circumscriptis. The figures are of Vita with halo, robes,
and angelic face, and of Mors, who wears only a pair of drawers,
whose ribs show through his flesh, and who has wings like a
demon. One has to turn the page upside down in order to read
some of it.
CU Trinity 1369, nth century, fol. ir, just before the Calendar
of Marianus Scotus, "Racio spere pytagorice quam apuleius
descripsit."
Chartres 113, 9th century, fol. 99, following works by Alcuin,
"Spera Apuleii Platonis."
Ivrea 19, loth century, # 5, De spera Putagorae.
CLM 22307, lo-iith century, fol. 194, Ratio sphaerae Phitagoreae
philosophi quam Apulegius descripsit, "Petosiris philosophus
Micipso regi salutem . . .", where it would seem to be confused
with the letter of Petosiris to Nechepso.
Vatican Palat. Lat. 176, loth century, fol. i62v, "Eulogii ratio
sperae Pitagorae philosophi," in a MS containing works of
Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose.
692
CHAP. XXIX LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION 693
Vatican Urb. Lat. 290, ii-i3th century, fol, 2v, Ratio spere
Pitagoras quam Apuleius descripsit; fol. 3, Petosiris Micipso
regi salutem.
I suspect that the following would also prove upon ex-
amination to be one of these Spheres of life and death.
CLM 18629, loth century, fol. 95, Characteres literarum secre-
tarum, item incantationes. Alphabetum Graecorum et numeri
per tabulam dispositi; fol. 106, Tractatus de literis alphabeti
(mysticus).
Vatican Palat. Lat. 485, 9th century, fol. 14, Litterae graecae cum
interpretatione alphabetica et numerica.
Vatican 644, lo-iith century, fol. i6v.
Of the numerous occurrences of the Sphere of Pythag-
oras or of Apuleius in MSS later than the eleventh cen-
tury I have noted only a few examples.
Vienna 2532, 12th century, fols. 1-2, Tractatus astrologicus de
divinando exitu morborum e positionibus lune et de sphere
Pythagore.
Vatican 642, 12th century, fol. 82, a somewhat different mode of
divination, by which one tells what another is thinking or is
holding in his hand, is attributed to Bede.
Madrid 10016, early 13th century, fol. 3, "spera de morte vel vita";
fol. 85V, the letter of Petosiris to Nechepso. It is interesting to
note that this MS originally belonged to an English Cluniac
monastery: Haskins, EHR (1915), p. 65.
BN 7486, 14th century, fol. 66v, "Canon supra rotam Pictagore,"
opens, "Pictagoras is said to have written thus to Nasurius,
king of the Chaldees;" then at fol. 6yv comes "The Sphere of
Pictagoras the philosopher which Epuleus Platonicus briefly
described;" which is followed at fol. 68r by a long treatise
ascribed to Ptolemy, Exortatio ad artem prescientie ptholomei
regis egypti, in which various questions are answered by nu-
merical and alphabetical calculations and one is also by the same
method referred to nativities arranged under the 28 mansions
of the moon.
CU Trinity 1109, 14th century, fol. 15, Spera apulei et platonici;
fol. 20, "Ratio spere pictagis philosophe quod apoUonius
scripsit;" fol. 392, S(p)era Fortune.
Digby, 58, 14th century, fol. iv. "Spera philosophorum."
694 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xxix
Bodleian 26 (Bernard 1871), I3-I4th century, fols. 207 and 2i6v.
Bodleiati 177 (Bernard 2072), late 14th century, # i, Pythagorae
sphaera quam Apuleius exaravit ut scias an aeger convalescat ;
# 14, fol. 22r, Apuleii Platonic! Sphaera de vita et morte et de
omnibus negotiis quae inquirere volueris.
Amplon. Quarto 380, 14th century, at the close of a Geomancy by
Abdallah, "Spera Apuley de vita et morte vel de omnibus
negociis de quibus scire volueris; sic facias. . . ."
Additional 15236, I3-I4th century, fol. 108, "Spera (Pictagore) de
vita et morte sive de re alia quacunque secundum Apuleium."
Harleian 531 1, 15th century, folder i, "Spera ApuUei."
S. Marco XI, iii, i6th century, ascribes a wheel of life and death
to "Bede the presbyter," and another to ApoUonius and Pythag-
oras.
APPENDIX II
EGYPTIAN DAYS IN EARLY MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
The following citations could probably be greatly mul-
tiplied.
BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th century, fol. I2r.
Digby 63, end of 9th century, Anglo-Saxon minuscule, fol. 36,
"Dies Egipciachi."
Berlin 131 (Phillips 1869, Trier), 9th century, fol. I2r.
Lucca 236, about 900 A. D., on its last 3 leaves are Egyptian days
and a dream-book; described by Giacosa (1901), p. 349.
Harleian 3017, loth century, fol. 59r, De diebus Egiptiacis qui mali
sunt in anno circulo. The catalogue dates this MS as 920 A. D.
but at fol. 66r the date is given as DCCClxii or DCCCClxii
(962 A. D.) — a letter seems to have been erased which probably
was the fourth C.
Harleian 3271, loth century (?), fol. 121, Versus ad dies Egyp-
tiacas inveniendas. See also Baehrens, Poet. lat. min. V, 354-6;
Mommsen CIL I, 411.
Sloane 475, this portion of the MS lo-iith century, fol. 2i6v,
Versus de significatione dierum mensis, opening, 'Tenebrae
Aegyptus Grecos sermone vocantur. ..."
Additional 22398, loth century, fol. 104.
Cotton Caligula A, XV, written mostly in Gaul before 1000 A. D.,
fol. 126, a list of lucky and unlucky days for medical purposes,
in Anglo-Saxon.
Cotton Titus D, XXVI, loth century, fol. 3V.
Cotton Vitellius A, XII, fol. 39V.
Cotton Vitellius C, VIII, in Anglo-Saxon, fol. 22,, de tribus anni
diebus Aegyptiacis.
CU Trinity 945, early nth century, fol. 2)7-
CU Trinity 1369, nth century (perhaps 1086 A. D.) fol. iv.
Vatican 644, lo-iith century, fol. 77r, versus duodecim de diebus
aegyptiis, and a fragment "de tribus diebus aegyptiis."
Dijon 448, io-i2th century, fol. 88, Calendrier, avec jours egyp-
tiaques ajoutes; fol. 191, "De Egyptiacis diebus." Bede's De
695
696 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xxix
temporihus and De natura rerum occur twice in this MS and
at fol. 181 is an incantation for use in fevers.
Harleian 1585 and Sloane 1975, where the Egyptian days are
found with the Herbarium of Apuleius, are both 12th century
but probably copied from earher MSS.
So in Chalons-sur-Marne 7, 13th century, fol. 41, verses on the
Egyptian days occur with the Ars calculatoria of Helpericus of
Auxerre who wrote in the ninth century.
I have usually not noted the occurrence of the Egyptian
days in later manuscripts. A few exceptions are :
BN 7299A, i2th century, fol. 37r.
CLM 23390, i2-i3th century, the last item is, "Verses concerning
the twelve signs and the Egyptian days." The previous con-
tents were mainly religious.
Cambrai 195, fol. 208; 229, fol. 56; 829, fol. 54; all three MSS of
the 1 2th century.
Cambrai 861, early 13th century, fol. 56.
Sloane 2461, end of 13th century, fols. 62r-64v.
The verses concerning the ten plagues of Egypt contained in
CLM 18629, loth century, fol. 93, and ascribed by the catalogue
to Eugenius Toletanus have, I presume, no connection with the
Egyptian days. Such proved to be the case with BN 16216, 13th
century, fol. 25 iv, de decem plagis Egyptiorum et de vii diebus,
although from the fact that it follows "Precepta Pithagore" I
suspected before examining it that it might have something to do
with divination. But not even the Pythagorean precepts have in
this case.
CHAPTER XXX
GERBERT AND THE INTRODUCTION OF ARABIC ASTROLOGY
Arabic influence in early manuscripts — A preface and twenty-one
chapters on the astrolabe — Are they parts of one work? — Their rela-
tion to Gerbert and the Arabic — Hermann's De mensiira astrolabii —
Attitude towards astrology in the preface — Question of Gerbert's atti-
tude towards astrology — His posthumous reputation as a magician —
An anonymous astronomical treatise; its possible relation to Gerbert
—Contents of its first two books — Attitude towards astrology — The
fourth book — Citations : Arabic names — Mathematica of Alchandrus
or Alhandreus — An account of its contents — Astrological doctrine —
Nativities and name-calculations — Interrogations and more name-calcu-
lations— Alchandrus or Alhandreus not the same as Alexander —
Alkandrinus or Alchandrinus on nativities according to the mansions
of the moon — Albandinus — Geomancy of Alkardianus or Alchandianus
— An anonymous treatise or fragment of the tenth century.
The usual view has been that western Latin learning Arabic
was not affected by Arabic science until the twelfth or ||| g^j-ly
even the thirteenth century. We shall see in other chapters manu-
. . , scripts.
that the translations of the Aristotelian books of natural
philosophy were current rather earlier than has been recog-
nized, that in medicine a period of Neo-Latin Salernitan
tradition can scarcely be distinguished from one of Arabic
influence, and that in chemistry owing to the misinterpre-
tation of the date of Robert of Chester's translation of the
book of Morienus Romanus — in which Robert says that
the Latin world does not yet know what alchemy is — Ber-
thelot in his history of medieval alchemy placed the intro-
duction of Arabic influence half a century too late. In the
present chapter we shall see that the voluminous work of
translation of Arabic astrologers which went on in the
twelfth century — and to which another chapter will later be
devoted — was preceded in the eleventh and even tenth cen-
turies by numerous signs of Arabic influence in works of
697
698
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
A preface
and
twenty-
one chap-
ters on
the as-
trolabe.
astronomy and astrology and also by translations of Arabic
authors. I was somewhat startled when I first found works
by Arabic authors and use of astronomical terminology
drawn from the Arabic in a manuscript of the eleventh cen-
tury in the British Museum ^ and Wickersheimer was simi-
larly surprised at the traces of Arabic influence in a similar
but still earlier manuscript of the tenth century at Paris. ^
Bubnov, however, had already noted this Paris manuscript
as a proof that Arabic books were being translated into Latin
in Gerbert's time,^ and one of Gerbert's letters, written in
984 to a Lupitus of Barcelona (Lupito Barch'inonensi), ask-
ing him to send Gerbert a book on "astrology" which he
had translated, points in the same direction. In the pres-
ent chapter we shall discuss the contents of the early manu-
scripts just mentioned and of some others which seem to
have some connection either with Gerbert or the introduc-
tion of Arabic astrology into Latin learning.
In an eleventh century manuscript at Munich * the as-
trological work of Firmicus is preceded by writings in a
different hand upon the astrolabe. One of these, in its pres-
ent state an anonymous fragment, is a stilted and florid in-
troduction to a translation from the Arabic of a work on
the astrolabe.^ Another is a treatise on the astrolabe in
twenty-one chapters and containing many Arabic names. ^
* Additional 17,808, a narrow
folio in vellum with all the trea-
tises written in the same large,
plain hand with few abbrevia-
tions. A considerable part of the
MS is occupied by the work on
music of Guido of Arezzo (c.
995-1050). This MS is not noted
by Wickersheimer or by Bubnov,
although it includes treatises on
the abacus and the astrolabe
which are perhaps by Gerbert.
'BN 17,868, from the chapter
of Notre Dame of Paris, 21
leaves. Wickersheimer (1913).
321-3, states that it has all the
marks of the writing of the tenth
century : Delisle so dated it.
Bubnov (1899), LXVII, regards
fols. I4r et seq. as by a slightly
older hand than the first portion.
'Bubnov (1899), 124-6, note.
^CLM 560, described in Bub-
nov, Gerberti opera mathematica,
1899, p. xli.
^ Ibid., fols. i6r-i9, Fragmen-
tum libelli de astrolabio a quodam
ex Arabico versi. Incipit, "Ad in-
timas summe phylosophie disci-
plinas et sublimia ipsius perfec-
tionis archisteria." Printed by
Bubnov (1899), pp. 370-75-
' Incipit "Quicumque astronomi-
am peritiam disciplinae" ; the
printed editions insert a discere
after astronomiam, but it has not
been there in the MSS which I
have seen and is not needed.
Printed by Pez, Thesaurus Anec-
dotorum NotAss. Ill, ii, 109-30,
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 699
Bubnov lists three other copies of the introductory fragment,
and they are all in manuscripts where the second treatise is
also included;^ it, however, is often found in other manu-
scripts where the anonymous fragment does not appear, and
it must be admitted that its omission is no great loss.
Although the fragment precedes the other treatise in Are they
only one manuscript mentioned by Bubnov, there is reason on?work?
to think that they belong together, since both are concerned
with the Wazzalcora or planisphere or astrolapsus of
Ptolemy, and since the plan outlined by the writer of the
introduction is followed in the treatise of twenty-one chap-
ters except that it ends incompletely. Bubnov recognized
this, yet did not unite them as a single work.^ In 984 Ger-
bert wrote to a Lupito Barchinonensi asking Lupitus to
send him a work on "astrology" which Lupitus had trans-
lated.^ If Lupitus was of Barcelona, his translation was
probably from the Arabic, and as such translations were
presumably not common in the tenth century, it is natural
to wonder if he may not be the above-mentioned anonymous
translator. This Bubnov suggested in the case of the intro-
ductory fragment,* but the treatise in twenty-one chapters
he placed among the doubtful works of Gerbert,^ because a
monastic catalogue composed before 1084 speaks of a work
of Gerbert on the astrolabe, while six manuscripts of the
(1721) and incorrectly ascribed as in other MSS of "Regulae ex
by him to Hermannus Contractus, libris Ptolomei regis de com-
because it often occurs in the positione astrolapsus." Yet Bub-
MSS together with another trea- nov says, p. cxvi, "Catalogues of
tise on the astrolabe by a "Heri- Additional MSS (omnia volumi-
mannus Christi pauperum perip- na inspexi, quae ante a. 1895 edita
sima et philosophiae tyronum sunt)." BM Egerton 823, 12th
asello imo limace tardior assecla." century, fol. 4r. BN 7412, 12th
Of this last we shall have more and 13th centuries, fols. 1-9,
to say presently. The edition of "Waztalkora sive tract, de utili-
Pez reappears in Migne, PL vol. tatibus astrolabii." Professor D.
143. Bubnov (1899), 114-47, gives B. Macdonald suggests that
a new edition, and at pp. 109-13 a Waztalkora is for rasmu-l-kura,
listof the MSS of the work, in "the describing of the sphere in
which, however, he fails to note lines."
the following: and they are also * (1899), p. 370.
absent from his general index of '(1899), p. 374.
153 codices at pp. xvii-xc. BM * Ep. 24.
Additional MS 17808, nth cen- * (1899), p. 370.
tury, fols. 73v-79r, under the title * P. 109.
700
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Their re-
lation to
Gerbert
and the
Arabic.
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, although none earlier to
his knowledge, ascribe this very treatise of twenty-one chap-
ters to Gerbert. Bubnov believed that whoever the author
of the treatise in twenty-one chapters was, he had utilized
the full work of the anonymous translator. But this seems
a rather unnecessary refinement. For what has become of
that translation? Why is only its wordy and rhetorical
preface extant? If the writer of the twenty-one chapters
destroyed its text after plagiarizing it, why did he not also
make away with the preface? It seems more plausible that
the twenty-one chapters are the original translation from
the Arabic, and that many makers of manuscripts have
copied it alone and omitted the wordy and rather worthless
preface of the translator. If, as Bubnov suggested, the
treatise in twenty-one chapters is Gerbert's revision and
polishing up of Lupitus' translation,^ why did he not pre-
fix a new introduction of his own? And why should anyone
try to polish up the style of so rhetorical a writer as he who
penned the extant anonymous introduction?
If we accept this anonymous introduction as the preface
to the twenty-one chapters, Gerbert would be the most likely
person to ascribe both to, unless we argue that he could
not make a translation from the Arabic and that his letter
asking to see a translation from the Arabic by Lupitus is
a proof of this. If Gerbert is not the author, Lupitus
would perhaps be the next most likely person, but the hint
contained in Gerbert's letter is all that points to Lupitus,
and indeed the only mention that we have of him. If the
translator is some third unknown person, at least he is not
later than the eleventh century. If, on the other hand, we
regard the introduction of the translator and the twenty-
one chapters as by different persons, who perhaps had no
connection with each other, and Gerbert's letter of 984 as
having nothing to do with either, we have the moi 2 evidence
of an early and widespread interest in astronomy and
* Bubnov (1899), 370 . . . "Hoc manum habuit, retractavit dicen-
opusculum ex Arahico versum ad dique genere expolivit."
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 701
knowledge of Arabic in the western Latin learned world.
One reason why the treatise on the astrolabe in twenty- Her-
one chapters is so seldom found in the manuscripts preceded "i^nnsDe
,^ . r r mensura
by the introduction of the translator may be that it is more astrolabU.
often found with and preceded by another treatise on the
astrolabe, sometimes entitled De mensura astrolabii, and
attributed to a Hermann who modestly calls himself "the
offscouring of Christ's poor and the butt of mere tyros in
philosophy." ^ This treatise tells how to construct an astro-
labe, thus filling in the deficiency left by the incomplete end-
ing of the treatise in twenty-one chapters, which fails to
carry out fully this last item in the plan of the introductory
fragment. A note in one manuscript, reproduced in part
by Macray in his catalogue of the Digby Manuscripts in the
Bodleian Library, states that the treatise in twenty-one
chapters is by Gerbert and that when a certain Berengarius
read it, he found it told how to exercise the art but not
to make the instrument and asked Hermann to tell him how
to make one. Hermann therefore composed the work in
question, dedicated it to Berengarius, and prefixed it to Ger-
bert's treatise.^ Of late there has been a tendency to identify
this Hermann with Hermann of Dalmatia, the twelfth cen-
tury translator from the Arabic,^ rather than with Her-
mann the Lame, the chronicler, who died in 1054, but if
Bubnov is correct in dating two manuscripts ^ containing
^ Printed by Pez. Thesaur. Hermann le Dalmate et les pre-
Anecdot. Noviss. Ill, ii, 95-106. micres traductions latines des
"Herimannus Christi pauperum traites arabes d'astronomic au
peripsima et philosophiae tyronum moyen age, Paris, Picard, 1891,
asello imo limace tardior assecla." 11 pp. Clerval adduced only one
The MSS are numerous. MS in support of his contention
^ Digby 174, fol. 210V ; also and took up the untenable position
noted by Bubnov (1899), p. 113. that Arabic astronomy was un-
Hermann's dedicatory prologue, known in Latin until the twelfth
however, does not give his century. He also did not dis-
friend's name in full, but reads tinguish between the different
in this MS, "B. amico suo." works on the astrolabe.
^ See Clerval, Hermann le * Munich CLM 14836, f ols. i6v-
Dalmate, Paris, 1891, in Compte 24r. BM Royal 15-B-IX, fol.
rendu du Congres scientiiique Sir-: in both cases followed by
international des catholiques, the treatise of twenty-one chap-
Sciences Historiques, 163-9. Also, ters.
I believe, published separately as
702
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Attitude
towards
astrology
in the
preface.
Hermann's treatise on the astrolabe in the eleventh century,
they could not be the work of Hermann the translator of the
next century.^ Moreover, in the thirteenth century the trea-
tise seems to have been regarded as the work of Hermann
the Lame.^ The author's self-depreciatory description of
himself is also a mark of Hermann the Lame, who in another
treatise addressed to his friend Herrandus and discussing the
length of a moon calls himself "of Christ's poor a vile
abortion." ^
In the treatise of twenty-one chapters, which simply
tells how to use the astrolabe, there is naturally no refer-
ence to judicial astrology. But in the introduction of the
anonymous writer to his translation from the Arabic of
a work on the astrolabe there is mention of the influence
of the stars. Their "concord with all mundane creatures in
all things" is regarded as established by "secret institution
* Professor Haskins has an-
nounced as in preparation an
article on Hermann the translator
which will perhaps solve the
difficulties.
^ In a Berlin manuscript of the
twelfth century (Berlin 956,_ fol.
ii) there is added a note in a
thirteenth century hand recount-
ing the legend that this Hermann
was the son of a king and queen
and that, his mother having been
asked before his birth whether
she would prefer a handsome and
foolish son or a learned and
shamefully ugly one and she hav-
ing chosen the latter alternative,
he was born hunchbacked and
lame. It was from this MS of
the treatise on the astrolabe that
Pertz edited the legend in the
Monumenta Germaniae {Scrip-
tores, V, 267). Rose (1905), P-
1 179, calls the writer of this note
Berengar, too, asking anent the
opening words of the note, "De
isto hermanno legitur in historia,"
"Aus welcher historia hat der
Schreiber (Berengarius) seine
Fabeln?" The note at the close
of the treatise in Digby 174, fol.
21OV, gives a different version of
the legend, stating that Hermann
was a good man and dear to God
and that one day an angel offered
him his choice between bodily
health without great wisdom and
the greatest science with corporal
infirmity. Hermann chose the
latter and afterwards became a
paralytic and gouty.
' This treatise, in which Her-
mann expresses amazement that
Bede has so underestimated the
duration of the moon, immediately
precedes the one on the astrolabe
in BN nouv. acq. 229, a German
MS of the twelfth century, fols.
I7r-i9r (formerly pp. 265-269).
After the treatise on the astrolabe
follows a third work by Hermann,
"de quodam horologio," fols. 25V-
28r. Then follows the treatise in
twenty-one chapters on the astro-
labe.
These citations alone are suf-
ficient to demonstrate the error of
Clerval's assertion: (1891), 165.
"On ne pent invoquer aucune
preuve serieuse en faveur d'Her-
mann Contract. Jacques de Ber-
game et Tritheme . . . sont les
premiers qui aient attribue au
moirue de Constance les traites en
question."
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 703
of divinity and by natural law" and testified to by scientists.^
Not only is the effect of the moon on tides adduced as usual
as an example, but God is believed to have set the seal of
His approval upon "this discipline," when He made miracu-
lous use of the stars and heavens to mark the birth and
passion of His Son. The writer, however, stigmatizes as a
"frivolous superstition" the doctrine of the Chaldean ge-
nethlialogi, "who account for the entire life of man by as-
trological reasons" and "try to explain conceptions and na-
tivities, character, prosperity and adversity from the courses
of the stars." Something nevertheless is to be conceded to
them, provided all things are recognized as under divine
disposition. But their doctrine is an Q.gg which is not to be
sucked unless rid of the bad odors of error. ^ The trans-
lator urges the importance of a knowledge of astronomy in
determining the date of church festivals and canonical hours.
He cites Josephus concerning Abraham's instruction of the
Egyptians in arithmetic and astronomy, but regards Ptolemy
as the most illustrious of all astronomers and the astrolabe
as the invention of his "divine mind." The translator
wishes his readers to understand that he is offering them
nothing new but only reviving the discoveries of the past,
and that he is simply presenting what he finds in the Arabic.
^Bubnov (1899) 372. "Habet etiam conceptiones et nativitates,
etiam ex divinitatis archana insti- hominumque mores, prospera seu
tutione et physica lata ratione cum adversa ex cursu siderum ex-
omnibus mundanis creaturis con- plicare conantur. Quod illorum
cordiam in rebus omnibus, secun- tamen frivolae superstitiositati
dum phisiologos non parvam con- concedendum est, dum omnia
gruentiam. . . ." Bubnov unfortu- divinae dispositioni commen-
nately used only one of his four danda sint. Illud est ovum a
]\ISS in printing this text, and nullo forbillandum (Bubnov sug-
there often seems to be something gests the reading furcillandum in
wrong with it or with his punc- parentheses, but sorbillandum
tuation. This criticism applies seems to me the obvious reading),
more especially to the passage nisi prius foetidos inscitiae ex-
quoted in the following footnote. halaverit ructus et feces mun-
^ Ibid., "Et ut Chaldaicas re- dialium evomerit studiorum."
ticeam gentilogias {sic) qui om- The passage is rather incoherent
nein humanam vitam astrologicis as it stands, but I hope that I
attribuunt rationationibus et have correctly interpreted its
quosdam constellationum efYectus meaning.
Der xii signa disponunt, quique
704
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Question
of Ger-
bert's
attitude
toward
astrology.
His pos-
thumous
reputation
as a
magician.
If Gerbert could be shown to be the translator who wrote
this introduction, it would be a more valuable bit of evi-
dence as to his attitude toward astrology than anything that
we have at present. His surely genuine mathematical works,
as edited by Bubnov, consist solely of a short geometry and
a few of his letters in which mathematical topics, mainly
the abacus, are touched upon. His contemporary and dis-
ciple, the historian Richer, tells in the well-known passage ^
how Borellus, "the duke of Hither Spain," took Gerbert
as a youth from the monastery at Aurillac in Auvergne back
with him across the Pyrenees and entrusted his education
to Hatto, bishop of Vich, in the north-eastern part of the
peninsula. Whether Gerbert studied Arabic or not Richer
does not state. Since he is still described as adolescens
when the duke and bishop take him with them to Italy and
leave him there with the pope, one would infer that he prob-
ably had not engaged in the work of translation from the
Arabic. Another almost contemporary writer, alluding very
briefly to Gerbert, makes him visit Cordova, but is perhaps
mistaken.^ Richer does, however, state that Berbert es-
pecially studied mathesis, a word which, as various medieval
writers inform us, may mean either mathematics or divina-
tion. Apparently Richer uses it in the former sense, for
later he mentions only Gerbert's achievements in arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy.^ But Robert, king of
France, 987-1031, whose teacher Gerbert had been, seems
to refer to him as "that master Neptanebus" in some verses,*
a name which certainly suggests an astrologer, as well as an
instructor of royalty, if not also a magician.
But Gerbert's reputation for magic seems to start with
William of Malmesbury in the first half of the twelfth cen-
tury, who makes him flee by night from his monastery to
Spain to study "astrology" and other arts with the Saracens,
* III, 43-45. Bulletin Hispanique, Annates de
' Ademarus Cabannensis, who la Faculte des Lettres de Bor-
died about 1035 (Bubnov, 1899, deaux, XXII, 4, p. 329.
382-3). For Gerbert's sources in 'III, 48-53.
Barcelona see J. M. Burnam, "A * "Plurima me docuit Neptane-
Group of Spanish Manuscripts," in bus ille magister" (Bubnov, 381).
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 705
until he came to surpass Julius Firmicus in his knowledge
of fate. There too, according to William of Malmesbury,
"he learned what the song and flight of birds portend, to
summon ghostly figures from the lower world, and what-
ever human curiosity has encompassed whether harmful or
salutary." William then adds some more sober facts con-
cerning Gerbert's mathematical achievements and associates.^
Michael Scot in his Introduction to Astrology in the early
thirteenth century speaks of a master Gilhertiis who was
the best nigromancer in France and whom the demons
obeyed in all that he required of them day and night be-
cause of the great sacrifices which he offered and his
prayers and fastings and magic books and great diversity
of rings and candles. Having succeeded in borrowing an
astrolabe for a short time he made the demons explain its
purpose, how to operate it, and how to make another one.
Later he reformed and became bishop of Ravenna and
pope.^ In a manuscript early in the thirteenth century is a
statement that Gerbert became archbishop and pope by de-
mon aid and had a spirit enclosed in a golden head whom he
consulted as to knotty problems in composing his commen-
tary on arithmetic. When the demon expounded a certain
very difficult place badly, Gerbert skipped it, and hence that
unexplained passage is called the Saltus Gilberti.^
In a manuscript in the Bodleian library which seems to Ananony-
have been written early in the twelfth century^ is an as- ^onomkal
tronomical treatise in four books which Macray suggested treatise;
might be the Liber de planeti^ et mundi climatihus which relation to
Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, is said
to have composed.^ The present treatise indeed embodies
^De rebus gestis re gum Anglo- many figures in red, 76 leaves.
rum, II, 167-8. For the Incipits of the four books
^ Bodleian 266, fol. 25r. and their prologues see Macray's
^ Bubnov (1899), 391. On Ger- Catalogue of the Digby MSS.
bert as a magician see further J. "Another indication of mathe-
J. I. Bollinger, Die Papst-Fabeln matical activity in tenth century
des Mittclalters, Munich, 1863, pp. England is provided by some old
155-59- verses in English in Royal 17-A-
* Digby 83, quarto in skin, well I, f ols. zw-t,, which state that
written in large letters with few Euclid's geometry was introduced
abbreviations and illustrated with into England "Yn tyme of good
Gerbert.
7o6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
a Letter of Ethelwold to Pope Gerbert on squaring the
circle.^ It seems, however, that this letter on squaring the
circle was really written by Adelbold, bishop of Utrecht
from loio to 1027.^ Adelbold speaks of himself in the let-
ter as a young man ^ and of course wrote it before Ger-
bert's death in 1003, and very probably before Gerbert be-
came Pope Silvester II in 999. But he could scarcely have
written the letter early enough to have it included in a
work written by Ethelwold who died in 984. Our astro-
nomical treatise in four books is therefore not by Ethel-
kyng Adelstones day." Usually
the first Latin translation of
Euclid is supposed to have been
that by Adelard of Bath in the
early twelfth century. Halliwell
(1839), 56.
*Digby 83, fol. 24, "Epistola
Ethelwodi ad Girbertum papam.
Domino summo pontifici et phi-
losopho Girberto pape athelwoldus
vite felicitatem. . . ." Gerbert of
course did not become pope until
long after Ethelwold's death, but
this Titulus and Incipit are open
to suspicion anyway, since if Ger-
bert had become pope he should
have been addressed as Pope Sil-
vester. The article on Ethelwold
(DNB) states that "a treatise on
the circle, said to have been writ-
ten by him and addressed to
Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silves-
ter II, is in the Bodleian Library
(1684, Bodl. MS. Digby 83, f.
24)." William of Malmesbury
mentioned "Adelboldum episco-
pum, ut dicunt, Winterbrugen-
sem" as the author of the letter
to Gerbert, quoted by Bubnov
(1899), 388.
' It has always been so printed :
by Pez, Olleris, Curtze, and Bub-
nov, and seems to be ascribed to
him in most MSS, for which and
other evidence pointing to the
bishop of Utrecht as author see
Bubnov (1899), 300-309, 41-45,
384, etc. Bubnov, however, failed
to note Digby 83 either in connec-
tion with this letter or at all in
his long list of mathematical
MSS (XVII-CXIX). It may
therefore be well to note that the
letter as given in Digby 83 differs
considerably from the version
printed by Bubnov. It in general
omits epistolary amenities which
do not bear directly on the mathe-
matical question in hand, notably
the entire first paragraph of Bub-
nov's text and the close of the
second and third paragraphs. It
also abbreviates portions of the
fifth paragraph and the last sen-
tence of the eighth and last para-
graph. On the other hand after
the first sentence of the fifth para-
graph of Bubnov's text it inserts
the following passage which
seems to be missing in Bubnov's
text of the letter : "Si quis ergo
vult invenire quadraturam circuli
dividat lineam in VII partes
spatiumque unius septime partis
semotim ponat. Deinde lineam in
VII divisam in duo distribuat et
spatium alterius duorum sep-
aratim ponat. Post hoc lineam in
VII partitam triplicet cui tripli-
cate spatium unius septime quod
semoverat adiciat. Ipsa denique
totam in IIII partiatur quarum
quarta angulis directis per lineam
quadrangulam metiatur. Ad ulti-
mum sumpto spatio alterius duo-
rum quod prius reposuerat de-
posito puncto in medio quad-
ranguli eodem spatio circumducat
circinum (circulum) et sic in-
veniet circuli quadraturam."
* Bubnov (1899), 41-42, "quod
tantum virum quasi conscolasti-
cum iuvenis convenio."
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 707
wold, unless the letter be a later interpolation, but it is pos-
sibly by Adelbold or by Gerbert.^ Its opening words, "Qui-
cumque mundane spere rationem et astrorum legem . . . ,"
are similar to those of the treatise on the uses of the astro-
labe which has often been ascribed to Gerbert, "Quicumque
astronomice peritiam discipline . . ." ^
Our treatise then may be by Gerbert or It may be a Contents
specimen of the astronomy of the eleventh or early twelfth two books,
century. As it appears to be little known and never to
have been published, it may be well to give a brief summary
of its contents. An introductory paragraph outlines some
of the chief points with which the treatise will be con-
cerned, such as the twelve signs of the zodiac, their positions,
"most varied qualities," the reasons for their names, and
the diverse opinions of gentile philosophers and Catholics
as to their significations; the four elements; and the seven
planets. In the text which follows, these topics are con-
sidered in rather the reverse order to that in which they
were named in the preface. After some discussion of "the
founders of astronomy and the doctors of astrology," the
first book is occupied with a description of the sphere or
heavens. The second book is largely geographical, begin-
ning with the question of the size of the earth, the zones,
the ocean, and how to draw a T map. This geographical
digression the author justifies in the prologue to his third
book by the statement that often the position of the stars
can be determined from the location of countries, and that
* Bubnov does not include it in fol. 17V, after which most of the
his edition of the mathematical few remaining leaves of the MS,
works of Gerbert, but as we have which has only 21 leaves in all,
seen he was unaware of the exist- are blank. There is some simi-
ence of this MS, i.e., Digby 83. larity of contents, but the Paris
^And also to the Incipit of a MS is more astrological. Pos-
treatise in a tenth century MS at sibly, however, it is a different
Paris, BN 17,868, fol. I4r, "Qui- part of, or rather extracts from
cumque nosse desiderat legem the same work, since we shall see
astrorum. . . ." The treatise or reasons for thinking that the text
fragment in this Paris MS seems in Digby 2>2 is incomplete.
to end at fol. I7r, or at least at
7o8
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Attitude
towards
astrology.
if the habitat of peoples is known one can more easily arrive
at the effect of the stars. ^
This suggests that the author believes in astrological in-
fluence, and in the two following books he states a number
of astrological doctrines, not, however, as his own convic-
tions but as the opinions of the genethliaci or astrologers,
or "those who will have it that prosperity and adversity in
human life are due to these stars." ^ On the other hand,
he seldom subjects the astrologers to any adverse criticism.
Indeed, early in the third book, he states that the belief of
the genethliaci that human wealth and honors, poverty and
obscurity, depend upon the stars, pertains to another subject
than that which he is at present discussing; namely, prog-
nostication, concerning which he will treat fully in later
chapters. But I cannot see that he fulfills this promise in
the present manuscript, which seems to end rather abruptly,^
so that possibly there is something missing. In the previous
passage, however, he immediately proceeded to admit that
the sun and moon greatly affect our life and to tell further
how it is connected with_ the other five planets. In the star
of Saturn the soul is said to busy itself especially with rea-
soning and intelligence, logic and theory. Jupiter is prac-
tical and represents the power of action. Mars signifies ani-
mosity; Venus, desire; Mercury, interpretation. Men have
proved the moon's moist influence by sleeping out-of-doors
and finding that more humor collected in their heads when
they slept in the moon-light than when they did not.* After
mentioning the twelve signs, "through which the aforesaid
planets revolving exert varied influences, and even, according
to the genethliaci, make a good man in some nativities and
a bad man in others," ^ the author goes on to tell which
^ At least such seems to me to
be the meaning of the passage, fol.
2ir, "Quippe cum aliquando per
situm gentium ipsarum positionem
stellarum demonstrati simus pre-
cognita populorum habitatione rei
effectus ad faciliorem curret
eventus."
' Fol. 22X.
^ Fol. 76r, the closing words
are, "Quod autem de dementis
diximus idem de temporibus
deque humoribus intellige sicut
hec figura evidentissime desig-
nat." But the figure is not given.
* Fol. 27v.
''Fol. 31V, "per que predict!
planete revoluti diversa in diver-
XXX
GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY
709
signs are masculine and which are feminine, to relate them
to the four cardinal points and to the four elements, to de-
fine the twenty-eight mansions and their distribution among
the twelve signs and seven planets,^ and to tell how the
planets differ in quality.^ All this is providing at least the
basis for astrological prediction.
The fourth book of the treatise is mainly taken up with The
descriptions and figures of the constellations, concerning ijoojj
which the author often repeats the fables of antiquity.
After discussing the six ages of the world, the author in-
tended to insert a figure on what is the next to last page of
the present text to show "the harmony of the elements,
climates of the sky, times of the year, and humors of the
human body," for, as he goes on to say, man is called a
microcosm by the philosophers. This missing figure or
figures would have been analogous to those which Wickers-
heimer investigated in the early medieval manuscripts in
the libraries of France.
Our author does not make many citations, but among Citations;
them are Eratosthenes,^ Aratus, Ptolemy, Macrobius, and names.
Martianus Capella. Some of these authors are perhaps
known to him only indirectly, and he seems to make use of
Isidore and Pliny without mentioning them. He shows,
however, an acquaintance with foreign languages, listing
the seven heavens as "oleth, lothen, ethat, edim, eliyd, ha-
chim, atarpha," and giving Greek, Hebrew, and "Saracen"
names for the seven planets, as well as a "Similitudo," or
corresponding metal, and "Interpretatio," or quality such as
"Obscurus, Clarus, Igneus." * He also gives the Arabic
names for the twenty-eight mansions into which the circle
of the zodiac subdivides.^ We now turn to another treatise,
found in tenth and eleventh century manuscripts, in which
Arabian influence is apparent.
sis possunt et etiam secundum
genethliacos bonum quidam in
quibusdam malum vero in quibus-
dam quidam nativitatibus homi-
nem astruunt,"
^ Fol. 32r.
' Fol. 36r.
* Fol. 59r, "Herastotenes."
■* Fol. 2ir-v.
" Fol. 32r,
710
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The
Mathe-
matica of
Alchan-
drus or
Alhan-
dreus.
William of Malmesbury, writing in the first half of the
twelfth century concerning Gerbert's studies in Spain, says,
probably with a great deal of exaggeration, that Gerbert
surpassed Ptolemy in his knowledge of the astrolabe, Alan-
draeus in his knowledge of the distances between the stars,
and Julius Firmicus in his knowledge of fate.^ It is rather
remarkable that a work ascribed to Alhandreus or Alcandrus,
"supreme astrologer," should be found in two manuscripts
of the eleventh century ^ in both of which occurs also the
work on the astrolabe which is perhaps by Gerbert, while
in one is found also the Mathesis of Julius Firmicus Ma-
ternus. Alchadrinus or Archandrinus is cited in Michael
Scot's long Introduction to Astrology as the author of a
"book of fortune making mention of the three fades of the
signs and the planets ruling in them," and Michael adds that
a similar method of divination is employed in general among
the Arabs and Indians as can be seen in the streets and
alleys of Messina where "learned women" answer the ques-
tions of merchants.^ Peter of Abano in his Lucidator as-
tronomiae,'^ written in 13 lo, mentions Alchandrus as a suc-
cessor of Hermes Trismegistus in the science of astronomy
but as flourishing before the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Al-
chandrus was probably scarcely as ancient as that, but the
treatise ascribed to him also exists in Latin in a manuscript
of the tenth century,^ and seems to be a translation from
^De rebus gestis regum Anglo-
rum, II, 167.
^'Addit. 17808, fols. 85V-99V,
"Mathematica Alhandrei summi
astrologi. Luna est frigide nature
«t argentei coloris / oculis descrip-
tio talis subiciatur" : and CLM
560, fols. 61-87, which I have not
seen but which from the descrip-
tion in the catalogue is evidently
the same treatise and has the same
Incipit, although no author or
title seems to be given.
^Bodleian 266, fol. 179V, "libel-
lum fortune faciens mentionem
de tribus faciebus signorum et
planetis regnantibus in eisdem
. . . mulieres docte."
*BN 2598, isth century, fol.
io8r.
"BN 17868, fols. 2r-i2v. "In-
cipit liber Alchandrei" ( Wicker s-
heimer) or Alchandri (Bubnov)
"philosophi. Luna est frigide
nature et argentei coloris." In
a passage of Addit. 17808, fol.
86v, where the years from the
beginning of the world are being
reckoned, the year of writing is
apparently given as 1040 A. D., but
the existence of the treatise in
BN 17868 shows that it was writ-
ten before 1000. Also there is
something wrong with the pas-
sage mentioned in Addit. 17808 —
as is very apt to be the case with
such figures in medieval MSS —
for the number of years from the
XXX
GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY
711
the Arabic. In any case it is full of Arabic and Hebrew
words, and professes to cite the opinions of Egyptians,
Ishmaelites, and Chaldeans in general as well as those of
Ascalu the Ishmaelite and Arfarfan or Argafalan or Ar-
gafalaus ^ the Chaldean in particular. Since the name Al-
chandrus or Alhandreus is found so far as I know in no
historian or bibliographer of Arabian literature or learning,^
we shall treat somewhat fully of the work and its author
here.
The "Mathematic of Alhandreus, supreme astrologer,"
as it is entitled in one manuscript, opens somewhat abruptly
with a terse statement of the qualities of the planets. Two
estimates of the number of years between creation and the
birth of Christ are then given, one "according to the He-
brews," the other "according to others." ^ There follow
letters of the Greek alphabet with Roman numerals express-
ing their respective numerical values, perhaps for future ref-
erence in connection with some sphere of life or death. Next
is considered the division of the zodiac into twelve signs for
which Hebrew as well as Latin names are given. The move-
ments of the planets through the signs are then discussed,
and it is explained in the usual astrological style that Leo is
the house of the sun. Cancer of the moon, while two signs
are assigned to each of the other five planets. Every planet
is erect in some one sign and falls in its opposite, and any
planet is friendly to another in whose house it is erect and
hostile to another in whose house it declines. Presently
the author treats of "the order of the planets according to
nature and their names according to the Hebrews," ■* and
then of their sex and courses, which last leads to considerable
An ac-
count of
its con-
tents.
beginning of the world to the
birth of Christ is given as 4970
and then the sum of the two as
6018 instead of 6010 years, while
at fol. 85V other estimates are
given of the number of years be-
tween the Creation and the In-
carnation.
* The spellings of such proper
names vary in the different MSS
or even in the same one.
' Steinschneider (1905) 30,
briefly notes "Alcandrinus," how-
ever. See below, p. 715 of the
present chapter.
"Addit. 17808, fol. Ssv; BN
17868, fol. 2r.
' Addit. 17808, f ols. 86r-87r ; BN
17868, fol. 3v.
712
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
digressions anent the solar and lunar calendars.^ Then the
twelve signs are related to the four "climates" and elements.
All this implies a favorable attitude to astrology, and the
author has already expressed his conviction more than once
that human affairs are disposed by the seven planets accord-
ing to the will of God.^ Since man like the world is com-
posed of the four elements it is no false opinion which per-
suades us that under God's government human affairs are
principally regulated by the celestial bodies.^ To make this
plainer the author proposes to insert an astrological figure
"which Alexander of Macedon composed most diligently,"
and which presumably would have been of the microcosmus
or Melothesia type, but the space for it remains blank in
the manuscript. Next comes a paragraph on the sex of the
signs and their rising and setting, and then lists of the hours
of the day and night governed by the signs and by each
planet for all the days of the week.^
Then we read, "These are the twenty-eight principal
parts or stars (i.e. constellations) through which the fates
of all are disposed and pronounced indubitably, future as
well as present. Anyone may with diligence forecast goings
and returnings, origins and endings, by the most agreeable
aid of these horoscopes
" 5
* Addit. 17808, fols. 87v-88r.
^'BN 17868, fol. 2r; Addit.
17808, fol. 8sv; "luxta que quia
omnia humana secundum nutum
dei disponuntur per septem plane-
tas que subter (subtus) feruntur
eorum nobis potestas innuitur" :
BN 17868, fol. 3r; Addit. 17808,
fol. 86v, "Per has autem vii plane-
tas quia ut diximus et adhuc pro-
babimus humana fata disponuntur
regulam certam demus qua in quo
signo queque sit pronoscatur."
Only in a third passage does he
attribute such views to the mathe-
matici; Addit. 17808, _ fol. 88v,
"Cum sint signa xii in zodiaco
cumque iuxta mathematicos et
secundum horum diversissimos
potestates fata omnium ita volente
sapientissimo domino disponan-
tur "
These twenty-eight parts are
'Addit. 17808, fol. Spr, "Que
quum ita discernuntur non falsa
opinio persuasit istis humana
principaliter gubernante domino
moderari cum itaque ut mundus
homo unusquisque ex his iiii com-
paginetur elementis."
"Addit. 17808, fol. 89V. But the
lists are left incomplete and a
blank leaf, which is also left un-
numbered, follows in the MS.
'BN 17868, fol. 5r: Addit.
17808, fol. QOr, "Hec sunt xxviii
principales partes vel astra per
que omnium fata disponuntur et
indubitanter tam futura quam
presentia prenuntiantur a quo-
cumque itus reditus ortus occasus
horum horoscoporum iocundis-
simo auxilio diligenter providen-
tur."
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 713
of course the sub-divisions of the zodiac into mansions of
the sun or moon which we have already encountered, and
Arabic names are given for them beginning with Alnait, the
first part of the sign Aries. First, however, we are in-
structed how to determine under which one of them anyone
was bom by a numerical calculation of the value of his
name and that of his natural mother similar to that of the
spheres of life and death except that it is based upon He-
brew instead of Greek letters.^ Then follow statements of
the sort of men who are born under each of the twenty-eight
mansions, their physical, mental, and moral characteristics,
and any especial marks upon the body, — either birth-marks
or inflicted subsequently by such means as hot irons and
dog-bite, — their health or sickness, term of life, and manner
of death, — which in the case of Alnait, the first mansion,
will be "by the machinations or imaginations of the magic
arts." ^ Also the number of their children is roughly pre-
dicted.
Next is discussed the course of the planets through the Interroga-
signs, the houses of the planets, and their positions in the more
signs at creation.^ The author then turns to the influence name-cal-
° . culations.
of the planets upon men and gives another method of nu-
merical calculation of a man's name in order to determine
which planet he is under. ^ Under the heading "Excerpts
from the books of Alexander, the astrologer king," ^ direc-
tions are given for the recovery of lost or stolen articles and
descriptions of the thief are provided for the hour of each
planet. The letter of Argafalaus to Alexander instructs
how to read men's secret thoughts as Plato the Philosopher
used to do, and how to tell what is hidden in a person's
hand by means of the hours of the planets.^ After some fur-
liber primus. Incipit liber secun-
dus." And then begins the letter
of Argafalaus with the words,
"Regi macedonum Alexandre as-
trologo et universa philosophia
perfectissimo Argafalaus servuus
suus condicione et nacione in-
genuus caldeus, professione vero
secundus ab illo astrologus."
*BN 17868, fol. 5v.
=" BN 17868, fol. 6r.
'BN 17868, fol. 9r-;
; Addit.
17808, fols. 94V-95V.
■"BN 17868, fol. lor;
Addit.
17808, fol. 96r.
°Addit. 17808, fol. 97r.
"Addit. 17808, fol. 97V.
In BN
178GS, fol. iir, we read, '
"Explicit
714
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
ther discussion of astrological interrogations the manuscript
at the British Museum closes with the Breviary of Alhan-
dreus, supreme astrologer/ for learning anything unknown
by a method of computation from Hebrew and Arabic let-
ters.
Someone may wonder if the names Alhandreus and Al-
chandrus may not be mere corruptions of Alexander who is
cited and quoted even more than has yet been indicated,^
and if some careless head-line writer has not inserted the
name Alchandri or Allmndrei instead of Alexandri in the
Tittdus. But this would leave the statements of William
of Malmesbury and of Peter of Abano to be explained away.
