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diff --git a/old/67792-0.txt b/old/67792-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b7a10c4..0000000 --- a/old/67792-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,45538 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of Magic and Experimental -Science, Volume 1 (of 2), by Lynn Thorndike - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) - During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era - -Author: Lynn Thorndike - -Release Date: April 7, 2022 [eBook #67792] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Tim Lindell, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND -EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) *** - - - Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other -spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. - -On Chapter 52 page 313 “sees no reason why divination in darkness, in a wall, or -in sunlight, or by potions and incantations,” while well seems more -likely than wall the original text is unchanged. - -Footnote 1477: century, fols. 156-74 has been replaced by 56-74. - -The table of contents lists the contents of volume 2 as well as volume -1. - -The footnotes have been placed at the end of the book. - -Italics are represented thus _italic_, and superscripts thus y^{en}. - - - - - 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 ix - - ABBREVIATIONS xiii - - DESIGNATION OF MANUSCRIPTS xv - - LIST OF WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED BY AUTHOR AND DATE OF - PUBLICATION OR BRIEF TITLE xvii - - CHAPTER - - 1. INTRODUCTION 1 - - - BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE - - FOREWORD 39 - - 2. PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY 41 - - I. Its Place in the History of Science 42 - II. Its Experimental Tendency 53 - III. 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 ASTROLOGY 100 - - 4. GALEN 117 - - I. The Man and His Times 119 - II. His Medicine and Experimental Science 139 - III. His Attitude Toward Magic 165 - - 5. ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS, - HERO, AND THE GREEK ALCHEMISTS 182 - - 6. PLUTARCH’S ESSAYS 200 - - 7. APULEIUS OF MADAURA 221 - - 8. PHILOSTRATUS’S LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA 242 - - 9. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION: - CICERO, FAVORINUS, SEXTUS EMPIRICUS, LUCIAN 268 - - 10. SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS OF HERMES, ORPHEUS, AND - ZOROASTER 287 - - 11. 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 AUGUSTINE 462 - - 21. CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE: BASIL, EPIPHANIUS, - 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 MEDICINE - IN MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE NINTH TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY 719 - - 32. CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS (c. 1015-1087) 742 - - 33. TREATISES ON THE ARTS BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF - ARABIC ALCHEMY 760 - - 34. MARBOD 775 - - INDICES: - - General 783 - Bibliographical 811 - Manuscripts 831 - - - BOOK IV. THE TWELFTH CENTURY - - 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 - - FOREWORD 305 - - 51. MICHAEL SCOT 307 - - 52. WILLIAM OF AUVERGNE 338 - - 53. THOMAS OF CANTIMPRÉ 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 517 - - I. Life 521 - II. As a Scientist 528 - III. His Allusions to Magic 548 - IV. Marvelous Virtues in Nature 560 - V. Attitude Toward Astrology 577 - - 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 - - 63. 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 Historical Review_. For -permission to make use of these previous 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 Review_, -_Classical Philology_, _The Monist_, _Nature_, _The Philosophical -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 dissertation. 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 because somewhat inaccessibly -catalogued, have been less used by students of medieval learning than -such libraries as the Bodleian and Bibliothèque 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 Amplonius 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 tending, 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 Snakeskin_ -of John Paulinus by J. W. S. Johnsson in _Bull. d. l. société franç. -d’hist. d. l. méd._, 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[1] 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. 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 well 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. -Constant 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 further examination of -the context and line of thought of the author or treatise in question, -since the wording of particular 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 palaeography -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 there 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—consult 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 have generously sent -books—sometimes rare volumes—to Cleveland for my use, or all the -librarians who have personally assisted my researches or courteously -and carefully answered 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 Columbia 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,[2] L. C. Karpinski, W. G. Leutner, W. A. -Locy, D. B. Macdonald, L. J. Paetow, S. B. Platner, E. C. Richardson, -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 indiscretions as -the book may display. - - - - - ABBREVIATIONS - - - Abhandl. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematischen - Wissenschaften, begründet 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., 1913. - - AS Acta sanctorum. - - Beiträge Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des - Mittelalters, ed. by C. Baeumker, G. v. Hertling, - M. Baumgartner, et al., Münster, 1891-. - - BL Bodleian Library, Oxford. - - BM British Museum, London. - - BN Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. - - Borgnet Augustus Borgnet, ed. B. Alberti Magni Opera - omnia, Paris, 1890-1899, in 38 vols. - - Brewer Fr. Rogeri Bacon Opera quaedam hactenus inedita, - 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 Bibliographical - Society of America, New York, - 1919. - - CLM Codex Latinus Monacensis (Latin MS at Munich). - - CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, - Vienna, 1866-. - - 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, 11th 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 Littéraire de la France. - - HZ Historische Zeitschrift, Munich, 1859-. - - Kühn Medici Graeci, ed. C. J. Kühn, Leipzig, 1829, - containing the works of Galen, Dioscorides, - etc. - - MG Monumenta Germaniae. - - MS Manuscript. - - MSS Manuscripts. - - Muratori Rerum Italicarum scriptores ab anno aerae christianae - 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, Realencyclopädie der classischen - Altertumswissenschaft. - - RS “Rolls Series,” or Rerum Britannicarum medii - aevi scriptores, 99 works in 244 vols., London, - 1858-1896. - - TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der - altchristlichen Literatur, ed. Gebhardt und - Harnack. - - -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 number or shelf-mark of the -individual MS. So many of the catalogues of MSS collections which I -consulted were undated 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, _Incipits_, 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 bibliographies, 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 differentiation, 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 selection. 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. Cousin, Paris, - 1849-1859, 2 vols. - -Ouvrages inédits, ed. V. Cousin, 1835. - -Abt, Die Apologie des Apuleius von Madaura und die antike Zauberei, - Giessen, 1908. - -Achmetis Oneirocriticon, ed. Rigaltius, Paris, 1603. - -Adelard of Bath, Quaestiones naturales, 1480, 1485, etc. De eodem et - diverso, ed. H. Willner, Münster, 1903. - -Ahrens, K. Das Buch der Naturgegenstände, 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. - -Allbutt, Sir T. Clifford. The Historical Relations of Medicine 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, London, 1902, 53 pp., - from Journal of the Oxford University 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 Médecine; Étude sur les théories - hermétiques dans l’histoire de la médecine, Paris, 1912, 155 pp. - -Anz, W. Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus, Leipzig, 1897. - -Aquinas, Thomas. Opera omnia, ed. E. Fretté et P. Maré, Paris, - 1871-1880, 34 vols. - -Aristotle, De animalibus historia, ed. Dittmeyer, 1907; English - 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. Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la Faculté de - Médecine de Montpellier, Paris, 1767. - -Auriferae artis quam chemiam vocant antiquissimi auctores, Basel, 1572. - -Barach et Wrobel, Bibliotheca Philosophorum Mediae Aetatis, 1876-1878, - 2 vols. - -Bartholomew of England, De proprietatibus rerum, Lingelbach, - Heidelberg, 1488, and other editions. - -Bauhin, De plantis a divis sanctisve nomen habentibus, Basel, 1591. - -Baur, Ludwig, ed. Gundissalinus De divisione philosophiae, Münster, - 1903. - Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Münster, 1912. - -Beazley, C. R. The Dawn of Modern Geography, London, 1897-1906, 3 vols. - -Bernard, E. Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae in - unum collecti (The old catalogue of the Bodleian MSS), Tom. I, Pars 1, - Oxford, 1697. - -Berthelot, P. E. M. Archéologie 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 à l’étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge, 1889. - La chimie au moyen âge, 1893, 3 vols. - Les origines de l’alchimie, 1885. - Sur les voyages de Galien et de Zosime dans l’Archipel et en Asie, - et sur la matière médicale dans l’antiquité, in Journal des Savants, - 1895, pp. 382-7. - -Bezold, F. von, Astrologische Geschichtsconstruction im Mittelalter, - in Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, VIII (1892) 29ff. - -Bibliotheca Chemica. See Borel and Manget. - -Björnbo, A. A. und Vogl, S. Alkindi, Tideus, und Pseudo-Euklid; drei - optische Werke, Leipzig, 1911. - -Black, W. H. Catalogue of the Ashmolean Manuscripts, Oxford, 1845. - -Boffito, P. G. Il Commento di Cecco d’Ascoli all’Alcabizzo, Florence, - 1905. - Il De principiis astrologiae di Cecco d’Ascoli, in Giornale Storico - della Letteratura Italiana, Suppl. 6, Turin, 1903. - Perchè fu condannato al fuoco l’astrologo Cecco d’Ascoli, in Studi e - Documenti di Storia e Diritto, Publicazione 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 Hermippus, in Sitzb. - Heidelberg Akad., Philos. Hist. Classe (1912) No. 18, 28 pp. - Sphaera, Leipzig, 1903. - Studien über Claudius Ptolemaeus, in Jahrb. f. klass. Philol., Suppl. - Bd. XXI. - Zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte d. griech. Astrologie u. Astronomie, in - Münch. Akad. Sitzb., 1899. - -Boll und Bezold, Sternglauben, Leipzig, 1918; I have not seen. - -Bonatti, Guido. Liber astronomicus, Ratdolt, Augsburg, 1491. - -Boncompagni, B. Della vita e delle Opere di Gherardo Cremonese - traduttore del secolo duodecimo e di Gherardo da Sabbionetta astronomo - del secolo decimoterzo, Rome, 1851. - Della vita e delle opere di Guido Bonatti astrologo ed astronomo del - secolo decimoterzo, Rome, 1851. - Estratte dal Giornale Arcadico, Tomo CXXIII-CXXIV. Della 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 philosophicorum - 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. - -Bouché-Leclercq, A. L’astrologie dans le monde romain, in Revue - Historique, vol. 65 (1897) 241-99. - L’astrologie grecque, Paris, 1899, 658 pp. - Histoire de la divination dans l’antiquité, 1879-1882, 4 vols. - -Breasted, J. H. Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, - New York, 1912. - 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, 1), London, 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, 1921. - -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-Callisthenes and other - writers, Cambridge University Press, 1896. - Syriac Version of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Cambridge, 1889. - Syrian Anatomy, Pathology, and Therapeutics, London, 1913, 2 vols. - -Bunbury, E. H. A History of Ancient Geography, London, 1879, 2 vols. - -Cahier et Martin, Mélanges d’archéologie, d’histoire et de - littérature, Paris, 1847-1856, 4 folio vols. - -Cajori, F. History of Mathematics; second edition, revised and - enlarged, 1919. - -Cantor, M. Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, 3rd edition, - Leipzig, 1899-1908, 4 vols. Reprint of vol. II in 1913. - -Carini, S. I. Sulle Scienze Occulte nel Medio Evo, Palermo, 1872; I - have not seen. - -Cauzons, Th. de. La magie et la sorcellerie en France, 1910, 4 vols.; - largely compiled from secondary sources. - -Charles, E. Roger Bacon: sa vie, ses ouvrages, ses doctrines, - Bordeaux, 1861. - -Charles, R. H. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, - English translation with introductions and critical and explanatory - notes in conjunction with many scholars, Oxford, 1913, 2 large vols. - Ascension of Isaiah, 1900, and reprinted in 1917. - The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1893; translated anew, 1912. - -Charles, R. H. and Morfill, W. R. The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, - Oxford, 1896. - -Charterius, Renatus ed. Galeni opera, Paris, 1679, 13 vols. - -Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, see Denifle et Chatelain. - -Chassang, A. Le merveilleux dans l’antiquité, 1882; I have not seen. - -Choulant, Ludwig. Albertus Magnus in seiner Bedeutung für die - Naturwissenschaften historisch und bibliographisch dargestellt, in - Janus, I (1846) 152ff. - Die Anfänge wissenschaftlicher Naturgeschichte und naturhistorischer - Abbildung, Dresden, 1856. - Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die ältere Medicin, 2nd edition, Leipzig, - 1841; like the foregoing, slighter than the title leads one to hope. - ed. Macer Floridus de viribus herbarum una cum Walafridi Strabonis, - Othonis Cremonensis et Ioannis Folcz carminibus similis argumenti, - 1832. - -Christ, W. Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur; see W. Schmid. - -Chwolson, D. Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, Petrograd, 1856, 2 vols. - -Clément-Mullet, J. J. Essai sur la minéralogie arabe, Paris, 1868, in - Journal asiatique, Tome XI, Sèrie VI. - Traité des poisons de Maimonide, 1865. - -Clerval, Hermann le Dalmate, Paris, 1891, eleven pp. - Les écoles de Chartres au moyen âge, Chartres, 1895. - -Cockayne, O. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, - in RS XXXV, London, 1864-1866, 3 vols. - Narratiunculae anglice conscriptae, 1861. - -Congrès Périodique International des Sciences Médicales, 17th Session, - London, Section XXIII, History of Medicine, 1913. - -Cousin, V. See Abelard. - -Coxe, H. O. Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae - Pars Secunda Codices Latinos et Miscellaneos Laudianos complectens, - Oxford, 1858-1885. - Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae Pars Tertia - Codices Graecos et Latinos Canonicianos complectens, Oxford, 1854. - Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum qui in collegiis aulisque - Oxoniensibus hodie adservantur, 1852, 2 vols. - -Cumont, F. Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans, 1912, 2 - vols. And see CCAG under Abbreviations. - -Daremberg, Ch. V. Exposition des connaissances de Galien sur - l’anatomie, la physiologie, et la pathologie du système nerveux, - Paris, 1841. - Histoire des sciences médicales, Paris, 1870, 2 vols. - La médecine; histoire et doctrines, Paris, 1865. - Notices et extraits des manuscrits médicaux, 1853. - -Delambre, J. B. J. Histoire de l’astronomie du moyen âge, Paris, 1819. - -Delisle, L. Inventaire des manuscrits latins conservés à la - bibliothèque nationale sous les numéros 8823-18613 et faisant suite à - la série dont la catalogue a été publié en 1744, Paris, 1863-1871. - -Denifle, H. Quellen zur Gelehrtengeschichte des Predigerordens - im 13 und 14 Jahrhundert, in Archiv f. Lit. u. Kirchengesch. d. - Mittelalters, Berlin, II (1886) 165-248. - -Denifle et Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Paris, - 1889-1891, 2 vols. - -Denis, F. Le monde enchanté, cosmographie et histoire naturelles - fantastiques du moyen âge, Paris, 1843. A curious little volume with a - bibliography of works now forgotten. - -Doutté, E. Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du Nord, Alger, 1909. - -Duhem, Pierre. Le Système du Monde: Histoire des Doctrines - Cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic, 5 vols., Paris, 1913-1917. - -Du Prel, C. Die Magie als Naturwissenschaft, 1899, 2 vols. Occult - speculation, not historical treatment; the author seems to have no - direct acquaintance with sources earlier than Agrippa in the sixteenth - century. - -Easter, D. B. A Study of the Magic Elements in the romans d’aventure - and the romans bretons, Johns Hopkins, 1906. - -Ennemoser, J. History of Magic, London, 1854. - -Enoch, Book of. See Charles. - -Epiphanius. Opera ed. G. Dindorf, Leipzig, 1859-1862, 5 vols. - -Evans, H. R. The Old and New Magic, Chicago, 1906. - -Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, 1711. - Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et Infimae Aetatis, 1734-1746, 6 vols. - Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, 1713-1733. - -Farnell, L. R. Greece and Babylon; a comparative sketch of - Mesopotamian, Anatolian, and Hellenic Religions, Edinburgh, 1911. - The Higher Aspects of Greek Religion, New York, 1912. - -Ferckel, C. Die Gynäkologie des Thomas von Brabants, ausgewählte - Kapitel aus Buch I de naturis rerum beendet um 1240, Munich, 1912, in - G. Klein, Alte Meister d. Medizin u. Naturkunde. - -Ferguson, John. Bibliotheca Chemica, a catalogue of alchemical, - chemical and pharmaceutical books in the collection of the late James - Young, Glasgow, 1906. - -Fort, G. F. Medical Economy; a contribution to the history of European - morals from the Roman Empire to 1400, New York, 1883. - -Fossi, F. Catalogus codicum saeculo XV impressorum qui in publica - Bibliotheca Magliabechiana Florentiae adservantur, 1793-1795. - -Frazer, Sir J. G. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, 3 vols., 1918. - Golden Bough, edition of 1894, 2 vols. - Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, 2 vols., 1911. - Some Popular Superstitions of the Ancients, in Folk-Lore, 1890. - Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, 2 vols., 1912. - -Garinet. Histoire de la Magie en France. - -Garrison, F. H. An Introduction to the History of Medicine, 2nd - edition, Philadelphia, 1917. - -Gaster, M. A Hebrew Version of the Secretum secretorum, published for - the first time, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1907, - pp. 879-913; 1908, pp. 111-62, 1065-84. - -Gerland, E. Geschichte der Physik von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum - Ausgange des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, in Königl. Akad. d. Wiss., XXIV - (1913) Munich and Berlin. - -Gerland und Traumüller, Geschichte der Physikalischen - Experimentierkunst, Leipzig, 1899. - -Giacosa, P. Magistri Salernitani nondum editi, Turin, 1901. - -Gilbert of England, Compendium medicinae, Lyons, 1510. - -Gloria, Andrea. 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Rara Mathematica, 1839. - -Hammer-Jensen. Das sogennannte IV Buch der Meteorologie des - Aristoteles, in Hermes, L (1915) 113-36. - Ptolemaios und Heron, Ibid., XLVIII (1913), 224ff. - -Hansen, J. Zauberwahn, Inquisition, und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter, - Munich and Leipzig, 1900. - -Haskins, C. H. Adelard of Bath, in EHR XXVI (1911) 491-8; XXVIII - (1913), 515-6. - Leo Tuscus, in EHR XXXIII (1918), 492-6. - The “De Arte Venandi cum Avibus” of the Emperor Frederick II, EHR - XXXVI (1921) 334-55. - The Reception of Arabic Science in England, EHR XXX (1915), 56-69. - The Greek Element in the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, in - American Historical Review, XXV (1920) 603-15. - The Translations of Hugo Sanctelliensis, in Romanic Review, II (1911) - 1-15. - Nimrod the Astronomer, Ibid., V (1914) 203-12. - A List of Text-books from the Close of the Twelfth Century, in Harvard - Studies in Classical Philology, XX (1909) 75-94. - -Haskins and Lockwood. The Sicilian Translators of the Twelfth Century - and the First Latin Versions of Ptolemy’s Almagest, Ibid., XXI (1910), - 75-102. - -Hauréau, B. Bernard Délicieux et l’inquisition albigeoise, Paris, 1887. - Histoire de la philosophie scolastique, 1872-1880. - Le Mathematicus de Bernard Silvestris, Paris, 1895. - Les œuvres de Hugues de Saint Victor, essai critique, nouvelle - édition, Paris, 1886. - Mélanges poétiques d’Hildebert de Lavardin. - Notices et extraits de quelques mss latins de la bibliothèque - nationale, 1890-1893, 6 vols. - Singularités historiques et littéraires, Paris, 1861. - -Hearnshaw, F. J. C. Medieval Contributions to Modern Civilization, 1921. - -Heilbronner, J. C. Historia Matheseos universae praecipuorum - mathematicorum vitas dogmata scripta et manuscripta complexa, Leipzig, - 1742. - -Heim, R. De rebus magicis Marcelli medici, in Schedae philol. Hermanno - Usener oblatae, 1891, pp. 119-37. - Incantamenta magica graeca latina, in Jahrb. f. cl. Philol., 19 suppl. - bd., Leipzig, 1893, pp. 463-576. - -Heller, A. Geschichte der Physik von Aristoteles bis auf die neueste - Zeit, Stuttgart, 1882-1884, 2 vols. - -Hendrie, R. Theophili Libri III de diversis artibus, translated by, - London, 1847. - -Hengstenberg, E. W. Die Geschichte Bileams und seine Weissagungen, - Berlin, 1842. - -Henry, V. La magie dans l’Inde antique, 1904. - -Henslow, G. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century, London, 1899. - -Hercher, ed. Aeliani opera, 1864. - ed. Artemidori Oneirocritica, Leipzig, 1864. - ed. Astrampsychi oculorum decades, Berlin, 1863. - -Hertling, G. von, Albertus Magnus; Beiträge zu seiner Würdigung, - revised edition with help of Baeumker and Endres, Münster, 1914. - -Hubert, H. Magia, in Daremberg-Saglio. - -Hubert et Mauss, Esquisse d’une Théorie Générale de la Magie, in Année - Sociologique, 1902-1903, pp. 1-146. - -Husik, I. A History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy, 1916. - -Ishak ibn Sulaiman, Opera, 1515. - -James, M. R. A Descriptive Catalogue of the McClean Collection of MSS - in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1912. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1895. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of Corpus Christi - College, Cambridge, 1912, 2 vols. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of Gonville and - Caius College, 1907-1908, 2 vols. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of Pembroke College, - 1905. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of Peterhouse, 1899. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of St. John’s - College, Cambridge, 1913. - A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS in the Library of Sidney Sussex - College, Cambridge, 1895. - The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover, 1903. - The Western MSS in the Library of Emmanuel College, 1904. - The Western MSS in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, - 1900-1904, 4 vols. - -Janus, Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Literatur der Medizin, 1846-. - -Jenaer medizin-historische Beiträge, herausg. von T. M. Steineg, 1912-. - -Joël, D. Der Aberglaube und die Stellung des Judenthums zu demselben, - 1881. - -John of Salisbury, Metalogicus, in Migne PL vol. 199. - Polycraticus sive de nugis curialium et vestigiis philosophorum, Ibid. - and also ed. C. C. I. Webb, Oxford, 1909. - -Joret, Les plantes dans l’antiquité et au moyen âge, 2 vols., Paris, - 1897 and 1904. - -Jourdain, A. Recherches critiques sur l’âge et l’origine des - traductions latines d’Aristote, Paris, 1819; 2nd edition, 1843. - -Jourdain, C. Dissertation sur l’état de la philosophie naturelle en - occident et principalement en France pendant la première moitié du - XIIe siècle, Paris, 1838. - Excursions historiques et philosophiques à travers le moyen âge, - Paris, 1888. - -Karpinski, L. C. Hindu Science, in American Mathematical Monthly, XXVI - (1919) pp. 298-300. - Robert of Chester’s Latin translation of the Algebra of al-Khowarizmi, - with introduction, critical notes, and an English version, New York, - 1915. - The “Quadripartitum numerorum” of John of Meurs, in Bibliotheca - Mathematica, III Folge, XIII Bd. (1913) 99-114. - -Kaufmann, A. Thomas von Chantimpré, Cologne, 1899. - -King, C. W. The Gnostics and their Remains, ancient and medieval, - London, 1887. - -The Natural History, ancient and modern, of Precious Stones and Gems, - London, 1855. - -Kopp, H. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Chemie, Brunswick, 1869-1875. - Ueber den Zustand der Naturwissenschaften im Mittelalter, 1869. - -Kretschmer, C. Die physische Erdkunde im christlichen Mittelalter, 1889. - -Krumbacher, K. Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, 527-1453 A. D., -2nd edition, Munich, 1897. - -Kunz, G. F. 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A Letter to the Honourable Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., in - vindication of the character of those Greek writers in physick that - flourished after Galen ... particularly that of Alexander Trallian, - 1733; reprinted as Trallianus Reviviscens, 1734. - -Mommsen, Th. ed. C. Iulii Solini Collectanea rerum memorabilium, 1895. - -Moore, Sir Norman, History of the Study of Medicine in the British - Isles, 1908. - The History of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 1918, 2 vols. - The Physician in English History, 1913. A popular lecture. - -Muratori, L. A. Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi, Milan, - 1738-1742, 6 vols. Edition of 1778 in more vols. Index, Turin, 1885. - See also under Abbreviations. - -Naudé, Gabriel. Apologie pour tous les grands personnages qui ont esté - faussement soupçonnez de Magie, Paris, 1625. - -Neckam, Alexander. De naturis rerum, ed. T. Wright, in RS vol. 34, 1863. - -Omont, H. 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Artis quam chemiam vocant antiquissimi auctores, Basel, 1572. - -Perrier, T. La médecine astrologique, Lyons, 1905, 88 pp. Slight. - -Petrus de Prussia. Vita B. Alberti Magni, 1621. - -Petrus Hispanus. Summa experimentorum sive thesaurus pauperum, - Antwerp, 1497. - -Philips, H. Medicine and Astrology, 1867. - -Picavet, F. Esquisse d’une histoire comparée des philosophies - médiévales, 2nd edition, Paris, 1907. - -Pico della Mirandola. Opera omnia, 1519. - -Pistis-Sophia, ed. Schwartze und Petermann, Coptic and Latin, 1851. - Now for the first time Englished, by G. R. S. Mead, 1896. - -Pitra, J. B. Analecta novissima, 1885-1888. - Analecta sacra, 1876-1882. - Spicilegium solesmense, 1852-1858. - -Poisson, Théories et symboles des Alchimistes, Paris, 1891. - -Poole, R. L. Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought in the - Departments of Theology and Ecclesiastical Politics, 1884; revised - edition, 1920. - The Masters of the Schools at Paris and Chartres in John of - Salisbury’s Time, in EHR XXXV (1920) 321-42. - -Pouchet, F. A. Histoire des sciences naturelles au moyen âge, ou Albert - le Grand et son époque considéré comme point de départ de l’école - expérimentale, Paris, 1853. - -Ptolemy. Quadripartitum, 1484, and other editions. - Optica, ed. G. Govi, Turin, 1885. - -Puccinotti, F. Storia della Medicina, 1850-1870, 3 vols. - -Puschmann, Th. Alexander von Tralles, Originaltext und Uebersetzung - nebst einer einleitenden Abhandlung, Vienna, 1878-1879. - Handbuch der Geschichte der Medizin, Jena, 1902-1905, 3 vols. Really - a cooperative work under the editorship of Max Neuburger and Julius - Pagel after Puschmann’s death. - A History of Medical Education from the most remote to the most recent - times, London, 1891, English translation. - -Quetif, J. et Echard J. Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, Paris, 1719. - -Rambosson, A. Histoire et légendes des plantes, Paris, 1887. - -Rashdall, H. ed. Fratris Rogeri Bacon Compendium Studii Theologiae, - 1911. - The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1895, 3 vols. - in 2. - -Rasis (Muhammad ibn Zakariya) Opera, Milan, 1481, and Bergamo, 1497. - -Regnault, J. La sorcellerie: ses rapports avec les sciences - biologiques, 1897, 345 pp. - -Reitzenstein, R. Poimandres, Leipzig, 1904. - -Renzi, S. de. Collectio Salernitana, 1852-1859, 5 vols. - -Rose, Valentin. Anecdota graeca et graeco-latina, Berlin, 1864. - Aristoteles De lapidibus und Arnoldus Saxo, in Zeitschrift für - deutsches Alterthum, XVIII (1875) 321-447. - Ptolemaeus und die Schule von Toledo, in Hermes, VIII (1874) 327-49. - ed. Plinii Secundi Iunioris de medicina libri tres, Leipzig, 1875. - Ueber die Medicina Plinii, in Hermes, VIII (1874) 19-66. - Verzeichnis der lateinischen Handschriften der K. Bibliothek zu - Berlin, Band XII (1893), XIII (1902-1903-1905). - -Ruska, J. Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles ... nach der arabischen - Handschrift, Heidelberg, 1912. - Der diamant in der Medizin, in Deutsche Gesell. f. Gesch. d. Mediz. u. - d. Naturwiss., Zwanzig Abhandl. z. Gesch. d. Mediz., 1908. - Zur älteren arabischen Algebra und Rechenkunst, Heidelberg, 1917. - -Rydberg, V. The Magic of the Middle Ages, 1879, translated from the - Swedish. Popular. - -Salverte, E. Des sciences occultes, ou essai sur la magie, Paris, 1843. - -Sánchez Pérez, J. A. Biografías de Matemáticos Árabes que florecieron - en España, Madrid, 1921. - -Schanz, M. Geschichte der Römischen Litteratur, Dritter Teil, Munich, - 1905; Vierter Teil, Erste Hälfte, Munich, 1914, in Müller’s Handbuch - d. klass. Alt. Wiss., VIII, 3. - -Schepss, G. ed. Priscilliani quae supersunt, 1889. - -Schindler. Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters, Breslau, 1858. - -Schmid, W. Die Nachklassiche Periode der Griechischen Litteratur, - 1913, in Müller’s Handb. d. kl. Alt. Wiss., VII, ii, 2. - -Schum, W. Beschriebendes Verzeichnis der Amplonianischen - Handschriften-Sammlung zu Erfurt, Berlin, 1887. - -Sighart, J. Albertus Magnus: sein Leben und seine Wissenschaft, - Ratisbon, 1857; French translation, Paris, 1862; partial English - translation by T. A. Dixon, London, 1876. - -Singer, Charles. Early English Magic and Medicine, 1920, 34 pp. - -“Science,” pp. 106-48 in “Medieval Contributions to Modern - Civilization,” ed. F. J. C. Hearnshaw, 1921. - -Studies in the History and Method of Science, Oxford, 1917; a second - volume appeared in May, 1921. - -Stapper, Richard. Papst Johannes XXI, Münster, 1898, in Kirchengesch. - Studien herausg. v. Dr. Knöpfler, IV, 4. - -Steele, R. Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, 1905-1920. - -Steinschneider, Moritz. Abraham ibn Ezra, in Abhandl., (1880) 57-128. - Apollonius von Thyana (oder Balinas) bei den Arabern, in Zeitschrift - d. deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, XLV (1891) 439-46. - Arabische Lapidarien, Ibid., XLIX (1895). - Constantinus Africanus und seine arabischen Quellen, in Virchow’s - Archiv für pathologische Anatomie, etc., Berlin, XXXVII (1866) 351-410. - Der Aberglaube, Hamburg, 1900, 34 pp. - Die europäischen Uebersetzungen aus dem Arabischen bis Mitte des 17 - Jahrhunderts, in Sitzungsberichte d. kaiserl. Akad. d. Wiss., Philos. - Hist. Klasse, Vienna, CXLIX, 4 (1905); CLI, 1 (1906). - Lapidarien, ein culturgeschichtlicher Versuch, in Semitic Studies in - memory of Rev. Dr. Alexander Kohut, Berlin, 1897, pp. 42-72. - Maschallah, in Zeitsch. d. deut. morgenl. Gesell., LIII (1899), 434-40. - Zum Speculum astronomicum des Albertus Magnus über die darin - angeführten Schriftsteller und Schriften, in Zeitschrift für - Mathematik und Physik, Leipzig, XVI (1871) 357-96. - Zur alchimistischen Literatur der Araber, in Zeitsch. d. deut. - morgenl. Gesell., LVIII (1904) 299-315. - Zur pseudepigraphischen Literatur insbesondere der geheimen - Wissenschaften des Mittelalters; aus hebräischen und arabischen - Quellen, Berlin, 1862. - -Stephanus, H. Medicae artis principes post Hippocratem et Galenum - Graeci Latinitate donati, et Latini, 1567. - -Strunz, Franz. Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften im Mittelalter, - Stuttgart, 1910, 120 pp. Without index or references. - -Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin herausgegeben von der - Puschmann-Stiftung an der Universität Leipzig, 1907-. - -Sudhoff, Karl. His various articles in the foregoing publication - and other periodicals of which he is an editor lie in large measure - just outside our period and field, but some will be noted later in - particular chapters. - -Suter, H. Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber, in Abhandl., X - (1900) 1-277; XIV (1902) 257-85. - Die astronomischen Tafeln des Muhammed ibn Musa-al-Khwarizmi, - Copenhagen, 1914. - -Tanner, T. Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, London, 1748. Still much - cited but largely antiquated and unreliable. - -Tavenner, E. Studies in Magic from Latin Literature, New York, 1916. - -Taylor, H. O. The Classical Heritage, 1901. - The Medieval Mind, 2nd edition, 1914, 2 vols; 3rd edition, 1919. - -Theatrum chemicum. See Zetzner. - -Theatrum chemicum Britannicum. See Ashmole. - -Theophilus Presbyter, Schedula diversarum artium, ed. A. Ilg, Vienna, - 1874; English translation by R. Hendrie, London, 1847. - -Thomas of Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus, 1516. - -Thompson, D’Arcy W. Aristotle as a Biologist, 1913. - Glossary of Greek Birds, Oxford, 1895. - Historia animalium, Oxford, 1910; vol. IV in the English translation - of The Works of Aristotle edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. - -Thorndike, Lynn. Adelard of Bath and the Continuity of Universal - Nature, in Nature, XCIV (1915) 616-7. - A Roman Astrologer as a Historical Source: Julius Firmicus Maternus, - in Classical Philology, VIII (1913) 415-35. - Natural Science in the Middle Ages, in Popular Science Monthly (now - The Scientific Monthly), LXXXVII (1915) 271-91. - Roger Bacon and Gunpowder, in Science, XLII (1915), 799-800. - Roger Bacon and Experimental Method in the Middle Ages, in The - Philosophical Review, XXIII (1914), 271-98. - Some Medieval Conceptions of Magic, in The Monist, XXV (1915), 107-39. - The Attitude of Origen and Augustine toward Magic, in The Monist, XIX - (1908), 46-66. - The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of Europe, Columbia - University Press, 1905. - The True Roger Bacon, in American Historical Review, XXI (1916), - 237-57, 468-80. - -Tiraboschi. Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Modena, 1772-1795. - -Tischendorf, C. Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, Leipzig, 1851. - Evangelia Apocrypha, Leipzig, 1876. - -Töply, R. von. Studien zur Geschichte der Anatomie im Mittelalter, 1898. - -Unger, F. Die Pflanze als Zaubermittel, Vienna, 1859. - -Vacant, A. et Mangenot, E. Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, Paris, - 1909-. - -Valentinelli, J. Bibliotheca manuscripta ad S. Marci Venetiarum, - Venice, 1868-1876, 6 vols. - -Valois, Noël. Guillaume d’Auvergne, évêque de Paris, 1228-1249. Sa vie - et ses ouvrages, Paris, 1880. - -Vincent of Beauvais. Speculum doctrinale, 1472 (?). - Speculum historiale, 1473. - Speculum naturale, Anth. Koburger, Nürnberg, 1485. - -Vossius, G. J. De Universae Matheseos natura et constitutione liber, - Amsterdam, 1650. - -Walsh, J. J. Medieval Medicine, 1920, 221 pp. - Old Time Makers of Medicine; the story of the students and teachers - of the sciences related to medicine during the middle ages, New York, - 1911. Popular. - The Popes and Science, 1908. - -Webb, C. C. I. See John of Salisbury. - -Webster, Hutton. Rest Days, 1916. - -Wedel, T. C. The Medieval Attitude toward Astrology particularly in - England, Yale University Press, 1920. - -Wellmann, Max. ed. Dioscorides de materia medica, 1907, 1906. - Die Schrift des Dioskurides Περὶ ἁπλῶν φαρμακῶν, 1914. - -White, A. D. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in - Christendom, New York, 1896, 2 vols. - -Wickersheimer, Ernest. Figures médico-astrologiques des neuvième, - dixième et onzième siècles, in Transactions of the Seventeenth - International Congress of Medicine, - Section XXIII, History of Medicine, London, 1913, p. 313 ff. - -William of Auvergne. Opera omnia, Venice, 1591. - -Withington, E. T. Medical History from the Earliest Times, London, - 1894. - -Wright, Thomas. Popular Treatises on Science written during the middle - ages in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English, London, 1841. - ed. Alexander Neckam De naturis rerum, in RS vol. 34, 1863. - -Wulf, M. de. History of Medieval Philosophy, 1909, English translation. - -Wüstenfeld, F. Geschichte der Arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher, - Göttingen, 1840. - -Yule, Sir Henry. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, third edition revised by - Henri Cordier, 2 vols., London, 1903. - -Zarncke, F. Der Priester Johannes, in Abhandl. d. philol.-hist. Classe, - Kgl. Sächs. Gesell. d. Wiss., VII (1879), 627-1030; VIII (1883), 1-186. - -Zetzner, L. Theatrum chemicum, 1613-1622, 6 vols. - - - - - 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 CENTURIES 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 civilization - 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—Simultaneous 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 transmitted - Greek remains—Progress of science among the Greeks—Archimedes 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._[3] - - -[Sidenote: Aim of this book.] - -This book aims to treat the history of magic and experimental science -and their relations to Christian thought during the first thirteen -centuries of our era, with especial emphasis upon the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries. No adequate survey of the history of either -magic or experimental 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, superstitions, 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 inaccurately 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.[4] - -[Sidenote: Period covered.] - -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, Guido 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 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 preserved 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.[5] I close with the thirteenth -century, or, more strictly speaking, in the course of the fourteenth, -because by then the medieval revival of learning had spent its force. -Attention is centred on magic and experimental science in western Latin -literature and learning, Greek and Arabic works being considered as -they contributed thereto, and vernacular literature being omitted as -either derived from Latin works or unlearned and unscientific. - -[Sidenote: How to study the history of thought.] - -Very probably I have tried to cover too much ground and have made -serious omissions. It is probably true that for the history of thought -as for the history of art the evidence and source material is more -abundant than for political 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 -sufficient duration. Moreover, it seems to me that in the present stage -of research into and knowledge of our subject 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 viewpoint, magnifying 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. - -[Sidenote: Definition of magic.] - -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 primitive men and savages it is -possible that little thought accompanies 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 implies a mental state and so may be -viewed from the standpoint 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 anthropologists and by them -applied to analogous doings and 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,[6] -“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.[7] - -[Sidenote: Magic of primitive man: does civilization originate in -magic?] - -Magic is very old, and it will perhaps be well in this introductory -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.”[8] Lenormant affirmed in his -_Chaldean Magic and Sorcery_[9] that “all magic rests upon a system -of religious belief,” but recent sociologists and anthropologists -have 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_[10] 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 æsthetic form or an artistically -appreciative audience, yet his spell contains in embryo all that later -constitutes the art of music.[11] M. Paul Huvelin, after asserting with -similar confidence that poetry,[12] the plastic arts,[13] medicine, -mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry “have easily discernable magic -sources,” states that he will demonstrate that the same is true of -law.[14] Very recently, however, there has been something of a reaction -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 appreciated for -its own sake.”[15] - -[Sidenote: Divination in early China.] - -Of the five classics included in the Confucian Canon, _The Book of -Changes_ (_I Ching_ or _Yi-King_), regarded by 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 _b_ a broken line, we may have _aaa_, _bbb_, -_aab_, _bba_, _abb_, _baa_, _aba_, and _bab_. 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 resemblance 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic in ancient Egypt.] - -Of the ancient Egyptians Budge writes, “The belief in magic influenced -their minds ... from the earliest to the latest period of their history -... in a manner which, at this stage in the history of the world, is -very difficult to understand.”[16] To the ordinary historical student -the evidence for this assertion does not seem quite so overwhelming -as the Egyptologists would have us think. It looks thinner when we -begin to spread it out over a stretch of four 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.”[17] - -[Sidenote: Magic and Egyptian religion.] - -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.”[18] In the later religion of the Egyptians, along with more -lofty and intellectual conceptions, magic was still a principal -ingredient.[19] Their mythology was affected by it[20] 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.[21] - -[Sidenote: Mortuary magic.] - -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,”[22] 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.[23] In “the oldest chapter of human thought extant”—the -Pyramid 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.”[24] 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.[25] 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,[26] 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 Kingdom. Budge has -“no doubt that the object of every religious text ever written on tomb, -stele, amulet, coffin, papyrus, etc., was to bring the gods under the -power of the deceased, so that he might be able to compel them to do -his will.”[27] 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.[28] - -[Sidenote: Magic in daily life.] - -Breasted nevertheless believes that magic had played a great part in -daily life throughout the whole course of Egyptian history. He writes, -“It is difficult for the modern mind to understand how completely the -belief in magic penetrated the whole substance of life, dominating -popular custom and constantly appearing in the simplest acts of the -daily household routine, as much a matter of course as 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.”[29] - -[Sidenote: Power of words, images, amulets.] - -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 unlimited, and “the Egyptians invoked their aid in the -smallest as well as in the greatest events of their life.”[30] 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.[31] 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,[32] and amulets -are found from the first, although their particular forms seem to have -altered with different periods.[33] Scarabs are of course the most -familiar example. - -[Sidenote: Magic in Egyptian medicine.] - -Egyptian medicine was full of magic and ritual and its therapeusis -consisted mainly of “collections of incantations and weird random -mixtures of roots and refuse.”[34] 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 ingredients to simple -medicines.[35] Already we find such magic logic as that the hair of -a black calf will keep one from growing gray.[36] 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. - -[Sidenote: Demons and disease.] - -In ancient Egypt, however, disease seems not to have been identified -with possession by demons to the extent that it was in ancient Assyria -and Babylonia. While Breasted asserts that “disease was due to hostile -spirits and against these only magic could avail,”[37] 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”[38] 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic and science.] - -In the case of medicine as in that of religion Breasted takes the view -that the amount of magic became greater in 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 practice of the -physician.”[39] Berthelot probably places the emphasis more correctly -when he states that the later medical papyri “include traditional -recipes, founded on an empiricism which is not always correct, mystic -remedies, based upon the most bizarre analogies, and magic practices -that date back to the remotest antiquity.”[40] The recent efforts of -Sethe and Wilcken, of Elliot Smith, Müller, 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 uncivilized -African tribes. Certainly the evidence for any real scientific -development in ancient Egypt has been very meager compared with the -abundant indications of the prevalence of magic.[41] - -[Sidenote: Magic and industry.] - -Early Egypt was the home of many arts and industries, but not in so -advanced a stage as has sometimes been suggested. 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.[42] -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.”[43] - -[Sidenote: Alchemy.] - -Alchemy perhaps originated on the one hand from the practices of -Egyptian goldsmiths and workers in metals, who experimented with -alloys,[44] and on the other hand from the theories of the Greek -philosophers concerning world-grounds, first matter, and the -elements.[45] 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 supposed to be the ground of all metals -and to possess marvelous 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.”[46] 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 phraseology 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 recommends to his son a work entitled -_Chemi_, but there is no proof that it was concerned with chemistry -or alchemy.[47] The papyri containing treatises of alchemy are of the -third century of the Christian era. - -[Sidenote: Divination and astrology.] - -Evidences of divination in general and of astrology in particular do -not appear as early in Egyptian records as examples of other varieties -of magic. Yet the early date at which Egypt had a calendar suggests -astronomical interest, and even those who deny that seven planets were -distinguished 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.[48] A dream of Thotmes IV is -preserved from 1450 B.C. or thereabouts, and the incantations employed -by magicians in order to procure divining dreams for their customers -attest the close connection of divination and magic.[49] Belief in -lucky and unlucky days is shown in a papyrus calendar of about 1300 -B.C.,[50] and we 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 astrological significance have been found in -graves, and there were gods for every month, every day of the month, -and every hour of the day.[51] Such numbers as seven and twelve are -frequently 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 suggesting that the zodiac originated in -the transfer of animal gods to the sky,[52] 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 -before he was born, and that he had no power to alter it.”[53] But I -cannot agree that “we have good reason for assigning the birthplace of -the horoscope to Egypt,”[54] since the evidence seems to be limited to -the almost medieval Pseudo-Callisthenes 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. - -[Sidenote: The sources for Assyrian and Babylonian magic.] - -In the written remains of Babylonian and Assyrian civilization[55] the -magic cuneiform tablets play a large part and give us the impression -that fear of demons was a leading 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.[56] Eridu, one of the -main centers of early Sumerian culture, “was an immemorial home of -ancient wisdom, that is to say, magic.”[57] It is, however, difficult -in the library of Assurbanipal to distinguish what is Babylonian from -what is Assyrian or what is Sumerian from what is Semitic. Thus we are -told that “with the exception of some very ancient texts, the Sumerian -literature, consisting 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 language.”[58] - -[Sidenote: Was astrology Sumerian or Chaldean?] - -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 astrological doctrine, including astral -theology, among the dwellers in the Tigris-Euphrates region. Briefly, -such writers as Winckler, Stücken, 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 observations and acquired astronomical -knowledge which was lost 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 considerable -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,[59] which last, -together with any real advance in astronomy, is reserved for the -Hellenistic period. - -[Sidenote: The number seven in early Babylonia.] - -Yet the prominence of the number seven in myth, religion, 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 millenniums the -sacred Hebdomad, did not always have seven stages.[60] 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 Testament[61] and -the emphasis upon it in Hesiod, the Odyssey, and other early Greek -sources.[62] - -[Sidenote: Incantation texts older than the astrological.] - -However that may be, the tendency prevailing at present is to regard -astrology as a relatively late development introduced by the Semitic -Chaldeans. Lenormant held that writing and magic were a Turanian or -Sumerian (Accadian) contribution to Babylonian civilization, but that -astronomy and astrology were Semitic innovations. Jastrow 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 nothing to suggest an -underlying astrological element.”[63] - -[Sidenote: Other divination than astrology.] - -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 predictions are made especially for -the king.[64] 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.[65] 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 knowledge of the future or begin by -consultation of a diviner, or a favorable day and hour should be chosen -for the magic rite.[66] - -[Sidenote: Incantations against sorcery and demons.] - -Third, there are the collections of incantations, not however those -employed by the sorcerers, which were presumably 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 -defensive measures against them and exorcisms of evil demons.[67] But -doubtless this counter magic reflects the original procedure 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.[68] The various incantations -are arranged in series of tablets: the _Maklu_ or burning, _Ti’i_ or -headaches, _Asakki marsûti_ 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.[69] Also -hymns of praise and religious epics which at first sight one would -not classify as incantations seem to have had their magical uses, and -Farnell suggests that “a magic origin for the practice of theological -exegesis may be obscurely traced.”[70] Good spirits are represented -as employing magic and exorcisms against the demons.[71] 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, regarded 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.”[72] - -[Sidenote: A specimen incantation.] - -The incantations themselves show that other factors than the power of -words entered into the magic, as may be illustrated 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; - 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 _binu_ tree purify me; - May it release me; may the evil odor of my mouth be scattered to - the winds. - May the _mashtakal_ herb which fills the earth cleanse me. - Before you let me shine like the _kankal_ herb, - Let me be brilliant and pure as the _lardu_ 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 destroyed.”[73] - -[Sidenote: Materials and devices employed in the magic.] - -It is evident from this incantation that use was made of magic images -and knots, and of the properties of trees and herbs. Magic images were -made of clay, wax, tallow, and other substances and were employed in -various ways. 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 willpower.[74] -Images were also constructed in order that disease demons might be -magically transferred into them,[75] and sometimes the images are -slain and buried.[76] In the above incantation the magic knot was -employed only by the sorceress, but Fossey states that knots were -also used as counter-charms against the demons.[77] In the above -incantation 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.[78] However, from what scholars have -been able to translate it appears that common rather than rare and -outlandish substances 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.[79] Gems and -animal substances were used as well as herbs; all sorts of philters -were concocted; and varied rites and ceremonies 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.[80] - -[Sidenote: Greek culture not free from magic.] - -One remarkable corollary of the so-called Italian Renaissance or -Humanistic movement at the close of the middle ages 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,[81] only to -relapse again into magic in the declining empire and middle ages under -oriental influence. Incidentally let me add that this notion that in -_the past_ orientals were more superstitious and fond of marvels than -westerners in the same stage of civilization and that the orient must -needs be the source of every superstitious cult and romantic tale is a -glib assumption which I do not intend to make and which our subsequent -investigation will scarcely substantiate. But to return to the supposed -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 -astrology, 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.”[82] 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.’”[83] - -[Sidenote: Magic in myth, literature, and history.] - -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 Greek mythology and of its -countless other absurdities; of 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.[84] 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 wonder-working -power.”[85] We recall Xenophon’s punctilious 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 incantations 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 Anaxandrides, the _Circe_ of -Anaxilas, and the _Thettale_ of Menander.[86] 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.[87] - -[Sidenote: Simultaneous increase of learning and occult science.] - -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_.[88] - -[Sidenote: Magic origin urged for Greek religion and drama.] - -This magic element which existed from the start in Greek culture is -now being traced out by students of anthropology 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.[89] The last point has been developed in more detail by F. -M. Cornford’s _Origin of Attic Comedy_, where much magic is detected -masquerading in the comedies of Aristophanes.[90] 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.[91] In still more recent publications -Dr. Rendel Harris[92] 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. Farnell, who states that “while the knowledge of early -Babylonian magic is beginning 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 Babylonian 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 -discovered as latent in the higher ritual. Again, Babylonian magic -is essentially demoniac; but we have no evidence that the pre-Homeric -Greek was demon-ridden, or that demonology 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.”[93] 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic in Greek philosophy.] - -Moreover, in one sense the advocates of Greek magic have 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.[94] -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.”[95] If the pre-Homeric fixed epithets of Zeus are redolent of -magic, Plato’s _Timaeus_ is equally redolent 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_. - -[Sidenote: Plato’s attitude toward magic and astrology.] - -Toward magic so-called Plato’s attitude in his _Laws_ is cautious. -He maintains that medical men and prophets and diviners can alone -understand the nature of poisons (or spells) which work naturally, -and of such things as incantations, 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.[96] 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.[97] 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 relation to the revolutions -of the heavenly bodies and the seasons of the year is termed -astronomy,”[98] 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,”[99] -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.[100] Such a doctrine is not -identical with that of nativities and the horoscope, but like 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 _Timaeus_ 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,”[101] he seems -to suggest the astrological doctrine of the _magnus annus_, that -history begins to repeat itself in every detail when the heavenly -bodies have all regained their original positions. - -[Sidenote: Aristotle on stars and spirits.] - -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.”[102] Moreover, “his theory of the -subordinate gods of the spheres of the planets ... provided for a later -demonology.”[103] - -[Sidenote: Folk-lore in the _History of Animals_.] - -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 folk-lore and -pseudo-science.[104] But 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.