Or, if it is argued that the name of Alhandreus should be
attached only to the Breviary, it must be remembered that
in the earliest manuscript, which does not contain the
Breviary, the treatise is none the less called the Book of
Alchandreus. As a matter of fact there is found also in
the manuscripts a "Mathematica Alexandri summi astro-
logi," ^ but while the title is the same, the contents are dif-
ferent from the "Mathematica Alhandrei summi astrologi."
However, the treatise itself is found together with the
*Addit. 17808, fol. 99r-v. This
does not appear in BN 17868
which goes on to discuss various
astrological influences of the 12
hours of the day and of the night.
After this there is a space left
blank in the middle of fol. I2v:
then more is said concerning
hours of the planets and inter-
rogations until at the bottom of
fol. I3r comes the letter of
Phethosiris to Nechepso. But no
definite ending is indicated either
of the letter of Argafalaus or the
Liber Secundus of Alchandrus.
In a MS now missing but listed
in the late 15th century catalogue
of the MSS in the library of St.
Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury
(No. 1 172, James 332) was a
"Breviarium alhandredi su'm as-
trologi et peritissimi de soia
(scienda?) qualibet ignota nullo
decrete." This was one of the
MSS donated to the monastery
by John of London.
BN 4161, i6th century, #5, Bre-
viarium Alhandriae, summi As-
trologi, de scientia qualiter ignota
nullo indicante investigari possit.
'Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, "figu-
ram quam super hac re Alexander
Macedo composuit diligentissime
posterius describemus" ; fol. 95r,
"Hinc Alexander macedo dicit
eclipsin solis et lune certissima
ratione colligi" ; fol. g6r. "Aut
iuxta alexandrum macedonem
draco quasi octava planeta."
'Ashmole 369, late 13th cen-
tury, fols. 77-84V. "Mathematica
Alexandri summi astrologi. In
exordio omnis creature herus
huranicus inter cuncta sidera XII
maluit signa fore .../... nam
quod lineam designat eandem stel-
1am occupat. Explicit." A fur-
ther discussion of the contents of
this work will be found below in
Chapter 48, vol. II, p. 259.
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 715
Mathematica Alhandrei in a tenth century manuscript.^ But
no author is mentioned, and instead of Mathematica the
title reads "Incipiunt proportiones cppfcfntfs knkstrprx in-
dxstrkb," which may be deciphered as "Incipiunt propor-
tiones competentes in astrorum industria." ^ Possibly there-
fore this treatise is a part of the work of Alchander, and
the title Mathematica Alexandri is an error for Mathematica
Alhandrei.
Moreover, in later manuscripts we encounter authors Alkandri-
with names very similar to Alchandrus and works by them Alchan-
of the same sort as that we have just considered. In a fif- drmus on
/-\ r 1 r ^ mi nativities
teenth century manuscript at Oxford we find ascribed to according
Alkandrinus an account of the types of men born in each ^a^sfons
of the twenty-eight mansions of the moon ^ such as we have of the
seen formed a part of the Mathematica Alhandrei. And in
a fifteenth century manuscript at Paris occurs under the
name of Alchandrinus what seems to be a Christian revi-
sion of that same part of the Mathematica Alhandrei.'^
What appears to be another revision and working over of
this same discussion of nativities according to the twenty-
eight mansions of the moon ^ appeared in print a number
of times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in
* BN 17868, f ol. I7r. The 183V ". . . finem f ecimus. _ Com-
Incipit is the same as in Ash- pleta fuit hec compilatio in con-
mole 369. The work here seems versione sancti pauli apostoli
to be incomplete, since after fol. anno domini 1350 (1305?) vacante
17V most of the remaining leaves sede per mortem Benedicti un-
of the MS (which has 21 fols. in decimi cuius anima requiescat in
all) are blank. pace. Amen." It would there-
*The vowels being represented fore seem that some compiler has
by the consonants following, a made an extract from Alchandrus
common medieval cipher. on the twenty-eight mansions.
*A11 Souls 81, 15th century, * BN 10271, fols. 9r-52v, "In-
fols. I45v-i64r. "Cum sint 28 cipit liber alchandrini philosophi
mansiones lune. . . ." Coxe was de nativitatibus hominum secun-
mistaken in thinking that the dum compositionem duodecim
work of Alkandrinus continued to signorum celi, quem reformavit
fol. 188 and was in two parts, for quidem philosophus cristianus
at fol. i63r we read, "Expliciunt prout patet, quia in quibusdam
iudicia libri Alkandrini que sunt differt iste liber ab antique
in divisione triplici 12 signorum primordiali. Primo facies arietis
que sunt apparencie per certa in homine sive in masculo. Alna-
tempora super terram." More- liet est prima facies arietis. . . ."
over, the seven chapters on the * Steinschneider (1905), 30.
planets which follow end at fol.
7i6
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Albandi-
nus.
Geomancy
of Alkar-
dianus or
Alchandi-
andus.
French and English translations as well as Latin. The
author's name in these printed editions is usually given as
Arcandam, but the English edition of 1626 adds "or Al-
chandrin." ^
Two other manuscripts at Paris ^ contain under the name
of Albandinus a "book of similitudes of the sons of Adam,
fortunate and unfortunate, of life or death, according to
nations, that is, their nativities according to the twelve
signs." The treatise opens with a method of calculating
a person's nativity from the letters in his own and his
mother's name similar to that which occurs in the course of
the Mathematica Alliandrei, but then applies it directly to
the twelve signs rather than to the twenty-eight mansions
of the moon. It also does not bother with the Hebrew alpha-
bet but gives numerical equivalents directly for the Latin
letters. Some treatise by Albandinus on sickness and the
signs in a manuscript at Munich ^ is perhaps identical with
the foregoing.
To an Alkardianus or Alchandiandus is ascribed a geo-
mancy,* and since it also is arranged according to the twenty-
eight divisions of the zodiac with 28 judges and 28 chapters
each consisting of 28 lines in answer to as many ques-
tions, it would seem almost certain that it is by the same
author who treated of the influences of the 28 houses or
* The editio princeps seems to
be "Arcandam doctor peritissimus
ac non vulgaris astrologus, de
veritatibus et praedictionibus
astrologiae et praecipue nativita-
tum seu fatalis dispositionis vel
diei cuiuscunque nati, nuper per
Magistrum Richardum Roussat,
canonicum Lingoniensem, artium
et medicinae professorem, de con-
fuse ac indistincto stilo non minus
quam e tenebris in lucem aeditus,
re cognitus, ac innumeris (ut pote
passim) erratis expurgatus, ita ut
per multa maxime necessaria et
utilissima adiecerit atque adnota-
verit modo eiusdem dexteritate
praelo primo donatus." Paris,
1542.
The British Museum also con-
tains another Latin edition of
Paris, 1553 ; French editions of
Rouen, 1584 and 1587, Lyons
1625 ; and English versions printed
at London, 1626 (translated from
the French), 1630, 1637, and 1670.
'BN 7349, 15th century, fol.
56r, seems only a fragment of the
work; BN 7351, 14th century,
takes up the various signs.
*CLM 527, I3-I4th century,
fols. 36-42, de physica signorum et
supernascentium et aegrotantium.
*Addit. 15236, English hand of
I3-I4th century, fols. i30-52r,
"libellus Alchandiandi." BN 7486,
14th century, "Incipit liber alkar-
diani phylosophi. Cum omne
quod experitur sit experiendum
propter se vel propter aliud. . . ."
XXX GERBERT AND ARABIC ASTROLOGY 717
fades of the twelve signs upon those born under them.
Moreover, this Alkardianus or Alchandiandus states in his
preface that he has composed certain books on the disposi-
tions of the signs and the courses of the planets and on
prediction of the future from them. "But since modems
always rejoice in brevity," he has added this handy and
rapid geomantic means of answering questions and ascer-
taining the decrees of the stars. The 28 tables of 28 lines
each of this Alkardianus or Alchandiandus are identical
with one of the two such sets ^ commonly included in the
Experimentarins ^ of Bernard Silvester, a work of geomancy
which he is said to have translated from the Arabic.^ He
lived in the twelfth century and will be the subject of one of
our later chapters.
It still remains to speak of a portion of our tenth cen- Ananony-
tury manuscript at Paris which begins, after the book of Jfse^or^^*'
Alchandrus seems to have concluded, with the words, fragment
"Quicunque nosse desiderat legem astrorum ..."■* This tenth
Incipit is so similar to that of the twenty-one chapters on century,
the astrolabe, "Quicumque astronomiam peritiam discip-
linae . . ." and to that of the four books of astronomy,
"Quicumque mundane spere rationem et astrorum," that one
is tempted to imply some relation between them, and, in view
of the tenth century date of the one at present in question,
to connect it like the others with the name of Gerbert. Our
present treatise or fragment of a treatise is largely astro-
logical in character, "following for the present the wisdom
of the mathematici who think that mundane affairs are car-
ried on under the rule of the constellations." This refusal
to accept personal responsibility for astrological doctrine is
similar to the attitude of the author of the four books of
* The set in which the first line of life and death at f ol. I3r-v
reads. "Tuum indumentum dura- "Incipit epistola Phetosiri de
bit tempore longo." sphaera" separates this treatise or
' Very probably this title was fragment from the preceding
derived from the Incipit just given liber Alchandri philosophi. Also
in note 4, p. 716. this treatise is in a different and
* See Sloane 2472, 3554, 3857. slightly older hand than fols. 2-
*BN 17868, fol. I4r-i6v. The 13 are, or at least such was Bub-
letter of Petosiris on the sphere nov's opinion (1899), 125, note.
7i8 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xxx
astronomy, so that perhaps the present text is the missing
fragment required to fulfil his promise to treat of the sub-
ject of prognostication in later chapters. If so it indulges
in some repetition, as it goes into the relations existing be-
tween signs, planets, and elements, and gives the "Saracen"
names ^ for the twenty-eight mansions of the moon. It in-
cludes a way to detect theft for each planet and a method of
determining if a patient will recover by computation of the
numerical value of the letters in his name. These features
are suggestive of the Mathematica of Alchandrus.
* BN 17686, f ol. 14V, "que sarraceni nuncupant ita."
CHAPTER XXXI
ANGLO-SAXON,, SALERNITAN, AND OTHER LATIN MEDICINE
IN MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE NINTH TO THE
TWELFTH CENTURY
Plan of this chapter — Instances of early medieval additions to an-
cient medicine — Leech-Book of Bald and Cild — Magical procedure and
incantations — A superstitious compound — Summary — Cauterization —
Treatment of demoniacs — Incantations and characters — In a twelfth
century manuscript — Magic with a split hazel rod — More incantations
and the virtues of a vulture — Lots of the saints — Superstitious veteri-
nary and medical practice — Two Paris manuscripts — Blood-letting —
Resemblances to Egerton 821 — Virtues of blood — Pious incantations and
magical procedure — More superstitious veterinary practice — The School
of Salerno — Was Salernitan medicine free from superstition? — The
Practica of Petrocellus — Its sources — Fourfold origin of medicine —
Therapeutics of Petrocellus — The Regimen Salernitanum — Its supersti-
tion— The Practica of Archimatthaeus — A Salernitan treatise of about
1200— The wives of Salerno.
In this chapter our purpose is to treat of early medieval Plan of
medicine as distinct on the one hand from post-classical chapter,
medicine, to which we have already devoted a chapter, and
on the other hand from later medieval medicine as affected
by translations from the Arabic and other oriental influ-
ence. Perhaps one of the outcomes of our discussion will
be to suggest that any such distinctions cannot be at all
sharply or chronologically drawn. However, the writings
which we shall discuss now are contained mainly in manu-
scripts dating from the ninth to the twelfth century, although
some of them may have been first composed at an earlier date
than that of the manuscript in which they chance to be pre-
served. Some are in Anglo-Saxon ; more, in Latin. Some
it has been customary to classify under the caption of Sa-
lernitan. We shall postpone until the next chapter our con-
sideration of Constantinus Africanus, although the dates of
719
720
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Instances
of early
medieval
additions
to ancient
medicine.
Leech-
Book of
Bald and
aid.
his life fall within the eleventh century, because he already
at that early date represents the introduction of Arabic
medicine to the western world.
A good instance of the working over by men of the
early medieval period of the medical writings of the late
Roman period is provided by a manuscript of the ninth or
tenth century at Berlin.^ It now consists of a number of
fragments whose original order can no longer be determined.
These are made up of extracts from different sources or from
other collections, but the collection also bears the mark of
its last compiler who has introduced new remedies of his
own and words derived from the vernacular of his day.
Even extracts on fevers taken from the old Latin adaptation
of Galen ^ are added to by some Christian physician, who
introduces among other things some incantations, such as,
*'I adjure you, spots, that you go away and recede from and
be destroyed from the eye of the servant of God." ^ The
manuscript also comprises more than one tract on how
dreams or the fate of the patient or child born can be fore-
told from the day of the moon.* Another tract ^ tells how
God made the first man out of eight parts, of which the first
was the mud of the earth and the last the light of the world.
This would seem to be rather a novel departure from the
usual four element theory but perhaps involves ancient
Gnostic error. The author further argues that individual
divergences of character depend upon the preponderance of
one or another of the eight constituents of the body.
The Anglo-Saxon Leech-Book of Bald and Cild ^ has
been called "the first medical treatise written in western Eu-
* Berlin 165 (Phillips 1790), 9-
loth century. I have not seen the
MS, but follow Rose's full de-
scription of it in his Verzeichnis
der lateinischen Handschriften, I,
362-9.
" Cod. Casin. 97 Gal. I, 24-51.
'Berlin 165, fol. 88.
* Ibid., fols. 40-2.
' Ibid., fol. 39V.
" Edited with an English trans-
lation, which I employ in my quo-
tations, by Rev. Oswald Cockayne
in vol. II of his Leechdoms, Wort-
cunning, and Starcraft of Early
England, in RS vol. 35, in 3 vols.,
London, 1864- 1866. The relation
of Bald and Cild to the work is
indicated by the colophon at the
close of the second book : "Bald
habet hunc librum, Cild quem
conscribere iussit," — "Bald owns
this book ; Cild is the one he told
to write (or copy?) it." The fol-
lowing third book is therefore
presumably of other authorship.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 721
rope which can be said to belong to modern history." ^ It
was produced in the tenth century. However, it extracts a
good deal from late Greek medical writers, such as Paul of
Aegina and Alexander of Tralles, and cites Pliny, "the mickle
leech," for the cure of baldness by application of dead bees
burnt to ashes, ^ a remedy also found in the Euporista as-
cribed to Galen. On the whole, however, it uses parts of
animals somewhat less than Pliny, although sometimes a
powdered earthworm is recommended, or a man stung by
an adder is to drink holy water in which a black snail has
been washed, or the bite of a viper is to be smeared with ear-
wax while thrice repeating "the prayer of Saint John." ^
And a man about to engage in combat is advised to eat
swallow nestlings boiled in wine.^ Herbs are as useful
against a woman's tongue as birds against a foeman's steel,
for we are told : "Against a woman's chatter; taste at night
fasting a root of radish; that day the chatter cannot harm
thee." ^ There are directions for plucking herbs similar to
those in Pliny,® and the significance which he ascribed to
cart ruts is paralleled by the injunction, after one has treated
a venomous bite by striking five scarifications, one on the
bite and four around it, to "throw the blood with a spoqft
silently over a wagon way." '^ Eight virtues of the stone
agate are enumerated.^
Not only such occult virtues of animals, vegetables, and Magical
minerals, but also magical procedure and incantations abound and*^fncan-
in the work. In a prescription "for flying venom and every tations.
venomous swelling" butter is to be churned on a Friday
from the milk of a "neat or hind all of one color," and a
litany, paternoster, and incantation of strange words are to
be repeated nine times each.^ A great deal of superstitious
use is made of such Christian symbols, names, and forms of
prayer as the sign of the cross, the names of the four evan-
*J. F. Payne, English Medicine
'111,47.
in Anglo-Saxon Times, 1904, p.
"I, 86.
15s.
M, 68.
' Book I, cap. 87.
" II, 66.
M,4S.
"1,45.
*I, 85.
y22
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap
A super-
stitious
com-
pound.
Summary.
gelists, and masses, psalms, and exorcisms. Fear of witch-
craft and enchantment is manifested, and the ills both of
man and beast are frequently attributed to evil spirits. "A
drink for a fiend-sick man" is on one occasion "to be drunk
out of a church bell," with the accompaniment of much ad-
ditional ecclesiastical hocus-pocus.^ "If a horse is elf-shot,
then take the knife of which the haft is horn of a fallow ox,
and on which are three brass nails. Then write upon the
horse's forehead Christ's mark, and on each of the limbs
which thou may feel at. Then take the left ear ; prick a hole
in it in silence. This thou shalt do ; then take a yerd, strike
the horse on the back, then it will be whole. And write upon
the horn of the knife these words, Benedicite omnia opera
domini dominum. Be the elf what it may, this is mighty for
him to amends." ^
Neither Bald and Cild nor their continuator shared
Pliny's prejudice against compound medicines. In the third
book by the continuator is described "a. salve against the elfin
race and nocturnal visitors, and for women with whom the
devil hath carnal commerce." One takes the ewe hop plant,
wormwood, bishopwort, lupin, ashthroat, henbane, hare-
wort, viper's bugloss, heatherberry plants, cropleek, garlic,
grains of hedgerife, githrife, and fennel. These herbs are
put in a vessel and placed beneath the altar where nine masses
are sung over them. They are then boiled in butter and mut-
ton fat ; much holy salt is added ; the salve is strained through
a cloth; and what remains of the worts is thrown into run-
ning water. The patient's forehead and eyes are to be
smeared with this ointment and he is further to be censed
with incense and signed often with the sign of the cross.^
The "modern" character of Bald's and Cild's book can-
not be said to have produced any diminution of superstition
as against the writings of antiquity. But we do find native
herbs introduced, also popular medicine, and probably a con-
siderable amount of Teutonic and perhaps also Celtic folk-
' 1, 63.
'11,65
III, 61.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 723
lore, which, however, has been more or less Christianized.
Indeed the connection between medicine and religion is re-
markably close.
The medicine of this period may be further illustrated Cauteriza-
by two Latin manuscripts of the eleventh century in the *°"*
Sloane collection of the British Museum.^ One contains a
brief treatise which illustrates the common tendency at that
time to employ cauterization not only for surgical purposes
in connection with wounds, but as a medical means of giving
relief to internal diseases and trivial complaints with which
cauterization could have no connection. That the practice
was very largely a superstition is further evident from the
fact that one part of the body often was cauterized for a
complaint in another or opposite portion or member. In
the present example, under the alluring names of Apollonius
and Galen as professed authors,^ are presented a series of
human figures showing where the cautery should be applied.
These pictures of naked patients marked all over their anat-
omy with spots where the red-hot iron should be applied, or
submitting with smiling or wry faces to its actual adminis-
tration in the most tender places, are both amusing and,
when we reflect that this useless pain was actually repeatedly
inflicted through long centuries, pathetic.^
In a general and much longer work on diseases and their Treatment
remedies which follows in the same manuscript and which is ^onfacs.
professedly compiled from Hippocrates, Galen, and Apollo-
nius, the treatment prescribed for demoniacs,^ who, it states,
are in Greek called epilemptici (epileptics), includes among
^ Sloane 475 (olim Fr. Bernard et Galieni." James, Western MSS
116), 231 leaves, including two in Trinity College, Cambridge,
codices, one of the 12th century. III, 26-8, describes fifty drawings,
which is also medical but with chiefly of surgical operations, in
which we shall not deal at pres- MS 1044, early 13th century. By
ent, and the other of the loth or that date cauterization seems to
nth century and written in differ- have become less common,
ent hands. The MS is mutilated ^ Professor T. W. Todd thinks
both at the beginning and the that I am too severe upon the
close. practice of cauterization, and that
Sloane 2839, nth century, 112 it may sometimes have served' as
leaves. a counter-irritant like mustard
'Sloane 2839, fols. iv-3, "Liber plasters and the blister.
Cirrur^ium Cauterium Apollonii * Sloane, 2839, fols. 79V'8ov.
724
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Incanta-
tions and
charac-
ters.
In a
twelfth
century
manu-
script.
Other things vaporization between the shoulder blades with
various mixtures, scarification and bleeding, application of
leeches to the "stomach where you ought not to operate with
iron," ^ shaving and "imbrocating" ^ the scalp, and anoint-
ing the hands and feet with oil. Both our manuscripts con-
tain recipes for expelling or routing demons.^ For this
purpose such substances are employed as the stone gagates
and holy water, and elsewhere the usual confidence is re-
posed in the virtues of herbs and such parts of animals as
the liver of a vulture.
In one of the manuscripts is a treatise in which much
use is made of incantations and characters. There are
prayers to "Lord Jesus and Holy Mary" to heal the sick,
while characters, sometimes engraved upon lead plates, are
employed not only for medical purposes, but to prevent
women from conceiving, to make fruit trees bear well, and
against enemies.* Later on in the manuscript instructions
for plucking a medicinal herb include facing east and re-
citing a paternoster.^
The twelfth century portion of this same manuscript con-
sists mainly of a long medical medley with no definitely
marked beginning or ending but apparently originally in five
books, ^ Towards its close occur a number of incantations
and characters quite in the style of Marcellus Empiricus.'^
Indeed, "a marvelous charm" for toothache is an exact copy
of his instructions to repeat seven times in a waning moon
^ "Ad stomachum ubi f erro
operare non oportes sansugias
apponas."
^ Iinbrocare. I have not dis-
covered exactly what it means.
' Sloane 475, f ol. 224r ; Sloane
2839, fol. 97r.
* Sloane 475, fol. 133, et seq.
" Sloane 475, fol. 224V.
' Sloane 475, fols. 1-124. At fol.
36r occurs the familiar pseudo-
letter of Hippocrates to Antig-
onus; at fols. 8v-ior is a pas-
sage almost identical with that
at the close of the Dc medicamen-
tis of Marcellus, 1889, p. 382; an
incantation from Marcellus is re-
peated at fol. 117V. At fol. 37r we
read "Explicit Liber II, Incipit
Liber Tertius ad ventris rigidita-
tem" ; at fol. 6or, "Explicit liber
tertius. Incipit Liber IIII"; at
fol. 85r, "Incipit Liber V."
'See fol. nor, "Cros, oros,
comigeos, delig(c)ros, falicros,
spolicros, splena mihi"; and fol.
ii4r, "Opas, nolipas, opium, no-
limpium." Those who delight in
ciphers will perhaps detect in the
latter incantation a hidden allu-
sion to opiates.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 725
on Tuesday or Thursday an incantation beginning, "Aridam,
margidam, sturgidam." ^ To make all his enemies fear him
a man should gather the herb verbena on a Thursday, re-
peating seven times a formula in which the plant is person-
ally addressed and the desire expressed to triumph over all
foes as the verbena conquers winds and rains, hail and
storms.^ If here the influence of pagan religion is still
present, many of the incantations are in Christian form and
expressed in the name of God or the Father. To find a thief
characters are employed together with the incantation,
"Abraham bound, Isaac held, Jacob brought back to the
house." ^ A charm against fever opens, "Christ was born
and suffered; Christ Jesus rose from the dead and ascended
unto heaven ; Christ will come at the day of judgment. Christ
says, According to your faith it shall be done." Then the
sign of the cross is employed and "sacred words," which
seem, however, to include not only Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, but Maximianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and
Constantinus. As we have to do with a twelfth century
manuscript the last two names might be presumed to have
reference to the medical writers of the eleventh century, but
another manuscript which contains a similar incantation
states that they are the names of the seven sleepers.'* Our
charm then continues "In the name of Christ" and with a
prayer to God to free from sickness anyone who "bears
this writing in Thy name." ^
In the same work occurs the earliest instance of which Magic
I am aware of the magical "experiment" with a split rod ^^tifazel
and an incantation, to which we shall hear William of Au- rod.
vergne, Albertus Magnus, John of St. Amand, and Roger
Bacon refer in the thirteenth century. A rod of four cubits
length is to be cut with repetition of the Lord's Prayer.
It is to be split, and the two halves are to be held apart at the
* Fol. ii7v; see Marcellus sanctorum germanorum dormien-
(1889), p. 123, cap. 12. tium que sunt hec, Maximianus,
*Fol. iiir. Malchus, Martinianus, Constan-
* Fol. 1 1 IV. tinus, Dionisius, lohannes, Sera-
■* BN nouv. acq. 229, fol. 7v pion."
(once p. 246), "nomina septem * Sloane 475, fol. I22v.
726
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
More in-
cantations
and the
virtues of
a vulture.
ends by two men. Then, making the sign of the cross, one
should repeat the following incantation, "Ellum sat upon ella
and held a green rod in his hand and said, Rod of green
reunite again," ^ together with the Lord's Prayer until the
two split halves bend together in the middle. One then
seizes them in one's fist at the junction point, cuts off the
rest of the rods, and makes magic use of the section re-
maining in one's grasp. ^
Another manuscript of the twelfth century ^ contains
many similar charms, incantations, prayers, and charactejs
for healing purposes. One formula employed is, "Christ
conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands." In cases of
miscarriage a drink of verbena is recommended and repe-
tition of the following incantation with three Paternosters,
"Saisa, laisa, relaisa, because so Saint Mary did when she
bore the Son of God." Presently a paragraph opens with
the assertion that the human race does not know how great
virtue the vulture * possesses and how much it improves
health. But certain ceremonial directions must be observed
in making use of it. The bird should be killed in the very
hour in which it is caught and with a sharp reed rather than
a sword. Before beheading it, one should utter an incan-
tation containing such names as Adonai and Abraam. Vari-
ous healing virtues appertain to the different parts of its
carcass, although here again there are instructions to be
observed. The bones of its head should be bound in hyena
skin; its eyes should be suspended from the neck in wolf's
skin. Binding its wings on the'left foot of a woman strug-
gling in child-birth produces a quick delivery. One who
wears its tongue will receive the adoration of all his ene-
mies; if one has its heart bound in the skin of a lion or
wolf, all demons will avoid one and robbers will only wor-
ship one. Its gall taken in quite a mixture cures epileptics
^^"Ellum super ellam sedebat et 'Egerton82i, I2th century, fols.
virgam viridem in manu tenebat S2y-6ov.
et dicebat, Virgam viridis reuni-
tere in simul."
*Sloane 475, fol. ii2v. Unin-
telligible letters follow.
* Ibid., fol. 53V, vultilis, which
I assume should be vulturis rather
than vituli, or bull-calf.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 727
and lunatics; its lung in another compound cures fevers;
and so on.
There follow Sortes sanctorum, introduced by a page
and a half of prayers of this tenor, "In the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we ask Father and Son and Holy Ghost, Three
and One ; we ask Saint Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ; we ask the nine orders of angels; we ask the whole
chorus of patriarchs; we ask the whole chorus of apostles,
martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and the whole chorus of
God's faithful that they deign to reveal to us these lots
which we seek, and that no seduction of the devil may de-
ceive us." The treatise closes, "These are the lots of the
saints which never fail; so ask God and obtain what you
desire."
The next items in the manuscript are some cases of su-
perstitious veterinary practice, with such pious incantations
as "May God who saved the thief on the cross save this
beast!" ^ and with instructions concerning the religious in-
vocations and written characters to be employed in blessing
the food and salt to be given to domestic animals in order
to keep them in good health. Characters are also mentioned
which will prevent the blood of a pig from flowing when it
is slaughtered, provided they are bound upon the breast or
are written on the knife with which the pig is to be stuck. ^
Holy water and bread that has been blessed are used for
medical purposes and instructions are given on what days
medicinal herbs should be gathered. The prayers em-
ployed are usually put in Christian form, but one for the
cure of toothache has slipped by at least partially uncensored.
It opens with the words "O lady Moon, free me. . . ." ^
If we turn from medical manuscripts of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries in the British Museum to those of the
Bibliotheque Nationale, we find the same occurrence of su-
perstitious passages. In an eleventh century codex which con-
tains parts of the medical work of Celsus and the De dina-
Lots of
the saints.
Super-
stitious
veterinary
and
medical
practice.
Two
Paris
manu-
scripts.
* Egerton 821, fol. 57.
*Ibid., fol. 58V.
'Ibid., fol. 6or.
728 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
midis of Galen are also found prayers to God for the medic-
inal aid of the angel Raphael against the treacherous at-
tacks of the demons, a work on the virtues of stones which
has much to say of their marvelous properties, and figures
and text concerning the twelve signs of the zodiac and twelve
winds.^ Much more superstitious, however, is an anony-
mous treatise occupying the first ten leaves of a twelfth cen-
tury manuscript ^ which is apparently of German origin
from the number of German words and phrases introduced
near its close. This treatise is followed in the manuscript
by the works of Notker, Hermann the Lame, and others on
computus and the astrolabe.
Blood- After discussing the effect of food upon health, listing
etting. potions of herbs to be drunk in each month of the year,^
treating of the veins and of the four winds, four seasons,
and four humors, and the relations existing between the two
last-named, the author enumerates the many advantages of
blood-letting in a long passage which is worth quoting in
part. "It contains the beginning of health, it makes the
mind sincere, it aids the memory, it purges the brain, it re-
forms the bladder, it warms the marrow, it opens the hear-
ing, it checks tears, it removes nausea, it benefits the stomach,
it invites digestion, it evokes the voice, it builds up the
sense, it moves the bowels, it enriches sleep, it removes
anxiety, it nourishes good health . . . " : and so on. The
operation of bleeding should not be performed on the tenth,
fifteenth, twenty-fifth, or thirtieth day of the moon, nor
should a potion be taken then. The Egyptian days and dog-
days are to be similarly observed. The hours of the day
when each humor predominates are then given.
*BN 7028, nth century, fols. *BN nouv. acq. 229, fol. 2r.
136V, 140-3, I54r, and i56r. March is treated first and Febru-
^ BN nouv. acq. 229, 12th can- ary last, while a similar discus-
tury, fols. ir-ior (once pp. 233- sion later in the same work (fols.
51), opening, "Rationem observa- 8r-9r, Quid unoquoque mense
tionis vestre pictati secundum utendum quidve vitandum sit) be-
precepta doctorum medicinalium gins with January,
ut potui. . . ."
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 729
There then is introduced rather abruptly an account of
the medicinal virtues of the vulture almost identical with
that in the British Museum manuscript. Once again, too,
herbs are to be plucked with repetition of the Lord's Prayer.^
The use of characters to prevent a slaughtered pig from
bleeding is introduced somewhat otherwise than in the other
manuscript. Having first recommended as a cure for human
sufferers from flux of blood the binding about the abdomen
of a parchment inscribed with the characters in question, the
author adds, "And if you don't believe it, write them on a
knife and kill a pig with it, and you will see no blood flow
from the wound." ^
Considerable medicinal use is made of blood in this
treatise. For cataract is recommended instilling in the eye
the blood which flows from a certain worm {oudehsani?)
when "you cut it in two near the tail." ^ To break the stone
one employs goat's blood caught in a glass vessel in a waning
moon and dried eight days in the sun together with the
pulverized skin of a rabbit caught in a waning moon and
roasted over marble. These are to be mixed in wine and
given in the name of the Lord to the patient to drink while
he is in the bath.* Another remedy consists of three drops
of the milk of a woman nursing a male child given in a raw
tgg to the patient without his knowledge.^
The work abounds in characters and in incantations
which consist either of seemingly meaningless words or of
Biblical phrases and allusions. These are very much like
those in the manuscripts already considered and are often
accompanied by elaborate procedure. For example, the
prayer, "O Lord, spare your servant N., so that chastised
with deserved stripes he may rest in your mercy," is to be
written on five holy wafers which are then to be placed
on the five wounds of a figure of Christ on a crucifix. The
patient is to approach barefoot, eat the wafers, and say:
Resem-
blances to
Egerton
821.
Virtues
of blood.
Pious in-
cantations
and magi-
cal pro-
cedure.
^ BN nouv. acq. 229, f ol. 7
* Fols. 4V-Sr.
^Fol. 6r.
" Fol. 7r.
" Fol. 4v.
730
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
More
super-
stitious
veterinary
practice.
"Almighty God, who saved all the human race, save me and
free me from these fevers and from all my languors. By
God Christ was announced, and Christ was born, and Christ
was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and Christ was placed in
a manger, and Christ was circumcised, and Christ was
adored by the Magi, and Christ was baptized, and Christ
was tempted, and Christ was betrayed, and Christ was
flogged, and Christ was spat upon, and Christ was given
gall and vinegar to drink, and Christ was pierced with a
lance, and Christ was crucified, and Christ died, and Christ
was buried, and Christ rose again, and Christ ascended unto
heaven. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, Jesus, rising from the synagogue, entered
the house of Simon. Moreover, Simon's daughter was sick
with a high fever. And they entreated Him on her behalf.
And standing over her He commanded the fever and it de-
parted." ^ To cure epilepsy an interesting combination of
scriptural incantation and rather unusual magic procedure is
recommended. Before the attack comes on, the words of the
Gospel of Matthew, "J^^us was led by the spirit into the
desert; and angels came and ministered unto Him," are to
be written on a wooden tablet with some black substance
which will wash off readily. Then, when the fit comes on,
this writing is to be washed off into a vessel with still water
and given to the patient to drink in the name of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. "H you do this three times, God helping
the patient will be cured." ^
Our manuscript further resembles Egerton 821 of the
British Museum in containing remedies for beast as well as
man. Ha horse suffers from over-eating, one should learn
his name and procure some hazel rods. Then one is to
whisper in his right ear an incantation consisting of out-
landish words accompanied by the Lord's Prayer, and is
to bind his thighs and feet with the rods. This ceremony,
too, is to be repeated thrice.^
'Fol. 7v.
"Fol. gv.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 731
We now come to the consideration of treatises sup- The
posed to have been produced by the school of medicine at |aierno
Salerno. But not only are the origins of the so-called
School of Salerno "veiled in impenetrable obscurity," ^
much of its later history is scarcely less uncertain, and it is
no easy matter to say what men and what writings may
be properly called Salernitan, or when they lived or were
composed. The manuscripts of Salernitan writings seem
to have been found more frequently north of the Alps than
in Italian libraries. It would perhaps be carrying scepticism
too far to doubt if medicine developed much earlier or more
rapidly at Salerno than elsewhere, since it seems certain
that the town was famous for its physicians at an early date,
and that we have medical writings of Salemitans produced
in the early eleventh century. But one is inclined to view
with some scepticism the assumption of historians of medi-
cine^ that the word Salernitan represents a separate body
of doctrine, or of method in practice, which may be sharply
distinguished from Arabic medicine or from later medieval
medicine as affected by Arabic influence. Rather the
medical literature and practice of Salerno is an integral and
^What is known of the School so that the history of the school
of Salerno has already been and the texts in the earlier
briefly indicated in English by H. volumes have to be supplemented
Rashdall, Universities of Europe and corrected by the fuller ver-
m the Middle Ages, 1895, I, 75-86, sions and dissertations in the later
and T. Puschmann, History of volumes. It is too bad that all
Medical Education, English trans- the materials could not have been
lation, London, i8t)i, pp. 197-21 1. collected and more systematically
The standard work on the subject arranged and collated before pub-
is Salvatore De Renzi, Collcctio lication. Also some of the texts
Salernitana, in Italian with Latin printed have but the remotest
texts, published at Naples in five connection with Salerno, while
volurnes from 1852 to 1859. It others have nothing to do with
contains a history of the School medicine.
of Salerno by Renzi and various To this collection of materials
texts brought to light and disser- some further additions have been
tations discussing them by Renzi, made by P. Giacosa, Magistri
Daremberg, Henschel, and others. Salernitani nondum editi, Turin,
Unfortunately this publication 1901.
proceeded by the unsystematic For further bibliography see in
piecemeal and hand-to-mouth the recent reprint of Harrington's
method, and new texts and dis- English translation, The School
coveries were brought to the edi- of Salerno (1920), pp. 50-52.
tor's attention during the process, ^Notably Daremberg.
732
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Was
Salernitan
medicine
free from
super-
stition ?
scarcely distinguishable part of medieval medicine as a
whole. Many Salernitan treatises themselves belong to the
later medieval period, and very few of them can be shown
to antedate Constantinus Africanus, whose translations
seem to mark the beginning of Arabic influence. And on
the other hand there are equally early medieval medical
treatises, such as those we have hitherto been considering,
which are not Salernitan and yet show no sign of Arabic
influence. Thus the word Salernitan cannot accurately be
identified with a first period of medieval Latin medicine
based upon early or Neo-Latin translations of Greek med-
ical authors and upon independent medical practice. Such
activity was not confined to Salerno. But if we so em-
ploy the word Salernitan for a moment, there seems
no reason for thinking that such a development would be
very different from the Arabic and Byzantine continua-
tions of Greek medicine. A place so open to Saracen and
Byzantine influence as the coast of southern Italy is hardly
the spot where we should look for a totally distinct medical
development, and the influence of Celtic and Teutonic folk-
lore upon medical practice would presumably be more
felt north of the Alps. And it is to Salerno that Con-
stantinus Africanus, the earliest known importer of Arabic
medicine, comes.
The notion, too, that the Salernitan or early medieval
Latin medical practice was sound and straightforward and
sensible and free from the superstition with which the
holders of this opinion represent Arabic and later medieval
medicine as overburdened, is also probably illusory. We
have already seen evidence of rather extreme superstition in
early medieval Latin medicine which shows no trace of
Arabic influence, and the medical practitioners of Salerno
are sometimes represented in the sources as empiricists or
old-wives. The place was peculiarly noted for its female
practitioners, of whom more anon; and one of the earliest
mentions of a physician of Salerno is the account in Richer's
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 733
chronicle ^ of the mutual poisoning of two rival physicians
in 946 A. D. Here the Salernitan is described as lacking
in Latin book-knowledge and skilful from natural talent and
much experience. He was the queen's favorite physician,
but was worsted by another royal physician, Bishop Derol-
dus, in a debate which the king, Louis IV, instituted in
order to find out "which of them knew more of the natures
of things." The defeated Salernitan then "prepared sor-
cery" and tried to poison the bishop, who cured himself with
theriac and secretly poisoned his rival in turn. The Salerni-
tan was then reduced to the humiliating position of being
forced to beseech the prelate to cure him, but in his case the
theriac only drove the poison into his foot, which had to be
amputated by a surgeon. This tale, be it true or not, suggests
that there were good Latin physicians and surgeons outside
of Salerno at an early date as well as that Salernitan medi-
cine was far from being free from magic and empiricism.
It is fairer, however, to judge Salerno by its own best The
written productions rather than by the stories of perhaps o/petro-
jealous northerners, and we may note Payne's comparison cellus.
of the Practica of Petrocellus,^ written probably in the early
eleventh century, with the earlier Leech-Book of Bald and
Gild. Selected recipes, it may first be said, were translated
from the Practica into Anglo-Saxon.^ Dr. Payne was im-
pressed by "the complete freedom of the former from the
magic and superstition which tainted the Anglo-Saxon and
^11, 59 (MG. SS. Ill, 600). _ ' Petrocellus, mpi SiSa^eoiv, Eine
* S. de Renzi, Collectio Salerni- Sammlung von Rezepten in
tayia, IV, 185, Practica Petroncelli, englischer Sprache aus dem 11-12
perhaps from an imperfect copy ; Jahrhundert. Nach einer Hand-
le, 315, Sulle opere che vanno schrift des Britischen Museums
sotto il nome di Petroncello. herausg. v. M. Loweneck (in
Heeg, Pseudodemocrit. Stiidien, in Anglo-Saxon and Latin), 1896, pp.
Ahhandl. d. Berl. Akad. (1913), p. viii, 57, Heft 12 in Erlanger
42, shows that what Renzi printed Bcitr'dge s. cnglischen Philologie.
tentatively as the table of con- The treatise perhaps also contains
tents and an extract from the selections from the Passionarius
third book of the Practica, is not of Gariopontus. It had been pub-
by Petrocellus but by the Pseudo- lished before in Cockayne, Anglo-
Democritus, and that one MS of Saxon Leechdoms, 1864-1866, III,
it dates from the ninth or tenth 82-143.
century.
734 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
all other European medicine of the time." Payne noted
that the compounds of Petrocellus contained fewer ingredi-
ents, and regarded the Salernitan selection of drugs as "more
intelhgent." The Salernitan formulae are "clear, simple,
and written on a uniform system which implies traditional
skill and culture." ^ "The pharmacy is generally very
simple ; and, as might be expected, there is an entire absence
of charms and superstitious rites." ^ Such simplicity, how-
ever, is at best a negative sort of virtue; and we wonder
if this early specimen of the School of Salerno is free from
elaborate superstition for the very reason that the work is
simple and elementary. The less medicine, the less super-
stition perhaps. Moreover, superstition is not quite absent,
since Payne himself quotes the following recipe : "For those
who cannot see from sunrise to sunset. . . . This is the
leechcraft which thereto belongeth. Take a kneecap of a
buck ^ and roast it, and, when the roast sweats, then take
the sweat and therewith smear the eyes, and after that let
him eat the same roast ; and then take fresh asses' dung and
squeeze it, and smear the eyes therewith, and it will soon
be better with them." ^
Its Petrocellus is thought to have used Greek writings di-
sources. j-^c^iy -without the intermediary of Arabic versions.^ He
says in the introductory letter which opens the Practica that
he reduces to brief form in the Latin language those
"authors who have culled the dogmas of all cases from
Greek places." ^ But these words might be taken to indicate
that he has used Greek sources only indirectly, while the
fact that the person to whom the work is addressed is called
"dearest son" and "sweetest son" is rather in the style of
Arabian and Hebrew medieval writers. He goes on to
* Payne (1904), pp. 155-6. * Renzi, IV, 190, "Propterea fili
* Ibid., p. 148. karissime cum diuturno tempore
'The Latin text reads, "liver of de medicina tractassemus omnipo-
a hedgehog," and doubtless either tentis Dei nutu admonitus placuit
would be equally efficacious. ut ex grecis locis sectantes auc-
* Quoted by Payne (1904), p. tores omnium causarum dogmata
152, from Cockayne's translation. in breviloquium latino sermone
•Renzi (1852-9), IV, 185. conscriberemus."
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 735
assure this person that everything in the work has been
tested by experience and that nothing should be added to
or subtracted from it.
This introductory epistle also embodies an account of Fourfold
the origin of medicine which, while not exactly supersti- medicine,
tious, is quite in the usual naive and uncritical style so often
employed by both ancient and medieval writers in treating
of a distant past. Apollo and his son Esculapius, Asclepius
and "Ypocras" are named as the four founders of the med-
ical art. Apollo discovered methoyca, which presumably
means methodism, but which Petrocellus proceeds to identify
with surgery. Esculapius invented empirica, which is de-
scribed as pharmacy rather than empiricism, although per-
haps the distinction is slight. Asclepius founded loyca,
which is probably meant for the dogmatic school. Hip-
pocrates' contribution was theoperica, which may mean
therapeutics but is further described as the prognostication
or "prevision of diseases." It is in this same introductory
epistle that Petrocellus makes the division of the brain into
three cells of which we spoke in the chapter on Arabic
occult science. Besides distinguishing the three cells as
phantastic, logical, and mnemonic, he adds that good and
evil are distinguished in the middle cell and that the soul is
in the posterior one.
In the Practica proper the method of Petrocellus is to Thera-
1 1- • 11 1 1 /- 1 11 • peuticsof
take up one disease at a time, tell what the Greeks call it, Petro-
and briefly describe it, sometimes listing its symptoms or
causes, but devoting most of his space to such methods of
curing it as diet and bleeding, simples and compounds. I
saw no instance of astrological medicine nor of resort to
amulets and incantations in the version published by Renzi
from a twelfth century manuscript at Paris. But in a
fragment of the work from a Milan manuscript where
twenty-six lines are devoted to the treatment of epilepsy in-
stead of but seven as in the other text,^ one is advised to use
antimony in the holy water "which the Greeks bless on
* For the two passages on epilepsy see Renzi, IV, pp. 235 and 293.
cellus.
736
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The
Regimen
Salernita-
num.
Epiphany" and to chant the Lord's Prayer three times. If
this passage be a later addition, it shows that Petrocellus
was less inclined to superstitious methods than others and
that his injunction that nothing should be subtracted from
or added to his work was not well observed. But in any
case it illustrates my previous point that the more medicine,
the more superstition. In twenty-six lines on epilepsy one
is much more likely to find something superstitious than in
seven. Indeed, the treatment of epilepsy was so generally
superstitious that my recollection is that any account of it
of any considerable length which I have seen in medieval
writings contained some superstition. In fact, even if Petro-
cellus wrote the longer passage, he could be praised for
having resorted to charms and formulae only in the case of
that mysterious disease.
The work most generally known as a characteristic prod-
uct of the School of Salerno is the Latin poem ^ which opens
with the line, "To the King of the English writes the whole
School of Salerno." " This poem has been variously entitled
Schola Salernitana, Regimen Salernitaniim, and Flos niedi-
cinae. How much more influential and widespread it was
than the Practica of Petrocellus may be seen from the fact
that manuscripts of the text of the latter are rare, though the
introductory letter is more common, and that it was first pub-
lished by Renzi in the nineteenth century, whereas about one
hundred manuscripts and two hundred and fifty printed edi-
tions of the poem have been found. It was known chiefly
through the brief version of 362 verses, upon which Arnald
of Villanova commented at the close of the thirteenth cen-
tury, until as a result of the researches of Baudry de Balzac,
Renzi, and Daremberg the number of lines was increased to
3526. This patchwork from many manuscripts can scarcely
^ Renzi, I, 417-516, Flos medi-
cinae, a text of 2130 lines; V, i-
104, the fuller text of 3526 lines ;
113-72, Notice bibliographique ;
385-40*5, Notes choisies de M.
Baudry de Balzac au Flos Sani-
tatis.
^ "Anglorum Regi scribit Schola
tota Salerni." Some MSS have
Francorum or Roberto instead of
Anglorum.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY ni
be regarded as the work of any one author, time, or even
school, and it may be seriously questioned how many of the
verses really emanated from Salerno. Certainly it is not free
from Arabic influence, since it cites Alfraganus as well as
Ptolemy,^ Pliny is used a great deal for the virtues of
herbs. Much of it sounds like a late versification of com-
monplaces for mnemonic purposes. Sudhoff has recently
pointed out that it was not generally known until the middle
of the thirteenth century, before which time Frederick II,
the cultured monarch, and Giles de Corbeil, the medical
poet, appear unaware of its existence.^
The brief version of the poem commented upon by Itssuper-
Arnald of Villanova naturally contains only one-tenth of
the superstition found in the fuller text which is ten times
longer. In some respects this brief version might pass as a
restrained, though quaint, early set of directions how to
preserve health, to which later writers have added super-
stitious recipes. But as a matter of fact it is too superstitious
for even one as hospitable to theories of occult influence as
Arnald, who rejects as false and worthless ^ its assertion
that the months of April, May, and September are lunar and
that in them consequently fall the days upon which bleeding
is prohibited. In the lines upon which Arnald comments
marvelous properties are mentioned in the case of the plant
rue, but the fuller text has many mentions of the occult
virtues of herbs, stones, and animals. Almost at a glance
we read that the urine of a dog or the blood of a mouse
cures warts; that juice of betony should be gathered on
the eve of St. John the Baptist, that rubbing the soles of
the feet cures a stiff neck, and that pearls or the stone found
in a crab's head are of equal virtue for heart trouble.'* And
not far away is a passage ^ on the virtue of the Agnus Dei,
* Lines 2692-3. * Lines 1918-9, 1932-3, 1973-4,
^ K. SudhofF, Zum Regimen 1985, in Renzi's first text of 2130
SLUiitatis Salernitanum, in Archiv lines; in the fuller version they
/. Gcsch. d. Medicin, VII (1914), are somewhat more widely sep-
3>)0, and IX (1915-1916), 1-9. arated: lines 3053, 3130, 3227,
'Arnald de Villanova, Opera, 3267.