[105] - -[Sidenote: Differing modes of transmission of ancient oriental and -Greek literature.] - -There is another point to be kept in mind in any comparison of Egypt -and Babylon or Assyria with Greece in the matter of magic. Our evidence -proving the great part played by magic in the ancient oriental -civilizations comes directly from them to us without intervening -tampering or alteration except in the case of the early periods. But -classical literature and philosophy come to us as edited by Alexandrian -librarians[106] 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 idolatrous superstitions. - -[Sidenote: More magical character of directly transmitted Greek -remains.] - -Suppose we turn to those writings which have been unearthed just as -they were in ancient Greek; to the papyri, the lead tablets, the -so-called Gnostic gems. How does the proportion of magic in these -compare with that in the indirectly transmitted literary remains? If -it is objected that the magic papyri[107] are mainly of late date and -that 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 storehouse, too, was in Egypt at Alexandria. As for -the magical curses written on lead tablets,[108] they date from the -fourth century 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 manuscripts in the Greek language has been unearthed in -European libraries by the editors of the _Catalogus Codicum Graecorum -Astrologorum_![109] And occasionally archaeologists report the -discovery of magical apparatus[110] or of representations of magic in -works of art. - -[Sidenote: Progress of science among the Greeks.] - -In thus contending that Hellenic culture was not free from magic -and that even the philosophy and science of the ancient Greeks show -traces of superstition, I would not, however, 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 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 writings 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 mathematical science stand unmistakably -forth. - -[Sidenote: Archimedes and Aristotle.] - -“An extraordinarily large proportion of the subject matter of the -writings of Archimedes,” says Heath, “represents entirely new -discoveries of his own. Though his range of subjects was almost -encyclopædic, embracing geometry (plane and solid), arithmetic, -mechanics, hydrostatics 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 complete 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 forerunners, _e. g._, in hydrostatics, where he invented the whole -science, and (so far as mathematical demonstration was concerned) in -his mechanical investigations.”[111] Aristotle’s _History of Animals_ -is still highly esteemed by historians of biology[112] and often -evidences “a large amount of personal observations,”[113] “great -accuracy,” and “minute inquiry,” as in his account of the vascular -system[114] or observations on the embryology of the chick.[115] “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 reinvestigated, of habits -only of late made known.”[116] But of the achievements of Hellenic -philosophy and Hellenistic science the reader may be safely assumed -already to have some notion. - -[Sidenote: Exaggerated view of the scientific achievement of the -Hellenistic age.] - -But in closing this brief preliminary sketch of the period before our -investigation proper begins, I would take exception 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 Empire, which are extant -in far greater abundance than those of the Hellenistic period, are -regarded as inferior imitations of great authors whose works are not -extant; Posidonius, 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 Kingdoms -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 discoveries 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 -Babylonians of the golden age of Greece or the Hindus, a little later, -have taken over the developments of Greek astronomy? 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.”[117] - -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[118] but Ptolemy must have been an abler scientist and have -supported his incorrect hypothesis with more accurate measurements -and calculations 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 survey of -thirteen centuries of thought and writing will afford more detailed -illustration. - - - - - 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; étude 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 Chaldéo-Assyriens, - Paris, 1894. - - Lenormant, F. Chaldean Magic and Sorcery, English translation, London, - 1878. - - Schwab, M., in Proc. Bibl. Archæology (1890), pp. 292-342, on magic - bowls from Assyria and Babylonia. - - Tallquist, K. L. Die Assyrische Beschwörungsserie Maqlû, Leipzig, 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. Dämonenbeschwörung bei den Babyloniern und Assyrern, 1906. - Eine Skizze (37 pp.), in Der Alte Orient. - - Zimmern. Die Beschwörungstafeln 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. I. 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. - - Jastrow, Morris. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898. - Revised and enlarged as Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, Giessen, - 1904. - - Jeremias. Babylon. Assyr. Vorstellungen von dem Leben nach Tode, - Leipzig, 1887. - - Hölle und Paradies, and other works. - - Knudtzon, J. A. Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott, Leipzig, 1893. - - Lagrange, M. J. Études sur les religions sémitiques, 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). - - Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Babyl. Religion, Leipzig, 1901. - - On the astronomy and astrology of the Babylonians one may consult: - - Bezold, C. Astronomie, Himmelschau und Astrallehre bei den - Babyloniern. (Sitzb. Akad. Heidelberg, 1911, Abh. 2). - - Boissier, A. Documents assyriens relatifs aux présages, Paris, - 1894-1897. - - Choix de textes relatifs à la divination assyro-babylonienne, Geneva, - 1905-1906. - - Craig, J. A. Astrological-Astronomical Texts, Leipzig, 1892. - - Cumont, F. Babylon und die griechische Astrologie. (Neue Jahrb. für das - klass. Altertum, XXVII, 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 Astronomie, 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 Keilinschriften, - in Sitzb. d. Wien. Akad. Math.-Nat. Classe, 1885, pp. 894-906. - - Un texte Babylonien astronomique et sa traduction grecque par Cl. - Ptolémeé, 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 Transactions 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 Progressi dell’ Astronomia presso i - Babilonesi, Bologna, 1908. - - Astronomy in the Old Testament, 1905. - - Stücken, Astralmythen, 1896-1907. - - Virolleaud, Ch. L’Astrologie chaldéenne, Paris, 1905-; to be completed - in eight parts, texts and translations. - - Winckler, Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier als Grundlage der - Weltanschauung und Mythologie aller Völker, 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. - - ” 11. Neo-Platonism and its Relations to Astrology and Theurgy. - - ” 12. Aelian, Solinus, and Horapollo. - - - - - BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE - - FOREWORD - - -[Sidenote: A trio of great names.] - -A trio of great names, Pliny, Galen, and Ptolemy, stand out above all -others in the history of science under the Roman 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 science; 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 -homogeneous and widespread culture of the Roman Empire that these three -representatives of different, although overlapping, fields of science -were natives of the three continents that enclose the Mediterranean -Sea. Pliny was born at Como where Italy verges on transalpine lands; -Ptolemy, born somewhere 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. - -[Sidenote: Plan of this section.] - -We shall therefore open the present section of our investigation -by considering in turn chronologically, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Galen, -coupling, however, with our consideration of Ptolemy the work of -Seneca on _Natural Questions_ which shows the same combination of -natural science and natural divination. Next we shall consider some -representatives 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 hospitable -attitude toward magic and occult science displayed by these last -writers we shall 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 relations 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 -_experimentum_—Experiments due to scientific curiosity—Medical -experimentation—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 outside -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 Science of the Magi_ - -Magicians as investigators of nature—The _Magi_ on herbs—Marvelous -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 recipes—Summary of the -statements of the _Magi_. - -V. _Pliny’s Magical Science_ - -From the _Magi_ to Pliny’s magic—Habits of animals—Remedies discovered -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 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—Observance of number—Relation between operator and -patient—Incantations—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 - celebratam esse numeris omnibus tuis fave!_” - —_Closing words of the Natural History._[119] - - -I. _Its Place in the History of Science_ - -[Sidenote: Important in our investigation.] - -We should have to search long before finding a better starting-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_.[120] 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 intellectual -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. - -[Sidenote: As a collection of miscellaneous information.] - -Pliny’s _Natural History_, which appeared about 77 A. D. and is -dedicated to the Emperor Titus, is perhaps the most important single -source extant for the history of ancient civilization. Its thirty-seven -books, written in a very compact style, constitute a vast collection -of the most miscellaneous information. Whether one is investigating -ancient painting, sculpture, and other fine arts; or the geography -of the Roman Empire; or Roman triumphs, gladiatorial contests, 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 coinage; or the fluctuation of prices -in antiquity; or the Roman attitude towards usury; or the pagan -attitude towards immortality; or the nature of ancient beverages; or -the religious 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. Furthermore 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. - -[Sidenote: As a repository of ancient natural science.] - -Indeed, Pliny’s title, _Naturalis Historia_, or at least the common -English translation of it, “Natural History,” has been criticized as -too limited in scope, and the work has been described as “rather a vast -encyclopedia of ancient knowledge and belief upon almost every known -subject.”[121] 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 civilization, and much -of its information concerning such matters as the arts and business -is incidental. Most of its books bear such titles as Aquatic Animals, -Exotic Trees, Medicines from Forest Trees, The Natures of Metals. After -an introductory book containing the preface and a table of contents 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 earthquakes and tides, in the land and water forming -the earth’s surface. After four books devoted to geography, the seventh -deals with man and human inventions. Four more follow 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 Domitius Piso, thesauros oportet esse non libros_”[122]—for an -investigation concerned as intimately as is ours with the history of -science. - -[Sidenote: As a source for magic.] - -The _Natural History_ is a great storehouse of misinformation 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 historical investigators upon their guard in accepting its -statements, but only increases its value for our purpose. Perhaps it is -even more valuable as a collection of ancient errors than it is as a -repository of ancient science. It touches upon many of the varieties, -and illustrates most of the characteristics, of magic. Moreover, Pliny -often mentions the _Magi_ or magicians and discusses “magic” expressly -at some length in the opening chapters of his thirtieth book—one of -the most important passages on the theme in any ancient writer. - -[Sidenote: Pliny’s career.] - -Pliny the Elder, as we learn from his own statements in the _Natural -History_ and from one or two letters concerning him written by his -nephew, Pliny the Younger, whom he adopted, went through the usual -military, forensic, and official career of the Roman of good family, -and spent his life largely in the service of the emperors. He visited -various 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 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. - -[Sidenote: His writings.] - -Of Pliny’s writings the _Natural History_ is alone extant, but other -titles have been preserved which serve to show his 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 -philological 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 -several 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 his death left -his nephew one hundred and sixty notebooks written in a small hand on -both sides. - -[Sidenote: His own description of the _Natural History_.] - -Such were the conditions under which, and the methods by which, Pliny -compiled his encyclopedia on nature. No single writer either Greek or -Latin, he tells us, had ever before 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.[123] -Judging from his bibliographies and citations, however, he would -seem to have utilized more than one hundred authors. But possibly -he had not read all the writers mentioned in his bibliographies. He -affirms that previous students 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 than a compilation from other -books. He says, however, 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 stimulating 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.” - -[Sidenote: His devotion to science.] - -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.[124] In another -passage[125] he contrasts the blood and slaughter of military history -with the benefits bestowed upon mankind by astronomers. In a third -passage[126] 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. - -[Sidenote: Conflict of science and religion.] - -In Pliny we also detect signs of the conflict between science and -religion. In a single chapter on God he says pretty much all that the -church fathers later repeated at 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,[127] 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 passages he exclaims at Nature’s -benignity or providence. He believed that the soul had no separate -existence from the body,[128] and that after death there was no more -sense left in body or soul than was there before birth. The hope of -personal 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, mechanical 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 having 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 research. - -[Sidenote: Pliny not a trained naturalist.] - -It is desirable, however, to form some estimate of Pliny’s 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 sciences himself. He writes not as a -naturalist who has observed widely and profoundly the phenomena and -operations of nature, but as an omnivorous reader and voluminous -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 understood 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, matters in which it seems difficult for him to go far astray. -Scientific specialists were not numerous in those days, anyway, 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 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.”[129] - -[Sidenote: His use of authorities.] - -One thing in Pliny’s favor as a compiler, besides his personal -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 without acknowledgment. He has, however, -great admiration for many of his authorities, exclaiming more than once -at the care and diligence of the men of the past who have left nothing -untried or unexperienced, from trackless mountain tops to the roots -of herbs.[130] Sometimes, nevertheless, he disputes their assertions. -For instance, Hippocrates said that the appearance of jaundice on the -seventh day in fever is a fatal sign, “but we know some who have lived -even after this.”[131] Pliny also scolds Sophocles for his falsehoods -concerning amber.[132] 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.”[133] He also cites Menander concerning fish and, like almost -all the ancients, regards Homer as an authority on all matters.[134] -Pliny sometimes cites the works of King Juba of Numidia, than whom -there hardly seems to have been a greater liar in antiquity.[135] He -stated among other things in a work which he wrote for Gaius Caesar, -the son of Augustus, that a whale six hundred feet long and three -hundred and sixty feet broad had entered a river in Arabia.[136] But -where should Pliny turn for sober truth? The Stoic Chrysippus prated of -amulets;[137] treatises ascribed to the great philosophers Democritus -and Pythagoras[138] were full of magic; and in the works of Cicero -he read of a man who could see for a distance of one hundred and -thirty-five miles, and in Varro that this man, standing on a Sicilian -promontory, could count the number of ships sailing out of the harbor -of Carthage.[139] - -[Sidenote: His lack of arrangement and classification.] - -The _Natural History_ has been criticized as poorly arranged and -lacking in scientific classification, but this is a criticism which can -be made of many works of the classical period. Their presentation is -apt to be rambling and discursive rather than logical and systematic. -Even Aristotle’s _History of Animals_ is described by Lewes[140] as -unclassified 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 Soranus 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 -sometimes 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. - -[Sidenote: His scepticism and credulity.] - -Pliny once said that there was no book so bad but what some good -might be got from it,[141] and to the modern reader he seems almost -incredibly credulous and indiscriminate in his selection of material, -and to lack any standard of judgment 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 _à -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.”[142] Once he expresses his determination to include -only those points on which his authorities are in agreement.[143] - -[Sidenote: A guide to ancient science.] - -On the whole, while to us to-day the _Natural History_ seems a -disorderly and indiscriminate conglomeration of fact and fiction, -its defects are probably to a great extent those of its age and of -the writers from whom it has borrowed. 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 preceding. 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. - -[Sidenote: His medieval influence.] - -In the middle ages, however, Pliny had an undoubted direct -influence.[144] Manuscripts of the _Natural History_ are 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 respects.[145] 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.[146] This, however, can scarcely be argued from their failure -to include 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 _Natural 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.[147] - -[Sidenote: Early printed edition.] - -That the _Natural History_ was well known as a whole at least by -the close of the middle ages is shown by the numerous 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, 1491, and 1499, not to mention Italian translations -which appeared at Venice in 1476 and 1489.[148] These editions were -accompanied by some published criticism of Pliny’s statements, since in -1492 appeared at Ferrara a treatise _On the Errors of Pliny and Others -in Medicine_ by Nicholas Leonicenus of Vicenza with a dedication to -Politian.[149] But two years later Pliny found a defender in Pandulph -Collenucius.[150] - -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 - -[Sidenote: Importance of observation and experience.] - -It is probably only a coincidence that two medieval manuscripts close -the _Natural History_ in the midst of the seventy-sixth chapter of the -last book with the words, “_Experimenta pluribus modis constant.... -Primum pondere._”[151] But although from the very nature of his work -Pliny makes extensive 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 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.[152] In other passages -he calls experience the best teacher in all things,[153] 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 entirely surrounded by water does not require, he -says, investigation by arguments, but is now known by experience.[154] -And if the salamander really extinguished fire, it would have been -tried at Rome long ago.[155] 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 statement that an egg-shell cannot be -broken by force or any weight unless it is tipped a little to one -side.[156] Sometimes he gives his personal experience,[157] but also -mentions experience in many other connections. - -[Sidenote: Use of the word _experimentum_.] - -The word employed most of the time by Pliny to denote experience is -_experimentum_.[158] In many passages the word does not indicate -anything like a purposive, prearranged, scientific experiment in -our sense of that word, but simply the ordinary experience of daily -life.[159] We are also told what _experti_,[160] or men of experience, -advise. In a number of passages, however, _experimentum_ is used in -a sense somewhat more closely approaching our “experiment.” These -are cases where something is being tested. For instance, a method of -determining whether an egg is fresh or rotten by putting it in water -and watching if it floats or sinks is called an _experimentum_.[161] -That horses would whinny at no other painting of a horse than that by -Apelles is spoken of as _illius experimentum artis_, a test of, or -testimony to, his art.[162] The expression _religionis experimento_ -is applied to a religious test or ordeal by which the virginity of -Claudia was vindicated.[163] The word is also used of ways of telling -if unguents are good[164] and if wine is beginning to turn;[165] -and of various tests of the genuineness of drugs, gems, earths, and -metals.[166] 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.[167] If the lamp was extinguished, it -was a sign of peril to human life. Pliny further suggests purposive -experimentation in speaking of _experimenta_ to discover water under -ground[168] and in grafting trees.[169] - -[Sidenote: Experiments due to scientific curiosity.] - -Most of the tests and experiences thus far mentioned have been -practical operations connected with husbandry and industry. But -Pliny recounts one or two others which seem to have been dictated -solely by scientific curiosity. He classifies the following as -_experimenta_:[170] 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;[171] and the casting of a man into a pit of serpents at Rome -to determine if he was really immune from their stings.[172] - -[Sidenote: Medical experimentation.] - -_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 experimenta_—sure experiences.[173] 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.[174] 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.”[175] 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[176] and originated at Agrigentum in Sicily under Acron and -Empedocles. - -[Sidenote: Chance experience and divine revelation.] - -Pliny is puzzled how some things which he finds stated in “authors -famous for wisdom” were ever learned by experience, for example, -that the star-fish has such fiery fervor that it burns everything in -the sea which it touches, and digests its food instantly.[177] 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.[178] In several other passages he suggests chance, accident, -dreams,[179] or divine revelation as the ways in which the medicinal -virtues of certain simples were discovered. 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 in a dream to send her son this root, which cured him and many -others who have tried it since.[180] And a soldier in Pompey’s time -accidentally discovered a cure for elephantiasis when he hid his face -for shame in some wild mint leaves.[181] 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.[182] 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.[183] He therefore -decided to try the effects of a drink of the liquid and was thereby -fully cured.[184] Other remedies are learned through the experience of -rustics and illiterate persons, and yet others may be discovered by -observing animals who cure their ills by them.[185] Pliny’s opinion is -that the animals have hit upon them by chance. - -[Sidenote: Marvels proved by experience.] - -Pliny represents a number of marvelous and to us incredible things -as proved by experience. Divination from thunder, for instance, is -supported by innumerable experiences, 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.[186] In another passage “the experience of many” supports -“a strange observance” in plucking a bud.[187] A fourth bit of magical -procedure is called “marvelous but easily tested.”[188] Thus the -transition is an easy one from signs of experimental science in the -_Natural History_ to our next topic, Pliny’s account of magic. - - -III. _Pliny’s Account of Magic._ - -[Sidenote: Oriental origin of magic.] - -Pliny supplies some account of the origin and spread of magic[189] -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 respective 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 magicians of Media, Babylonia, -and Assyria are mere names to Pliny; later he mentions others like -Apollobeches and Dardanus. 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. - -[Sidenote: Its spread to the Greeks.] - -Pliny next traces the spread of magic among the Greeks. He marvels at -the lack of it in the Iliad and the abundance of it in the Odyssey. -He is uncertain whether to class Orpheus 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 philosophers 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 regarded the books on magic ascribed to -Democritus as spurious, but Pliny insists that they are genuine.[190] - -[Sidenote: Its spread outside the Graeco-Roman world.] - -Outside of the Greek-speaking world, whence of course magic spread to -Rome, Pliny mentions Jewish magic, represented by such names as Moses, -Jannes, and Lotapes. But 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 suppressed them; and of distant -Britain.[191] Thus discordant nations 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. - -[Sidenote: Failure to understand its true origin.] - -It has been shown that Pliny regarded magic as a mass of doctrines -formulated by a single founder and not as a gradual social evolution, -just as the Greeks and Romans ascribed 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 practice from generation to generation. Yet what he says -of its widespread prevalence among unconnected peoples goes to prove -this. - -[Sidenote: Magic and divination.] - -Pliny has a clearer comprehension of the extensive scope of magic and -of its essential characteristics, at least as it was in his day. “No -one should wonder,” he says, “that its authority has been very great, -since alone of the arts it has 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 -astrology. 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 revealed 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 regards the various arts of divination -as parts of magic. - -[Sidenote: Magic and religion.] - -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 religious 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 ceremonial. - -[Sidenote: Magic and medicine.] - -Nearly half the books of the _Natural History_ deal in whole or in -part with remedies for diseases, and it is therefore 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 medicine have developed -together, and the latter is now in imminent danger of being overwhelmed -by the follies of magic, which have made men doubt whether plants -possess any medicinal properties. - -[Sidenote: Magic and philosophy.] - -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 been sought from that -science.[192] Eudoxus would have it the most noted and useful of all -schools of philosophy. Empedocles and Plato studied it; Pythagoras and -Democritus perpetuated it in their writings. - -[Sidenote: Falseness of magic.] - -But Pliny himself feels that the assertions of the books of magic are -fantastic, exaggerated, and untrue. He repeatedly brands the _magi_ -or magicians as fools or impostors, and their statements as absurd -and impudent tissues of lies.[193] _Vanitas_, or “nonsense,” is his -stock-word for their beliefs.[194] Some of their writings must, in his -opinion, have been dictated by a feeling of contempt and derision for -humanity.[195] 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.[196] Pliny therefore comes to the -conclusion that magic is “invalid and empty, yet has some shadows of -truth, which however are due more to poisons than to magic.”[197] - -[Sidenote: Crimes of magic.] - -The last remark brings us to charges of evil practices made against the -magicians. Besides poisons, they specialize in love-potions and drugs -to produce abortions;[198] and some of their operations are inhuman or -obscene and abominable. They attempt baleful sorcery or the transfer of -disease from one person to another.[199] Osthanes and even Democritus -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.[200] Pliny thinks that humanity owes a great debt to -the Roman government 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.”[201] - -[Sidenote: Pliny’s censure of magic is mainly intellectual.] - -Pliny nevertheless lays less stress upon the moral argument 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 instances of magicians guarding against -defilement.[202] Moreover, among the methods employed and the results -sought by magic which he frequently mentions there are comparatively -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.[203] In opening the chapter Pliny hails “with -great pleasure” the opportunity to expose “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 -loquacity. 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.” - -[Sidenote: Vagueness of Pliny’s scepticism.] - -Pliny himself fails to maintain a consistently sceptical attitude -towards magic. His exact attitude is often hard to determine. 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 Democritus. Another puzzling point is his frequent -excuse that he will list certain assertions of the magicians in order -to 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.”[204] And he assails the belief of the _magi_[205] -that an owl’s egg is good for diseases of the scalp by asking, “Who, -I beg, could ever have seen an owl’s egg, since it is a prodigy to -see the bird itself?” Moreover, he sometimes cites assertions of the -magicians without any censure, apology, 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.[206] In other places he -will imperceptibly cease to quote the _magi_ and after an interval -perhaps as imperceptibly resume citation of their doctrines.[207] 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic and science indistinguishable.] - -Perhaps, despite Pliny’s occasional brave efforts to withstand and even -ridicule the assertions of the magicians, he could not free himself -from a secret liking for them and 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 -much of it. Once he explains[208] that certain statements are scarcely -to be taken seriously, yet should not be omitted, because 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.”[209] 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_ - -[Sidenote: Magicians as investigators of nature.] - -Let us now further examine Pliny’s picture of magic, not as he -expressly defines or censures it, but as he reflects its own assertions -and purposes in his fairly numerous citations 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 performed by a human agent. But in many cases -either no rite at all is suggested or merely some simple medicinal -application; and in a few cases there is no mention of any particular -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 medicine and of nature. Sometimes their statements, -cited without censure, supplement others concerning the species under -discussion;[210] sometimes they are his sole source of information on -the subject in hand.[211] - -[Sidenote: The _magi_ on herbs.] - -Pliny connects the origin of botany rather closely with magic, -mentioning Medea and Circe as early investigators of plants and Orpheus -among the first writers on the subject.[212] Moreover, Pythagoras and -Democritus borrowed from the _magi_ of the orient in their works on the -properties of plants.[213] 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.[214] 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,[215] 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.[216] The anemone 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 be bound -on the patient’s body.[217] The heliotrope is not to be plucked at all -but tied in three or four knots with a prayer that the patient may -recover to untie the knots.[218] - -[Sidenote: Marvelous virtues of herbs.] - -Pliny 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,[219] -or to give one grace and glory.[220] At the end of his twenty-fourth -book[221] he states that Pythagoras 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[222] Pliny suggests that some incredible effects have -been attributed to herbs by the _magi_ and their disciples, and in a -later chapter[223] 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 diseases, 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 appease -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.”[224] -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. -He adds that it would be strange that the credulity 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 Asclepiades 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 regarding 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.[225] - -[Sidenote: Animals and parts of animals.] - -In a few cases Pliny objects to the animals or parts of animals -employed by the _magi_, as in the passage already cited where he -complains that they admire moles more than any other animals.[226] But -his assertion is inconsistent, since he has already affirmed that they -hold the hyena in most admiration of all animals on the ground that it -works magic upon men.[227] Their promise of readier favor with peoples -and kings to those who anoint themselves with lion’s fat, especially -that between the eyebrows, he criticizes by declaring that no fat -can be found there.[228] He also twits the _magi_ for magnifying the -importance of so nasty a creature as the tick.[229] 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, however, that the cricket is employed in magic because it -moves backward.[230] A very bizarre object employed by the Druids -and other magicians is a sort of egg produced by the hissing or foam -of snakes.[231] The blood of the basilisk may also be classed as a -rarity. Apparently animals in some way unusual are preferred in magic, -like a black sheep,[232] 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[233] 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. - -[Sidenote: Further instances.] - -The magicians, however, do not scorn to use familiar 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.[234] -Such substances as those just named are equally in demand from other -animals.[235] Minute parts of animals are frequently employed by the -magicians, 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.[236] 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.[237] 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.[238] The -dragon’s tail wrapped in a gazelle’s skin and bound on with deer-sinews -cures epilepsy,[239] 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.[240] - -[Sidenote: Magic rites with animals and parts of animals.] - -Sometimes the parts of animals are bound on outside the patient’s -body, sometimes the injured portion of his body is merely touched -with them. Once the whole house is to be fumigated with the substance -in question;[241] once the walls are to be sprinkled with it; once it -is to be buried under the 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 without the loss of a single -hair.[242] Another bit of astrology dispensed by the _magi_ is that the -cat, whose salted liver is taken with wine for quartan fever, should -have been killed under a waning moon.[243] 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 formula, “That I -may not urinate like a dog in its kennel.”[244] 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.[245] 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.[246] After -the fresh milt of a sheep has been applied to the patient 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.[247] In treating sciatica[248] 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.[249] After it has been carried around the house thrice a bat may -be nailed head down outside a window as an amulet.[250] For epilepsy -goat’s flesh should be given which has been roasted on a funeral pyre, -and the animal’s gall should not be allowed to touch the ground.[251] - -[Sidenote: Marvels wrought with parts of animals.] - -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 causing swine -to follow you.[252] The blood of the basilisk, however, 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_).[253] 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 deer-skin, -and the muscles alternately of a deer and a gazelle.[254] A woman will -tell secrets in her sleep if the heart of an owl is applied to her -right breast, and power of divination is gained by eating the still -palpitating heart of a mole.[255] - -[Sidenote: The _magi_ on stones.] - -In the case of stones the names are again, as in the case of herbs, of -little significance for us.[256] The accompanying 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.[257] 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.[258] Indeed, the results promised are all marvelous. -The stones benefit public speakers, admit to the presence of royalty, -counteract fascination and sorcery, 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 -regions. - -[Sidenote: Other magical recipes.] - -We have yet to mention a group of magical recipes and remedies which -Pliny for some reason collects in one chapter[259] but which hardly -fall under any one head. A whetstone on which iron tools are sharpened, -if placed without his knowledge under the pillow of a man who has been -poisoned, 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 tumors 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.”[260] Toe and finger -nail parings mixed with wax are to be attached ere sunrise 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 inside the hill should be captured and suspended -from the patient’s neck. - -[Sidenote: Summary of the statements of the _magi_.] - -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 observance 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 fumigation, some -specimens of sympathetic magic, of the theory that “like cures like,” -and of other types of magic logic. - - -V. _Pliny’s Magical Science_ - -[Sidenote: From the _magi_ to Pliny’s magic.] - -We may now turn to the still more numerous passages of the _Natural -History_ where the _magi_ are not cited and compare 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 resemblances 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 ceremonial, 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 material -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 employed, and certain superstitious -doctrines and notions which are involved. We shall thus find that -almost precisely the same factors are present in his science as in the -lore of the magicians. - -[Sidenote: Habits of animals.] - -Of substances we may begin with animals,[261] and, before we note the -human use of their virtues with its strong suggestion of magic, may -remark another unscientific and superstitious feature which was very -common both in ancient and medieval times. This is the tendency to -humanize animals, 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 _Natural History_. Such qualities -are attributed by Pliny especially to elephants, whom he ranks next to -man in intelligence, and whom he represents as worshiping the stars, -learning difficult tricks, and as having a sense of justice, feeling -of mercy, and so on.[262] Similarly the lion has noble courage and a -sense of gratitude, while the lioness is wily in the devices by which -she conceals her amours with the pard.[263] A number of the devices -of fishes to escape hooks and nets are repeated by Pliny from Ovid’s -_Halieuticon_, extant only in fragments.[264] 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.”[265] Pliny also -marvels at the cleverness displayed by the dragon and the elephant in -their combats with one another,[266] which, however, 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. - -[Sidenote: Remedies discovered by animals.] - -The dragon’s apparent knowledge that the elephant is cold-blooded -leads us to a kindred topic, the remedies used by animals and often -discovered by men only by seeing animals 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 remedies of wild beasts and shown how they are healed even when -poisoned.”[267] Against aconite the scorpion eats white hellebore as -an antidote, while the panther employs human excrement.[268] 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_.[269] -The hawk tears open the hawkweed and sprinkles its eyes with the -juice.[270] The serpent tastes fennel when it sheds its old skin.[271] -Sick bears cure themselves by a diet of ants.[272] Swallows restore -the sight of their young with chelidonia or swallow-wort,[273] and the -historian Xanthus says that the dragon restores its dead offspring -to life with an herb called _balis_.[274] The hippopotamus was the -original discoverer of bleeding,[275] 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.[276] -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 transmitted between wild -beasts.”[277] - -[Sidenote: Jealousy of animals.] - -Yet in another passage Pliny deplores the spitefulness of the dog -which, while men are looking, will not pluck the herb by which it -cures itself of snake-bite.[278] Probably Pliny is using different -authorities in the two passages. Theophrastus, 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 mortally wounded, -it takes revenge by spoiling the gem.[279] Elephants know that men hunt -them only for their tusks, and so bury these when they fall off.[280] - -[Sidenote: Occult virtues of animals.] - -Animals have marvelous virtues of their own other than the medicinal -uses to which men have put them. For instance, the mere glance of -the basilisk is fatal, and its breath burns up vegetation and breaks -rocks.[281] But the medicinal effects which Pliny ascribes to animals -and parts of animals 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 egg, -and thrice seven centipedes diluted with Attic honey,[282]—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.[283] -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 different 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 administered 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.[284] 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. - -[Sidenote: The virtues of herbs.] - -Pig grease, Pliny somewhere informs us, possesses especially strong -virtue, “because that animal feeds on the roots of herbs.”[285] From -the virtues of animals, therefore, let us turn to those of herbs.[286] -Pliny met on every hand assertion of their wonderful powers. The -empire-builders of Rome employed the sacred herbs _sagmina_ and -_verbenae_ in their embassies and legations. The Gauls, too, use the -verbena in lot-casting and prophetic responses.[287] Pliny also states -more sceptically that there is another root which diviners take in -drink in order to feign inspiration.[288] 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,[289]—an exaggerated estimate of -the hardihood of the mounted Asiatic nomads and their steeds. Musaeus -and Hesiod say that one anointed with _polion_ will attain fame and -dignities.[290] - -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 asserted incredible powers of herbs, -such as to restore dragons or men to life or withdraw wedges from -trees,[291] 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;[292] that another plant subjects fractious beasts of burden -to the yoke;[293] while cows who eat _buprestis_ burst asunder.[294] -Another herb _contacto genitali_ kills any female animal.[295] Betony -is considered an amulet for houses,[296] and fishermen in Pliny’s -neighborhood mix a plant with chalk and scatter it on the waves.[297] -“The fish dart towards it with marvelous desire and straightway float -lifeless on the surface.” Dogs will not bark at persons carrying -_peristereos_.[298] The “impious plant” prevents any human being who -tastes it from having quinsy, while swine are sure to have that disease -if they do not eat it. Some place it in birds’ nests to prevent the -voracious nestlings from strangling. Bitter almonds provide another -amusing combination of effects. Eating five of them permits one to -drink without experiencing intoxication, but if foxes eat them they -will die unless they find water near by to drink.[299] There are some -herbs which have a medicinal effect, if one merely looks at them.[300] -In two cases the masculine or feminine variety of a herb is used to -secure the birth of a child of the desired sex.[301] - -[Sidenote: Plucking herbs.] - -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.[302] Twice Pliny tells us that the peony should be uprooted -by night lest the woodpecker of Mars try to pick the digger’s eyes -out.[303] The state of the moon is another point to be observed,[304] -and once an herb is to be gathered before thunder is heard.[305] A -common instruction is to pick the plant with the left hand,[306] and -once with the thumb and fourth finger of the left hand.[307] Once -the right hand should be stretched covertly after the fashion of a -pickpocket through the left sleeve in order to pluck the plant.[308] -Sometimes one faces east in plucking herbs; sometimes, west; again one -is careful not to face the wind.[309] Sometimes the gatherer must not -glance behind him. Sometimes he must fast before he takes the plant -from the ground;[310] again he must observe a state of chastity.[311] -Sometimes he should be barefoot and clothed in white; again he should -remove every stitch of clothing and even his rings.[312] Sometimes the -use of iron implements is forbidden; again gold or some other material -is prescribed;[313] once the herb is to be dug with a nail.[314] -Sometimes circles are traced about the plant with the point of a -sword.[315] Often the plant must not touch the ground again after it is -picked,[316] presumably from a fear that its virtue would run off like -an electric current. Pliny alludes at least three times[317] 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 disease will return to plague the -delinquent patient. Frequently one is directed to state why one plucks -the herb or for whom it is intended.[318] In one case the digger says, -“This is the herb Argemon which Minerva discovered was a remedy for -swine who taste it.”[319] In another case one should salute the plant -and extract its juice before saying a word; thus its virtue will be -much greater.[320] 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.[321] Sometimes one sacrifices beforehand with bread -and wine or prays to the gods for permission to gather the herb.[322] -The customs of the Druids in gathering herbs are mentioned more than -once.[323] In gathering the sacred mistletoe on the sixth day of the -moon they hold sacrifices and a banquet beneath the tree.[324] Two -white bulls are the victims; a priest clad in white cuts the mistletoe -with a golden sickle and receives it in a white cloak.[325] - -[Sidenote: Agricultural magic.] - -To Pliny’s discussion of herbs we may append some specimens of the -employment of magic procedure in agriculture 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 should -be touched with the shoulders of a mole[326]—the animal 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 -disinterred before harvest lest the millet be bitter. Birds may be kept -away from the grain by planting in the four corners of the field an -herb whose name is unfortunately unknown to Pliny.[327] 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.[328] 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.[329] Suspending -a frog in the granary preserves the corn stored there.[330] 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.[331] 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.[332] Of the use of incantations in -agriculture we shall treat later. - -[Sidenote: Virtues of stones.] - -Pliny appears to have much less faith in the possession of marvelous -virtues by gems than by herbs and parts of animals. He not only -characterizes the powers attributed to gems by the _magi_ and -Democritus and Pythagoras as “terrible lies” and “unspeakable -nonsense”;[333] but refrains from mentioning many such himself or -inserts a cautious “if we believe it” or “if they tell the truth.”[334] -Of the gem 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.”[335] To other stones, however, he ascribes various -medicinal virtues, either when taken pulverized in drink or when worn -as amulets.[336] A few other occult properties are stated without -reservation, as that _amiantus_ resists all sorceries,[337] 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.[338] Magnets are said to differ -in sex, and the belief of Theophrastus and Mucianus is repeated that -certain stones bear offspring.[339] - -[Sidenote: Other minerals and metals.] - -Of the metals iron sometimes figures in Pliny’s magical procedure, as -when he either prescribes or taboos the use of it 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.[340] 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.[341] 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.[342] However, -the rule that an object should not touch the ground is enforced in -many other connections[343] than the plucking of herbs, and Pliny -twice states that the earth will not permit a serpent who has stung -a human being to re-enter its hole.[344] 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 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.[345] - -[Sidenote: Virtues of human parts.] - -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.[346] _Sed nihil facile reperiatur mulierum profluvio -magis monstrificum_, as Pliny proceeds to illustrate by numerous -examples.[347] Great virtues are also attributed to the urine, -particularly of a chaste boy.[348] A few other instances of remedies -drawn from the human body are ear-wax or a powdered tooth against -stings of scorpions and bites of snakes,[349] a man’s hair for the bite -of a dog, the first hairs from a boy’s head for gout.[350] 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.[351] 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. - -[Sidenote: Virtues of human saliva.] - -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 saliva Pliny lists many diseases and woes -which it alleviates.[352] 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. - -[Sidenote: The human operator.] - -The importance of the human operator as a factor in the performance -of marvels, be they medical or magical, is 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 behind 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,[353] those whose eyes exert strong fascination, whole tribes -of serpent-charmers and venom-curers, and others whose mere presence -addles the eggs beneath a setting hen.[354] The power of words spoken -by men will be considered separately under the head of incantations. - -[Sidenote: Absence of medical compounds.] - -While Pliny attributes the most extreme medicinal virtues to simples, -he excludes from his _Natural History_ the strange and elaborate -compounds which were nevertheless 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.[355] His position is that the simple remedies alone -are the direct work of nature, while the mixtures, tablets, pills, -plasters, 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_.[356] Furthermore, Pliny thinks that -health can be sufficiently preserved or restored by nature’s simple -remedies. Compounds 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 inexplicable. 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.[357] - -[Sidenote: Sympathetic magic.] - -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.[358] 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.[359] - -[Sidenote: Antipathies between animals.] - -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 certain ways attract -serpents.[360] This force of antipathy is indeed 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.[361] The antipathy between goats and snakes would seem -almost as potent as that between deer and snakes,[362] since we are -told that snake-bitten persons recover more quickly, if they frequent -the stalls where goats are kept or wear as an amulet the paunch of a -she-goat. - -[Sidenote: Love and hatred between inanimate objects.] - -There is also “the hatred and friendship of deaf and insensible -things.”[363] 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 influence and natural marvels which continued -classic in the medieval period.[364] 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.[365] - -[Sidenote: Sympathy between animate and inanimate objects.] - -There is furthermore sympathy and antipathy between animate and -inanimate objects. So marvelous is the antipathy 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.[366] -The spleenless pig, it may be interpolated, is another commonplace of -ancient and medieval science. Smearing the hives with cow dung kills -other insects but stimulates the bees who have an affinity for it -(_cognatum hoc iis_),[367] probably, although Pliny does not say so, -on the theory that they are 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.[368] 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.[369] Betony, too, -is so antipathetic to snakes that they lash themselves to death when -a circle of it is drawn about them.[370] Scorpions cannot survive in -the air of Sicily.[371] Perhaps antipathy is also the explanation of -Pliny’s absurd statement that loads of apples and pears, even if there -are only a few of them, are very heavy for beasts of burden.[372] Here, -however, the condition may be remedied and perhaps a relationship 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 supposed to be -a fatal poison.[373] - -[Sidenote: Like cures like.] - -That like cures like, or more precisely and paradoxically that the -cause of the disease will cure its own result, is another notion which -Pliny’s medicine shares with magic. This is seen in the use of parts -of the mad dog to cure its bite,[374] or in rubbing thighs chafed by -horse-back riding with the foam from a horse’s mouth.[375] 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.[376] The sting of the _phalangium_ may -be cured by merely looking at another 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 or in some way -associated with the ailment. It seems obvious to Pliny 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.”[377] Similarly _ophites_, -a marble with serpentine streaks, is used as an amulet against -snake-bite.[378] Mithridates discovered that the blood of Pontic -ducks should be mixed in antidotes because they live on poison.[379] -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 circumscribed by it.[380] 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.[381] An epileptic may be cured by driving an iron -nail into the spot where his head rested when he fell in the fit.[382] - -[Sidenote: The principle of association.] - -Other instances of association are when the remedy employed is -some part of an animal who is free from the disease in question or -marked by an opposite state of health. Goats and gazelles never have -ophthalmia, hence various portions of their bodies are prescribed for -eye diseases.[383] Eagles can gaze at the sun, therefore their gall is -efficacious in eye-salves.[384] 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.[385] 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;[386] -while ink of the _sepia_ is used in a candle which causes Ethiopians -to be seen when it is lighted.[387] These magic candles are borrowed -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 torpid to cross such a rut;[388] 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.[389] 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,[390] but the logic of the magic seems evident enough. - -[Sidenote: Magic transfer of disease.] - -In Pliny’s medicine there are a number of examples of 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 animal 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.[391] -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,[392] although in these cases -we are left uninformed 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.[393] 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.[394] -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.[395] If a root of asphodel is applied to sores and then hung -up in smoke, the sores will dry up along with the root.[396] To cure -scrofulous sores some bind on as many earthworms as there are sores -and let them dry up together.[397] 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.[398] If this last is a case -of magic transfer, 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. - -[Sidenote: Amulets.] - -A common characteristic of magic force and occult virtue 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 objects 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;[399] the -tongue of a fox is worn in a bracelet;[400] for quinsy the throat -is wound thrice with a thong of dog-skin and catarrh is relieved by -winding the same about the fingers.[401] 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.[402] Two bed-bugs bound to the left arm in wool -stolen from shepherds are a charm against nocturnal fevers; against -diurnal fevers, if wrapped in russet cloth instead.[403] The heart -of a vulture is an amulet against snakes, wild beasts, robbers, and -royal wrath.[404] The traveler who carries the herb _artemisia_ feels -no fatigue.[405] Injurious drugs cannot cross one’s threshold and -do injury in 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.[406] Not only is a wreath of herbs worn for headache,[407] -but a sprig of poplar held in the hand prevents chafing between the -thighs.[408] Often objects are placed under one’s pillow, especially -for insomnia,[409] but any psychological effect is precluded in the -case where this is to be done without the patient’s knowledge.[410] 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;[411] we feel -that we have passed beyond mere amulets, ligatures, and suspensions to -more elaborate minutiae of magic procedure. - -[Sidenote: Position or direction.] - -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;[412] epilepsy may be -cured if a virgin touches the sufferer with her right thumb;[413] 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;[414] for lumbago -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.[415] But -we have met other examples already, and 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.[416] Tracing -circles with and about objects, facing towards this or that point -of the compass, 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[417] 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.[418] - -[Sidenote: The time element.] - -The element of time is also important. Operations should be performed -before sunrise, early in the morning, at night, and so on. The moon is -especially regarded in such directions.[419] 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 -fifteenth day of the moon and that the patient should be anointed on -the sixteenth.[420] 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. - -[Sidenote: Observance of number.] - -Observance of number is another feature in Pliny’s ceremonial, of -which we have already met instances. He also alludes to the writings -of Pythagoras on the subject and ascribes 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 thrice seven -days.[421] 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.[422] The virtue -of the number one is not, however, entirely slighted. Importance is -attached to the death of a stag from a single wound.[423] Sometimes -three and one are joined in the same operation, as when child-birth is -aided by hurling through the house 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 lameness, -blindness, and like incapacitation on the right side of its body, and -an even number, injuries on the left side.[424] In a crown of smilax -for headache there should be an odd number of leaves,[425] and in a -diet of snails prescribed for stomach trouble an odd number are to -be eaten.[426] For a head-wash ten green lizards are boiled in ten -_sextarii_ of oil,[427] and for an application to prevent eyelashes -from growing again when they have been pulled out fifteen frogs are -impaled on fifteen bulrushes.[428] The person who has tied on a certain -amulet is thereafter excluded from the patient’s sight for five -days.[429] And so on. - -[Sidenote: Relation between operator and patient.] - -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 antipathy. - -[Sidenote: Incantations.] - -Closely akin to the power of numbers 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 words, although Cato in his -work on agriculture prescribed a similar formula of meaningless words -for the cure of fractured limbs.[430] 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.[431] In another case the sower is -to be naked and to pray for himself and his neighbors.[432] 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 increase which a -naked virgin restrains.” Then, withdrawing her hand, she is to repeat -the same words thrice and to join with the patient in spitting on -the ground each time.[433] Indeed, in another passage Pliny states -that it is the universal custom in medicine to spit three times -with incantations.[434] 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, Cantharides, a wild wolf seeks your blood.”[435] -Abscesses and inflammations 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.”[436] In the book following this passage Pliny raises -the general question of the power of words to heal diseases.[437] -He gives many instances of belief in incantations from contemporary -popular 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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude to love-charms and birth-control.] - -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,[438] -in one passage alleging as a reason that the illustrious general -Lucullus was killed by one,[439] but he includes a great many of them -nevertheless.[440] Some herbs are so employed because of a resemblance -in shape to the sexual organs,[441] another instance of association -by similarity. Pliny declared against abortive drugs as well as -love-charms,[442] but cited from the _Commentaries_ of Caecilius -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.[443] - -[Sidenote: Pliny and astrology.] - -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 intimately -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.”[444] Parenthetically it may be remarked that the general -literature of the time only confirms this assertion of the widespread -prevalence of astrology; allusions of poets imply a technical knowledge -of the art on their readers’ part; the very emperors who occasionally -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 nativities and believe that God decreed the -future once for all and has never interfered with the course of events -since.”[445] This way of thinking has caught learned and vulgar alike -in its current and has led to such further methods of divination 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.[446] In another place where he speaks for -a moment of “the science of the stars” Pliny disputes the theories 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 that masters and slaves, kings and beggars are born at the -same moment.[447] 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.[448] 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 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.[449] When Pliny disputes the vulgar notion that -each man has a star varying in brightness 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 controlled by man’s fate rather than that man’s life is ordered by -the stars.[450] - -[Sidenote: Celestial portents.] - -If Pliny thus leaves us uncertain as to the relation of 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 -superstitious fear of eclipses.[451] But he explains thunderbolts as -celestial fire vomited forth from the planet Venus and “bearing omens -of the future.”[452] He also gives instances from Roman history of -comets which signaled disaster, and he expounds the theory of their -signifying the future.[453] What they portend may be determined from -the direction in which they move and the heavenly body whose power they -receive, and more particularly from the shapes they assume and their -position in relation to the signs of the zodiac. Indeed, Pliny even -gives examples of ominous eclipses of the sun, although it is true that -they were also of unusual length.[454] He also tells us that many of -the common people still believed that women could produce eclipses “by -sorceries and herbs.”[455] - -[Sidenote: The stars and the world of nature.] - -Aside from the question of the control of human destiny by the -constellations at birth, Pliny’s general theories of the universe and -of the influence of the stars upon terrestrial 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;”[456] -and the sun is the mind and soul of the whole world and the chief -governor of nature.[457] 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 -appearance.[458] 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.[459] Pliny ascribes the -usual astrological qualities to the planets.[460] Saturn is cold -and rigid; Mars, a flaming fire; Jupiter, located between them, is -temperate and salubrious. Besides their effects upon one another, the -planets especially influence the earth.[461] Venus, for instance, -rules the process of generation in all terrestrial beings.[462] -Following the _Georgics_ of Vergil somewhat, Pliny asserts that the -stars give indubitable signs of the weather and expounds the utility -of the constellations to farmers.[463] 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;[464] and -how on another occasion he gave his brother timely warning of an -impending storm.[465] But Pliny does not accept all the theories of -the astrologers as to control of the stars over terrestrial nature. He -repeats, but without definitely accepting it, the ascription by the -Babylonians of earthquakes to three of the planets in particular,[466] -and the notion that the gem _sandastros_ or _garamantica_, employed -by Chaldeans in their ceremonies, is intimately connected with the -stars.[467] 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.[468] - -[Sidenote: Astrological medicine.] - -Pliny tells how the physician Crinas of Marseilles made a fortune by -regulating diet and observing hours according to the motion of the -stars.[469] 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.[470] In his own recipes, however, astrological considerations -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 extensive influence upon the earth.[471] -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.[472] 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 working during the interlunar days, and -that diseases of the eyes of certain beasts of burden also increased -and decreased with the moon.[473] 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. - -[Sidenote: Conclusion: magic unity of Pliny’s superstitions.] - -We have tried to analyze the contents of the _Natural History_, -bringing out certain main divisions and underlying principles of -magic in Pliny’s agriculture, medicine, and natural science. This -is, however, an artificial and difficult 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.”[474] -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 History_, -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 development, they all are parts of magic. - - - - - 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 mathematical method—Attitude towards authority and - observation—The _Optics_—Medieval translations of _Almagest_—_Tetrabiblos_ - or _Quadripartitum_—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._ - - -[Sidenote: Seneca’s _Natural Questions_.] - -In this chapter we shall preface the main theme of Ptolemy 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 antedating 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 written a treatise on earthquakes;[475] and in the present -treatise his aim is to inquire into the natural causes of phenomena; 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.”[476] - -[Sidenote: Study of nature as an ethical substitute for existing -religion.] - -In one passage Seneca perhaps expresses his consciousness of the very -imperfect scientific knowledge of his own age a little too mystically. -“There are sacred things which are not revealed all at once. Eleusis -reserves sights for those who revisit her. Nature does not disclose her -mysteries 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.”[477] -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. - -[Sidenote: Limited field of Seneca’s work.] - -With such subjects as zoology, botany, and mineralogy Seneca’s work has -little to do; it does not, like Pliny’s _Natural History_, include -medicine and the industrial arts; neither does he, like Pliny, cite -the lore of the _magi_. The phenomena of which he treats are mainly -meteorological manifestations, such as winds, rain, hail, snow, comets, -rainbows, 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. - -[Sidenote: Marvels accepted, questioned, or denied.] - -Seneca nevertheless has occasion to repeat some tall stories, such as -that the river Alpheus of Greece reappears 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.[478] He also -affirms that living beings are generated in fire; he believes in -such effects 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.[479] 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 particular, 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.[480] He ridicules the custom of the city which had -public watchmen appointed to warn the inhabitants 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 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.[481] - -[Sidenote: Belief in natural divination and astrology.] - -But while he thus rejects incantations and is practically silent -on the subject of natural magic, Seneca accepts natural divination -in well-nigh all its branches: sacrificial, augury, astrology, and -divination from thunder. He believes that whatever is caused is a -sign of some future event.[482] 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.[483] He believes that -all unusual celestial phenomena are to be looked upon as prodigies -and portents. A meteor “as big as the moon appeared when Paulus was -engaged in the war against Perseus”; similar portents marked the death -of Augustus and execution of Sejanus, and gave warning of the death of -Germanicus.[484] But no less truly do the planets in their unvarying -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.[485] -Not only do the stars influence the upper atmosphere as earth’s -exhalations affect the lower, but they announce what is to occur.[486] -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 determines the whole course of his life.[487] -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 stars[488] 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 without rule and dominion -over us.”[489] 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.[490] - -[Sidenote: Divination from thunder.] - -It is on thunderbolts as portents of the future that Seneca dwells -longest, however.[491] “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 manifest decrees and ones far clearer than if -they were set down in writing.”[492] 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 possibly of -minor importance and significance. Next he attempts to explain how the -dangers of which we are warned by divination may be averted by prayer, -expiation, or sacrifice, 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 _haruspex_. Then he goes on to speak of -various classifications of thunderbolts according to the nature of the -warnings or encouragements which they bring. - -[Sidenote: Ptolemy.] - -We pass on from Seneca to a later and greater exponent of natural -science and divination, Ptolemy, in the following century. He was -perhaps born at Ptolemaïs 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 -indicated, however, by the fact that his first recorded astronomical -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 felicities, and while it is clear and correct, is dry and -impersonal.[493] - -[Sidenote: His two chief works.] - -Ptolemy’s two chief works, the _Geography_ in eight books, and ἡ -μαθηματικὴ σύνταξις, or _Almagest_ (al-μεγίστη) as the Arabs called -it, in thirteen books, have been so often described in histories of -mathematics, astronomy, geography, 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 thousand years.[494] It should, however, be -said that the _Geography_ does not seem to have been translated into -Latin until the opening of the fifteenth century,[495] when Jacobus -Angelus made a translation for Pope Alexander V, (1409-1410), which is -extant in many manuscripts[496] as well as in print.[497] It therefore -did not have the influence and fame in the Latin middle ages that -the _Almagest_ did or the briefer astrological writings, genuine and -spurious, current under Ptolemy’s name. - -[Sidenote: His mathematical method.] - -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 upon mathematical method both in his astronomy and his -geography. In particular may be noted his important contribution to -trigonometry in his table of chords, which modern scholars have found -correct to five decimal places, and his contribution to the science of -cartography by his successful projection of spherical surfaces upon -flat maps. - -[Sidenote: Attitude towards authority and observation.] - -Ptolemy based his two great works partly upon the results already -attained by earlier scientists, following Hipparchus especially in -astronomy and Marinus in geography. 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 repeat briefly what the ancients had -already made clear, and to devote his works chiefly to points which had -remained obscure. 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 repeated at long intervals in -order to minimize the possibility of error. He devised and described -some scientific instruments and conducted a long series of astronomical -observations. He anteceded Comte in holding that one should adopt the -simplest possible hypothesis consistent with the facts to be explained. - -[Sidenote: The _Optics_.] - -Besides some minor astronomical works and a treatise on music which -seems to be largely a compilation an important work on optics is -ascribed to Ptolemy.[498] It is the most experimental in method of his -writings, although Alexander von Humboldt’s characterization of it as -the only work in ancient literature which reveals an investigator of -nature in the act of physical experimentation[499] 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 manuscripts of this Latin version still in existence.[500] -The translation was made in the twelfth century by Eugene of Palermo, -admiral of Sicily, whose name is attached to other translations and -who was also the author of a number of Greek poems.[501] 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.[502] 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.[503] It dealt with the relations between -the eye and light. In the second book conditions of visibility 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,[504] 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_.[505] De Morgan also objects that the author of the _Optics_ -is inferior to Ptolemy in knowledge of geometry.[506] 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 speculis_.[507] - -[Sidenote: Medieval translations of _Almagest_.] - -If there is, as in other parallel cases, the possibility that the -medieval period passed off recent discoveries of its own under the -authoritative name of Ptolemy, there also 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 translator, Gerard of -Cremona. There has recently been discovered, however, by Professors -Haskins and Lockwood[508] a Sicilian translation made direct from the -Greek text some ten or twelve years before Gerard’s translation. There -are two manuscripts of this Sicilian translation in the Vatican and -one at Florence, showing that it had at least some Italian 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. - -[Sidenote: The _Tetrabiblos_ or _Quadripartitum_.] - -Of Ptolemy’s genuine works the most germane to and significant for -our investigation is his _Tetrabiblos_, _Quadripartitum_, 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[509] before _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 commentary of -Haly Heben Rodan upon the _Quadripartitum_.[510] In the early Latin -editions[511] 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.[512] - -[Sidenote: A genuine reflection of Ptolemy’s approval of astrology.] - -In the _Tetrabiblos_ 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 criticism under the aegis of his authority. Not that -it lacked other exponents and defenders of great name and ability. -Naturally the authenticity of the _Tetrabiblos_ has been questioned -by modern admirers of Hellenic philosophy and science 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.[513] The astrological -_Centiloquium_ or _Karpos_, and other treatises on divination and -astrological images ascribed to Ptolemy in medieval Latin manuscripts -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. - -[Sidenote: Validity of astrology.] - -In the _Tetrabiblos_ Ptolemy first engages in argument as to the -validity of the art of judicial astrology. If his remarks in this -connection were not already trite contentions, 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 useless -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 -because 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. Another difficulty is that old configurations of the stars -cannot 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 terrestrial matter in relation to -the stars that it is difficult to collect 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 -account in foretelling the future of different persons born under the -same stars. But although for these reasons predictions frequently fail, -yet the art is not to be condemned any more than one rejects the art of -navigation because of frequent shipwrecks. - -[Sidenote: Influence of the stars not inevitable.] - -Nor is it 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 -medicine. - -[Sidenote: Astrology as natural science.] - -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 the stars with earthly regions,—it -is an art that fits in well with Ptolemy’s other occupations of -astronomer and geographer! The _Tetrabiblos_ has been called “Science’s -surrender,”[514] but was it not more truly divination purified and made -scientific? - -[Sidenote: Properties of the planets.] - -Taking up first the properties of the seven planets, Ptolemy associates -with each one or more of the four elemental 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. Jupiter, -situated between cold Saturn and burning Mars, is of a rather lukewarm -nature but tends more to warmth and moisture 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 -neighboring 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 influence 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 feminine; -Mercury is neuter; the other planets are masculine. The sex of a planet -may also, however, be reckoned according to its position in relation -to the sun and the horizon; and changes in the influences exerted -by the planets are noted according to their position or relation to -the sun. This discussion of the properties of the planets is neither -convincing nor scientific. It seems arguing in a circle to make their -effects upon the earth depend to such an extent upon themselves 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. - -[Sidenote: Remaining contents of Book One.] - -Ptolemy goes on to discuss the powers of the fixed stars which seem to -depend upon their positions in constellations 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. - -[Sidenote: Book Two: Regions.] - -The second book begins by distinguishing prediction of events for whole -regions or countries, such as wars, pestilences, 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 necessary to know his region -and nationality. He characterizes the inhabitants of the three great -climatic zones,[515] 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 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 species, which -depends on the dominant stars and their conjunctions. 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. - -[Sidenote: Nativities.] - -The last two books take up the prediction of events in the lives of -individuals from the stars, in other words the science of nativities -or genethlialogy. The third book discusses conception and birth, -how to take the horoscope—Ptolemy insists that the astrolabe is the -only reliable instrument 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 matters 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 consistency. - -[Sidenote: Future influence of the _Tetrabiblos_.] - -The great influence of the _Tetrabiblos_ is shown not only in medieval -Arabic commentaries and Latin translations, but more immediately in -the astrological writings of the declining Roman Empire, when such -astrologers as Hephaestion of Thebes,[516] 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 -_Tetrabiblos_, 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 Empiricus, attacking astrology about -200 A. D., does not mention the _Tetrabiblos_ 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. - - - - - 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. - -II. _His Medicine and Experimental Science_ - - Four elements and four qualities—His criticism of atomism—Application - 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 attitude - toward authorities—Adverse criticism of past writers—His estimate - 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 - experiment—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 - 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 History of Philosophy_—Divination and demons—Celestial - bodies. - - ἀλλ’ εἴ τις καταγνῷ μου τόδε, ὁμολογῶ τὸ πάθος τοὐμὸν ὃ παρ’ ὅλον - ἐμαυτοῦ τὸν βίον ἔπαθον, οὐδενὶ πιστεύσας τῶν διηγουμένων τὰ τοιαῦτα, - πρὶν πειραθῆναι καὶ αὐτὸς ὧν δυνατὸν ἦν εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθεῖν με. - Kühn, IV, 513. - - διὸ κᾂν μετ’ ἐμέ τις ὁμοίως ἐμοὶ φιλόπονός τε καὶ ξηλωτικὸς ἀληθείας - γένηται, μὴ προπετῶς ἐκ δυοῖν ἢ τριῶν χρήσεων ἀποφαινέσθω. πολλάκις - γὰρ αὐτῷ φανεῖται διὰ τῆς μακρᾶς πείρας ὥσπερ ἐφάνη κᾀμοὶ ... - Kühn, XIII, 96-1. - - χρὴ γὰρ τὸν μέλλοντα γνώσεσθαί τι τῶν πολλῶν ἄμεινον εὐθὺς μὲν καὶ - τῇ φύσει καὶ τῇ πρώτῃ διδασκαλίᾳ πολὺ τῶν ἄλλων διενεγκεῖν ἐπειδὰν - δὲ γένηται μειράκιον ἀληθείας τινὸς ἔχειν ἐρωτικὴν μανίαν ὥσπερ - ἐνθουσιῶντα, καὶ μήθ’ ἡμέρας μήτε νυκτὸς διαλείπειν σπεύδοντά τε καὶ - συντεταμένον ἐκμαθεῖν, ὅσα τοῖς ἐνδοξοτάτοις εἴρηται τῶν παλαιῶν· - ἐπειδὰν δ’ ἐκμάθη, κρίνειν αὐτὰ καὶ βασανίζειν χρόνῳ παμπόλλῳ καὶ - σκοπεῖν πόσα μὲν ὁμολογεῖ τοῖς ἐναργῶς φαινομένοις πόσα δὲ διαφέρεται - καὶ οὕτως τὰ μὲν αἱρεῖσθαι τὰ δ’ ἀποστρέφεσθαι. - Kühn, II, 179. - - “But if anyone charges me therewith, I confess my disease from which I - have suffered all my life long, to trust none of those who 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 work and zealous for - truth, let him not conclude hastily from two or three cases. For often - he will be enlightened through long experience, just as I have been.” - (It is remarkable that Ptolemy spoke similarly of his predecessor, - Hipparchus, as a “lover of toil and truth”—φιλόπονον καὶ φιλαλήθεα, - quoted by Orr (1913), 122.) - - “For one who is to understand any matter better than most men do must - straightway differ much from other persons in his nature and earliest - 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 what agrees with visible phenomena and what disagrees, and so - accept the one and reject the other.” - - -I. _The Man and His Times_ - -[Sidenote: Recent ignorance of Galen.] - -At the close of the nineteenth century one English student of the -history of medicine said, “Galen is so inaccessible to English readers -that it is difficult to learn about him at first hand.”[517] Another -wrote, “There is, perhaps, no other instance of a man of equal -intellectual rank who has been so persistently misunderstood and even -misinterpreted.”[518] 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,[519] no -complete edition of his works has appeared since that of Kühn a century -ago,[520] which is now regarded as very faulty.[521] A fourth reason -for neglect or misunderstanding of Galen is probably that there is so -much by him to be read. - -[Sidenote: His voluminous works.] - -Athenaeus stated that Galen wrote more treatises than 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,[522] 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;[523] 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, especially 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.”[524] - -[Sidenote: The manuscript tradition of Galen’s works.] - -Although the works of Galen are so voluminous, they have reached us -for the most part in comparatively late manuscripts,[525] and to some -extent perhaps only in their medieval form. The extant manuscripts -of the Greek text are mostly of the fifteenth century and represent -the enthusiasm 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 middle ages had already absorbed Galen too -thoroughly. If it be true, as Dr. Payne contends,[526] that the chief -original contributions to medical science of the Renaissance period -were the work of men trained in Greek scholarship, this was because, -when they failed to get any new ideas from the Greek texts, they turned -to the more promising path of experimental research which both Galen -and the middle ages had already advocated. The bulky medieval Latin -translations[527] of Galen are older than most of the extant Greek -texts; there are also versions in Arabic and Syriac.[528] For the last -five books of the _Anatomical Exercises_ the only extant text is an -Arabic manuscript not yet published.[529] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s vivid personality.] - -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 life. His works supply an unusual amount -of personal information, and throughout his writings, unless he is -merely transcribing 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[530] that the -exuberance of his imagination and his vanity frequently 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 despatches -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.”[531] - -[Sidenote: Birth and parentage.] - -Galen—he does not seem to have been called Claudius until the time -of the Renaissance—was born about 129 A. D.[532] at Pergamum in Asia -Minor. His father, Nikon, was an architect and mathematician, trained -in arithmetic, geometry, 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 grieved over losses of property but managed -to get along somehow. He has not minded much when some have vituperated -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 temper and -tongue, with which she made life miserable for their household slaves -and scolded his father worse than Xanthippe ever did Socrates.[533] - -[Sidenote: Education in philosophy and medicine.] - -In one of his works Galen speaks of the passionate love and enthusiasm -for truth which has possessed him since boyhood, so that he has not -stopped either by day or by night from quest of it.[534] 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,[535] he turned to the study of medicine. This -incident of the dream shows that neither Galen nor his father, despite -their education and intellectual 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.[536] This was about -the time that the great mathematician and astronomer, Ptolemy, was -completing his observations[537] 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 geometry and astronomy, -music and rhetoric.[538] Galen’s interest in philosophy continued, -however, and he wrote many logical and philosophical treatises, most -of which are lost.[539] His father died when he was twenty, and it was -after this that he went to other cities to study. - -[Sidenote: First visit to Rome.] - -Galen returned to Pergamum to practice and was, when but twenty-nine, -made the doctor for the gladiators by five successive pontiffs.[540] -During his thirties came his first residence at Rome.[541] The article -on Galen in Pauly-Wissowa states that he was driven away from Rome by -the plague, and in _De libris propriis_ he does say that, “when the -great plague broke out there, I hurriedly departed from the city for -my native land.”[542] But in _De prognosticatione ad Epigenem_ his -explanation is that he became disgusted with the malice of the envious -physicians of the capital, and determined to return home as soon as the -sedition there was over.[543] Meanwhile he stayed on and gained great -fame by his cures but their jealousy and opposition multiplied, so that -presently, when he learned that the sedition was over, he went back to -Pergamum. - -[Sidenote: Relations with the emperors: later life.] - -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 outbreak of the plague there prevented their -proceeding with the campaign immediately,[544] and Galen states that -the emperors 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 physician to Commodus.[545] 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.[546] 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 -perished 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 published, 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.[547] Galen was still alive and writing during the -early years of the dynasty of the Severi, and probably died about 200. - -[Sidenote: His unfavorable picture of the learned world.] - -Although the envy of other physicians at Rome and their accusing him of -resort to magic arts and divination in his marvelous prognostications -and cures were perhaps 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 explain them away as the product of personal bitterness -or 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 _status 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, professional 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. - -[Sidenote: Corruption of the medical profession.] - -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 themselves 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 practitioners 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 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.[548] - -[Sidenote: Lack of real search for truth.] - -Galen more than once complains that there are no real seekers after -truth in his time, but that all are intent upon 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.[549] Many make a great outward -display and pretense in medicine and other arts who have no real -knowledge.[550] 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 practicing the same.[551] -Moreover, now-a-days many are trying to teach others what they have -never accomplished themselves.[552] Thessalus not only toadied to the -rich but secured many pupils by offering to teach them medicine in -six months.[553] 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.[554] Indeed, Galen himself, by the violence -of his invective and the occasional passionateness of his animosity -in his controversies with other individuals or schools of medicine, -illustrates that state of war in the intellectual world of his age to -which we have adverted. - -[Sidenote: Poor doctors and medical students.] - -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 medical 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.[555] Many of -his fellow-students regarded as a counsel of perfection unattainable -by them Galen’s plan of hearing all the different medical sects and -comparing their merits and testing their validity.[556] 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. - -[Sidenote: Medical discovery in Galen’s time.] - -Galen was, it has already been made apparent, an intellectual -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 -discovered before, and when he mentions some curative methods recently -invented at Rome.[557] - -[Sidenote: The drug trade.] - -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 himself and be able to detect adulterated -medicines, or the merchants, perfumers, and _herbarii_ will deceive -him.[558] Galen refuses to reveal the methods employed in adulterating -opobalsam, which he had investigated personally, lest the evil -practice spread further.[559] At Rome at least there were dealers in -unguents who corresponded roughly to our druggists. 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 emperors 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 statement that it is _campestris_.[560] 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.”[561] - -[Sidenote: The imperial stores.] - -The emperors kept a special store of drugs of their own and had -botanists in Sicily, Crete, and Africa who supplied 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 simples for their own use. Galen mentions a large -amount of Hymettus honey in the imperial stores—ἐν ταῖς αὐτοκρατορικαῖς -ἀποθήκαις,[562] whence our word “apothecary.”[563] He proves that -cinnamon[564] loses its potency with time by his own experience as -imperial physician. An assignment of the spice sent to Marcus Aurelius -from the land of the barbarians (ἐκ τῆς βαρβάρου) was superior to what -had stood stored in wooden jars from the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, -and Antoninus 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 populace 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.[565] He praises the Severi, however, for permitting -others to use theriac, a noted medicine and antidote of which we -shall have more to say presently. Thus, he says, not only have they -as emperors received power from the gods, but in sharing their goods -freely they are like the gods, who rejoice the more, the more people -they save.[566] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s private supply of drugs: _terra sigillata_.] - -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.[567] 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 journeying -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.[568] 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 -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 enable 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.”[569] In another passage Galen advises his readers, -if they are ever in Pamphylia, to lay in a good supply of the drug -_carpesium_.[570] 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 supply, and of the surprising chemical change which the misy -underwent in the course of these years.[571] - -[Sidenote: Mediterranean commerce.] - -Galen speaks of receiving other drugs from Great Syria, Palestine, -Egypt, Cappadocia, Pontus, Macedonia, Gaul, Spain, and Mauretania, -from the Celts, and even from India.[572] 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 best form of unguent was formerly made -only in Laodicea, but now it is similarly compounded in many other -cities of Asia Minor.[573] - -[Sidenote: Frauds of dealers in wild beasts.] - -We are reminded that parts of animals as well as herbs and minerals -were important constituents in ancient pharmacy by Galen’s invective -against the frauds of hunters 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.[574] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s ideal of anonymity.] - -Besides the ancient drug trade, Galen gives us some interesting -glimpses of the publishing trade, if we may so term it, of his time. -Writing in old age in the _De methodo medendi_,[575] 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 request 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 listing his works,[576] and -he also is free enough in many of his books in mentioning others which -are essential to read before perusing the present volume.[577] Perhaps -he felt differently at different times on the question of fame and -anonymity. He also objected to those who read his works, not to learn -anything from them, but only in order to calumniate them.[578] - -[Sidenote: The ancient book trade.] - -It was in a shop on the Sacra Via that most of the copies of some of -Galen’s works were stored when they, together 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 bookstores in Rome are located.[579] There he saw some men -disputing whether a certain treatise was his. It was duly inscribed -_Galenus medicus_ 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, declared 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.[580] Galen also complains that notes -of his lectures which he has not intended for publication have got -abroad,[581] that his servants have stolen and published some of -his manuscripts, and that others have been altered, corrupted, and -mutilated by those into whose possession they have come, or have been -passed off by them in other lands as their own productions.[582] 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.[583] 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 demonstration by dissection concerning respiration and the -voice, Boëthus asked him for commentaries on the subject and sent for -stenographers.[584] 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.[585] - -[Sidenote: Falsification and mistakes in manuscripts.] - -Galen dates the falsification of title pages and contents of books -back to the time when kings Ptolemy of Egypt and Attalus of Pergamum -were bidding against each other for volumes for their respective -libraries.[586] 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.[587] A single stroke of the pen or slight -erasure will completely change the meaning of a medical prescription. -He thinks that such alterations 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 _Autocrator -Hologrammatos_ 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. - -[Sidenote: Galen as a historical source.] - -Galen’s works contain occasional historical information concerning many -other matters than books and drugs. Clinton in his _Fasti Romani_ 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 -relations are valuable bits of source-material. Trajan was, of course, -before his time, but he testifies to the great improvement of the -roads in Italy which that emperor had effected.[588] Galen sheds a -little light on the vexed question 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.[589] - -[Sidenote: Ancient slavery.] - -Galen illustrates for us the evils of ancient slavery in an incident -which he relates to show the inadvisability of giving way to one’s -passions, especially anger.[590] 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[591] 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 farther and kick their slaves or gouge their -eyes out. The emperor 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 compensate him for the loss -of an eye. In another passage Galen discusses how many slaves and -“clothes” one really needs.[592] - -[Sidenote: Social life: food and wine.] - -Galen also depicts the easy-going, sociable, and pleasure-loving -society of his time. Not only physicians but men generally begin -the day with salutations and calls, then separate again, some to -the market-place and law courts, others to watch the dancers or -charioteers.[593] Others play at dice or pursue love affairs, or pass -the hours at the baths or in eating and drinking or some other bodily -pleasure. In the evening they all come together again at symposia which -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.[594] He believed that drinking wine discreetly -relieved the mind from all worry and melancholy and refreshed it. “For -we use it every day.”[595] He affirmed that taken in moderation wine -aided digestion and the blood.[596] He classed wine with such boons -to humanity as medicines, “a sober and decent mode of life,” and “the -study of literature and liberal disciplines.”[597] Galen’s treatise in -three books on food values (_De alimentorum facultatibus_) supplies -information concerning the ancient table and dietary science. - -[Sidenote: Allusions to Judaism and Christianity.] - -Galen’s allusions to Judaism and Christianity are of considerable -interest. He scarcely seems to have distinguished between them. In -two passages in his treatise on differences 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 Archigenes 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 Moses and -Christ and had heard undemonstrated laws.”[598] And in criticizing -opposing sects for their obstinacy he remarks that it would be easier -to win over the followers of Moses and Christ.[599] Later we shall -speak more fully of a third passage in _De usu partium_[600] 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 suggests 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.[601] According to a thirteenth century -Arabian biographer of Galen, he spoke more favorably of Christians in -a lost commentary upon Plato’s _Republic_, admiring their morals and -admitting their miracles.[602] This last, as we shall see, is unlikely, -since Galen believed in a supreme Being who worked only through natural -law. “A confection of Ioachos, the martyr or metropolitan,” and “A -remedy for headache of the monk Barlama” occur in the third book of -the _De remediis parabilibus_ 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.[603] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s monotheism.] - -Like most thoughtful men of his time, Galen tended to believe in one -supreme deity, but he appears to have derived 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 criminals were for him those whom neither the Muses -nor Socrates could reform.[604] It is Plato, not Christ, whom in -another 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.”[605] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s Christian readers.] - -But while Galen’s monotheism cannot be regarded as of Christian or -Jewish origin, it is possible that his argument from design and -supporting theology by anatomy made him more acceptable to both -Mohammedan and Christian readers. 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.[606] -These early Christian enthusiasts for natural science, who also devoted -much time to Aristotle and Euclid, were finally excommunicated; but -Aristotle, Euclid, and Galen were to return in triumph in medieval -learning. - - -II. _His Medicine and Experimental Science_ - -[Sidenote: Four elements and four qualities.] - -Galen held as his fundamental theory of nature the view which was -to prevail through the middle ages, that all natural objects upon -this globe are composed of four elements, earth, air, fire, and -water,[607] and the cognate view, which he says Hippocrates first -introduced and Aristotle later demonstrated, that all natural objects -are characterized by four qualities, hot, cold, dry, and moist. -From the combinations of these four are produced various secondary -qualities.[608] Neither hypothesis was as yet universally accepted, -however, and Galen felt it incumbent upon him to argue against those -who contended that the human body and world of nature were made from -but one element.[609] 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.[610] Galen explains that philosophers -do not regard any particular variety of earth or any other mineral -substance 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 approach. But the earths -that we see are all compound bodies.[611] - -[Sidenote: Criticism of atomism.] - -Galen rejected the atomism of Democritus and Epicurus, in which the -atoms were indivisible particles differing 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 themselves.[612] Galen also makes the criticism that the mere -regrouping 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 mixtures.”[613] Thus he virtually says that the -purely physical atomism of Democritus will not account for what to-day -we call chemical change. He also, as we shall see, rejected Epicurus’ -theory of a world of nature ruled by blind chance. - -[Sidenote: Application of the theory of four qualities in medicine.] - -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 proportions a medicine of any desired -degree of coldness might be obtained.[614] 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.[615] So he -declared that dryness of solid bodies was incurable, while he believed -that children’s bodies were more easily dissolved than adults’ because -moister and warmer.[616] The Stoics and many physicians believed that -heat prolonged life, but Asclepiades pointed out that the Ethiopians -are old at thirty because the hot sun dries up their bodies so, while -the inhabitants of Britain sometimes live to be one hundred and twenty -years old. This last, however, was regarded as probably due to the fact -that their thicker skins conserved their innate heat longer.[617] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s therapeutics obsolete.] - -As an offset to the evidence which will be presented later of the -traces of occult virtues, magic, and astrology in Galen’s therapeutics -I should like to be able to indicate the good points in it. But his -entire system, like the four quality theory upon which it is largely -based, seems now obsolete, 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.”[618] - -[Sidenote: Some of his medical notions.] - -Nevertheless, we may note a few specimens which perhaps represent -his ordinary theory and practice as distinguished from passages in -which the influence of magic enters. He holds that bleeding and -cold drink are the two chief remedies for fever.[619] He notes that -children occasionally resemble their grandparents rather than their -parents.[620] 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 intercourse is beneficial.[621] -His discussion of anodynes and stupor or sleep-producing medicines -shows that the ancients had anaesthetics of a sort.[622] He recognized -the importance 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.[623] 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.[624] - -[Sidenote: Two of Galen’s cases.] - -Two specimens may be given of Galen’s accounts of his 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.[625] 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.[626] 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 morning 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 heating. 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 remarkable cure! - -[Sidenote: His power of rapid observation and inference.] - -These two cases, however, do not give us a just comprehension of -Galen’s abilities at their best. In his medical practice he could be as -quick and comprehensive an observer 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 philosopher -Glaucon[627] more than, let us hope in this case in view of his -profession, they would have amazed the estimable Dr. Watson. - -[Sidenote: His happy guesses.] - -Puschmann has pointed out that Galen employs certain 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’ (Kühn, III, 644), or expresses the conjecture -that the constituent of the atmosphere 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 understand -their full significance.”[628] - -[Sidenote: Tendency towards scientific measurement.] - -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 recommended is good for, and in -what proportions the ingredients are to be mixed. He also frequently -complains because 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.[629] Moreover, he saw the -desirability of more accurate means of measuring the passage of -time.[630] 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 normal, 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 -depended upon the accuracy of human machinery and judgment. 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.[631] 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 directions how -to divide the day into twelve hours by a combination 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.[632] - -[Sidenote: Psychological tests with the pulse.] - -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 psychologists 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 Pylades -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 another -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.[633] We might then call Galen the -first experimental psychologist as well as the first to elaborate the -physiology of the nervous system. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s anatomy and physiology.] - -It would scarcely be fair to discuss Galen’s science at all without -saying something of his remarkable work in anatomy and physiology. -Daremberg went so far as to hold 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.[634] He is generally -considered the greatest anatomist of antiquity, but it is barely -possible that he may have owed more to predecessors and contemporaries -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 “in physiological diagnosis he stands alone among the -ancients.”[635] However, if Galen owed something to Herophilus, we owe -much of our knowledge of the earlier physiologist to Galen.[636] - -[Sidenote: Experiments in dissection.] - -Aristotle had held that the heart was the seat of the sensitive -soul[637] 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 demonstrated 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 between -the brain and voice and respiration and the commentaries 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.[638] His “experimental investigation of the spinal -cord by sections at different levels and by half sections was still -more remarkable.”[639] Galen opposed these experimental proofs to -such unscientific arguments on the part of the Stoic philosopher, -Chrysippus, and others, as that the heart must be the chief organ -because it is in the center of the body, or because one lays one’s -hand on one’s heart to indicate oneself, or because the lips are -moved in a certain way in saying “I” (ἐγώ).[640] 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.[641] He failed, however, -to perform any experiments with the pulmonary veins, and so the notion -persisted that these conveyed “spirit” and not blood from the lungs to -the heart.[642] - -[Sidenote: Did Galen ever dissect human bodies?] - -It has usually been stated that Galen never dissected the human body -and that his inferences by analogy from his dissection of animals -involved him in serious error concerning human anatomy and physiology. -Certainly he speaks as if opportunities to secure human cadavers or -even skeletons were rare.[643] He mentions, however, the possibility -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 infants exposed by their parents.[644] -It is not sufficient, he states in another passage,[645] to read books -about human bones; one should have them before one’s eyes. Alexandria -is the best place for the student to go to see actual exhibitions of -this sort made by the teachers.[646] 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 been washed out of a grave by a flooded stream and -from the corpse of a robber slain in the mountains. If one cannot get -to see a human skeleton by these means or some other, he should dissect -monkeys and apes. - -[Sidenote: Dissection of animals.] - -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.[647] 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, however, 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.[648] 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.[649] - -[Sidenote: Surgical operations.] - -Surgical operations and medical practice were a third way 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 operation or cure. He himself had had one case where -the human heart was laid bare and yet the patient recovered.[650] -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 several successive pontifices[651] 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 attended to himself.[652] We may note finally that he -invented a new form of surgical knife.[653] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s argument from design.] - -In Galen’s opinion the study of anatomy was important for the -philosopher as well as for the physician. An understanding of the -use of the parts of the body is helpful to the doctor, he says, but -much more so to “the philosopher of medicine who strives to obtain -knowledge of all nature.”[654] In the _De usu partium_[655] 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 modern 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. - -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,[656] whom he wishes the -philosophers would reveal to him more clearly and tell him “whether he -is some wise and powerful god.”[657] 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.[658] He thinks that -nature alone cannot show such wisdom. He has, however, sought vainly -from philosopher after philosopher for a satisfactory demonstration of -the existence of God, and is by no means certain himself.[659] - -[Sidenote: Queries concerning the soul.] - -Galen is also at a loss concerning the existence and substance 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,[660] but Galen questions this, -nor is he ready to accept the Platonic world-soul theory of a divine -force permeating all nature.[661] 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 knowledge 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 reasoning -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.[662] - -[Sidenote: No supernatural force in medicine.] - -In commenting upon the works of Hippocrates, Galen insists that in -speaking of “something divine” in diseases 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 -reference to the effect of the surrounding air.[663] 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 partium_ -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 eyebrows 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 cartilaginous 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.”[664] As between the views on God of -Moses and Epicurus, Galen prefers to steer a middle course. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s experimental instinct.] - -Already in describing Galen’s dissections and tests with the pulse -we have seen evidence of the accurate observation and experimental -instincts which accompanied his zest for hard work and zeal for truth. -In one of his treatises he confesses that it was a passion of his -always to test everything 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.”[665] Galen also recognized that general theories -were not sufficient for exact knowledge and that specific examples -seen with one’s own eyes were indispensable.[666] 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.[667] Galen more than once -declared that things, not names, were important and refused to waste -time in disputing about terminology and definitions which might be -spent in “pursuing the knowledge of things themselves.”[668] 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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude towards authorities.] - -Galen did not believe in merely repeating in new books the statements -of previous authorities. Ever since boyhood, 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.[669] Nevertheless in some of his writings he -collects the prescriptions 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 occasion, however, -after stating that Crito had combined previous treatises upon -cosmetics, including the work of Cleopatra, into four books of his -own which constitute a well-nigh exhaustive treatment of the subject, -Galen says that he sees no profit in copying Crito’s work again and -merely reproduces its table of contents.