Lyons, 1532, fol. 147V. "Lines 1845-55 or 2873-83.
738 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
made of balsam, pure wax, and the Chrism. It protects
against lightning and the waves of the sea, aids women in
child-birth, saves from sudden death, and in short from
"every kind of evil." Astrology is by no means omitted
from the Regimen Salernitanum; in fact Balzac seems to
have taken the fact that verses were astrological in char-
acter as a sign that they belonged in the Salernitan collec-
tion.
The Prac- A third work which may be considered as an example
Archimat- ^^ ^^^ medicine of Salerno is the Practica of Archimatthaeus
thaeus. which Renzi placed in the twelfth century and conjectured
to be the work of Matthaeus Platearius the Elder.^ One or
two expressions, however, might be taken as indications that
the writer is neither of early date nor himself a Salernitan.
He speaks of curing pleurisy in a different way from the
treatment recommended in the Practica' s and tells how the
Salernitans try to prevent their hair from falling out by
reason of their pores opening too wide when they frequent
the bath.^ Renzi hailed this treatise with delight as "a true
medical clinic," ^ since the author describes some twenty-two
specific cases. He states at the beginning that he does not
propose to write a systematic treatise or to deal with every
variety of disease, but only with those in which he has
learned new and better methods by experience, "and in which
God has put the desired effect in my hand." * Through the
work we encounter such phrases as expertuni est, aliud pro-
hatissimum, "I tell you what I have proved," "We have
tested this by experience and rejoiced at the result." These
utterances seem really to refer to the writer's own experi-
ence and not to be copied from previous authors. The fol-
lowing is an example of his cases. "A certain lady incurred
paralysis of the face during sleep after the bath," which he
attributes to dissolution of humors which affected the
muscles. First he bled the cephalic vein, hoping thereby to
draw off somewhat the humors from the afflicted place.
* Renzi, V, 377-8. ' Ibid., 379-8i.
' Ibid., 372-3. * Ibid., 350.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 739
Then for three successive days he gave her "the potion of
St. Paul with wine of a decoction of salvia and castoria
which in part prevent dissolution, in part consume it." He
also had her hold that wine in her mouth for a long time
before swallowing it. At length he gave her a purgative
with pills of yerapiga {sacrum amarum), mixed with golden
pills. "Afterwards we injected pills of diacastoria into her
nostrils and placed her near the fire. Finally we gave
opopira (bread free from furfure) with the aforesaid wine,
and so she was cured, only a certain tumor remained in
her face and made her eye water. We anointed her face
with golden unguent and the potion of St. Paul mixed to-
gether and the tumor disappeared; for the tears we gave
golden Alexandrina and they were checked ; and thus it was
that this year in your presence we cured a certain paralytic." ^
Like Galen's accounts of his actual cases this makes us
realize that all the gruesome mixtures of which we read in
the books were actually forced upon patients, often several
of them upon one poor sick person, and that medical prac-
tice was rather worse than medical theory. An interesting
observation concerning the lot of the lower classes is let fall
by our author when, in discussing involuntary emission
of urine, he states that serfs and handmaids are especially
subject to this ailment, since they go about ill-clad and with
bare feet and become thoroughly chilled.^
Giacosa classed one of the treatises which he published
as Salernitan because it was written in a Lombard or Monte
Cassino hand of about 1200.^ He described its contents as
purely therapeutical and regarded its author as showing "a
certain repugnance" to the popular remedies and super-
stitions recommended by other contemporary treatises. For
A Saler-
nitan trea-
tise of
about
1200.
* Professor T. Wingate Todd
comments upon this passage : "Of
course this is post hoc propter hoc,
but it is the typical history of a
case of Bell's palsy occurring after
a 'chill.' "
' Renzi, V, 371, "Involuntariam
urine emissionem quidam patie-
bantur et adhuc multi patiuntur
et maxime servi et ancille qui
male induti et discalciati incedunt,
unde frigiditate incensa vesica fit
quasi paralitica cum urinam ne-
queat continere."
'Giacosa (rgoi), pp. 71-166.
740 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
this conclusion the chief evidence seems to be a passage
where the author, after listing such means to prevent a
woman from conceiving as binding her head with a red rib-
bon or holding the stone found in the head of an ass, says
that he thinks that such remedies "operate more by faith
than reason." ^ But he makes much use of parts of animals
and of suffumigations, advising for example on the same
page that after conception there should be fumigation with
a root of mandragora or peony or the excrement of an
ass mixed with flour, an operation which he characterizes
as expertissimiim. And on the preceding page, as Giacosa
has noted, he recommends a procedure which is even more
improbable than it is immoral, whereby patients who show
themselves ungrateful to the physician after they have been
cured may be made to suffer again.^
The We promised to say something of the female practi-
wiyesof tioners of Salerno. Trotula is no longer believed to be a
Salerno. . r o
woman and we have to judge the women of Salerno mamly
by what others say of them. In a commentary of a Master
Bernard of Provence, who I suspect may be Bernard
Gordon, the medical writer at Montpellier of the closing
thirteenth century, are a number of practices attributed to
the women of Salerno which Renzi has already brought to-
gether.^ In these cases the practices are chiefly those em-
ployed by the women themselves in child-birth. We may
note three from the list that savor strongly of magic. "The
women of Salerno cook doves with the acorns which the
doves eat; then they remove the acorns from the gizzard
and eat them, whence the retentive virtue is much com-
forted." "When the women of Salerno fear abortion, they
carry with them the pregnant stone," which our author ex-
plains is not the magnet. The other recipe had perhaps
better remain untranslated : Stercus asini comedunt muliercs
Salernitanae in crispellis et dant viris siiis tit melius retineant
sperma et sic coneipiant. As we shall see in our chapter on
* Giacosa (1901), p. 146. * Renzi, V, 33^---
'Ibid., p. 145.
XXXI MEDICINE TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 741
Arnald of Villanova, another medical writer of the late
thirteenth and early fourteenth century, he condemned the
use of incantations in cases of child-birth by old-wives of
Salerno but approved of a very similar procedure by which
a priest had cured him of warts, and also mentioned favor-
ably the cures wrought by female practitioners at Rome
and Montpellier.
CHAPTER XXXII
CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS : C. IOI5-IO87.
Reputation and influence — His studies in the Orient — His later life
in Italy — His works were mainly translations — Pantegni — Viaticum —
Other translations — The book of degrees — On melancholy — On disorders
of the stomach — Medical works ascribed to Alfanus — Constantinus and
experiment — "Experiments" involving incantations — Superstition com-
paratively rare in Constantinus — And of Greek rather than Arabic
origin — Some signs of astrology and alchemy — Constantinus and the
School of Salerno — Liber aureus and John Affkcius — Aiflacius more
superstitious than his master.
Reputa-
tion and
influence.
Constantinus Africanus will be here considered at per-
haps greater length than his connection with the history
either of magic or experimental science requires, but which
his general importance in the history of medicine and the
lack of any good treatment of him in English may justify.^
* Many of the works listed by
Peter the Deacon and some others
which he does not name have been
printed under Constantinus' name,
either in the edition of the works
of Isaac issued at Lyons in 1515,
or in the partial edition of the
works of Constantinus printed at
Basel in 1536 and 1539, or in an
edition of Albucasis published at
Basel in 1541.
An early MS containing several
of Constantinus' works is Gonville
and Caius 411, I2-I3th century,
fol. I-, Viaticum, 69- de melan-
cholia, 77v- de stomacho, gSv- de
oblivione, loor- de coitu, (no
author is named for logv- liber
elefantie, 113- de modo medendi),
121- liber febrium, (169- de inami-
darium Galieni).
The chief secondary investiga-
tions concerning Constantinus Af-
ricanus are :
Daremberg, Notices et Extraits
des Manuscrits Medicaux, 1853,
pp. 63-100, "Recherches sur un
ouvrage qui a pour titre Zad el-
Mongafir en arabe, Ephrodes en
grec, Viatique en latin, et qui est
attribue dans les textes arabes et
grecs a Abou Djafar, et dans le
texte latin a Constantin."
Puccinotti, Storia delta Medi-
cina, II, i, pp. 292-350, 1855, de-
voted several chapters to Constan-
tinus and tried to defend him from
the charge of plagiarism and to
maintain that the Viaticum and
some other works were original.
Steinschneider, Constantinus Af-
ricanus und seine arabischen
Quetlen, in Virchow's Archiv fur
Pathologische Anatomie, etc., Ber-
lin, 1866, vol. 37, pp. 351-410. This
should be supplemented by pp. 9-12
of his Die curop'dischen Vbersct-
sungen aus dem Arabischen
(1905).
742
CHAP. XXXII CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS 743
Our discussion of him as an importer of Arabic medicine
will also serve to support our attitude towards the School
of Salerno. Daremberg wrote in 1853, "We owe a great
debt of gratitude to Constantinus because he thus opened
for Latin lands the treasures of the east and consequently
those of Greece. He has received and he deserves from
every point of view the title of restorer of medical literature
in the west." ^ Daremberg proceeded to propose that a
statue of Constantinus be erected in the center of the Gulf
of Salerno or on the summit of Monte Cassino. Yet in
1870 he made the surprising assertion that "the voice of
Constantinus towards the close of the eleventh century is an
isolated voice and almost without an echo." ^ But as a
matter of fact Constantinus was a much cited authority
during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the works
both of medicine and of natural science produced in Latin
in western Europe, and his translations were cited under
his own name rather than those of their original authors.'
A brief sketch of Constantinus' career and a list of his His
works* is twice supplied us by Peter the Deacon, who wrote i^^the^
in the next century,^ and who treats of Constantinus both Orient,
in the chronicle of Monte Cassino, which he continued to
the year 1138,^ and in his work on the illustrious men of
Monte Cassino. ''^ Peter tells that Constantinus was born
^Notices et Extraits des Manu- von seinen alten Biographen,
scrits Medicaux (1853), p. 86. Petrus Diaconus und Leo Ostien-
' Histoire des Sciences Midi- sis verzeichnet worden"), since
cales (1870), I, 261. Leo's portion of the Chronicle
^ Indeed Daremberg said in 1853 ends before Constantinus is men-
(p. 85, note) "dans le moyen age tioned.
beaucoup d'auteurs citent volon- ° Peter was born about 1107 and
tiers Constantine comme une was placed in the monastery of
autorite." Monte Cassino by his parents in
"Perhaps through the fault of 11 15. He became librarian,
the printer the list of the writings Monumenta Germaniae, Scrip-
of Constantinus given by Peter tores, VH, 562 and 565.
the Deacon is defective as repro- ° Chronica Mon. Casinensis, Lib.
duced in tabular form by Stein- lH, auctore Petro, MG. SS. VII,
Schneider (1866), pp. 353-4. 728-9; Muratori, Scriptores, IV,
Steinschneider also incorrectly 455-6 (lib. HI, cap. 35).
speaks of Leo of Ostia as well as ' Petri Diaconi De viribus illus-
Peter the Deacon as a source for tribus Casinensibus, cap. 23, in
Constantinus (p. 352, "Die Schrif- Fabricius, Bibl. Graec, XIII, 123.
ten Constantins sind bekanntlich
744 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
at Carthage, by which he probably means Tunis, since Car-
thage was no longer in existence, but went to Babylon, by
which Cairo is presumably designated, since Babylon had
ages before been reduced to a dust heap,^ to improve his edu-
cation. His birth must have been in about 1015. There
he is said to have studied grammar, dialectic, geometry,
arithmetic, "mathematics," astronomy, and physics or medi-
cine {physica). To this curriculum in the Chronicle Peter
adds in the Lives of Illustrious Men the subjects of music
and necromancy. When so little was said of spirits in the
occult science of the Arabic authors of the ninth century
whom we considered in an earlier chapter, it is rather a
surprise to hear that Constantinus studied necromancy, but
that subject is listed along with mathematical and natural
sciences by Al-Farabi in his De ortii scientiarum,^ and we
shall find this classification reproduced by two western Chris-
tian scholars of the twelfth century.^ The mathematica
and astronomy which Constantinus studied very likely also
included considerable astrology and divination. At any rate
we are told that he not only pursued his studies among "the
Chaldeans, Arabs, Persians, and Saracens," and was fully
imbued with "all the arts of the Egyptians," but even, like
ApoUonius of Tyana, visited India and Ethiopia in his
quest for learning. It was only after a lapse of thirty-nine
or forty years that he returned to North Africa. Most
modern secondary accounts here state that Constantinus was
soon forced to flee from North Africa because of the jeal-
ousy of other physicians who accused him of magic,* or
from fear that his fellow citizens would kill him as a wizard.
^ Yet modern compilers and "the science of spirits," was also
writers of encyclopedia articles reproduced by Vincent of Beau-
invariably repeat "Carthage" and vais in the thirteenth century,
'"Babylon." Speculum doctritmlc, XVI.
* BN 14700, fol. 171V, cited by ''Possibly there is some con-
Baur (1903), who also notes fusion with Galen's similar ex-
parallel passages in Al-Gazel, perience with the physicians of
Phil. tr. I, I ; and Avicenna, De Rome, which Constantinus may
divis. philos., fol. 141. have reproduced in some one of
* Gundissalinus and Daniel Mor- his translations of Galen in such
ley. Al-Farabi's list of eight a way as to lead the reader to
mathematical sciences, including consider it his own experience.
CONSTANTINUS AFRICAN US
745
In view of his study of necromancy, this may well have been
the case. Peter the Deacon, however, simply states that
when the Africans saw him so fully instructed in the studies
of all nations, they plotted to kill him,^ and gives no further
indication of their motives.
Constantinus secretly boarded ship and made his escape His later
to Salerno, where he lived for some time in poverty, until a jtaiy"
brother of the caliph (regis Bahiloniorum) who chanced to
come there recognized him, after which he was held in great
honor by Duke Robert Guiscard. The secondary accounts
say that he became Robert's confidential secretary and that
he had previously occupied a similar position under the
Byzantine emperor, Constantine Monomachos,^ but of these
matters again Peter the Deacon is silent. When Con-
stantinus left the Norman court, it was to become a monk
at Monte Cassino, where he remained until his death in 1087.
^ The words are the same both
in the Chronicle and Illustrious
Men: "quern cum vidissent Afri
ita ad plenum omnibus (om-
nium?) gentium eruditum, cogi-
taverunt occidere eum."
^ Pagel (1902), p. 644, "Vorher
soil er kurze Zeit noch in Reggio,
einer kleinen Stadt in der Nahe
von Byzanz, als Protosekretar des
Kaisers Constantinos Monoma-
chos sich aufgehalten und das
Reisehandbuch des Abu Dschafer
iibersetzt haben." But Pagel gives
no source for this statement.
Apparently the notion is due to
the fact that a Greek treatise en-
titled Ephodia, of which there
are numerous MSS and which
seems to be a translation of the
same Arabic work as that upon
which Constantinus based his
Viaticum, speaks of a Constan-
tine as its author who was proto-
secretary and lived at Reggio or
Rhegium.
Daremberg (1853), p. yy, held
that a Vatican MS of the
Ephodia was of the tenth century
and therefore this Greek transla-
tion could not be the work of
Constantinus Africanus in the
next century, but Steinschneider
(1866), p. 392, only says, "Die
griechische Uebersetzung des
Viaticum soil bis in die Zeit Con-
stantins hinaufreichen."
Another MS, Escorial &-II-9,
i6th century, fol. i-, contains
a "Commeatus Peregrinantium"
whose author is called "Ebrubat
Zafar filio Elbazar," which per-
haps designates Abu Jafar
Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar, whom Dar-
emberg and Steinschneider call
the author of the Arabic origi-
nal of the Viaticum. The work
is said to have been trans-
lated into Greek "a Constantino
Primo a secretis Regis," which
suggests that Constantinus was
perhaps first of the royal secre-
taries rather than of Reggio
either in Norman Italy or near
Byzantium. The translation from
Greek into Latin is ascribed to
Antonius Eparchus. The opening
sentences of each book of this
Latin version from the Greek by
Eparchus differ in wording but
agree in substance with those of
the Viaticum of Constantinus
Africanus, if we omit some
transitional sentences in the
latter.
746
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
His works
were
mainly
transla-
tions.
Pantegni.
In a work addressed to the archbishop of Salerno he speaks
of himself as Constantinus Africaniis Cassinensis ^ and
Albertus Magnus cites him as Constantinus Cassianensis }
What purports to be a picture of Constantinus is preserved
in a manuscript of the fifteenth century at Oxford.^
Peter the Deacon states both in the Chronicle and in the
Illustrious Men that while at the monastery of Monte
Cassino Constantinus Africanus "translated a great num-
ber of books from the languages of various peoples." Peter
then lists the chief of these. It is interesting to note, in view
of the fact that Constantinus in prefaces and introductions
appears to claim some of the works as his own, and that he
was accused of fraud and plagiarism by medieval writers
who followed him as well as by modern investigators, that
Peter the Deacon speaks of all his writings as translations
from other languages. Peter does not, however, give us
much information as to who the Greek or Arabic authori-
ties were whom Constantine translated. It may be added
that if Constantinus claimed for himself the credit for Latin
versions which were essentially translations, he was merely
continuing a practice of which Arabic authors themselves had
been repeatedly guilty. Indeed, we are told that they some-
times even destroyed earlier works which they had copied
in order to receive sole credit for ideas which were not their
own.*
The longest of Constantinus' translations and the one
most often cited in the middle ages was the Pamtechni or
Pantegni, comprising ten books of theory and ten of prac-
^ Opera (1536), p. 215.
^ De animalibus, XXII, i, i.
'Rawlinson C, 328, fol. 3- It
is accompanied by the legend,
"This is Constantinus, monk of
Monte Cassino, who is as it were
the fount of that science of long
standing from the judgment of
urines, and it has exhibited a true
cure in all the diseases in this
book and in many other books.
To whom come women with urine
that he may tell them what is the
cause of the disease." The illu-
mination shows Constantinus
seated, holding a book on his
knees with his left hand, while
he raises his right hand and fore-
finger in didactic style. He wears
the tonsure, has a beard but no
mustache, and seems to be ap-
proached by one woman and two
men carrying two jars of urine.
■"See Margoliouth, Avicenna,
1913, P- 49.
XXXII CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS 747
tice as printed in 15 15 with the works of Isaac,^ although
Peter the Deacon speaks of Constantinus' dividing the
Pantegni into twelve books and then of a Practica which
also consisted of twelve books. What is the ninth book
of the Practica in this printed version is listed as a separate
book on surgery by Peter in his Illustrious Men, although
omitted from his list in the Chronicle, and was so printed
in the 1536 edition of the works of Constantinus.^ And
the Antidotarium which Peter lists as a separate title is
probably simply the tenth book of the Practica as printed
with the works of Isaac.^ The Pantegni, however, is not a
translation of any work by Isaac, but an adaptation of the
Khitaab el Maleki, or Royal Art of Medicine, of Ali Ibn
Abbas. The preface of Constantinus ^ says nothing of AH
but tells the abbot Desiderius that, failing to find in the
many works of the Latins or even in "our own writers,
ancient and modern," such as Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius,
Paulus, and Alexander, exactly the sort of treatise desired,
he has composed "this little work of our own" (hoc nostrum
opusculum) . But Stephen of Pisa, who also translated Ali
into Latin in 1127,^ accused Constantinus of having sup-
pressed both the author's name and title of the book and
of having made many omissions and changes of order both
in preface and text but without really adding any new con-
tributions of his own.^ Stephen further justified his own
translation by asserting that not only had the first part of
The Royal Art of Medicine of Ali Ibn Abbas been "cor-
rupted by the shrewd fraud of its translator," but also that
the last and greater portion was missing in the version by
^ Only the ten books of theory Jew, so far as we know, to devote
are printed in the 1539 edition of himself to philosophical and scien-
Constantinus. tific discussions."
^C/MVur^rra, at pp. 324-41- ■'Daremberg (1853), pp. 82-5,
^ Opera omnia ysaac (1515), fol. gives the prefaces of Ali and Con-
i26v, "Liber decimus practice qui stantinus in parallel columns,
antidotarium dicitur in duas ° Printed in 1492 with the works
divisus partes." of Ali ben Abbas; Stephen's
Isaac Israeli is the subject of translation was made at Antioch
the first chapter in Husik (1916), in Syria.
who calls him (p. 2) "the first ' Steinschneider (1866), p. 359.
748 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Constantinus.^ Also Ferrarius said in his gloss to the
Universal Diets of Isaac that Constantinus had completed
the translation of only three books of the Practica, losing
the rest in a shipwreck,^ A third medieval writer, Giraldus
Bituricensis, adds ^ that Constantinus substituted in its place
the Liber simplicis medicinae and Liher graduum, and that
it was Stephen of Pisa who translated the remainder of
the work of Ali ben Abbas which is called the Practica
Pantegni et Stephanonis. Stephen's translation is indeed
different from the ten books of the Practica printed with the
works of Isaac. From these facts and from an examination
of the manuscripts of the Practica Rose concluded * that
Constantinus wrote only its first two books ^ and the first
part of the ninth, which is roughly the same as the Surgery
published separately among Constantinus' works. The rest
of this ninth book was translated into Latin at the time of
the expedition to besiege Majorca, that is, in 1114-1115,
by a John ^ who had recently been converted to Christianity "^
and whom Rose was inclined to identify with John Afflacius,
"a disciple of Constantinus," of whom we shall have more
* "Ultimam et maiorem deesse continens decern libros secunda
sensi partem, alteram vero inter- dicitur Practica 33 capita conti-
pretis callida depravatam fraude." nens," as a table of contents writ-
^Amplon. Octavo 62. ten in on the fly-leaf states. The
' In his gloss to the Viaticum of ten books of theory end at fol.
Constantinus. loor, "Explicit prima pars pan-
* Berlin HSS Verzeichnis tegni scilicet de theorica. Incipit
(1905), pp. 1059-65, to whom I secunda pars scilicet practica et
owe the preceding references to est primus liber de regimento
Ferrarius and Giraldus. sanitatis." This single book in 33
^ Rose cites Bamberg L-iii-9. chapters on the preservation of
The two following MSS are per- health ends at fol. ii6v, and at fol.
haps also worth noting: The iiyv begins the Liber divisionum
Pantegni as contained in CU of Rasis.
Trinity 906, 12th century, finely ' In Berlin 898, a 12th century
written, fols. 1-141V, comprises MS of Stephen's translation of
only ten books. The first opens, All's Practica, this ninth section
"Cum totius generalitas tres prin- by Constantinus and John is for
cipales partes habeat" ; the tenth some reason substituted for the
ends, "Unde acutum oportet corresponding book of Stephen,
habere sensum ad intelligendum. ' He calls himself, "iohannes
Explicit." quidam agarenus (Saracenus?)
St. John's 85, close of 13th cen- quondam, qui noviter ad fidem
tury, "Constantini africani Pan- christiane religionis venerat cum
tegnus in duas partes divisus rustico pisano belle filius ac pro-
quarum prima dicitur Theorica fessione medicus."
XXXII CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS 749
to say presently. Rose further held that this John com-
pleted the Practica ^ commonly ascribed to Constantinus
with the exception of its tenth book which, as we have
suggested, seems originally to have been a distinct Antido-
tarinm. Different from the Pantegni is the Compendium
megategni Galeni by Constantinus published with the works
of Isaac, and the Librum Tegni, Megategni, Microtegni
listed by Peter the Deacon.
Perhaps the next best known and the most frequently Viaticum.
printed ^ of Constantinus' translations or adaptations from
the Arabic is his Viaticum which, as Peter the Deacon
states, is divided into seven books. In the preface Con-
stantinus states that the Pantegni was for more advanced
students, this is a brief manual for others. He also adds
that he appends his own name to it because there are per-
sons who profit by the labors of others and, "when the work
of someone else has come into their hands, furtively and
like thieves inscribe their own names." Daremberg desig-
nated Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar as author of
the Arabic original of the Viaticum. Moses Ibn Tibbon,
who made a Hebrew translation in 1259, criticized the Latin
version of Constantinus as often abbreviated, obscure, and
seriously altered in arrangement.^ Constantinus seems to
be alluded to in the Ephodia or Greek version of the same
work.^
* The main objection to this of Gerardus de Solo (Bituricen-
theory is that Stephen of Pisa, sis), "Commentum eiusdem super
translating in 1127, speaks as if viatico cum textu" ; and in the
the latter portion of Ali's work Lyons, 1511, edition of Rhazes,
was still untranslated. Rose Opera parva Albubetri.
therefore holds that John had not A fairly early but imperfect
yet published his translation, al- AIS is CU Trinity 1064, I2-I3th
though we have seen that he com- century,
pleted the surgical section by 1x15. Laud. Misc. 567, late 12th cen-
^ In Opera omnia ysaac, Lyons, tury, fol. 2, recognizes in its Titu-
1515, II, fols. 144-72, "Viaticum lus that the Viaticum is a trans-
ysaac quod constantinus sibi at- lation, "Incipit Viaticum a Con-
tribuit" ; in the Basel, 1536, edition stantino in Latinam linguam
of the works of Constantinus, pp. translatam."
1-167, under the title, "De mor- ^ Steinschneider (1866), 368-9.
borum cognitione et curatione lib. * See above, page 745, note 2.
\ii"; in the Venice, 1505, edition
750
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Other
transla-
tions.
The
book of
degrees.
If neither the original of the Pantegni nor of the
Viaticum is to be assigned to Isaac, Constantinus neverthe-
less did translate some of his works, namely, those on diets,
urines, and fevers.^ Moreover, Constantinus himself admits
that these Latin works are translations, stating in the
preface to the treatise on urines that, finding no satisfactory
treatment of the subject in Latin, he turned to the Arabic
language and translated the work which Isaac had compiled
from the ancients. Constantinus also states that he trans-
lated the treatise on fevers from the Arabic. We have al-
ready seen that the alphabetical Latin version of
Dioscorides which had most currency in the middle ages
is ascribed in at least one manuscript to Constantinus. He
also translated some treatises ascribed to Hippocrates and
Galen, such as Galen's commentary on the Aphorisms and
Prognostics of Hippocrates - and the Tegni of Galen. Con-
stantinus has also been credited with translating works of
Galen on the eyes, on diseases of women, and on human
nature, but these are not genuine works of Galen.
In his list of the works which Constantinus translated
from various languages.^ Peter the Deacon includes The
hook of degrees, but it has not yet been discovered from
what earlier author, if any, it is copied or adapted. The
work is a development of Galen's doctrine that various
^In the 1515 edition of Isaac's
works, I, II-, 156-, and 203-.
Peter the Deacon presumably re-
fers to these three works in
speaking of "Dietam ciborum.
Librum febrium quern de Arabica
lingua transtulit. Librum de
urinis." Whether the two initial
treatises in the 151S edition of
Isaac, dealing with definitions and
the elements, were translated by
Constantinus or by Gerard of
Cremona is doubtful.
'See CLM 187, fol. 8; 168, fol.
23; 161, fol. 41; 270, fol. 10; 13034,
fol. 49, for I3-I4th century copies
of Galen's commentary upon the
Aphorisms of Hippocrates with a
preface by Constantinus.
University College Oxford 89,
early 14th century, fol. 90, In-
cipiunt amphorismi Ypocratis cum
commento domini Constantini
Affricani montis Cassienensis
monachi; fol. 155, Eiusdem Prog-
nostica cum Galeni commento,
eodem interprete; fols. 203-61,
Eiusdem liber de regimine acuto-
rum cum eiusdem commento
eodem interprete.
^ De znris illustribus, cap. 23,
". . . transtulit de diversis gen-
tium linguis libros quamplurimos
in quibus praecipue . . ." : Chron-
ica, Lib. Ill, ". . . transtulit de
diversorum gentium linguis libros
quamplurimos in quibus sunt hi
praecipue. . . ."
XXXII CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS 7Si
medicinal simples are hot or cold, dry or moist, in varying
degrees. Constantinus presupposes four gradations of this
sort. Thus a food or medicine is hot in the first degree if
its heating power is below that of the normal human body;
if it is of the same temperature as the body, it ranks as
of the second degree; if its heat is somewhat greater than
that of the body, it is of the third degree; if its heat is
extreme and unbearable, it is of the fourth degree. The
rose is cold in the first degree, is dry towards the end of the
second degree, while the violet is cold towards the end of
the first degree and moist in the beginning of the second
degree. Thus Constantinus distinguishes not only four de-
grees but a beginning, middle and end of each degree, and
Peter the Deacon once gives the title of the work as The
book of twelve degrees} This interesting though crude
beginning in the direction of scientific thermometry and
hydrometry unfortunately rested upon incorrect assump-
tions as to the nature and causation of heat and moisture,
and so was perhaps destined to do more harm than good.
A glossary of herbs and species and a work on the pulse, On mel-
which Peter the Deacon includes in both his lists of Con- o^^holy.
stantinus' works or translations, do not seem to have been
printed or identified as Constantinus'. On the other hand,
the printed edition of the works of Constantinus includes
treatises on melancholy and on the stomach ^ which are not
mentioned in Peter's list. In a preface to the De melancholia
which is not included in the printed edition ^ Constantinus
Africanus speaks of himself as a monk of Monte Cassino
and states that, while he has often touched on the disease
of melancholy in the many medical books which he has
added to the Latin language, he has decided also to write a
separate brochure on the subject because it is an important
malady and because it is especially prevalent "in these
regions." "Therefore I have collected this booklet from
^ "Librum duodecim graduum" 280-98 and 215-74 respectively,
in De viris illus.: in the Chronicle, ^ It is found in Laud. Misc. 567,
"Liber graduum." late 12th century, fol. 51V.
* Edition of Basel, 1536, at pp.
752
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
On
disorders
of the
stomach.
many volumes of our adepts in this art." Whether the word
"our" here refers to Greek or Arabic writers would be hard
to say. Constantinus states that melancholy is a disease to
which those are especially liable who are always intent on
study and books of philosophy, "because of their scientific
investigations and tiring their memories and grieving over
the failure of their minds." This ailment also afflicts
"those who lose their beloved possessions, such as their
children and dearest friends or some precious thing which
cannot be restored, as when scholars suddenly lose their
books." Constantinus also describes the melancholy of
"many religious persons who live lives to be revered, but
fall into this disease from their fear of God and contempla-
tion of the last judgment and desire of seeing the summum
honum. Such persons think of nothing and seek for noth-
ing save to love and fear God alone, and they incur this
complaint and become drunk as it were with their excessive
anxiety and vanity." ^ Such passages would seem to de-
scribe Constantinus' own associates and environment, but
they may possibly be a mere translation of some work of
an earlier Christian Arab, such as Honein ben Ishak who
translated or pretended to translate a number of works of
Greek medicine into Arabic. In a later chapter ^ we shall
find that Honein perhaps had something to do with another
work called The Secrets of Galen, in which remedies for
religious ascetics who have ruined their health by their
austerities form a rather prominent feature.
That the treatise on disorders of the stomach is Con-
stantinus' own work is indicated by its preface, which is
addressed to Alfanus, archbishop of Salerno from 1058 to
1087 and earlier a monk of Monte Cassino. Alfanus had
himself translated Nemesius Ilept <i)mem avdpuTov^ and was
the center of a group of learned writers : the dialectician,
Alberic the Deacon, the historian, Amatus of Salerno, and
* Edition of 1536, pp. 283-4.
' See below, Chapter 64.
'Zeitsch. f. klass.Philol. (1896),
pp. logSff.
XXXII
CONSTANTINUS AFRICAN US
753
the mathematician and astronomer, Pandulf of Capua. ^
Constantinus states that he writes this treatise for Alfanus
as a compensation for his recent failure to reheve a stomach-
ache with which that prelate was afflicted. Such instances
of self-confessed failure, be it noted in passing, are rare
indeed in ancient and medieval medicine, and for this reason
we are the more inclined to deal charitably with the charges
of literary plagiarism which have been preferred against
Constantinus. He goes on to say that he has sought with
great care but in vain among ancient writings for any
treatise devoted exclusively to the stomach, and has only
succeeded in finding here and there scattered discussions
which he now presumably combines in the present special
treatise.
This archbishop Alfanus appears to have written on
medicine himself, since A treatise of Alfanus of Salerno
concerning certain medical questions was listed among the
books at Christchurch, Canterbury about 1300.^ Also a
collection of recipes entitled, Experiments of an archbishop
of Salerno, in a manuscript of the early twelfth century are
very likely by him.^ They follow a treatise on melancholy
which does not, however, appear to be that of Constantinus
Africanus.*
Peter the Deacon's bibliography of the works of Con-
stantinus includes a De experimentis which, if extant, has
not been identified as Constantinus'. In such works of his
as are available, however, we find a number of mentions
of experience and its value. It is of course to be remem-
bered that such expressions as "we state what we have
tested and what our authorities have used," ^ and "we have
had personal experience of the confection which we now
mention," ^ may refer to the experience of the past authors
* J. A. Endres, Petrus Damiani
und die weltliche Wissenschaft,
1910, P- 35, in Beitr'dge, VIII, 3.
'James (1903), p. 59, "Tracta-
tus Alfani Salernitanus de quibus-
dam questionibus medicinalibus."
' CU Trinity 1365, early 12th
century, fols. 155-162V, Experi-
menta archiep. Salernitani.
* Judging from its opening and
closing words as given by James.
^ De coitu, edition of 1536, p.
306.
' Viaticum, VI, 19.
Medical
works
ascribed to
Alfanus.
Constan-
tinus and
experi-
ment.
754
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
"Experi-
ments" in-
volving
incanta-
tions.
whose works Constantinus is using or translating rather
than to his own. In the Pantegni ^ "ancient medical writers"
are divided into experientes and rationabiles, and we are
told that the empirics declare that compound medicines can
be discovered only in dreams and by chance, while the
rationalists hold that these can be deduced from a knowl-
edge of the virtues and qualities and accidents of bodies and
diseases. This much is of course simply Galen over again.
Constantinus occasionally gives medical "experiments," as
in the case of "proved experiments to eject reptiles from the
body," ^ or the placing of a live chicken on the place bitten
by a mad dog. The chicken will then die while the man
will be cured "beyond a doubt." ^ Such medical "experi-
ments" by Constantinus were often cited by subsequent
medieval writers.
Incantations are involved in some of these "experi-
ments." One approved experiment, we are told, consists
in whispering in the ear of the patient the words. Recede
demon quia dee fanolcri precipiunt. The effect of this
procedure is that when the epileptic rises, after remaining
like one dead for an hour, he will answer any question that
may be put to him. Another experiment to cure epilepsy
is frequently cited by subsequent medieval medical writers
from Constantinus, and, while it may not have originated
with him, is apparently of Christian rather than Greek or
Mohammedan origin. If the epileptic has parents living,
they are to take him to church on the day of the four seasons
and have him hear mass on the sixth day and also on Satur-
day. When he comes again on Sunday the priest is to write
down the passage in the Gospel where it says, "This kind
is not cast out save by fasting and prayer." Presumably
the epileptic is to wear this writing, in which case a sure
cure is promised, "be he epileptic or lunatic or demoniac."
But it is added that the charm will not work in the case of
persons born of incestuous marriages.*
* PracHca, X, i ; in Isaac, Opera, ' Ihid._, IV, 27 ', f ol. 96r.
1515, II, fol. 126. * Ibid., V, 17; fol. 99r.
mid., VII, 31; fol. iiir.
XXXII
CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS
755
But as a rule incantations and superstitious ceremony
are comparatively rare in the works of Constantinus, which
contain little to justify the charge of magic said to have been
made against him in Africa or the charge of superstition
made against the Arabic medicine which his writings so
largely reflect. Also these superstitious passages seem
limited to the treatment of certain ailments of a mysterious
character like epilepsy and insanity, which, Constantinus
says, the populace call divinaHo and account for by posses-
sion by demons.^ It is against epilepsy and phantasy that
it is recommended to give a child to swallow before it has
been weaned the brains of a goat drawn through a golden
ring. And it is for epilepsy that we find such suspensions
as hairs from an entirely white dog or the small red stones
in swallows' gizzards, from which they must have been
removed at midday. When Constantinus is treating of eye
and ear troubles, or even of paralysis of the tongue and
toothache, use of amulets is infrequent and there is only
an occasional suggestion of marvelous virtue. Gout is
treated with unguents and recipes but without the super-
stitious ligatures often found in medieval works of medi-
cine. ^ Parts of animals are employed a good deal : thus
if you anoint the entire body with lion fat, you will have
no fear of serpents, and binding on the head the fresh lung
of an ox is good for frenzy.^ But Constantinus more often
explains the action of things in nature from their four
qualities of hot, cold, moist, and dry, than he does by as-
suming the existence of occult virtues.
It is also to be noted that those passages where Con-
stantinus' medicine borders most closely upon magic are
apt to be borrowed from, or at least credited to, Galen and
Dioscorides. Neither Constantinus nor his Arabic authori-
ties introduced most of these superstitious elements into
medicine. In his work on degrees Constantinus repeats
Super-
stition
compara-
tively rare
in Con-
stantinus.
And of
Greek
rather
than
Arabic
origin.
^ De melancholia (1536), p. 290.
' Practica, VIII, 40; ed. of 1515,
j1. ii8v.
' Practica, IV, 39, and V, 7; ed.
of 15x5, fols. 96r and gSr.
756
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Some
signs of
astrology
and
alchemy.
Galen's story of the boy who fell into an epileptic fit when-
ever the suspended peony was removed from his neck.^ In
the Viaticum ^ he ascribes the suspension of a white dog's
hairs and the use of various other parts of animals for
epileptics to Dioscorides, but they do not seem to be found
in that author's extant works. Water in which blacksmiths
have quenched their irons is another remedy prescribed for
various disorders upon the authority of Dioscorides and
Galen. ^ Theriac and terra sigillata are of course not for-
gotten. That there is a magnetic mountain on the shore of
the Indian Ocean which draws all the iron nails out of
passing ships, and that the magnet extracts arrows from
wounds is stated on the authority of the Lapidary of Aris-
totle, a spurious work. Constantinus adds that Rufus says
that the magnet comforts those afflicted with melancholy
and removes their fears and suspicions.^ However, it is
without citation of other authors that Constantinus states
that the plant agnus casttis will mortify lust if it is merely
suspended over the sleeper.^
There is not a great deal of astrological medicine in the
works of Constantinus Africanus. There are some allusions
to the moon and dog-days,^ Galen being twice cited to the
effect that epilepsy in a waxing moon is a very moist dis-
ease, while in a waning moon it is very cold. In a chapter
of the Pantegni '^ the relation of critical days to the course
of the moon and also to the nature of number is discussed.
In another passage of the same work ^ we read that if
other remedies fail in the case of a patient who cannot hold
his water while in bed, he should eat the bladder of a river
fish for eight days while the moon is waxing and waning
*Ed. of 1536, p. 358; also in the
Viaticum, I, 22 ; p. 20.
'Viaticum, I, 22; p. 21.
* Viaticum>, VII, 13: De gradi-
bus (1536), p. 377-
* According to Steinschneider
(1866), p. 402, it is only from the
citations of Constantinus that we
know of a work by Rufus on
melancholy. See especially De
melancholia (1536), p. 285, "In-
Rufum clarissimum
de melancholia fecisse
venimus
medicum
librum. . . ."
^ De gradibus (1536), p. 378.
'Edition of 1536, pp. 20, 290,
356.
'' Theorica, X, 9; ed. of 1515,
fol. 54.
"Practica, VII, 59 (iSrS), fol.
114V.
XXXII
CONSTANTINUS AFRICAHXJS
7S7
and he will be freed from the complaint. But Hippocrates
testifies that in old men the ailment is incurable. But the
principal astrological passage that I have found in the works
of Constantinus is that in De humana natura ^ where he
traces the formation of the child in the womb and the in-
fluence of the planets upon the successive months of the
process, and explains why children born in the seventh or
ninth month live while those born in the eighth month die.
This passage was cited by Vincent of Beauvais in his Specu-
lum naturale.^ Belief in alchemy is suggested when Con-
stantinus repeats the assertion of some book on stones that
lead would be silver except for its smell, its softness, and
its inability to endure fire.^
The relation of Constantinus Africanus to the School
of Salerno has been the subject of much dispute and of
divergent views. Some have held that Salerno's medical
importance practically began with him ; others have tried to
maintain for Salernitan medicine a Neo-Latin character
quite distinct from Constantinus' introduction of Arabic
influence. From the fact that Constantinus passed from
Salerno to Monte Cassino, where most, if not all, of his
writing seems to have been done, it has been assumed that
there was an intimate connection between the monks and
the rise of a medical school at Salerno. On the other hand,
Renzi and Rashdall have ridiculed the notion, declaring the
distance and difficulty of communication between the two
places to be an insurmountable difficulty. It must be re-
membered, however, that Constantinus himself both at-
tended the archbishop of Salerno in a case of stomach
trouble and sent a treatise on the subject to him afterwards.
A strong personal influence by him upon the practice and
still more upon the literature of Salernitan medicine is
therefore not precluded, though his stay at Salerno may
have been brief and his literary labor performed entirely
Constan-
tinus
and the
School of
Salerno.
*Ed. of 1541, pp. 319-21.
'Spec. not.. XVI, 49.
'De gradibus (1536), p.
360,
"de quo Arabu (Aristotle?) in
libro de lapidibus intitulato."
758
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Liber
aureus
and John
Afflacius.
at the monastery. In any case a Master John Afflacius,
who is associated with other Salernitan writers in a com-
pilation from their works, was a disciple of Constantinus
and, as we are about to see, perhaps the author of some of
the treatises which have been published under Constantinus'
name. It certainly would seem that Constantinus and his
disciple have as good a right to be called Salernitan as
most of the authors included in Renzi's collection.
In a medical manuscript which Henschel discovered at
Breslau in 1837 ^ and which he regarded as a composition
of the School of Salerno and dated in the twelfth century,
he found in the case of two works compiled from various
authors ^ that the passages ascribed to a Master John
Afflacius, who was described as "a disciple of Con-
stantinus," ^ were identical with passages in the Liher aureus
or De remediorum et aegritudinum cognitione published as
a work of Constantinus in the Basel edition of 1536. He
also identified a Liher urinarum attributed to the same John
Afflacius, disciple of Constantinus, in the Breslau manu-
script with the De urinis which follows the Liber aureus
in the printed edition of Constantinus' works. Thus either
the pupil appropriated or completed and published the work
of his master, or Constantinus had the same good fortune
in having his own name attached to the compositions of
his pupil ^ as in the case of the writings of his Arabic
predecessors.
It may be further noted that the disciple seems to have
been more superstitious than the master, for in one of the
passages ascribed to Afflacius in the aforesaid compilation.
* Manoscritto Salernitano di-
lucidato dal Prof. Henschel, in
Renzi (1853), II, 1-80, especially
pp. 16, 41, 59.
" De aegritudinum curatione
tractatus, Renzi, II, 81-386; De
febribus tractatus, II, 737-68.
^The preface to Constantinus'
translation of Isaac on fevers is
addressed to his "dearest son,
John" : see Brussels, Library of
Dukes of Burgundy 15489, 14th
century, "Quoniam te karissime
fili lohanne" ; Cambrai 914, 13-
14th century; Cambrai 907, 14th
century, fol. i, Prefatio Con-
stantlni ad Johannem discipulum.
* However, in an Oxford MS
the Liber aureus itself is ascribed
to "John, son of Constantinus":
Bodleian 2060, #1, Joannis filii
Constantini de re medica liber
aureus.
xxxi:
CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS
759
after the correspondence with the Liher aureits has ceased, Afflacius
the text goes on to prescribe the suspension of goat's horn ^pg^j..
over one's head as a soporific and gives the following stitious
"prognostic of life or death." Smear the forehead of the master,
patient from ear to ear with musam encam. "If he sleeps,
he will live ; but if not, he will die ; and this has been tested
in acute fevers." Another method is to try if the patient's
urine will mix with the milk of a woman who is suckling a
male child. If it will, he will live. Another procedure to
induce sleep is then given, which consists in reading the
first verse of the Gospel of John nine times over the pa-
tient's head, placing beneath his head a missal or psalter
and the names of the seven sleepers written on a scroll.
This is not the first instance of such Christian magic that we
have encountered in connection with the School of Salerno
and we begin to suspect that it was rather characteristic.
At any rate it was not uncommon in medieval medicine in
general and was almost certainly introduced before Innocent
III who in 121 5 forbade ordeals and who frowned on
other superstitious practices. Probably such Christian
magic dates from a period before Arabic influence began
to be felt. Thus again we have reason to doubt whether
early medieval medicine or Salernitan medicine was less
superstitious than Arabic medicine or than medieval medi-
cine after the introduction of Arabic medicine. At least
Constantinus Africanus who represents the introduction of
translations from the Arabic is comparatively free from
superstition.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF
ARABIC ALCHEMY
Latin treatises on the arts and colors — Progress of the arts even
during the early middle ages — Scantiness of the sources — Character
of Arabic alchemy — Dififerent character of our Latin treatises — Com-
positiones ad tingenda — Mappe Clavicula — Some of its recipes — Ques-
tion of symbolic nomenclature — Magical procedure with goats : in
Mappe Clavicula — Similar passages in Heraclius — And Theophilus — A
magic figure — Use of an incantation in tenth century alchemy — Experi-
mental character of the work of Theophilus — How to make Spanish
gold — The question of symbolic terminology again — Alchemy in the
eleventh century — St. Dunstan and alchemy and magic — Introduction of
Arabic alchemy in the twelfth century.
". . . campum latissimum diversarum artium perscru-
tari. . . ."
— Theophilus, Schedula, I, Praefatio.
Latin We come to the consideration of several treatises dealing
orfthe^^ with colors and the arts and dating from about the eighth
arts and to the twelfth centuries and probably in part of earlier
origin. These are the Compositiones ad tingenda in a manu-
script of the eighth or ninth century, the Mappe clavicula
found in part in a tenth century manuscript and more fully
in one of the twelfth century, the poem of Heraclius on
The colors and arts of the Romans, and the remarkable
treatise of Theophilus On diverse arts in three books. ^ The
* Interest in such works was colorihus et de artibus Rotnano-
aroused by the almost simultane- rum, in Mrs. Merrifield's Ancient
ous publication of R. Hendrie's Practice of Painting, London,
English translation of Theophilus, 1849. Hendrie printed the Latin
London, 1847; the publication of text of Theophilus with his trans-
the Mappe clavicula in a "Let- lation. A. Ilg published a revised
ter from Sir Thomas Phillipps to Latin text with a German trans-
Albert Way" in Archaeologia, lation in 1874, with a fuller ac-
XXXII, 183-244, London, 1847; count of the MSS.
and the inclusion of Heraclius, De
760
CHAP, xxxiii TREATISES ON THE ARTS 761
oldest known manuscripts of Theophilus are of the twelfth
century and he has been dated at the beginning of that cen-
tury or end of the eleventh, and Heraclius, from whom he
takes a number of his chapters, still earlier. But it scarcely
seems that some of Theophilus' descriptions of ecclesiastical
art would have been written before the twelfth century.
Mrs. Merrifield regarded only the first two metrical books of
The colors and arts of the Romans as the work of
Heraclius, and the third book in prose as a later addition
of the twelfth or thirteenth century and probably written
by a Frenchman, whereas she believed that Heraclius wrote
in southern Italy under Byzantine influence.^ His poem
sounds to me like an attempt to imitate Lucretius, while
one also is inclined to associate it with the perhaps nearly
contemporary poems in which the so-called Macer and
Marbod recounted in verse form some of the properties of
herbs and stones which they had learned from ancient
writers.