[670] 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 dogmas, or misinterpreting and perverting the teachings -of the ancients.[671] His method was rather first to “make haste and -stretch every nerve to learn what the most celebrated of the ancients -have said;”[672] then, having mastered this teaching, 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. - -[Sidenote: Adverse criticism of past writers.] - -This critical employment of past authorities is frequently illustrated -in Galen’s works. He mentions a great many names of past physicians -and writers, thereby shedding some 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.[673] 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,[674] or praises individuals like Heras who give -specific information.[675] 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.[676] Galen declares that one could -spend a lifetime in reading the books that have already been written -upon medicinal simples. He urges his readers, however, to abstain -from Andreas and other liars of that stamp, and above all to eschew -Pamphilus who never saw even in a dream the herbs which he describes. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s estimate of Dioscorides.] - -Of all previous writers upon _materia medica_ Galen preferred -Dioscorides. He writes, “But Anazarbensis Dioscorides in five books -discussed all useful material not only of herbs but of trees and fruits -and juices and liquors, treating besides both all metals and the -parts of animals.”[677] Yet he does not hesitate to criticize certain -statements of Dioscorides, 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.[678] -He also wonders that Dioscorides described butter as made of the milk -of sheep and goats, and correctly states that “this drug” is made from -cows’ milk.[679] 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 chapter 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.[680] Galen further criticizes Dioscorides for -his unfamiliarity with the Greek language and consequent failure to -grasp the significance of many Greek names. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s dogmatism: logic and experience.] - -Daremberg said of Galen that he represented at the same time the most -exaggerated dogmatism and the most advanced 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 Hippocratic dogmas such -as the four qualities theory, he thought[681] that in medicine as in -geometry there were a certain number of self-evident maxims upon which -reason, conforming to the rules of logic, might build up a scientific -structure. In the _De methodo medendi_[682] he makes a distinction -between the discovery of drugs and medicines, simple or compound, by -experience and the methodical treatment of disease which he now sets -forth and which should proceed logically 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.[683] At the same time he expresses his dislike for mere -dogmatizers who shout their _ipse dixits_ like tyrants without the -support either of reason or experience.[684] 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.[685] Indeed, he is of the opinion that some doctors would -do well to stick to experience 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.[686] Later on in the same work[687] 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 experience. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s account of the Empirics.] - -Normally, however, Galen upholds both reason and experience as -criteria of truth against the opposing schools of Dogmatics and -Empirics. The former attacked experience as uncertain and impossible -to regulate, slow and unmethodical. The latter replied that experience -was consistent, adaptable to art, and proof enough.[688] Galen’s -chief objection to the Empirics is that they reject reason as a -criterion of truth and wish the medical art to be irrational.[689] -“The Empirics say that all things are discovered by experience, but -we say that some are found by experience and some by reason.”[690] -Galen also objects to Herodotus’s explanation of the medical art as -originating in the conversation of patients exposed at crossroads who -told one another of their complaints and recoveries and thus evolved -a fund of common experience.[691] Galen criticizes such experience -as irrational and not yet put into scientific form (οὔπω λογική). Of -the Empirics he tells us further that they regard phenomena only and -ignore causes and put no trust in reasoning. They hold that there is -no system or necessary order in medical discovery or doctrine, and -that some remedies 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.[692] 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 Empirics themselves say that past tradition or “history” -(ἱστορία) should not be judged by experience, but it is unlikely that -he represents their view correctly in this particular. In another -passage[693] 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[694] 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[695] he says that the Empirics -observe coincidences in things joined by experience. He himself defines -experience as the comprehending and remembering of something seen -often and in the same condition,[696] and makes the good point that -one cannot observe satisfactorily without use of reason.[697] He also -admits in one place that some Empirics are ready to employ reason as -well as experience.[698] - -[Sidenote: How the Empirics might have criticized Galen.] - -Having noted Galen’s criticism of the Empirics, we may imagine what -their attitude would be towards his medicine. They would probably -reject all his theories—which we, too, have finally discarded—of -four elements and four qualities and the like, and would accept only -his specific recommendations for the cure of disease based upon -his medical experience; 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 animals, since he tells us that they -“have written whole books against anatomy.”[699] 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 credulity as -to particulars was a weakness. - -[Sidenote: Galen’s standard of reason and experience.] - -On the whole Galen’s attitude towards experience seems an improvement -upon theirs. He was apparently more critical towards the “experiences” -of past writers than the average Empiric, and in his combination of -reason and experience 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.[700] 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.[701] “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.”[702] “What can you do with men who cannot -be persuaded either by reason or by practice?”[703] 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.[704] 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 general law of nature. - -[Sidenote: Simples knowable only from experience.] - -It is perhaps in his work on medicinal simples that Galen lays most -stress upon the importance of experience. Indeed he sees no other way -to learn the properties of natural objects than through the experience -of the senses.[705] “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?”[706] 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 treatise, 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.”[707] Moreover, he restricts his account of medicinal -simples to those with which he is personally acquainted. 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.[708] 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 -physicians but unknown to him. He dares not trust their statements 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 unconsciously, 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 seagull[709] and some of those claimed for the marine -animal called torpedo.[710] Anointing the place with frog’s blood or -dog’s milk will not prevent eyebrows that have been plucked out from -growing again, nor will bat’s blood and viper’s fat remove hair from -the arm-pits.[711] Also the brain of a hare is only fairly good for -boys’ teeth.[712] - -[Sidenote: Experience and food science.] - -In beginning his work on food values[713] Galen states that many have -discussed the properties of aliments, some on the basis of reason -alone, some on the basis of experience alone, but that their statements -do not agree. On the whole, since reasoning is not easy for everyone, -requiring natural sagacity 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. - -[Sidenote: Experience and compounds.] - -The Empirics contended that most compound medicines had been hit upon -by chance, and Galen grants that the Dogmatics usually are unable to -give reasons for the ingredients of their doses and find difficulty -in reproducing a lost prescription.[714] 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.[715] -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.[716] On the other hand, we see -how much depends upon experience from his confession 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 continue to use it, sometimes making it stronger -and sometimes weaker.[717] For as you cannot put together compounds -without rational method, so you cannot tell their strength certainly -and accurately without experience.[718] He admits that no one can -tell the exact quantity of each ingredient to employ without the -aid of experience,[719] and says, “The proper proportions in the -mixture we shall find conjecturally before experience, scientifically -after experience.”[720] 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.[721] -Sometimes, however, he expresses a preference for the medicines 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.[722] We suspect, however, that some of these prescriptions -had not been tested for centuries. - -[Sidenote: Suggestions of experimental method.] - -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.[723] 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 -experiences are required.[724] Medicinal simples should be frequently -inspected, “since the knowledge of things perceived by the senses is -strengthened by careful examination.”[725] Galen advises 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 from one or two experiences.[726] However, he -suggests that their effect be noted in the three cases of a perfectly -healthy person, a slightly ailing patient, and a really sick man.[727] -In the last case one should further note their varying effects as the -disease is marked by any excess of heat, cold, dryness, or moisture. -Care should be taken that the simples themselves are pure and free -from any admixture of a foreign substance.[728] “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.”[729] 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.[730] -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 before the water, which is the heavier -(_sic?_).[731] - -[Sidenote: Difficulty of medical experiment.] - -Galen also points out some of the difficulties of medical -experimentation. One is the extreme unlikelihood of ever being able -to observe in even two cases the same combination of symptoms and -circumstances.[732] The other is the danger to the life of the patient -from rash experimenting.[733] Thus Galen more than once tells us of -abstaining from testing some remedy because he had others of whose -effects he was surer. - -[Sidenote: Empirical remedies.] - -In the treatise on easily procurable remedies ascribed to Galen,[734] -in which we have already seen evidence of later interpolation or -authorship, some recipes are concluded by such expressions as, -“This has been experienced; it works unceasingly,”[735] or “Another -remedy tested by us in many cases.”[736] This became a custom in many -subsequent medical works, including those of the middle ages. One -recipe is introduced by the caution, “But don’t cure anybody unless you -have been paid first, for this has been tested in many cases.”[737] But -we are left in some doubt whether we should infer that remedies tested -by experience are so superior 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 _experimentum_ was used a great deal as a synonym for any medical -treatment, recipe, or prescription. Galen approaches this usage, which -we have already noticed in Pliny’s _Natural History_, when he describes -“a very important experiment” in bleeding performed by certain doctors -at Rome.[738] - -[Sidenote: Galen’s influence upon medieval experiment.] - -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 experience and reason as criteria of truth.[739] -Gilbert of England cites “experiences from the book of experiments -experienced by Galen,”[740] 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[741] which he gives for -discovering experimentally the properties 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 the works of Galen.[742] 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 _Commentaries on Isaac on Diets_.[743] -We have already suggested Galen’s possible influence upon Albertus -Magnus, and we might add Roger Bacon who wrote some treatises on -medicine. 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. - -[Sidenote: His more general medieval influence.] - -The more general influence of Galen upon all sides of the medicine -of the following fifteen centuries has often been stated in sweeping -terms, but is difficult to exaggerate. His general theories, his -particular cures, his occasional marvelous stories, were often repeated -or paraphrased. Oribasius has been called “the ape of Galen,” and we -shall see that the epithet might with equal reason be applied to Aëtius -of Amida. Indeed, as in the case of Pliny, we shall find plenty of -instances of Galen’s influence in our later chapters. 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 alternative 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.”[744] 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 -treatise,” as they themselves state.[745] - -Not that medieval men did not make additions of their 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), Mesuë -(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.”[746] Not that Galen was -not sometimes criticized 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 infallible.[747] Among the medical -treatises of Gentile da Foligno, who was papal physician and performed -a public dissection at Padua in 1341,[748] is found a brief argument -against Galen’s fifth aphorism.[749] But such criticism or opposition -only shows how generally Galen was accepted as an authority. - - -III. _His Attitude Towards Magic_ - -From Galen’s habits of critical estimation rather than blind -acceptation of authority, of scientific observation, careful -measurement, and personal experiment, from his brilliant demonstrations -by dissection, and his medical prognostication and therapeutics, sane -and shrewd for his time,—from these we have now to turn to the other -side of the picture, and examine what information his works afford us -concerning the magic and astrology in ancient medicine, concerning 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 understands those words, and then take up his attitude -to those other matters which we look upon as almost equally deserving -classification under those heads. - -[Sidenote: Accusations of magic against Galen.] - -Apollonius of Tyana and Apuleius of Madaura were not the only -celebrated men of learning in the early Roman Empire to be accused of -magic; we have already alluded to 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 physician -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.[750] 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 -opposite view of the case.[751] One of them then jealously suggested -that Galen’s diagnosis was due to divination.[752] When asked by what -kind of divination, he gave different answers at different times -and to different persons, sometimes saying by dreams, sometimes by -sacrificing, again by symbols, or by astrology. Afterwards such charges -against Galen kept multiplying.[753] 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.[754] 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 (γόητά τε -καὶ παραδοξολόγον).[755] Again in his work on medicinal simples[756] -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 substances he feared to incur the -reputation of a sorcerer, since jealous physicians were already -slandering his medical prognostications 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. - -[Sidenote: His charges of magic against others.] - -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,”[757] and another man who used mouse dung to -excess he calls superstitious and a sorcerer.[758] In the same work -on simples[759] 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 magical -devices, which not only do not belong in the medical art 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.[760] - -[Sidenote: Charms and wonder-workers.] - -Philters, love-charms, dream-draughts, and imprecations Galen regards -as impossible or injurious, and intends to have nothing to do with -them. He thinks it ridiculous to believe that by such spells one can -bewitch one’s adversaries so that they cannot plead in court, or -conceive or bear children. He considers it worse to advertise and -perpetuate such false or criminal notions in writings than to practice -such a crime but once.[761] In one passage,[762] however, to illustrate -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 wonder-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. - -[Sidenote: Animal substance inadmissible in medicine.] - -Galen’s own works are not entirely free from the magical devices of -which he accuses others. We may begin with animal substances, since -he himself has testified that the use of sweat, crocodile’s blood, -and mouse’s dung is suggestive 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[763] expressed his -horror at the use of human blood, entrails, and skulls as medicines, -Galen declares that he will not mention the abominable and detestable, -as Xenocrates and some others have done. The Roman law has long -forbidden eating human flesh, while Galen regards even the mention of -certain secretions and excrements of the human body as offensive to -modest ears.[764] Nevertheless, before long he offends against his -own standard and describes how he administered to patients the very -substance which he had before characterized as most unmentionable.[765] -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.[766] - -[Sidenote: Nastiness of ancient medicine.] - -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,[767] 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,[768] and in his discovery by -repeated experience that the dung of doves who take little exercise -is less potent than that of those who take much,[769] 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.[770] - -[Sidenote: Parts of animals.] - -Galen’s medicinal simples include the bile of bulls, hyenas, cocks, -partridges, and other animals.[771] A digestive oil can be manufactured -by cooking foxes and hyenas, some alive and some dead, whole in -oil.[772] Galen discusses with perfect seriousness the relative -strength of various animal fats, those of the goose, hen, hyena, goat, -pig, and so forth.[773] 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,[774] and burnt young swallows, for whose introduction -into medicine he gives Asclepiades credit.[775] Of 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, pulverized, and boiled in vinegar.[776] Cavities -may be filled with toasted earthworms 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.[777] For -colic he recommends dried cicadas with three, five, or seven grains of -pepper.[778] - -[Sidenote: Some scepticism.] - -Galen is less confident as to the efficacy for earache of the -multipedes which roll themselves up into a ball, and which, cooked in -oil, are employed especially by rural doctors.[779] He is still more -sceptical whether the liver of a mad dog will cure its bite.[780] Many -say so, and he knows of some who have tried it and survived, but they -took other remedies too.[781] Galen has heard that some who trusted to -it alone died. In one treatise[782] Galen discusses the strange virtues -of the basilisk in much the usual way, but in his work on simples[783] -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 danger. He therefore will not include -it or elephants or Nile horses (hippopotamuses?) or any other animals -of which he has had no personal experience. - -[Sidenote: Doctrine of occult virtue.] - -Galen tries to find some satisfactory explanation of the strange -properties which he believes exist in so many things. 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.[784] Galen rejects Epicurus’s explanation of the magnet’s -attractive power.[785] It was that the atoms flowing off from both the -magnet and iron fit one another so closely that the two substances -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.[786] The crab is efficacious against hydrophobia because 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 unsatisfactory 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[787] he proposes to write a separate -treatise, and in the fragment _De substantia facultatum naturalium_ -(περὶ οὐσίας τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων) he again discusses the matter.[788] - -[Sidenote: Virtue of the flesh of vipers.] - -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[789] two were -repeated without giving him credit by Aëtius 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 -recovered from his disease. A similarly unexpected cure was effected -when a slave wife in Mysia tried to kill her husband 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 augury 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. Another dream -instructed him both to drink, and to anoint himself with, a concoction -of vipers. This changed his disease into leprosy which in its turn was -cured by drugs which the god prescribed. - -[Sidenote: Theriac.] - -The flesh of vipers was an important ingredient in the famous antidote -and remedy called theriac, concerning which Galen wrote two special -treatises[790] besides discussing it in his works on simples and -antidotes. Mithridates, like King Attalus in Galen’s native land, -had tested the effects of various drugs upon condemned criminals, -and had thus discovered antidotes against spiders, scorpions, -sea-hares, aconite, 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 include the flesh of the -viper, which was added with some other changes by Andromachus, chief -physician to Nero.[791] The divine Marcus Aurelius used to take a dose -of theriac daily and it had since come into general use.[792] Galen -gives a long list of ills which it will cure, including the plague -and hydrophobia,[793] and adds that it is beneficial in keeping a man -in good health.[794] He advises its use when traveling or in wintry -weather, and tells Piso that it will prolong his life.[795] He explains -more than once[796] how to prepare the 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,[797] 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 _Marsi_ at Rome denied -the existence of the _dipsas_ or snake whose bite causes one to die of -thirst, but Galen is not quite sure whether to agree with them. - -[Sidenote: Magical compounds.] - -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 Kühn’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 modern reader is -ready to agree that it was chance, if anyone 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.[798] 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 always 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.[799] - -[Sidenote: Amulets.] - -Procedure as well as substances suggestive of magic is found to some -extent in Galen’s works. He instructs, for example, to pluck an -herb with the left hand before sunrise.[800] He also recommends the -suspension of a peony to cure epilepsy.[801] 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.[802] A ligature recommended by -Galen is to bind about the neck of the patient a viper which has been -suffocated by tying several strings, preferably of marine purple, about -its neck.[803] Galen marvels that _stercus lupinum_, even when simply -suspended from the neck, “sometimes evidently is beneficial.”[804] 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. - -[Sidenote: Incantations and characters.] - -While Galen thus employs ligatures and suspensions and sanctions -magic logic, he draws the line at use of images, characters, and -incantations. In the passage just cited he goes on to say that he has -found other suspended substances efficacious, but not the barbarous -names such as wizards use. Some say that the gem jasper comforts the -stomach if bound about the abdomen,[805] and some wear it in a ring -engraved with a dragon and rays,[806] as King Nechepso directs in his -fourteenth book. Galen has employed it suspended about the neck without -any engraving upon it and 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 repetition 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.[807] - -[Sidenote: Belief in magic dies hard.] - -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. Similar 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 fasting man’s -spittle or in a gem suspended about the neck. And these and other -passages in which he clung to old superstitions were unfortunately -equally influential upon succeeding 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 incantations. Thus the old -notions and practices die hard. - -[Sidenote: _On easily procurable remedies._] - -In the treatise on easily procurable remedies, where popular 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 -constitutions of peasants and the poorer classes can stand more than -daintier city patients. Another reason for separate consideration of -the contents of this treatise is the possibility, already mentioned, -that it is interpolated and misarranged, and the fact that it is in -part of much later date than Galen. - -[Sidenote: Specimens of its superstitious contents.] - -We must limit ourselves to a hasty survey of a few specimens of its -prescriptions. Following Archigenes, ligatures and crowns are employed -for headaches.[808] In contrast to Galen’s previous scepticism -concerning depilatories for eyebrows we now find a number mentioned, -including the blood of a bed-bug.[809] To cure lumbago,[810] 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 entire. 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.[811] For a sty in the eye catch flies, cut -off their heads, and rub the sty with the rest of their bodies.[812] -A cooked black chameleon performs the double duty of curing toothache -and killing mice.[813] 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.[814] Pain in the intestines -will vanish, if the patient drinks water in which his feet have been -washed.[815] A net transferred from a woman’s hair to the patient’s -head acts as a laxative, especially if the net is first heated.[816] -Various superstitious devices are suggested to insure the birth of a -child of the sex desired.[817] Bituminous trefoil,[818] 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.[819] For -cataract is recommended a mixture of equal parts of mouse’s blood, -cock’s gall, and woman’s milk, dried.[820] For pain on one side of -the head or face smear with fifteen earthworms and fifteen grains of -pepper powdered in vinegar.[821] To stop a cough wear the tongue of -an eagle as an amulet.[822] 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.[823] 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.”[824] - -[Sidenote: External signs of the temperaments of internal organs.] - -It remains to note what there is in Galen’s works in the way of -divination and astrology. We are not entirely surprised 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 _The Healing Art_ -(τέχνη ἰατρική),[825] which Mewaldt says was the most studied of -Galen’s works and spread in a vast number of medieval Latin manuscript -translations,[826] 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, -susceptibility to injury from cold causes and to catarrh, and -somnolence.[827] - -[Sidenote: Marvelous statements repeated by Maimonides.] - -In his commentary on the _Aphorisms_ 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 mentioned by Hippocrates.[828] -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 of _Aphorisms_, drawn chiefly from the works of Galen, -repeats the following method of prognostication: _Puerum cum primo -spermatizat perscrutare, quem si invenis habere testiculum dextrum -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,[829] 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[830] the story of the bear’s licking its unformed -cubs into shape.[831] - -[Sidenote: Dreams.] - -In another treatise on _Diagnosis from Dreams_ Galen makes a closer -approach to the arts of divination.[832] 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 darkness, 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.[833] We have already -mentioned the effect of his father’s dream upon Galen’s career. In -the Hippocratic commentaries[834] 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 necessary,” he -concludes, “to observe dreams accurately both as to what is seen and -what is done in sleep in order that you may prognosticate and heal -satisfactorily.” Perhaps he had a dim idea along Freudian lines. - -[Sidenote: Lack of astrology in most of Galen’s medicine.] - -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 well mean astrology—is essential in medicine.[835] -In the _De methodo medendi_ he often urges the importance of the time -of year, the region, and the state of the sky.[836] But this expression -seems to refer to the weather rather than to the position of the -constellations. The dog-star is also occasionally mentioned,[837] and -one passage[838] 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.[839] But Galen ridicules Pamphilus -for his thirty-six sacred herbs of the horoscope—or decans, taken from -an Egyptian Hermes book.[840] On the other hand, one of his objections -to the atomists 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.[841] Thus atheism and disbelief in -astrology are put on much the same plane. - -[Sidenote: _The Prognostication of Disease by Astrology._] - -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 disease 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 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.[842] -There follows a statement of the influence of the moon in each sign -of the zodiac and in its relations to the other planets.[843] On this -basis is foretold what diseases a man will have, what medical treatment -to apply, whether the patient will die or not, and if so in how many -days. This treatise is the same as that ascribed in many medieval -manuscripts to Hippocrates and translated into Latin by both William of -Moerbeke and Peter of Abano. - -[Sidenote: Critical days.] - -The treatise on critical days discusses them not by reason or dogma, -lest sophists befog the plain facts, but solely, we are told, upon the -basis of clear experience.[844] Having premised that “we receive the -force of all the stars above,”[845] the author presents indications of -the especially great influence 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.[846] He then discusses -the moon’s phases, holding that it causes great changes in the air, -rules conceptions and birth, and “all beginnings of actions.”[847] Its -relations to the other planets and to the signs of the zodiac are also -considered and much astrological technical detail is introduced.[848] -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.[849] 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.[850] Thus he will not accept the doctrine -of perfect or magic numbers along with his astrological theory. Much -of this rather 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. - -[Sidenote: _On the history of philosophy._] - -A treatise on the history of philosophy, which is marked “spurious” in -Kühn’s edition, I have also discovered among the essays of Plutarch -where, too, it is classed as spurious.[851] 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 _magnus annus_, the earth, the sea, the Nile, the -senses, vision and mirrors, hearing, smell and taste, the voice, the -soul, breathing, the processes of generation, and so on. - -[Sidenote: Divination and demons.] - -In discussing divination[852] 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 astrology or augury. Xenophanes and -Epicurus denied it entirely. Pythagoras admitted only divination by -_haruspices_ or by sacrifice. Aristotle and Dicaearchus admit only -divination 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 -reflections of our desires. The treatise also takes up the subject of -heroes and demons.[853] Epicurus denied the existence of 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. - -[Sidenote: Celestial bodies.] - -The treatise also gives the opinions of various Greek 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.”[854] -The question is asked why babies born after seven months live, while -those born after eight months die.[855] 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.[856] Philolaus the -Pythagorean is quoted concerning some lunar water about the stars[857] -which reminds one of the waters above the firmament in the first -chapter of Genesis. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS, HERO, AND THE GREEK - ALCHEMISTS - - The sources—Vitruvius depicts architecture as free from magic—But - himself believes 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—Alchemists’ own accounts of the history of their - art—Close association of Greek alchemy with magic—Mystery and - allegory—Experiment: relation to science and philosophy. - - “_doctum ex omnibus solum neque in alienis locis peregrinum ... sed in - omni civitate esse civem._” - —_Vitruvius, VI, Introd. 2._ - - -[Sidenote: The sources.] - -This chapter will examine what may be called ancient applied science -and its relations to magic, taking observations at three different -points, the ten books of Vitruvius on architecture, 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 -literature 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 like -other writings of that time they more or less reflect the scientific -achievements or the occult lore of the preceding Hellenistic period. - -[Sidenote: Vitruvius depicts architecture as free from magic.] - -Vitruvius lived just at the beginning of the Empire under Julius and -Augustus Caesar. He is not much of a writer, but architecture as -set forth in his book appears sane, straightforward, and solid. The -architect is represented as going about his business with scarcely any -admixture 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—perhaps accounts for this high degree -of freedom from superstition. Perhaps permanent building is an honest, -downright, 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.[858] - -[Sidenote: Occult virtue and number.] - -This is the more noteworthy because passages in the very same work show -him to have accepted some of the theories 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.[859] Vitruvius also -mentions some marvelous waters. One 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.[860] Vitruvius furthermore speaks of six and ten as perfect -numbers and contends that the human body is symmetrical in the sense -that the distances between the different parts are exact fractions of -the whole.[861] He also tells how the Pythagoreans composed books on -the analogy of the cube, allowing in any one treatise no more than -three books of 216 lines each.[862] - -[Sidenote: Astrology.] - -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 within the circumference of -a circle, “as the astrologers do in a figure of the twelve signs -of the zodiac, when they are making computations from the musical -harmony of the stars.”[863] 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 between 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 extreme 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.[864] In a third passage Vitruvius -says more expressly of the art of astrology: “As for the branch of -astronomy which concerns the influences of the twelve signs, the five -stars, the sun, and the moon upon human life, 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 calculations 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 subject; 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, Vitruvius -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.”[865] - -[Sidenote: Divergence between theory and practice, learning and art.] - -Such a passage demonstrates plainly enough Vitruvius’ full confidence -in the art of casting nativities and of weather prediction, but it has -no integral connection with his practical architecture or even any -necessary connection with the construction of a sun-dial, which is what -he is actually driving at. But Vitruvius believed that an architect -should not be a mere craftsman but broadly educated in history, -medicine, 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 building, 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. - -[Sidenote: Evils in contemporary learning.] - -The attitude of Vitruvius towards other architects of his own age, -to past authorities, and to personal experimentation is of interest -to note, and roughly parallels the attitude of Galen in the field of -medicine. Like Galen he complains that the artist must plunge into -the social life of the day in order to gain professional success and -recognition.[866] “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 demonstrate the virtue -of our science by this publication.”[867] He also objects to the -self-assertion and advertising of themselves in which many architects -of his time indulge.[868] 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 appearance,[869] -and since he asserts that the most famous artists of the past owe their -celebrity to their good fortune in working for great states or men, -while other artists of equal merit are seldom heard of.[870] He also -speaks of those who plagiarize the writings of others, especially of -the men of the past.[871] 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 Theophrastus that “the learned man -alone of all others is no stranger even in foreign lands ... but is a -citizen in every city.”[872] - -[Sidenote: Authorities and inventions.] - -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,[873] and declares that “the opinions -of learned authors ... gain strength as time goes on.”[874] -“Relying upon such authorities, we venture to produce new systems -of instruction.”[875] 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.”[876] 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 display the -inventions of others as my own.”[877] He also gives an account of a -number of notable miscellaneous discoveries and experiments by past -mathematicians and physicists.[878] Also he sometimes repeats the -instruction which he had received 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.[879] But -also, like Galen, he once admits that there are still good men in his -own profession besides himself, affirming that “our architects in the -old days, and a good many even in our own times, have been as great as -those of the Greeks.”[880] He describes a basilica which he himself had -built at Fano.[881] - -[Sidenote: Machines and Ctesibius.] - -Vitruvius’s last book is devoted to machines and military engines. -Here he makes a feeble effort to introduce the factor of astrological -influence, asserting that “all machinery is derived from nature, and -is founded on the teaching and instruction of the revolution of the -firmament.”[882] Among the devices described is the pump of Ctesibius -of Alexandria, the son of a barber.[883] He had already been mentioned -in the preceding book[884] 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 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 -waterworks, and _angobatae_, and figures that drink and move, and -other things that have been found to be pleasing to the eye and the -ear.”[885] 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 organs by -Ctesibius.[886] - -[Sidenote: Hero of Alexandria.] - -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,[887] who is indeed in a Vienna -manuscript of the _Belopoiika_ spoken of as the disciple or follower -of Ctesibius.[888] 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.[889] His writings -are objective and impersonal and tell us much less about himself than -Vitruvius’s introductions to the ten books of _De architectura_. The -similarity in content of his writings to those of the much earlier -Ctesibius as well as the character of his terminology suggest that -he stands at the end of a long development. He speaks of his own -discoveries, but perhaps in the main simply continues and works over -the previous principles 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.[890] - -[Sidenote: Medieval working over of the texts.] - -Not only does Hero seem to have been in large measure a compiler -and continuer of previous science, his works also have evidently -been worked over and added to in subsequent periods and bear marks -of the Byzantine, Arabian, and medieval 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, however, 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 century _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.”[891] 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 physics. The _Automatic Theater_, for which there is the -same chief manuscript as for the _Pneumatics_, also seems to have been -worked over and added to a great deal. - -[Sidenote: Hero’s thaumaturgy.] - -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 astound him. The mechanism is -usually concealed; the cause acts indirectly, intermediately, or from -a distance to produce an apparently marvelous result. It is a case of -thaumaturgy, as Hero himself says,[892] 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. - -[Sidenote: Instances of experimental proof.] - -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 observation of nature and experiment. Thus -the existence of air is demonstrated by the experiment of pressing an -inverted 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 transformations of water -into earth,” and that air released from 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 composing air and water. - -[Sidenote: Magic jugs and drinking animals.] - -The _Pneumatics_ consist of some seventy-eight theorems or experiments -or tricks, call them what you will, which in different manuscripts -and editions are variously grouped in 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 mixture 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 chapters 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 vessel at all until -the vessel is entirely filled. Others are made 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 concealed 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 flow out. - -[Sidenote: Various automatons and devices.] - -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 libations, 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. Inexhaustible -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.[893] - -[Sidenote: Magic mirrors.] - -If magic jugs and marvelous automatons make up most of the contents -of the _Pneumatics_ and _Automatic Theater_, comic and magic mirrors -play a prominent part in the _Catoptrics_. The spectator sees himself -upside down, with three eyes, two noses, or an otherwise distorted -countenance. 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 himself 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. - -[Sidenote: Astrology and occult virtue.] - -Hero displays a slight tendency in the direction of astrology, -discussing the music of the spheres in the first 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.[894] 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. - -[Sidenote: Date of extant Greek alchemy.] - -Although we have seen some indications of its earlier existence in -Egypt, alchemy seems to have made its appearance in the ancient -Greek-speaking and Latin world only at a late date. There seems to be -no allusion to the subject in classical literature before the Christian -era, the first mention being Pliny’s statement that Caligula made gold -from orpiment.[895] The papyri containing alchemistic texts are of 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. - -[Sidenote: Legend that Diocletian burned the books of the alchemists.] - -Syncellus and other late writers[896] 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 certain 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 -justified 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[897] 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 show and to impress the reader with the idea that they -really have something to hide. Sometimes the alchemists themselves -realize that this adoption of an air of secrecy has been overdone. -Thus Olympiodorus wrote in the early fifth century, “The ancients were -accustomed to hide the truth, to veil or obscure by allegories what -is clear and evident to everybody.”[898] 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. - -[Sidenote: Alchemists’ own accounts of the history of their art.] - -The alchemists themselves, of course, claimed for their art the highest -antiquity. Zosimus of Panopolis, who seems to have written in the third -century, says that the fallen angels instructed men in alchemy as -well as in the other arts, 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.[899] -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 -reproduced 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 ascribed 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 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 alchemists 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 process -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, Cleopatra -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. - -[Sidenote: Close association of Greek alchemy with magic.] - -The associations of the names above cited and the fact that -pseudo-literature forms so large a part of the early literature of -alchemy suggest its close connection at that time with magic. Whereas -Vitruvius, although not personally inhospitable 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 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 alchemical recipes. There are also -frequent bits of astrology and suggestions of Gnostic influence. -Often the encircling serpent Ouroboros, who bites or swallows his -tail, is referred to.[900] Sometimes the alchemist puts a little gold -into his mixture to act as a sort of nest egg, or mother of gold, and -encourage the remaining substance to become gold too.[901] Or we read -in a work ascribed to Ostanes of “a divine water” which “revives the -dead and kills the living, enlightens obscurity 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-powerful....”[902] - -[Sidenote: Mystery and allegory.] - -These early alchemists are also greatly given to mystery and allegory. -“Touch not the philosopher’s stone with your hands,” warns Mary -the Jewess, “you are not of our race, you are not of the race of -Abraham.”[903] In a tract concerning the serpent Ouroboros we read, “A -serpent is stretched out guarding the temple. Let his conqueror begin -by sacrifice, 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.”[904] Or in the preparation of the aforesaid divine -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.[905] 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.”[906] Zosimus himself often resorts to symbolic -jargon to obscure his meaning, as in the description of the vision of -a priest who was torn to pieces and who mutilated himself.[907] He, -too, personifies the metals and talks of a man of gold, a tin man, -and so on.[908] 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 little man, a barber, clothed in purple robe and -royal raiment, standing outside the place of punishment, and he said to -me....”[909] When Zosimus was not dreaming dreams and seeing visions, -he was usually citing ancient authorities. - -[Sidenote: Experimentation in alchemy: relation to science and -philosophy.] - -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.”[910] The various treatises of the Greek alchemists -describe apparatus and experiments which are real but with which they -associated results which were impossible and visionary. Their theories -of matter seem indebted to the earlier 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.[911] - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - PLUTARCH’S ESSAYS - - Themes of ensuing chapters—Life of Plutarch—Superstition in Plutarch’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—Divination - 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 remedies—Theories and - queries about nature—The Antipodes. - - -[Sidenote: Themes of ensuing chapters.] - -Having noted the presence of magic in works so especially 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 Philostratus, whom we shall consider in -the coming chapters in the order named, which also roughly corresponds -to their chronological sequence. - -[Sidenote: Life of Plutarch.] - -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_[912] 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 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 town of Chaeronea, and had official -connections with the Delphic oracle and amphictyony. Artemidorus in the -_Oneirocriticon_ states that Plutarch’s death was foreshadowed in a -dream.[913] - -[Sidenote: Superstition in Plutarch’s _Lives_.] - -With Plutarch’s celebrated _Lives of Illustrious Men_, as with -narrative histories in general, we shall not be much concerned, -although they of course abound in omens and portents, in bits of -pseudo-science which details in his narrative bring to the mind of the -biographer, and in cases of divination and magic. Thus theories are -advanced to explain 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 received from the Chaldeans -predictions of his future greatness, 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.[914] Such -allusions and incidents abound also of course in Dio Cassius, Tacitus, -and other Roman historians. - -[Sidenote: His _Morals_ or _Essays_.] - -But we shall be concerned rather with Plutarch’s other writings, which -are usually grouped together under the title of _Morals_, or, more -appropriately, _Miscellanies and Essays_. 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 returning to its -starting-point. This dinner-table and drinking-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. - -[Sidenote: Question of their authenticity.] - -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 philosophorum_, 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 spurious.[915] -Superstitious content is not a sufficient reason for denying that a -treatise is by Plutarch,[916] since he is superstitious in writings of -undoubted genuineness and since we have found the leading scientists -of the time unable to exclude superstition from their works entirely. -Moreover, many of the essays are in the form of conversations -expressing 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic in Plutarch.] - -Plutarch does not specifically discuss magic under that name at any -length in any of his essays, but does treat of 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 -incredulity.[917] 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 astrology or astronomy as to be able to -foresee the occurrence of lunar eclipses, and that she deluded the -people into believing that at such times she brought down the moon from -heaven by charms and enchantments.[918] 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. - -[Sidenote: Essay on superstition.] - -The essay entitled περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας deals with superstition in the -usual Greek sense of dread or excessive 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. -Plutarch apparently regards normal religion as of this sort, and -attacks the superstitious dread of the supernatural. He contends 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 encourages the growth of atheism so much as the -absurd practices and beliefs of such superstitious persons, “their -words and 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.”[919] Plutarch seems to be in part animated by -the common prejudice against all other religions than one’s own, and -speaks twice with distaste of Jewish Sabbaths. He also, however, as the -passage just quoted shows, is opposed to the more extreme and debasing -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.[920] He further condemns such historic -instances of superstition as Nicias’s suspension of military operations -during a lunar eclipse on the Sicilian expedition.[921] There was -nothing terrible, says Plutarch, with his usual felicity of antithesis, -in the periodic recurrence of the earth’s shadow upon the moon; but it -was a terrible calamity 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. - -In the essay upon the demon of Socrates one of the speakers, attacking -faith in dreams and apparitions, commends Socrates as one who did not -reject the worship of the gods but who did purify philosophy, which -he had received from Pythagoras and Empedocles full of phantasms and -myths and the dread of demons, and reeling like a Bacchanal, and -reduced it to facts and reason and truth.[922] Another of the company, -however, objects that the demon of Socrates outdid the divination -of Pythagoras.[923] These conflicting opinions may be applied in -some measure to Plutarch himself. His censure 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 turn. - -[Sidenote: The oracles of Delphi and of Trophonius.] - -Plutarch’s faith and interest in oracles in general and in the Delphian -oracle of Apollo in particular are attested by three of his essays, -the _De defectu oraculorum_, _De Pythiae oraculis_ 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 -apocalyptic 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.[924] - -[Sidenote: Divination justified.] - -Plutarch further had faith in divination in general, whether by -dreams, sneezes or other omens: but he attempted to give a dignified -philosophical and theological explanation of it. Few men receive direct -divine revelation, in his opinion, but to many signs are given on which -divination may be based.[925] He held that the human soul had a natural -faculty of divination which might be exercised at favorable times and -when the bodily state was not unfavorable.[926] 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 physician and a small cloud in the sky is for a skilful -pilot a sign of impending storm, so the least thing may be a clue to -the truly prophetic soul.[927] 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?[928] First there is Aristotle’s suggestion -that eating autumn fruit so disturbs the digestion that the soul is -left little opportunity to exercise 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 designs 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 -explanation 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.[929] The god or demon, however, is the -underlying and directing cause of the oracle.[930] - -[Sidenote: Demons as mediators between gods and men.] - -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 off all intercourse -between gods and men.[931] On the other hand, the theory of demons -solves many doubts and difficulties.[932] 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 beings to -a scalene triangle; and again compares the gods to sun and stars, the -demons to the moon, and men to comets and meteors.[933] In the youth’s -vision in the cave of Trophonius 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.[934] - -[Sidenote: Demons in the moon: migration of the soul.] - -These suggestions that the moon and the air between earth and moon are -the abode of the demons and this reminiscence of the Platonic doctrine -of the soul and its migrations receive further confirmation in a -discussion whether the moon is inhabited in the essay, _On the Face in -the Moon_. A story is there told[935] 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 acquired 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.[936] 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.[937] -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 Socrates,[938] where it is explained that those souls which have -succeeded 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-wrecked mariners who have succeeded in -struggling almost to land. The soul is plunged into the body, the -uncorrupted mind or demon remains without.[939] - -[Sidenote: Demons mortal: some evil.] - -The demons differ from the gods in that they are mortal, though much -longer-lived than men. Hesiod said that crows 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.[940] There are storms in the isles off -Britain whenever one of the demons residing there dies.[941] 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.[942] - -[Sidenote: Men and 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.”[943] At -his annual appearance many princes and great men come to consult him -concerning 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 sneezing 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 favorable sign.[944] The weight of opinion, -however, inclines towards 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.[945] - -[Sidenote: Relation of Plutarch’s to other conceptions of demons.] - -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 Apollonius of Tyana_ will show, there -was as yet among non-Christian writers no unanimity of opinion -concerning demons. On the other hand there are several conceptions in -Plutarch’s essays which were to be continued later by Christians and -Neo-Platonists: namely, the conception of a mediate class of beings -between God and men, the hypothesis of a world of spirits in close -touch with human life, the association 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 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. - -[Sidenote: The astrologer Tarrutius.] - -As for the stars apart from demons, Plutarch discusses the art of -astrology as little as he does “magic” by that name. Mentions of -individuals as skilled in “astrology” may simply mean that they were -trained astronomers. When a veritable astrologer in our sense of the -word is mentioned in one of Plutarch’s _Lives_,[946] he is described -as a μαθηματικός—a word often used for a caster of horoscopes and -predicter 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 -fortunes of cities are also controlled by the hour of their genesis. -Plutarch, however, seems to look upon such doctrines as rather strange -and fabulous.[947] Varro, on the other hand, may have regarded it as -the most scientific method possible of settling disputed questions of -historical chronology - -[Sidenote: The _De fato_.] - -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 -immovable heaven, the moving spheres and heavenly bodies, and the -region about the earth, are associated with the three Fates, Clotho, -Atropos, and Lachesis.[948] It is similarly stated in the essay on -the demon of Socrates[949] that of the four principles of all things, -life, motion, genesis or generation, 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 -annus_ when the heavenly bodies resume their rounds and all history -repeats itself.[950] Despite this apparent admission that human life -is subject to the movements of the stars, the author of the _De fato_ -seems 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.[951] -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.”[952] - -[Sidenote: Other bits of astrology.] - -One or two bits of astrology may be noted in Plutarch’s other essays. -The man who learned “astrology” among 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.[953] In the -_Symposiacs_[954] the opinion of the mythographers is repeated that -monstrous 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, inclined to distinguish the moon from other -heavenly bodies as passive and imperfect, a sort of celestial earth -or terrestrial star. Such a separation of the moon from the other -stars and planets would have, however, no necessary contrariety 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. - -[Sidenote: Cosmic mysticism.] - -Sometimes Plutarch’s cosmology carries Platonism to 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 five regular solids with the elements, earth, air, fire, water, -and ether.[955] 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,”[956] 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.[957] - -[Sidenote: Number mysticism.] - -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.[958] Five is again extolled in the essay on _The Ei at -Delphi_,[959] 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.”[960] 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 existing in planets, stars and spheres are -touched on,[961] and it is stated that the divine demiurge produced -the marvelous virtues of drugs and organs by employing harmonies and -numbers.[962] Thus in the potency of number and numerical relations is -suggested a possible explanation of astrology and magic force in nature. - -[Sidenote: Occult virtues 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 _echeneïs_ stop the ship upon which he was sailing -until the lookout man picked it off,[963] some laugh at his credulity -but 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;[964] 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 impossible to learn their cause.” At the Symposium[965] the -question also is raised why salt is called divine, and it is suggested -that it may be because it preserves bodies from decay after the soul -has left them, or because mice conceive without sexual intercourse by -merely licking salt. In _The Delay of the Deity_ Plutarch again treats -of occult virtues.[966] 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 practices, when in the same -paragraph he mentions the custom of making the children of those who -have died of consumption or dropsy sit soaking their feet in water -until the corpse has been buried so that they may not catch their -parent’s disease. - -[Sidenote: Asbestos.] - -On the other hand, how difficult it must have been with the limited -scientific knowledge of that time to distinguish true from false -marvelous properties may be inferred from Plutarch’s description[967] -of a certain soft and pliable stone that used to be produced at -Carystus and from which handkerchiefs 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.[968] Dioscorides and other Greek -authors, we are told,[969] apply the word “asbestos” to quick-lime, but -Pliny in the _Natural History_[970] describes what he says the Greeks -call ἀσβέστινον 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.[971] 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[972]. Probably 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 imaginations inured to magic enlarged -upon unusual natural properties. - -[Sidenote: _On rivers and mountains._] - -A treatise upon rivers and mountains in which the marvelous virtues of -herbs and stones figure very prominently has sometimes been included -among the works of Plutarch, but also has been omitted entirely from -some editions.[973] 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.[974] - -[Sidenote: Magic herbs.] - -The properties attributed to herbs and stones in this 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.[975] -Another herb mentioned in the same chapter was used by Medea to protect -Jason from her father. In a later chapter[976] 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 childbirth, cure madmen of their frenzy, -check quartan agues if applied 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. - -[Sidenote: Stones found in plants and fish.] - -An easy transition from the theme of magic herbs to that of stones -is afforded by a sort of poppy which grows in a river of Mysia and -bears black, harp-shaped stones which the natives gather and scatter -over their ploughed fields.[977] 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 -marvelous 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.[978] 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.[979] - -[Sidenote: Virtues of other stones.] - -Other stones guard treasuries by sounding a trumpet-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.[980] Some stones drive men mad and are connected -with the Mother of the Gods or are found only during the celebration of -the mysteries.[981] 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.[982] In a river where the Spartans -were defeated is a stone which leaps towards the bank, if it hears a -trumpet, but sinks at the mention of the Athenians.[983] Certainly a -marvelous stone, capable of both hearing and motion! - -[Sidenote: Fascination.] - -Leaving the treatise on rivers and mountains, for the occult virtue -of human beings we may turn to a discussion of fascination in the -_Symposiacs_.[984] Some of the company 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 affections 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 believed 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 sometimes be fascinated in this manner rather than by the -glance of others. - -[Sidenote: Animal sagacity and remedies.] - -Plutarch devotes two essays to the familiar theme of the craftiness and -sagacity of animals and the remedies used by them. In one essay[985] a -companion of Odysseus refuses to 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[986] on the cleverness of animals we find many -familiar stories repeated, including some of the inevitable excerpts -from Juba on elephants. We meet again the dolphins with their love for -mankind,[987] the bird who picks the crocodile’s teeth and warns him -of the ichneumon,[988] the fish who rescue one another by biting the -line or dragging one another by the tail out of nets,[989] the trained -elephant who was slow to learn and was beaten for it and was afterwards -seen practicing his exercises by himself in the moonlight,[990] the -sentinel cranes who stand on one foot and hold a stone in the other to -awaken them if they let it drop.[991] 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.”[992] - -[Sidenote: Theories and queries about nature.] - -Plutarch’s essays bring out yet other interests and defects 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 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[993] 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.[994] Other natural questions discussed in the treatise -of that name and the _Symposiacs_ are: Why a man who often passes near -dewy trees contracts 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?[995] Why the flesh of sheep bitten by wolves is sweeter -than that of other sheep? Why mushrooms are thought to be produced 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?[996] - -[Sidenote: The Antipodes.] - -Plutarch sometimes shows evidence of considerable astronomical -knowledge. For instance, he knows that the 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 -estimate.[997] Yet in the same essay[998] Plutarch has scoffed at the -idea of a spherical earth and of antipodes, and at the assertion 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 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 _Metamorphoses_ - 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 discipline—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_ - -[Sidenote: Magic and the man as reflected in his works.] - -One of the fullest and most vivid pictures of magic in the ancient -Mediterranean world which has reached us is provided by the writings -of Apuleius. He lived in the second 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 student 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 Apuleius, yet it is no easy task to make out -the precise facts of his life, partly because in his romance, _The -Metamorphoses_, or _The Golden Ass_, he has hopelessly confused himself -with the hero Lucius and introduced an autobiographical 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. - -[Sidenote: Stylistic reasons for regarding the _Metamorphoses_ as his -first work.] - -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_[999] 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 language.[1000] Instead now of craving pardon if he offends by -his rude, exotic, and forensic speech, he feels that his reputation 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.[1001] It therefore looks as if the _Metamorphoses_ -was his first published effort in Latin and as if his peculiar 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.[1002] -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.[1003] In the _Apology_, too, he displays a more -extensive learning than in the _Metamorphoses_ and has written 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_. - -[Sidenote: Biographical reasons.] - -Moreover, while in the _Metamorphoses_ Apuleius ends 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_[1004] 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 specifically. 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_,[1005] 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 -with the statements in the closing chapters of the _Metamorphoses_ -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 follows. 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 accompanied 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 probably revisited Carthage -in the meantime and was now traveling 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 previously proposed to marry her to his brother, -Clarus, whom Apuleius calls “a decrepit old man.”[1006] 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,”[1007]—a tactful ambiguity which, inasmuch as -we no longer have the records, it would probably be idle to attempt to -fathom. - -[Sidenote: No mention of the _Metamorphoses_ in the _Apology_.] - -The chief, if not the only, objection to dating the _Metamorphoses_ -before the _Apology_ is that nothing is said of it in the latter.[1008] -But obviously Apuleius, when on trial for magic, would not mention -the _Metamorphoses_ unless his 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 would 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 _Metamorphoses_ 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[1009] 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_. - - -II. _Magic in the Metamorphoses_ - -[Sidenote: Powers claimed for magic.] - -Vast power over nature and spirits is attributed to magic and its -practitioners in the opening chapters of the _Metamorphoses_. “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.”[1010] 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, this light vein cannot be regarded as an -admission of magic’s unreality. On the contrary, the magic of Thessaly -is celebrated with one accord the world over.[1011] Meroë the witch -can “displace the sky, elevate the earth, freeze fountains, melt -mountains, raise ghosts, bring down the gods, extinguish the stars, and -illuminate the bottomless pit.”[1012] Submerging the light of starry -heaven to the lowest depths of hell is a power also attributed to -the witch Pamphile.[1013] “By her marvelous secrets she makes ghosts -and elements obey and serve her, disturbs the stars and coerces the -divinities.”[1014] - -[Sidenote: Its actual performances.] - -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.[1015] The witches content themselves with such -accomplishments as carrying on love affairs with inhabitants of distant -India, Ethopia, and even the Antipodes,—“trifles of the art these and -mere bagatelles”;[1016] 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;[1017] and, on the other -hand, with breaking down bolted doors to murder their victims,[1018] or -assuming themselves the shape of weasels, birds, dogs, mice, and even -insects in order to work their mischief unobserved;[1019] they then -cast their victims into a deep sleep and cut their throats or hang them -or mutilate them.[1020] They often know what is being said about them -when apparently absent, and they sometimes indulge in divination of the -future.[1021] But to whatever fields of activity they may extend or -confine themselves, 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 emphasized, and -the adjective _caeca_ or noun _latebrae_ are more than once employed to -describe it.[1022] - -[Sidenote: Its limitations.] - -Yet there are also suggested certain limitations to the 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[1023] with the adjuration, “Oh you sponge, born in the -sea, beware of crossing running water.” In the morning his traveling -companion 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,[1024]—a deplorable state of mind and -body which must be attributed to the imperfections of the magic art as -well as to the humorous cruelty of the author. - -[Sidenote: The crimes of witches.] - -In _The Golden Ass_ the practitioners of magic are usually witches and -old and repulsive. We have to deal with wonders 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_),[1025] intent upon -lust and crime. They practice _devotiones_, injurious imprecations and -ceremonies.[1026] - -[Sidenote: Male magicians.] - -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,”[1027]—expressions which are -certainly suggestive of the magic powers elsewhere ascribed to witches. -The hero of the story, Lucius, is animated in his dabblings in the -magic art by idle curiosity combined with thirst for learning, but not -by any criminal motive.[1028] 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.[1029] - -[Sidenote: Magic as an art and discipline.] - -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 dignified. 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.”[1030] This -consists of all sorts of aromatic herbs, of metal plates inscribed -with cryptic characters, a chest filled with little boxes containing -various ointments,[1031] 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.[1032] It will be recalled that Galen represented 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. - -[Sidenote: Materials employed.] - -All this makes it clear that to work magic one must have materials. -The witches seem especially avid for parts of 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;[1033] 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.[1034] Other witches who murdered a man -carefully collected his blood in a bladder and took it away with -them.[1035] But parts of other animals are also employed in their -magic, and stones as well as varied herbs and twigs.[1036] 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.[1037] 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.[1038] 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!”[1039]—while Lucius is told that eating roses will -restore him from asinine to human form.[1040] 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.[1041] - -[Sidenote: Incantations and rites.] - -Besides materials, incantations are much employed,[1042] 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[1043] and is -perhaps another essential for success. More than one witch is called -_divina_,[1044] and magic is termed a divine discipline.[1045] 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. - -[Sidenote: Quacks and charlatans.] - -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 astounded Corinth by his wonderful predictions, but had been -unable to foresee his own shipwreck.[1046] 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 disreputable crew of the Syrian goddess who went about -answering all inquiries concerning the future with the same ambiguous -couplet.[1047] Such were the jugglers whom Lucius saw at Athens -swallowing swords or balancing a spear in the throat while a boy -climbed to the top of it.[1048] Such were the physicians who turned -poisoners.[1049] - -[Sidenote: Various superstitions.] - -Other passages allude to astrology[1050] besides that already cited -concerning the Chaldean. Divination from dreams is also discussed. In -the fourth book the old female servant tells the captive maiden not -to be terrified “by the idle figments of dreams” and explains that -they often go by contraries; 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,[1051] and another -is kicked out of a house for his ill-omened words.[1052] The violent -deaths of all three sons of the owner of another house are presaged by -the following remarkable conglomeration of untoward portents: a hen -lays a chick instead of an egg; 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.[1053] - -[Sidenote: Some bits of science and religion.] - -Of scientific discussion or information there is little in the -_Metamorphoses_. When Pamphile foretells the weather for the next day -by inspection of her lamp, Lucius suggests that this artificial flame -may retain some properties from its heavenly original.[1054] 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.[1055] 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.[1056] It is interesting to note for purposes -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 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 appropriate to religious -rites.[1057] “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 enchanters; man is without hope -for here and hereafter; full of yearnings he struggles and takes refuge -in strange cults.”[1058] - -[Sidenote: Magic in other Greek romances.] - -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 “condemned to be burned on a charge of poisoning.”[1059] -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 accusations 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. - - -III. _Magic in the Apology_ - -[Sidenote: Form of the _Apologia_.] - -The _Apologia_ has every appearance of being preserved just as it was -delivered and perhaps as it was taken down by short-hand 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 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.[1060] -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.[1061] 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 carefully 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.[1062] But he has earlier stated that -“Mercury, carrier of incantations,” is one of the deities invoked in -magic rites;[1063] and in another passage[1064] 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[1065] he actually quotes Pythagoras to the effect that -Mercury ought not to be carved out of every kind of wood. - -[Sidenote: Philosophy and magic.] - -If in the _Metamorphoses_ the practice of magic is imputed chiefly to -old-wives, in the _Apology_ a main concern of Apuleius is to defend -philosophers in general[1066] and himself in particular from “the -calumny of magic.”[1067] 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.”[1068] 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 enthusiastically,” 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. - -[Sidenote: Magic defined.] - -But what is it to be a magician, Apuleius asks the accusers,[1069] -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 darkness -of the night.[1070] It is an art of ill repute, of illicit evil -deeds, of crimes and enormities.[1071] Instead of simply calling it -_magia_, Apuleius often applies to it the double expression, _magica -maleficia_.[1072] Perhaps he does this intentionally. 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 _maleficium_ in this connection.[1073] That -is to say, _maleficium_, literally “an evil deed,” means an injury done -another by means of magic art. The proconsul sitting in judgment takes -a similar view and has asked the accusers, Apuleius tells us,[1074] -when they asserted that a woman had fallen into an epileptic fit in his -presence 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. - -[Sidenote: Good and bad magic.] - -Does Apuleius for his part mean to suggest a distinction 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 distinction consistently; often -in the _Apology_ _magia_ alone as well as _maleficium_ is used in a bad -sense. But he does suggest such a thought and once voices it quite -explicitly.[1075] “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 -understand and cherish the rules of ceremonial, the sacred customs, -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 authors, to be noble and -divine?”[1076] In common speech, however, Apuleius recognizes that -a magician is one “who by his power of addressing the immortal gods -is able to accomplish whatever he will by an almost incredible force -of incantations.” But anyone who believes that another man possesses -such a power as this should be afraid to accuse him, says Apuleius, -who thinks by this ingenious dilemma to prove the insincerity of his -accusers. Nevertheless he presently mentions that Mercury, Venus, Luna, -and Trivia are the deities usually summoned in the ceremonies of the -magicians.[1077] - -[Sidenote: Magic and religion.] - -It will be noted that Apuleius connects magic with the gods and -religion more in the _Apology_ than in the _Metamorphoses_. There -his emphasis was on the natural materials employed by the witches -and their almost scientific laboratories. 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 -philosophers who incur suspicion of magic. - -[Sidenote: Magic and science.] - -But it may be that the reason why Apuleius abstains in 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 liking. He has been charged with the composition of -a tooth-powder,[1078] with use of a mirror,[1079] 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.[1080] -He is said to have had a horrible wooden image or seal constructed -secretly for use in his magic,[1081] to keep other instruments of his -art mysteriously wrapped in a handkerchief in the house,[1082] and -to have left in the vestibule of another house where he lodged “many -feathers of birds” and much soot on the walls.[1083] All these charges -make it evident that natural and artificial objects are, as in the -_Metamorphoses_, considered essential or at least usual in performing -magic. Moreover, so ready have the accusers shown themselves to -interpret the interest of Apuleius in natural science as an evidence of -the practice of magic by him, that he sarcastically remarks[1084] that -he is glad that they were unaware that he had read Theophrastus _On -beasts that bite and sting_ and Nicander _On the bites of wild beasts_ -(usually called _Theriaca_),[1085] or they would have accused him of -being a poisoner as well as a magician. - -[Sidenote: Medical and scientific knowledge of Apuleius.] - -Apuleius shows that he really is a student, if not an authority, -in medicine and natural science. The gift of the tooth-powder and -the falling of the woman in a fit were incidents of his occasional -practice of medicine, and he also sees no harm in his seeking -certain remedies from fish.[1086] He repeats Plato’s theory of -disease from the _Timaeus_ and cites Theophrastus’s admirable work -_On Epileptics_.[1087] 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.[1088] He also regards himself -as an experimental zoologist and has conducted all his researches -publicly.[1089] He procures fish in order to study them scientifically -as Aristotle, Theophrastus, Eudemus, Lycon, and other pupils of Plato -did.[1090] He has read innumerable books of this sort and sees no harm -in testing by experience what has been written. Indeed he is himself -writing 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 passages from the section on fishes in this -work read aloud in court. - -[Sidenote: He repeats familiar errors.] - -Throughout the _Apology_ Apuleius occasionally airs his scientific -attainments by specific statements and illustrations from the -zoological and other scientific fields. Indeed the 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 contemporary science. We are told—the story is also in -Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian—how the crocodile opens its jaws to have -its teeth picked by a friendly bird,[1091] that the viper gnaws its way -out of its mother’s womb,[1092] that fish are spontaneously generated -from slime,[1093] and that burning the stone _gagates_ will cause an -epileptic to have a fit.[1094] 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.[1095] This tale, so -characteristic of the virtues attributed to parts of animals and the -human motives ascribed to the animals themselves, is taken by Apuleius -from a treatise by Theophrastus entitled _Jealous Animals_. - -[Sidenote: Apparent ignorance of magic and occult virtue.] - -In defending what he terms his scientific investigations from the -aspersion of magic Apuleius is at times either a trifle disingenuous -and inclined to trade upon the ignorance of his judge and accusers, -or else not as well informed himself as he might be in matters of -natural science and of occult science. He contends that fish are not -employed in magic arts, asks mockingly if fish alone possess some -property 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.[1096] He insists that he did not make use of a sea-hare and -describes the “fish” in question in detail,[1097] but this description, -as is pointed out in Butler and Owen’s edition of the _Apology_,[1098] -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 if -that were not what magicians and astrologers and believers 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,[1099] as -if precisely these remedies for those diseases were not found in the -Pseudo-Dioscorides and in Pliny’s _Natural History_.[1100] - -[Sidenote: Despite an assumption of knowledge.] - -It is hardly probable that in the passages just cited Apuleius -was pretending to be ignorant of matters with which he was really -acquainted, since as a rule he is eager to show 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 effect in Varro and many other authors.[1101] And he -himself is ready to believe that the human 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.[1102] And as a matter of fact, when later he mentioned -the names of a number of celebrated magicians,[1103] 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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude toward astrology.] - -Apuleius affirms that one of his accusers had consulted he knows not -what Chaldeans how he might profitably marry 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 they usually do, to suit the person consulting them.”[1104] But -in this respect their prediction turned out to be quite incorrect. 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.[1105] But in other extant works[1106] -he speaks of the heavenly bodies as visible gods, and Laurentius Lydus -attributes astrological treatises to him.[1107] - -[Sidenote: His theory of demons.] - -In one passage of the _Apology_ Apuleius affirms his belief with Plato -in the existence of certain intermediate beings or powers between -gods and men, who govern all divinations and the miracles of the -magicians.[1108] In the treatise on the god or demon of Socrates[1109] -he repeats this thought and tells us more of these mediators or demons. -Their native element is the air, which Apuleius thought extended as far -as the moon,[1110] just as Aristotle[1111] 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 divine bodies of the stars. -With the superior gods the demons have immortality in common, but like -mortals they are subject to passions and to feeling and capable of -reason.[1112] But their bodies are very light and like clouds, a point -peculiar to themselves.[1113] 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 between their accounts. Apuleius confines them -to the atmosphere 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 substance of their bodies and less -concerning their relations with disembodied souls. - -[Sidenote: Apuleius in the middle ages.] - -Apuleius would have been a well-known name in the middle ages, if only -indirectly through the use made by Augustine in _The City of God_[1114] -of the _Metamorphoses_ in describing magic and of the _De deo Socratis_ -in discussing demons.[1115] He also speaks of Apuleius in three of -his letters,[1116] 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[1117] 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 inferred 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 Cassino.[1118] -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,[1119] but does not -mention a twelfth century manuscript of the _De deo Socratis_ in the -British Museum.[1120] Another indication that in the twelfth century -there were manuscripts of Apuleius in England or at Chartres and Paris -is that John of Salisbury borrows from the _De dogmate Platonis_ in -his _De nugis curialium_.[1121] In the earlier middle ages there was -ascribed to Apuleius a work on herbs of which we shall treat later. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - PHILOSTRATUS’S LIFE OF APOLLONIUS OF TYANA - - 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—Natural - law or special providence?—Cases of scepticism—Anecdotes of - animals—Dragons of India—Occult virtues of gems—Absence of - number mysticism—_Mantike_ or the art of divination—Divining - power of Apollonius—Dreams—Interpretation of omens—Animals and - divination—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. - - -[Sidenote: Compared with Apuleius.] - -Some fifty years after the birth of Apuleius occurred that of -Philostratus, whose career and interests were somewhat 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 Apuleius Apollonius had -to defend himself in court against the accusation of magic, and -Philostratus gives us what purports to be his apology on that occasion. -Two centuries afterwards Augustine in one of his letters[1122] names -Apollonius and Apuleius as examples of men who were addicted to the -magic art and who, the pagans said, performed greater miracles than -Christ did. A century before Augustine Lactantius states[1123] that a -certain philosopher who had “vomited forth” three books “against the -Christian religion and name” had compared the miracles of Apollonius -favorably 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 autobiographical element, a Milesian tale -to which personal religious experiences are annexed, then the work by -Philostratus is a rhetorical biography with a tinge of romance and a -good deal of sermonizing. - -[Sidenote: Philostratus’s sources.] - -Philostratus[1124] composed the _Life of Apollonius_ about 217 A. D. at -the request of the learned wife of the emperor 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 attention. Some scholars incline to the view that she -was deceived 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 said by a naïf, gullible, and devoted disciple, who -was inclined to exaggerate the abilities and achievements of his master -and to take literally everything that Apollonius uttered ironically or -figuratively. Other accounts of Apollonius were already in existence -by a Maximus of Aegae, where Apollonius had spent part of his life, -and by Moeragenes, 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 Hadrian 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 Philostratus 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 -biographers like Plutarch and Suetonius are. He appears to follow his -sources rather closely and not to invent new incidents, although he -may, like Thucydides and other ancient historians, have taken liberties -with the speeches and arguments 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. - -[Sidenote: Time and space covered.] - -Apollonius lived in the first century of our era and died during the -reign of Nerva well advanced in years. It is therefore of a period -over a century before his own that Philostratus writes. He is said to -commit a number of errors in history and geography,[1125] but we must -remember that mistakes in geography were a failing of the best ancient -historians such as Polybius, and the general picture drawn of the -emperors and politics of Apollonius’s time is not far wrong. It is -true that Philostratus also makes use of tradition which has gradually -formed since the death of Apollonius, 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[1126] to our gaze. -Apollonius was a great traveler and there are many interesting and -informing passages concerning ships, sailing, pilots, merchants and -sea-trade.[1127] - -[Sidenote: Philostratus’s audience.] - -If we ask further, for what class of readers was the _Life_ intended, -the answer is, for the intellectual and learned. Apollonius himself -was distinctly a Hellene. Philostratus represents him as often quoting -Homer and other bygone Greek authors, or mentioning names from early -Greek history 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 -popularize the teachings of Apollonius but to justify him before the -learned world. - -[Sidenote: Object of the _Life_.] - -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 reformer, -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 -acquaintance with the Gospels, much less display any sign of animus -against them. Moreover, the Christian historian and apologist, -Eusebius, who lived in the century following Philostratus and was -familiar with his _Life_ of Apollonius, in writing a reply to a -treatise in which Hierocles, a provincial governor under Diocletian, -had compared Apollonius with Jesus, distinctly states that Hierocles -was the first to suggest such an idea.[1128] Such similarities then as -may exist between the _Life_ and the Gospels must be taken as examples -of beliefs common to that age. - -[Sidenote: Apollonius charged with magic.] - -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;[1129] and Eusebius in -his reply to Hierocles ascribed the miracles wrought by Apollonius -to sorcery and the aid of evil demons.[1130] Earlier the satirist -Lucian described 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.”[1131] - -[Sidenote: A confusion of terms] - -In defending his hero against these charges Philostratus is guilty -himself both of some ambiguous use of terms and 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 μάγος but much oftener exculpates him from the charge -of being a γόης or γοήτης. With the latter word or words there is no -difficulty. It means a wizard, sorcerer, or enchanter, and is always -employed in a sinister or disreputable sense. With the term μάγος 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 regarded 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[1132] makes confusion -worse confounded not only by translating μάγος 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. - -[Sidenote: The Magi and magic] - -To begin with, in his second chapter Philostratus says that some -consider Apollonius a magician “because he consorted 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 himself 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 he visited -Egypt and its priests and prophets, was never regarded 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 -Pythagoras from the charge of magic does not agree with Pliny, who -ascribed a large amount of magic to them both. - -[Sidenote: Apollonius and the Magi.] - -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[1133]. Sacrifices and religious rites were -performed under their supervision[1134]. Apollonius did not permit -Damis to accompany him when he visited the Magi at noon and again about -midnight and conversed with them[1135]. 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.”[1136] - -[Sidenote: Philostratus on wizards.] - -Quite different is the attitude towards witchcraft and wizards of both -Apollonius and his biographer. In the opinion of Philostratus wizards -are of all men most wretched[1137]. They try to violate nature and -to overcome fate by such methods as inquisition of spirits, barbaric -sacrifices, incantations and besmearings. Simple-minded folk attribute -great powers to them; and athletes desirous of winning victories, -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 books and writing, and despite the -condemnation of witchcraft both by law and nature.[1138] 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.[1139] - -[Sidenote: Apollonius and wizards.] - -Nevertheless Apollonius is frequently accused of being a wizard -by others in the pages of Philostratus. At Athens he was refused -initiation into the mysteries on this ground,[1140] and at Lebadea the -priests wished to exclude him from the oracular cave of Trophonius for -the same reason.[1141] 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.[1142] Apollonius also had to defend himself against the -accusation of witchcraft in his hearing or trial before Domitian.[1143] -He then denied that one is a wizard merely because one has prescience, -or that wearing linen garments 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.[1144] 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 to fetter him, he was obviously no wizard.[1145] 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. - -[Sidenote: Quacks and old-wives.] - -Closely akin to the _goëtes_ or wizards are the old hags and -quack-doctors who offer one Indian spices or boxes supposed to contain -bits of stone taken from the moon, stars, or depths of earth.[1146] -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.[1147] 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.[1148] - -[Sidenote: The Brahmans.] - -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.[1149] In another -passage[1150] Philostratus places _goëtes_ and Brahmans in unfortunate -juxtaposition, and, immediately after condemning the wizards and -defending 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 applauded these automatons, which set food and poured wine -before the guests of the Brahmans, if they were the contrivances of -wizards. And in another passage,[1151] 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 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 characteristic of wizards. - -[Sidenote: Marvels of the Brahmans.] - -Nevertheless the feats ascribed to the Brahmans are certainly -sufficiently akin to magic to excuse Philostratus for 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 -“bráhman” in the neuter means a “charm, rite, formulary, prayer,” -and “that the caste of the Brahmans is nothing but the men who have -_bráhman_ or magic power.”[1152] 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 Philostratus from Damis of the sayings -and doings of the sages of India. As for Apollonius himself, “he was -always recounting to everyone what the Indians said and did.”[1153] -They knew that he was approaching when he was yet afar off and sent a -messenger who greeted him by name.[1154] Iarchas, their chief, also -knew that Apollonius had a letter for him and that a delta was missing -in it, and he told Apollonius many events of his past life. “We see, O -Apollonius,” he said, “the signs of the soul, tracing them by a myriad -symbols.”[1155] The Brahmans lived in a castle concealed 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 leadership of Dionysus and Heracles, but had been hurled down -headlong.[1156] Here too was a well for testing oaths, a purifying -fire, and the jars in which the winds and rain were bottled up. - -[Sidenote: Magical methods of the Brahmans.] - -When the messenger of the Brahmans greeted Apollonius by name, the -latter remarked to the astounded Damis, “We have come to men who -are wise without art (ἀτεχνῶς), for they seem to have the gift of -foreknowledge.”[1157] As a matter 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.[1158] 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. Iarchas also -showed Apollonius and Damis a marvelous stone called _Pantarbe_, 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.[1159] But it required great -skill to secure this gem. “We only,” said the Brahman, “can obtain this -_pantarbe_, partly by doing things and partly by saying things,” in -other words by incantations and magical operations. Before performing -their rite of levitation they bathed and anointed themselves with a -certain drug. “Then they stood like a chorus with Iarchas as leader -and with their rods uplifted struck the earth, which heaving like the -sea-wave raised them up in the air two cubits high.”[1160] The metallic -tripods and cup-bearers which served the king of the country when he -came to visit the Brahmans appeared from nowhere laden with food and -wine exactly as if by magic.[1161] - -[Sidenote: Medicine of the Brahmans.] - -The medical practice, if we may so call it, of the Brahmans was tinged, -to say the least, with magic. A dislocated hip, indeed, they appear to -have cured by massage, and a blind man and a paralytic are healed by -unspecified methods.[1162] 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 incantations to employ -against the spirit; and another woman’s sufferings in childbirth are -prevented by directing her husband 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. Iarchas, indeed, attributed the origin -of medicine to divination or divine revelation.[1163] 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 without foreknowledge. - -[Sidenote: Some signs of astrology.] - -The Brahmans seem to have made some use of astrology in working their -feats of magic. Damis at any rate said that when Apollonius bade -farewell to the sages, Iarchas made him a present of seven rings named -after the planets, which he wore in turn upon the appropriate days of -the week.[1164] Perhaps, too, the seven swords of adamant which Iarchas -had rediscovered as a child had some connection with the planets.[1165] -Moeragenes ascribed four books on foretelling the future by the -stars to Apollonius himself, but Philostratus was unable to find any -such work by Apollonius extant in his day.[1166] And unless it be an -allusion to Chaldeans which we have already noted, there is no further -mention of astrology in Philostratus’s _Life_—a rather remarkable fact -considering that he wrote for the court of Septimius Severus, the -builder of the Septizonium. - -[Sidenote: Interest in natural science.] - -The philosopher Euphrates, who is represented by Philostratus as -jealous of Apollonius, once advised the emperor Vespasian, when -Apollonius was present, to embrace natural philosophy—or a philosophy -in accordance with natural law—but to beware of philosophers who -pretended to have secret intercourse with the gods.[1167] 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.”[1168] Some of the questions which Apollonius -put to the Brahmans concerned nature.[1169] 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,[1170] and -this same attitude of scientific inquiry and of curiosity about natural -forces and objects is frequently met in the _Life_. - -[Sidenote: Natural law or special providence?] - -Apollonius believed, as we shall see, in omens and portents, and -interpreted an earthquake at Antioch as a divine warning to the -inhabitants.[1171] The Brahman sages, moreover, regarded prolonged -drought as a punishment visited by the world soul upon human -sinfulness.[1172] On the other hand, Apollonius gave a natural -explanation of volcanoes and denied the myths concerning Enceladus -being imprisoned under Mount Aetna and the battle of the gods and -giants.[1173] And in the case of the earthquake the people had already -accepted it as a portent and were praying in terror, when 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 extraordinary 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 believe a very big one and preternaturally -fierce.”[1174] Here Apollonius is not in strict agreement with Pliny -and Aristotle[1175] who say that the lioness produces five whelps at -the first birth and one less every succeeding year. - -[Sidenote: Cases of scepticism] - -The scepticism of Apollonius concerning the Aetna myth is not an -isolated instance. At Sardis he ridiculed the notion that trees -could be older than earth,[1176] and he was one of the few ancients -to question the swan’s song.[1177] He denied “the silly story that -the young of vipers are brought into the world without mothers” as -“consistent neither with nature nor experience,”[1178] and also the -tale that the whelps of the lioness claw their way out into the -world.[1179] In India Apollonius saw a wild ass or unicorn from whose -single horn a magic drinking horn was made.[1180] A draught from this -horn was supposed to protect one for that day from disease, wounds, -fire, or poison, and on that account the king 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 example suggests. Iarchas 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.[1181] - -[Sidenote: Anecdotes of animals.] - -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 delightful reading are six chapters on the -remarkable sagacity of elephants and their love for mankind.[1182] -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;[1183] 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.”[1184] In the river Hyphasis is a creature like a -white worm which yields when melted down a fat or oil that once set -afire cannot be extinguished and which the king uses to burn walls and -capture cities.[1185] 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.[1186] - -[Sidenote: Dragons of India.] - -Especially remarkable are the snakes or dragons with which all India -is filled and which often are of enormous size, thirty or even seventy -cubits long.[1187] 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.[1188] Those in the -plain engage in combats with elephants which terminate fatally for -both parties as we have already learned from Pliny.[1189] The mountain -dragons have bushy beards, fiery crests, golden scales, and a ferocious -glance.[1190] They burrow into the earth, making 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 embroidered on a cloak of scarlet and by incantations of a -secret wisdom. They eat the dragon’s heart and liver in order to be -able to understand the language and thoughts of animals.[1191] - -[Sidenote: Occult virtues of gems.] - -The dragons, however, are prized more for the precious stones in their -heads, which the Indians quickly cut off as 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,[1192] 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.”[1193] But there are many marvelous 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,[1194] “and that eagles and storks will not build their nests -without placing in them, the one the stone _aetites_, and the other the -_lychnites_, 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!”[1195] Philostratus 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.[1196] The Brahman Iarchas 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.[1197] Presumably these were magic -swords and their virtue in part due to the stone adamant of which they -were made. Less is said in the _Life_ of the virtues of herbs than of -gems, but the Indians made a nuptial ointment or love-charm from balm -distilled from trees,[1198] and drugs and poisons are mentioned more -than once, mandragora being described as a soporific drug rather than a -deadly poison.[1199] - -[Sidenote: Absence of number mysticism.] - -Considering that Apollonius was a Pythagorean, there is 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 -especial importance.[1200] 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 informed him that they maintained no fixed -number of members but had varied from only one to as many as seventy -according to the available supply of worthy men. - -[Sidenote: _Mantike_ or the art of divination.] - -If Philostratus denies that Apollonius was a magician, he does depict -him as endowed with prophetic gifts, with power over demons, and with -“secret wisdom.” He rather likes to give the impression that the sage -foretold things by innate prophetic gift or divine inspiration, but -even μαντική or the art of divination is not condemned as γοητεία -or witchcraft was. Iarchas the Brahman says that those who delight -in _mantike_ become divine thereby and contribute to the safety -of mankind.[1201] Apollonius himself, when condemning wizards as -pseudo-wise, made the reservation that _mantike_, if true in its -predictions, was not a pseudo-science, although he professed ignorance -whether it could be called an art or not.[1202] He denied that he -practiced it, when he was examined by Tigellinus, the favorite of Nero, -who was persecuting philosophers on the ground that they were addicted -to _mantike_.[1203] His accusers before Domitian again adduced his -alleged practice of divination as evidence that he was a wizard.[1204] - -[Sidenote: Divining power of Apollonius.] - -If Apollonius practiced neither wizardry nor _mantike_, the question -arises how he was able to foretell the future. In his trial before -Domitian he did not attempt to deny that 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 unclouded mirror “all that is happening or about to occur.”[1205] -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 after the incident had occurred, he was able to -describe and to find the mad dog by whom a boy had been bitten.[1206] -Iarchas told Apollonius that health and purity were requisite for -divination;[1207] and Apollonius in turn, in recounting his life story -to the naked sages of Egypt, represented the Pythagorean philosophy -as appearing before him and promising, “And when you are pure, I will -grant you the faculty of foreknowledge.”[1208] - -[Sidenote: Dreams.] - -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.[1209] Another dream -he interpreted as a command to visit Crete.[1210] 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 revelations.”[1211] He was not the only -dreamer of the time, however, and when some of his followers were -afraid to accompany him to Rome in Nero’s reign, they made warning -dreams their excuse for deserting him.[1212] - -[Sidenote: Interpretation of omens.] - -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.[1213] 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 occasion he interpreted the birth of a three-headed child as a -sign of the year of the three emperors.[1214] - -[Sidenote: Animals and divination.] - -Such interpretation of dreams and omens suggests an art or arts of -divination rather than foreknowledge by direct divine inspiration. So -does the passage in which Apollonius 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.[1215] Apollonius himself would not sacrifice even -animal victims, but he enlarged his powers of divination 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.[1216] -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. - -[Sidenote: Divination by fire.] - -Although he did not sacrifice animals and divine from their entrails, -Apollonius appears to have employed practices 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.”[1217] 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 (ἐμπύρου σοφίας), he would see many -things revealed in the circle of the rising sun.[1218] - -[Sidenote: Other so-called predictions.] - -It should be added that only a very ardent admirer of Apollonius or an -equally ardent seeker after prophecies would see anything prophetic -in some of the apparently 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 account -of Philostratus, but rather warned the heedless population to take -measures to prevent its becoming general.[1219] When visiting the -isthmus of Corinth he began to say that it would be cut through, an -idea which had doubtless occurred again and again to many; but then -said that it would not be cut through.[1220] 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.”[1221] 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.[1222] An instance of more -specific prophecy is the case of the consul Aelian, who testified that -when he was but a tribune under Vespasian, 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 -multitude the highest of all.”[1223] But Aelian may have exaggerated -the accuracy of Apollonius’s prediction, or the latter may have made a -shrewd guess that Aelian was likely to rise to high office. - -[Sidenote: Apollonius and the demons.] - -The divining faculty of Apollonius enabled him to detect the 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.[1224] 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 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 publicly.[1225] And earlier in the -reign of Nero, when asked by Tigellinus how he got the better of demons -and phantasms, he evaded the question by a saucy retort.[1226] On one -occasion, however, we are told that he got rid of a ghostly apparition -by heaping abuse upon it;[1227] and a satyr, who remained invisible -but created annoyance by running amuck through the camp, he disposed -of by the expedient of filling a trough with wine and letting the -spirit get drunk on it. When the wine had all disappeared, Apollonius -led his companions to the cave of the nymphs where the satyr was now -visible in a drunken sleep.[1228] He also reformed the character of a -licentious youth by expelling a demon from him,[1229] 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.[1230] 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. - -[Sidenote: Not all demons are evil] - -But the word “demon” is not always employed by Philostratus in the -sense of an evil spirit. The annunciation of the birth of Apollonius -was made to his mother by Proteus in the form of an Egyptian -demon.[1231] 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.[1232] In a letter to Euphrates[1233] Apollonius -affirms that the all-wise Pythagoras should be classed among demons. -But when Domitian, on first meeting Apollonius said that he looked -like a demon, the sage replied that the emperor was confusing demons -and human beings.[1234] - -[Sidenote: Philostratus’s faith in demons.] - -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.[1235] - -[Sidenote: The ghost of Achilles.] - -Apollonius had an interview with the ghost of Achilles which strongly -suggests necromancy. He sent his companions on board ship and passed -the night alone at the hero’s tomb. Nor did he allude to what had -happened until questioned 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 gradually increased to some twelve cubits in -height. At cock-crow he vanished in a flash of summer lightning.[1236] - -[Sidenote: Healing the sick and raising the dead.] - -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.”[1237] -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 philosopher effected by -praying to the river which was near by and then making the dog swim -across it. “For,” concludes Philostratus, “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 -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 admits 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.[1238] - -[Sidenote: Other marvels.] - -When Apollonius was brought before Tigellinus, the scroll on which -the charges against him had been written was found to have become -quite blank when Tigellinus unrolled it.[1239] Upon that occasion -and again before Domitian he intimated that his body could not be -bound or slain against his will.[1240] The former contention he -proved to the satisfaction of Damis, who visited him in prison, by -suddenly removing his leg from the fetters and then inserting it -again.[1241] Damis regarded this exhibition as a divine miracle, since -Apollonius performed it without magical ceremony or incantations. He -is also represented as escaping from his bonds at about midnight when -imprisoned later in life in Crete.[1242] Philostratus, too, implies -that he vanished miraculously from the courtroom of Domitian and that -he sometimes 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 predictions of Apollonius were not “artless” but -involved a knowledge 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 himself, namely, -the occult virtues of things in nature or incantations, rites, and -ceremonies. - -[Sidenote: Golden wrynecks and the _iunx_.] - -So much for Apollonius and his magic, but the _Life_ contains some -interesting allusions to the ἴυγξ or wryneck, which throw light upon -the use of that bird in Greek magic, but which have seldom been -noted and then not correctly interpreted.[1243] 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. Philostratus, -too, employs it in this sense, representing the Gymnosophists -as accusing the Brahmans of “appealing to the crowd with varied -enchantments (or _iunges_).”[1244] But in other passages he makes it -clear that the wryneck is still employed as a magic bird. Describing -the royal palace at Babylon[1245] 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 suspended in the Pythian temple at -Delphi, and in this connection they are said to possess some of the -virtue of the Sirens,[1246] 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.