Berthelot regarded these treatises on the arts as proof Progress
that the knowledge of industrial and alchemical processes '^^^^ ^^^^
continued unbroken even in western Europe from Egypt to during
^ ^-^^ the early
the middle ages, although he held that the theories of trans- middle
mutation and the like reached the west only in the twelfth ^^^^'
century through the Arabs. ^ Moreover, there is progress
in the technical processes just as there was progress in
Romanesque and Gothic art. New items and recipes appear
in the lists. Even in the declining Roman Empire and
earliest middle age we have evidence of new discoveries.
The artificial fabrication of cinnabar becomes known at
some time after Dioscorides and Pliny and before the eighth
century.^ The hydrostatic balance is described not only
in the Mappe clavicula but in the Carmen de ponderibus of
Priscian or of Q. Remnius Fannius Palaemo of the fourth
* Merrifield (1849), I, 166-74. thirty-eight years too late in that
* Berthelot (1893), I, 29. He century, mistaking the Spanish
dated, however, Robert of Ches- for the Christian era.
ter's translation of Morienus 'Ibid., p. 18.
762
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE
CHAP.
Scantiness
of the
sources.
or fifth century A. D.^ Heraclius speaks more than once
in his poem with admiration of the works of art of the
Roman "kings" and people, and asks, "Who now is capable
of investigating these arts, is able to reveal to us what those
potent artificers of immense intellect discovered for them-
selves ?" ^ However, his aim is to resurrect these arts ; he
assures the reader that he writes nothing which he has not
first proved himself ; ^ and he tells in particular how he dis-
covered by close scrutiny of a piece of Roman glass that
there was gold-leaf placed between two layers of glass, a
work which he successfully imitated. ^ On the other hand,
lead glazing, according to Alexandre Brongniart, director of
the Sevres manufactory, is not found in European pottery
before the twelfth century, when it was applied in Pesaro
about 1 100 and is found on pottery in a tomb at Jumieges of
about 1120.^
During the early medieval centuries the Byzantine Em-
pire, Syria and Egypt after they were conquered by the
Arabs, the busy streets of Bagdad and Cordova, and Persia
undoubtedly produced a far more flourishing activity in the
fine arts and the industrial arts than was the case in back-
ward western Christian Europe. Yet the surviving evidence
for such activity is disappointing, and seems limited to some
notices and allusions in Arabian and Jewish travelers and
historians, and to the dust-heaps of ruined cities like Fostat,
Rai, and Rakka. As the finest early specimens of Byzantine
mosaics are preserved in Italy at Ravenna, so our Latin
treatises concerning the arts are perhaps the best extant for
the early medieval period up to the twelfth century.
*Berthelot (1893), I, 169.
'Merrifield (1849), I, 183. See
also pp. 189-91.
'Ibid., p. 183, "Nil tibi scribo
equidem quod non prius ipse pro-
bassem."
*Ibid., p. 187.
** Traite des Arts Ceramiques, p.
304, cited by Merrifield, I, 177.
This is not, however, to be re-
garded as the invention of lead
glazing, since, as William Burton
writes ("Ceramics" in EB, p. 706),
"lead glazes were extensively used
in Egypt and the nearer East in
Ptolemaic times." He adds, "And
it is significant that, though the
Romans made singularly little use
of glazes of any kind, the pottery
that succeeded theirs, either in
western Europe or in the Byzan-
tine Empire, was generally cov.
ered with glazes rich in lead."
XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS
763
A number of treatises on alchemy in Arabic have reached
us but they, Hke the Byzantine, chiefly continue the fantastic
mysticism and obscurity, the astrology and magic, of the
ancient Greek alchemists. Thus in the Book of Crates we
have a virgin priestess of the temple of Serapis at Alexan-
dria, and the snake Ouroburos, also a vision of the seven
heavens of the planets. The Book of Alhabib invokes
Hermes Trismegistus and says that the sages have not re-
vealed the secret of transmutation for fear of the anger
of the demons. The Book of Ostanes, in which Andalusia
is mentioned, has eighty-four different names for the
philosopher's stone, and a fantastic dream concerning seven
doors and three inscriptions in Egyptian, concerning the
Persian Magi, and a citation from an Indian sage concern-
ing the healing virtues of the urine of a white elephant.
The Book of Like Weights of Geber states that the sage
can discern the mixture of the four elements in animals,
plants, and stones by astrology and many other signs in-
volving varied superstition. His Book of Sympathy again
emphasizes the seven planets as the key to alchemy and
has much about the spirit in matter. His Book on Quick-
silver, although it promises clarity, is the most mystic and
incomprehensible of all. In it we read of raising the dead
and of use of such liquids as "a divine water" and the milk
of an uncorrupted virgin.^
Our Latin treatises are as free from mysticism and
obscurity, from dreams and visions, as they are from theo-
retical discussion. They are collections of recipes and direc-
tions which are supposed at least to be practical and which
are written in a simple and straightforward style. They
are not, however, taken together, by any means entirely
free from astrological directions or belief in occult virtue
or yet other superstition, and they include recipes for making
* For these works see Berthelot medizinischen Societat in Erlan-
(1893), III, or Lippmann (1919), gen, XLIII (1911) ; and his Die
who follows him. I have not had Alchemic bet den Arabern, in
access to E. Wiedemann, Zur Journal fiir praktische Chetme,
Chetnie bei den Arabern, _ in LXXVI (1907), 85-87, 105-:^
Sitziingsberichte der physikalisch-
Character
of Arabic
alchemy.
Different
character
of our
Latin
treatises.
764 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap,
gold. Of this there is least in the first treatise we have to
consider.
Compo- The Compositiones ad tingenda,^ a treatise or collection
fingenda. °^ notes and recipes preserved in a manuscript dating from
the time of Charlemagne, throws some light on the tech-
nical processes preserved in the Latin west in the early
middle ages and on the amount of knowledge of natural
phenomena preserved in connection with the arts, — applied
science in other words. It tells how to color glass and make
mosaics, and describes a glass furnace; how to dye skins
and make parchment; how to make gold-leaf, gold-thread,
silver-leaf and tin-leaf ; how to give copper the color of gold ;
it gives various directions and preparations for painting
and gilding; and a description of various minerals and
herbs employed in the above processes. Much is repeated
that is found already in Pliny and Dioscorides, or in Aris-
totle and the Greek alchemists. But several things are men-
tioned, at least so far as we know, for the first time, al-
though Berthelot believed that the compiler of the Composi-
tiones ad tingenda had copied them from earlier works,
very probably Byzantine or late Roman, and not invented
them himself. We find here the first mention of vitriol
and of "bronze," — a word apparently derived from Brun-
disium. Amor aquae is used for the first time for the scum
formed on waters containing iron salts and other metals,
and we also meet the first instance of the preparation of
cinnabar by means of sulphur and mercury. The work
contains very little superstition with the exception of one
passage which Berthelot has already noted.^ Once a stone
is spoken of as having solar virtue; lead is distinguished
as masculine and feminine; the gall of a tortoise is used
in a composition for writing golden letters, and pig's blood
^ The full title is "Compositiones Lucensium, Arm. I, Cod. L, was
ad tingenda musiva^ pelles et alia, printed in Muratori, Antiquitates
ad deaurandum ferrum, ad min- Italicae, II (1739), 364-87. It is
eralia, ad chrysographiam, ad described by Berthelot (1893), I,
glutina quaedam conficienda, alia- 7-22, whose comparison of it with
que artium documenta." The MS, previous treatises I follow.
Bibliotheca capituli canonicorum 'Berthelot (1888), I, 12. note.
XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS
76s
Mappe
Clavicula,
is employed in another connection. But these are trifling
signs of occult science.
More alchemistic in character is the Mappe Clavicula,^
which, in its fuller twelfth century form, embodies the
Compositiones ad tingenda in a different order,^ and adds
about twice as many more recipes for making gold, making
colors, writing with gold, glues and various other matters,
including building directions. Berthelot regarded two items
instructing how to make images of the gods as signs of an
ancient pagan origin for the work.^ One of these items
occurs in the twelfth century text, the other in the tenth
century table of contents. On the other hand Berthelot
believed that the twelfth century version contained the oldest
directions for the distillation of alcohol.^ The Mappe
Clavicula adds a good deal that is of a superstitious char-
acter to the Compositiones 'ad tingenda which it includes,
and at the same time lays considerable stress upon experi-
mental method.
It opens with a recipe "for making the best gold," the Some of
first of a long series. One of the ingredients in this case 'ts recipes
is "a. bit of moon-earth, which the Greeks call Affroselimtm."
The third recipe advises one to experiment at first with
only a little of the compound in question, until one learns
the process more thoroughly.^ The ingredients for gold-
making in the sixth recipe include the gall of a goat and
of a bull, and saffron from Lycia or Arabia, which is to
be pounded in a Theban mortar in the sun in dog-
days. At the close of the fourteenth recipe, into which
the gall of a bull again enters we have one of the injunc-
tions to secrecy so dear to the alchemist : "Hide the sacred
secret which should be transmitted to no one, nor give to
*Text and some discussion
thereof in Archacologia, XXXII
(1847), 183-244. Analyzed by
Berthelot (1893), I, 23-65. On
the Schlestadt MS of the loth
century, see Giry in Bibliothcque
de l'£cole des Haiites Etudes,
XXXV (1878), 209-27.
' See recipes 105-93.
'Berthelot (1893), I, 57.
* Ibid., 61. Others, however,
would trace the discovery of alco-
hol back to Hippolytus. See
above, p. 468.
' "Accipies ad experimentum
donee primitus discas non multum
cum semel facias."
766
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Question
of sym-
bolic
nomencla-
ture.
anyone the prophetic." ^ It is also implied that alchemy
is a religious or divine art in the twentieth recipe where it is
said that operators should concede all things to divine works.
But such mystic allusions are infrequent as well as brief.
In the same twentieth item gold is supposed to be made from
a mixture of iron rust, magnet, foreign alum, myrrh, gold,
and wine. It is also stated that those who will not credit
the great utility that there is in humors are those who do
not make demonstration for themselves, another instance
of the experimental character of the work. The forty-first
recipe states that gold may be dissolved in order to write
with it by dipping it in the blood of an Indian dragon,
placing it in a glass vessel, and surrounding it with coals.
In the sixty-ninth item the blood of a dragon or of a cock
is mixed with urine and the stone celidonhis. The gall of
a bull and the blood of a pig are used again in recipes sixty-
eight and one hundred and twenty-eight.
It has sometimes been contended, chiefly by persons who
did not realize how universal was the ascription of great
virtue to the parts of animals in ancient and medieval science
and their use as remedies in the medicine of the same pe-
riods, that they are not to be taken literally in alchemical
recipes but are to be understood symbolically and are cryptic
designations for common mineral substances. Thus Berthe-
lot cites a passage from the Latin De anima, ascribed to
Avicenna, which says, "I am going to tell you a secret : the
eye of a man or bull or cow or deer signifies mercury," and
so on.^ But despite what Berthelot goes on to say about the
"old prophetic nomenclature" of the Egyptians, I am in-
clined to think that such symbolism is mainly a refinement
of later alchemists, and that originally most such expres-
sions were intended literally. Certainly it would be impos-
sible to explain all the medicinal use of parts of animals in
Pliny's Natural History as either symbolic or derived from
the Egyptian priests. Like the suggestion that Roger Bacon
*"Absconde sanctum et nulli
tradendum secretum neque alicui
dederis propheta."
'Berthelot (1893), I, 303-4.
XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS
767
wrote in cipher, the symbolic nomenclature theory is based
on the assumption that the men of old concealed great
secrets under an appearance of error. And where such
cryptograms and symbols were employed, it was almost
invariably done, we may be sure, with the object of impress-
ing the reader with an exaggerated notion of the importance
of what was written rather than because the writer really
had any great discovery that he wished to conceal. That
symbolic language was employed by alchemists, especially
in the latest middle age and early modern centuries, is not
to be questioned. The use of the names of the planets for
the corresponding metals is a familiar example. But most
such symbolic nomenclature is equally obvious, while there
is no reason for not taking the use of parts of animals liter-
ally. Indeed, in many passages it must be so taken, as in a
later item of the Mappe Clavicida ^ which has no concern
with alchemy and where in order to poison an arrow for
use in battle, we are instructed to dip it in the sweat from
the right side of a horse between the hip-bones. The fol-
lowing experiments with goats also illustrate the great value
set upon animal fluids and substances.
We are reminded of the directions given by Marcellus Magical
Empiricus for the preparation of goat's blood by a recipe Procedure
for making figures of crystal which occurs near the close
of the Mappe Claviada.^ A he-goat which has never in-
dulged in sexual intercourse is to be shut up in a cask for
three days until he has completely digested everything that he
had in his belly. He is then to be fed on ivy for four days,
at the end of which time he is to be slain and his blood mixed
with his urine which is now collected from the cask. By
soaking the crystal overnight in this mixture it can be
moulded or carved at will. This experiment is immediately
preceded by a somewhat similar procedure for cutting glass
with steel. ^ The glass is to be softened and the steel is to
be tempered by placing them either in the milk of a Saracen
in the
Mappe
Clavicula.
' Item 265.
* Item 290.
' Item 289,
768
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Similar
passages
in Her-
aclius.
And The-
ophilus.
she-goat, who has been fed upon ivy and milked by scratch-
ing her udders with nettles, or in the lotion of a small girl
of ruddy complexion, which must be taken before sunrise.
Very similar passages are found in the works of Hera-
clius and Theophilus, the former of whom gives the follow-
ing directions for glass engraving : "Oh ! all you artists who
wish to engrave glass correctly, now I will show you just as
I myself have proven. I sought the fat worms which the
plow turns up from the earth, and the useful art in such
matters bade me at the same time seek vinegar and the hot
blood of a huge he-goat, which I had taken pains to tie up
under cover and to feed on strong ivy for a while. Next I
mixed the worms and vinegar with the warm blood and
anointed all the bright shining phial. This done, I tried to
engrave the glass with the hard stone called pyrites." ^
In another passage Heraclius recommends the use of the
urine and blood of a goat in engraving gems,^ and he also
states that the blood of a goat makes crystal easier to carve.^
Theophilus states that poets and artificers have greatly
cherished the ivy, "because they recognized the occult
powers which it contains within itself." ^ He also affirms
that the blood of a goat makes crystal easier to carve, but
he recommends the blood of a living goat two or three years
old and repeated Insertion of the crystal in an incision be-
tween the animal's breast and abdomen.^ He also recom-
mends a somewhat similar procedure to that of the Mappe
Clavicula with a goat and a cask. ^ In this case the goat
should be three years old, and after being bound for three
temper it, for this blood makes
^De coloribus et artibus Ro-
manorum, I, iv. I have somewhat
altered Mrs. Merrifield's transla-
tion (I, i86).
'Ibid., I, xi; Mrs. Merrifield
(1849), I, 189-91.
=• Ibid., I, xii :
"Sed vim cristalli cruor antea
temperet hirci
Sanguis enim facilem ferro facit
hie adamantem."
Mrs. Merrifield (I, 194) has in-
correctly rendered this passage,
"But let the blood of a goat first
the iron so hard that even
adamant is soft compared to it."
What Heraclius says is,
"But first let the blood of a he-
goat temper the force of the
crystal.
For this blood makes adamant
soft to the iron."
* Schcdula diversarum artium,
III, 98.
° Ibid., Ill, 94-
Ubid., Ill, 21.
XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS
76Q
days without food should be fed for two days on nothing
but fern. The following night he should be shut up in a
cask with holes in the bottom through which his urine can
be collected in another vessel for two or three nights, when
the goat may be released and the urine employed to temper
iron tools. Or the urine of a small red-headed boy may be
employed, as it is better for tempering than plain water.
Indeed, both Theophilus and Heraclius make much use of
parts of animals in the arts : various animals' teeth to shine
and polish things with, horse dung mixed with clay, skins
and bladders, saliva and ear-wax to polish niello, and so
forth.
Returning to the Mappe Clcwicida we note the employ-
ment of a magic figure called arragah, which Berthelot
thinks is a small lead image.^ By means of it the flow of a
spring may be stopped ; a cup may be made either to retain
or to empty its contents; if the cows drink first from the
trough, there will be enough water for both the cows and
the horses, but if the horses drink first, there will not be
enough for either. The same figure enables one to fill a
pitcher from a cask without diminishing the amount of
liquid in the cask, or to construct a lamp which will pro-
duce phantoms. It also makes soldiers leave their camp
without their spears and yet return with them. After this
flight into the realm of magic we come back to a more
plausibly physical basis for marvels in a description of four
revolving hoops or circles within which a vessel may be re-
volved in any direction without spilling its contents.^
The passages which we have just noted in the Mappe
Cla/mcula cannot be surely traced back earlier than the
twelfth century version of it and do not appear in the table
of contents which is preserved in the tenth century Schle-
stadt manuscript and which covers only a portion of the
chapters of the twelfth century manuscript, but also some
' Berthelot (1893), I, 63. His
French translation omits some of
the Latin text as published in
Archaeologia, cap. 288.
' "Cardan's concentric circles,"
according to Berthelot (1893), I,
A magic
figure.
Use of an
incanta-
tion in
tenth
century
alchemy.
770
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Experi-
mental
character
of the
work of
Theophi-
lus.
How to
make
Spanish
gold.
other chapters which are not extant. But that magic was
not entirely absent from the earlier version to which this
table of contents seems to apply is evidenced by the fact
that one of the chapter headings dealing with the fabrica-
tion of gold mentions a prayer or incantation to be recited
during the process.^
The great importance of the work of Theophilus in the
history of art is too generally recognized to need elabora-
tion here. Our purpose is rather to point out that in it in-
formation of great value is found side by side with a con-
siderable amount of misguided natural theory and magical
ceremony. The stress laid by Theophilus upon personal ob-
servation, experience, and experimental method should not,
however, pass unnoticed. He has scrutinized the works of
art in the church of St. Sophia one by one "with diligent ex-
perience," has tested everything by eye and hand, has as a
"curious explorer" made all sorts of experiments, and ap-
pears to represent transparent stained glass as his own dis-
covery or idea.^ Nor is he the only experimenter; he also
speaks of "modern workmen" who deceive many incautious
persons by their imitation of the appearance of most precious
Arabian gold which "is frequently found employed in the
most ancient vases. ^
Theophilus, however, believes that other metals can
really be transmuted into gold, and we may repeat his amus-
ing account of how Spanish gold "is made from red copper
*Berthelot (1893), I, 55-
'II, prologus (closing passage).
"Huius ergo imitator desiderans
fore, apprehendi atrium agiae
Sophiae conspicorque cellulam
diversorum colorum omnimodo
varietate refertam et monstran-
tem singulorum utilitatem ac
naturam. Quo mox inobservato
pede ingressus, replevi armario-
lum cordis mei sufficienter ex
omnibus, quae diligenti experi-
entia sigillatim_ perscrutatus,
cuncta visu manibusque probata
satis lucide tuo studio commen-
davi absque invidia. Verum
quoniam huiusmodi picturae usus
perspicax non valet esse, quasi
curiosus explorator omnibus
modis elaboravi cognoscere, quo
artis ingenio et colorum varietas
opus decoraret, et lucem diei so-
lisque radios non repelleret. Huic
exercitio dans operam vitri natu-
ram comprehendo, eiusque solius
usu et varietate id effici posse
considero, quod artificium, sicut
visum et auditum didici, studio
tuo indagare curavi." Ilg's Latin
text (1874).
Mil, 47.
XXXIII TREATISES ON THE ARTS 771
and powdered basilisk and human blood and vinegar." "For
the Gentiles, whose skill in this art is well known, create
basilisks in this wise. They have an underground chamber
completely walled in on all sides with stone, and with two
windows so small as scarcely to admit any light. In thig
they put two cocks of twelve or fifteen years and give them
plenty of food. These, when they have grown fat, from
the heat of their fat have commerce together and lay eggs.
As soon as the eggs are laid the cocks are ejected and toads
are put in to sit on the eggs and are fed upon bread. When
the eggs are hatched chicks come forth who look like young
roosters, but after seven days they grow serpents' tails and
would straightway burrow into the ground, were the cham-
ber not paved with stone. Guarding against this, their
masters have round brazen vessels of great amplitude, perfo-
rated on all sides, with narrow mouths, in which they put the
chicks and close the mouths with copper covers and bury
them underground, and the chicks are nourished for six
months by the subtle earth which enters through the perfo-
rations. After this they uncover them and apply a strong
fire until the beasts within are totally consumed. When this
is over and it has cooled off, they remove and carefully pul-
verize them, adding a third part of the blood of a ruddy
man, which blood is dried and powdered. Having com-
pounded these two they temper them with strong vinegar
in a clean vessel ; then they take very thin plates of the purest
red copper and spread this mixture over them on both sides
and place them in the fire. And when they grow white hot,
they take them out and quench and wash them in the same
mixture, and this process they repeat until the mixture has
eaten through the copper, and so obtain the weight and color
of gold. This gold is suited for all operations." ^
Mr. Hendrie held that Theophilus was here describing
in symbolic language a process "for procuring pure gold by
the means of the mineral acids;" and that "the toads of
* I have followed Ilg's rather than Hendrie's text ; III, 48.
172
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The ques-
tion of
symbolic
termi-
nology
again.
Alchemy
in the
eleventh
century.
Theophilus which hatch the eggs are probably fragments of
the mineral salt, nitrate of potash; . . . the blood of a
red man . . . probably a nitrate of ammonia; fine earth, a
muriate of soda (common salt) ; the cocks, the sulphates of
copper and iron; the eggs, gold ore; the hatched chickens,
which require a stone pavement, sulphuric acid produced by
burning these in a stone vessel, collecting the fumes. . . .
The elements of nitro-muriatic acid are all here, the solvent
for gold." ^ Mr. Hendrie leaves, however, a number of de-
tails unexplained and he admits that "Unfortunately each
chemist appears to have varied the symbols in use." Cer-
tainly one would have to vary them in almost every case
to make any sense out of such procedures as this of Theoph-
ilus. On the other hand, there is nothing very surprising
in his procedure taken literally to one who is acquainted
with the beliefs of ancient and medieval science and magic.
And certainly Shakespeare's line concerning the precious
jewel in the toad's head, which Hendrie quotes in this con-
nection, is much more likely to be meant literally than to be
the symbolic "jargon of the alchemist." Later we shall hear
again from Alexander Neckam, in a passage which has no
connection with alchemy, of the basilisk hatched by a toad
from an ^gg laid by a cock, and we shall hear from Albertus
Magnus of an experiment in which a toad's eye was proved
superior in virtue to an emerald.
The treatises which we have been considering appear,
at least for the most part, to antedate the Latin translations
of works of alchemy from the Arabic, although it is pos-
sible that, just as the first translations of mathematical and
astronomical works from the Arabic go back to the tenth
century at least, so the reception of Arabic alchemy may
have begun in a small way before the twelfth century. At
any rate we find that in the eleventh century not only were
Michael Psellus and other Byzantine scholars spreading the
doctrines of alchemy, ^ but a scholium to Adam of Bremen
'Hendrie (1847), pp. 432-3-
'Ernst von Meyer, History of Chemistry, 1906.
XXXIII
TREATISES ON THE ARTS
773
records the presence at the court of Bishop Adalbert of
Bremen of an alchemist in the person of a baptized Jew.^
To St. Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glastonbury, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and statesman of the tenth century
(924 or 925 to 988), is attributed a treatise on the philoso-
pher's stone contained in a Corpus Christi manuscript of
the fifteenth century at Oxford and printed at Cassel in 1649.
No genuine works by him seem to be extant, however, but
it is interesting to note that along with his reputation for
learning and mechanical skill went the association of Jiis
name with magic. In his studious youth he was accused
of magic, driven from court, and thrown into a muddy pond.
His contemporary biographer also narrates how the devil
appeared to him in various animal and other terrifying
forms. His favorite studies were mathematics and music,
and he was said to own a magic harp which played while
hanging by itself on the wall.^
Berthelot has associated the introduction of Arabic al-
chemy into Christian western Europe with the Latin trans-
lation by Robert of Chester of The Book of Moricnus, but
incorrectly dated it in 1182 A. D.,^ whereas the mention of
that date in the manuscripts has reference to the Spanish
era and denotes the year 1144 A. D.^ The main reason for
regarding Robert's translation as one of the earliest is
that he remarks in his preface, "What alchemy is and what
is its composition, your Latin world does not yet know
truly." Of the work translated by Robert we shall treat more
fully in a later chapter on Hermetic Books in the Middle
Ages. Here we may further note the existence of a work
*Migne, PL 146, 583-4. Some
accused the bishop of resort to
magic arts : Ibid., 606.
/W. Stubbs, in RS LXIII, p.
cix. C. L. Barnes, Science m
Early England, in Smithsonian
Report for 1895, p. 732. Of the
alchemy ascribed to Dunstan,
Elias Ashmole remarked in his
Theatrum Chemicum Britanni-
cum, 1652, "He who shall have
the happinass to meet with St-
Dunstan's work De occulta phi-
losophia . . . may therein read
such stories as will make him
amazed to think what stupendous
and immense things are to be per-
formed by virtue of the Philoso-
pher's Mercury, of which a taste
only and no more."
'Berthelot (1893), I, 234.
* Karpinski (1915), pp. 26-30;
Haskins, EHR, XXX (1915),
62-5.
St. Dunstan
and
alchemy
and magic.
Introduc-
tion of
Arabic
alchemy
in the
twelfth
century.
774 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xxxiii
of alchemy in another twelfth century manuscript.^ It is a
brief work in four chapters and its superstitious character
may be inferred from its opening instruction to "take four
hundred hen's eggs laid in the month of March," and its
citation of Artesius concerning divination by the reflection
or refraction of the sun's rays or moon-beams in liquids or
a mirror. Since the treatise bears the title Alchamia, it is
probably safe to assume that it represents Arabic influence.
* Berlin 956, 12th century, "Hie titles of the last three chapters
incipit alchamia. Accipe CCCC are, "de iiii ollis, de cognitione,
ova gauline que generata sunt et de observatione stestarum." I
facta in mense martii .../... have not seen the MS but follow
ut recentiora sint semper et calidi- Rose's description in the Berlin
era. Explicit alchamia." The MSS catalogue.
CHAPTER XXXIV
MARBOD, BISHOP OF RENNES, IO35-II23
Career of Marbod — Relation of his Liber lapidum to the prose
Evax — Problem of Marbod's sources — Influence of the Liber lapidum
— Occult virtue of gems — Liber lapidum meant seriously — De fato ei
genesi.
"Nec duhium cuiquam debet falsumque videri
Quin sua sit gemmis divinitus insita virtus;
Ingens est herbis virtus data, maxima gemmis."
— Marbod, Liber lapidum.
Of medieval Latin Lapidaries the earliest and what also Career of
seems to have been the classic on the subject of the marvel-
ous properties of stones is the Liber lapidum seu de gemmis
by Marbod, bishop of Rennes/ who lived from 1035 to 1123
and so had very likely completed this work before the close
of the eleventh century. Indeed one manuscript of it seems
to date from that century ^ and there are numerous twelfth
century manuscripts. These early manuscripts bear his
name and the style is the same as in his other writings.
Born in the county of Anjou, Marbod attended the church
^ I have used the edition of age, Paris, 1882. C. W. King, The
Marbod's poems in Migne, PL Natural History, Ancient and
vol. 171, which also contains a -Modern, of Precious Stones and
life of Marbod. Two secondary Gems, London, 1865.
accounts of Marbod are C. Ferry, ^ CLM 23479, nth century, fols.
De Marbodi Rhedonensis Episcopi 4-10, Carmina de lapidibus eadem
vita et carminibus, Nemansi, quae Marbodo tribuuntur sed alio
1877; L. V. E. Ernault, Marbode, ordine. Of CUL 768, 15th cen-
£veque de Rennes, Sa vie et ses tury, fols. 67-80, "Marbodi liber
CEuvres, in Bull, et Mem. de la lapidum," the Catalogue says,
Societe Archeologique du dept. "This Latin poem has been often
d'llle-et-Vilaine, XX, 1-260, printed but it does not appear that
Rennes, 1889. See also V. Rose, the editors have collated this MS.
Aristoteles De Lapidibus und The order of the sections is differ-
Arnoldus Saxo, in Zeitsch. f. ent from all those of which Beck-
deutsches Alterthum, XVIII mann speaks in his edition (Got-
(187s), p. 321, et seq.; L. Pannier, tingen, 1799), answering, however,
Les lapidaires fran^ais du moycn most nearly to his own."
775
71^
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Relation
of the
Liber
tapidum to
the prose
Evax.
school there, became the schoolmaster himself from 1067
to 1 08 1, during which time he probably composed the Liher
lapidutn, then served as archdeacon under three successive
bishops, and finally himself became a bishop in 1096. He
attended church councils in 1103 and 1104 and died in Sep-
tember, 1 123, in an Angevin monastery, whose monks is-
sued a eulogistic encyclical letter on that occasion, while
two archdeacons celebrated his integrity, learning, and elo-
quence in admiring verse. Marbod's own productions are
also in poetical form. It is interesting to note that despite
his early date he was eulogized not as a lone man of letters
in an uncultured age but as "the king of orators, although
at that time all Gaul resounded with varied studies."
The Liber lapidum is a Latin poem of 734 hexameters
describing sixty stones. In the opening lines Marbod writes :
"Evax, king of the Arabs, is said to have written to Nero,
Who after Augustus ruled next in the city.^
How many the species of stones, what names, and what
colors,
From what regions they came, and how great the power
of each one."
Making use of this worthy book, Marbod has decided to
compose a briefer account for himself and a few friends
only, believing that he who popularizes mysteries lessens
their majesty. As a result of this opening line and the fact
that in some manuscripts Marbod's own name is not given,
his poem is sometimes listed in the catalogues as the work
of Evax.^ There is also, however, extant a work in Latin
*The full name of Tiberius
was, of course, Tiberius Claudius
Nero Caesar.
" Library of Dukes of Bur-
gundy 8890, I2th century, Evacis
regis. BN 2621, 12th and 15th
centuries, #6, Poemation de gem-
mis cuius author dicitur Evax,
Rex Arabiae.
Montpellior 277, Liber lapidum
preciosorum Evax rex Arabum.
Riccard. 1228, 12th century, fols.
41-54; Incipit prologus Evacis
regis Arabic ad Neronem Ty-
berium de lapidibus. Incipit lapi-
darius Evacis habens nomina
gemmarum Ix.
BL Hatton 76 contains two let-
ters of Evax, king of the Arabs,
to Tiberius Caesar, on the virtues
of stones, according to Cockayne
(1864), I. xc and Ixxxiv.
XXXIV MARBOD jjy
prose which opens, "Evax, king of Arabia, to the emperor
Tiberius greeting." ^ But as this prose work is not much
longer than Marbod's poem, and seems to be known only
from a single manuscript of the fourteenth century, it is
doubtful if it is the work which he professed to abbreviate.
This prose work is also ascribed to Amigeron or Dami-
geron,^ to whom we have already seen that the author of
Lithica was supposed to be indebted and whose name was
regarded as that of a famous magician. After alluding to
the magnificent gifts which the emperor had sent to Evax
by the centurion Lucinius Fronto and offering this book in
return, the author of the prose version lists seven stones ap-
propriate, not, strangely enough, to the seven planets, but to
seven of the signs of the zodiac.^ Fifty chapters are then
devoted to as many stones, beginning with Aetites, which
is twenty-fifth in Marbod's list, and ending with Sardo,
while Sardiiis comes tenth in Marbod's poem. Marbod's
own order, however, sometimes varies in the manuscripts.*
King, and Rose after him, asserted '^ that despite Marbod's Problem
professed abridgement of a work which Evax was supposed Marbod's
to have presented to Tiberius, he drew largely from Isidore sources.
of Seville's Etymologies. Rose thought that some of the
descriptions of stones were from Solinus, the rest from
Isidore, but that the account of their virtues was from Evax.
King also noted occasional extracts from the Orphic work,
Lithica, which is not surprising in view of the fact that both
Evax and the Lithica seem based on Damigeron. This
question of sources and ultimate origins is, however, as usual
of relatively little moment to our investigation. My own
impression would be that in antiquity and the middle age
* Printed by J. B. Pitra, III that this may be derived from
(1855), 324-35- Marbod rather than even from
^ BN 7418, 14th century, fol. the earlier and fuller work which
116-, (D)amigeronis peritissimi he is supposed to have used.
de lapidibus. Since this is the ^ Namely, Leo, Cancer, Aries,
sole MS known of the prose ver- Sagittarius, Taurus, Virgo, and
sion (Rose, 1875, p. 326) and is Capricorn,
of the 14th century, whereas we * See page 775, note 2.
have numerous early MSS of ° King (1865), p. 7; Rose (1875),
Marbod's poem, it would seem p. 335.
778
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Influence
of the
Liber
lapidum.
Occult
virtue
of gems.
there exists a sort of common fund of information and
stock of beliefs concerning gems which naturally is drawn
upon and appears in every individual treatise upon them.
But the number of gems discussed and the order in which
they are considered or classified varies with each new author,
and there is apt to be a similar variation in the number of
statements made concerning any particular stone and the
way in which these are arranged. In fine, all ancient and
medieval accounts of the natures and virtues of stones bear a
general resemblance to one another which is more impressive
than is the similarity between any two given accounts, and
testify to a consensus of opinion and to a common learned
tradition concerning gems which is more significant than the
possible borrowings of individual authors from one another.
However, there seems to be little doubt that the poem of
Marbod is itself an outstanding work among medieval ac-
counts of precious stones, first because of the early date of
its authorship, and second because of its late persistence and
popularity, which is indicated by the fourteen editions that
appeared after the invention of printing.^ Its convenient
form perhaps accounts to a considerable extent for its popu-
larity. At any rate the manuscripts of it are numerous, and
it was much used by subsequent writers of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, although citations of Lapidaritis cannot
always be assumed to refer to Marbod. But at least the no-
tions concerning gems which we find in his poem are a fair
sample of what we should find in any Latin treatment of
the same subject for several centuries to come. It is found
also in a medieval French version.
It does not make much difference where we begin or
what stones we select from Marbod's list as examples, since
the same sort of marvelous powers are ascribed to all of
them. In his prologue Marbod describes the occult virtues
of gems as those "whose hidden cause gives manifest ef-
fects." No one should doubt them or think them false,
* Ferry (1887), p. 69.
XXXIV MARBOD 779
"since the virtue in gems is divinely implanted. Enormous
virtue is given to herbs, but the greatest to gems."
Adamant, hard as it is, cracks when heated v^ith goat's
blood. It counteracts the action of the magnet. It is used
in the magic arts and makes its bearer indomitable. It
drives off nocturnal specters and idle dreams. It routs black
venom, heals quarrels and contentions, cures the insane, and
repels fierce foes.
Allectory, found inside cocks, slakes thirst. Milo over-
came other athletes, and kings have won battles by its aid.
It restores promptly those who have been banished, enables
orators to speak with a flow of language, makes one welcome
on every occasion, and endears a wife to her husband. It
is advised to carry it concealed in the mouth.
The sapphire nourishes the body and preserves the limbs
whole. Its bearer, who should be most chaste, cannot be
harmed by fraud or envy and is unmoved by any terror. It
leads those in bonds from prison. It placates God and makes
Him favorable to prayers. It is good for peace-making and
reconciliation. It is preferred to other gems in hydromancy,
since prophetic responses can be obtained by it. As for
medicinal qualities, it cools internal heat, checks perspiration,
powdered and applied with milk it heals ulcers, cleanses the
eyes, stops headache, and cures diseases of the tongue.
Gagates, worn as an amulet, benefits dropsy; diluted
with water, it prevents loose teeth from falling out ; fumiga-
tion with it is good for epileptics and it is thought to be
hostile to demons ; it remedies indigestion and constipation
and overcomes magical illusions (praestigia) and evil incan-
tations. Also
Per suffumigium mulieri menstrua reddit
Et solet, ut perhibent, deprehendere virginitatem.
Praegnans potest aquam triduo qua mersus habetur
Quo vexabatur partum cito libera fundit.
Gagates burns when washed with water ; is extinguished by
anointing it with olive oil
78o
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Liber
lapidum
was meant
to be
taken
seriously.
The magnet is especially used in the illusions of magic.
The great Deendor is said to have first used it, realizing
that there was no more potent force in magic, and after him
the famous witch Circe employed it. Among the Medes ex-
perience revealed still further virtues of the stone. It is
used to test a wife's chastity while she is sleeping; if she
is unchaste, she will fall out of bed when the gem is applied
to her head. A burglar can commit theft unmolested by
sprinkling it over hot coals and so driving away all the oc-
cupants of the house.
In the case of Chelonitis Marbod's account is very simi-
lar to that in Pliny's Natural History,^ citing the Magi for
the power of divination it bestows when carried under the
tongue at certain times of the moon, according to whose
phases its power varies. Of the gems hitherto described only
in the case of adamant and gagates was there any resem-
blance between Marbod and Pliny and there only partial.
Pliny also briefly states that the stone diadochos re-
sembles beryl, but does not have Marbod's statements that it
is employed in water divination to show varied images of
demons, "nor is there other stone stronger to evoke shades."
But if by chance it comes in contact with a corpse, it loses
its wonted force, since the stone is sacred and abhors dead
bodies.^
The vast powers, not only medicinal and physical, but
of divination and magic, over the mind and affections, mirac-
ulous and supernatural, even over God, as in the statement
that the sapphire can be employed to secure a more favor-
able answer to prayer, which Marbod assigns to gems with-
out a sign of scruple or scepticism or disapproval on his
part, have so shocked some moderns that suggestions have
been made, in order to explain away the acceptance of talis-
manic powers of gems to such a degree by a Christian clerj^-
man who became a bishop, that Marbod must have com-
* NH XXXVI, 56. Pliny, how-
ever, makes these statements
about chelonia and not chelonitis
which follows it.
'The stones which I have taken
as examples are numbers 1, 3, 5,
18, 19, 39, and 57 respectively.
XXXIV MARBOD 781
posed his poem when quite young and lived to repent it, or
that he regarded it merely as a poetical flight and exercise,
not as an exposition of scientific fact. But wherefore then
was it not only widely read in the literary twelfth century
but also widely cited as an authority in the scientific and
equally Christian thirteenth century? No; everyone else
took it precisely as Marbod meant it, as a serious statement
of the marvelous powers which had been divinely implanted
in gems. And why should not God be more easily reached
through the instrumentality of gems, since He had endowed
them with their marvelous virtues? Marbod affirms his
own faith in the great virtues of gems not only at the be-
ginning but the close of his poem, stating that while some
have doubted the marvelous properties attributed to them,
this has been due to the fact that so many imitation gems
are made of glass, which deceive the unwary but of course
lack the occult virtues of the genuine stones. If the stones
are genuine and duly consecrated, the marvelous effects will
without a doubt follow. d f t
Marbod's belief in the almost boundless talismanic vir- genesi.
tues of gems is thrown into the higher relief by the fact
that in another of his poems he makes an attack upon ge-
nethlialogy or the prediction of the entire life of the individ-
ual from the constellations at his birth. In De fato et genesi
he writes against "the common notion" (opinio vidgi) that
all things are ruled by fate, that the hour of nativity con-
trols man's entire life, and the contention of the mathematici
that the seven planets control not only the external forces
with which man comes in contact but also human character.
He objects to such a doctrine as that, when Venus and Mars
appear in certain relations to the sun, the babe born under
that constellation will be destined to commit incest and adul-
tery in later life. He objects that such beliefs destroy all
the foundations of morality, law, and future reward or
punishment; contends that there are certain races which
never commit adultery or crime, yet have the same seven
planets; and argues that since Jews are all circumcised on
782 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap, xxxiv
the eighth day, they should all have the same horoscope.
These are familiar contentions, at least as old as Bardesanes.
Marbod declares further that the astrological writer, Firmi-
cus, employs "infirm arguments," and that his own horo-
scope, taken according to Firmicus' methods and interpreted
likewise, turned out to be false, "as I proved when once I
dabbled in that art." This is interesting as showing that
Gerard of York ^ was not the only bishop of the eleventh
century who was acquainted with the work of Julius Firmi-
cus Maternus, and that even opponents of astrology are apt
to have once been dabblers in it. Marbod concludes his
poem with this neat turn :
"I thought I ought to write these lines briefly against
genethlialogy.
Nevertheless, that I may not seem to repel fate and horo-
scope utterly,
I assert that my fate is the Word of the supreme Father,
By Whom should all things be ruled and all men confess ;
And I say that the computation of my constellation is
innate in me
And the liberty by which I can tend whither I will.
Therefore, if my will shall be in conjunction with reason
In the sign of the Balances with Christ regarding me,
All things will turn out prosperously for me here and
everywhere : —
This is the favorable horoscope of all Christ's followers."
*See above, chapter 29, page 689.
GENERAL INDEX
Names of men of learning will be found for the most part in the
bibliographical index.