[1247] - -[Sidenote: Why named _iunx_?] - -Now this is precisely what the wryneck does in its “wonderful way -of writhing its head and neck” and emitting hissing sounds. The -bird’s “unmistakable note” is “que, que, que, repeated many times -in succession, at first rapidly, but gradually slowing and in a -continually falling key.”[1248] 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 ἰυγ, if repeated -rapidly many times in succession, sound much alike.[1249] - -[Sidenote: Apollonius in the middle ages.] - -The name, Apollonius, continued to be associated with magic in the -middle ages, when the _Golden Flowers_ of Apollonius, a work on the -notory art or theurgy,[1250] is found in the manuscripts. And we shall -find Cecco d’Ascoli[1251] in the early fourteenth century citing a -“book of magic art” by Apollonius and also a treatise on spirits, _De -angelica factione_. In 1412 Amplonius listed in the catalogue of his -manuscripts a “book of Apollonius the magician or philosopher which is -called Elizinus.”[1252] Works on the causes and properties of things -are also ascribed to Apollonius in medieval manuscripts,[1253] and -a Balenus or Belenus to whom works on astrological images and seals -are ascribed in the manuscripts[1254] is perhaps a corruption for -Apollonius.[1255] - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION: CICERO, - FAVORINUS, SEXTUS EMPIRICUS, AND LUCIAN - - Authors to be considered—Their standpoint—_De divinatione_; argument - 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 Hyperborean - magician—Some ghost stories—Pancrates, the magician—Credulity and - scepticism—_Menippus_, or _Necromancy_—Astrological interpretation - 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. - - -[Sidenote: Authors to be considered.] - -Having noted the large amount of magic that still existed both 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 _Natural 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 indebted to the Greeks, so his attack upon divination -is supposed to be under considerable obligations to Clitomachus and -Panaetius,[1256] philosophers of the New Academy and the Stoic school -who flourished respectively at Carthage and Athens and at Rhodes and -Rome in the second century before 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 astrologers has been -preserved only in the _Attic Nights_ of Aulus Gellius,[1257] and by -Sextus Empiricus,[1258] a sceptical philosopher who wrote about 200. -Finally we shall consider Lucian’s satirical depiction of various -superstitions of his time. - -[Sidenote: Their standpoint.] - -It will be noticed that no one of these critics of magic, if we may so -designate them, is primarily a natural scientist. Cicero and Lucian and -Favorinus are primarily men of letters 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 inclined to such _tours de force_ as eulogies of Thersites or of -Quartan Fever. - -[Sidenote: _De divinatione_: argument of Quintus.] - -_De divinatione_ takes the form of a supposititious conversation, or -better, informal debate, between the author and his brother Quintus. -In the first book Quintus, in a rather rambling and leisurely fashion -and with occasional repetition 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 -somewhat 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 Pythagoras, 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.”[1259] 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.[1260] - -[Sidenote: Cicero attacks past authority.] - -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.”[1261] -“Antiquity,” Cicero declares later, “has erred in many respects.”[1262] -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.[1263] - -[Sidenote: Divination distinct from natural science.] - -Both brothers distinguish divination as a separate subject from the -natural or even the applied sciences. Quintus says that medical men, -pilots, and farmers foresee many things, yet their arts are not -divination. “Not even Pherecydes, 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 regarded as a diviner -rather than a physicist.”[1264] 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 philosophic 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.[1265] 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 conjecture you regard as not the affair -of diviners but of scientists.”[1266] But the question remains whether -too large powers of prediction may not be claimed by “science.” - -[Sidenote: Unreasonable in method.] - -Cicero proceeds to attack the methods and assumptions of divination as -neither reasonable nor scientific. Why, he asks, did Calchas deduce -from the devoured sparrows that the Trojan war would last ten years -rather than ten weeks or ten months?[1267] He points out that the art -is conducted 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.[1268] He refuses to believe in any -extraordinary bonds of sympathy between things which, in so far as -our daily experience and our 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?[1269] “That anything certain is signified -by uncertain things, is not this the last thing a scientist should -admit?”[1270] He refuses to accept dreams as fit channels either of -natural divination or divine revelation.[1271] The Sibylline Books, -like most oracles, are vague and the evident product of labored -ingenuity.[1272] - -[Sidenote: Requires violation of natural law.] - -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 -philosophy 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 scientist ever said that? The soothsayers say so? Are -they then, do you think, to be trusted rather than scientists?”[1273] -Cicero makes other arguments against divination such as the stock -contentions that it is useless to know predetermined 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 unscientific. - -[Sidenote: Cicero and astrology.] - -Cicero’s attack upon divination is mainly directed against liver -divination and analogous methods of predicting the future, but he -devotes a few chapters[1274] to the doctrines of the Chaldeans. They -postulate a certain force in the constellations called the zodiac and -hold that between 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 determined. -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 horizons 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 astrological 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.[1275] - -[Sidenote: His crude historical criticism.] - -Such apparent inconsistency is perhaps a sign of somewhat -indiscriminating eclecticism on Cicero’s part. We experience something -of a shock, although perhaps we should not be surprised, to find -him in his _Republic_[1276] 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 historicity 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;[1277] and in a third chapter[1278] 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!” - -[Sidenote: Favorinus against astrologers.] - -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 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 probably manifests his ignorance of -the technique of astrology in complaining that astrologers do not allow -for the different 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 prerogative 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 animals. 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. - -[Sidenote: Sextus Empiricus.] - -To the arguments against nativities that men die the same death who -were not born at the same time and that 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 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 astrological 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 attention to the fact that observers at varying altitudes as -well as in different localities would arrive at different conclusions. -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 -incontestable, 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. - -[Sidenote: _Lucius_ or _The Ass_: is it by Lucian?] - -The main plot of the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius appears, shorn -of the many additional stories, the religious mysticism, and the -autobiographical element which characterize 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 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 superstition. 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 -fantastic imagination with which his African contemporary credulously -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. - -[Sidenote: Career of Lucian.] - -Lucian was born at Samosata near Antioch about 120 or 125 A. D. and -after an unsuccessful beginning as a sculptor’s apprentice turned to -literature and philosophy. He practiced 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 -Paphlagonia 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,”[1279] -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. - -[Sidenote: _Alexander the pseudo-prophet._] - -It was at the request of that same adversary of Christianity against -whom Origen composed the _Reply to Celsus_ that Lucian wrote his -account of the impostor, Alexander of Abonutichus, a pseudo-prophet of -Paphlagonia. This Alexander pretended to discover the god Asclepius -in the form of a small viper which he had sealed up in a goose egg. -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 submitted 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.[1280] 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, however, how -Alexander made his god seem to speak by attaching 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 exposé of magic by Lucian as well as of the arguments of -Sextus Empiricus against astrology. Lucian’s personal experiences with -this Alexander were quite interesting but are less germane to our -investigation. - -[Sidenote: Magical procedure in medicine satirized.] - -We must not fail, however, to note another essay, _Philopseudes_ or -_Apiston_, in which the superstition and pseudo-science of antiquity -are sharply satirized in what purports 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 incantations, methods -which he regards as the veriest sorcery (_goetia_). - -[Sidenote: Snake-charming.] - -His protests, however, merely lead Ion the Platonist to recount how a -Magus, a Chaldean of Babylonia, cured his 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 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. - -[Sidenote: A Hyperborean magician.] - -This tale reminds the Stoic of another magician, a barbarian 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.”[1281] More specific illustration of the -exercise of these powers is given in an account of a love spell which -he performed 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 Palestine who cast out demons. - -[Sidenote: Some ghost stories.] - -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. - -[Sidenote: Pancrates, the magician.] - -Eucrates, the host, then tells of Pancrates, whom he had met in Egypt -and who “had spent twenty-three years underground 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 -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. - -[Sidenote: Credulity and scepticism.] - -The conversation is turning to the subject of oracles when the sceptic -can stand it no longer and retires in disgust. 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, declares 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. - -[Sidenote: _Menippus_, or _Necromancy_.] - -The _Menippus_ or _Necromancy_, while an obvious imitation and parody -of Odysseus’ mode of descent to the underworld 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 at midnight in the Tigris and by fumigation. He -had to sleep out-of-doors and observe a special diet, not look anyone -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. - -[Sidenote: Astrological interpretation of Greek myth.] - -An essay on astrology ascribed to Lucian is usually regarded as -spurious.[1282] 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 various 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 divinities. 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 astrological doctrine. Bellerophon -soared to the sky, not on a horse but by the scientific power of his -mind. Daedalus taught Icarus astrology and the fable of Phaëthon 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. - -[Sidenote: History and defense of astrology.] - -The author of the essay also delves into the history of astrology, -to which he assigns a high antiquity. The Ethiopians were the first -to cultivate it and handed it on in a 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 Ethiopians 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 observe 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 objection 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? - -[Sidenote: Lucian not always sceptical.] - -The manner of the essay does not seem like Lucian’s usual style, and -the astrological interpretation of religious myth was characteristic of -the Stoic philosophy, whereas 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. - -[Sidenote: Lucian and medicine.] - -The writings of Lucian contain many allusions to the doctors, diseases, -and medicines of his time.[1283] 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 healing powers. In -the burlesque tragedy on gout, _Tragodopodagra_, whose authenticity, -however, is questioned, the disease 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.[1284] - -[Sidenote: Inevitable intermingling of scepticism and superstition.] - -Our chapter which set out to note cases of scepticism in regard to -superstition has ended by including a great deal of such superstition. -The sceptics themselves seem credulous on some points, and Lucian’s -satire perhaps more 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, -provided 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.’”[1285] - -[Sidenote: Lucian on writing history.] - -But in order to conclude our chapter on scepticism with a less -obscurantist passage, let us return to Lucian. His 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, -independent, 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, laborious, repeated investigation.” -“Prefer the disinterested account.”[1286] 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. - - - - - 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_. - - -[Sidenote: Mystic works of revelation.] - -There were in circulation in the Roman Empire many writings which -purported to be of divine origin and authorship, or at least the work -of ancient culture-heroes and founders of religions who were of divine -descent and divinely inspired. 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[1287] 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 distinguished by -new ideas, although they to some extent reflect the progress made in -learning, occult as well as scientific, 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 impressionability 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 writings[1288] but touch upon a few examples which -bear upon the relations of science and magic. - -[Sidenote: The Hermetic books.] - -Chief among these are the Hermetic books or writings 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.”[1289] The Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, -known in Greek as Θωύθ, Θώθ, and Τάτ, was identified with Hermes, -and the epithet “thrice-great” is also derived from the Egyptian _aā -aā_, “the great Great.” Citations of works ascribed to this Hermes -Trismegistus can be traced back as early as the first century of our -era.[1290] He is also mentioned or quoted by various church fathers -from Athenagoras to Augustine and often figures in the magical papyri. -The historian Ammianus Marcellinus[1291] 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_[1292] -of the Christian Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 220 A. D.) and in the -_De mysteriis_[1293] ascribed to the Neo-Platonist Iamblichus (died -about 330 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 astronomical 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. Iamblichus repeats -the statement of Seleucus that Hermes wrote twenty thousand volumes -and the assertion 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.[1294] Iamblichus adds that Hermes -wrote one hundred treatises on the ethereal gods and one thousand -concerning the celestial gods.[1295] 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,”[1296] and explains that “our ancestors ... inscribed -all their own writings with the name of Hermes,”[1297] thus dedicating -them to him as the patron deity of language and theology. By the time -of Iamblichus these books had been translated from the Egyptian tongue -into Greek. - -[Sidenote: _Poimandres_ and the Hermetic _Corpus_.] - -There has come down to us under the name of Hermes a collection of -seventeen or eighteen fragments which is generally known as the -Hermetic _Corpus_. Of the fragments the first and chief is entitled -_Poimandres_ (Ποιμάνδρης), a name which is sometimes applied to the -entire _Corpus_. Another fragment entitled _Asclepius_, since it is -in the form of a dialogue between him and “Mercurius Trismegistus,” -exists in a Latin form which has been ascribed probably incorrectly to -Apuleius of Madaura as translator (_Asclepius ... Mercurii trismegisti -dialogus Lucio Apuleio Madaurensi 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.[1298] 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 religious 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.[1299] Such Gnostic cosmology and -demonology, especially the location of demons amid the planetary -spheres, provides favorable ground for the development of astrological -necromancy. - -[Sidenote: Astrological treatises ascribed to Hermes.] - -Not only is a belief in astrology implied throughout the _Poimandres_, -but a number of separate astrological treatises are extant in whole or -part under the name of Hermes Trismegistus,[1300] and he is frequently -cited as an authority in other Greek astrological manuscripts.[1301] -The treatises attributed to him comprise one upon general method,[1302] -one on the names and powers of the twelve signs, one on astrological -medicine addressed to Ammon the Egyptian,[1303] one on thunder and -lightning, and some hexameters on the relation of earthquakes to the -signs of the zodiac. This last is also ascribed to Orpheus.[1304] -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.[1305] These treatises attribute magic virtues to plants, -include a prayer to be repeated when plucking each herb, and tell how -to use the astrological figures of the decans, engraved on stones, as -healing amulets. - -[Sidenote: Hermetic works of alchemy.] - -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 Hermetic treatises of alchemy which are extant -are of late date and much altered.[1306] 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_.[1307] - -[Sidenote: Nechepso and Petosiris.] - -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,[1308] 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 -revelation from Hermes and Asclepius. A lengthy astrological treatise, -which Pliny[1309] is the first to cite and from a fourteenth book of -which Galen[1310] 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.[1311] - -[Sidenote: Manetho.] - -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 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.[1312] - -[Sidenote: The _Lithica_ of Orpheus.] - -Orpheus is another author more cited than preserved by classical -antiquity. Pliny called him the first writer on herbs 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.”[1313] -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.[1314] -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[1315] 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 _Argonautica_, also ascribed to Orpheus, and is therefore -of early date, falls to the ground since the _Argonautica_, too, is now -dated in the fourth century. - -[Sidenote: Argument of the poem.] - -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[1316] 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 instance, in the viper -or the brain of the stag. - -[Sidenote: Magic powers of stones.] - -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 -renews 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 plowman’s arm and the horns of the oxen. -Other stones help vineyards, bring rain or avert hail and pests from -the crops. _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. - -[Sidenote: Magic rites to gain powers of divination.] - -To make the gem _sideritis_ or _oreites_ utter vocal oracles the -operator must abstain for three weeks from animal food, the public -baths, and the marriage bed; he is then to wash and clothe the gem -like an infant and employ various sacrifices, 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. - -[Sidenote: Powers of gems compared with herbs.] - -Thus gems are potent in religion and divination, love-charms and -child-birth, medicine and agriculture. The poem fails, however, to -touch upon their uses in alchemy or relations 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 -marvelous virtues of stones are almost all beneficial as well as -permanent. “There is great force in herbs,” he says, “but far greater -in stones,”[1317] an observation often repeated in the middle ages. - -[Sidenote: Magic herbs and demons in Orphic rites.] - -More stress is laid upon the power of demons and herbs in a description -which has been left us by Saint Cyprian,[1318] bishop of Antioch in -the third century, of some pagan mysteries 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. - -[Sidenote: Books ascribed to Zoroaster.] - -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.”[1319] 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.[1320] -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_[1321] that certain -Christians and other men 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. - -[Sidenote: _The Chaldean Oracles._] - -There has been preserved, however, in the writings of the -Neo-Platonists a collection of passages known as the Zoroastrian Logia -or Chaldean Oracles[1322] and which “present ... a heterogeneous mass, -now obscure and again bombastic, of commingled Platonic, Pythagorean, -Stoic, Gnostic, and Persian tenets.”[1323] Not only are these often -cited by the Neo-Platonists, but Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus -composed commentaries upon them.[1324] 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,”[1325] 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. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - NEO-PLATONISM AND ITS RELATIONS TO ASTROLOGY AND THEURGY - - Neo-Platonism and the occult—Plotinus on magic—The life of reason 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—Iamblichus 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. - - -[Sidenote: Neo-Platonism and the occult.] - -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 viewpoint 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,[1326] -what do the lives of the saints of the same period sound like? If -the Neo-Platonists were like our mediums, 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. - -[Sidenote: Plotinus on magic.] - -Plotinus,[1327] who lived from about 204 to 270 A. D. and is generally -regarded as the founder of Neo-Platonism, was apparently less given to -occult sciences than some of his successors.[1328] One of his charges -against the Gnostics[1329] is that they believe that they can move the -higher and incorporeal 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.[1330] Even -he, however, accepted 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 distance, and which is an expression -of one world-soul animating the universe.[1331] - -[Sidenote: The life of reason is alone free from magic.] - -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,”[1332] and so -are to some extent subject to magic. But the rational soul may free -itself from all influence of magic.[1333] 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 appearances, 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.[1334] Whereat -one is tempted to paraphrase a remark of Aelian[1335] and exclaim, -“What do you think of that definition of magic, my dear anthropologists -and sociologists and modern students of folk-lore?” - -[Sidenote: Plotinus unharmed by magic.] - -This immunity of the true philosopher and sincere follower of truth -from magic received illustration, according to Porphyry,[1336] 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 defluxions from the stars which Olympius had tried to draw -down upon Plotinus were turned upon himself. Porphyry also states[1337] -that Plotinus was aware at the time of the “sidereal enchantments” of -Olympius against him. Incidentally the episode provides one more proof -of the essential unity of astrology and magic. - -[Sidenote: Invoking the demon of Plotinus.] - -Plotinus, indeed, was regarded by his admirers as divinely inspired, -as another incident from the _Life_ by Porphyry will illustrate.[1338] -An Egyptian priest had little difficulty 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. - -[Sidenote: The rite of strangling birds.] - -This practice of grasping birds by the necks in both hands is shown -by a number of works of art to have been a 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.[1339] 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.[1340] There also is a figure of a winged goddess -grasping two water-birds by the necks upon an ivory fibula excavated at -Sparta.[1341] - -[Sidenote: Plotinus and astrology.] - -Porphyry also tells us in the _Life_ that Plotinus devoted considerable -attention to the stars and refuted in his writings the unwarrantable -claims of the casters of horoscopes.[1342] 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?”[1343] 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, regards Plotinus -as an enemy of astrology and represents him as dying a horrible and -loathsome death from gangrene.[1344] - -[Sidenote: The stars as signs.] - -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 universe, deity, and human soul. These amendments -also tended to meet Christian objections to the art. His criticisms -were not new; Philo Judaeus had made similar ones over two centuries -before.[1345] But the great influence of Plotinus gave added emphasis -to these criticisms. For instance, the point made by him several times -that the motion of the stars “does not cause everything but signifies -the future concerning each”[1346] man and thing, is noted by Macrobius -both in the _Saturnalia_[1347] and the _Dream of Scipio_;[1348] 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 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.[1349] - -[Sidenote: The divine star-souls.] - -But let us see what Plotinus says himself rather than what others took -to be his meaning. Like Plato, who regarded the stars as happy, divine, -and eternal animals, Plotinus 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,[1350] nor do they hear the prayers -which men address to them.[1351] Plotinus often calls them gods. They -are, however, parts of the universe, 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.[1352] - -[Sidenote: How do the stars cause and signify?] - -In his discussion of problems concerning the soul Plotinus says that -“it is abundantly evident ... that the motion of the heavens affects -things on earth and not only in bodies but also the dispositions of -the soul,”[1353] 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 _Tetrabiblos_.[1354] He also objects to ascribing -the crimes of men to the will of the stars or every human act to a -sidereal decision,[1355] and to speaking of friendships and enmities -as existing between the planets according as they are in this or that -aspect towards one another.[1356] 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 -sympathy which exists between all parts of the universe, that single -living animal, and by the fact that the universe expresses 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 intelligible world.”[1357] These figures, or -constellations in the astrological 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.[1358] They both exert influence effectively 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.[1359] - -[Sidenote: Other causes and signs than the stars.] - -For Plotinus, however, the universe is not a mechanical one where -but one force prevails, namely, that produced by or 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 the generation of any animal, for -example, the stars contribute something, but the species must follow -that of its forebears.[1360] And after they have been produced or -begotten, 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 merely predict from stars or -birds, but infer one thing from another by virtue of the harmony and -sympathy existing between all parts of the universe.[1361] - -[Sidenote: Stars not the cause of evil.] - -Nor can the gods or stars be said to cause evil on earth, since their -influence is affected by other forces which mingle 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 another. 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.[1362] - -[Sidenote: Against the astrology of the Gnostics.] - -Plotinus repeats much the same line of argument in his book against the -Gnostics, where he protests against “the tragedy of terrors which they -think exists in the spheres of the universe,”[1363] and the tyranny -they ascribe to the heavenly bodies. His belief is that the celestial -spheres are in perfect 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 regarded 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 nativities, place of residence, and the -dispositions of individual 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. - -[Sidenote: Fate and free-will.] - -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 accordance 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[1364]. - -[Sidenote: Summary of the attitude of Plotinus to astrology.] - -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 attacked -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 movements of the heavenly bodies above any -purely physical effects of their bodies as such. Thus he reinforced -the conception 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. - -[Sidenote: Porphyry’s _Letter to Anebo_.] - -Although Plotinus denied that diseases were due to demons, we once -heard him speak of “demonic nature,” and 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 connection of demons with magic and for the art of theurgy we -must turn to the writings of Porphyry and Iamblichus, and especially -to _The Letter to Anebo_ 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_[1365]. The attribution of the latter -work to Iamblichus, 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 mysteriis_ as -the words of Iamblichus. This attribution has been questioned, but if -not by Iamblichus, the work seems to be at least by some disciple of -his with similar views[1366]. Other works of Iamblichus are largely -philosophical and mathematical; among the chief works of Porphyry, -apart from his literary work in connection with Plotinus, were his -commentaries on Aristotle and fifteen books against the Christians. - -[Sidenote: Its main argument.] - -The _Letter to Anebo_ inquires concerning the nature of the gods, -the demons, and the stars; asks for an explanation of divination and -astrology, of the power of names and incantations; and questions the -employment of invocations 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 theurgy, a word said to -be used now for the first time by Porphyry,[1367] 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 -astrologers, which Iamblichus, as we shall henceforth call the author -of the _De mysteriis_ as a matter of convenience if not of certainty, -endeavors to answer, and to justify the art of theurgy. - -[Sidenote: Questions concerning divine natures.] - -We may first note the theory of demons which is elicited from -Iamblichus in response to Porphyry’s trenchant and searching questions. -The latter, declaring that ignorance and disingenuousness concerning -divine natures are no less reprehensible 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 -incomprehensible, different places and different parts of the body -are allotted to different gods. Why, if the gods are pure intellects, -they are represented as having passions, are worshiped 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 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. - -[Sidenote: Orders of spiritual beings.] - -Iamblichus in reply states that as heroes are elevated above souls, -so demons are inferior and subservient to the gods and translate -the infinite, ineffable, and invisible divine transcendent goodness -into terms of visible forms, energy, and reason.[1368] He further -distinguishes “the etherial, empyrean, and celestial gods,” and angels, -archangels, and archons.[1369] 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.[1370] “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.”[1371] -Iamblichus 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 concerning the -gods.”[1372] But he admits the existence of both good and evil demons -and makes of the latter a convenient scapegoat upon whom to saddle any -inconsistencies or impurities in religious rites and magical ceremony. - -[Sidenote: Nature of demons.] - -Iamblichus does not, however, hold the view of Apuleius that demons -are subject to passions. They are impassive and incapable of -suffering.[1373] 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;[1374] it is rather in the consumption -of foul matter 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.[1375] Thus they may serve to enmesh the -soul in the bonds of matter and of fate, and to afflict the body with -disease.[1376] Also the evil demons “are surrounded by certain noxious, -blood-devouring, and fierce wild beasts,” probably of the type of -vampires and _empousas_.[1377] Iamblichus 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.[1378] 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 irrational -inferiors.[1379] - -[Sidenote: The art of theurgy.] - -Iamblichus also undertakes the defense of theurgy and carefully -distinguishes it from magic, as we shall soon see. It is also different -from science, since it does not merely employ the physical forces of -the natural universe,[1380] 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.[1381] Even theurgists cannot as a rule -endure the light of spiritual beings higher than heroes, demons, and -angels,[1382] and it is an exceedingly rare occurrence for one of them -to be united with the supramundane gods.[1383] This theurgy, or “the -art of divine works,” operates by means of “arcane signatures” and -“the power of inexplicable symbols.”[1384] It is thus that Iamblichus -explains away most of the details in sacred rites and sacrifices to -which Porphyry 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 hidden reason “which -is more excellent than reason.”[1385] Occult virtues indeed! We have -already heard Iamblichus 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, aromatics, and sacred animals.[1386] By employing such potent -symbols mere man takes on such a sacred character himself that he is -able to command many spiritual powers.[1387] - -[Sidenote: Invocations and the power of words.] - -Invocations and prayers are also much used in theurgical operations. -But such invocations do not draw down the impassive and pure gods -to this world; rather they purify those who employ them from their -passions and impurity and exalt them to union with the pure and the -divine.[1388] 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 invoke.”[1389] In another -passage[1390] Iamblichus replies to Porphyry’s objection that such -prayers are often composed of meaningless words and names without -signification by declaring—somewhat inconsistently with his previous -assertion 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 Iamblichus. Iamblichus concludes that “it is -necessary that ancient prayers ... should be preserved invariably the -same.”[1391] - -[Sidenote: Magic a human art: theurgy divine.] - -Neither Porphyry nor Iamblichus, I believe, employs the word, “magic,” -but they both often allude to its practitioners and methods by such -expressions as “jugglers” and “enchanters” 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.”[1392] Christian -writers drew a like distinction between prophecy or miracle and -divination or magic. Sometimes, however, Iamblichus 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 thereby reduces it to the -level of magic.[1393] - -[Sidenote: Magic’s abuse of nature’s forces.] - -Another distinction is that theurgy aims at communion with the -gods while magic has to do rather with “the physical or corporeal -powers of the universe.”[1394] Both Porphyry and Iamblichus believed -that harmony, sympathy, and mutual attraction existed between the -various objects in the universe, which Iamblichus asserted was one -animal.[1395] Thus it is possible for man to draw distant things to -himself or to unite them to, or separate them from, one another.[1396] -But art may also use this force of sympathy between objects in an -extreme and unseemly manner, and this disorderly forcing of nature, we -are left to infer, constitutes an essential feature of magic, whose -procedure is not truly natural or scientific. - -[Sidenote: Its evil character.] - -Magic not only disorders the law and harmony, and makes a perverse and -contrary use of natural forces. Its practitioners are also represented -as aiming at evil ends and as themselves of evil character.[1397] -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 depraved 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.[1398] 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 divinely -inspired.[1399] - -[Sidenote: Its deceit and unreality.] - -Finally magic is unstable and fantastic. “The imaginations artificially -produced by enchantment” are not real objects. Those who foretell the -future by “standing on characters” are no theurgists, but employ a -superficial, false, and deceptive procedure which can attract only -evil demons.[1400] These demons are themselves deceitful and produce -“fictitious images.”[1401] Porphyry in the _Letter to Anebo_ also -alluded to the frauds of “jugglers.” Although the attitude both of -Porphyry and Iamblichus is thus professedly unfavorable to the magic -arts, we find that one of Iamblichus’s disciples, named Sopater, -was executed under Constantine on a charge of having charmed the -winds.[1402] - -[Sidenote: Porphyry on modes of divination.] - -How is divination to be placed in reference to magic and theurgy? -Porphyry had inquired concerning various methods of divination: in -sleep, in trances, and when fully conscious; in ecstasy, in disease, -and in states of mental aberration or enchantment. He mentioned -divination on hearing 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 of meal. Yet other -modes of determining the future which he lists are by characters, -images, incantations, and invocations, with which the use of stones and -herbs is often combined. 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 invoke 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 intentions. 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.[1403] - -[Sidenote: Iamblichus on divination.] - -Porphyry states that all diviners attribute their predictions to gods -or demons, but that he wonders if foreknowledge may not be a power of -the human soul or perhaps accountable for by the sympathy which exists -between different parts of the universe. Iamblichus holds, however, -that divination is neither a human art nor the work of nature but -of divine origin.[1404] 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.[1405] If one is able to predict the future by drinking water, -it is because the water has been divinely illuminated.[1406] 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 greatness of divine power.[1407] He -disapproves of divination by standing on characters,[1408] but sees no -reason why divination in darkness, in a wall, or in sunlight, or by -potions and incantations, may not be divinely directed. He will not, -however, connect the disordered imaginations excited by disease with -divine presentiments.[1409] From true divination he also separates -the “natural prescience” of certain animals whose acuteness of sense -or occult sympathy with other parts and forces of nature enables them -to perceive some coming events before men do. Their power resembles -prophecy, “yet falls short of it in stability and truth.”[1410] 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.[1411] - -[Sidenote: Are the stars gods?] - -The stars are on a totally different plane from the other substances -employed in divination. To Porphyry’s question whether they are not -gods Iamblichus is not content to reply that the celestial divinities -comprehend these heavenly bodies and that the bodies in no way impede -“their intellectual and incorporeal perfection.”[1412] 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 therefore 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 allegories. - -[Sidenote: Is there an art of astrology?] - -Porphyry objected that those who thus reduce religion to astrology -submit everything to fate and leave the human soul no freedom, and -furthermore that in any case astrology is an unattainable science. -Iamblichus defends it against these objections, insisting that the -universe is divided under the rule of planets, signs, and decans;[1413] -that the Egyptians 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;[1414] and that there is a -systematic 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.[1415] Iamblichus -further regards as ridiculous the contention of those “who ascribe -depravity to the celestial bodies because their participants sometimes -produce evil.”[1416] In the brief separate treatise, _De fato_,[1417] -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 nature, -unite with the gods, and enjoy eternal life. - -[Sidenote: Porphyry and astrology.] - -Whether Porphyry in his other extant works evidences a belief -in astrology or not, and whether he wrote an _Introduction to -the Tetrabiblos_ or astrological handbook of Ptolemy, has been -disputed.[1418] This _Introduction_ ascribed to Porphyry was much cited -by subsequent astrologers[1419] and was printed in 1559 together with -a much longer anonymous commentary on the _Tetrabiblos_ which some -ascribe to Proclus.[1420] - -[Sidenote: Astrological images.] - -Towards astrological images at least, Porphyry shows himself in the -_Letter to Anebo_ more favorable than Iamblichus, saying, “Nor are the -artificers of efficacious images to be despised, for they observe the -motion of celestial bodies.” Iamblichus, on the other hand, rather -grudgingly admits that “the image-making art attracts a certain very -obscure genesiurgic portion from the celestial effluxions.”[1421] He -seems to have the same feeling against images as against characters, -perhaps regarding both as bordering upon idolatry.[1422] - -[Sidenote: Number mysticism.] - -Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus were all given to number mysticism. -The sixth book of the sixth _Ennead_ is entirely devoted to this -subject, while Porphyry and Iamblichus both wrote _Lives_ of Pythagoras -and treatises upon his doctrine of number. - -[Sidenote: Porphyry as reported by Eusebius.] - -Other works by Porphyry than the _Letter to Anebo_ are cited or quoted -a good deal by Eusebius in _Praeparatio evangelica_, especially -his Περὶ τῆς ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας, but the extracts are made for -Eusebius’s own purposes, which are to discredit pagan religion, -and neither express Porphyry’s complete thought nor probably even -tend to prove his original point. Besides showing that Porphyry was -inconsistent in distinguishing the different victims to be sacrificed -to terrestrial and subterranean, aerial, celestial, and sea gods in the -above-mentioned work, when in his _De abstinentia 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 astrology, and that like men they -could not even always read the decrees of the stars aright. The belief -is also mentioned that the fate foretold from the stars may be avoided -by resort to magic.[1423] - -[Sidenote: The Emperor Julian on theurgy and astrology.] - -The Emperor Julian was an enthusiastic follower of Iamblichus whom -he praises[1424] in his _Hymn to the Sovereign Sun_ delivered at the -Saturnalia of 361 A. D. He also describes “the blessed theurgists” as -able to comprehend unspeakable mysteries which are hidden from the -crowd, such as Julian the Chaldean prophesied concerning the god of -the seven rays.[1425] The emperor tells us that from his youth he was -regarded as over-curious (περιεργότερον, a word which almost implies -the practice of magic) and as a diviner by the stars (ἀστρόμαντιν). His -_Hymn to the Sun_ contains a good deal of astrological detail, speaks -of the universe 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.”[1426] 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.”[1427] The Sun is also the link between the visible -universe and the intelligible world, and Julian infers from his middle -station among the planets that he is also king among the intellectual -gods.[1428] 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.[1429] - -[Sidenote: Julian and divination.] - -Julian believed in almost every form of pagan divination as well as -in astrology. To the oracles of Apollo he ascribed the civilizing of -the greater part of the world through the foundation of Greek colonies -and the revelation of religious and political law.[1430] The historian -Ammianus Marcellinus[1431] tells us that Julian was continually -inspecting entrails 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 become emperor, after which -that emperor blocked it up from fear that someone else might supplant -him through its instrumentality. In another passage[1432] 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 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 perennial 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 provide mankind with -prophetic utterances.” - -[Sidenote: Scientific divination.] - -Ammianus thus regards the arts of divination as serious sciences -based upon natural forces, although of course in the characteristic -Neo-Platonic way of thinking he confuses the spiritual and physical and -substitutes propitiatory rites for scientific experiments. His phrase, -“the prophetic movement of perennial bodies” almost certainly means -the stars and shows his belief in astrology. In another passage[1433] -he indicates the widespread trust in astrology among the Roman 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 -position 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 divination 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.”[1434] - -[Sidenote: Proclus on theurgy.] - -Iamblichus’s account of theurgy is repeated in more condensed form by -Proclus (412-485) in a brief treatise or fragment which is extant only -in its Latin translation by the Florentine humanist Ficinus, entitled -_De sacrificio et magia_.[1435] Neither magic nor theurgy, however, is -mentioned by name in the Latin text. Proclus states that the priests -of old built up their sacred science by observing the sympathy 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 discovered how to bring down divine virtue to this lower -world by the force of likeness which binds things together. Proclus -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 fronte_) vanish suddenly at the sight of a cock unless -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 invoked. 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.” - -[Sidenote: Neo-Platonic account of magic borrowed by Christians.] - -Despite the writings of Porphyry and other Neo-Platonists 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, especially of Porphyry’s _Letter to Anebo_. Eusebius -in his _Praeparatio Evangelica_[1436] made large extracts from it on -these themes and also from Porphyry’s work on the Chaldean oracles. -Augustine in _The City of God_[1437] accepted Porphyry as an authority -on the subjects of theurgy and magic. On the other hand, we do not find -the Christian writers repeating the attitude of Plotinus that the life -of reason is alone free from magic, except as they substitute the word -“Christianity” for “the life of reason.” - -[Sidenote: Neo-Platonists and alchemy.] - -The Neo-Platonists showed some interest in alchemy as well as in -theurgy and astrology. Berthelot published in his _Collection des -Alchimistes Grecs_ “a little tract of positive chemistry” which is -extant under the name of Iamblichus; and Proclus treated of the -relations between the metals and planets and the generation of the -metals under the influence of the stars.[1438] 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. - - - - - 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 - astrology—The cynocephalus—Horapollo the cosmopolitan. - - -[Sidenote: Aelian _On the Nature of Animals_.] - -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_.[1439] Its seventeen books, written in Greek, which Aelian -used fluently 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.[1440] -A number of its chapters are similar to and perhaps borrowed from -Pliny’s _Natural History_; at any rate they are commonplaces of ancient -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 toward animals which he displays and his selection of -material concerning them are as apt precursors of medieval Latin as of -medieval Greek scientific literature. - -[Sidenote: General character of the work.] - -In preface and epilogue Aelian himself adequately indicates -the character of his work. He is impressed by the customs and -characteristics of animals, and marvels at their 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 admire -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. Another 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 throughout his -work. There is, for instance, probably at least one chapter concerning -elephants in each of his seventeen books. - -[Sidenote: Its hodge-podge of unclassified detail.] - -It would therefore be absurd for us to attempt any logical arrangement -in discussing his contents; we may do justice to him most adequately by -adopting his own lack of 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 number of days -on their fingers, like the learned Babylonians and Chaldeans, but have -this marvelous gift from nature.[1441] 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 -Oresteses and Alcmaeons to say to that, my dear tragedians?”[1442] -Doves put laurel boughs in their nests to guard against fascination and -the evil eye, and the hoopoe similarly employs ἀδίαvτον or καλλίτριχον -as an amulet;[1443] 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.[1444] Others tell us of the generation of serpents from the -marrow of a dead man’s spine,[1445] and of venomous women like Medea -and Circe who are worse than the asp with its incurable sting, since -they kill by mere touch.[1446] - -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 partridge.[1447] 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.[1448] Of the care -taken by storks, herons, and pelicans of their aged parents.[1449] 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.[1450] How the lion and basilisk -fear the cock, and of a lake without fish in a place where the cocks do -not crow.[1451] - -How elephants venerate the waxing moon; how the weasel eats rue when -about to fight the snake; and of the jealousy of the hedgehog and -lynx, the latter concealing his precious urine, the other watering -his own hide when he is captured in order to spoil it.[1452] How -the Indians fight griffins when collecting gold.[1453] How the -presence of a cock aids a woman’s delivery.[1454] Of unnamed beasts -in Libya who know how to count and leave an eleventh part of their -prey untouched.[1455] That the sea dragon is easily captured with -the left hand but not with the right.[1456] Dragons know the force -of herbs and cure themselves with some and increase their venom with -others.[1457] How dogs, cows, and other animals sense a famine or -plague beforehand.[1458] How the Egyptians by their magic charm birds -from the sky and snakes from their holes.[1459] When it rains in Egypt, -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 Egyptians are forced to pray God -to end the calamity,[1460]—an interesting variant on the Old Testament -account of the plagues of Egypt. - -In dogs there exists a certain dialectical faculty of -ratiocination.[1461] The weather may be predicted from birds, -quadrupeds, and flies.[1462] The she-goat can cure suffusion of its -eyes.[1463] 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.[1464] Some predict the future -by birds, others by entrails, or by grains, sieves, and cheeses; the -Lycians practice divination by fish.[1465] A stork whom a widow of -Tarentum helped when it was too young to fly brought her a luminous -precious stone the following year.[1466] Solon did not have to enact -a law ordering children to support their aged parents in the case -of lions, whose cubs are taught by nature filial piety toward their -elders.[1467] 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.[1468] In -Epirus dragons sacred to Apollo are employed in divination, and in the -Lavinian Grove dragons spit out again the frumenty offered them by -unchaste virgins.[1469] By flying beneath it an eagle saved the life of -its young one who had been thrown down from a tower.[1470] Different -fish eat different sea herbs.[1471] There are fish who live in boiling -water.[1472] There are scattered mentions of the marvels of India -throughout Aelian’s work, and in his sixteenth book the first fourteen -chapters are almost exclusively concerned with the animals of that land. - -[Sidenote: Solinus in the middle ages.] - -A well-known work in the middle ages dating from the period of the -Roman Empire was the _Collectanea rerum memorabilium_ or _Polyhistor_ -of Solinus. Mommsen’s edition lists 153 manuscripts from 32 -places,[1473] and we shall find many citations of Solinus in our later -medieval authors. Martianus Capella and Isidore were the first to make -extensive 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 continued 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 -different as those of Dicuil, Isidore, Capella, and Priscian.”[1474] - -[Sidenote: His date.] - -The first extant author to make use of Solinus is Augustine in -_The City of God_, while he is first named in the _Genealogus_ of -455 A. D. None of the manuscripts of the work 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, mentions 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 -memorabilium_. It is also referred to, however, as _De mirabilibus -mundi_, or _Wonders of the World_. - -[Sidenote: General character of his work: its relation to Pliny.] - -The work is primarily a geography and is arranged by countries and -places, beginning with Rome and Italy. As each locality is considered, -Solinus sometimes tells a little of its history, but is especially -inclined to recount miraculous 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.”[1475] Sometimes he digresses -to other topics such as calendar reform.[1476] Solinus draws 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 to re-organize the material. He -also selects simply a few particulars from Pliny’s wealth of detail -on any given subject, 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 vegetation and of -medicinal simples[1477] 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.[1478] - -[Sidenote: Animals and gems.] - -It would perhaps be rash to conjecture which quality 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 rendered 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 those in Pliny, and found his notices “often extremely -useful.”[1479] Solinus describes such animals as the wolf, lynx, bear, -lion, hyena, _onager_ or wild ass, basilisk, crocodile, hippopotamus, -phoenix, dolphin, and chameleon; and recounts the marvelous properties -of such gems as _achates_ or agate, _galactites_, _catochites_, -crystal, _gagates_, adamant, heliotrope, hyacinth, and _paeanites_. -The dragons of India and Ethiopia also occupy his attention, as they -did that of Philostratus in the _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_; indeed, -he repeats in different words the statement found in Philostratus that -they swim far out to sea.[1480] In Sardinia, on the contrary, 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.[1481] - -[Sidenote: Occult medicine.] - -Although Solinus makes no use of Pliny’s medical books, 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,[1482] -and that the third daughter of Aeetes, named Angitia, devoted herself -“to resisting disease by the salubrious science” of medicine.[1483] -According to Solinus Circe as well as Medea was a daughter of Aeetes, -but usually in Greek mythology she is represented as his sister. - -[Sidenote: Democritus and Zoroaster not regarded as magicians.] - -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.[1484] But instead of accusing Democritus -of having employed magic, as Pliny does, Solinus represents him as -engaging in contests with the _Magi_, in which he made frequent use -of the stone _catochites_ in order to demonstrate the occult power -of nature.[1485] That is to say, Democritus was apparently opposing -science to magic and showing that all the latter’s feats could be -duplicated or improved upon by employing natural forces. In two other -passages[1486] 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_.[1487] - -[Sidenote: Some bits of astrology.] - -It is not part of Solinus’s plan to describe the heavens, but he -occasionally alludes to “the discipline of the stars,”[1488] as he -calls astronomy or astrology. On the authority of L. Tarrutius, “most -renowned of astrologers,”[1489] 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 speaks of -the star Arcturus destroying the Argive fleet off Euboea on its return -from Ilium.[1490] - -[Sidenote: Alexander the Great.] - -Alexander the Great figures prominently in the pages of Alexander -Solinus, being mentioned a score of times, and this too corresponds to -the medieval interest in the Macedonian conqueror. 