Aaron, 357, 379, 464, 507
Abacus, 698, 704
Abbreviation, 135, 500, 624
Abdomen, diseases of, 577
Abimelech, 399
Abortion, 61, 94
Abraham the patriarch, astrology
and science of 350, 353, 355, 411,
703 ; magic use of name of, 437,
449, 726
Abraxas, 371, 379
Abrotonum, an herb, 495
Abscess, 93
Abstinence from animal food, 295,
308, 314
Academy, the, 268, 270, 602
Accusation of magic against, Gal-
en, 125, 165-7; alchemists, 194;
Apuleius, 222, 232-40; ApoUoni-
us of Tyana, 246; the emperor
Julian, 318; Jews, 337, 436-9;
Christ and Christians, 337, 383,
395-6, 415, 424, 433, 436-9, 463,
465, 50s; pagans, 415; philoso-
phers, 416; heretics, 415, 424;
Origen, 461 ; Priscillian, 380-1,
519-20; Libanius, 538; Bede,
635 ; Gerbert, 704-5 ; Constan-
tinus Af ricanus, 744, 755 ; Dun-
stan, 773
Achilles, ghost of, 264; master of,
597
Aconite, 74, 171
Acorn, 740
Acoustics, 185
Acron, 56
Adalbert, bishop of Bremen, 773
Adam, first man, 68r
Adamant, 81, 294, 636; swords of,
253, 258 ; breakable by goat's
blood, 56, 85, 511, 588, 779; by
lead, 657
Adder, 279, 721
Adopai, 365, 367, 451, 583, 726
Adrianaion, 434
Adultery, discovery of, 364, 644 |
783
Advertising, 186
Aeetes, 329
Aegina, 86, 301
Aelian, a consul, 262
Aemilianus, 224
Aeon, 363-4, 378, 383, 411
Aerimancy or Aeromancy, 344, 629
Aesculapius, shrine of, 283, 329,
379; and see other index
Aetites, a gem, 257, 329, 330, 581,
777
Affroselinum, 765
Agate, 294, 721
Agathodaemon, 173, 292, 379, 587,
661 ; and see other index
Aglaides, 431
Aglaonice, 203
Agnus castus, an herb, 756
Agnus Dei, 72,7
Agricultural magic, 21, 70, 79-80,
93-4, 216, 219, 294, 604-S, 626
Ague, 536
Air, importance of pure, 142, 151 ;
pressure of, 188; experiments
with, 190-2; and continuity of
universe, 206 ; star in, 478
Albicerius, 518
Alchemy, Egyptian, 12-3; Greek,
59. 131, 193-200, 320, 544-5, 764;
Pliny, 81, 193 ; Arabic and Latin,
chap, xxxiii, 368, 398, 649, 663-4,
669-70, 697, 757, 772>
Alcmaeon, 324
Alcohol, 468, 765
Alcoholism, 253
Alexander the Great, chap, xxiv,
186, 496, 602; and see other in-
dex
Alexander of Abonutichus, 277-8
Alexander V, pope, 106
Alexandria, as a center of an-
cient learning, 27, 39, 48, 105,
109, 123, 145, 187, 224, 291, 318,
348, 449, 541, 552, 763; dissection
at, 147; measures of, 144; rela-
tions with India, 245; in the
784
GENERAL INDEX
p s e u d o - Clementine Homilies,
404, 408
Alexandrina, golden, 739
Alexandrinus Olympius, 300
Alive, taken from, 580, 591 ;
burned, see Crab
Allectory, a gem, 779
Allegory and allegorical interpre-
tation, in alchemy, 195-8; of the
Bible, 350, 479, 484, 633; in zo-
ology, 396, 500, 502 ; miscellane-
ous, 545, 626; and see Symbol-
ism
Almanac, 318
Almond, 78
Aloaeus, see Eloeus
Alphabet in magic and divination,
197, 370. 380, 592, 664, 711; and
see Vow^el
Alphabetical order, 166, 176, 606,
610
Alpheus, river, 102
Altar, 80, 239, 295, 378
Alum, 765
Amazons, 114, 564, 603
Ambassador, see Embassy
Amber, 49, 213
American Indians, 16-17
Amiantus, a gem, 81, 213
Ammon, the god, 546, 553, 561-2
Ammon (or, Hammon), King of
Egypt, 291
Ammonia, 571
Amnael, an angel, 195
Amor aquae, 764
Amulet, Egyptian, 10; in Pliny,
70, 77, 81, 85, 87, 89, 92; in Ga-
len, 166, 172-3, 176; in Plutarch,
204, 294; Gnostic, 380; Aris-
totle represented as an adept in,
563 ; post-classical and early
medieval medicine, 572, 580, 755 ;
Arabic, 655-6; and see Ligatures
and suspensions
Amusements, ancient, 137, 486
Anaesthetics, 142, 626
Anastasius, Pope, 461
Anatomy, of Galen, 145-51 ; Em-
pirics hostile to, 157; of Rasis,
668
Andrew, St., legend of, 435
Andronicus, the prefect, 542
Anemone, 65
Angel, see Spirit
Angitia, 329
Anglo-Saxon, manuscripts, chap,
xxix, 597, 612-3; medicine, chap,
xxxi
Angobatae, 188
Animal, incapable of magic, 4; in
early Greek religion, 23 ; habits,
intelligence, jealousy, and reme-
dies employed by, 26, 57, 73-5,
217-8, 254, chap, xii, 460, 490,
574, 626; use of parts of, 11, 20,
67-70, 75-6, 87, 133, 167, 229, 587,
606, 721, 740, 755, 766; living in
fire, 240; sacred, 311; minute,
27s; in art, 502; breeding and
horoscopes of, 516; and see
Abstinence from animal food,
Gods, Language, Sculpture,
Transformation, and the names
of individual animals
Anise, 229
Annacus, king, 340
Annunciation, 263
Anonymity, 133, 728
Ant, 71-2, 75, 81, 98, 329, 331 ; In-
dian, 636
Anthemius of Tralles, 575
Anthropology, 300
Anthropos, Gnostic, 380
Antichrist, 417
Antidote, 130, 154, 253, 441, 494
Antimony, 735
Antioch, 254, 296, 404, 421, 428,
431, 472, 662, 747
Antipathy, 84, 173, 213, 217, 219,
239, 581, 605
Antiphon, an interpreter of omens,
562
Antipodes, 219, 480-I
Antiscia, 537
Anubion, 420
Ape, 148, 256; and see Cynoceph-
alus
Apelles the painter, 55
Apollo, 23, 93, 212, 253, 294, 317,
326, 371, 429, 735
Apollobeches, 58
Apollonius of Tyana, chap, viii,
165, 244, 288, 295, 390, 435, 465
Apoplexy, 536
Apothecary, 84, 129
Apparatus, magical, 28, 190; and
see Magic, materials
Apparition, 66, 68, 204, 208, 215,
437-8, 455, 496, 509-10, 779; and
see Spirit
Appion, 419-20; and see Apion in
other index
Appius, friend of Cicero, 270
Applied science, ancient, chap, v,
408; early medieval, chap, xxxiii
Aquila, disciple of Peter, chap.
xvii
Aquileia, 124
GENERAL INDEX
785
Arab, Arabia, and Arabic, early
poetry, 6 ; drugs and spices
from, 84, 129, 765; Apollonius of
Tyana in, 261, 295 ; magic of,
280; home of the Magi, 476;
learning, 2\,iZ9, I74, 189, 578,
chaps, xxviii, xxx, xxxii ; and
see Middle Ages, Translations
Arcadia, 214, 249, 283
Archiater, 125, 161, 536
Architecture, 122, chap, v
Archon, see Spirit
Arcturus, 331, 636
Arena, 133, 147; and see Gladiator
Areobindus, a consul, 607
Arethusa, 102
Argemon, an herb, 79
Ariolus, 629
Aristochia, an herb, 615
Arithmetic, 126, 319, 619, 628,
704
Armenian, 351, 374, 497, 554
Arms and armor, 344
Aromatics, 311 ; and see Spice, Un-
guent
Arrow, extracted, 756; poisoned,
767
Art and the Arts, magic and, 6,
28; standards of, 187, 407; early
medieval, chap, xxxiii ; and see
Artisan and the names of vari-
ous arts
Artemis Tauropolos, 429
Artemisia, 89
Artery, 147
Artisan, 482, 486
Aruspex, see Haruspex
Asbestos, 213-4, 434
Ascension, of Romulus, 274; of
Simon Magus, 422
Ascetic, see Monasticism
Asclepius, a god,_253, 277, 546, 735;
and see other index
Ash, tree, 86
Ashes, reduced to, 68, 80, 91, 170,
57 1 -4, 581, 586-8, 590, 721
Ashthroat, an herb, 722
Asp, 57, 85, 324, 494, 571, 580, 587,
626
Asparagus, 599
Asphalt, 132, 574
Asphodel, 88
Ass, 76, 88, 230, 275, 326, 367, 734,
740
Assurbanipal, 15, 27
Assyria, magic of, 11, 15-20, 58,
295, 629; bibliography, 33-5
Astanphaeus, 365, 367
Asthma, 76
Astral theology, 15, 17, 360-1 ; and
see Astrology, Star
Astrolabe, 115, 501, 542, 559, chap,
xxx, 728
Astrological medicine, 179, 575,
633, 738
Astrology, chaps, iii, ix, xi, xv,
xxix, xxx; also, Egyptian, 13-4;
Sumerian or Chaldean, 15-7, and
see Chaldean; Greek, 22, 25-6;
Pliny, 91, 94-7; popular Roman,
127, 285; Galen, 127, 166, 178;
Greek philosophy and, 180-1 ;
Vitruvius, 184-5, 187; Hero, 193;
alchemy and, 197; Plutarch, 207,
209; Apuleius, 231, 239-40;
Brahmans, 253 ; Lucian, 282-3 ;
Nechepso, Petosiris, and Mane-
tho, 292-3; Solinus, 330; Hora-
pollo, 333; Hermes, 290-2;
Enoch, 340-1 ; Philo Judaeus and
Jevk'ish, 353-6; Pseudo-Clement,
410-3 ; church fathers, 444, 455-
8, 464, 466, 471-5, 492; Augus-
tine, 513-21; Firmicus, 529-38;
Pseudo-Quintilian, 540; Syne-
sius, 543; Nectanebus, 560-3;
Alexander of Tralles, 583 ; Her-
barium of Apuleius, 598; Geo-
ponica, 604-5; Boethius, 621-2;
Isidore, 632-3 ; Arabic, 644-52,
661-6, 670; Salernitan, 738; Con-
stantinus Africanus, 756; Mar-
bod, 781-2; alchemy and, 76^',
magic and, 300, 432, 464, 538,
540; and see Christ, birth of;
Image; Magi; Planet; Star
Astronomy, of Egypt, 13, 542, 545,
559; Tigris-Euphrates, 15-6, 34;
India, 31; Greek, 31-2; benefits
of, 47, 96 ; of Ptolemy, 105, 107 ;
and architecture, 122, 185 ; his-
tory of, 366, 707 ; miscellaneous,
219, 395, 520, 536, 663, 704
Atavism, 141
Atheism, 234
Athens, 28, 95, 142, 217, 230, 249,
429; as center of learning, 135,
200, 222, 242, 269, 277, 538, 541,
602
Athlete, 186, 248, 486
Atlas, Mt., 54
Atom, Atomic theory, Atomism,
140, 169, 178. 205, 408
Attalus, king of Pergamum, 135,
171
Attalus III, 236
Augury, in Assyria, 17; Rome, 95;
Seneca, 103; Galen, 171; denied
786
GENERAL INDEX
by Atomists, 178; accepted by
Stoics, 180; Neo-PIatonists, 315;
Jews and early Christians on,
352, 458-9, 466, 511, 513, 534, 630;
miscellaneous, 560, 629, 673, 705
Auspices, 430, 629
Authority and Authorities, attitude
to, citation by, Pliny, 46, 49, 75 ;
Ptolemy, 107; Galen, 118, 152-
8, 167; Vitruvius, 186-7; Zosi-
mus, 198; bogus, 215; Cicero,
270; Solinus, 327-8; Hippoly-
tus, 469; Firmicus, 537; Aeti-
us, 570; Marcellus, 585-6; me-
dieval freedom with, 611; Ma-
cer, 614; Isidore, 624-5; Petro-
cellus, 734; miscellaneous, 32,
215, 778
Automaton, 188, 192, 230, 440
Axle-grease, 92
Baal, priest of, 386
Babel, 453
Babylon and Babylonia, 11, 14-21,
23-4, 31, 33-5, 95, 97, 227, 239,
247-8, 266, 283, 360-1, 376, 383-4,
414, 527, 537, 652, 661, 744
Bagdad, 661-2, 667, 744, 762
Balaam, prophet or magician ? 267,
352-3, 385, 445-8, 459; and the
Magi, 385, 444, 474, 479, 519
Balach or Balak, 447
Baldness, 536
Balis, an herb, 75
Balsam, 392, 738
Baptism, 368, 373, 405, 408, 432
Barbarians, 148, 376, 445, 449, 619,
638
Barbarossa, see Frederick I
Barber, 229
Barcelona, 699
Barefoot, 599
Barley, 88; water, 143
Baroptenus, a gem, 81
Barrocus, an herb, 615
Basilica at Fano, 187
Basilides, the heretic, 372
Basilisk, 67, 70, 75, 169, 494, 573,
603, 626, 636 ; and cock, 324, 771
Basilius the magician, 639
Basin, 560
Bat, 68-9, 159, 331, 587
Bath, 142-3, 281, 587, 676, 729;
public, 140, 295, 434-5 ; sea, 231-
2, 405
Battle predicted, 275
Bayeux Tapestry, 502, 675
Bean, 591
Bear, 75, 92, 219, 367, 490; licks
cubs into shape, 168, 177, 331;
constellation of the, 179
Beard, 416
Beast, name of the, 582
Beasts, wild, 216, 229, 564, 669;
dealers in, 133
Beauty, 300, 4^
Beaver, 502, 636; castration of,
^d,-^, 332, 574
Bed-bug, 68, 85, 89, 175
Bee, 76, 85, 219, 615, 636, 721 ; and
see Honey
Beech tree, 213
Beetle, 81, 219, 581
Behbit el-Hagar, 559
Behemoth, 346-7, 367
Bektanis, 559
Bell, church, 722
Bellerophon, 282
Bell's palsy, 738
Belt, see Girdle
Bemarchius, rival of Libanius, 538
Berenice, 463, 558
Beryl, 780
Bethlehem, star of, see Christ,
birth of; Magi, who came to
Christ child
Betony, 77, 86, 7Z7
Bibliography, of Pliny, 46, 215;
Isidore, 623; Peter the Deacon,
746
Bile, 171, 177
Bird, 73, 78, 80, 201, 218, 236, 325,
460, 544 ; rite of strangling, 301 ;
mechanical, 192, 266; and see
Augury and the names of indi-
vidual birds
Birth-control, 94
Birth-mark, 713
Bishop, 542
Bishopwort, 722
Bitumen, 571, 574, 603
Bituminous trefoil, 175
Black, 68, 175, 582, 591
Bladder, 536, 599, 769
Bleeding, 75, 125, 141-2, 162, 177,
576, 676, 679, 681, 684-s, 688,
724, 728, 735, 737-8
Blind, 536, 590
Blood, miraculous, 231 ; human,
use of, 61, 102, 175, 227, 581,
603, 629, 721 ; human, and the
moon, 98, 146, 391 ; circulation
of, 409, 430 ; of various animals
used, 86-7, 89, 131, 159, 166, 17s,
587, 590, 727, 729, 737, 7(^-7;
and see Adamant, Bleeding,
Hemorrhage
Blotch, 640
GENERAL INDEX
787
Boar, 69, 92, 580, 599
Boethus, 134
Boil. 88
Bones, stuck in throat, 71, 583 ;
number in body, 2)7^ ; prehis-
toric, 407 ; use of, 573, 583. 656
Book, trade in Roman empire, 134-
5 ; magic, 432, 435, 472, 505, 705 ;
loss of, 752
Bordeaux, 568
Borellus, duke, 704
Botany, 20, 65, 129, 343, 463; and
see Herb
Box, 229, 250
Boy, in divination and magic, 81,
239, 249, 416-9, 463; and peony,
173
Bracelet, 81, 89
Brahmans, 248-54, 258, 266, 376,
407, 410, 412, 450-1, 556, 564
Brain, center of nervous system,
145-6 ; cavities of, 659-60, 735 ;
inflammation of, 536; of various
animals used, see names of in-
dividual animals
Bread, 89, 424 ; blessing and break-
ing, 727
Breastplate of high priest, 495
Breath and breathing, 134, 146,
207, 658
Brindisi, 764
Britain and Briton, 59, 141, 206-7,
376, 489
Bronze, 764
Buddha, 251
Bugloss, viper's, an herb, 722
Buglossa, an herb, 615
Bull, 79, 86, 168, 261, 367, 599, 765-
6; tamed by fig-tree, 77, 213, 2,Z^,
626
Bulrush, 92
Buprestis, 77, 494
Burial, magic, 69-70, 80, 88, 662,
666; alive, 421
Burned to death, 433, 571, 639
Business, 97, 107, 128, 248, (£6;
early Christian attitude to, 494
Butter, 154, 721-2
Byzantine, 189, 194-5, Z^t,, 398, 482,
555, 569, 607, 72,2, 745, 761-2
Cabbage, 86, 175
Cabbala, 7, 365
Caesarea, 404-6
Cairo, 8
Calchas, 271
Calculus, 536
Calendar, 13-4, 327, 345, 676, 686,
712
Calf, 150, 571
Caligula, emperor, 193, 349
Caliph, 607, 653, 670, 745
Canwleon, 600; and see Cha-
meleon
Camel, 396, 62,6
Campus Martius, 424-5
Canal, Isthmian, 262
Candelabrum, 380
Candle, magic, 87, 380, 385, 469
Candlestick, seven-branched, 385,
676
Cannibal, 61-2, 573
Canute, king, 351
Carolingian, 616, 635
Carpenter, 393
Carpesium, a drug, 132
Carpocrates, a heretic, 371
Cart rut, 81, 88-91, 721
Carthage, 222, 269, 553, 744
Carton, 129
Carystus, 213
Cask, 767-8
Caspian Sea, 489
Castoria, 739
Cat, 68, 636
Cataract, in eye, 175, 729
Catarrh, 82, 88-9, 142, 176
Caterpillar, 80
Cathedral, 501-2, 761
Catochites, a gem, 330
Caul of an ox, 469
Cauldron, 468
Cauterization, 536, 723
Cecrops, 415
Cedar, 20
Celidonius, see Swallow-stone
Celt and Celtic, 245, 567-8, 722,
732
Cemetery, 434
Cenchrea, 136
Centaur, 603 ; and see Chiron in
other index
Centipede, 76, 494, 587
Cerberus, 280
Ceremonial, Egypt, 10 ; Assyria,
18, 20; Pliny, 64, 69, 71, 77-82,
90; Apuleius, 230, 235; Orphic,
295 ; rite of strangling birds,
301 ; Gnostic, 378 ; Marcellus,
590-2 ; Arabic, 663 ; medieval
medicine, 726; and see Herb,
plucking of ; Spirit, invocation
of ; etc.
Chalcite, 132
Chaldean (mostly mere mentions
of), 16-7, 98, 102, 185, 201, 230,
239, 250, 253, 272-4, 279, 281, 287,
316, 323, 353, 375-6, 380, 399, 430,
788
GENERAL INDEX
444, 456, 469, 476, 479, 519, 560,
632, 703, 711,744
Chalkydri, 347
Cham, see Ham
Chameleon, 62, 175, 581
Chance, experience, 36, 75, 156,
172, 754; and fate, 210
Chaplet, 295
Characters, magic use of, 229, 257,
314, 317, 512, 579, 592-3, 604,
630, 645, 654, 724-30
Charicles, 232
Chariot, 423
Charlatan, 668-9; and see Old-
wives
Charlemagne, 214, 556, 672, 764
Charon, 277
Chastisements, 204
Chastity, 78, 81, 83, 204, 216, 295,
308, 326, 564, 581, 588, 590, 599,
799-80; and see Virgin
Cheese, 142, 325, 509
Chelidonia and Chelidonius, see
Swallow-wort and Swallow-
stone
Chelonitis, a gem, 780
Chemical and Chemistry, 132-40,
467-9; and see Alchemy
Chick, 76, 754, 771 ; Aristotle on
embryology of, 30, 146
Chickpea, 88
Child-bearing and Child-birth, y6,
78, 84, 87, 92, 94, 102, 175, 177,
216, 253, 260, 295, 325, 496, 581,
68s, 713, 726, 738, 740; forma-
tion of child in womb, 150, 545,
557, 757; child born after eight
months dies, 181, 356, 757;
monstrous birth, 627 ; and see
Abortion, Birth-control
Chimaera, 367
China and Chinese, 6-7, 214; and
see Seres
Chiromancy, 386
Chneph or Chnuphis, 379
Chrism, 738
Christ, 137-9, 243, 363, 379, 386,
404-S, 422, 510, 527, 529, 620,
674-5, 782 ; accused of magic, see
Accusation ; birth of, and astrol-
ogy, 386, 438, 457, 464, 471-9,
703 ; birth, virgin, 460 ; child,
chap, xvi, 390; power of name
of, 434, 452, 466, 638-9, 72s, 729-
30
Christian and Christianity, Book
II, passim; 137, 139, 207, 275-6,
285, 296, 298, 306, 312, 320, 327,
554, 568, 584, 602, chap, xxvii,
642, 715; and see Religion,
Theology
Christmas, 678
Chronology, 135, 209, 624, 711;
and see Calendar
Church fathers, Book II, passim;
180, 225, 241, 302, 618
Cicada, 169
Cinaedia, 590
Cinnabar, 626, 761, 764
Cinnamon, 129-30, 256
Circe, 21, 65, 324, 434, 509, 629
Circle, magic, 78, 86-7, 91, 197, 281,
366, 599; squaring the, 706;
Cardan's concentric, 769
Circumcision, 449, 475, 781
Circus, 295, 486
City, fortune of, predicted, 273,
283 ; ancient, 489, 504 ; ideal, 349-
50, 460
Civilization, magic and origin of,
5-6; Pliny as source for history
of, 43
Clairvoyance, 647 ; and see Divina-
tion, natural
Clarus, 224
Classical heritage, 555, 618, 636;
and see Middle Ages
Classics, superstition in, 21-4
Claudia, 55
Clay, animals, 393, 769; and see
Pottery
Climate, 184
Cloak, virtue of, 397, 435
Clock, see Time
Clothing, virtue in, 136, 295, 382,
chap, xvi, 407, 441, 534, 598, 666 ;
and see names of various ar-
ticles of
Clyster, 142
Cock, 168, 175, 320, 324-5, 766, 771,
779 ; cock-crow, 280, 405
Cog-wheel, 192
Cold, quality, 140, 161, 219; drink,
141 ; disease, 589
Colic, 87, 169, 579, 582, 590
Cologne, three kings of, 446, 477
Colonus, 638
Colony, Greek, 318
Color, discussed, 140, 486; chang-
ing, 216; in magic, 90, 367, 369,
590, 721 ; and see the names of
individual colors
Combustible compounds, see
Candle
Comedy, Greek, 22-4
Comet, 96, 115, 457, 543, 633, 635,
(>73
Commodus. emperor, 125, 129
GENERAL INDEX
789
Compass, points of, 91, 114, 378,
586, 591, 724
Compotus or Computus, 536, 676-
7, 728
Compound, magical or medicinal,
ID, 83, 140, 152, 159-60, 172, 571,
586-7, 722, 72A
Conception, 562, 656, 724, 740
Condrion, an herb, 74
Confederate, in magic fraud, 467
Conjunction, astrological, 104, 642,
648-9
Conjuration of an herb, 583; and
see Incantation, Spirit, invoca-
tion of
Consecration, of a painted grape,
80; of gems, 295, 781; and see
Holy
Constantine the Great, 525fif.
Constantine Monomachos, 745
Constantine Porphyrygennetos,
604
Constantius, emperor, 525ff.
Constans, emperor, 525ff.
Constantinople, 472, 477, 494, 533,
541 ; and see Byzantine
Constellation, 14, 114, 178, 304, 709
Constipation, 779
Consumption, 213, 2,7Z, 536, 588
Cook, 148
Copernican theory, 32
Copperas, 467
Coptic, 361, 377
Coral, 656
Cordova, 704, 762
Corinth, 123, 136, 230, 262, 280
Corn extracted, 71
Corpse, 147, 229, 309, 629, 780; and
see Necromancy, Resurrection
Cosmetics, 152, 668
Cotton, 252
Couch, 561
Cough, 88, 176
Counter-irritant, 723
Cow, 77, 79, 81, 8s, 32s, 769
Crab, and snake, 99; river, use of
eye of, 68-9; burned alive, 80,
178; use of ash of, 170, 572;
stone in head of, 72,7
Crane, sentinel, 217; windpipe of,
used in magic, 278, 467
Craw-fish, 217
Creation, 16, 346, 408, chap, xxi,
504-5, 627-8; position of stars
at, 711, 713
Credulity and scepticism, chap, ix ;
in Pliny, 50-1, 61-4, 67, 70, 77,
80-1, 88, 98; Galen and the Em-
pirics, 157-8, 168-9, 175 ; Seneca,
102-3 ; Plutarch, 204, 212-3 ;
other cases, 225, 244, 255, 388,
440, 491-2, 539, 573-4, 626, 637,
65s, 671, 780
Crete, 129, 135, 249, 260
Cricket, 67, 72>7
Crime and criminal, 147, 167, 171,
207, 225, 581 ; and see Magic,
evil and criminal; Sin
Critical days, 158, 161, 164, 179-
80, 356, 756
Crocodile, 74, 166, 218, 238, 280
Cropleek, 722
Cross, nail from, 280; in sky, 475;
sign of, 432, 434, 466, 638-9, 722
Crow, 207, 314, 324, 409, 636, 655
Cruelty, 136, 225
Crystal, 294, 767
Cube, 184
Cuckoo, 81
Cummin seed, 93
Cuneiform, 15
Cup, Joseph's divining, 386
Cupping glass, 192
Curlew, 217
Curse, 28, 93, 2>^, 434
Cynics, 277
Cynocephalia, an herb, 67
Cynocephalus, 70, 333
Cyprus, magic of, 59; oil of, 68;
Galen's visit *o, 131-2
Cyrene, 541
Dacian, 597
Daedalus, 283^
Daily life, magic in, 9-10, 20; ex-
perience from, 54
Danish, 612
Dardanus, a magician, 58-9, 463,
558
Darius, 256, 260
"Dark Ages," 618
Date, the fruit, 20
Date, discussed of, Ptolemy, 105;
Hero, 188; Greek alchemists,
193-4 ; works of Apuleius, 222-
5 ; Solinus, 326-7 ; Horapollo,
331; Enoch literature, 341-2;
apocryphal Gospels, 388-9 ;
Pseudo - Clementines, 404-6;
Physiologus, 497-9 ; Augustine,
504; Mathesis of Firmicus, 526-
7; Synesius, 541; Pseudo-Callis-
thenes and Julius Valerius, 552-
5; Aetius, 570; Marcellus, 584-5;
early medieval pseudo-literature,
594-6 ; Macer, 612-3 ; Thebit,
661 ; introduction of Arabic al-
chemy, 77S ; and see Calendar,
790
GENERAL INDEX
Chronology, Compotus, Crea-
tion, Easter
Day, observance of, lucky and un-
lucky, 14, 21, 106, 383, 513, 582,
588, 590, 592, 661, chap, xxix,
721, 725, 727, 754; and see Crit-
ical ; Egyptian ; Moon, day of ;
Planetary week
Dead Sea, 138
Deaf, 536
Decans, 178, 291, 315, 376, 453
Deendor, a magician, 780
Deer, 68, 70, 74, 84, 94, 207, 294,
324, 586, 734
Degree, academic, 619; medical,
751-2
Delirium, 536
Delphic oracle, 201, 266, 283, 326,
538, 582
Demeter, 429
Demigod, 546
Demiurge, 212, 383
Demon, see Spirit
Dentistry, 12; and see Tooth
Depilatories, see Hair
Deroldus, bishop, yZ2>
Desert, herbs in, 54
Desiderius, abbot, 747
Design, argument from, 139, 148,
408, 490
Desire, as a factor in magic, 644
Deucalion, 341
Devotio, see Curse
Dew, 102
Diacastoria, 739
Diadochos, a gem, 780
Diagram, 366-7, 674
Dialectic, 420, 439, 536
Diana, 130
Dice, 136, 486
Dick, Mr., 64
Dictamnon, see Dittany
Dictation, ancient, 45, 134
Dictionary, 599, 624
Dictynna, 249
Die, 582 ; and see Dice
Diet, 98, 137, 142, 159, 282, 414,
429, 577, 587, (>^^. 684, 735
Digestion, 137, 205, 585
Dinocrates, 186
Diocletian, emperor, 194
Diomedes, 330
Dionysius, an Egyptian, 440
Dionysus, the god, 251, 546
Dioptrics, 108
Dipsas, a snake, 172, 284, 494
Direction, observance of, in magic,
90-1, 666; and see Compass,
Right. Left
Disease, 25, 98, 150, 208, 219, 310,
430, 434, 536 ; magic transfer of,
19, 61, 71, 79, 213, 588-9; and
see Spirit, Woman, and the
names of individual diseases
Dissection, 88, 134, 146-8, 164, 581,
746
Dittany, 218, 495
Dives and Lazarus, 448
Divinatio, a disease, 755 ; and see
.150-1
Divination, chaps, ix, xxix, 86,
127, 143, 165, 180, 253, 285, 533,
539-40, 713; varieties listed,
560 ; in China, 6-7 ; Egypt, 13 ;
Tigris-Euphrates, 17; India,
251; relation to magic, 5, 14, 17,
60, 226, 233, 295, 432, 512, 543,
629; by divine revelation, 205,
249, 314, 364, 533, and see
Prophecy; by demons, 442-3,
510, 546; natural, 103, 205, 239,
305, 314, 318-9, 419, 518, 542-3;
by animals, 315, 325-6, 490, and
see Augury ; by eating parts of
animals, 70, 257, 314; by boys,
249, 418-9, 463 ; by enthusiasm,
180; by herbs, 66, 77, 614; by
drinking or inhaling, 313 ; by
Kalends, 677, 684; by lots, num-
bers, names, 112, 679, 682, 711,
713, and see Lot-casting; by
polished surfaces, 774; by
sounds, 313, 430; by stones, 70;
by symbols, 166 ; by winds, 676,
678; and see Aerimancy, Cup,
Dream, Geomancy, Haruspex,
Hydromancy, Knot, Liver,
Moon, Omen, Pyromancy, Sac-
rifice, Sieve, Selenomancy,
Thunder
Dog, kennel, 69; jealous, 75;
puppyhood, 150; omens from,
231 ; prescience of, 325; as sym-
bol, 367; demons as, 435; and
mandragora, 607 ; torn to pieces
by, 277, 425,; to stop bark or
attack of, 77, 216, 249, 424, 605;
disease transferred to, 88, 590-1 ;
use of parts of, 68, 70, 89, 90,
159, 168-9, 573-4, 737, 755; mad,
and bite of, 68, 82, 86, 131, 169,
178, 259, 263-4, 284, 2>72, 391,
572, 656, 713, 754
Dog-days, 572, 728, 756, 765
Dogmatism, 154, 159, 735
Dog-star, 66, 98, 178, 604
Dolphin, 55, 218, 260
Domitian, emperor, 249-50, 259-65
GENERAL INDEX
791
Door, used in magic, 71, 591 ; af-
fected by magic, 226-7, 3i4> 449!
trap, 469
Dorians, 219
Dositheus, 365, 417
Dove, 142, 168, 324, 332, 636, 740
Draconites, a gem, 75
Dragon, 75, 231, 257, 326, 367, 392,
429, 561, 603, 766; use of parts
of, 68, 70; combat with ele-
phant, 74, 257, 626; flying, 347
Dragontes, an herb, 614
Drama, and magic, 22-3, 324; li-
turgical, 476-7
Dream and divination from, in
Egypt, 13-4; in cuneiform texts,
17 ; Pliny, 56, 81 ; Galen, 123,
154. 156, 166, 170, 177-80; Plu-
tarch, 204, 205 ; Apuleius, 231 ;
Apollonius, 260 ; Lucian, 283 ;
Neo-Platonists, 314, 545 ; Philo,
354, 358; Pilate's wife, 395;
Origen, 459; Nectanebus, 560-2;
Alkindi, 646; miscellaneous, 197,
329, 412, 434, 437, 459, 463, 487,
509, 534, 627, 671, 680-1, 720,
754, 763, 779
"Dream-senders," 368
Dropsy, 69, 213, 536, 779
Drugs, 55, 61, 84, 89, 128, 132, 370,
467, 561, 668
Druid, 46, 59, 67, 79, 640
Drum, 204, 313
Dualism, 361, 409
Duck, 87-8
Dung, 68, 69, 86, 166, 168, 588,
656, 734, 740, 769
Dye, 324, 467, chap, xxxiii
Ea, a god, i8
Eagle, 87, 90, 176, 217, 257, 325-6,
332, 441, 496, 574, 636
Ear, 536
Earache, 169, 579, 755
Ear-wax, 721, 769
Earth, appeased, conjured, per-
sonified, and deified, 66, 79, 86,
251, 295, 583, 598; virtue of, 81,
88, 592, and see Cart rut, Terra
sigillata; things not allowed to
touch the ground, 70, 79, 8r, 173,
582, 588; sphericity of, 480;
miscellaneous, 211, 373; and see
Burial, Land and Water, Under-
ground
Earthquake, 97, loi, 250, 254, 264,
271, 430, 469, 562
Earthworm, 68-9, 89, 176, 573-4,
587, 720
Easter, 521, 677; mystery of, 677
Ebionites, 405
Ebony, 560
Echeneis, 212, 491, 626
Eclipse, 96, 98, 203-4, 209, 262, 333,
386, 564, 673
Editions, especially early printed,
Pliny, 53; Ptolemy, 106, no;
Galen, 1 19 ; Solinus, 326 ; Fir-
micus, 525 ; Pseudo-Callisthenes
and Julius Valerius, 551-2; Let-
ter of Alexander, 555; post-
classical medicine, 566-7, 577;
Herbarium of Apuleius, 597;
Ethicus, 601; Geoponica, 604;
Dioscorides, 606-10; Macer, 612;
Isidore, 623 ; Latin translations
from Arabic, 642, 649ff., 653,
657, 665, 668, 716; Regimen Sa-
lernitanum, 736 ; Constantinus
Af ricanus, chap, xxxii ; treatises
on arts, 760; Marbod, 775,
778
Education, as experienced or dis-
cussed by, Galen, 118-28; Vit-
ruvius, 187; Plutarch, 200-1;
Apuleius, 222-4; Lucian, 277;
Christ child, 394; Cyprian, 429-
31 ; Firmicus, 525 ; Synesius,
540-1; Bede, 634-5; Rasis, 667;
Gerbert, 704; Constantinus, 744;
Dunstan, 772', Marbod, 775
Eel, 491
Egg, shell, 54; test of freshness,
55; made by hiss of snakes, 67;
addled by certain men, 83 ; so-
called, of alchemy, 198; goose,
277 ; filled with dye, 467 ; por-
tents from, 562, 772, ; raw, 729
Egypt, 7-14, 27-8, 30-1, 193-5, 198,
206, 228-30, 239, 248, 250, 287,
289, 300, 325, 331-4, 360, 376, 379,
391, 414-6, 430, 437-8, 446, 450,
452, 459, 503, 527, 537, 543, 558-
60, 598, 744; and see Plagues of
Egyptian Days, 14, chap, xxix, 728
Elchasaites, 373
Elections, astrological, 372-3, 386,
517
Electrum, 590
Elements, various theories of, 25,
139, 157, 218, 254, 382, 408, 410,
478, 485, 488, 528-9, 622, 645,
720; not found in a pure state,
140, 489
Elephant, intelligence of, 73, 75,
169, 218, 256, 636; habits, 213,
322, 324, 332, 460; dissection of,
148; compared with fly, 408;
792
GENERAL INDEX
white, 763 ; and see Dragon for
combat with
Elephantiasis, 57, 170, 572
Eleusinian mysteries, loi, 148
Elijah, 386, 555
Elixir, 670
Eloeus, 365, 367
Eloi, 583
Elymas the sorcerer, 461
Elysian fields, 207
Embalming, magic in, 8
Embassy, of Philo, 349; Synesius,
541 ; Leo, 557
Embryology, see Chick, Child-
birth
Emerald, 434, 656, 772
Emperor, Roman, 47, 50, 124, 129-
30, 135, 176, 186, 194, 529; and
see names of individual empe-
rors
Empiric, Empirica, Empiricism,
56-7, 155-7, 172, 735, 754
Empousa, 310
Empyrean, see Heaven
Enceladus, 254
Encyclopedia, ancient, 43 ; Arabic,
663; medieval, 52, 569
Endor, witch of, 385, 448, 464,
469-71, 506, 509-10, 629, 635
Entrails, see Intestines, Liver div-
ination
Ephesus, 259-62
Ephod, 448
Epic, 16, 18
Epicurean, 138, 150, 283, 408, 441
Epidaurus, 329
Epilepsy, 69, 87, 90, 173, 235, 238,
536, 578-81, 614, 723, 726, 730,
735-6, 754-6, 779
Epitome, 495, 554-5, 568-9, 594,
6o3ff..
Er, vision of, 212
Erataoth, a spirit, 2^7
Eretrians, 260
Eridu, 15
Erigeron, an herb, 89
Erystion, an herb, 598
Essenes, 405
Ether, 254, 373; and see Heaven
Ethics, 602
Ethiopia and Ethiopic, 141, 245,
256, 283, 327, 341, 345, 398, 435,
498, 554, 558-60, 654, 658, 744
Etruscan, 467, 630
Etymology, 625
Eucharist, 369
Eucrates, 280-1
Eugenianus, 133
Eugenics, 414
Eumeces, a gem, 81
Euphrates, a philosopher, 246, 253,
263 ; and see Tigris-
Eustachian tube, 576
Evangelists, four, 502, 674, 721
Eve, 350, 511, 681
Evil, problem of, 305, 309, 349;
eye, see Fascination
Evolution, doctrine of, 149, 493
Ewe hop plant, 722
Excommunication, 542
Excrement, human, 74, 143, 573 ;
and see Dung
Exercise, physical, 587
Exorcism, 18, 24, 280, 299, 368,
386, 435, 533-4, 682, 722
Experience, Experiment, Experi-
mental method, and magic, 57,
431-2, 447, 469, 540; in Pliny,
53-7, 83, 88; Ptolemy, 106-7;
Galen, 118, 121, 144-63, 169, 173,
175, 179; Vitruvius, 187; Hero,
190; Greek alchemists, 198;
Plutarch, 213; Apuleius, 237;
Simon Magus, 420-2; Firmicus,
532 ; post-classical medicine,
569, 573, 578-80, 583-7; Diosco-
rides, 606; Macer, 615; Arabic,
644-6, 657, 669; early medieval
medicine, 734-5, 738, 753-4; arts
and alchemy, 762, 765-70; and
see Empiric, Observation
Eye complaints and cures, 56, 82,
87, 98, 166, 175, 289, 325, 490,
496, 536, 586, 589-90, 640, 670,
720, 755, 779; evil, see Fascina-
tion
Eyebrow, 151, 159, 175
Eyelash, 92, 151
Fades, astrological, 710, 716
Faith, requisite in magic, 644
Falernian wine, 132, 586
Familiar spirit, see Spirit
Family, 300
Famine, 603
Fascination, 71, 83, 217, 294,
324
Fastmg, 78, 82, 93, 174, 593, 705
Fat, 67, 91, 130, 168, 755
Fate, 181, 240, 306, 310, 315-6,
353, 375, 620
Fates, three, 210, 565
Faust, Faustus, or Faustinianus,
404, 406, 413, 417
Feather, 70, 236
Fee, physician's, 670, 684, 688, 740
Fennel, 722; tasted by snake, 74
490, 626
GENERAL INDEX
793
Fern, 80, 769
Festival, 22, 107
Fever, 18, 49, 65-6, 71, 89, 91, 141,
536, 569, 575, 668, 720,_ 727, 759 ;
and see Quartan, Tertian
Fibula, 301
Fifty, 356, 383
Fig-tree, see Bull, tamed by
Figure, 709.^10; human, 723; and
see Image, Mannikin, Statue
Fill, Irish, 640
Finger, middle, 589, 592; use of
two, 583
Fire, the element, 88, 229, 310,
417; marvelous, 252, 256, 368;
at Rome in 192 A. D., 125, 134;
universal, 104; not burned by,
416
Fire engine, 192
Firmament, see Heaven; Waters
above the
First-born, 581
Fish, 30, 49, 74, yy, 218, 236-7, 260,
325-6, 469, 589, 636, 657, 756
Five, 92, 169, 357, 383, 590
Flea, 60s
Float, 192
Flood, 16, 340, 475, 493
Florilegij,, 618
Fluxion, 583
Fly, insect, 76, 175, 408
Flying, 397; of Simon Magus,
416-7, 422-7
Foam, of snake, 67; horse, 70, 86,
589
Folk-lore, 300, 567, 587, 722-3,
72,2
Foot, 580; and see Barefoot
Form, 487, 542
Fossil shells, 493
Fotis, 229
Fountain, marvelous, 102, 318, 347,
546, 769
Four, 91, 356, 674-5, 728, 767
Fox, 80, 89, 90, 168, 490
Franklin, Benjamin, 414
Frederick I, Barbarossa, emperor,
477
Free-Masonry, 183
Free will, see Will
Frenzy, 755
Frog, 68, 80, 90, 92, 159, 168, 231,
491, 508, 588, 591, 656
Fruit, 8s, 142, 599, 724
Fumigation, 69, 282, si 2, 740, 779
Funeral, 214
Furnace, 81, 393, 434, 657, 764
Future life, 8, 25, 47; and see
Soul, immortality of
Gabriel, angel, 343, 367, 447, 452,
454
Gagates,^ a gem, 154, 495, 724, 779
Gaia Seta, 599
GalacJis, 294
Galactites, 329
Gall, 68, 71, 587, 726, 764-6
Gall nut, 467
Games, Greek national, 186, 201
Ganges, 2s8
Garamantica, a gem, 97
Garlic, 213, 722
Gas, 55, 142
Gate, city, 591, 600
Gaudentius, 404
Gaul, 46, 76, 92, 568, 597, 672, yy6 ;
and see Druid
Gazelle, 68, 70, 87
Gehenna, 367
Gem, Assyrian, 20; Pliny, 68, 70-1,
80-1; Apollonius, 254-8; Orphic,
293-6; Gnostic, 27, 378-80;
Pseudo-Plutarch, 216; Solinus,
328-9; St. John and, 398; Ori-
gen, 460; Epiphanius, 495-6;
Augustine, 511; in medicine,
590; Pseudo-Dioscorides, 611,
654; Geoponica, 605; Isidore,
626-7 ; found in animals, 75,
294, 603, 72,7, 740, 755, 772, 779;
Marbod, chap, xxxiv ; and see
Consecration ; Image, engraved
on ; and names of individual
gems
Genealogical table, 624
Generation, spontaneous, 86, 219,
238, 324, 509, 511; of various
animals, 408-9, 460; in fire, 102,
324; human, 211; and corrup-
tion, 210; ruled by stars, 97;
organs of, used in magic, 11,
68-9, 356; and see Child-birth,
Conception, Eugenics, Private
parts
Genethlialogy, 115, 273, 353, 412,
456, 513, 517, 560, 622, 629, 703,
708, 781
Genius, see Spirit, orders of
Gentiles, 479, 674, 771
Geocentric theory, 32, 105, 488
Geography, discussed by Pliny,
43-4; Ptolemy, 105-7; Philos-
tratus, 244; Solinus, 327; other
anc'ent, 488; Ethicus, 600-4;
other medieval, 707
Geology, 493
Geomancy, 314, 343, 629, 648, 685
Geometry, 122-3, 126, 185, 318,
536, 542, 619, 663, 704
794
GENERAL INDEX
Gerard, archbishop of York, 689,
782
Germ of disease, 219
German, invaders, 148, 351 ; lan-
guage, 498, 728; scholarship,
15-6, 30-1, 350, 684
Germany, 45, 557
Ghost, 233, 263, 280, 455, 540, 705 ;
and see Necromancy ; Endor,
witch of
Giant, 254, 407, 430
Girdle or ungirded, 69, 87, 284,
512, 599
Girl, magic power of, 216 ; and see
Virgin
Githrife, an herb, 722
Gladiator, 124, 149, 581, 673
Glass, Egyptian, 12; Roman, 590,
762 ; medieval, 729, 764-7 ; gems
of, 781 ; and see Stained
Glaucon, 143, 161
Glossopetra, a gem, 98
Glue, 765
Gnostic and Gnosticism, chap, xv,
197, 211, 290, 298, 305, 360, 397,
405, 411, 472, 547, 584, 661,
720
Goat, 69, 87, 130, 168, 213, 218,
256, 325, 367, 467, 490, 581-2,
729, 755. 759, 765-9; and see
Adamant and blood of
Goblet, 258
God and gods, antiquity of belief
in, 5-6, 203 ; animal, 14, 283, 503 ;
celestial, 14, 17, 25-6, 289, 309,
530; and nature, 409; and man,
206, 208, 254, 274, 416; and Ro-
man emperors, 130, 529; and
art, 486; and magic, 8, 230,
235-6, 249, 312, 320, 543; Pliny
concerning, 47, 97 ; Seneca, 103 ;
Galen, 139, 151, 167, 180; Plu-
tarch, 210; Gnostic, 362, 375;
Christian attitude to pagan, 317;
Firmicus, 527-30; Boethius, 621;
name of, 599; winged, 301; and
see Apollo and other individual
names of gods, Christ, First
cause. Trinity, etc.
Goetia, 22, 247, 250, 505
Gold, 69, 78-81, 215, 257, 301, 325,
386, 590, 599, 739, 755; chap,
xxxiii ; and see Alchemy
Gonorrhoea, 536
Goose, 168, 301
Gorgon, 301
Gothic art, 501-2, 761
Gout, 81, 142, 277, 284, 571, 575.
579-81, 755
Grafting, 55
Grain, 325
Grammar, 535, 596, 612, 625
Grasshopper, 491
Gravitation, 481
Greece and Greek, magic, 20-8, 58;
science, 28-32, 46-7, 51, 62, 64;
culture, 274, 283 ; animals, 7Z \
language, ancient, 154, 186, 222-
3, 2)77, 420; language, medieval,
331-2, 625
Greek church, 397, 735
Greek fire, 256-7
Griffin, 257, 325
Grimoald, abbot, 613
Groin, 71, 590
Ground, see Earth, Underground
Gruel, 142
Guadalquivir, 254
Gull, 159
Gum, 468
Gyges, 257 _
Gymnosophists, 247, 251, 260, 564
Gynecology, see Women, diseases
of
Hades, see Underworld
Hadrian, emperor, 136, 200, 244,
318
Hail, see Weather
Hair, 69-70, 81, 151, 159, 176, 581 ;
net, 175, 213; tonic, 738
Halc3ron days, 255, 491
Halicacabum, TJ
Hallucination, 509
Ham, son of Noah, first magician,
414
Hand, laying on of, 386; and see
Left, Right
Handkerchief, 213, 386
Hangman's noose, 71
Hare, 159, 169, 253, 580
Harewort, 722
Harp, magic, 773
Harran, 661-2
Haruspex, 95, 104, SI I, 513, 534,
629
Hathor goddesses, 14
Hatto, bishop of Vich, 704
Hawk, 74, 314, 332, 561
Hawkweed, 74, 332
Hazel rod, 725-6, 730
Head, habit of inclining, 659;
magical speaking, 662, 705
Headache, 18, 71, 92, 175, 591
Hearsay, 585
Heart, physiology of, 30, 146-9,
153, 727 \ used in medicine and
magic, 70, 89, y2y
GENERAL INDEX
795
Heat and Hot, 140, 142, 161, 175-
6, 191 ; and see Qualities
Heathen, see Pagan
Heatherberry, 722
Heaven and Heavens, one or
many? 16, 345, 363, 365, 372,
382, 459, 487-8, 709; empyrean,
484; and see Music of spheres.
Star, Universe, Waters above
the firmament
Hebdomad, sacred, 16, 365, 380
Hebrew, 554, 577-8, 709, 711, 749;
and see Jew
Hecate, 215, 280
Hedge, 91
Hedge-hog, 325, S02, 734
Hedgerife, 722
Helen, Simon's, 363-5
Helena, empress, 477
Helenus, seer, 294
Heliocentric theory, 32, 97
Heliotrope, an herb, 65, 87, 636
Hell, see Underworld
Hellebore, 74, 490, 636
Hellene and Hellenism, 20-1, 245,
541
Hellenistic, 16, 22, 30-2, 39, 51,
183, 189, 288, 294
Hemlock, the poison, 490
Hemorrhage, 536, 576
Hen, omen from, 231
Henbane, 722
Hera, goddess, 429
Heracles, 251, 546, 582
Heracleidae, 541
Herb, Egyptian, 10; Assyrian, 19-
20 ; Greek, 23 ; Cretan, 129 ;
sacred, 76, 178; Anglo-Saxon,
722; Pliny, 54-7, 65-7, 76-9;
Galen, 154, 167; Plutarch, 215-6;
Apuleius, 229 ; Orphic, 295-6,
429-30; Gnostic, 371; Nectane-
bus, 561, post-classical medicine,
583. 591 ; Herbarium of
Apuleius, 597-9 ; Pseudo-Dios-
corides, 606; Macer, 614-5;
used by animals, 324-5, and see
Animals, remedies employed by;
conjuration of, 583 ; plucking
of, 57, 65, 93, 160, 173, 252, 291,
583, 614, 626, 721, 724, 727, 729
Herbal, 596-9
Herbalist, 79, 128
Hercules, see Heracles
Heredity, 75, 253 ; and see Atavism
Herefridus, 635
Heresy, chap, xv, 488, 494, 507-8
Hermesias, a compound, 84
Hermogenes the magician, 435
Hero, a kind of spirit, 180-1, 309-
10, 469, 546
Herod the king, 473, 479
Heron, 218, 324
Hind, 279, 721
Hippomanes, 324
Hippopotamus, 75, 169
History and Historians, relation
to this investigation, 201 ; Ro-
man, 14, 94, 96, 201, 602; omens
and portents in, 14, 675 ; atti-
tude to, of Empirics, 156; Vi-
truvius, 185; Lucian, 285-6;
Cicero, 274; Horapollo, 333-4;
of medicine, 153, 156, 735; of
philosophy, 180; of astronomy,
537, 707; of alchemy, 195; ages
of, 383, 648, 675, 709; astrologi-
cal interpretation of, see Con-
junctions, Planets, Magnus An-
nus; quantitative method and
source-analysis in, 533ff. ; medi-
eval attitude to, 617; harlequins
of, 359
Holy Ghost or Spirit, 363-4, 372,
397, 447
Holy salt, 722, 727
Holy wafer, 729
Holy water, 434, 721, 724, 727, 735
Honey, 66, 68, 70, 76, 129, 142,
229, 295, 599; Attic and Hymet-
tus, 132
Honoratus, 638
Hoopoe, 324
Horaeus, 367
Horn, 4,96, 586, 599, 722; magic
drinking, 191, 255
Horoscope, 14, 115, 209, 315, 516,
532, 560, 630
Horse, 55, 70, 86, 168, 589, 722,
730, 767; and see Mare
Horus, 19s
Hour, observance of, 712, 714, 726
House, astrological, 114, 397
Household magic, 9, 69 ; and see
Door, Threshold, Wall, etc.
Human body, symmetry of, 184,
519; eight parts of, 452, 720;
use of parts of, 61, 81, 167, 229,
573; and see Blood; Sacrifice,
human; Saliva, Sweat, etc.
Humanism, 20, 338
Humors, 536, 738
Hyacinth, a gem, 496, 656
Hydromancy, 233, 505, 629, 77^8o
Hydromel, 79
Hydrophobia, 56, 169, 171, 496,
574; and see Dog, mad
Hydroscope, 542
796
GENERAL INDEX
Hydrostatic balance, 761
Hyena, 67, 69-70, 332, 396, 587, 605,
728
Hymn, 18, 23, 317-8, 374, 433, 441,
640
Hypatia, 541
Hyperborean, 280, 413
Hyphasis, river, 256
Hyrcanian Sea, 488
laldabaoth, 367, 383
lao, laoth, etc., 367, 379-80, 583
larchas the Brahman, 251 ff.
Ichneumon, 74, 218, 575
Idolatry, 421, 433, 452, 475, 603;
and see Image
Ikhnaton, 9
Illuminated manuscripts, 498, 502,
547, 597, 676, 746
Image, engraved and astrological,
173, 267, 292, 316, 443, 579, 582,
645-6, 664-6 ; Apuleius' wooden,
233 ; Egyptian mannikins, 8 ;
sacrificial, 261 ; mystic seal, 367,
378, 382; of wax, 10, 19, 25,
560-3 ; other magic, 10, 19, 236,
280, 314, 344, 441, 769
Imagination, pov\?er of, 644, 660
Iman, doctrine of the hidden, 356
Immortality, see Soul
Impotence, 391
Incantation, antiquity of, 6 ; Egyp-
tian, 8, 12-4; Assyrian, 17-9; in
Pliny, 69-72, 79, 88, 92-4; Galen,
166, 173-4; Apuleius, 230, 233,
239; other classical authors, 25,
253, 257, 279-81, 314; Gnostic,
299, chap. XV ; Jewish and early
Christian, 352, 398, 418-9, 437,
442-3, 449-50. 463, 492, 510, 512;
pseudo-literature and post-clas-
sical medicine, 537, 560-1, 568,
573, 579-83, 588-93, 598-9, 605;
Arabic, 654-5 ! early medieval,
596, 626-9, 675, 696; in medicine,
chap, xxxi, 754, 759; alchemy,
769-70; old Irish, 640; and see
Words, power of
Incense, 722
Incest, 475, 754
Incubus, 574
India, chap, viii ; science of, 31 ;
drugs from, 84, 132; home of
Magi, 476-7 ; marvels of, 325-6,
496, 564, 756; occult science of,
652-6, 710, 763; miscellaneous,
503, 744
Indigestion, 779
Industry, and magic, 12, chap,
xxxiii
Infant, exposure of, 147; ail-
ments, 69, 169, 615
Ink, invisible, 467
Innocent III, pope, 759
Insanity, 216, 536, 585, 755, 779;
and see Frenzy, Lunacy, etc.
Insomnia, 90
Instruments, scientific, 107, 751 ;
and see Musical
Intent, as a factor in magic, 644-6
Interrogations, astrological, 713-4
Intestines, 87-8, 175, 409, 414, 592
Inventions, 44, 149, 187-9, 426, 604
Invisible, to become, 71, 251, 416,
562, 638, 640; writing, 265
Invocation, see Necromancy and
Spirit
Iris, 132
Iron, magic use of, 66, 69-71, 81,
89, 213, 765, 769; taboo of, 78,
81, 92, 614; oxide of, 130;
quenching hot, 713, 756
Isaac the patriarch, 437
Ishmaelite, 711
Isis, goddess, 195, 223, 280, 300,
546, 559
Island, floating, 102
Ismuc, 183
Israel, twelve tribes of, 495
Istria, 601-2
Itacius, bishop, 381
Italian Renaissance, see Renais-
sance
Italians and Italy, 184, 557
lunx, 265-7
Ivory, 301, 599
Ivy, 767-8
Jacob the patriarch, 354, 358, 444;
and Esau, 369, 479, 514
Jambres, Jamnes, or Jannes, the
magician, 59, 431, 461
James, brother of Jesus, 392, 401,
403, 405
James the Great, St., 434-6
Jannes the magician, see Jambres
Jared, and magic, 415
Jasper, 294, 572
Jaundice, 49, 217, 536
Jealousy, see Animal, and Pro-
fessions, learned
Jeremiah, legend of, 399
Jerusalem, 393, 399, 415, 423, 477
Jesus, see Christ
Jew and Jewish, 219, 434, 436, 465,
474-5, 583, 746, 762, 773, 781;
GENERAL INDEX
797
magic, 59, 437-9, 449; religion,
137; tradition, 473
Jewelry, 301 ; and see Gem
John the Baptist, 364, 727
John, duke of Campania, 557
Jonathan, 471
Joseph the patriarch, his coat of
many colors, 352, 358; divining
cup, 386; dream, 354, 358, 385
Joseph, father of Jesus, 393
Joseph, mentioned by Epiphanius,
434
Judea, see Palestine
Judas Iscariot, 391
Juggler, 230, 312-3, 352, 437
Juliana Anicia, 606
Juno, goddess, 546
Jupiter, planet, 97, 184
Justina, 431-3
Karnak, 559
Khirgeh, 559
Kid, 393
Kidney, 294
King, prediction for, 17, 66; to
gain favor of, 19, 67, 71, 89,
294; magic power of, 83, 476,
479; and alchemy, 13, 195
Kiss, 88, 391, 589
Knife, 545, 722, 727 ; surgical, 149
Knot, in divination, 7; other
magic, 19, 25, 66, 69, 71, 592, 661
Kruno, a star, 346
Labartu, 18
Laboratory, 228
Lacedaemon, 429, 602
Ladder, 368
Laelius, 274
Lamb, 561, 769
Lamia, 263
Lamp, 129, 380; experiment with,
55 ; inextinguishable, marvelous,
etc., 192, 214, 231, 239; and see
Candle
Land and water on earth's sur-
face, 54, 105, 254, 488
Language of birds and beasts,
learning, 257, 261, 294-5, 430
Laodicea, unguent of, 133
Lar, 80, 546
Laser, a simple, 83
Laurel, 229, 324, 332, 424, 571, 588
Lavinian grove, 326
Law, and magic, 2, 6, 95 ; Roman,
167-8, 224, 233-4, 277, 527, 568;
of nature, 272, 350, 530-1 ; Mo-
saic, 395, 459; national, 376;
early German, 593 ; a medieval
lawsuit, 688
Lead, 657, 757, 764; application of,
574, 590; glazing, 762; tablets,
28, 366, 724
Leaves, falling, effect on dreams,
206
Lebadea, 249
Lectionary, 476
Lecture-notes, 134
Leech, 724
Left, hand etc. used or preferred,
65-6, 78, 82, 88, 90, 92, 173, 216,
231, 325, Zi^, 580, 583, 591-2, 722,
726
Legends of saints, chaps, xvi,
xviii, 637; and see names of in-
dividuals
Legislation, 2, 25, 59, 95, 126, 194,
293, 415, 505; and see Law
Lentils, 369
Lemnos, 130-2, 154, 242, 264
Lent, 678
Leopard, 256
Leprosy, 171, 219, 390, 392, 536
Letter, see Alphabet, Vowel
Lettuce, 639
Lever, 192
Leviathan, 346-7, 367
Levitation, 251-2, 394, 427
Libanotis, an herb, 495
Libation, 431
Libraries, ancient, 15, 27, 125, 134-
5; medieval, 617-8, 743
Ligatures and suspensions, 65, 68,
70-2, 80, 89-90, 94, 173, 175, 204,
279, 294, 572, 579, 591, 598, 611,
614, 654-6, 726, 729-30, 740,
755-6, 759; condemned, 512, 630
Light, 191, 488, 720; and see Ra-
diation
Lightning, 71, 95, 102, 738
Ligusticum, 613
Like cures like, 68, 86, 94
Lily, 68
Linen, use of, 88, 90, 230, 249, 260,
378, 560, 581, 598
Liniment, 586
Lion, habits and traits, 74, 256,
319, 326, 2,2>2, 367, 394, 636; roar
of, 491 ; use of parts of, 6y, 70,
168, 279, 726, 755; whelps of,
255, 491; amours of lioness, 74;
figure of, 582 ; made by magic,
215 ; lion-faced, 364
Liparaios, a gem, 295
Litany, 721
Liturgy, 398, 476
Liver, disease, 536, 591 ; divina-
798
GENERAL INDEX
tion, 17, 25, 249, 272, 313, 318,
430, 458, 466
Lizard, 68, 92, 238, 324, 494, 574,
581, 589-91
Logic, 154-5, 157-9; magic, lo-i,
72, 214
'Logos, doctrine of, 350
Loigaire, king, 640
Lollianus Avitus, 223
Lollianus Mavortius, 5256?., 537
Longevity, 141, 170, 176, 207, 537
Looking around, 591
Loosing bonds, etc., 265, 416, 449,
779
Lord's Prayer, 598, 721, 724-6,
729-30, 736
Lot-casting, 77, 112, 539, 727; and
see Geomancy and Series sanc-
torum (other index)
Lotapes, a magician, 59
Lot's wife, 583
Love charms and potions, 22, 76,
94, 201, 215, 217, 236, 258, 295,
368, 370
Lucifer, 636
Lucius, hero of Golden Ass, chap,
vii
Lucius Verus, emperor, 124
Lucullus, 94, 201
Lumbago, 90, 175
Luna, goddess, 236, 417; and see
Helen, Simon's
Lunacy, 536, 727, 754; and see In-
sanity
Lung, 148, 536, 727
Lupin, 722
Lutheran, 447
Lychnis and Lychnites, a gem,
257, 295
Lycia, 154, 325, 765
Lycurgus, 283
Lynx, 81, 325, 620
Lyre, 356
Macedon, 278, 560
Machine, 182, 187; and see Me-
chanical
Maerotis, lake, 349
Magi, in Pliny, 64-72, 80, 84; of
Persia and the east, 228, 235-6,
247, 250, 266, 295, 352, 416, 450,
763 ; who came to the Christ
child, 372, 396, 443-4, 471-9, S06,
518-9, 730
Magic (only leading passages
where magic in general is dis-
cussed under that name are here
included), preliminary defini-
tion, 4-6; primitive, 5-6; Egyp-
tian, 7-12; Babylonian and As-
syrian, 15-9, 33 ; Greek and Ro-
man, 20-8 ; Pliny, 44, 58-64 ; Plu-
tarch, 203; Apuleius, 234-7;
Philostratus, 247-50; Neo-
Platonists, 299-300; Enoch, 343;
Philo, 352 ; heretics and Gnos-
tics, 361 ; church fathers, 414-20,
chap, xix, 466-9, chap, xxii;
Nectanebus, 560; Isidore, 628-
30; Alkindi, 643-6; as an art or
discipline, 312, 420, 443; relation
to science and medicine, 60-64,
236, 312, 330, 432, 511, 534-5,
644 ; use of materials, 65-70, 441,
508; procedure, 68-71, 506; false
and illusive, 61, 418, 423-4, 431-
2, 440, 464-8, 509 ; evil and crim-
inal, 61-2, 313, 344, 377, 431-2,
439, 505, 539, 543 ; good or natu-
ral, 235, 352; marvelous results,
66-7, 70-1, 506; reality of, 506;
history of, 58-9, 414-5, 628-9;
immunity from, 440, 448-9
Magnet, 81, 85, 213, 469, 511, 581,
636, 644, 657, 668, 765, 780
Magnus annus, 26, 180, 210, 333,
372, 384, 456, 543
Majoram, 490
MaleHcium, 234-5, 381, 506, 603,
629
Mambres, a magician, 461
Mana, 6
Mandaeans, 383-4, 450
Mandragora, 22, 231, 258, 597, 607,
626, 740
Manes, a kind of spirits, 546
Manes or Mani, founder of Man-
icheism, and Manicheism, 381-
2, 398, 409, 513
Mansions of moon or sun, 693,
713, 715
Manlike, 259; and see Divination
Manuscripts, of Pliny, 51-2;
Ptolemy, 106, 108-10; Galen,
134-5; Gentile da Foligno, 164;
Greek alchemy, 194-6; Apuleius,
241 ; Aelian, 322 ; Solinus, 326-
8; Hermes and Enoch, 291, 340;
Manichean, 383 ; Apocrypha,
387-9; Recognitions, 40iff. ;
Basil and Ambrose, 484; Physi-
ologus, 498fif. ; Firmicus, 532 ;
and Book III passim
Maps, 107, 114, 707
Marble, 729
Marcus Aurelius, emperor, 124-5,
130, 148
Marcus the heretic, 369-70
GENERAL INDEX
799
Marcus of Memphis, 381
Mare, 87, 324, 332, 511
Marinus, duke of Campania, 557
Market-place, magic of, 437, 440
Marriage, 685, 688
Mars, planet, 78, 97, 184
Marsi, 172, 511
Martin of Tours, St., 381
Martyr and Martyrdom, 428, 433,
512, 555
Mary Magdalene, 364
Mary, Virgin, 390, 724
Mass, sacrament of, 13, 722
Mathematical method, 107
Mathematics, 154, 535-6
Mathematicus, 464, 513, 532, 534,
632, 717, 781
Mathesis, 411, 632, 704
Matter, iii, 199, 305, 309, 349, 487,
542, 643, 763
Mavortius, see Lollianus
Maximilian II, emperor, 607
Maximus, emperor, 381
Meal, 314; evening, 482
Measles, 668
Measurement, 144; and see In-
struments, Time
Meat offered to idols, 452
Mecca, 337
Mechanical devices and toys, 167,
426; Applied Science; and see
Bird, mechanical ; Machine
Mede and Medea, 21, 65, 215, 295,
324, 329, 780
Medicine, chaps, iv. xxv, xxxi,
xxxii, 289, 535-6, 542; Egypt,
10-2; Babylonian and Assyrian,
18; and magic, 25, 70, and see
Magic; Pliny, 72; Greek, 318;
Apuleius, 221, 237; Brahmans,
252-3 ; Lucian, 279, 284 ; Solinus,
329 ; church fathers and theolo-
gians, 460-3, 593, 617 ; and see
Animal, remedies employed by;
Astrological ; Compound ; Dis-
ease ; History ; Pharmacy ;
Poison ; Simple ; etc.
Medicine man, 5, 227
Medinet Habu, 559
Medium, 297, 467
Medulla, 660
Mela, see Taxo
Melancholy, 137, 536, 756
Melanteria, 132
Melothesia, 712
Memory, 303, 660
Memphis, 198, 430
]\Ienander the heretic, 368, 421
!vlenippus, 263
Menstrual fluid, 82, 369, 573
Merchant, 214, 245, 710
Mercury, god, 233, 236, 630, and
see Hermes ; metal, 764, and
see Quicksilver; planet, 318, 383
Meroe, a witch, 226
Merovingian, 616, 672
Mesraim, first magician, 414
Messiah, 355, 383
Messina, 445, 710
Metal and Metallurgy, 44, 102, 198,
346, 463, 767; and see Alchemy;
Planets and ; and the names of
individual metals
Metamorphosis, see Transforma-
tion
Meteor, 103
Meteorology, 44, 636
Methodism, in medicine, 155, 735
Michael, an angel, 367, 447, 452
Michael, bishop of Tarazona, 652
Microcosm, 382, 411, 530, 633, 709,
712
Midday, see Noon
Middle Ages, influence in, of
Pliny, 5 1-3, 56, 73, 85, 595, 628,
635; Seneca, 100; Ptolemy, 109;
Galen, 161, 180, 572-4; Hero,
188; De placitis philosophorum,
180 ; Apollonius, 267 ; Solinus,
326 ; early Christian literature,
338; Enoch, 340-2; Philo, 351;
Apocrypha, 389-90 ; Simon
Magus, 427; legends of saints,
435; Basil, 484; Physiologus,
497ff'. ; Augustine, 504 ; Alexan-
der legend, chap, xxiv; post-
classical medicine, 571, 576-8,
584; Ethicus, 601-4; Diosco-
rides, 606-12; Boethius, 618-
20; Isidore, 623, 630-1; Arabic
learning, 646, 663, chap, xxx,
732; Constantinus Africanus,
743. 754 ; Greek _ learning, 734 ;
and see Classical heritage;
Greek, medieval ; Textual his-
tory; Translation
Midnight, 248
Milan, 477
Mildew, 80
Milesian tales, 225
Milk, cow's. 229, 295; woman's,
82, 175, 587, 729, 759, 763; other,
721, 767
Milk-stone, 294
Milo, 779
Milt, see Spleen
Mind, 210, 531, 654
Mine and Mining, 132, 142, 344
2500
GENERAL INDEX
Mineralogy, 606
Minerva, 79
Minotaur, 603, 636
Mint, wild, S7
Miracle, 8, 2^7, 541, 637, 686; dis-
tinguished from magic, 242, 265,
387-8, 417, 437-9, 465, 505; by
heretics, 507-8
Mirror, 180, 236, 417, 468, 644;
and see Divination by polished
surfaces. Optics
Missal, 759
Misy, 132
Mistletoe, 23, 79
Mithra, 368, 429
Mithrobarzanes, a magician, 281
"Modern," 717
Mohammed and Mohammedan,
139, 22)7, 356, 445, Chap, xxviii,
688
Mole, 63, 67, 70, 80-1, 88, 409,
494, 587
Monastery, Monasticism, and
Monk, 505, 637-9, 679
Monkey, 148
Monreale 427
Monster, 627
Mont, temple of, 559
Montaster, an herb, 598
Monte Cassino, 597, 610, 743ff.
Month, specified, 585, 588, 590, 676,
685-9, 728, 72,7, 77 a; and see
Moon, observance of
Montpellier, 109, 741
Monument, 565
Moon, addressed, 727 ; affected by
magic, 203, 225, 280, 308, 468,
492 ; controls generation and
corruption, 210, 219, 354, 633,
708; day of the, 79, 572, chap.
xxix; duration of, 180, 702;
and Easter, 521 ; observance of,
69-71, 78, 80, 90-1, 98, 178, 216,
283, 322, 324, 333, 364, 539, 580,
582, 590-2, 598-9, chap, xxix,
720, 724, 729, 756, 780; relation
to other planets and to the
signs, 179, 211; spots on, 354;
size of, 488; and see Bleeding,
Luna, Selene, Tide
Moon-earth, 765
Moon-god, 382
Moon-stone, 250
Moon-tree, 564
Moralizing, loi, 490, 638
Mortar, pounded in a, 82, 765
Mortuary magic, 8-9
Mosaic, 367, 427, 764
Mosaic law, see Law
Moses, see other index
Mother, goddess or Great, 216, 360
Mouse, 23, 80, 166, 175, 213, 325,
491, 587, 7:57; field-, 98, 279;
shrew-, 7^, 86, 88
Mountain, marvelous, 346-7; mag-
netic, 756; affected by magic,
226, 416
Mule, 88, 183, 390, 589, 736
Mullein, 490
Muscle, 145, 150, 580
Muses, 371
Mushroom, 219
Music, 319, 325, 534,619, 744; and
magic, 6; and medicine, 124; and
architecture, 185 ; of the spheres,
26, 184, 193, 371, 487, 544, 622
Mutton-fat, 722
Mycenaean art, 301
Myriogenesis, 537
Myrnvecia, a gem, 166
Myrrh, 586, 765
Mysia, 216
Mysteries, 139, 216, 221, 223, 243,
245, 248, 317, 360-1, 368, 377, 428-
g; and see Eleusis, Mithra
Mysticism, 211, 254-5, 677, 763
Mythology, and magic, 8, 21 ; and
astrology, 16, 282-3; miscel-
laneous, 211, 215, 282, 294, 327,
407, 41 5-6, 545-6, 620
Nail, metal, 78, 81, 87, 90, 280, 581,
722
Nail parings, toe and finger, 71,
581
Names, see of Christ and God,
and Words, power of
Nannacus, see Annacus
Nard, 169
Nativities, 25, 95, 104, 115, 185,
471, 559-60, 632, 679, 712
Nature, Pliny on, 42, 46-7; Sen-
eca, loi ; Galen, 150-1 ; as a
teacher, 155; Plutarch, 210; in
contrast to fate, 375
Neck, stiff, 737
Necromancy, 21, 197, 228, 233, 264,
270, 280, 300, 419, 466, 539, 629,
705 ; as proof of immortality,
416 ; relation to science, 744
Nectabis, 463
Nectanebo or Nectanebus, chap,
xxiv, 391, 463, 516, 704
Needle, copper, 590; eye of, 396
Nektanebes, Nekht - Har - ehbet,
Nekhte-nebof, 558-9; and see
Nectanebus
Neo-Latin, 732, 757
GENERAL INDEX
8oi
Neo-PIatonism, chap, xi, ii6, 208,
296-7, 349. 540, 544-S, 661
Nero, emperor, 61, 171, 201, 260,
262, 423-s, 553, 585
Nerva, emperor, 244
Nerve and nervous system, 145-6
Nestorian, 554
Nettle, 636, 768
Neuri, 330
Nias Island, 170
Niceta, a character in the Recogni-
tions, chap, xvii
Nicias, 22, 204
Niello, 769
Night-shade, an herb, 581
Night time and magic, 68, 78, 129,
224-6, 234
Nigromancy, see Necromancy
Nikon, father of Galen, 122
Nile, 102, 179-80, 198, 254, 559;
horses, 169
Nimrod and magic, 413
Nine, 88, 371, 590, 592, 598, 721,
727
Nineveh, 243
Nitrate, 772
Nitro-muriatic acid, 772
Noah's ark, 20; and see Flood
Noon, 248, 755
Norman and Normandy, 427, 745
Nose, 576, 589
Notebook, 45-6; and see Lecture
notes
Notory art, 267
Nude and Nudity, 83, 93, 295, 565,
588
Numa, king, 274, 505
Number, observance of, and
theory of perfect, 26, 69, 91, 178,
212, 258, 273, 317, 355-7, 370, 373,
383, 430, 441, 521, 544-5, 621, 627,
675 ; and see Five, Four, Nine,
Seven, Ten, Three
Numitor, king, 602
Nymph, 546
Oak, 493
Oath, 430
Obelisk, 558
Obscenity in magic and medicine,
61-2, 167-8, 204, 207, 236
Observation, Pliny, 48, 53-4;
magicians, 64-5 ; Ptolemy, 105,
107, no, 112; Galen, 156; re-
puted Chaldean, 95, 316; Dios-
corides, 606; and see Experi-
mental method
Obstetrics, see Child-birth
Occult virtue, discussions of and
references to of a general char-
acter, in Egypt, 10; Pliny, 64-5,
75-6, 81, 89; Galen, 169-70;
Vitruvius, 183; Plutarch, 212-3;
Neo-Platonists, 304, 307, 311,
320, 542-3; Brahmans, 257-8;
Marbod, 778-81 ; miscellaneous,
441, 454, 468-9
Ocean, 489
Ocimum, an herb, 93
Oculist, 284, 670
Odor, foul, 536
Odysseus, 264, 281, 509, 629
Oea, 222ff.
Oil, 68, 90, 92, 130, 142, 154, 168-9,
171, 175, 213, 256, 373, 572, 606,
724, 779
Ointment, see Unguent
Old-v^fives, 166, 204, 234, 250, 272,
586 ; and see Witch
Olybrius, emperor, 606
Olympias, mother of Alexander,
56off.
Olympic games, 22, 102
Olympus, Mt., 198, 296, 429
Omens and portents, 14, 92, 178,
201, 231, 251, 254, 260, 318, 430,
471, 543, 560, 562, 675
One, Once, for the first time, 82,
92, 210, 582
Onesiphorus, 396
Onion, 20
Onoel, a spirit, 367
Ophites, a marble, 87
Ophites, a sect, 365, 383
Opium, 724,
Opobalsam, 128
Optics, 108, 218, 237, 276, 669
Oracle, 21, 95, 203, 206-7, 253, 278,
295, 318, 432, 442, 466, 534, 627
Oratory, 535, 776
Ordeal, 386, 468, 759
Oreites, a gem, 295
Orestes, 324
Oreus, 365
Organ, musical, 187-8, 192
Oriental attitude, exaggerated es-
timate of, 20-1, 388
Originality, 569, 575, 616
Origanum, an herb, 218
Origenists, 461, 519
Oromazes, a magician, 236
Orphic rites, 296, 429
Osiris, 13, 196, 223, 233, 546
Ossifrage, 87
Ostrich, 636
Ouroboros, the encircling serpent,
197, 763
Owl, 63, 68, 70, 253
802
GENERAL INDEX
Ox, 468, 722, 755
Oxford, 642
Oxygen, 143
Oyster, 218
Padua, 164
Paeanites, a gem, 329
Paganism, 203, 294, 317, 327, 512,
chap, xxiv, 661-2
Painting, 177, 187, 764
Palatine hill, 125, 134
Palermo, 427
Palestine, 132, 280, 438
Palimpsest, 553
Palm, 62, 230, 333, 636
Pamphile, a witch, 229ff.
Pamphylia, 132
Pan, the god, 251, 546
Panacea, 172
Pancrates, a magician, 280-1
Pantarhe, 252
Panther, 74, 256
Papacy, 705 ; see Sixtus IV for
patronage of learning by
Papyri, 12, 14, 22, 27-8, 193, 196,
365, 467, 686
Paradise, 367, 470, 488
Paralysis, 739; of the face, 738;
tongue, 755
Parchment, 589, 729, 764
Pard, 74, 168
Paris, 642
Parrot, 575
Parthians, ^73, 376
Partridge, 16%. 324, 574
Pastoral magic, 70
Paternoster, see Lord's Prayer
Pathology, 576
Paul the apostle, 405, 413, 424, 449,
505; potion of, 739
Peacock, 574, 636
Pebble, 591
Pelican, 324
Pella, 278
Penalty, 293, 313, 433
Penance, 513
Pendant, 301
Peony, 78, 173, 614, 740, 756
Pepper, 169, 176, 256, 586, 637
Pergamum, 122, 124, 130, 136, 149,
171, 236
Peristereos, an herb, yy
Persecution, fear of, 194
Persia and Persian, 58, 66, 376,
451, 475, 479, S03, 553, 558, 744.
762
Personification, 198, 343
Perspective, see Optics
Peru, 7, 17
Peter the apostle, .231, chap xvii,
505
Petroselinon, 132
Phaethon, 283
Phalangium, an insect, 86
Phallic ritual, 308
Phantasm and Phantom, see Ap-
parition, Ghost
Phanuel, an angel, 342
Pharaoh's dream, 358; magicians,
379, 38s, 417, 438, 446, 464, 470,
506-8, 629
Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 10,
20, 83, 122, 133, 343, 413, 434,
610, 734-5
Phidias, 24, 407
Philae, 559
Philip of Macedon, 331, s6off.
Philoctetes, 294
Philology, 535, 545
Philosopher's stone, 52, 197, 398,
762^ ; and see Alchemy
Philosophy, Greek, 21 ; and al-
chemy, 13, 199; and magic, 24,
61, 234, 246^ 310, 440, 535; and
astrology, 674; and business, 97;
Seneca, 103; Galen and pseudo-
Galen, 123-4, 127, ^22,, 139, 146,
149-50, 176, 180; Vitruvius, 185-
6; other mentions of, 220, 223,
279, 360, 416, 466, 471, 481, 485,
493, 536, 620, 707 ; and see names
of individuals (largely in other
index) and schools.
Phlebotomy, see Bleeding
Phoebus, 620; and see Apollo
Phoenicia, 438
Phoenix, 207, 257, 332-3, 347, 460
Phraotes, 258
Phrygia and Phrygian, 206, 430,
597, 630
Phylactery, 513
Physica, 512, 579-80
Physics, 644
Physiognomy, 26, 176, 179, 460,
668
Physiology, 145, 395, 657-60
Pig, 76, 85, 168, 219, 393, 587, 727,
729, 764, 766; and see Swine
Pill, 739
Pillow, beneath one's, 90
Pine-tree, 490, 493
Piper, 217
Pirronius, a magician, 604
Piston, 192
Place, observed in magic, 645
Plagiarism, 186, 483, 649, 742, 746-7
Plague, Galen and, 124, 142, 171 ;
of 1348 A.D., 164; Apollonius
GENERAL INDEX
803
and, 259, 391 ; of 542 A.D., 575 ;
of Egypt, 325, 357, 491, 522, 68s,
687, 696 ; miscellaneous, 410, 432,
, 538-9, 600
Planetary week, 16, 513, 633
Planets, when distinguished? 13-4,
16; properties of, 97, 113-4, 346,
3S3, 526, 529, 662, 711; in Gnos-
ticism, 361; in art, 379; and the
metals, 347, 368, 709, 762,, 767;
and herbs, 291 ; position at crea-
tion, 711, 713; and formation of
foetus, see Child-birth
Plate, metal, 229, 386, 572, 582
Platonism, 221, 243, 456; for Plato
see other index
Pleiades, 179, 355, 636
Pleurisy, 738
Plough, 80
Pneumatics, 188
Poetry, 6, 95, 5ii,.53S
Poison and Poisoning, relation to
magic, 25, 61, 441 ; to medicine,
56; venomous human beings,
324; safeguards against, 67, 70-1,
386, 614, and see Antidote ; mis-
cellaneous, 81, 86-7, 231-2, 397,
417, 460, 535, 56s, 572, 574, 668,
721, 722
Polar star, 384
Polion, an herb, yj
Politics, 358, 666
Pompholyx, 132
Pontianus, 223-4
Pontiff, 124, 149
Pontus, drugs from, 87, 132
Poplar, 90
Poppy, bearing stones, 216
Population, 136
Pork, 142
Pot-herbs, 606
Potter and Potterjj 384, 433,
588-9 .
Praestigium, 630, 665
Praetor, 538
Prayer, 12, 79, 104, 219, 233, 382,
398, 412, 423, 426, 443, 457, 530-1,
589, 64s, 671, 705, 728; procuring
answer to, 70, 294, 593, 779; by
others than man, 457 ; to others
than God, 260, 264, 303, 526, 598-
9, 661 ; of St. John, 721 ; and see
Lord's Prayer, Incantation
Predestination, 514
Prefect, 526
Pregnant stone, 740
Presbyter, 437
Prescription, medical, 152, 159,
17?
Presentation, ' literary and scien-
tific, 570, 595, 625
Prester, John, 477
Priest, 9, 13, 15, 21, 79, 85, 131,
195, 197, 300, 386, 533, 754, 763,
766
Priscillianists, 478, 519
Private parts, 343, 536
Procharus, 397
Procons,ul, 235, 527
Professions, learned, 5, 125-6, 186-
7' 744 . .
Prognostication, medical, 164
Prophecy and Prophet, 25, 77, 205,
230, 352, 370, 439, 447, 459, 465,
476, 479. 534
Proteus, 263
Psychology, 75, 144-5, 657-60
Ptah-Seker-Ausar, 233
Ptolemais, 541
Ptolemy, king of Egypt, 135
Pulse, 144-5, 430, 658
Pump, 187, 192
Punic, 597
Puppy, see Dog
Purging, 667; the lungs, 143
Purification, 62, 204, 232, 441, 531,
598
Purple, 173, 197-8, 590-1, 604
Push-ball, 487
Pylades, 144-5
Pyrethrum, an herb, 614
Pyrigoni, 324
Pyrites, 571, 768
Pyromancy, 260, 629
Pyrrhus, 83
Pytho, 629
Pythagorean, 26, 32, 50, 58, 61, 6z,
65-6, 179, 184, 243, 258, 260, 280,
370, 456, 544
Quail, 490
Quadrivium, 632
Qualities, the four, 114, 139-40,
154, 157, 218, 48s, 751, 755; and
see Cold, Heat
Quartan fever, 269, 579-81, 7^6
Quaternities, divine, 674
Quick-lime, 434, 571
Quinsy, 77, 89
Quintus Cicero, 269ff.
Rabbi, 355, 445, 470
Rabbit, 588, 729
Race, 184, 781 ; for strange races
see Hyperboreans, Seres, etc.
Radiation of force or light, 643-6
Radish, 721
Rainbow, 409
8o4
GENERAL INDEX
Rain-making, 23-4, 103, 386, 430
Rain-water, 81-2
Ram, 213, 332, 424, 467
Raphael, the angel, 342, 367, 447.
452, 454
Rat, 76
Ravenna, 2^y, "jdz
Raymond, archbishop of Toledo,
657
Reading, medieval, 604, 617-8
Reason, 218, 660; free from
magic, 300; and experience, 157
Red, used, 65, 581, 598, 740
Red Sea, 84, 208
Redeemer, 361, 363, 438
Reed, 75-6, 80, 90, 215, 591, 726
Reformed churches, 447
Reggio, 445, 745
Relics of saints, 444, 446, 593, 675
Religion, and magic, 5-6, 8-9, 15,
18, 20, 22-3, 33-4, 60, 232, 256,
505. 533; and astrology, iS-7,
524, 529-31 ; and science, 407-8,
479, chap, xxi ; other than Chris-
tian, 94, 361, 725, and see Mo-
hammedanism, Paganism, etc. ;
medieval religious attitude, 746,
752; and see Christianity, God,
Theology, Trinity, etc.
Renaissance, 20, 122, 570, 618
Reseda, an herb, 93
Respiration, see Breathing
Resurrection of the body, 47, 41S.
541
Resuscitation of corpses, 280, 391,
394, 397, 424, 426, 638, 763
Revelation, 56, 253, 407; and see
Divination by
Revolutions, astrological, 26, 377,
650
Rhetoric, 124, 221, 269, 483, 518,
533, 535, 555, 596, 603, 700
Rhodes, 269, 301
Rhododendron, 175
Rhubarb, first mention of, 576
Riddles, 636
Right hand, etc., used or preferred,
70, 78, 81, 83, 88, 90, 92, 324-5,
332, 574, 580-1, 591-2, 767
Ring, 69, 78, 173, 219, 251, 253,
280, 292, 379, 564, 582, 590, 592,
599, 656, 662, 70s, 755
Ring-worm, 93
Rip van Winkle, 399
Ritual, 12, 23 ; and see Ceremonial
Roads, Roman, 135-6
Robber, 117
Robert, king of France, 672. 704,
736
Robert Guiscard, 745
Romance, Greek, 22, 221, 232, 553;
Medieval, 557
Romanesque, 502
Romans, traits of, 184
Rome, as center of learning, 124,
128-31, 135, 162, 201, 222, 242,
269, 277, 537, 586, 741; other
mentions, 209, 230, 366, 372, 403,
408, 421, 423-4, 464, 553
Romulus, 209, 274, 330, 602
Root, see Herb
Rose, 230, 751 ; wild, 56
Royal Society, 214
Rubbing, 142
Ruddy complexion, 768-71
Rue, 737 ; eaten by weasel, 74, 324,
626
Ruin, excavated, 762
Russet, 89
Rust, 766
Rustic, experience, 578, 585
Sabaoth, 365, 367, 379, 45i, 583,
599
Sabbath, 204, 513
Sabians, 661-3
Saccrdos, 235
Sacra Via, 125, 133, 424
Sacrifice, 68, 79, 104, 131, 166, 215,
248, 250-1, 261, 294-5, 308-9, 317,
363, 414, 431, 645, 661-3, 705;
human, 62, 207, 249, 418, 539,
687
Sacrum amarwm, 739
Saffron, 656, 765
Sagmina, sacred herbs, 76
St. Gall, 640, 677
St. Sophia, 575, 770
Sakkara, 9
Salamander, 54, 68, 85, 214, 324,
511, 636; "wool," 214
Salerno, chaps, xxxi, xxxii
Salisatores, 630
Saliva, 20, 82, 88-9, 92-3, 174, 281,
273, 392, 573, 588, 592, 656, 769
Salmon, 424
Salt, 213, 373, 467, 583, 670; and
see Holy, Sodom
Saltus Gilhcrii, 705
Salve, S7, 606, 722
Salvia, 739
Samaria, 363-4, 368, 421
Samothracian orgies, 149
Samuel, ghost of, see Endor, witch
of
Sandal-Makers, street of, 134
Sandals, 230
Sandastros, a gem, 97
GENERAL INDEX
80s
Sapphire, 496, 779
Saracen, 138, 718
Sarcophagus, 476
Sard, 777
Sardinia, 329
Sardis, 255
Sardonia, an herb, 329
Sardonic laugh, 329
Satire, 285
Saturn, god, 207; planet, 97, 184,
580, 622,, 768
Saturninus, a heretic, 372
Satyr, 263-4, 546
Saul, 448, 469
Scarab, 10, 68, Z2,Z
Scarification, 721
Scepticism, see Credulity and
Sciatica, 69
Scientific spirit, curiosity, etc., 144,
234, 308, 378-9, 437, 485-6, 494,
502-4, 528, 535,. 559, 669, 752;
and see Experiment, Observa-
tion
Scipio Orfitus, 223
Scorpion, 74, 81, 85-8, 171, 174, 494,
573, 583, 656, 666
Scotland, 654
Scrofula, 82, 89, 91, 587
Sculpture, 277, 501
Scylla, the monster, 263, 636; an
herb, 526
Scythian, 59, 77, 245, 407, 496, 654
Sea, 225, 738 ; and see Bath
Sea-calf, 580; faring, 245; foam,
468; gull, 159; hare, 171, 236,
238, 587; holly, 213; serpent,
325, 574; star, 89; urchin, 68,
490-1
Seal of Diana, 130
Sealing, 69, 278, 468
Seasons, four, 114
Secrecy, 194, 227, 233, 239, 254, 287,
29s, 372, 40s, 420, 579, 765. 776
Seed, 605 ; seedless herbs, 489
Seia, 599
Selene, 215
Selenomancy, 98
Semen, 369
Semitic, 15
Semo Sancus, 421
SenedoH, an herb, 614
Sense and Senses, 150, 158, 180,
355
Sepia, 87
Septimius Severus, emperor, 243,
253, 293 ; and see Severi
Septizonium, 253
Serapis, 379, 442, 763
Seres, 376, 402, 412-4
Serf and Servant, 739; and see
Colonus; Slavery
Sermon, 426, 482!?.
Serpent, lifted up in the wilder-
ness, 379; and see Snake,
Dragon, Sea-serpent
Sesame, 655
Sethians, 365
Sethos, 14
Seven, 14, 16, 49, 67, 69, 169, 179,
198, 212, 232, 253, 258, 279, 282,
318, 333, 346, 355-6, 365, 2,7^, 373,
376, 378, 383, 385, 411, 429, 435.
491, 522, 537, 545, 581, 590, 592,
599, 633, 676, 724, 771, 777
Seven sleepers, 725, 759
Severi, dynasty of, 125, 130; and
see Septimius
Sevres, 762
Sex, observed in magic, 69, 78,
80-2, 94, 729, 759; of hyena, 397;
of herbs and stones, 81, 764; of
numbers, 179, 371 ; of planets
and signs, 282, 662, 709-12; pre-
dicted, 175-6, 516; intercourse,
141, 639, 7(>7
Shadow, 605
Shadow-footed, 256
Shark, 494
Shaving the head, 142, 560, 724
Sheba, 479
Sheep, 68, 102, 168, 173, 219, 467,
490, 582, 656; the lost, 363; and
see Lamb, Ram, Shepherd, Pas-
toral
Shellfish, 98, 517
Shepherd, 478
Ship, 604 ; wreck, 748
Shirt, 581
Shoe, 638
Short-hand, 134, 232
Showbread, 385
Sibyl, 546 ; for Sibylline books see
other index
Sicily, 85, 427, 52s
Sideritis, a stone, 295
Sieve, 91, 250, 325
Signatures, 310
Sign, see Abbreviation, Divination,
Prognostication, Sex predicted,
Star, Zodiac
Silence observed, 722
Silas, 449
Silk, 608
Silvanus, 546
Silver, 590, 599
Similarity, argument from, 238,
614 ; and see Like cures like
Simon the Canaanite, 392
8o6
GENERAL INDEX
Simon Magus, chap, xvii, 362-5,
397, 439
Simon, St., 435
Simples, medicinal, in Pliny, 46,
83; Galen, 128, 153, 160, 168,
571
Sin, 344, 372-s, 430, 457, 520; effect
on nature, 254, 345, 350, 409-10,
490
Sinew, 68, 148
Siphon, 189, 191
Siren, 263
Sisebut, king, 623
Sisinnios, 398
Six, 184, 356, 521
Sixtus IV, pope, 349, 506
Skeleton, 233
Skin, 141, 769; changing one's, 170,
238, 324; disease, 102, 537; see
Animals, parts of ; and the
names of particular animals for
the use of their skins
Skull, 80, 580
Sky, see Heaven
Slav, 658
Slavery, 136, 170, 350, 515, 668,
683
Slavonic, 342, 345, 398
Sleep, magic, 399
Sleight-of-hand, 370
Slot-machine, 197
Smallpox, 668
Smilax, 92
Smoke, 89, 615
Smyrna, 123
Snail, 89, 92, 586
Snake, remedies against, 84-9, 99,
17s, 258, 29s, 365, 386, 392,_ 495,
599, 614; animals antipathetic to,
84-S, 99, 231 ; virtue in, 23, 168,
197; of India, 214, 564; Satan
and demons as, 365, 391, 430;
charming, 83, 278-80, 325, 511,
561-2, 638-9; sting and venom
of, 56, 81-2, 102, foam of, 67;
sloughing of, 170; not found in
Ismuc, 183 ; at Delphi, 283 ; on
a pendant, 301 ; medical knowl-
edge of, 441 ; and see Fennel,
tasted by
Sneeze, divination from, 95, 205,
207
Social aspect of magic, 59; life in
antiquity, 137, 185
Socrates, 137, 139, 204, 234, 240,
270, 288, 532
Soda, washing, 571
Sodom, salts of, 138
Soldier, 56-7
Solemnity, required in magic,
644-6
Solon, 326, 355
Son of God, 372, 438
Soot, 236
Sopater, 313
Sophist and Sophistry, 540-1
Soporific, 758
Sorcery, ' 10, 25, 61, 96, 166, 270,
279, 324, 344, 352, 386, 390, 393,
437-8, 441, 655, 690, 73Z] coun-
ter-magic'against, 17-20, 70, 81,
94, 301, 391, 600; and see Goetia,
Witchcraft
Sortilegi, 630
Sory, 132
Soul, human, Plato on, 25-6;
Pliny, 47, 96; Galen, 150, 178,
180; Plutanch, 206-7, 213, ■217;
Neo-Platonists, 309-10, ,318;
Gnostics, 364 ; location of, 735 ;
apart from laody, 399, 418, 455,
510, 546; immortality of, 416,
419, 469, 531, 541 ; other than
human, 198, 213; and see World-
soul
Sound, 143, 201, 430, 542
Sousnyos, St., 398
Spain, 380, 433, 489, 580, 597, 607
Spanish era, 773
Sparrow, 271
Sparta and Spartan, 21-2, 216, 301
Species, 304, 493, 751
Speech, impediment of, 536
Sphacra barbaricce, 537
Sphere, sec Earth, Universe, land
other index
Spice, 250, 257, 295, 606
Spider, 90, 94, 168-9, I7i, 175, 5^7
Spinal cord, 146
Spirit, good or evil (including
angel and demon, but see also
Apparition, Ghost, Necromancy,
Soul), in early Arabic poetry, 6;
in the ancient orient, 11, 15, 18-9,
24; classical Greece, 24, 26,
180-1 ; on nature of, Plutarch,
203-4, 206-8; Apuleius, 240;
Philostratus, 263-4; lamblichus,
309-10; Enoch, 343; Origen and
Celsus, 441-3, 452-3; Augustine,
508; Martianus Capella, 545-6;
Dionysius the Areopagite, 546-7;
Christian ascription of other
religions to demons, 370, 414,
42gf[., 442, 453 ; viisease and,
II, 18-9, 299, 343, 452, 722; ex-
pulsion of, and power over, 253,
262, 386, 405, 414, 417-8, 441,
GENERAL INDEX
807
443, 754, 779, and see Exorcism ;
fall of, 343, 374-5; familiar and
guardian, 207, 210, 368, 370; in
the air, 206, 240, 424, 463, 508,
635 ; in heavens and stars, chap.