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 Olympias 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.[1491] -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 Callisthenes are spoken of as -Alexander’s tutors, so that it is doubtful if Solinus was acquainted -with the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_. He describes Alexander’s line of march -with fair accuracy and not in the totally incorrect manner of the -_Pseudo-Callisthenes_. - -[Sidenote: The _Hieroglyphics_ of Horapollo.] - -In seeking a third text and author of the same type as Aelian and -Solinus to round out the present chapter, our choice unhesitatingly -falls upon the _Hieroglyphics_ of Horapollo, 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 marvelous 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 significance of the animal -figures in the ancient hieroglyphic writing. Horapollo is supposed to -have written in the Egyptian language in perhaps the fourth or fifth -century of our era,[1492] 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.[1493] - -[Sidenote: Marvels of animals.] - -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 -kindness 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.[1494] Less familiar perhaps are the assertions that -the mare miscarries, if she merely treads on a wolf’s tracks;[1495] -that the pigeon cures itself by placing laurel in its nest;[1496] that -putting the wings of a bat on an ant-hill will prevent the ants from -coming out.[1497] 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.[1498] 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[1499] that a -man girded with a hyena skin can pass through the ranks of his enemies -without injury, 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 hawkweed in eye-cures.[1500] - -[Sidenote: Animals and astrology.] - -Animals also serve as astronomical or astrological symbols in the -system of hieroglyphic writing as interpreted by Horapollo. Not only -does a palm tree represent the year because it puts forth a new branch -every new moon,[1501] but the phoenix denotes the _magnus annus_ in the -course of which the heavenly bodies complete their revolutions.[1502] -The scarab rolls his ball of dung from east to west and gives it -the shape of the universe.[1503] He buries it for twenty-eight days -conformably 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 spending 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 -preparing itself to repeat the process.[1504] The vulture also visits -battlefields seven days in advance and by the direction of its glance -indicates which army will be defeated. - -[Sidenote: The cynocephalus.] - -The cynocephalus, dog-headed ape, or baboon, was mentioned 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 genitalibus 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.[1505] 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.[1506] Horapollo associates together the god of -the universe and fate and the stars which are five in number, for he -believes that five planets carry out the economy of the universe and -that they are subject to God’s government.[1507] - -[Sidenote: Horapollo the cosmopolitan.] - -Horapollo cannot be given high rank either as a zoologist and -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.”[1508] - - - - - BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT - - Foreword. - Chapter 13. The Book of Enoch. - ” 14. Philo Judaeus. - ” 15. The Gnostics. - ” 16. 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. - - - - - 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 extent did it borrow from them? - -[Sidenote: Magic and religion.] - -It has often been remarked that, as a new religion comes to prevail in -a society, the old rites are discredited and prohibited 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 -illustrated by the accusations of sorcery and magic heaped upon Jesus -by the Jews, and upon the Jews and the early Christians by a world long -accustomed to pagan rites. The same bandying back and forth of the -charge of magic occurred between Mohammed and the Meccans.[1509] - -[Sidenote: Relation between early Christian and medieval literature.] - -It is perhaps generally assumed that the men of the middle ages were -widely read in and deeply influenced by the fathers of the early -church, but at least for our subject this influence has hardly been -treated either broadly or 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 general. And scholars -who have edited or studied the Greek, Syriac, and other ancient texts -connected with early Christianity 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 citations -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 preserve the Greek original text. - -[Sidenote: Method of presenting early Christian thought.] - -There is so much repetition and resemblance between the numerous -Christian writers in Greek and Latin of the Roman 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 -science, have aimed to make a selection of representative persons -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 development 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 successively -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-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 -_Physiologus_, 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 investigation and also serve as a -supplement to the preceding division and an introduction to the third -book on the early middle 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—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. - - -[Sidenote: Enoch’s reputation as an astrologer in the middle ages.] - -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 sometimes to Hermes, presumably -Trismegistus, and sometimes to Enoch, the patriarch, who “walked with -God and was not.”[1510] Indeed in the prologue to a Hermetic work on -astrology in a medieval manuscript we are told that Enoch and the -first of the three Hermeses or Mercuries are identical.[1511] This -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 interesting 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.[1512] 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. - -[Sidenote: Date and influence of the literature ascribed to Enoch.] - -The _Book of Enoch_ is “the precipitate of a literature, once very -active, which revolved ... round Enoch,” and in the form which has -come down to us is a patchwork from “several originally independent -books.”[1513] It is extant in the form of Greek fragments preserved in -the _Chronography_ of G. Syncellus,[1514] or but lately discovered in -(Upper) Egypt, and in more complete but also more recent manuscripts -giving an Ethiopic and a Slavonic version.[1515] 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.,”[1516] and none of the extant manuscripts of the Ethiopic -version is earlier than the fifteenth century,[1517] 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.[1518] After -300 A. D., however, it became discredited, except as we have seen among -Ethiopic and Slavonic Christians. Before 300 Origen in his _Reply to -Celsus_[1519] accuses his opponent of quoting the _Book of Enoch_ as -a Christian authority concerning the fallen angels. Origen objects -that “the books which bear the name Enoch do not at all circulate -in the Churches as divine.” Augustine, in the _City of God_,[1520] -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.”[1521] 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 justifying a -certain discriminating use of the apocryphal books, points out that -Jude quotes Enoch whose book is now called apocryphal.[1522] - -[Sidenote: Angels governing the universe: stars and angels.] - -The Enoch literature has much to say concerning angels, and implies -their control of nature, man, and the future. We hear of Raphael, -“who is set over all the diseases and wounds of the children of men”; -Gabriel, “who is set over all the powers”; Phanuel, “who is set over -the repentance and hope of those who inherit eternal life.”[1523] 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.[1524] Indeed the stars themselves 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.”[1525] -The Ethiopic version also speaks of the angels or spirits of -hoar-frost, dew, hail, snow and so forth.[1526] 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.[1527] - -[Sidenote: The fallen angels teach men magic and other arts.] - -The fallen angels in particular are mentioned in the _Book of Enoch_. -Two hundred angels lusted after the comely daughters of men and bound -themselves by oaths to marry them.[1528] 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 -chapter various individual angels are named who taught respectively -the enchanters and botanists, the breaking of charms, astrology, and -various branches thereof.[1529] In the Greek fragment preserved by -Syncellus there are further mentioned pharmacy, and what probably -denote geomancy (“sign of 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.”[1530] -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.”[1531] As the preceding -remark indicates, 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.”[1532] 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 witchcraft, -enchantments, and “devilish magic” are given a prominent place in a -list in the Slavonic version[1533] of evil deeds done upon earth. - -[Sidenote: The stars as sinners.] - -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 thousand years.[1534] 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.”[1535] -A similar identification of the stars with the fallen angels is found -in one of the visions of Saint Hildegard in the twelfth century. She -writes, “I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it -an exceeding 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.”[1536] She then -interprets the vision as signifying the fall of the angels. - -[Sidenote: Effect of sin upon nature.] - -An idea which we shall find a number of times in other ancient and -medieval writers appears also in the _Book of 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.[1537] 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.[1538] - -[Sidenote: Celestial phenomena] - -The natural world, although intimately associated with the spiritual -world and hardly distinguished from it in the 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[1539] 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 ¼ 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.[1540] The -_Book of Enoch_ supposes a plurality of heavens.[1541] In the Slavonic -version Enoch is taken through the seven heavens, or ten heavens -in one manuscript, 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 apologists 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.”[1542] 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.[1543] 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.”[1544] - -[Sidenote: Mountains and metals.] - -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.[1545] -Another passage speaks of “seven mountains full of choice nard and -aromatic trees and cinnamon and pepper.”[1546] But whether 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.”[1547] 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.[1548] - -[Sidenote: Strange animals.] - -As for animals we are informed that Behemoth is male and Leviathan -female.[1549] When Enoch went to the ends of the earth he saw there -great beasts and birds who differed in appearance, beauty, and -voice.[1550] In the Slavonic version we hear a good deal of phoenixes -and _chalkydri_, 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.”[1551] - - - - - 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 established 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 constitution is the right reason of nature._” - —_On Creation_, cap. 50. - - -[Sidenote: Philo the mediator between Hellenistic and Jewish-Christian -thought.] - -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.[1552] He flourished at Alexandria in the -first years of our era—the exact dates both of his birth and of his -death are uncertain—and speaks of himself as an old man at the time -of his participation in the embassy of Jews to the Emperor Gaius or -Caligula 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 regards 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 philosophy 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.[1553] After -Pythagoras he enlarges upon the mystic significance of numbers. After -Plato he repeats the conception of an ideal city of God which was to -gain such a hold upon Christian imagination.[1554] After the Stoics he -proclaims the doctrine of the law of nature, holds that the institution -of human slavery is absolutely 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.[1555] He had previously written another -treatise designed to show that “every wicked man was a slave,”[1556] -and he held a theory which we met in the Enoch literature and shall -meet again in a number of subsequent writers that sin was punished -naturally by forces of nature such as floods and thunderbolts. He did -not originate 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.[1557] 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.[1558] Yet Philo affirms 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 transmitter of -thought, a mediator after his own heart between 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 history 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. - -[Sidenote: His influence upon the middle ages was indirect.] - -Philo’s medieval influence, however, was probably more indirect than -Pliny’s and passed itself on through yet other mediators to the more -remote times. Comparatively speaking, the _Natural History_ of Pliny -probably was more important 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[1559] or in Armenian versions,[1560] and that we have no -sure information as to the order in which they were composed.[1561] 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 forerunners 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_[1562] speaks of the custom of -the Germans of charging the incoming tide with their drawn swords. But -what especially concern us are Philo’s statements concerning magic, -astrology, the stars, the perfection and power of numbers, demons, and -the interpretation of dreams. - -[Sidenote: Good and bad magic.] - -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.[1563] 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.”[1564] 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[1565] 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 conclusion 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 prophecy -took possession of him and “drove all his artificial system of cunning -divination out of his soul.”[1566] - -[Sidenote: Stars not gods nor first causes.] - -Philo has considerably more to say upon the subject of astrology than -upon that of magic. He was especially concerned to deny that the stars -were first causes or independent 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.[1567] 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.[1568] 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.[1569] - -[Sidenote: But rational and virtuous animals: and God’s viceroys over -inferiors.] - -Philo, nevertheless, despite his attack on the Chaldeans, believed -in much which we should call astrological. The stars, although not -independent gods, are nevertheless divine images of surpassing beauty -and possess divine natures, although they are not incorporeal beings. -Philo distinguishes 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.[1570] They were native-born -citizens of the world long before its first human citizen had been -naturalized.[1571] God, moreover, did not postpone their creation -until the fourth day because superiors are subject to inferiors. On -the contrary they are the viceroys 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.[1572] A relation of natural sympathy exists between -the different parts of the universe, and all things upon the earth are -dependent upon the stars.[1573] - -[Sidenote: They do not cause evil: but it is possible to predict the -future from their motions.] - -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,”[1574] 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 conjecturally 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.”[1575] Philo’s -interest in astronomy and astrology is further suggested by his -interpretation of the eleven stars of Joseph’s dream as referring to -the signs of the zodiac,[1576] Joseph himself making the twelfth; and -by his interpreting the ladder in Jacob’s dream which stretched between -earth and heaven as referring to the air,[1577] into which earth’s -evaporations dissolve, 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. - -[Sidenote: Jewish astrology.] - -Josephus[1578] and the Jews in general of Philo’s time were equally -devoted to astrology according to Münter, 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 powers of heaven.”[1579] 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 constellations that he would go -childless. Münter 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 individual men, and of their belief that a star would -announce the coming of the Messiah.[1580] - -[Sidenote: Perfection of the number seven.] - -From Philo’s astrology it is an easy step to his frequent reveries -concerning the perfection and mystic significance of certain numbers,—a -train of thought which was continued by many of the church fathers, -and is also found in various pagan writers of the Roman Empire.[1581] -Thomas Browne in his enquiry into “Vulgar Errors”[1582] 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 astrology and number mysticism, 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.”[1583] 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,[1584] to say nothing of -other passages. 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 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.[1585] - -[Sidenote: And of fifty.] - -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,”[1586] 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.”[1587] - -[Sidenote: Also of four and six.] - -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 creation, 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.[1588] As for four, there are that many -elements and seasons; it is the only number produced by the same -number—two—whether added to 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.[1589] 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 devotees of the philosophy of -numbers would show, that the number of perfect numbers is legion. We -may not, however, 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,[1590] 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.[1591] - -[Sidenote: Spirits of the air.] - -Philo believed in a world of spirits, both the angels of the Jews and -the demons of the Greeks. When God said: “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.[1592] Of the divine rational natures Philo regarded some as -incorporeal, others like the stars as possessed of bodies.[1593] 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.[1594] 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. - -[Sidenote: Interpretation of dreams.] - -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 interpretation; 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.[1595] - -[Sidenote: Politics akin to magic.] - -The recent war and its accompaniments and sequels have brought home -to some the conviction that our modern civilization is after all -not vastly superior to that of some preceding 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 reasoning in many departments of life, the reading may -be recommended of a passage in Philo’s treatise on dreams,[1596] 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 affairs” where along with “the smallest possible portion of -truth” falsehoods of every shade of plausibility are interwoven; and -he compares politicians 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. - -[Sidenote: A thought repeated by Moses Maimonides and Albertus Magnus.] - -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 Perplexed_,[1597] 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.[1598] 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, confound true wisdom with sophistry and are -content with mere probabilities and imaginations and are at home in -“rhetorical and civil matters.” Maimonides, however, described 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 legislators, of diviners, of enchanters, -of dreamers, ... and of prestidigiteurs who work marvels by strange -cunning and occult arts.”[1599] - - - - - 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 manuscripts—The - Mandaeans. - - -[Sidenote: Difficulty in defining Gnosticism.] - -Gnosticism[1600] 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 beliefs. 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[1601] has been impressed -by its connection with Babylonian star-worship; Amélineau[1602] has -urged its debt to Egyptian magic and religion; Bousset[1603] has -argued for Persian origins. The main features of the great oriental -religions which swept westward 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,[1604] or of hostile descriptions of -Gnostic heresies by the early church fathers. However, the philosopher -Plotinus also criticized the Gnostics, as we have seen. - -[Sidenote: Magic and astrology in Gnosticism.] - -What especially concerns our investigation is the great use made, or -said to be made, by the Gnostics of sacred formulae, symbols, and names -of demons, and the prevalence 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 Babylonian 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 inferred from the following passage in which Christ -foretells His second coming: “Immediately after the tribulation 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 be 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.”[1605] 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 passwords, 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 become 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. - -[Sidenote: Simon Magus as a Gnostic.] - -Simon Magus, of whose magical exploits as recorded by many a Christian -writer we shall treat in another chapter, 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 -Declaration_.[1606] Simon declared himself the Great Power of God, or -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.[1607] In -the _Pseudo-Clementines_ Simon is represented as arguing against Peter -in characteristically Gnostic 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.”[1608] According -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.”[1609] - -[Sidenote: Simon’s Helen.] - -The fathers tell us that Simon went about with a woman called Helena -or Helen, who Justin Martyr says had formerly been a prostitute.[1610] -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 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[1611] 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 Gnostic writing, _Pistis-Sophia_, takes a rôle -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 successful in setting the prisoner -free! - -[Sidenote: The number thirty and the moon.] - -We find in the _Pseudo-Clementines_ other details concerning 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.[1612] 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 called Luna or the Moon.[1613] 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.”[1614] The number thirty is again -associated with Simon and Dositheus in a curiously insistent, although -apparently 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 followers of Dositheus there are now not more than thirty -in all.[1615] - -[Sidenote: Ophites and Sethians.] - -Similar to Simon’s account of the heavens and of his descent through -them were the teachings of the Ophites and Sethians who, according -to Irenaeus,[1616] 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 -Ialdabaoth, Iao, Sabaoth, Adonaus (or, Adonai), Eloeus, Oreus, and -Astanphaeus,—names often employed in the Greek magical papyri,[1617] -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 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.[1618] -Under the caption, _Sethian Tablets of Curses_, Wünsch has published -some magical imprecations scratched on lead tablets between 390 and 420 -A. D. at Rome.[1619] Eight revelations ascribed to Adam and Seth are -also extant in Armenian.[1620] - -[Sidenote: A magical diagram.] - -In Origen’s _Reply to Celsus_ is described a mystic diagram with -details redolent of magic and astrological necromancy,[1621] 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 himself has seen this diagram or one something like -it, and assures his readers that “we know the depth of these unhallowed -mysteries,” but he declares that he has never met anybody anywhere -who put any faith in this diagram. Obviously, 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 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,” -“Knowledge,” and “Understanding.” Then there were “the seven circles of -archontic demons,” who are probably to be connected 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 -Christian 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 concerning 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 impresses the -Son, who says, “I have been anointed with white ointment from the tree -of life,” and seven angels who contend with the seven ruling demons for -the soul of the dying body. - -[Sidenote: Employment of names and formulae.] - -Origen further informs us of the forms of salutation to each ruling -spirit employed by “those sorcerers,” as they pass through “the fence -of wickedness” or the gate to the realm of each spirit. The names of -the spirits are now given as Ialdabaoth, who is the lion-like archon -and with whom the planet Saturn is in sympathy, Iao or Jah, Sabaoth, -Adonaeus, Astaphaeus, Aloaeus or Eloaeus, and Horaeus. The following -is an example of the salutations or invocations addressed to these -spirits: “Thou, O second Iao, who shinest by night, who art the ruler -of the secret mysteries 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 Ialdabaoth, Astaphaeus, and Horaeus, while the other -four are names of God drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures. - -[Sidenote: Seven metals and planets.] - -It is worth noting that immediately before this account of the diagram -Celsus had described similar Persian mysteries of Mithras, in which -seven heavens through which the soul has to pass were arranged in an -ascending scale like a ladder.[1622] 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.[1623] - -[Sidenote: Magic of Simon’s followers.] - -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 curious 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.[1624] In a treatise on rebaptism, falsely ascribed to Cyprian -but very likely contemporary with him, it is stated that the Simonians -regard their baptism as superior 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 imagine that -they see a flame on the water, or that it is the work of some evil -one and of magic power.[1625] Epiphanius states that Simon employed -such obscene substances as _semen_ and _menstruum_ in his magic,[1626] -but this seems to be a slander, at least against Gnosticism, since -in a passage of the Gnostic _Book of the Saviour_, 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.[1627] - -[Sidenote: Magic of Marcus in the Eucharist.] - -Next to Simon Magus, Marcus was the Gnostic and heretic most notorious -as a practitioner of the magic arts, as Irenaeus states at the close of -the second century, and Hippolytus and Epiphanius repeat in the third -and fourth centuries respectively.[1628] 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 Hippolytus more vaguely state, although -they lived closer to Marcus’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. 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.” - -[Sidenote: Other magic and occult lore of Marcus.] - -Irenaeus, who is quoted verbatim by Epiphanius, further 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 theory of mystic names and his -symbolical and mystical interpretation 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 number is 801. 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. - -[Sidenote: Name and number magic.] - -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 Pythagorean 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.[1629] After treating of the monad, -duad, and enneads, 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, Hippolytus continues, “Moreover, they -assert that they have calculated the word, ‘Deity.’ Now this name -is an even number, 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 ascribed to Apollo and used in the cure of bodily ills, while nine -is associated with the Muses and heals mental diseases.[1630] But to -return to Gnosticism. - -[Sidenote: The magic vowels.] - -The seven vowels were much employed by the Gnostics, 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 according to all sorts -of artifices, form a very common inscription.”[1631] 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.”[1632] - -[Sidenote: Magic of Carpocrates.] - -Other heretics with Gnostic views who were accused of magic by the -fathers were the followers of Carpocrates, who 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 things so that they were able by their magic to satisfy -every desire.[1633] - -[Sidenote: The Abraxas and the number 365.] - -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.”[1634] - -[Sidenote: Astrology of Basilides.] - -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.”[1635] I suppose that by this Hippolytus means to suggest that -Basilides held the astrological doctrine of elections; Basilides -further affirmed, 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 seasons in the -vast conglomeration,” that is, at the end of the astronomical _magnus -annus_, variously reckoned as of 36,000 or 15,000 years in duration. - -[Sidenote: _The Book of Helxai._] - -In his _Refutation of all Heresies_[1636] 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 apparition 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_ 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 ridiculous.” 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 important 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.” - -[Sidenote: Epiphanius on the Elchasaites.] - -In the next century Epiphanius adds one or two further details to -Hippolytus’ account of the Elchasaites. Besides the list of seven -witnesses already given he mentions another 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.[1637] - -[Sidenote: _The Book of the Laws of Countries._] - -We possess an important document for the attitude of early Christianity -and Gnosticism towards astrology in _The Dialogue concerning Fate_ or -_The Book of the Laws of Countries_ of Bardesanes or Bardaisan.[1638] -The complete Syriac text is extant;[1639] there is a long and somewhat -modified extract adopted from it in the Latin _Recognitions_ of -Clement,[1640] and briefer fragments in the Greek fathers. Strictly -speaking, the text seems to be written by some follower 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 -Bardesanes himself. - -[Sidenote: Personality of Bardesanes] - -Bardesanes (154-222 A. D.) was born in Edessa. He spent most of his -life in Mesopotamia but for a time went to Armenia as a missionary. -His many works in Syriac included 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_[1641] 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, disagree 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 dialogue can be explained as purely astrological.[1642] - -[Sidenote: Sin possible for men, angels, and stars.] - -The treatise opens with the query, why did not God make men so that -they could not sin? The reply of course 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, too, have sinned with the daughters of men and fallen, and is -superior even to the sun, moon, and signs of the zodiac which are fixed -in their courses. The stars, however, as in _The Book of Enoch_, “are -not absolutely destitute of all freedom” and will be held responsible -at the day of judgment. Presently some of them are called evil. - -[Sidenote: Does fate in the astrological sense prevail?] - -After some discussion whether man does wrong from his nature, the -treatise turns to the question, how far are men controlled by fate, -that is, by the power of the seven planets in 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 cannot avoid are -due to chance or to divine punishment but not to the stars. Between -these extremes Bardesanes takes middle 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 evidently 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 undergo change when they descend -to the soul, and souls undergo 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 will 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, are in conflict. In short, some stars are good and some are -evil. - -[Sidenote: National laws and customs as a proof of free will.] - -If nature is thus often upset by the stars, fate in its turn may be -resisted and overpowered by man’s exercise of will. This assertion -Bardesanes proceeds to prove by the argument which has given to the -dialogue the title, _The Book of the Laws of the Countries_, and which -we find much repeated in subsequent writers. Briefly it is that in -various nations certain laws are enforced upon, or customs observed by -all the people alike regardless of their diverse individual horoscopes. -In illustration of this are listed various prohibitions and practices -fondly supposed by Bardesanes and his audience to characterize the -Seres, Brahmans, Persians, Geli, Bactrians, Arabs, Britons, Parthians, -Amazons, 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 theory of seven zones or -climes, by which the science of individual 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 according 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, however, as before that “in every country and in every -nation there are rich and poor, and rulers and subjects, and people -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 years in -which the seven planets complete an even number of revolutions. - -[Sidenote: The _Pistis-Sophia_: attitude to astrology.] - -If the work ascribed to Bardesanes is not certainly Gnostic, the -_Pistis-Sophia_ is, and we turn next to it and first of all to its -attitude towards astrology. This treatise is extant in a Coptic codex -of the fifth or sixth century;[1643] 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 returned again to them. When He ascended through the -heavens, 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.[1644] In a long passage -near the close of the _Pistis-Sophia_ proper[1645] 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 -generation 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.[1646] 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.[1647] - -[Sidenote: “Magic” condemned.] - -The _Pistis-Sophia_ assumes the usual attitude of condemnation of magic -so-called. Among the evils which Jesus warns his followers to renounce -are superstition and invocations and drugs or magic potions.[1648] -One object of his reducing 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 purposes. Marvels may -still, however, be accomplished by “those who know the mysteries of the -magic of the thirteenth aeon” or power above the spheres.[1649] - -[Sidenote: Power of names and rites.] - -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 inaccurate 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.[1650] 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.[1651] In -the first case the disciples are carefully grouped with reference to -the points of the compass, towards which Jesus turns successively as He -utters the magic words standing at a sacrificial 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 -Jeû_ in the Bruce Papyrus there is a perfect riot of such magic names -and invocations, seals and diagrams, and accompanying ceremonial.[1652] - -[Sidenote: Interest in natural science.] - -The interest of the Gnostics in natural science is seen in the list of -things that will be known by one who has penetrated all the mysteries -and fully entered upon the inheritance 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.[1653] - -[Sidenote: “Gnostic gems” and astrology.] - -King has shown that many of the so-called “Gnostic gems” are purely -astrological talismans and that “only a very small minority amidst -their multitude present any traces of the influence of Christian -doctrines.”[1654] 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 symbol, 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 pretended discovery -of the god Asclepius by the pseudo-prophet, Alexander. At least one -“Gnostic amulet” has on the back the legend “Iao Sabao” (th).[1655] - -[Sidenote: The planets in early Christian art.] - -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.[1656] - -[Sidenote: Gnostic amulets in Spain.] - -“Gnostic amulets and other works of art” are occasionally found in -Spain, especially the Asturian northwest which remained Christian at -the time of the Mohammedan conquest of the rest of the peninsula. One -ring is inscribed with the sentence, “Zeus, Serapis, and Iao 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.”[1657] - -[Sidenote: Syriac Christian charms.] - -Gollancz in his _Selection of Charms from Syriac Manuscripts_ 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 Christianity, Mary, and various Biblical -characters.[1658] - -[Sidenote: Priscillian executed for magic.] - -At the close of the fourth century the views of the Gnostics were -revived in Gaul and Spain by Priscillian, who seems to have been -much influenced by astrology and who was put to death at Treves in -385 A. D. on a charge of magic. He confessed under torture, but was -afterwards thought innocent. We are not told, however, what the magical -practices were of which he was accused.[1659] Both Sulpicius Severus -and Isidore of Seville[1660] state that he was accused of _maleficium_, -which should mean witchcraft, sorcery, or magical operations with the -intent to injure someone. But further details are wanting, except that -Sulpicius calls Priscillian a man “more puffed up than was right with -the knowledge of profane things, and who was further believed to have -practiced magic arts since adolescence,” while Isidore 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 Priscillian.” -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 (_fisci 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.[1661] But his execution brought his persecutor Itacius into such -bad odor that he was excommunicated and condemned to exile for the rest -of his life. - -[Sidenote: Manichean Manuscripts] - -We have just heard that Priscillian was taught by a disciple of -Mani, while Ephraem Syrus states that Bardesanes 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.[1662] 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, reptiles, 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 imprisoning -luminous forces in man, whom he made a microcosm of the universe. And -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—corresponding 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 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. - -[Sidenote: The Mandaeans.] - -A sect derived either from Gnosticism or from common sources -seems still to exist in the case of the Mandaeans of southern -Babylonia.[1663] They believe that the earth and man were formed by a -Demiurge, who corresponds to the Ialdabaoth 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,[1664] perhaps indicative of the planets other than sun and -moon, and three hundred and sixty, suggestive of the number 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 hundred and sixty, and the delivering deity or Messiah of the -Mandaeans is said to have sent forth that number of disciples 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 commensurate, 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 sanctuaries 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 sacred 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 employed to aid -the souls of the dead to ascend through various stages or prisons to -the world of light. Earthenware vessels have recently been brought to -light with Mandaean inscriptions and incantations to avert evil.[1665] - - - - - 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—Sometimes 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. - - -[Sidenote: Magic in the Bible.] - -It is hardly necessary to rehearse here in detail the numerous -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 -occasion to mention many, if not most, of such scriptural passages, in -connection with this later discussion of them by the church fathers and -others. For instance, Pharaoh’s magicians 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 interpretation of dreams of Joseph and Daniel, not to mention -the former’s silver divining cup;[1666] the wise men who saw Christ’s -star in the east; Christ’s own allusion to the shaking of “the powers -of the heavens” and the gathering of His elect from the four winds -at His second coming; the accusation 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 -Magus, with Elymas the sorcerer, and with the damsel possessed with a -spirit of divination who brought her master 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 practice of -similar superstitions, such as the ordeal to test a wife’s faithfulness -by making her drink “the bitter water that causeth the curse,”[1667] -the engraved gold plate upon the high priest’s forehead,[1668] or the -use of Paul’s handkerchief and underwear to cure the sick and dispel -demons; the promise to believers in the closing verses or appendix of -_The Gospel 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[1669] -which were later taken to justify certain occult arts, as Exodus XIII, -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 prophecy, -vision, and miracle, and that with these go, like the obverse face of a -coin or medal, their inevitable accompaniments of divination, demons, -and magic. - -[Sidenote: Apocryphal gospels of the infancy.] - -This is also the case in apocryphal literature of the New Testament -which is now so much less familiar and accessible especially to English -readers,[1670] but which had wide currency in the early Christian and -medieval periods. We may begin with the apocryphal gospels and more -particularly 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” (_Protoevangelium -Iacobi_)[1671] 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[1672]—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.[1673] 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 text has reached us through the printed editions. -Tischendorf was, however, “unwilling to omit in this new collection -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 Gospel.”[1674] -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.”[1675] 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. - -[Sidenote: Question of their date.] - -There is a tendency on the part of orthodox Christian 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[1676] 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 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 latter 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 Christians 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. Whatever 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 overlooked, -whatever its date, place, or language. - -[Sidenote: Their medieval influence.] - -These apocryphal gospels of the Infancy, which are in part extant -only in Latin, continued to be influential in the 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,[1677] besides -apocryphal gospels of Matthew and of Thomas—which last we are told, -“the Manicheans 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 medieval centuries but it -would not be safe to attempt to identify or classify them without -examining each in detail. As Tischendorf said, the Latins do not seem -to have long remained 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 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.[1678] -Mâle states in his work on religious art in France in the thirteenth -century that _The Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew_ and _The Gospel -of Nicodemus_ or _Acts of Pilate_ were the two apocryphal gospels -especially used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.[1679] - -[Sidenote: Resemblances to Apuleius and Apollonius in the Arabic Gospel -of the Infancy.] - -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.[1680] In the parlor 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.”[1681] 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,[1682] “have applied to -all the wise men, magicians, and diviners in the world, but they have -been of no service to us.”[1683] The girl recommends 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 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.[1684] 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 answered, ‘Lord, thou didst not throw me down, but -so-and-so did.’”[1685] - -[Sidenote: Counteracting magic and demons.] - -Many were the occasions upon which the Christ child or his mother -counteracted the operations of magic or relieved persons who were -possessed by demons. Kissing him cured a bride whom sorcerers had made -dumb at her wedding,[1686] 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.[1687] Mary’s -pitying glance was sufficient to expel Satan from a woman possessed by -demons.[1688] Another upright woman who was often vexed by Satan in -the form of a serpent when she went to bathe in the river,[1689] which -reminds one somewhat of Olympias and Nectanebus,[1690] was permanently -cured by kissing the Christ child. And a girl, whose blood Satan -used to suck, miraculously discomfited him when he appeared in the -shape of a huge dragon by putting upon her head and about her eyes a -swaddling cloth of Jesus which Mary had given to her. Fire then went -forth and was scattered upon the dragon’s head and eyes, as from the -blinking eyes of the artful beggar who caused the plague in the _Life -of Apollonius of Tyana_, and he fled in a panic.[1691] 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.”[1692] -Such marvels may offend modern taste but have their probable prototype -in the miracles wrought by use of Paul’s handkerchief and underwear in -the New Testament and illustrate, like the placing of spittle on the -eyes of the blind man, the great healing virtue then ascribed to the -perspiration and other secretions and excretions of the human body. - -[Sidenote: Other miracles and magic by the Christ child.] - -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,[1693] -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.[1694] On the road to Egypt is a balsam which -was produced “from the sweat which ran down there from the Lord -Jesus.”[1695] The Christ child cured snake-bite, in the case of his -brother James by blowing on it, in the case of his playfellow, 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.”[1696] 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 came out of the -desired colors.[1697] Jesus also miraculously remedied the defective -carpentry of Joseph, who had worked for two years on a throne for -the king of Jerusalem and made it too short. Jesus and Joseph took -hold of the opposite sides and pulled the throne out to the required -dimensions.[1698] - -[Sidenote: Sometimes with injurious results.] - -The usual result of the Christ child’s miracles was that all the -bystanders united in praising God. But when his little playmates went -home and told their parents how he had 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.”[1699] 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 contemporaries 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.[1700] 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 presently -died.[1701] 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.[1702] When Jesus’ teacher -started to whip him, his hand withered and he died. After which we -are not surprised to hear Joseph say to Mary, “Henceforth we will not -allow him to go out of the house; for everyone who displeases him is -killed.”[1703] - -[Sidenote: Further marvels from the _Pseudo-Matthew_.] - -As has been indicated in the footnotes 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.[1704] 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.”[1705] 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 Iesus_,” instead of “_Salvet te Christus_,” which -was possibly the reason why the dead man upon reviving asked, “Who is -Jesus?”[1706] - -[Sidenote: Learning of the Christ child.] - -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 nonplussed his masters, when they tried to teach him -the alphabet, 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,[1707] 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.”[1708] 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 informed about you and your cures, which are performed without the -use of herbs and medicines.”[1709] - -[Sidenote: Other charges of magic against Christ and the apostles.] - -Jesus is again accused of magic in _The Gospel of Nicodemus_ or _Acts -of Pontius Pilate_, where the Jews tell Pilate that he is a conjurer. -After Pilate has been warned by his wife, the Jews repeat, “Did we not -say unto thee, He is a magician? Behold, he hath caused thy wife to -dream.”[1710] In the _Acts of Paul and Thecla_, to which Tertullian -refers and which are now seen to be an excerpt from the apocryphal -_Acts of Paul_, discovered in 1899 in a Coptic papyrus,[1711] the mob -similarly cries out against Paul, “He is a magician; away with him.” -In the _Acts of Peter and Andrew_[1712] 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. - -[Sidenote: The _Magi_ and the star.] - -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.[1713] The _Epistle of Ignatius to the -Ephesians_ 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.[1714] - -[Sidenote: Allegorical zoology of Barnabas.] - -In the apocryphal _Epistle of Barnabas_ occurs some of that allegorical -zoology which we are apt to associate especially with the Physiologus. -In its ninth chapter the hyena and weasel are adduced as examples of -its contention that the Mosaic distinction between clean and unclean -animals has a spiritual meaning. Thus the command not to eat the hyena -means not to be an adulterer or corrupter of others, for the hyena -changes its sex annually. The weasel which conceives with its mouth -signifies persons with unclean mouths. In the _Acts of Barnabas_ he -cures the sick of Cyprus by laying a copy of the _Gospel of Matthew_ -upon their bodies.[1715] - -[Sidenote: Traces of Gnosticism in the apocryphal Acts.] - -If we turn again to the various apocryphal Acts, where we have already -noted charges of magic made against the apostles, we may find traces -of gnosticism which have already been noted by Anz.[1716] 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 eternal 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. - -[Sidenote: Legend of John.] - -We deal in another chapter with the struggle of the apostles with Simon -Magus as recounted in the apocryphal _Acts of Peter and Paul_, and with -similar legends of the contests 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,”[1717] 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 -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.[1718] 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.[1719] - -[Sidenote: Legend of St. Sousnyos.] - -The brief legend of St. Sousnyos, which Basset has included in his -edition of Ethiopian Apocrypha,[1720] is all magic, beginning with -an incantation or magic prayer against disease and demons. There is -also a Slavonic version. This Sousnyos is presumably the same as -the Sisinnios who is said by the author of the apocryphal _Acts of -Archelaus_,[1721] 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 adversary. - -[Sidenote: Old Testament apocrypha of the Christian era.] - -While on the subject, mention may be made of two works which properly -belong to the apocrypha of the Old Testament, but which first appear -during the Christian era and so fall within our period. _The Ascension -of Isaiah_,[1722] of which the old Latin version was printed at Venice -in 1522, 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 Baruch_, -of which the original version was written in Greek by a Christian of -the third or fourth century,[1723] the most interesting episode is the -magic sleep into which, like Rip Van Winkle, Abimelech falls during the -destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. In the legend of Jeremiah -the prophet’s soul is absent from his body on one occasion 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.[1724] - -Such is no exhaustive listing but rather a few examples of the -encouragement given to belief in magic by the Christian Apocrypha. - - - - - 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 - evidence—Resemblances to Apuleius and Philostratus—Science and - religion—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 account 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. - - -[Sidenote: The Pseudo-Clementines.] - -The starting-point and chief source for this chapter will be the -writings known as the _Pseudo-Clementines_ and more particularly -the Latin version commonly called _The Recognitions_. We shall then -note other accounts of its villain-hero, Simon Magus, in patristic -literature.[1725] The _Pseudo-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 -version 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,[1726] but is also -preserved in part in epitomes. Different from it is the Latin version -in which the narrative element plays a greater part. - -[Sidenote: Was Rufinus the sole medieval version?] - -This Latin version, now usually referred to as _The Recognitions_, -because the main point in its plot is the successive bringing together -again of, and recognition of one another by, the members of a family -long separated, is the translation 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 middle -ages, when we early find Isidore of Seville quoting Clement several -times as an authority on natural science.[1727] Arevalus, however, -thought that Isidore used some other version of the Pseudo-Clementines -than that of Rufinus,[1728] and in the medieval period another title -was common, namely, _The Itinerary of Clement_, or _The Itinerary of -Peter_.[1729] William of Auvergne, for instance, in the first half of -the thirteenth century cites the _Itinerarium Clementis_ or “Book of -the disputations of Peter against Simon Magus.”[1730] This _Itinerary -of Clement_ also heads the list of works condemned as apocryphal by -Pope Gelasius at a synod at Rome in 494,[1731] a list reproduced by -Vincent of Beauvais in his _Speculum naturale_ in the thirteenth -century[1732] and in the previous century rather more accurately by -Hugh of St. Victor in his _Didascalicon_.[1733] 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.”[1734] Here we encounter a difficulty, -since as we have said _The Recognitions_ are in ten books. We find, -however, that in another passage[1735] Vincent 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 -manuscripts, 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_.[1736] -Vincent of Beauvais also quotes “the blessed apostle Peter in a -certain letter attached to _The Itinerary of Clement_.” No letter by -Peter is prefaced to the printed text of _The Recognitions_, nor does -Rufinus mention such a letter, although he does speak in his preface of -a letter by Clement which he has already translated elsewhere. Prefixed -to the printed _Homilies_, however, and in the manuscripts found also -with _The Recognitions_, 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 Recognitions_.[1737] 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 extant manuscripts have been more carefully examined.[1738] - -[Sidenote: Previous Greek versions.] - -The version by Rufinus differed from previous ones not only in being in -Latin but also in various omissions which 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 -another 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_.[1739] 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_,[1740] -thus in itself furnishing an illustration of the ease with which new -versions 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 incidents are obviously not arranged -in correct order. For instance, 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;[1741] but on his arrival there he meets Peter -who tells him that “a week of years” have elapsed since the crucifixion -and of other intervening 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 transform the countenance of Faustus. - -[Sidenote: Date of the original version.] - -Yet this late and misarranged version on which Rufinus bases his -text must have been already in existence for some 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 Clement, but this may have been the version translated by -Rufinus.[1742] Conservative Christian scholars regard as the oldest -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,[1743] from 200 to 280 A. D. -is suggested by Harnack and his school, who take middle ground between -the extreme contentions of Hilgenfeld and Chapman. 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.[1744] - -[Sidenote: Internal evidence.] - -The work itself, even in the perverted form preserved by Rufinus, -makes pretensions to the highest Christian antiquity. 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 initiated, 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 writer -should be “very careful to avoid anachronisms,” in whose account as it -now stands are such glaring chronological 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 apocryphal, -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. - -[Sidenote: Resemblances to Apuleius and Philostratus.] - -The same resemblance to the works of Apuleius and Philostratus that -we noted in the case of an apocryphal gospel 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 originate with him and the episodes in which he is -concerned.