XV, 343, 397, 431, 458, 487-8,
519; in the moon, 207; in na-
ture, 181, 296, 308, 310, 347, 382,
414, 430, 443, 452-4, 543; invo-
cation of, 301, 308, 310, 320,
361, 367-8, 371-2 384, 419, 437,
442, 447, 449-52, 543, 655, 674,
and see Necromancy, Notory
art; magic, astrology, arts and
sciences ascribed to, 195, 240,
313, 343, 368, 370, 412, 414, 417-
8, 422, 429-32, 441-3, 447-8, 453,
458-9, 463, 465-6, 506-7, 509, 513,
518, 629, 675, 705 ; mediums be-
tween God or gods and men,
206, 208, 240, 349, 452-4, 459,
621, 675 ; orders of, 308-9, 320,
363, 408, 455, 507, 545-7, 727;
possessed by, 308, 392, 413-4,
434, 510, 640, 723-4, 754-5; safe-
guards against, 18, 216, 293, 391,
398, 449, 615, 726, 728
Spiritus, 147, 658-60
Spit, see Saliva
Spleen, 57, 68-9, 85, 536, 577, 579,
584, 587-8, 591
Spodium or Spodos, 132
Sponge, 227
Spoon, 721
Spring, vi^ater 229 ; caused to flow^,
769 ; and see Fountain, Seasons
Staff, 252, 435, 679
Stag, 84, 207, 294, 324; and see
Deer
Stained glass, 427, 435, 770
Stans, the, 415
Star, nature of, god or animal,
etc., 25-6, 103, 206, 210, 212, 240,
303, 315, 343-4, 353, 436, 456, 519-
21, 530, 620-1, 632, 662, 670; as
sign, 302, 410, 458, 544; not
cause of evil, 305, 354, 475, 514;
cause of evil, 411; affected by
magic, 225-6; shooting, 71, 589;
fixed, 114; and see Astrology;
Christ, birth of; Magi
Star-fish, 56
Starling, 490
Statue, 91, 279, 280, 764; healing,
284; animated, 188, 416-7, 424,
435 ; and see Image, Sculpture
Steam, 192
Stele of Metternich, 559
Stepmother, 215
Stoic, 50, 141, 178-81, 210, 269-70,
283, 350, 397, 456
Stomach, 92, 173, 536, 592, 656, 757
Stone, the disease, 87, 588, 729;
and see Gem
Stoning to death, 262, 399
Storax, a gum, 495
Stork, 257, 324-5, 331, 460, 580
Storm-averting magic, 71, 80, 92,
102, 252, 313
Stream, 91, 225-6, 546; and see
Fountain
Stupa, 251, 413
Style, literary, 222-3, 525, 570, 620
Styx, river, 326
Suanir, 435
Suffumigation, see Fumigation
Suggestion, force of, 265
Sulla, 532
Sulphur, 279, 764
Sumerian, 15, 17
Summun bonum, 752
Sun, god and worship, 97, 251, 261,
294-5, 317-8, 382, 492, 524; per-
sonified, 347, 410, 457, 529; and
magic, 141, 225-7, 308, 386; as-
trological influence of, 99, 179,
211 ; rising and dawn, 215, 230-1,
256, 261 ; before sunrise, 69, 71,
78, 91, 94, 131, 173, 281, 583, 599,
768 ; before sunset, 583 ; experi-
ment with, 55; dial, 185, 187;
distance and size of, 219, 488;
tropical, 214 ; tree of, 564
Superstition, Plutarch on, 203-4;
in medicine, chaps, xxv, xxxi
Surgery, 148-9, 536, 569, 668, 723,
735
Suriel, a spirit, 367
Swaddling cloth, 392, 396
Swallow, habits of, 75, 324, 615,
636 ; use of, 68, 70, 168, 175, 581,
721
Swallow-stone, 755, 766
Swallow-wort, 75, 615, 626
Swan, 636; song, 255, 332
Sweat, 167, 392, 767, 779
Swine, 70, 77, 79, 99, 217; and see
Pig
Sword, 78, 295 ; magic 258
Sylvia, 404
Symbol and Symbolism, 166, 251,
310, 361, 367, 502, 506, 546,
676-7, 679, 721 ; in alchemy,
766-7, 771-2
Sympathetic magic, 68, 84-7, 92,
238, 271, 296, 299, 304, 312, 314,
320, 354, 542-3, 614
Symposium, 137, 201-2
8o8
GENERAL INDEX
Symptoms, 72)S
Syncretism, 525
Synod at Rome, 389, 402
Syracuse, 476
Syria, Syriac, and Syrian, 280,
374, 387, 395, 403-4, 422, 437,
497, 499, 503, 554, 559-6i, 577,
597, 601, 661, 663, 747, 762
Syrian goddess, 231
Syringe, 192
Syrup, 560
Tablecloth, 214
Tables, astronomical, 14; of con-
tents, 50, 153
Tablet, astrological, 560, 563; and
see Cuneiform, Lead
Taboo, 21 ; and see Iron
Tagus, 630
Tamarisk, 85, 587
Tape-worm, first mentioned, 576
Tarpeian rock, 426
Tarquin the Proud, 602
Tarrutius, an astrologer, 209, 330
Tarsus, 259, 479
Taste, sense of, 505
Taxo, 600, 636
Teiresias, 281
Telines, 21
Temperaments, four, 668
Temple, 533; of Peace, 125; de-
vices, 192-3; in alchemy, 197-8,
763; Egyptian, 261, 301, 559;
Jewish, 395 ; Greek, 407 ; of the
Sun, 435; of Liber, 496; Chris-
tian, 533
Terebinth-tree, 571
Terra sigillata, 130-2, 154, 756
Tetter, 93
Textbook, 635
Text and Textual criticism and
history, magic, 9; cuneiform, 15,
17-8; classics, 21, 27; Aristotle,
24, 27; Pliny, 52; Ptolemy, 106,
108; Galen, 1 19-21; Hero, 189;
alchemy, 193 ; Plutarch, 202 ;
Aelian, 322; Philo, 348-9;
patristic, 374, 377, 389, 401-6,
477, 495; Physiologus, 497:91
Alexander legend, chap, xxiv ;
Medicine of Pliny, 596 ; Dios-
corides, 594, 606-13 ; medicine,
567, 731; Isidore, 623; medieval
alterations, 3, 338, 683, 720
Thaphtabaoth, a spirit, 369
Thaumaturgy, 190
Thautabaoth, a spirit, 367
Theater, 184, 422, 425, 486, 506,
512
Thebes and Theban, 179, 491, 553,
765
Theft, discovery of, and recovery
of object, 644, 666, 681, 718, 725;
aids, 780
Theodamas, 294
Theodoric the East Goth, 569, 617,
619
Theodosius I, emperor, 584
Theodosius II, emperor, 327
Theology, astral, 15, 17, 360-1, 543,
621; and magic, 18, 234; Galen,
149; Egyptian, 370; attitude
shown, 619-20
Therapeutae, 349, 356
Therapeutics, 10, 122, 141, 735
Theriac, 130, 733, 756
Thersites, 269
Thessaly, home of witches, 58, 203,
226
Theurgy, chap, xi, 505, 535
Thomas the apostle, in India, 475,
477
Thoth, 288
Thotmes IV, king of Egypt,
13
Thought, history of, 3-4; ex~
plained physiologically, 659
Thread, 89, 590, 656
Three, Thrice, etc., 69, 79, 82, 88-9,
91, 93, 169, 174, 295, 476, 479,
582, 588-9, 592, 614, 656, 721,
730, 736, 7(17
Threshold, 69, 89
Throat, disease of, 82
Thunder, divination from, 57, 96,
262, 546, 562, 629, 635-6, 674,
679; other observance of, 78;
thought to produce mushrooms,
219; stage, 468
Thyme, 571
Tiberius, emperor, 59, 776
Tick, 67
Tide, 254, 274, 351, 517, 530, 703
Tigellinus, 259, 263, 265
Tiger, 256, 502
Tigris-Euphrates, 13-6, 281-2
Ti'i, 18
Time, devices for telling, 115, 144,
187, 276, 2)Zi, 395; observed in
magic, 645
Titus, emperor, 42, 45
Toad, 771
Tobias nights, 688
Toledo, 657
Tomb, Egyptian, 9, 14
Tongue, 98, 150; use of, 175, 726,
779; gift of, 208, 386
Tooth, 68, 82, 84, 159, 279, 599,
GENERAL INDEX
809
600, 656, 769; extracting, filling,
etc., 175, 573, 779
Toothache, cures for, 56, 68, 88-90,
169, 175, 577, 588-9, 592, 599, 614,
724, 727, 755
Toothpowder, 236
Topaz, 495
Top, spinning, 487
Torpedo, 159
Tortoise, 68, 74, 76, 88, 91, 325,
626, 764
Torture, 381, 538
Touch, 324
Tower, of Babylon, 16
Trade, 486, 494 ; and see Merchant,
Business
Tradition, see Authority, Legend,
Textual history
Trajan, emperor, 135, S73
Transfer, magic, see Disease
Transformation, magic, 21, 23, 226,
250, 280, 390, 393, 399, 415-7,
424, 446, 470, 509, 561-2, 630,
773 ; and see Werwolf
Translation, Latin, of Ptolemy,
106, 109-10; Gal?n, 121, 176;
Hero, 189; church fathers, 44S,
484; post-classical and early
medieval, 570, 576, 619, chap.
xxiv; from the Arabic, 611,
690-1, chaps, xxviii, xxx, xxxii;
pretended, 292; Anglo-Saxon,
638; other vernacular, 498, 612,
677, 778; Greek, 331, 342, 637;
magic, 430; Arabic, 106, 189,
292, 498, 554, 607, 652-3
Travel, 575, 668, 743
Tree, 255; of knowledge, 367, 474;
of life, 350; sun and moon, 474
Trial, for heresy or magic,
Apuleius, 222, 232-40; Apol-
lonius, 249 ; Priscillian, 381 ;
Basilius, 639
Triangle, 206, 356
Trigona, Trigones, or Triplicitates,
114, 184
Trigonometry, 107
Trinity, 479, 541, 619-20
Triptolemus, 546
Trivia, 236
Trojan war, 260, 271, 294, 363
Trophonius, cave of, 204, 206, 248,
282
Truth, devotion to, 400; Galen,
1 18-9, 123, 127; Plotinus, 300;
Plain of, 211; Simon's Helen
and, 364-5
Tube, hidden, 469
Tubingen theory, 423
Tumor, 71, 82, 93, 571, 587, 590,
599
Tunis, 744
Tunny fish, 218
Turpentine, 132
Tuscan, 598
Tutia, 132
Twelve, 14, 383, 385, 411, 495
Twins, 81 ; argument from, against
astrology, 273, 275, 514
Typhon, 463, 558
Tyriac, see Theriac
Ulcer, 580, 779
Underground, magic learned, 280;
and see Burial
Underwear, 386, 581
Underworld, 16, 251, 282, 383, 470
Unguent, 55, 128-30, 133, 142, 169,
229, 367, 420, 739, 755
Unicorn, 255, 636
Universals and particulars, 622
Universe, theories of, 180-1, 193,
210, 254, 312, 361-4, 371, 397;
duration of, 374-6, 541 ; spheric-
ity of, 408
Urine, use of, 81-3, 325, 573, 581,
640, 684, 72,7, 7A(>, 763, 766-9;
emission of, 69, 739, 756
Ursa Major, 355
Utensils, 624
Vacuum, 189, 669
Valentinus the Gnostic, 364, 374,
411, 488
Valve, 192; in brain, 659
Vampire, see Empousa, Lamia
Vapor, 141
Vaporization, 724
Vascular system, 30
Vases, Greek, 266, 770
Vein, 147, 576, 728
Venesection, see Bleeding
Ventriloquism, 352, 448, 470, 560;
and see Endor, witch of
Venus, goddess, 236 ; planet, 96-7
Verbena, an herb, 66, y6, 614, 725
Vernacular literature, 3; and see
Translation
Verus, L., emperor, 124
Vervain, see Verbena
Vespasian, emperor, 253
Vesuvius, Mt., 45
Veterinary, 593, 722, 724, 730
Vinegar, 57, 71, 169, 175, 768
Vineyard, 604
Violet, 751
Viper, use of, 91, 142, 159, 170, 173,
2x8, 294, 331, 572, and see
8io
GENERAL INDEX
Theriac; remedy against, 213,
490, 721 ; mode of generation,
172, 238, 255, 277, 322,, 409, 491
Virgin and Virginity, 55, 83, 90,
93, 2j6, 279, 326, 431, 491, 639,
763 ; and see Chastity, and Mary,
Virgin
Virtue, see Occult
Virtues, three, 479 ; four, 675
Vision, theory of, 659, 669
Vitriol, 764
Vivisection, 147
Voice, 134, 146, 180, 184
Volcano, 254
Vowels, 92, 356, 371, 379
Vulture, 89, 22Z, 580, 724, 726, 729
Wall, of house, 69
Wand, magic, 20, 252, 508, 560
War and Warfare, 187, 358; de-
cried, 6, 46-7, 122
Warts, to get rid of, 71, 88, 166,
589,. 72,7
Washing, ceremonial, 295, 730
Wasp, 332
Water, and Waters, 142, 272), 4o8>
490; above the firmament, 181,
346, 458, 487, 632 ; drinking, 685 ;
dissolves magic, 227, 722; in
which feet washed, 175 ; marvel-
ous, medical, and chemical, 102,
183, 197, 329, 763; -jar and
-works, 187, 191-2; clock, see
Time ; underground, 55 ; and see
Fountain, Holy, Stream, Sea,
etc.
Wave theory, see Sound
Wax, 71, 229, 467-8, 571, 738; and
see Image
Weasel, 80, 231, 331, 396, 409, 460,
636 ; and see Rue, tasted by
Weather, observed, 178; pre-
dicted, 97, IIS, 181, 185, 231, 325,
463, 605, 642, 647 ; and see Rain-
making, Storm-averting magic
Well, 55, 251, 271
Werwolf, 23, 51, 339
Whale, 49
Wheat, 373, 598
Wheel, 192, 382; magic or solar,
266; of fortune, 683
Whetstone, 71
White, 78-9, 215, 295, 755
Widow, 71
Will, free, relation to fate and the
stars, 210, 275-6, 306, 315, 374-5,
412, 456, 475, 513, 518, 531, 620-2
William Rufus, king of England,
673
Wind, 16, 78, 373, 676, 678, 728
Wine, 55, 68-9, 132, 137, 142, 231,
263, 295, 572, 581, 605-6, 721, 739,
765 ; and see Falernian
Witch, Witchcraft, and Wizard, 2,
18-9, 164, 172, 203, 225-31, 251,
344, 373,. 407, 535,, 599, 722; and
see Goetia, Old-wives, Sorcery
Wolf, 80, 93, 172, 219, 332, 587-8,
656, 726; and see Werwolf
Woman, 396, 588, 710, 740-1 ; dis-
eases of, 82, 142, 289, 536, 746
Wood, 233
Woodpecker, 23, 78
Wool, 89, 173, 590, 656
Words, power of, 10, 24, 152, 207,
231, 239, 279, 299, 311, 370, 378,
384, 414, 422-31, 438, 445, 449-52,
476, 507, 561-2, 605, 627, 644,
666 ; and see Incantation
World-soul, 96, 150, 210, 254, 299,
303, 349, 358, 410, 544, 622
Worm, 89, 94, 582, 729, 754, 768;
and see Earthworm, Tape-worm
Wormwood, 722
Writing, a sin, 344; invisible, 265
Wryneck, 265-7
Yahweh, 446
Year 1000 A.D., 675
Yew, 81
York, 689
Youth, renewed or perpetual, see
Elixir, Fountain, Longevity
Zeus, 23, 193, 284, 380
Zodiac, 14, 16, 96, 98, 114, 179, 184,
283, 354, 378, 492, 520, 679, 711,
728; and parts of human body,
662, 673-4, 777
Zoology, 237, 503; and see Animal
Zone, 376
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Names of authors, editors, translators, publishers, etc., in Roman
type. Titles and periodicals in italics. Leading passages in italics.
Bibliographical abbreviations, such as EB, HL, PG, PL, are as a rule
not indexed. In the abbreviated titles such opening vi^ords as De and
Liber are omitted to facilitate aphabetical arrangement. In proper
names De and Von are usually designated by d. and v., and are treated
as initials.
Abammon, 307
Abano, Peter of, 162, 179, 409,
600, 610, 651, 66s, 710, 714
Abdallah, 693
Abdias, 425-6
Abel, A., 434
Abel, E., 291, 293, 463
Abelard, Peter, 475, 544
Abgarus, 395
Abhandlung en d. bayr. Akad.,
567-8
Abhandlung en d. Berlin Akad.,
121, 468, 732
Abhandlungen z. Gesch, d. Math.
Wiss., 642
Abraham the patriarch, reputed
book of, 445
Abraham, cited by Firmicus, 537
Abraham of Tortosa, 611
Abt, Apologie d. Apuleius, 22,
239
Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar,
745
Abu Sa'id Schadsan, 651
Accad. dei Lincei, Rendiconti dell',
499
Accad. di Monaco, Atti dell', 551
Acta Sanctorum, 296
Acts of the Apostles, 136, 510
Acts (Apocryphal)
of Archelaus, 398
of Barnabas, 397
of John, 397
of Nereus and Achilles, 425
of Paul, 396
of Paul and Thecla, 395
of Peter, 405
of Peter and Andrezv, 396
of Peter and Paul, 397, 424
of Philip, 397
of Pilate, 390, 395
of Thomas, 374, 397
Adalmus, 673
Adam, Moon-Book, 682
Adam of Bremen, yy^i
Adam of St. Victor, 398
Adams, F., 568
Ad-Damiri, 393, 688
Adelard of Bath, 100, 468, 652,
664, 706, 773
Adelbold, 706-7
Ademarus Cabannensis, 704
Adhelmus, see Aldhelm
Aelfric, 484, 677
Aelian, 238, 300, 322-6, 331
Aemilius Macer, 612
Aeschrion, 178
Aeschylus, 325
Aesculapius, 537, 597-8, 600, 735
Aesop, 553
Aethicus, see Ethicus
Aetius of Amida, 163, 170, 292,
chap. XXV
Agathodaemon, 195
Agathias, 575
Aggregator, 611
Agricola, De re metal., 132, 329
Agrippa, H. C, Occult Philosophyi
454. 653
Ahrens, K., 497, 499, 503
Ajasson, 42
Alandraeus, see Alchandrus
Albaihaqi, 670
Albandinus, 716
Alberic the Deacon, 752
Albertus Magnus, 158, 163, 326,
600, 658, 725, 772
Animal., 503, 563, 746
Causis et propriet., 563
Mineral., 501, 653
Somno ct zngilia, 359
Speculum astronomiae, 64,7, 650,
664
Veget. et plantis, 653
Albucasis, 742
Albumasar, 524, 647, 649-52, 691
Conjunctions, 649-51
Experiments, 649
811
8l2
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Flores, 649-50
Greater Introduction, 649
Lesser Introduction, 652
Mysteries, 651
Rains, 651-2
Revolutions, 651
Sadan, 651
Searching of the Heart, 649
Alchadrinus or Alchandrinus, see
Alchandrus
Alchandrus, 710-19
Breviary, 7i4ff.
Mathematica, 7ioff.
Alchamia, 774
Alchimus, 601
Alcibiades, see Helxai, Book of
Alcuin, 556, 617, 658
Aldhelm, 636
Aldus, see Medici antiqui
Alexander the Great, 331, 578
astrological treatises, 7i2ff.
Mirabilibus Indiae, 555-6, 564
Responsio ad Dindimum, 556
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 578
Alexander Polyhistor, 341
Alexander of Tralles, chap, xxv,
137-8, 174, 596, 721, 747 .
Alexandre, Oracula Sibylhna,
287
Alexis, Mandragorisomene, 22
Alfanus, 752-3
Al-Farabi, 744
Alfraganus, 72>7
Alfred the Great, king, 6^7
Algazel, 744
Alhahib, Book of, 763
Alhandreus, see Alchandrus
Ali ibn Abbas, Khitaab el Maleki,
747
Alkindi, chap xxviii
Deceits of Alchemists, 649
Empire of Arabs, 648
Judgments, 648
Geomancy, 648
Pluviis, 647-8
Properties of Swords, 649
Somno et visione, 646
Spectaculis, 642
Stellar Rays, 643-6
Allard, P., 298
Alma, J. d', 349
Alphita, 600
Altc Orient, 7, 33-5
Amatus of Salerno, 752
Ambrose, 426, 447, 494, 499, 505,
686
Hexaemeron, 482-3, 485
Moribus Brachmannorum, 557
Amelineau, 360, 377
American Historical Association
Papers, 632
American Journal of Archaeology,
American Mathematical Monthly,
American Society of Church His-
tory Papers, 406
Amigeron, see Damigeron
Ammianus Marcellinus, 285, 288,
318-9, 527
Amplonius, Catalogue of MSS,
267
Anastasius Antiochenus, 469
Anaxagoras, 456
Anaxandrides, 22
Anaxilas, 22
Anaxilaus, 88, 214
Anaximenes, 181
Andreas, 154
Andrian, F. v., 16
Andromachus, 171
Angelus, J., 106, 525
Annates de la Faculte des Lettres
de Bordeaux, 704
Annates du Service des Antiquites
de I'Egypte, 14
Annee Sociologique, 6
Ansileubus, 503
Ante-Nicene Fathers, 387, and
Book II passim
Anthropologic, L', 6
Antipater, 185
Antisthenes, 553
Antonius Eparchus, 745
Antonius Musus, 600
Anz, Gnostizismus, 360, 383
Aomar, 647
Aphaxad, 435
Apion, 405
Apocrypha, chap, xvi, 342, 406
Apollonius, to whom works of
magic are ascribed, 267
Apollonius of Perga, 663
Apollonius of Tyana, Epistles and
Will, 244; and see other
index
Apollonius and Galen, 723
Apostles, see Acts, Constitutiones,
D { das c alia
Apuleius of Madaura, chap, vii,
165, 242, 290, 309, 390, 465,
508
Apology, 222-5, 232-41, 463
Dogma of Plato, 222, 241, 596
Florida, 222, 233
God of Socrates, 222, 240-1
Golden Ass or Metamorphoses,
222-32, 241, 332, 406, 509
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
813
Natural Questions, 237
Universe, 222
dubious or spurious
Asclepius, see Hermes Tris-
megistus
grammatical and rhetorical, 596
Herbarium, chap, xxzn, 696
Sphere, chap, xxix, igj, 596
Aquinas, Thomas, 519, 544, 658
Aratus, 709
Arcandam, 716
Archaeologia, chap, xxxiii
Archandrinus, see Alchandrus
Archigenes, 137, 152, 168, 176
Archimatthaeus, 738
Archimedes, 29, 663
Catoptrica, 237
Archinapolus, 185
Archiv f. Gesch d. Medisin, 188,
72,7
Archiv f. Kunde dsterreich.
Geschichtsquellen, 498
Archiv f. Studium d. Neuer.
Sprachen, 67^
Arendzen, J. P., 360, 371
Aretaeus, 570
Aretinus Quilichinus, 558
Arevalus, 402, 623
Arfarfan or Argafalan or Ar-
gafalaus, 711
Aristarchus, 31, 219
Aristodemus, 574
Aristophanes, 24
Birds, 324
Goetes, 22
Aristotle, 3, 26, 32, 103, 139, 146,
153, 180, 205, 210, 237-8,
317, 408, 451, 553, 563. 565,
619-20, 632, 642, 657, 663-5,
764
Animals, History of, 24-30, 50,
129, 240, 255, 331, 486, 491,
503..
Categoriis, 677
Generatione, 30
Interprctatione, 677
Metaphysics, 621
Meteorology, 486
Partibus, 30
Physics, 622
Politics, 97
dubious or spurious
Images, 666
Lapidary, 654, 656, 671, 756
Secret of Secrets, 555
Arnald of Villanova, 162, 653, 688,
736-7, 741
Arnheim, 316
Arnobius, 423, 505
Arnold of Saxony, 6ri
Arrian, 553
Artemidorus, 201
Artephius or Artesius, 774
Asakki marsuti, 18
Ascalu the Ishmaelite, 711
Ascension of Isaiah, 399
Asclepiades, 141, 168
Asclepius, see Hermes Trismegis-
tus
Ashmole, E., Theatrum chemicum
Britannicum, 773
Astrolabe, anonymous treatises on,
chap. XXX
Athenaeus, 120, 196, 202
Athenagoras, 288
Aubert u. Wimmer, 73
Audollent, 28
Aufidius Bassus, 45
Augustine, chap, xxii, 241-2, 288,
303, 447, 476, 48s, 617, 626,
628,658, 660, 686,692
Anima, 147
Cataclysmo, 507
City of God (Civitate Dei) 320,
326, chap, xxii, 535, 552-4
Confessions, 459, 504-5, 509, 511
Consensu Evangelist arum, 505
Contra Academic os, 518
Contra Faustutn, 518
Contra Priscillianistas, 519
Diversis quaestionibus, 508, 510,
Divinatione daemonum, 508
Doctrina Christiana, 508, 521
Enchiridion, 519
Epistolae, 241, 514
Genesi ad litteram, 483, 504-5,
509, 511, 514, 518-9, 521-2
660-1
Haer., 369
Octo Dulcitii quaest., 510
Quacstiones ex Novo Test., 518
Sermones, 426, 507, 514, 518
Sermones supposititi, 522
Trinitate, 506-9
Aulus Gellius, 50, 59, 202, 269,
354
Auracher, T. M., and Stadler, H.,
610
Ausfeld, A., 551
Ausfeld and Kroll, 551
Avezac, d', 601
Avicenna, 658, 660
Anima, 766
Divus. philos., 744
Axt and Riegler, 293
Babelon, E., 341
8i4
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Babut, E. C, 381
Bacon, Roger, 108, 163, 341, 409,
601, 603, 646, 661, 665, 766
Baethgen, y2>
Bald and Cild, 720-2, t^Z
Barach, S., 658
Bardaisan or Bardesanes, 373-7,
381, 412, 457, 471, 475, 782
Barlama, 138
Barnabas, 404, 408
Epistle, 396, 409; and see Acts
(Apocryphal)
Barnes, C. L., yy^
Bartholomew of England, De
proprietatibus rerum, 170,
484, 501, 503, 578, 611, 660,
686
Baruch, Book of, 399
Basil, Hexaemeron, chap, xxi, 322,
458, 476, 504, 552-4
Basil and Gregory, PMlocalia,
405-6
Basset, R., 398-9
Bate, Henri, 650
Bateson, M., 689-90
Bath Occult Reprint Series, 291
Battle, W. C, 28
Baudry de Balzac, 736
Baur, L., 744
Beazley, R., 326, 480, 601
Becker, H., 551
Beckh, H., 604
Beckmann, Marbod, 775
Bede, 476, 617, 634-6, 658, 675,
683, 688, 694, 702
Hexaemeron, 485
Natura rerum, 634-5, 676, 695
Samuel, 635
Temporibus, 634-5
Tonitruis, 635-6, 679
Belenus, 267
Bellarminus, 469
Belon, P., 131
Bennett, W. H., 446
Bentwichj N., 349
Berengarius, 701-2
Bernadakes, G. N., 202
Bernard of Clairvaux, St. 502,
658
Bernard Gordon, see Gordon
Bernard of Provence, 740
Bernard Silvester, 717
Bernays, 73
Berosus, 95, 104, 185
Berthelot, P. E. M., 540
Archeologie (1906), 12
Chinvie (1893), 670, 697, 761
Introduction (1889), 12, 199,
544
Origines (1885), 12-3, 59, 193,
292, 369, 544, 559
Voyages (1895), 131
Berthelot et Ruelle (1887-8), 193,
_ 320, 683
Bestiary, 498
Bevan, A. A., 374
Bezogar, 682
Bezold, 16
Bezold, C., 34
Bible, 16, 138, 246, 342, 350, 352,
361-2, 385-6, 405, 439, chap.
xxi, 511, 546, 583, 681, 729;
and see names of individual
books of
Bibliotheca Mathematica, 188, 193
Bibliotheca Patrum, 426
Bibl. d. l'£cole des Hautes Etudes,
381, 76s
Bikelas, 73
Billerbeck, 73
Bisse, E., 557
Bivilaqua, 525
Bjornbo and Vogl, 642, 663
Bl. f. bayr. Gymn., 73
Boethius, 109, 527, 618-22, 658,
677
Boissier, A., 34
Boll, F., 14, 16, 105, III, 291, 316,
524-5, 683
Bollettino delta Societd geografica
italiana, 480
Bolus de Mendes, 50
Boncompagni, B., Gherardo Cre-
monese, 163
Bonnet, Acta apostolorum apocry-
pha, 397
Book of Changes, 6
Book of the Dead, 9, 362
Book of the Saviour, 369, 377
Book of Secrets, 670
Book of Seventy, 670
for Book of, see also Al-
habib, Baruch, Crates,
Enoch, Helxai, Jeu
Borgnet, A., 664
Bostock, J., and Riley, H. T., chap.
ii, 175, 214, 329
Bouche-Leclercq, A., 50, 59, 112,
292-3, 297, 308, 316, 476,
683, 687
Bouchier, E. S., 313, 380, 434
Bousset, W., 349, 361
Box, E. B., 619
Box, G. H., 351
Brandt, W., 383
Braulio, 623-4, 628
Breasted, J. H., 12
History of Egypt, 8-1?
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
815
Religion and Thought in
Ancient Egypt, 7-10
Brehaut, E., 623, 625
Brehier, E., 348-9
Breslait Philol. Abhandl., 297
Briau, R. M., 125
Bridges, R. H., 603, 661
British Museum Catalogue of
Vases, 266
Brock, A. J., 119, 122
Brougniart, A., 761
Brown, J. Wood, 670
Browne, C. A., 194
Browne, E. G., 660, 674
Browne, Thomas, 354
Bubnov, t;oi, chap, xxx
Budge, E. A. W.
Alexander, 551, 562-3
Egyptian Magic, 7-14, 233, 686
Bulletin Hispanique, 704
Bulletin et Mem. d. I. Socicte
Archeol. d. dept. d'llle-et-
Vilaine, 775
Bulletin d. I. Societe d. Geogra-
phie, 565
Bunbury, History of Ancient
Geography, 601
Burchard of Worms, 630
Burckhardt, J., 690
Burkett, F. C, 374
Burnam, J. M., 704
Burr, G. L., 2, 630
Burton, W., 762
Bury, J. B., 266-7, 388
Busson, G., 7
Butler, H. E., and Owen, A. S.,
Apulei Apologia, 22, 224ff.
Buttmann, P., 340
Byzant. Zeitschrift, 497
Caecilius, 94
Caelius Aurelianus, 625
Caesar, J., see Weber, C. F., and
Cahier, Nouveaux Melanges, 498
Cahier et Martin, Melanges, 498
Cajori, 188
Calderon, 432
Callisthenes (on roots), 495
Callisthenes Pseudo-, chap, xxiv,
, 7, 331
Calvin, 447
Cambridge Medieval History, 524
Cambridge University Texts and
Studies, 342
Camerarius, J., 556
Campbell, C, 8
Capart, Primitive Art in Egypt, 6
Capella, see Martianus
Caraccio, 349
Cardan, 769
Carra de Vaux, 188, 653, 661
Carrarioli, D., 551
Casaubon, 213
Cassianus Bassus, 604
Cassiodorus, 545, 617, 619, 625
Institutes, 483, 608
Letters, 639
Cassius Felix, 607
Catalogus codicum Graecorum as-
trologorum, 28, 116, 291,
651
Cato, De re rustica, 93
Cecco d'Ascoli, 267, 665
Celsus, 282
Against magicians, 278
True Discourse, chap, xix
Celsus the medical writer, 727
Censorinus, 354, 371, 690
Chaeremon, 315, 457
Chalcidius, 476
Chapman, 405
Charles, R. H., chap, xiii, 488-9
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha,
287, chap, xiii
Ascension of Isaiah, 399
Book of Enoch, chap, xiii
Charles and Forbes, chap, xiii
Charles and Morfill, chap, xiii
Charterius, R., 119
Chavannes, E., et Pelliot, P., 383
Chiron the centaur, 434, 597-8
Choulant, L., 578, 612-3
Christ, Gesch. d. Griech. Litt., 105,
201, 215, 540
Christliches Kunstblatt, 497
Chrysippus, 50, 146
Chrysostom, John, 472-6, 480, 494,
499
Naturis bestiarum, 499
Sixth Homily on Matthew, 472-4
Spurious Homily on Matthew,
472-5
Chwolson, D. A., 661-3
Cicero, 50, 232, 597
Divinatione, 97, 268-73
Dream of Scipio, 273, 544
Republic, 274
Cild, see Bald and
Cillie, G. G., 555
Oark and Geikie, loi
Classical Philology, 530
Classical Review, 21, 525
Clement Pseudo, 363-4, chap, xvii
Circuits, 404
Homilies, 364-5, chap, xvii
Itincrarium, 402
Recognitions, 231, 364-5, chap.
8i6
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata,
288, 476, 499
Cleopatra, 152, 196, 655
Clerval, Hermann le Dalmate,
701-2
Clinton, Fasti, 124, 135
Clitomachus, 268
Cockayne, O., Leechdoms, 596, 679,
72off., 734, 776
Narratiunculae, 556
Cohn, L., 348, 351
Collenucius, P., 53
Colombo, De re anatomica, 147
'Columbia University Studies in
History, etc., 622
Columella, 50, 59
Colville, G., 619
Combarieu, J., 6, 568
Compositiones ad tingenda, chap.
xxxiii
Compotus or Computus, 676-7
Comte, 107
Confucian Canon, 6
Congrcs scientiiique international
des catholiques, 7, 297, 701
Congress, International, of Medi-
cine, 131, 145, 640, 667, 672,^
Congress, International, of Ori-
entalists, 380
Constantinus Africanus, chap,
xxxii,^ 577, 610, 653, 657, 7Z'i-
Antidotarium, 747
Aureus, 757-9
Chirurgia, 747-8
Coitu, 742, 753
Compendium megategni, 749
Experimentis, 753
Febrium, 742, 750
Graduum, 613, 748, 7So-i, 755-6
Humana natura, 659-60, 757
Melancholia, 658-9, 742, 751-2,
755
Oblivione, 742
Pantegni, 658-9, 746fif.
Simplicis medicinae, 748
Stomacho, 742, 752-3
Tegni, Megategni, Microtegni,
749
Urinis, 750
Viaticum, 742, 745, 749ff-, 753,
756
Constitutiones apostolorum, 422
Conybeare, F. C, 247, 348-9
Cook, A. B., Zeus, 23, 296, 379,
429
Cook, A. S., 499
Cordier, H., see Yule, Marco Polo
Cordo, see Simon of Genoa
Cornarius, I., 566ff.
Cornford, F. M., 23
Corpus Medicorum Graecorum,
119
Cory, Ancient Fragments, 297
Cory, A. T., Horapollo, 331
Cosmas Indicopleustes, 480
Costa ben Luca, 652-9
Differentia spiritus et animae,
657-9
Hero's Mechanics, 189, 652
Physical Ligatures, 652-7
Cousin, v., Prodi Opera, 319
Coxe, H. O., 52, 121, 478, 701,
715
Craig, J. A., 33-4
Crates, Book of, 763
Crateuas, 606
Crawford, W. S., 540
Creuzer, F., 299
Crinas of Marseilles, 98
Crito, 152
Critodemus, 95
Croiset, 282
Crophill, John, 684-5
Cruice, Abbe, 466
Cumont, F.
Babylon u. d. Griech. Astrol-
_ ogie, 34 .
Oriental Religions, 21, 296, 533
Cunningham, W., 495
Cunningham Memoirs of Royal
Irish Academy, 293
Curtiss, S. I., 33
Curtze, 706
Cushman, H. E., 26
Cyprian, of Antioch
Confessio, 296, chap, xviii
Martyrium, 428
Cyprian of Carthage, 463, 465
Cyril, 398, 476
Cyril of Alexandria, 570
Cyril of Jerusalem, 423
Dalechamps, 329
Dalton, O. M., 237, 498, 607
Damigeron, 293, 558, 605, 777
Damis of Nineveh, chap, viii, 407
Damocrates, 135
Daniel the prophet, 385, 679-80
Daniel of Morley, 744
Dante, Conznzno, 619
Divine Comedy, 340, 361
Daremberg, C. V., 600, 731, 736
Galien comme philosophe, 124
Galien sur Vanato^nie, 122, 141,
^45
Hist. d. Sciences Medicates,
570-1, 577, 743ff.
Notices et Ex traits, 598, 742ff.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
817
Daremberg et Saglio, 22, 27, 164,
265
Daressy, G., 14
d'Avezac, see Avezac
De aluminibus et salibus, 670
De anima, 766
De la Ville de Mirmont, 673
De Morgan, 108
De Renzi, see Renzi
De spiritu et anima, 658
De vetula, 691
Delambre, J. B. J., 108, 663
Delisle, L., 698
Democritus, 50, 58-9, 61-6, 80, 84,
91, 97, 140, 196-8, 205, 329,
582, 605, 629, 682-3, 733
Denkschr. d. Akad. Wien, 73
Detlefsen, D., 42, 52
Deuteronomy, 453, 456
Deventer, 316
Dhorme, P., 33
Dicaearchus, 180, 213
Diet. Chris. Biog., 362-3
Diet. National Biog., 291, etc.
Dicuil, 326
Didascalia Apostolorum, 422
Didot, 106, 180
Didymus of Alexandria, 463, 604
Diels, H., 119, 121, 468
Dierich, 381
Dieterich, A., 288
Dieterici, F., 642
Digest, see Justinian
Dillmann, 399
Dindimus, 341, 556
Dindorf, 282, 415, etc.
Dio Cassius, 201, 259
Dio Chrysostom, 425
Diocles Carystius, 178
Diodorus of Tarsus, 476
Diogenes Laertius, 22, 97, 196
Diogenes the Stoic, 273
Dionysius the Areopagite, 546-7
Dionysius Exiguus, 484
Dioscorides, 131, 154, 199, 495, 571,
597, 605-11, 613, 625, 755,
761, 764
Dioscorides-Pseudo, 239
Herbis femininis, 609
Lapidibus, 611, 654
Dittmeyer, 27
Dollinger, I. I., 705
Domitius Piso, 44
Donatus, St., 684
Dorotheus, 648
Doutte, E., 5
Druon, H., 540
Dryoff, A., 73
Diibner, Fr., 552
Duhem, P., Systeme du Monde,
106, 456-9, 481, 504
Duncker, 466
Dunstan, 773
Duruy, 135
Ebers, G., 10
Ebrubat Zafar filie Elbazar, 745
Ecclesiasticus, 510
Ediing, 381
Egidius de Tebaldis, no
Egyptian Days, chap, xxix, app. li
Elisinus, 267
Elkman, V. W., 491
Elliot Smith, 12
Empedocles, 23, 58, 61, 153, 204,
234, 247
Encyclopedia Britannica, 301, etc.
Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics, 22, 383, etc.
Endres, J. A., 753
Engelbert of Liege, 673
Engelbrecht, 116, 538
Enoch
Book of, chap, xiii, 208, 350, 399,
410, 454, 457-8, 463
Fifteen Stars, Herbs, and
Stones, 664
Secrets of, chap, xiii
Ephemeris f. semit. Epig., 389
Ephodia, 745, 749
Ephraem Syrus, 374, 381
Epicharmus, 86
Epicurus, 140-1, 151, 169, 180, 270,
Epigenes, 95
Epimenides, 234
Epiphanius, 405-6, 476, 488, 499,
503
Contra haereses, 369, 458
Duodecim gemmis, 495-6
Epist. ad Joan. J crosolymit.,
458-9
Panarton, 363-4, 369, 415, 434,
494-5
Ponderibus et mensuris, 627
Epping, J., and Strassmeier, J. N.,
34
Eratosthenes, 709
Erhard, Fauna d. Cykladen, 73
Erkenhard, 677
Erlangcr Beitrdge z. engl. Philol.,
733
Erman, A., 7
Ernault, L. V. E., 775
Errors condemned at Oxford and
Paris, 642-3
Esdras, Suppiitatio, 677, 682
Ethe, 551
8i8
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Ethelwold, 705
Ethicus, Cosmo graphic, 600-604
fitienne, R., see Stephanus
Euclid, 29, 139, 663
Geometry, 705-6
Optics, 669
Eudemus, 237
Eudoxus, 61
Eugene of Palermo, 108
Eugenius Toletanus, 696
Eunapius, 297
Euripides, 22
Eusebius, 261, 374,. 395, 405, 466
Against Apollonius, 246
Praep. Evang., 297, 317, 320, 341,
354, 457
Ejustache of Kent, 564
Eustathius Afer, 484-5
Eustathius of Antioch, 470
Evans, A. J., 301
Evans, E. P., 497
Evax, 463, chap, xxxiv
Everard, John, 291
Evi^ald, 341
Exodus, 386
Eyssenhardt, F., 545
Fabricius, J. A.
Bibl. Graec, 599, 743
Cod. apocr., 387, 425-6
Sextus Empiricus, 269
Farnell, Greece and Babylon, 15,
17-8, 23-4
Fasti Philocaliani, 686
Favorinus, 269, 274-5
Favre, G., 551
Fell, John, 428
Ferrarius, 747
Ferry, C, 775
Fialon, 484
Ficinus, Marsilius, 319
Finlayson, J., 119, 138-9, 143
Firmicus Maternus, Julius, 116,
125, 525-3S. 689, 698, 70s,
710, 782
Errore, 525-9
Mathesis, 525-38
Fischer, A., 673
Flaccus Africanus, 267
Florentinus, 425
Fiorilegia, 618
Fliigel, G., 640
Fogginius, 495
Folcz, John, 612
Folk-lore, 24
Forbes, see Charles and
Forster, M., 673
Fossey, 15, 17-20. 33
Fossi, F., 53
Fowler, H. W., and F. G., 277
Fowler, W. W., 73
Fransosiche Studien, 499
Frazer, J. G., 5
Folk-lore in Old Testament, 16,
170, 231, 341, 359, 386, 448,
493, 688
Golden Bough, 5, 568
Magic Art, i, 386
Popular Superstitions, 24
Frederick II, emperor, 106, 737
Free, John, 52
Freeman, History of Sicily, 22
Freind, see Friend
Freud, 178
Friend, John, 569, 576
Frommberger, G., 401
Fronto, 537
Frothingham, 17
Fuchs, 380
Funk, F. X., 422
Gaisford, 341
Galen, chap, iv, 32, 56, 284, 288,
292, 569-74, 597, 605, 613-4,
626, 653-4, 656, 663, 666-7,
739, 747, 754-6
Ad Pisonem de theriaca, 130,
170, 177
Alimentorum facultatibus, 137,
159
Anatom. administ., 121, 123, 152
Antidot., 154, 171
Cognoscendis curandisque animi
mortis, 123
Compound medicines, 125, 152,
160, 172
Critical days, 157, 179
Diagnosis from Dreams, 177
Diifcreniiis pulsorum, 137
Dinamidis, 727-%, 742
Euporista, see Remediis para-
bilibus
Foetuum formatione, 150
Healing art, 176
Hippocratic commentaries, 119-
21, 177, 749
Libriis propriis, 124, 133
Malitia complexionis diversae,
125
Medicinal simples, 121, 132, 158,
166-71, 572, 611
Methodo medendi, 123, 127, 133,
I55-. 178
Naturalibus facultatibus, 123
Or dine librorum, 133
Platonic commentaries, 124,
138
Prognos. ad Epigenem, 124
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
819
Remediis parahilibus, 127, 161,
175
Substantia facuitatum natn-
raliuni, 170
Temperamentis, 119
Theriaca ad Pamphilianum, 170
Throat and lungs, 134
Usu partium, 119, 138, 150-1
Venae sectione, 125
Victu, 119
dubious or spurious
Experiments, 162, 720
Liber medicinalis, 600
Medical Treatment in Homer,
582
Placitis philosophorum, 180-1
Prognostication by astrology,
178
5"^crff^, 752
and see Apollonius and
Gamaliel, Jewish patriarch, 584-5
Ganschinietz, 467
Garcilasso, 17
Gargilius Martialis, 608
Gariopontus, 577, 733
Garrison, F. H., 164
Garrod, H. W., 95
Garver, M., 499
Geber, 670, 763
Geikie, see Clark and
Gelasius, pope, 389, 404, 406
Genealogus, 326
Gentile da Foligno, 164
Genesis, i8r, 193, 34i, 386, 445,
chap, xxi, 521
Geoponica, 59, 463, 604-5
Gerard Bituricensis, see Gerard de
Solo
Gerard of Cremona, 109-10, 646,
648, 750
Gerard de Solo, 747, 749
Gerbert, chap, xxx
Gerson, 106
Gesner, 322
Giacosa, P., 731, 739
Gibbon, E., 285
Gibson, M. D., 428
Gilbert of England, 162, 577, 688
Gilbert Maminot, 673
Giles de Corbeil, 73"]
Giles, J., 636
and see Egidius de Tebaldis
Gillert, K., 684
Ginzel, F. K., 34
Giovannino di Graziano, 682
Giovene, G. M., 686
Giry, A., 764
Glaber, see Raoul
Glover, T. R., 544
Golden Legend, see Jacobus de
Voragine
Goldstaub, M., 497, 503
Goldstaub and Wendriner, 499
Gollancz, H., 380
Goodwin, W. W., 202-3
Gordon, Bernard, 688, 740
Gospels, 674, 725, 754; and see in-
dividual names
Gospel of the Infancy, chap, xvi
Goujet, 672
Goupyl, J., 567
Govi, G., 107
Graetz, 349
Gratian, Decretum, 6301
Gray, C. D., 33
Gray, L. A., 296
Greenwood, J. G., 188
Gregory I, the Great, pope. Dia-
logues, 405, 593, 637-9
Gregory Bar-Hebraeus, 662
Gregory of Nyssa, 447, 505
Against Fate, 471
Hexaemeron, 459, 481
Ventriloquist, 470
Grenfell, B. P., 28, 293, 361
Grenfell and Hunt, 361
Griffith, F. L., 7; and see Thomp-
son and
Grimm, Jacob, 567-8, 584
Groff, Egyptian Sorcery, 7
Grosseteste, Robert, 106, 189
Griitzmacher, G., 540
Guido of Arezzo, 698
Guinther of Andernach, 567, 576-7
Guldenschoff, J., 477
Gundissalinus, 744
Guthrie, K., 298, 303-4, 349
Guyot, H., 349
Gwatkin, H. M., 524
Haase, Seneca, loi
Haase, F., 373
Hagins the Jew, 650
Hain, 498
Halliwell, J. O., 706
Hamilton, G. L., 631
Hamilton, Mary, 688
Hamilton, N. E. S. A., 690
Haly Heben Rodan,
Dispositione aeris, 647
Pltiviis, 647
Ptolemy's Quadripartitum, no
Hammer-Jensen, 107
Hannubius, 537
Hansen, J., 2, 631
Hardouin, 42
Harleian MSS, Catalogue of,
684-S
820
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Harnack, A., 405
Gesch. dr. altchr. Lit., 400
Medicinisches aus d. dltest.
Kirchengesch., 138-9
Harpestreng the Dane, 612
Harrington, School of Salerno,
731
Harris, Rendel, 23
Harrison, J. E., 22, 251, 301
Hartel, W., 369
Hartfelder, K., 268
Harvard Studies in Classical Phil-
ology, 108-9
Harvey, John, 291
Haskins, C. H., 702
Adelard of Bath, 652, 664
Further Notes, 109
Reception of Arabic Science,
.693, 773
Haskins and Lockwood, 108-9
Havell, E. B., 12, 251
Heath, T. L., 29, 32, 188
Heeg, Pseudodemocrit. Studien,
733 .
Hegel, Philosophy of Religion, i
Hegesippus, 425-6
Hehn, Siebenzahl u. Sabbat, 16, 34
Heiberg, J. L., 105, 109, 188-9
Heider, G., 498-9
Heigl, G. A., 299
Heim, R., 568, 605
Heinsch, P., 349
Heintze, W., 399, 403, 406
Heliodorus, 232
Heller, A., 108, 188
Helmreich, G., 119, chap, xxv
Helpericus, 696
Helxai, Book of, 372
Hendrie, R., chap, xxxiii
Hengstenberg, Gesch. Bileams,
353, 447
Henschel, 578, 731, 758
Hephaestion of Thebes, 1 15-6, 538
Heraclides of Pontus, 32
Heraclides of Tarentum, 153, 495
Heraclitus, 181
Heraclius, chap, xxxiii
Heraeus, 552
Heras, 153
Herbarium, 597 ; and see Apuleius
Hercher, R., 215, 322
Hermanni de ymbribus et pluviis,
647
Hermannus Contractus, chap, xxx,
701, 728
Hermann of Dalmatia, 649, 701
Hermes, 105, 109, 121, 188, 298,
526, 576, 595, 606, 609-10,
612
Hermes Trismegistus, 178, chap, x,
537, 653, 661, 710, 763
Asclepius, 221, 290, 596
Fifteen Stars, Herbs, Stones,
340, 664
Images and Incantations, books
of, 664
Poimandres, 290-1, 379
Virgin of the World, 291
Hermippus, 524
Hermogenes, 342, 435
Hero of Alexandria, 108-9, 1^8-93,
266, 652
works listed at 188
Herodotus, 21-2, 129, 156
Herophilus, 32, 77, 145-6, 180
Herrandus, 702
Herrick, F. H., 267
Hesiod, 21, 77, 207
Hieg, 119
Hierocles, 246
Hieronymus, see Jerome
Higden, see Ranulf
Hildebert, 498
Hildegard of Bingen, 342, 432, 660
Hilgenfeld, A., 399-401, 405
Hincmar of Reims, 630
Hipparchus, 32, 96, 537
Hippocrates (and Hippocratic
writings), 27, 29, 49, 58, 139,
142, 144, 150, 178-9, 356, 571,
625, 663, 723, 735, 747, 757
Aphorisms, 176
Astrology, 178-9
Letter to Antigonus or Mae-
cenas, 600, 724
Hippolytus, chaps, xv, xx, 107,
278, 387, 399, 421, 482, 765
Hirn, Y., 6
Hirschberg, J., 566
Histoire Litteraire de la France.,
163, 672, etc.
Historisch. Jahrbuch, 541
History of Three Kings of
Cologne, 444, 446, 477
Holmes and Kitterman, 10
Homer, 49, 169, 245, 260, 273, 582
Fourteefith Epigram, 434
and see Iliad and Odyssey
Homily on Magi, 478-9
Hommel, Aethiop. Physiologus,
498, 503
Hommel, R, Gestirndienst, 355
Hone, 387, 395
Honein ben Ishak, 653, 660, 752
Honorius of Autun, 502
Hooten, 12
Hoover, H. C. and H. L., 132, J29
Hopf, L., 73
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
821
Hopfner, Papyri, 28
Hopfner, T., 73
Horapollo, Hieroglyphics, 331-4
Hosthanes, see Ostanes
Howitt, A. W., 227
Hubert, H., 22, 27, 265
Huet, G., 241
Huet, P. D., 354, 457-8, 461, 469
Hugh of St. Victor, 631, 658
Bestiis, 498, 501
Didascalicon, 389, 402
Hugh of Santalla, 652
Hugutius, 129
Humboldt, A. v., 107
Hunain ibn Ishak, see Honein ben
Ishak
Hunt, see Grenfell and
Husik, I., 747
Huvelin, P., 6
Hystaspes, 296
lamblichus, chap, xi, 296
Fato, 316
Mysteriis, 288, 307ff.
Ibn Abi Usaibi'a, 667
Ibn KhalHkan, 667
Ignatius, 396
Ilg, A., 760
Iliad, 21, 58
Imhoof-Blumer, F. und Keller, O.,
73
Inchofer, 476
Infancy, Gospels of, chap, xvi
Inge, W. R., 299
International Congresses, see Con-
gress
loachos, 138
loannes, see John
lolaos the Bithynian, 495
Irenaeus, chap, xv, 411, 421, 488
Isaac Israeli, 658, 746ff.
Isaiah, 460, 485 ; Ascension of, 399
Isidore of Seville, 326, 601, 623-33,
658, 675, 709
Differ cntiis verborum, 630, 632
Etymologiae, 609, 623-33, 777
Natura reruni, 401, 623, 632-3
Origines, 459, 493
Viris illiis., 380
Israelson, L., 141
Itinerarium Alcxandri, 553
Ivo of Chartres, 630
Jackson, A. V. W., 296
Jacobitz, 282
Jacobus Angelus, 106
Jacobus de Partibus, 567
Jacobus Psychrestus, 575
Jacobus de Voragine, Golden
Legend, 427, 435, 475
Jacques de Bergame, 702
Jahn's Neue Jahrb., 52
Jahrbuch (Austrian), 607
Jahrb. d. k. deutsch. archdol.
Instit., 28
Jahrb. f. Class. Philologie, 349,
605
Jahrb. f. Philol. u. Pddagogik,
105
James, Protevangelium of, chap.
xvi
James, M. R.
Apocrypha anecdota, 342
Biblical Antiquities, 351
Cambridge MSS, 564, 597, 602,
723
Canterbury and Dover, 753
Eton MSS, 52
Janus, 578
Janus, L., 42
Jastrov/, M., 17, 19, 34
Jayakar, S. G., 393, 688
Jean Clopinel, 613
Jennings, H., 291
Jensen, P., 34
Jeremias, 15, 34
Jergis, 648
Jerome, 369, 398, 447, 459, 461, 466,
476, 483, 600-2, 625, 628,
692
Jeii, Book of, 378
Jevons, F. B., 22
Jewish Quarterly Review, 348
Job, Book of, 510, 520
Johannitius, see Honein ben Ishak
John, Gospel of, 386, 759
John Afflacius, 748, 757
Tohn Agarenus, 748
John Angelus, 106, 525
John of Antioch, 194
John Crophill, see Crophill
John of Damascus, 608
John of Hildesheim, 446, 477
jolm of London, 643, 714
John Lydus, see Lydus
John of St. Amand, 162-3, 725
John of Salisbury, Polycraticus,
241, 302-3, 631, 683-4
John the Scot, 500, 547, 637
John of Spain, chap, xxviii
Joret, C, II, 76
Josephus, 354, 366, 425, 446, 703
Joshua, Book of, 352
Jourdain, C, 672, 690
Journal Asiatique, 653
Journal des Savants, 131
Journal f. praktische Chemie, 762,
822
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Journal of Hellenic Studies, 266,
301
Journal of Royal Asiatic Society,
337
Jowett, 26
Juba, king of Numidia, 49, 218, 256
Jude, Epistle of, 342, 435
Julian the Chaldean, 296, 317
Julian, emperor, 317, 568
Julian Honorius, 601
Julius Firmicus Maternus, see
Firmicus
Julius Valerius, Res gestae, chap.
xxiv
Justinian, 575
Digest, 356, 568
Justin, Book of Baruch, 399
Justin Martyr, 363, 416, 421, 469,
476
Juvenal, 126, 437
Kaestner, H., 609
Karpinski, L. C, 31
Katrarios, J., 524
Kehrer, H., 476
Keil, 49-50
Keller, O., 73
Kennedy, H. A. A., 349
Kenyon, F. G., 365
Kepler, 457, 473
Kessler, K., 383
Kidd, J., 147
King, C. W., 49, 174, 293, 329, 379,
568, 775, 777
King, L. W., 17, 33
King James' Version, 471
Kings, First Book of, 386
Kirchofif, A., 299
Kitterman and Holmes, 10
Klatsche, E. H., 24
Kleffner, A. J., 541
Knyghton, 690
Knudtzon, J. A., 34
Kobert, H., 596
Koch, H., 541
Koch, K., 121
Koechly, 293
Koeler, G. D., loi
Koetschau, P., 436
Kopp, U. F., S45-6
Koran, 345
Kostomoiros, G. A., 566
Krabinger, J. G., 540
Kraus, F. X., 540
Kritzinger, 473
Krohn, F, 183
Kroll, W.
Analecta, 318-9
Hermes, 290
Oraculis Chaldaicis, 297, 308
Vettius Valens, 116
Kroll and Ausfeld, 551
Kroll et Skutsch, chap, xxiii, 302,
690
Kriiper, Jt,
Kiibler, B., 551
Kijchler, F., 20
Kugler, F. X., 16, 34
Kiihn, C. G., chap, iv, 572, 60S
Kiister, E., y^
Lactantius, 220, 241, 243, 246, 465,
479
La Grande Encyclopedic, 292
Lagarde, P. D., 400
Lagrange, M. J., 34
Lamm, O. V., 428
Lancet, 119-22, 146-7
Lancet-Clinic, 10
Land, Otia Syriaca, 497-8
Langdon, S., 34
Lapidarius , 495, 778
Laplace, 108
Lascaris, C., 424
Lauchert, F., 497-501
Laurence, 399
Laurent, A., 32
Laws of Henry I, 690
Lea, H. C., 2
Lebour, y2>
Leclerc, 50
Le Coq, A. v., 383
Leech-IBook of Bald and Cild,
720-3
Leemans, 682
Lehmann, P., 683
Lemaire, 42, 329
Leminne, J., 139
Lenormant, 5, 17-20, 32
Leo I, the Great, pope, 520, 575
Leo Allatius, 469
Leo, archpriest, 557
Leo of Ostia, 743
Leonicenus, N., 53
Letronne, 480
Leucippus, 193
Levi, SSI
Leviticus, 439, 459
Lewes, G. H., 29-30, 50
Lewysohn, 73
Libanius, 472, 538-40, 584 _
Library of Harvard University,
Bibliographical Contribu-
tions, 166
Liddell and Scott, 120, 265
Lidzbarski, M., 383
Liebermann, F., 6go
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
823
Liechtenstein, P., 642
Lilius Tifernates, 347
Lindermayer, A., y^
Linnaeus, 175
Linus, pope, 426
Lippmann, E. O. v., 12, 16, 194,
649, 670, chap, xxxiii
Lipsius et Bonnet, 397
Lithica, see Orpheus
Lobeck, G. A., 288
Locard, ys
Lockwood, see Haskins and
Locy, W. A., 29-30
Lods, A., 341-2
Lones, T. E., 26, 29
Lorenz, yji
Loth, O., 641, 649
Loweneck, M., 733
Loxus, 460
Lucan, 629
Lucian, 276-86
Alexander, 247, 277, 379, 440,
467-9, 561
Apologia, 277
Astrologia, 282-3
Dialogues of the Gods, 283
Dipsadibus, 284
Dream, 283
How to write history, 284-6
Lucius, 276
Menippus, 281, 416
Nigrinus, 284
Peregrinus, 277
Philopseudes, 279
Tragopodagra, 284
Lucius, 349
Lucretius, 760
Lumby, 690
Lupitus of Barcelona, chap, xxx
Liiring, H. L, 10
Luther, Martin, 651
Lycon, 237
Lydus, John, 635
Lydus, Laurentius, 240
Macdonald, D. B., 232, 356, 699
Macer Floridus, De viribus her-
barum, 612-5
Macer, Theophilus, 761
Mackinnon, 639
Macray, 642, 705
Macrobius, 355, 544-5
Dream of Scipio, 302, 500, 544,
709 .
Saturnalia, 302, 545
Mahaffy, J. P., 135
Mai, Classici auctores, 498
Maimonides, Moses
Aphorisms, 138, 151, 164, 176-7
'More Nevochim,, 358
Maklu, 18
Male, E., 390, 397, 427, 435, 475-6,
502
Manetho, 289, 292-3
Mangey, 348
Manilius, 95, 690-1
Manitius, Max, 619, 622, 631
Mann, M. F., 497-9
Mansi, 499
Mantuani, J., 607
Mappe clavicula, 468, chap, xxxiii
Marbod, 463, 761, chap, xxxiv
Fato et gene si, 781-2
Lapidum, 775-81
Marcellus, disciple of Peter, 425
Marcellus Empiricus, chap, xxv,
595, 600, 608, 724, 767
Marcianus, see Martianus
Marco Polo, 132, 214, 479, 564
Marett, R. R., 6, 22
Margoliouth, 746
Marianus Scotus, 686, 692
Marinelli, 480
Marinus, 107
Marinus, Life of Proclus, 686
Mark, Gospel of, 386
Mark, K. F. H., 146
Marquardt, L, 119
Martianus Capella, 326, 545-6, 677,
709
Martin, Heron, 188
Martin, J., Philon, 347
Martin, see Cahier and
Martyrium of Cyprian and Jus-
tina, 428
Marx, A., 73
Marx, F., 423
Mary the Jewess, 196-7
Masselieau, L., 349
Matthew, Gospel of, 397, 455,
47 iff., 730; Pseudo-, 390
Maximus, 426
Maximus of Aegae, 244
Maximus Taurinensis, 425
McKenzie, K., 499
Mead, G. R. S., 290, 299, 369, 374,
377-8, 401, 42s
Mechitarists, 95, 366
Medicae artis principes, 566ff.
Medici antiqui, 567, 612
Mela, see Pomponius
Memoires couronnes par VAca-
dcmie de Belgique, 139
Menander, 22, 49
Menecrates, 135
Menelbus, 574
, Mentz, F., 76
824
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Mercurius Cilenius (or Tillemus),
652; and see Hermes
Merrifield, Mrs., chap, xxxiii
Merx, A., 121, t,72>
Mesue (Yuhanna ibn Masawaih),
162, 164
Metrodorus, Letter to Celsus, 441
Metrodorus, Byzantine gram-
marian, 575
Meusel, 551
Mewaldt, 119, 176
Meyer, E. v., 772
Meyer, M. P. H., 551
Meyer-Steineg, T., 121
Micah, 352
Michael Scot, 664, 704, 710
Migne, Diet. d. Apocryphes, 397
Mills, L. H., 349
Milne, J. S., 145
Milward, E., 137, chap, xxv
Minucius Felix, 465
Miskati, 18
Mithridates, 87, 171, 495
Mitteilungen d. anthrop. Gesell. in
Wien, 16
Mitteilungen d. Vorderasiat.
Gesell, 473
Modern Language Publications,
499
Moeragenes (or Moiragenes), 244,
246, 253, 448
Molbech, C, 612
Mommsen, T., 73, 326-31, 526, 601,
695
Monaci, E., 499
Monist, The, 630
Montgomery, J. A., 384
Moon-Books, chap, xxix
Morellus Federicus, 538
Moret, A., 7
Morf, H., 552
Morfill and Charles, chap, xiii
Morgan, M. H., 183-8
Morgenl'dndische Forschungen, 642
Morienus Romanus, 697, 761
Moser, G. H., 299
Moses the law-giver, 59, 137-8,
151, 19s, 350, 357, 437, 507
Moses ben Maimon, or, of Cor-
dova, see Maimonides
Moses ibn Tibbon, 749
Moyen Age, Le, 241
Mucianus, 81
Mueller, L, 119
Muhammad b. Muh. b. Tarchan b.
Uzlag, Abti Nasr, see Al-
Farabi
Muhammad ibn Zakariya, see
Rasis
Miihle, H. v. d., TZy 132
Muir, W., ZZT, 642
Miiller, 667
Miiller, C, 106, 215, 466, 552
Miiller, F. W. K., 479
Miiller, H. F., 299
Miinter, Stern der Weisen, 354-Si
443, 473.
Muratori, Antiquitates, 764
Murray, M. A., 2
Musa ibn Maimon, see Mai-
monides
Musaeus, 77
Musee Guimet, 7, 360
Nagy, A., 641, 646
Nallino, C. A., 106
Hansen's North Polar Expedition,
Reports of, 491
Nau, F., 374
Naude, G., 234
Navigius, 537
Naville, E., 7
Nechepso, 173
Nechepso and Petosiris, 95, 293,
537, 682-3, 714
Neckam, Alexander, 342, 658, 772
Negri, 671
Nehemiah, 352
Nemesius, 752
Nepos, Chabrias, 558
Neue Jahrbuch, 14, 34, 292
Neues Archiv d. Gesell. f. alt ere
deutsche Geschichtskunde,
684
Newton, Diet, of Birds, 267
Nicander, 172, 236-7, 495
Nicephorus, 457
Nicholson, R. A., 6
Nicodemus, Gospel of, 390, 395
Nielsen, D., 355
Nigidius Figulus, 515
Nisard, 544
Nix, 653
Noeldeke, 552
Nonus, 569
Notker, Labeo, 677, 728
Numbers, 444
Numenius, 443
Numisianus, 123
Nussey, D., see Male, E.
Odo of Meung, 613
Odo of Morimont, 613
Odo of Tournai, 673
Odo of Verona, 613
Odyssey, 58
Oefele, v., 473
Oesterley, W. O. E., 351, 399
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
82s
Olleris, 706
Olympiodorus, 195-6, 292
Onesicritus, 553
Oppert, J., 34
Oribasius, 163, 568ff., 607, 613,
746
Origen, chap, xix, 466, 469, 482-3,
499, 506
Biblical Commentaries, 444-51
. 454.. 457, 461
Principiis, 456, 520-1
Reply to Celsus, chap, xix, 246,
277, 282, 342, 365-6
Orosius, 519, 556, 601
Orpheus, 58, 65, 195, 206, 234, 282,
291, 293
Argonautica, 293
Lithica, 293-6, 463, 777
Orr, M. A., 16, 116, 192, 340, 619
Osann, 596
Ostanes or Osthanes, 22, 58-9, 61,
196-8, 234, 296, 463, 46s, 558,
582, 763
Otho of Cremona, 612
Ovid, 612
Halietiticon, 74
Vetula (spurious), 691
Owen, A. S., see Butler and
Padm^uthiun Acheksandri Make-
tonaz-umi, 552
Pagel, J. L., 163
Palaemo, Q. Remnius Fannius, 761
Palladius, 556, 569
Pamphilus, 154, 166-7, 178, 288,
291, 495
Panaetius, 268
Panckoucke, 52, loi
Pandulf of Capua, 753
Pannier, L., 775
Panodorus, 194
Pappus, 109
Paret, 381
Parthenius, 215
Parthey, G., 307, 365
Patrick, St., 640
Paul, the apostle, 405, 556
Paul of Aegina, 56SfI., 721, 746
Paul of Alexandria, 116
Pauly and Wissowa, 124, 213, 241,
290
Pausanias, 214
Payne, J. F.
English Medicine, 569, 721, 733
Relation of Harvey to Galen,
iig-22, 145-7
Peiper, R., 6i9ff.
Pelliot, see Chavannes and
PelopS; 123, 170
Pentateuch, 350
Pertz, 702
Petavius, 363, 540, etc.
Petavius, D., 575
Peter, the apostle, chap, xvii
Acts of, 405
Second Epistle of, 446
Teachings of, 405
Peter of Abano, see Abano
Peter the Archiater, 569
Peter the Deacon, chap, xxxii
Peter of Spain, 163
Petermann, see Schwartze and
Peters, E., 497
Petosiris, 682-3 ; and see Nechepso
and
Petrie, F., 12
Petrocellus, 659, 733-6
Petrograd Acad. Scient. Imper.
Mcmoircs, 428
Pez, Thesaurus Anecdot. Noviss.,
698, 701, 706
Pfister, F, 552, 556-7, 565
Pherecydes, 270-1, 574
Philagrius, 567, 577
Philastrius, 423
Philip, disciple of Bardesanes,
374
Philip, translator of Horapollo,
331
Philip of Thaon, 498
Phillipps, T., 760
Philo, cited on plants, 495
Philo Judaeus, chap, xiv, 302, 447,
457, 492
Alexander, 351
Allegories, 357
Biblical Antiquities (spurious),
351 . .
Contemplative Life, 349-50, 356
Creation, 348
Dreams, 351-3, 357-8
Excircumcisione , 349
Gigantibus, 353
Law concerning murderers, 352
Migratione Abrahami, 353-4
Monorchia, 353-4
Mundi opificio, 350, 353-7
Providentia, 351
Quod omnis probus liber sit,
352
Vita Mosis, 351, 353, 357
Virtutibus, 351
Philolaus, 181, 296
Philologus, 292, 429, 497, 540, 683
Philostratus,
Apollonius of Tyana, chap, viii,
205, 329, 392, 406, 410
Sophists, 322
826
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Philumenus, 567, 577
Photius, 276, 338
Physiologus, 490, 497-503
Picatrix, 665
Pico della Mirandola, 603
Pietschmann, R., 288
Pighinuccius, T., 596
Pilate, Acts of, 390
Pindar, 266
Piper, 677
Piso, 574
Piso, Domitius, 44
Pistis-Sophia, 364, 377-9
Pitra, J. B.
Analecta Sacra, 291, 297
Spicilegium, 463, 497ff., 636, 777
Platearius, Matthaeus the Elder,
738
Plato, 22, 24-6, 58, 61, 137, 139,
1 51-2, 1 80- 1, 235, 240, 247,
290, 303, 349-50, 353, 355,
460, 519, 532, 622, 632, 713
Laws, 25
Republic, 26, 138, 212
Symposium, 25
Timaeus, 24-6, 237, 297, 408,
476, 620
Plato of Tivoli, no
Pliny the Elder, Natural History,
chap, a, 3, 100, 132, 154,
187-8, 193, 199, 213-4, 238,
248, 255, 257, 268, 273, 292-3,
296, 322, 325, 327-9, 331,
351, 503, 510, 558, 571-2,
589-91, 612, 614, 624, 626,
628, 727, 761, 764, 766, 780
Other works listed, 45
Medicina Plinii, 52, 577, 595-6
Pliny the Younger, 45, 48, 50
Plotinus, chap, xi, 361-2, 5z^2
Plutarch, chap, vi, 180, 269, 355,
481, 669
Agesilaus, 558
Alexander, 552
Banquet of Seven Sages, 218
Bruta ratione uti, 217
Defectu oraculorum, 203, 205,
212-3, 219, 278
Ei apud Delphos, 205, 212
Facie in orbe lunae, 206, 211, 219
Genio Socratis, 205, 207, 240
Isis and Osiris, 219
Lives, 201, 244
Principle of Cold, 218
Procreation of Soul, 212
Pythiac oraculis, 205
Quacstiones naturales, 217, 219
Romulus, 209, 330
Sera numinis vindicta, 213
Solertia animalium>, 218
Superstitione, 203-4
Symposiacs, 205, 21 1-3, 217, 219
Whether an old man should en-
gage in politics, 201
dubious or spurious
Fato, 202, 210
Institutione principis, 200
Placitis philosophorum, 202
Rivers and Mountains, 202, 215
Pognon, H., 384
Poiree, see Ruelle et
Polemon, 460
Politian, 53
Polybius, 245
Pomponius Mela, 328-9
Ponce de Leon, 499
Poole, R. L., Medieval Thought,
617, 634
Porphyry, chap, xi, 535
Abstinentia, 314, 317
Introduction to Tetrabiblos, 116,
316
Letter to Anebo, 307-20
Philosophia ex oraculis, 297
Vita Plotini, 296, 300-2
Posidonius, in
Prachter, K., 541
Preisendanz, K., 28
Preller, L., 296, 429
Premerstein, A. v., 607
Frenostica Fitagorice, 684
Preuschen, E., 366
Priaulx, Indian Travels, 244
Prince, J. D., 15
Priscian, 326, 761
Priscillian, 380-1, 461
Proceedings, Biblical Archaeol-
ogy, 33
Proceedings, Royal Society of
Medicine, 284
Procharus, 397
Proclus, 116, 307, 316
Sacriiicio et magia, 319-20
Protevangelium of lanves, chap.
xvi
Pruckner, M., 525
Prudentius, 500
Psalms and Psalter, 442, 521, 759
Psellus, Michael, 290, 569, 772
Ptolemy, chap. Hi, 32, 118, 135,
272, 307, 341, 537. 661, 664,
666, 703, 709-10, 737
Almagest, 105-9
Centiloquium, in
Exortatio ad artem, 693
Geography, 105-7
Music, 107
Optics, 107-8
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
827
Planisphere, 699
Quadripartitum, see Tetrabiblos
Speculis, 189
Tetrabiblos, 110-16, 303, 517,
690-1
Puccinotti, Storia delle Medicine,
chap, xxxii
Puschmann, T.
Alexander v. Tralles, s67ff-.
577ff-
Hist, of Medical Education,
120-1, 129, 143, 569, 731
Pythagoras, 50, 58, 61-3, 65-6, 80,
91-2, 176, 1 80- 1, 204, 232-4,
247, 263, 269, 274, 288, 317,
349-50, 3SS> 2,73, 532
Precepta, 696
Prenostica, 684
Sphere of, chap, xxix, 370
Quadripartitus, 690
Quid pro quo, 608
Quiggin, E. C, 640
Quilichinus, Aretinus, 558
Quintillian, Pseudo-, 540
Rabanus Maurus, 402, 484, 617,
630, 634, 673
Radloff, W., 382
Raidel, G. M., 106
Ramsay, W. M., 106
Rand, E. K., 619
Ranking, G. S. A., 667-71
Ranulf Higden, 690
Raoul Glaber, 674
Rasche, C, 307
Rashdall, H., 731, 757
Rasis, 164, 653, 667-71, 748
works listed, 668
Ratdolt, E., 649
Read, C, 5
Realencyklopadie f. protest.
Theol, 381, 399
Regimen Salernitanum, 736ff.
Reginald or Retinaldus, 52
Regulae . . . de compositione as-
tro lapsus, 699
Reinach, S., 6
Reisner, G. A., 34
Reitzenstein, R., 290, 379, 553
Renzi, S. D., Collectio Salertiitana,
578, 600, 660, chap, xxxi
Reuss, F. A., 613
Reuvens, 369
Revelation, Book of, 386
Reville, J., 350
Revue des Studes anciennes, 672
Revue des Etudes juives, 551
Revue d. I'hist. d. religs., 341, 349
Revue Phil, 291
Revue des Questions*Historiques,
113, 690
Rhazes, see Rasis
Rhein. Mus., 52
Richardson, E. C, 400, 403, 406
Richer, 704, 733
Riegler, see Axt and
Riess, E., 24, 292-3, 683
Riley, H. T., see Bostock and
Robert, 498
Robert of Chester, 648, 697, 761,
772,
Robertson Smith, W., 34
Roger Bacon, see Bacon
Rohde, Psyche, 293
Rolleston, J. D., 284
Rom. Forsch., 610
Roinanic Review, 499, 631
Roscher-, Lexicon, 34
Rose, v., 120, 463, 567, 576, 601
Analecta, 121
Anecdota, 596, 610
Aristoteles De lapidibus, 775,
777
HSS Verseichnisse, 702, 720,
748, 774
Medicina Plinii, 595, 600, 609,
612
Ptolemaeus, 612
Soranus, 571
Roussat, R., 116
Roux de Rochelle, 564
Rijck, Plinius im Mittelalter, 51
Ruelle, 19s, 291 ; and see Berthelot
and
Ruelle et Poiree, 371
Ruellius, 600
Rufifer, M. A., 11
Rufinus, chap, xvii, 445
Rufus, Melancholia, 756
Ruska, J., 611
Sackur, Sibyl, Texte, 285
Sadan, 651
St. George Stock, 362
Salmon, G., 362
Salomon the archiater, 161
Samuel, First Book of, 448
Satyrus, 123
Sayce, A. H., 35
Schanz, 596
Schenkel, C., 483
Schepss, G., 381, 519
Schiaparelli, 16, 32, 35
Schiche, T., 268
Schlurick, H., 400
Schmertosch, R., 202
Schmid, W., 105, 108
828
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Schmidt, i88
Schmidt, C, 299, 361, 377-8
Schneider, J. G., 237
Schneider, O., 237
Schneidewin, 466
Schuhze, v., 497
Schwab, M., 33
Schwartze und Petermann, 369,
377
Scientific Monthly, 194
Scribonius Largus, 600
Scylax, 256
Seeck, O., 540
Seleucus, 289
Seneca
Natural Questions, chap, in,
196, 542, 553
Apocryphal correspondence with
the apostle Paul, 556
Septuagint, 453, 459
Serapion, 610
Serenus Sammonicus, 608
Seth, 365, 474
Sethe, 9
Sextus Empiricus, 116, 269, 275-6,
469
Sextus Papirius Placidus, 599
Shakespeare, 772
Shelley, 432
Sibylline Books, 272, 285
Sigebertus Gemblacensis, 613
Sijthoff, A. W., 607
Sikes, E. E., 21
Silvester II, pope, see Gerbert
Simon Cephas, Teaching of, 424
Simon Gordo of Genoa, 567, 610
Simon Papiensis, 525
Simon, the heretic, Great Declara-
tion, 362 ; and see Simon
Magus in other index
Simonides, 574
Singer, Charles, 345, 597, 607, 609,
660, 674
Sitsungsherichte (Bavaria), 51
Sitsungsberichte (Berlin), 121
Sitsungsherichte (Erlangen), 763,
775
Sitsungsberichte (Heidelberg), 34,
524
Skutsch, see Kroll et
Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman
Biography, 108
Smithsonian Report, 773
Smyly, J. G., 293
Societas Regia Scientiarum, 468
Solinus, 326-31, 510, 601, 625-7,
777
Solomon, 195, 451
Sophocles, 49
Sortes sanctorum, 630-1, 727
Spencer, Herbert, 5
Sphera cuin comm-entis, 109
Sphere of Life and Death, 197,
chap, xxix
Spiegel, Alexandersage, 552
Spon, J., 379
Sprengel, K., 606
Stadler, H., 613
Steele, R., Roger Bacon, 342,
602
Steinschneider, M., 669
Apollonius V. Thyana, 267
Constantinus Africanus, 657,
74273, 745, 749, 756
Europdisch. Ubersetz., 288, chap.
xxviii, 711
Pseudepig. Lit., 578
Stephanus, alchemist, 196, 292
Stephanus, Medicae artis principes,
566ff.
Stephen of Alexandria, 569
Stephen of Athens, 607
Stephen of Pisa, 747-9
Stobaeus, 290
Stowe Missal, 640
Strabo, 213; and see Walafrid
Strassmeier, J. N., see Epping and
Strzygovi^ski, J., 497
Stubbs, W., 77Z
Stiicken, 15, 35
Studi Romansi, 499
Stumfall, B., 241
Sudhoff, K., 188, 683, 737
Suetonius, 244, 425, 601
Sulla, Memoirs, 201
Sulpicius Severus, 381, 423, 469
Sundevall, 73
Symeon Seth, 164
Symon, see Simon
Syncellus, 194, 196, 341
Synesius of (Zyrene, 196, 320, 533,
540-4, 555
Tabit ben Corra, see Thebit ben
Corat
Tacitus, 201, 241
Tallquist, K. L., 33
Talmud, 355
Taylor, H. O., 533
Taylor, T., 299, 307
Tennulius, 316
Tertullian, 447, 469, 476, 628
Anima, 463, 469
Apology, 463, 465
Cultu feminarum, 463
Idolatria, 421
Pallio, 493
Praescript., 369
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
829
Testaments of Twelve Patriarchs,
345
Texte und Untersuchnngcn, 299,
Book II passim
Thabit ben Corra, see Thebit ben
Corat
Thales, 97, 563
Thatcher, G. W., 383
Theatrum chcmicum Britannicum,
see Ashmole, E.
Thebit ben Corat, 661-6
Almagest, 109
Imaginibus, 664-6
ludiciis, 664
Motu octave spere, 663
Ponderibus, 663
Theobald, 498, 500
Theocritus, 22, 266
Theodoret, 369, 423, 447
Theodorus Priscianus, 608
Theodosian Code, 536, 584
Theol. Quartalschrift, 540
Theon of Alexandria, 109
Theophilus, medical writer, 569
Theophilus of Alexandria, 461
Theophilus, To Autolycus, 483,
492
Theophilus, Schcdula diversarum
artium, chap, xxxiii
Theophilus Macer, see Macer
Theophrastus, 27, 29, 75, 81, 186,
236-8
Thessalus, 127
Thilo, J. C, 387, 476
Thomas, apostle.
Acts of, 374. 396
Gospel of, chap, xvi
Thomas of Cantimpre, 503, 578,
600, 636, 658
Thomas, W. I., 5, 17
Thompson, D'Arcy W.
Aristotle as Biologist, 29-30, 73,
146
Glossary of Greek Birds, 73,
130, 25s, 265, 324
History of Animals, 26, 30, 73,
491
Thompson, C. J. S., 131
Thompson, H., 7, 27-8
Thompson, R. C, 15, 18, 33
Thorndike, L., 21, 26, 525
Thrasyllus, 99
Thucydides, 244
Tischendorf, chap, xvi
Tittel, K., 193
Tobit, Book of, 688
Todd, T. W., 10, 723
Torinus, A., 567, 577
Tozer, 131
Transactions of American Philo-
logical Association, 24, 28,
293
Transactions of Provincial Medi-
cal and Surgical Associa-
tion, 147
Transactions of Society of Biblical
Archaeology, 35
Treitel, L., 349
Tribonian, 568
Trithemius, 658, 702
Trotula, 740
Turner, S., 633
Twelve Tables, 234
Twysden, 690
Tycho Brahe, 457
Tychsen, O. G., 497
Tyrwhitt, 293
Unger, F., 76
University of Nebraska Studies,
24
Usener, 619
Valentinelli, J., 164
Valerius Soranus, 50; and see
Julius Valerius
Valois, N., 402
Valpy, 42
Varro, 50, 209, 239, 330, 625
Vedas, 251
Vergil, 97, 544, 601, 612, 691
Vettius Valens, 116
Vincent of Beauvais, 342, 389,
402-3, 503, 600, 658, 660,
669-70, 687, 744, 757
Vindanius Anatolius, 604
Vir chow's Archiv, 668, chap.
xxxii
Virolleaud, C, 35
Vitruvius, 143, 183-8, 199, 601
Vogelstein, 552
Vogl, S., see Bjornbo and
Voigt, H. G., 473
Volkmann, R., 299, 540
Vossius, I., 256
Vulgate, 688
Waitz, H., 400, 405, 663
Walafrid Strabo, 612-3, 615
Walker, A., 3^7
Waztalkora, 699
Webb, C. C. I., 303. 631, 684
Weber, C. F. and Caesar, J., 426
Weber, O., 33
Webster, H., 16, 686
Weissenberger, B., 202
Wellmann, M., 121, 138, 606, 608,
610
830
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Wendland, P., 348, 350
Wescher, C, 188
Wessely, C, 365, 607
Westenberger, 119
Westermann, A., 552
Westermarck, E., yz
Wickersheimer, E., 673-4, 683, 692,
698, 702
Wiedemann, A., 7-8, 14
Wiedemann, E., 649, y6z
Wilcken, 12
William of Auvergne, 402, 725
William le Clerc, 497-9
William of Malmesbury, 690,
704-6, 710, 714
William of Moerbeke, 179
William de Saliceto, 601
Wimmer, see Aubert and
Winckler, 15, 35
Windelband, W., 26
Windisch, H., 349
Windischmann, 296
Winsor, J., 106
Withington, E., 520, 667-8
Wolf, C, 607
Wolf, H., 316
Wolff, G., 297
Woltmann and Woermann, 607
Woolston, T., 388
Wright, T., 556
Wiinsch, R., 28, 366
Wuttke, M. H., 601
Wynkyn de Worde, 478
Wyttenbach, 299
Xanthus, 75
Xenocrates Aphrodisiensis, 167
Xenophanes, 180, 270
Xenophon, 22
Ya'kub ibn Ishak ibn Sabbah, see
Alkindi
Yonge, C. D., 349
Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, see
Mesne
Yule, H., Marco Polo, 132, 214,
479
Zacher, J., chap, xxiv
Zeitschrift f. aegypt. Sprache, 10,
35
Zeitschrift f. deutsch. Morgendl.
GeselL, 121, 267
Zeitschrift f. klass. Philol., 752
Zeitschrift f. Math., 661
Zeitschrift f. neutest. Wiss., 401
Zeitschrift /,, wiss. TheoL, 400
Zeller, E., 24, 316
Zervos, S., 566
Ziegler, K., chap, xxiii
Zimmern, 19, 32, 34
Zopyrus, 460
Zoroaster, 58-9, 206, 235, 281, 295,
396, 415, 435, 605, 629
Zosimus, 131, 195, 198, 290, 292
INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS
Additional 8928, p. 609
Additional 11035, p. 500
Additional 15236, pp. 694, 716
Additional 17808, chap, xxx
Additional 22398, p. 695
Additional 22719, p. 654
Additional 341 11, p. 578
Alengon 10, p. 484
Amiens 222, p. 634
Amiens 481, p. 478
Amiens fonds Lescalopier 2,
676
Amiens fonds Lescalopier 30,
484
Amplon. Folio 41, p. 611
Amplon. Octavo 62, p. 747
Amplon. Octavo 62a, p. 612
Amplon. Octavo 62b, p. 612
Amplon. Quarto 12, p. 558
Amplon. Quarto 151, p. 643
Amplon. Quarto 174, p. 665
Amplon. Quarto 204, p. 578
Amplon. Quarto 312, p. 664
Amplon. Quarto 349, p. 643
Amplon. Quarto 352, p. 651
Amplon. Quarto 365, p. 650
Amplon. Quarto 380, p. 694
Amplon. Quarto 381, p. 340
Amplon. Math. 48, 643
Amplon. Math. 53, p. 340
Amplon. Math. 54, p. 267
Arsenal 880, p. 650
Arsenal 981, p. 106
Arsenal 1036, p. 650
Arundel 242, p. 556
Arundel 295, p. 615
Arundel 319, p. 683
Ashburnham (Florence) 130,
682
Ashmole 179, p. 648
Ashmole 189, p. 681
Ashmole 209, p. 648
Ashmole 346, p. 665
Ashmole 361, pp. 681, 688
Ashmole 369, pp. 648, 714
Ashmole 369-V, p. 650
Ashmole 393, p. 650
Ashmole 434, p. 648
Ashmole 143 1, pp. 597, 599, 609
Ashmole 1462, p. 597
Ayranches 235, p. 664
P-
Balliol 124, p. 52
Balliol 146A, p. 52
Balliol 231, p. 121
Bamberg L-III-9, pp. 610, 747
Barberini (Rome) IX, 29, p. 609
Berlin 128, p. 634
634
695
720
477
477
748
163
163
Berlin 130, p.
Berlin 131, p.
Berlin 165, p.
Berlin 799, p.
Berlin 800, p.
Berlin 898, p.
Berlin 902, p.
Berlin 903, p.
Berlin 956, pp. 702, 774
Berlin 963, pp. 340, 665
Berlin 964, p. 665
Bernard 2325, p. 478
BN Greek 930, p. 401
BN Greek 2179, p. 607
BN Greek 2316, p. 578
BN nouv. acq. 229, pp. 677, 702,
725, 728ff.
BN nouv. acq. 490, p. 484
BN nouv. acq. 616, p. 643
BN nouv. acq. 1612, p. 634
BN nouv. acq. 1615, p. 634
BN nouv. acq. 1616, chap, xxix
BN nouv. acq. 1619, p. 571
BN nouv. acq. 1632, p. 634
BN 1701 and 1702, p. 484
BN 1718 to 1727, p. 484
BN 1 787 A, p. 484
BN 2200, p. 484
484
710
77^
831
BN 2387,
BN 2598,
BN 2621,
BN 2633,
BN 2637,
BN 2638,
BN 2695A,
BN 2780, p
BN 2874, P
BN 3660A,
BN 3836, p
BN 4126, p
BN 4161, p
BN 4801 to
BN 4838, p
BN 4877, P
BN 4880, p
484
484
P- 556
500
556
pp. 681-2
484
556
714
4804, p. 106
106
556
556
832
INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS
BN S062, p. 556
BN 5239, p. 692
BN 5543, p. 634
BN 6121, p. 556
BN 6186, p. 556
BN 6296, p. 657
BN 6319, p. 657
BN 6322, p. 657
BN 6323 A, p. 657
BN 6325, p. 657
BN 6365, p. 556
BN 6385, p. 556
BN 6503, p. 556
BN 6514, pp. 664, 670
BN 6567A, p. 657
BN 6569, p. 657
BN 6811, p. 556
BN 6831, p. 556
BN 6880, pp. 567, 584
BN 6881, p. 577
BN 6882, p. 577
BN 6954, p. 600
BN 6957, p. 600
BN 6978, p. 648
BN 7028, pp. 674, 728
BN 7156, p. 670
BN 7195, p. 663
BN 7282, p. 665
BN 7299 A, pp. 676, 679, 686, 696
BN 7316, pp. 647, 652
BN 7328, p. 647
BN 7329, p. 652
BN 7332, p. 647
BN 7Z27, pp. 664, 687
BN 7349, p. 716
BN 7351, p. 716
BN jzyy'^, P- 663
BN 7412, p. 699
BN 7418, pp. 463, 777
BN 7424, p. 663
BN 7440, p. 647
BN 7482, p. 647
BN 7486, pp. 693, 716
BN 7561, p. 556
BN 8247, p. 657
BN 8S01A, p. 556
BN 8518, p. 556
BN 8521A, p. 556
BN 8607, p. 556
BN 9332, pp. 571, 576, 610
BN 10233, p. 571
BN 10260, p. 663
BN 10271, p. 715
BN 1 1 624, p. 484
BN 12134, P- 484
BN 1213s, P- 484
BN 12136, p. 484
BN 12995, P- 609
BN 13014, p. 340
BN 13336, p. 484
BN 13350, p. 445
BN 13951, p. 267
BN 14700, p. 744
BN 14847, p. 484
BN 1568s, p. 634
BN 16082, p. 657
BN 16083, p. 657
BN 16088, p. 657
BN 16142, p. 657
BN 16204, p. 650
BN 162 16, p. 696
BN 16490, p. 657
BN 16819, pp. 476, 478
BN 17868, p. 683, chap. XXX
Bodleian 26, p. 694
Bodleian 177, p. 694
Bodleian 266, pp. 664, 705, 710
Bodleian 463, pp. 652, 665
Bodleian 2060, p. 758
Bologna 952, p. 52
Bologna University Library 378,
p. 610
Bruce Papyrus, p. 378
Brussels (Library of Dukes of
Burgundy) 1782, p. 484
Brussels 2784, p. 657
Brussels 8890, p. 776
Brussels 10074, P- 498
Brussels 15489, p. 758
Cambrai 195, p. 696
Cambrai 229, p. 696
Cambrai 829, p. 696
Cambrai 861, p. 696
Cambrai 907, p. 758
Cambrai 914, p. 758
Cambrai 925, p. 633
Canon. Misc. 370, p. 643
Canon. Misc. 517, p. 682
Casin. 97, p. 577
Chalons-sur-Marne 7, p. 69S
Chartres 63, p. 484
Chartres 113, p. 692
Chartres 342, p. 577
CLM 27, p. 665
CLM 51, p. 650
CLM 59, p. 66s
CLM 161, pp. 749-50
CLM 168, p. 750
CLM 187, p. 750
CLM 215, p. 560
CLM 270, p. 750
CLM 227, P- 610
CLM 344, p. 2,77
CLM 392, p. 648
CLM 489, p. 648
CLM 527, p. 716
CLM 560, pp. 559, 698, 710
INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS
833
CLM 588, p. 664
CLM 621, p. 241
CLM 826, p. 651
CLM 1487, p. 650
CLM 1503, p. 650
CLM 2549, p. 484
CLM 3728, p. 484
CLM 6258, p. 484
CLM 6382, pp. 678, 680
CLM 9921, p. 678
CLM 11319, p. 556
CLM 13034, p. 749
CLM 13079, P- 484
CLM 14399, P- 484
CLM 14583, p. 106
CLM 14836, p. 701
CLM 18158, p. 634
CLM 18621, p. 477
CLM 18629, pp. 674, 693, 696
CLM 18764, p. 674
CLM 19417, p. 500
CLM 19544, p. 477
CLM 19648, p. 498
CLM 21557, p. 634
CLM 21627, p. 477
CLM 22307, p. 692
CLM 23390, p. 696
CLM 23479, p. 775
CLM 23535, p. 571
CLM 23787, p. 498
CLM 23839, p. 477
CLM 24571, p. 477
CLM 25073, p. 477
CLM 26688, p. 477
Corpus Christi 82, p. 555
Corpus Christi 114, p. 657
Corpus Christi 134, p. 476
Corpus Christi 154, p. 657
Corpus Christi 189, p. 578
Corpus Christi 2^2, p. 652
Corpus Christi 254, p. 648
Cortona no, p. 164
Cotton Appendix VI, pp. 643, 646
Cotton Caligula A, XV, pp. 680,
695
Cotton Galba E, VTII, p. 477
Cotton Nero D, VIII, p. 556
Cotton Tiberius A, III, chap.
xxix
'Cotton Tiberius C, VI, p. 692
Cotton Titus D, XXVI, chap.
Cotton Titus D, XXVII, p. 681
Cotton Vespasian B, X, p. 601
Cotton Vitellius A, XII, p. 695
Cotton Vitellius C, III, pp. 597,
612
Cotton Vitellius C, VIII, p. 695
CUL 213, p. 602
CUL 768, p. 775
CUL 1338, p. 678
CUL 1429, p. 558
CUL 1687, p. 679
CUL 1767, pp. no, 663
CUL Ii-i-13, p. 652
CU Clare 15, p. 647
CU Corpus 193, p. 484
CU Jesus 44, p. 610
CU Trinity 884, p. 498
CU Trinity 906, p. 748
CU Trinity 936, p. 643
CU Trinity 945, p. 695
CU Trinity 987, p. 680
CU Trinity 1041, pp. 401, 557
CU Trinity 1044, P- 724
CU Trinity 1064, p. 749
CU Trinity 1109, pp. 678, 693
CU Trinity 1152, pp. 597, 599
CU Trinity 1365, p. 753
CU Trinity 1369, pp. 686, 692^
695
CU Trinity 1446, p. 564
Digby 30, p. 428
Digby, 40, p. 646
Digby 43, p. 600
Digby 51, p. no
Digby 58, p. 693
Digby 6z, pp. 686, 695
Digby 67, pp. 340, 647
Digby 68, pp. 647, 652
Digby 79, P- 578
Digby 83, pp. 705-7
Digby 86, p. 678
Digby 88, p. 681
Digby 91, pp. 643, 646, 648
Digby 92, p. 647
Digby 93, p. 647
Digby 147, p. 647
Digby 174, pp. 701-2
Digby 176, p. 647
Digby 183, pp. 643, 646
Digby 194, pp. 652, 665
Dijon 448, p. 69s
Dijon 1045, p. 650
Edwin Smith Papyrus, p. 12
Egerton 821, pp. 677-81, 684, 726-9
Egerton 823, p. 699
Escorial Q-I-4, PP- 52-3
Escorial R-I-5, pp. 52-3
Escorial &-II-9, p. 745
Eton 133, Bl.4.6, p. 556
Eton 134, Bl.4.7, p. 52
Exon. 23, p. 658
Florence II, iii, 214, pp. 653, 665
834
INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS
Gonville and Caius 109, p. 658
Gonville and Caius 345, p. 599
Gonville and Caius 400, p. 577
Gonville and Caius 411, p. 742
Grenoble 208, p. 506
Grenoble 258, p. 484
Gubbio 25, p. 499
Harleian i, p. 650
Harleian 13, pp. 643, 663
Harleian 80, pp. 340, 665
Harleian 527, p. 557
Harleian 1585, pp. 597, 609, 696
Harleian 1612, p. 340
Harleian 1735, p. 684
Harleian 2258, p. 677
Harleian 3017, pp. 677, 680, 695
Harleian 3099, p. 623
Harleian 3271, p. 695
Harleian 3647, pp. 663, 665
Harleian 3859, p. 601
Harleian 3969, p. 241
Harleian 4346, p. 612
Harleian 4986, pp. 597, 608
Harleian 5294, p. 609
Harleian 531 1, p. 694
Hatton 76, p. 776
Hunterian 44, p. 667
Ivrea 3, p. 634
Ivrea 6, p. 634
Ivrea 19, p. 692
Laon 407, p. 692
Laud. Misc. 247, pp. 498, 556
Laud. Misc. 567, pp. 749, 751
Laud. Misc. 594, pp. 650-1
Laud. Misc. 658, pp. 444, 477
Laurentianus xxxviii, 24, p. 683
Laurentianus Plut. 68, 2, p. 241
Lincoln College 34, p. 351
Lucca 1, L, p. 764
Lucca 236, pp. 597, 69s
Lyons 328, p. 664
Madrid 10016, p. 693
Magliabech. IV, 63, p. 499
Magliabech. XI, 117, p. 663
Magliabech. XX, 20, p. 665
Le Mans 15, p. 484
Le Mans 263, p. 52
Merton 219, p. 125
Monte Cassino 97, p. 577
Montpellier 277, pp. 600, 611, 776
Munich, Latin MSS., see CLM
New College MS., unnumbered,
P- 52
Novara 40, p. 484
Orleans 35, p. 484
Orleans 192, p. 484
Orleans 276, p. 692
Ottobon. 443, p. 401
Palat. Lat. 487, p. 673
Pembroke 278, p. 676
Perugia 736, p. 598
Rawlinson C-117, p. 643
Ravi^linson C-328, pp. 597, 600, 746
Riccard. 119, p. 670
Riccard. 1228, p. 776
Royal 2-C-XII, p. 498
Royal 4-A-XIII, p. 65
Royal 12-B-XVI, p. 577
Royal 12-C-IV, pp. 554, 556
Royal 12-C-XVIII, pp. 267, 340,
664
Royal 12-E-XX, p. 577
Royal 12-F-X, p. 65
Royal 13-A-I, pp. 554-5, 564-5
Royal 15-B-II, p. 601
Royal 15-B-IX, p. 701
Royal 15-C-IV, p. 601
Royal 15-C-VL pp. 554, 556
Royal 17-A-I, p. 705
St. Augustine's Canterbury 1166,
p. 643
St. Augustine's Canterbury 1172,
p. 714
St. Gall 751, p. 596
Ste. Genevieve 2240, p. 643
St. John's 17, p. 680
St. John's 85, p. 747
St. John's 128, p. 349
S. Marco 179, p. 658
S. Marco XI, 102, p. 665
S. Marco XI, in, p. 694
S. Marco XIV, 7, p. 164
S. Marco XIV, 26, p. 164
Savile 15, p. 652
Schlestadt MS., pp. 765, 769
Selden 3467, p. 643
Selden supra 76, p. 643
Semur 10, p. 484
Sloane 475, chap, xxix, pp. 723-6
Sloane 1305, p. 665
Sloane 1571, p. 599
Sloane 1619, p. 556
Sloane 1734, p. 291
Sloane 1975, pp. 597, 609, 696
Sloane 2030, p. 652
Sloane 2454, p. 657
Sloane, 2461, pp. 681, 696
Sloane 2472, p. 716
Sloane 2839, pp. 723-4
Sloane 3554, p. 716
INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS
835
Sloane 3821, p. 340
Sloane 3826, p. 267
Sloane 3846, p. 665
Sloane 3847, pp. 340, 665
Sloane 3S48, pp. 267, 611
Sloane 3857, p. 716
Sloane 3883, p. 665
Soissons 121, p. 484
Tanner 192, p. 663
Turin K-IV-3, p. 609
University College 2>Z^ p. 477
University College, 89, p. 750
Vatican 180 to 185, p. 349
Vatican 269 to 27^,, p. 484
Vatican 642, p. 693
Vatican 644, pp. 693, 695
Vatican 645, p. 674
Vatican Palat. Lat. 176, p. 692
Vatican Palat. Lat. 235, chap.
xxix
Vatican Palat. Lat. 485, chap.
xxix
Vatican Palat. Lat. 859, p. 477
Vatican Urb. Lat. 290, p. 693
Vendome 109, pp. 577-8
Vendome 122, p. 484
Vendome 129, p. 484
Vendome 172, p. 577
Vendome 175, p. 577
Vienna 303, p. 499
Vienna 2245, p. 679
Vienna 2272, p. 604
Vienna 2378, p. 665
Vienna 2385, p. 647
Vienna 2436, pp. 647, 650
Vienna 251 1, p. 499
Vienna 2532, pp. 615, 681, 693
Vienna 3124, p. 267
Vienna 3207, p. 613
Vienna 3255, p. 332
Vienna 5203, p. 663
Vienna 5216, p. 340
Vienna 5371, p. 609
Vienna 10583, p. 651
Vind. Med. 29, p. 499
Westcar Papyrus, p. 8
Wolfenbiittel 2725, p. 340
Wolfenbiittel 2885, p. 668
Wolfenbiittel 3266, p. 477
Wolfenbiittel 4435, p. 498
Wolfenbiittel palimpsest, p. 122
DATE DUE
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