[1745] Less accidental may be the connection between Peter’s -religious 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 considerable are the detailed -parallels to the work of Philostratus.[1746] Peter corresponds roughly -to Apollonius and Clement to Damis, while the wizards and _magi_ are -ably personified 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.”[1747] Like Philostratus the Pseudo-Clement -speaks of bones of enormous size which are still to be seen as proof -of the existence of giants in former ages;[1748] 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.[1749] 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 columns” and “very -magnificent works of Phidias.”[1750] 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.[1751] -This mingled attitude of contempt for “the babblings of the Greeks” -when compared to divine revelation, 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 Roman Empire. - -[Sidenote: Science and religion.] - -The same attitude prevails toward natural science. At the very -beginning of the Clementines the curiosity of the 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, although 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.[1752] - -[Sidenote: Interest in natural science.] - -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[1753] 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.”[1754] 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.[1755] We also find Niceta accepting the Greek hypothesis of -four elements, of the sphericity of the universe, and of the motions -of the heavenly bodies “assigned to them by fixed laws and periods,” -citing Plato’s _Timaeus_, mentioning Aristotle’s introduction of a -fifth element,[1756] disputing the atomic theory of Epicurus,[1757] -and alluding to “mechanical science.”[1758] He further discusses the -generation of plants, animals, and human beings as evidences of divine -design and providence,[1759] in which connection he collects a number -of examples of marvelous gen 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.”[1760] -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.”[1761] On the other hand, -Niceta describes the action of the intestines in a fairly intelligent -manner,[1762] and tells how the blood flows like water from a fountain, -“and first borne along in one channel, and then spreading through -innumerable veins as through canals, irrigates the entire territory -of the human body with vital streams.”[1763] A little later on Aquila -gives a natural explanation of rainbows.[1764] - -[Sidenote: God and nature.] - -There is noticeable, it is true, a tendency, common in patristic -literature and found even among those fathers who hold the dualism -of the Manichees in the deepest detestation, to make a distinction -between God and nature and to attribute any flaws in the universe to -the latter.[1765] 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 supports 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 disorderly fashion. Those things therefore,” he -continues, “that are done rationally, believe that they are done by -Providence; but those that are done irrationally and inordinately, -believe that they befall naturally and happen accidentally.”[1766] - -[Sidenote: Sin and nature.] - -But even nature sometimes rises up against the sins of mankind -according to Peter and his associates. Aquila believes that the sins -of men are the cause of pestilences;[1767] 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”;[1768] 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.”[1769] Peter gives the impression 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.”[1770] -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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude to astrology.] - -Such vestiges of the world-soul doctrine, such a tendency to 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 of _The Recognitions_[1771] 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,”[1772] and, as was -common in the Roman Empire, astrologers are called _mathematici_.[1773] -A defender even of the most extreme pretensions of the art is not -abused as a charlatan but is courteously greeted as “so learned a -man,”[1774] and all admire his eloquence, grave manners, and calm -speech, and accord him a respectful hearing.[1775] Astrology, far -from being regarded as necessarily contrary to religion, is thought -to furnish arguments for the existence of God, and it is said that -Abraham, “being an astrologer, was able from the rational system of the -stars to recognize the Creator, while all other men were in error, and -understood that all things are regulated by His Providence.”[1776] The -number seven is somewhat emphasized[1777] and the twelve apostles are -called the twelve months of Christ who is the acceptable year of the -Lord.[1778] Somewhat similarly the Gnostic followers of the heretic -Valentinus made much of the Duodecad, a group of twelve aeons, and -believed, 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.”[1779] Peter, too, has a group of twelve -disciples.[1780] Niceta speaks of “man who is a microcosm in the great -world.”[1781] It is admitted that the stars exert evil as well as -good influence,[1782] and that the astrologer “can indicate the evil -desire which malign virtue produces.”[1783] 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 predict beforehand -which course we will take. - -[Sidenote: Arguments against genethlialogy.] - -In fine, astrology is criticized adversely only when it goes to the -length of contending that “there is neither any 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”;[1784] and that the constellations -force men to commit murder, adultery, and other crimes.[1785] On -this point Niceta and Aquila, and finally Clement himself, have long -discussions 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 extract 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.[1786] 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?”[1787] It is further charged that the constellations -are so complicated, that for any given moment one astrologer may infer -a favorable and another a disastrous influence,[1788] and that most -successful 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.”[1789] 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.[1790] - -[Sidenote: The virtuous Seres.] - -The ideal picture of the Seres or Chinese, “who dwell at the beginning -of the world,” which _The Recognitions_ apparently borrows from -Bardesanes, is perhaps worth repeating here as an odd admission that -a non-Christian people 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.”[1791] Perhaps these -virtuous Seres are the blameless Hyperboreans in another guise. - -[Sidenote: Theory of demons.] - -Demons and angels abound in _The Recognitions_. One may be rebuked -and scourged at night by an angel of God.[1792] 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.[1793] -Once, before beginning to preach, Peter expelled demons from a number -of persons in the audience.[1794] In another passage is described -the cure of a girl of twenty-seven who for twenty years 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.[1795] 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.[1796] One becomes susceptible to demoniacal -possession who eats meat sacrificed to idols or who merely eats and -drinks immoderately.[1797] Demons are apt to get into the very bowels -of those who frequent drunken banquets.[1798] Incontinence, too, is -accompanied by demons whose “noxious breath” produces “an intemperate -and vicious progeny.... And therefore parents are responsible for their -children’s defects of this sort, because they have not observed the law -of intercourse.”[1799] 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.”[1800] Moreover, “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.”[1801] - -[Sidenote: Origin of magic.] - -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 invocations.”[1802] The first magicians -were Ham and his son Mesraim, from whom the Egyptians, Babylonians, -and Assyrians are descended, and who tried to draw sparks from the -stars[1803] but set himself on fire “and was consumed by the demon -whom he had accosted with too great importunity.”[1804] 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.”[1805] 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 “pharmacy,” a term here used to -cover sorcery and poisoning, licentiousness, adultery, and injustice. -After the flood Epiphanius mentions Nimrod (Νεβρώδ) 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.[1806] - -[Sidenote: Frequent accusations of magic.] - -In _The Recognitions_ everyone, Christian, heretic, pagan, and -philosopher, condemns or professes to condemn magic, and reference -is made to the laws of the Roman emperors against it.[1807] 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.”[1808] The -guards at the sepulcher, unable to prevent 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.[1809] 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.[1810] The gods of Greek mythology, too, are accused of having -resorted to magic transformations and sorcery.[1811] Philosophy, -however, escapes the accusation of magic in _The Recognitions_,[1812] -and it was a philosopher who deterred Clement, before the latter had -become a Christian, from his plan of investigating the problem of -the immortality of the soul by hiring an Egyptian magician to evoke -a soul from the infernal regions by the art of necromancy.[1813] -The philosopher condemned such an attempt as unlawful, impious, and -“hateful to the Divinity.”[1814] - -[Sidenote: Marvels of magic.] - -But while magic is condemned, its great powers are admitted. 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 animal -shapes, animation of statues, production of new plants or trees in a -moment, and growing beards upon little boys.[1815] 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 memorial of my work.”[1816] -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 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?”[1817] He can -fly through the air, or so mingle himself 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.”[1818] When Dositheus -tried to beat Simon, the rod passed through his body as if it had -been smoke.[1819] 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,[1820] 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.[1821] - -[Sidenote: How distinguish miracle from magic?] - -So great, indeed, are the marvels wrought by Simon and by magicians -generally that Niceta asks Peter how they may be distinguished from -divine signs and Christian 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 displayed 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 Christian 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 being divided against himself, -and fighting against himself, he shall be destroyed.”[1822] Later in -_The Recognitions_, however, 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 figments of demons in opposition to these.”[1823] - -[Sidenote: Deceit in magic.] - -But while the marvels of magic are admitted, there is a feeling that -there is something deceitful and unreal about them. The teachings -of the true prophet, we are told, “contain nothing subtle, nothing -composed by magic art to deceive,”[1824] while Simon is “a deceiver and -magician.”[1825] Nor is he deceitful merely in his religious teaching -and his opposition 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 confidence; for we knew that those things had -been from the days of our fathers, which he represented as having been -done by himself lately.”[1826] Moreover, not only does Simon deceive -others; he is himself deceived by demons as Peter twice asserts:[1827] -“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.” - -[Sidenote: Murder of a boy.] - -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 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 invoked in necromancy.” When Aquila asked why the -soul did not take vengeance upon its slayer instead of performing 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.”[1828] Niceta then -indignantly interposed, “And do you not fear the day of judgment, who -do violence to angels and invoke souls?” As a matter of fact, the -charge that Simon had murdered or violently slain a boy is rather -overdrawn, since the boy in question was the one whom he had made from -air in the first place and whom he simply turned back into air again, -claiming, however, to have thereby produced an unsullied human soul. -According to _The Homilies_, 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.[1829] - -[Sidenote: Magic is evil.] - -Nevertheless, the charge of murder thus made against Simon illustrates -the criminal character here as usually ascribed to magic. Simon is said -to be “wicked above measure,” and to depend upon “magic arts and wicked -devices,” and Peter accuses him of “acting by nefarious arts.”[1830] -Simon in his turn calls Peter “a magician, a godless man, injurious, -cunning, ignorant, and professing impossibilities,” and again “a -magician, a sorcerer, a murderer.”[1831] - -[Sidenote: Magic is an art.] - -A further characteristic of magic which comes out 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 certain herb, were thereby enabled still to -recognize Faustinianus as himself.[1832] 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.[1833] 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 exceedingly -well trained in Greek literature.”[1834] 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.”[1835] 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.”[1836] - -[Sidenote: Other accounts of Simon Magus: Justin Martyr to Hippolytus.] - -In the Pseudo-Clementines we are told that Simon intended 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 Rome, where, as other Christian writers tell us, they -had yet other encounters in which Simon finally came to his bitter end. -Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the second century, states -that Simon, a Samaritan of Gitto, came to Rome in the reign of Claudius -and performed such feats of 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 confused 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 emperors do not persecute them as they do other -Christians, although Justin charges them with practicing promiscuous -sexual intercourse as well as magic.[1837] Irenaeus gives a very -similar account.[1838] Origen, as we have seen, denied that there were -more than thirty of Simon’s followers left,[1839] but his contemporary -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 undertake to bring up from Hades the souls of the -prophets themselves. And I suppose that they can do so under cover -of a lying wonder.”[1840] 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 doctrines and to “teaching anew the parrots of -Simon that Christ ... was not Simon.”[1841] 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. His disciples buried him, as they were directed, -but he never reappeared, “for he was not the Christ.” - -[Sidenote: Peter’s account in the _Didascalia et Constitutiones -Apostolorum_.] - -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 _Constitutiones -Apostolorum_, written perhaps about 400 A. D.[1842] 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.”[1843] In the -Syriac and Latin account 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?).”[1844] 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. Meanwhile 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 tidings. 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 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 Tübingen theory once suggested in connection with the -Pseudo-Clementines, that Simon Magus is meant to represent the apostle -Paul. - -[Sidenote: Arnobius, Cyril, and Philastrius.] - -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.”[1845] 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.”[1846] 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.”[1847] But it -is hardly worth while to pile up such brief allusions to Simon in the -writings of the fathers.[1848] - -[Sidenote: Apocryphal _Acts of Peter and Paul_.] - -Other fuller accounts of Simon’s doings at Rome are contained in the -Syriac _Teaching of Simon Cephas_[1849] and in the apocryphal _Acts of -Peter and Paul_.[1850] 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 impression 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 beheaded. 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 decapitated, 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 Martius, -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 four parts.[1851] 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. - -[Sidenote: An account ascribed to Marcellus.] - -To this Marcellus is ascribed a very similar narrative which is found -in an early medieval manuscript and was perhaps written in the seventh -or eighth century.[1852] Fabricius and Florentinus give its title as, -_Of the marvelous deeds and acts of the blessed Peter and Paul and of -Simon’s magic arts_.[1853] 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 magic -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 Marcellus 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.[1854] - -[Sidenote: Hegesippus.] - -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 performed 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.”[1855] - -[Sidenote: A sermon on Simon’s fall.] - -Finally, passing over other Latin accounts of the contest between the -apostles and Simon Magus to be found in the _Apostolic Histories_ of -the Pseudo-Abdias[1856] and in a work ascribed to Pope Linus,[1857] we -may note a sermon which has been variously ascribed in the manuscripts -and printed editions to Augustine, Ambrose, and Maximus.[1858] This -sermon, 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 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 presumption. 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 like 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 sudden 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 carried 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. - -[Sidenote: Simon Magus in medieval art.] - -The struggle of Peter and Paul with Simon Magus at Rome appears in -_The Golden Legend_, compiled by Jacopo 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.[1859] 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.[1860] - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - THE CONFESSION OF CYPRIAN AND SOME SIMILAR STORIES - - The _Confession_ of Cyprian—His initiation into mysteries—His thorough - 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 of - 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_. - - -[Sidenote: The _Confession_ of Cyprian.] - -To the accounts of the contests of Peter and Paul with 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_[1861] current under his name and which most critics agree -was composed before the time of Constantine[1862] is described his -education in and subsequent practice of magic. For us perhaps the most -interesting feature of his account of his education is the association -of magic, not only with pagan mysteries and the operations of demons, -but also with natural science. - -[Sidenote: His initiation into mysteries.] - -“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 carried 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 narrations.”[1863] 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.[1864] 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. - -[Sidenote: His thorough study of nature, divination, and magic.] - -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 participated 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 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 quadrupeds, 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 extensions -and corollaries of ratios and numbers, diseases simulated 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 was a matter of science or phantasy, -of mechanics or artifice, “even down to the magic translation of -writings and other things of that sort.” - -[Sidenote: The lore of Egypt.] - -At twenty Cyprian was admitted to the shrines at ancient Memphis in -Egypt and learned what communication and relationship existed between -demons and earthly things and “in what stars and laws and objects they -delight.” He witnessed 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. Besides the forms of various sins and -vices, such as fornication 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. - -[Sidenote: And of Chaldea.] - -At thirty Cyprian left Egypt for Chaldea in order to 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 appropriate food and drink. Also the meetings of -spirits with men in light, the three hundred and sixty-five demons who -divide as many parts of the ether between them, and the sacrifices, -libations, 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 preparation 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. - -[Sidenote: Cyprian’s practice of magic at Antioch.] - -Cyprian now returned from Chaldea and wrought marvels at Antioch “like -one of the ancients,” and “made many experiments of magic and became -celebrated as a magician 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. - -[Sidenote: A Christian virgin defeats the magic of the demons.] - -But then the case of the Christian girl Justina revealed to him the -weakness and fraud of the devil. Determined to dedicate herself to a -life of virginity, Justina repulsed the love of the youth Aglaïdes, who -sought Cyprian’s assistance. But in vain: the demon failed to alter -Justina’s determination and was not even able to give another girl the -form of Justina and so deceive Aglaïdes. 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 parents, however, were similarly afflicted until -they besought her to marry Aglaïdes, 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 marriage of Justina and -Aglaïdes, 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 ferocious -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.[1865] - -[Sidenote: Summary of Cyprian’s picture of magic.] - -Cyprian’s _Confession_ thus represents magic as a very elaborate art, -requiring long study and a thorough knowledge 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 commission -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 -_Confession_. It is mystic, confused, shadowy, imitative, imaginary, -lacking in solidity and reality, fraudulent and deceptive. Finally, -this complex art, this universal system of knowledge, is easily balked -and overthrown by the far simpler counter-magic of Christianity, by -such methods as a prayer to the Virgin, calling on the name of God, or -merely making the sign of the cross. - -[Sidenote: Christians accused of magic.] - -Such counter-magic was apt to be regarded as magic by the pagans, and -the account of the martyrdom of Cyprian states that the devil, that -“very bad serpent,” suggested to the Count of the Orient that Cyprian, -together with a certain 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. According 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.[1866] 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 procession 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.[1867] - -[Sidenote: A story from Epiphanius.] - -Epiphanius in the next century tells a story similar to that of -Cyprian, Aglaïdes, and Justina, of a youth who was led astray by evil -companions who employed magic arts, 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 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.[1868] - -[Sidenote: Joseph’s experience of miracle and magic.] - -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 conversion, -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 undertaking 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 furnaces 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.[1869] - -[Sidenote: Legend of St. James and Hermogenes the magician.] - -Very similar both to the _Confession_ of Cyprian and the story of -Simon Magus is the legend of St. James the Great and Hermogenes the -magician, which is found in _The Golden Legend_ and which was often -reproduced in medieval stained glass windows.[1870] 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. - -[Sidenote: Other contests of apostles and magicians in _The Golden -Legend_.] - -“In _The Golden Legend_,” in fact, as Mâle 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 of magic art, the temple of -the Sun at Suanir, near Babylon. 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.”[1871] If this last exorcism reminds -us somewhat of the exploits of Apollonius of Tyana, still more do -the performances of St. Andrew, 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.”[1872] - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - ORIGEN AND CELSUS - - Celsus’ charges of magic against Christianity—Hebrew magic as depicted - by Celsus—Various recriminations of magic—Origen’s distinction between - miracles and magic—Origen frees Jews as well as Christians 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 not 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 names 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 astrology—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 accused of countenancing magic. - - -[Sidenote: Celsus’ charges of magic against Christianity.] - -In the celebrated work of Origen _Against Celsus_,[1873] written in the -first half of the third century, the subject of magic is often touched -upon, largely because Celsus in his _True Discourse_ had so frequently -brought charges of magic against Jesus, His Christian followers, -and the Jewish people from whom they had sprung. Celsus had called -Jesus “a wicked and God-hated sorcerer”;[1874] had contended that His -miracles were wrought by magic, not by divine power;[1875] and had -compared them unfavorably, as less wonderful, to the tricks performed -by jugglers and Egyptians in the middle of market-places.[1876] 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.[1877] Celsus, for his part, warned the Christians -that they “must shun all deceivers and jugglers who will introduce -you to phantoms”;[1878] he accused them of employing incantations -and the names of certain demons;[1879] he asserted that he had seen -in the hands of Christian presbyters “barbarous books containing the -names and marvelous operations of demons,” and that these presbyters -“professed to do no good, but all that was calculated to injure human -beings.”[1880] - -[Sidenote: Hebrew magic as depicted by Celsus] - -Celsus regarded Moses equally with Jesus as a wizard,[1881] and he -evidently, like Juvenal and other classical writers, considered -the Jews and Syrians as a race of charlatans, especially given to -superstition, sorcery, incantations, ambiguous oracles and conjuration -of spirits. “They worship angels,” he declared, “and are addicted to -sorcery, in which Moses was their instructor.”[1882] 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.[1883] Celsus further characterized the Jews as “blinded by some -crooked sorcery, or dreaming dreams through the influence of shadowy -specters,”[1884] and as “induced to bow down to the angels in heaven by -the incantations employed by jugglery and sorcery, in consequence of -which certain phantoms appear in obedience to the spells employed by -the magicians.”[1885] Celsus, also, in describing the many self-styled -prophets, Redeemers, and Sons of God in the Phoenicia and Palestine -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,”[1886] and that those prophets whom he himself had -heard had afterwards confessed to him that these words “really meant -nothing.”[1887] 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 Palestine.”[1888] - -[Sidenote: Various recriminations of magic.] - -To these accusations of Celsus Origen himself adds that the Jews affirm -that Jesus passed Himself off as Christ by means of sorcery,[1889] -while the Egyptians charge Moses and the Hebrews with the practice of -sorcery during their stay in Egypt.[1890] 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.[1891] Celsus for his part had accused Jesus -during His residence in Egypt of “having there acquired some miraculous -powers, on which the Egyptians greatly pride themselves.”[1892] - -[Sidenote: Origen’s distinction between miracles and magic.] - -Origen repudiates the charges of magic made against Christ and His -followers as slanders. He asserts that Christianity on the contrary -strictly forbids the practice of magic arts,[1893] and that these -lost much of their force at the birth of Christ.[1894] He contends -that no magician would teach such noble doctrines as those of -Christianity.[1895] Origen goes so far as to deny that even the “false -Christs and false prophets,” who “shall show great signs and wonders,” -will be sorcerers, and he states that no sorcerer has ever claimed to -be Christ[1896]—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 argument and an -art of dialectic.[1897] Moreover, in one passage Origen admits that -“there would indeed be a resemblance” between miracles and magic, “if -Jesus, like 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 -proceedings, 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.”[1898] On the contrary, Origen asserts that the magicians’ “own -lives are full of the grossest and most notorious sins.” - -[Sidenote: Origen frees Jews as well as Christians from the charge of -magic.] - -Since it is one of Origen’s chief concerns to uphold Hebrew prophecy -as a proof of Christ’s divinity, although Celsus subjects the argument -from prophecy to ridicule; to defend the Old Testament against -Celsus’ attacks as an inspired 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 between -the God of the Gospel and the God of the Law”:[1899]—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.[1900] - -[Sidenote: Celsus’ sceptical description of magic.] - -The _Reply to Celsus_ is of especial interest to us because it presents -as it were in parallel columns for our inspection the 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.[1901] 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 -describes the banquet dishes as “dainties having no real existence” and -the animals as “not really living but having only the appearance of -life.” Therefore the ensuing comment 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.”[1902] 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.”[1903] It was at the request of a Celsus, moreover, -that the second century satirist Lucian wrote his _Alexander_ or -_Pseudomantis_[1904] in which some of the tricks of a magician-impostor -and oracle-monger are exposed, and in which allusion is made to the -“excellent treatises against the magicians” written by Celsus himself. -It seems reasonably certain that the Celsus of Lucian and the Celsus -of Origen are identical, as there are no chronological difficulties -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.”[1905] This, -too, might be the same man. - -[Sidenote: Celsus suggests a connection between magic and occult -virtues in nature.] - -Another passage in which Celsus, according to Origen at least, “mixed -up together matters which belong to magic and sorcery” runs as -follows: “What need to number up all those who have taught methods -of purification, or expiatory hymns, or spells for averting evil, or -images, or resemblances 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?”[1906] 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.[1907] Origen objects that it is not customary -to use the word sorcery (γοητεία) 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 natural objects with magic, if not with sorcery. - -[Sidenote: Celsus on magicians and demons.] - -Celsus, as we shall see, believed in the existence of demons whom, -however, he did not regard as necessarily evil spirits, and whom he -probably regarded as above any connection with magic. Origen once says -that if Celsus “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.[1908] The natural inference 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,”[1909] and -we have already heard him censure certain Christian presbyters for -their “barbarous books containing the names and marvelous doings of -demons.”[1910] 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. - -[Sidenote: Origen ascribes magic to demons.] - -Origen at any rate believes that magicians are aided by evil spirits, -and for him demons became the paramount factor in magic, just as it -is they who are worshiped in pagan temples as gods and who inspire -the pagan oracles.[1911] Indeed, just as Celsus has kept calling the -Christians sorcerers, 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.”[1912] 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.”[1913] Divination in -general, he believes, “proceeds rather from wicked demons than from -anything of a better nature.”[1914] He does not think of magic as a -deception, he does not endeavor to expose its frauds, he accepts its -marvels as facts, but declares that “magic and sorcery are produced -by wicked spirits, held spellbound by elaborate incantations and -yielding themselves to sorcerers.”[1915] Origen seems in doubt whether -the demons are coerced by the spells and charms of magic or yield -themselves willingly.[1916] - -[Sidenote: Magic is an elaborate art.] - -As we shall see, Origen is at least ready to attribute great power to -incantations, and he does not deny that magic is an elaborate art. With -such various arts of magic he contrasts the simplicity of Christian -prayers and adjurations “which the plainest person can use,” or the -Christian casting out of demons which is performed for the most part -by “unlettered persons.”[1917] Origen also suggests that the natural -properties of plants and animals are a factor in magic, when he cites -Numenius the Pythagorean’s description 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 (μάγων καὶ φαρμακῶν) and those demons who are -bewitched by their incantations.”[1918] Another passage pointing in the -same direction 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.”[1919] Thus although Origen lays the emphasis -upon demons, we see that he admits most of the other customary elements -in magic. - -[Sidenote: The Magi of Scripture were not different from other -magicians.] - -Origen does not, like Philo Judaeus, Apuleius and some Christian -writers, distinguish two uses of the word magic, one good and one evil. -He does not differentiate between vulgar magic and malignant sorcery -on the one hand and the lore of learned Magi of the east on the other -hand. He simply says that the art of magic gets its name from the -Magi and that from them its evil influence has been transmitted to -other nations.[1920] 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 followed the star of Bethlehem and came to worship -the infant Christ were Magi.[1921] But he seems to regard them as -ordinary magicians, who were accustomed to invoke evil spirits.[1922] -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 admit 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.[1923] Rather he thinks -that they could find an explanation of the star in the prophecies -of Balaam[1924] which they possessed and which predicted, as Moses -too records,[1925] “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.”[1926] In another treatise than the _Reply to Celsus_ Origen -further explains that the Magi were descended from Balaam and so owned -his written prophecies.[1927] Balaam was perhaps alluding to these very -Magi descended from him who came to adore Jesus when he prophesied that -his seed should be as the seed of the just.[1928] 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 homilies on the Book of -Genesis.[1929] - -[Sidenote: Origen’s Biblical commentaries.] - -At this point indeed, we may well turn for a little while from the -_Reply to Celsus_ to those Biblical commentaries of 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 translation 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 narrow strait which separates Sicily from -Italy.[1930] - -[Sidenote: Balaam and the power of words.] - -In commencing to speak of Balaam and his ass[1931] Origen implies -that much has already been written on this thorny 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 Yahweh by virtue of which he predicted the future, and got -from God whatever he wished.”[1932] - -[Sidenote: Limitations to the power of Pharaoh’s magicians.] - -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 limitation to the magicians’ power. -By the aid of demons they could turn good into evil but they could not -repair the damage 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,[1933] and it was necessary -for Moses to pray to God in order to stay the other plagues. - -[Sidenote: Was Balaam a prophet of God or a magician?] - -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[1934] calls him -a prophet although 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.[1935] 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.[1936] The problem continued to 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 -quotations from Calvin abound.[1937] - -[Sidenote: Balaam’s magic experiments.] - -Origen remarks that magicians differ in the amount of power they -possess. Balaam was a very famous and expert 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 _expertus_ here -is an interesting indication of the close connection between magic and -experiment.[1938] - -[Sidenote: Limitation to his magic power.] - -Great, however, as was Balaam’s fame and power, he could only curse and -not bless, an indication that he operated 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 services 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. - -[Sidenote: Divine prophecy distinct from magic and divination.] - -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 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 between 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.[1939] But he affirms that divine prophecy and -divination are two different things and cites the Biblical prohibition -of the latter. - -[Sidenote: The ventriloquist really invoked Samuel for Saul.] - -In his commentary upon the First Book of Samuel,[1940] Origen takes -the ground that when Saul consulted the witch or ventriloquist -(ἐγγαστριμύθος), Samuel’s ghost really appeared and spoke to Saul, for -the Scriptural account plainly says that the woman saw Samuel[1941] -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. - -[Sidenote: Christians less affected by magic than philosophers are.] - -Origen disputes the statement of Celsus that philosophers are not -affected by the magic arts by pointing out that in Moiragenes’s _Life -of Apollonius 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.”[1942] On the other -hand Origen makes the counter-assertion that the followers of Christ -“who live according to His gospel, using night and day continuously -and becomingly the prescribed prayers, are not carried away either by -magic or demons.” - -[Sidenote: Their superstitious methods against magic.] - -If these “prescribed prayers” were set forms of words, they would seem -not far removed in character from the incantations of the magicians -which they were supposed to counteract. An even clearer example of -preventive magic is seen in Origen’s explanation that the practice of -circumcision was a safeguard against some angel (_sic_) hostile to the -Jewish race.[1943] - -[Sidenote: Incantations.] - -If demons are for Origen of primary importance in 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.”[1944] 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.”[1945] 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 incantations -such expressions as “God of Abraham.”[1946] 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.”[1947] Yet he will -not acknowledge that the Jews practice magic. He also denies the charge -of Celsus that Christians use incantations and the names of 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, according to the holy Scriptures,” or “the name of Jesus -accompanied by the announcement of the narratives which relate to Him” -(presumably a repetition of the names of the four Evangelists).[1948] -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.[1949] - -[Sidenote: The power of words.] - -Origen, however, does not try to justify these Hebrew and 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 another language -they lose their operative force, as those who are skilled in the use -of incantations have noted.[1950] Thus not what is signified by the -words, but the qualities and peculiarities of the words themselves, are -potent for this or that effect. It seems strange that Origen should -thus cite enchanters, 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.[1951] 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 subject.”[1952] -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 Brahmans.” - -[Sidenote: Origen admits a connection between the power of words and -magic.] - -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 -entirely 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 -appropriate to their nature, are possessed of great power.” - -[Sidenote: Jewish and Christian employment of powerful names is really -magic.] - -These last clauses make it clear that Jews and Christians 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 Epicurus -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.”[1953] Origen also states in his -_Commentary upon Matthew_[1954] that the Jews are regarded as adepts -in adjuration of demons and that they employ adjurations in the Hebrew -language drawn from the books of Solomon. Moreover, 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 different -purposes.” “ ... And when one is able to philosophize about the mystery -of names, he will find much to say respecting the titles of the -angels of God, of whom one is 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,[1955] and the downright incantations of -the magicians, there is surely little to choose. - -[Sidenote: Celsus’ theory of demons.] - -From the names of God and angels, by uttering which such 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 superintending spirits.”[1956] 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 -without receiving these gifts of nature from the demons to whom the -various provinces of nature have been assigned.[1957] 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.[1958] 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 suspects, 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 things as relate to this mortal -life.”[1959] Celsus himself, however, 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 offices of -piety.”[1960] Celsus believes that divine providence regulates the acts -of the demons and so asks: “Why are we not to serve demons?”[1961] - -[Sidenote: Origen calls demons wicked.] - -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.[1962] 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.”[1963] Really we probably have -here to do with the astrological decans or sub-divisions of the signs -of the zodiac into sections of ten degrees each. - -[Sidenote: But believes in presiding angels.] - -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 example, 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.”[1964] He quotes the Septuagint version of -Deuteronomy, “When the most High divided the nations.... He set -the bounds of the people according to the number of the angels of -God.”[1965] He narrates how after Babel, men “were conducted by those -angels who imprinted on each his native language to the different -parts of the earth according to their deserts.”[1966] He concludes -by saying, “These remarks are to be understood as being made by us -with a concealed meaning,”[1967] 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 indebted to demons, Origen responds, “We indeed also maintain ... -the agency and control of certain beings whom we may call invisible -husbandmen and guardians; ... but we deny that those invisible agents -are demons.”[1968] - -In his fourteenth homily on Numbers, as extant in Rufinus’s -translation,[1969] Origen again speaks of presiding angels in these -words. “And what is so pleasant, what is so magnificent 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 paraphrase of it in _The Occult Philosophy_ of Henry Cornelius -Agrippa,[1970] 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, kingdoms, 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_,[1971] Origen states that particular -offices are assigned to individual angels, as curing diseases to -Raphael, and the conduct of wars to Gabriel. This notion he perhaps -derived from the _Book of Enoch_ which, however, he states in -his _Reply to Celsus_ is not accepted by the churches as divinely -inspired.[1972] He further declares on the authority of passages in -the New Testament that to one angel the Church of the Ephesians was -entrusted; to another, 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.[1973] - -[Sidenote: A law of spiritual gravitation.] - -Origen advances a further theory concerning spirits, which may be -described as a sort of law of spiritual gravitation. It is that when -souls are pure and “not weighted 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.[1974] Origen therefore infers that pagan gods “who are -attached for entire ages to particular dwellings and places” on earth, -are wicked and polluted spirits. Origen of course will not admit that -Christians or Jews bow down even to angels; such worship they reserve -for God alone.[1975] - -[Sidenote: Attitude of Celsus toward astrology.] - -Both Celsus and Origen closely associate with the world of invisible -spirits, whether these be angels or demons, the visible heavenly -bodies, and thus lead us from magic, which 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.”[1976] This shows that Celsus was much more favorably inclined -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 _magnus -annus_, 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.[1977] Origen also complains that -Celsus regards as a divinely-inspired nation the Chaldeans, who were -the founders of “deceitful genethlialogy,”[1978] 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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude of Origen toward astrology.] - -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_,[1979] because he is convinced that to -admit their truth is to annihilate free-will. But he is far from having -freed himself fundamentally 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.[1980] The body of -a star is material, it is true, but also ethereal. But furthermore -Origen is inclined to agree, both in the _De principiis_[1981] and in -the _Contra Celsum_,[1982] that the stars are rational beings (λογικὰ -καί σπουδαῖα—the latter word had already 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[1983] to mean that the stars -have in general been assigned by God to all the nations beneath the -heaven, but asserts that from this system of astral satrapies God’s -chosen people were exempted. He is willing to admit that the stars -foretell many things, and puts especial faith in comets as omens.[1984] -He states that they have appeared on the eve of dynastic changes, great -wars, and other disasters, and inclines also to agree with Chaeremon -the Stoic that they may come as signs of future good, as in the case of -the star announcing the birth of Christ.[1985] But while Origen will -grant reasoning faculties and a certain 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.”[1986] - -Pierre Daniel Huet (1630-1721), the learned bishop of Avranches and -editor of Origen, in his commentaries upon Origen[1987] 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[1988] 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.[1989] 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. - -[Sidenote: Further discussion in his _Commentary on Genesis_.] - -In a fragment from Origen’s _Commentary on Genesis_ preserved by -Eusebius we have a further discussion of the stars and astrology.[1990] -Here he represents even Christians as troubled by the doctrine that -the stars control human 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 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 -foreknowledge 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 person will do and suffer.”[1991] 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 arguing 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.[1992] 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 -Plotinus a little later in the same century. - -[Sidenote: Problems of the waters above the firmament and of one or -more heavens.] - -In explaining the Book of Genesis Origen said that celestial 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.[1993] Concerning the question -of a 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.”[1994] - -[Sidenote: Augury, dreams, and prophecy.] - -Of other pagan methods of divination than astrology Origen disapproved -and classed them, as we have seen, as the work of demons. He was -impressed by the weight of testimony to the validity of augury,[1995] -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[1996] and classified as unclean the animals commonly 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 accepted -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 marvelous to him, since -“in many other cases it has happened that a dream has shown persons -the proper course of action.”[1997] 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 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 importance.[1998] Once Origen alludes to physiognomy, saying, -“If there be any truth in the doctrine of the physiognomists, whether -Zopyrus or Loxus or Polemon.”[1999] - -[Sidenote: Animals and gems.] - -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[2000] 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.[2001] 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.”[2002] Origen also adduces -the marvelous methods of generation of several kinds of animals in -support of the virgin birth of Jesus.[2003] Origen’s allusions to -gems can scarcely be classified as natural science. He contends that -Plato’s statement that our precious stones are a reflection of gems -in that better land is taken from Isaiah’s description of the city of -God.[2004] In another passage Origen again quotes Isaiah regarding -the walls, foundations, battlements, and gates of various precious -stones, but states that he cannot stop to examine their spiritual -meaning at present.[2005] In one of his homilies on the Book of -Numbers Origen displays a favorable attitude towards medical and -pharmaceutical investigation, saying, “For if there is any science -from God, what will be more from Him than the science of health, in -which too the virtues of herbs and the diverse properties of juices are -determined.”[2006] - -[Sidenote: Origen later accused of countenancing magic.] - -Origen’s belief that the stars were rational beings continued to be -held by the sect called Origenists and also by the heretic Priscillian -and his followers in the later fourth century. Priscillian, as we have -seen, was accused of magic and executed in 385. But we are surprised -to find Theophilus 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.[2007] 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 Christian, can thus make himself a protector of Elymas -the magician 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.[2008] - - - - - 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 concerning - 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. - - -[Sidenote: Plan of this chapter.] - -In this chapter we shall supplement the picture of the Christian -attitude towards magic supplied us in preceding chapters 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 Lactantius, 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. - -[Sidenote: Tertullian on magic.] - -Some important features of Origen’s account of magic are duplicated -in the writings of the western church father, Tertullian, who wrote -at about the same time or perhaps a few years before Origen. Again -the Jews are represented as calling Christ a magician,[2009] and when -Tertullian challenges the emperors to allow a Christian exorcist -to appear before them and attempt to expel a demon from someone so -possessed and force the spirit to confess its evil character, he -expects that his Christian exorcist will be accused of employing -magic.[2010] 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.[2011] 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 prescriptions quite contrary to accepted medical -practice.[2012] “There is hardly a human being who is unattended by -a demon.”[2013] Magicians are described by Tertullian as producing -phantasms, insulting the souls of the dead, injuring boys for purposes -of divination, sending dreams, and performing many miraculous feats -by their complicated jugglery.[2014] “The science of magic” is well -defined as “a multiform contagion of the human mind, an artificer -of every error, a destroyer of safety and soul.” As examples of -well-known magicians Tertullian lists Ostanes and Typhon and Dardanus -and Damigeron[2015] and Nectabis[2016] and Berenice. Tertullian -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 pythoness 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 explicit. 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’[2017] reality devoured their deceit.” - -[Sidenote: Astrology attacked.] - -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. Tertullian 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 -astrology on their account, although he again implies the existence 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 Tertullian -affirms 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 punished.”[2018] Tertullian rejoices that the _mathematici_ -or astrologers are forbidden to enter Rome or Italy, the reason being, -as he states in another passage,[2019] that they are consulted so much -in regard to the life of the emperor. - -[Sidenote: Resemblance to Minucius Felix.] - -Tertullian’s account of magic is perhaps borrowed from the dialogue -entitled _Octavius_ by M. Minucius Felix,[2020] which is generally -regarded as the oldest extant work of Christian 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,[2021] and a third passage of the same sort -appears in Cyprian of Carthage in the third century.[2022] 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 regard it as a deceptive and -rather unreal art, saying, “The magicians not only are acquainted with -demons, but whatever 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 making real things seem -non-existent.” - -[Sidenote: Lactantius.] - -A century after Tertullian Lactantius of Gaul treats of magic and -demons in about the same way in his _Divine Institutes_,[2023] 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 -beforehand 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.”[2024] -Lactantius believes 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,”[2025] -the very expression that we have just heard from Minucius Felix. More -specifically Lactantius regards necromancy, oracles, liver-divination, -augury, and astrology as all invented by the demons.[2026] Like Origen -he emphasizes the power of the sign of the cross and the name of Jesus -against the evil spirits,[2027] 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.[2028] - -[Sidenote: Hippolytus on magic and astrology.] - -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 Hippolytus, instead of attacks -upon astrology as impious, immoral, and fatalistic, 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 -_Philosophumena_ or _Refutation of All Heresies_[2029] Hippolytus -set forth the tenets of the Greek philosophers, the system of the -astrologers, and the practice of the magicians in order later to be -able to show how much the various heretics 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.[2030] - -[Sidenote: Frauds of magicians in answering questions.] - -In exposing the frauds of magicians Hippolytus uses the word μάγος, -and not γόης, 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 fumigating it with vapor of a gall nut or employing -other methods to make the concealed letters visible. Having by some -such method discovered the question, he instructs the medium, who is -now supposed to be possessed of demons and is reclining upon a couch, -what answer to give by whispering 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, according 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.”[2031] - -[Sidenote: Other tricks and illusions.] - -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 wax so that they cannot breathe and presently die of suffocation, -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.[2032] -He tells how the magician produces 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 attaching fish scales to -the ceiling. They produce the sensation 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.[2033] - -[Sidenote: Defects and merits of Hippolytus’ exposure of magic and of -magic itself.] - -This exposition of the frauds of the magicians by Hippolytus is rather -broken and incoherent, at least in the form in which his text has -reached us.[2034] 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 noteworthy 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, we see that magic fraud involves chemical experiment and -considerable knowledge or error in the field of natural science. Under -the guise or tyranny of magic experimental science is at work. - -[Sidenote: Hippolytus’ sources.] - -The question then arises whether Hippolytus himself discovered -these tricks of the magicians or whether he is 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 predicting 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_. - -[Sidenote: Justin Martyr and others on the witch of Endor.] - -Turning back now to the subject of the witch of Endor, we find that -some of the church fathers agree with Origen rather than Tertullian -that the witch really invoked Samuel. Before Origen’s time Justin -Martyr in _The Dialogue with Trypho_[2035] 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 -writings of Origen, lists other Christian authors[2036] who agreed -with Origen on this question, and further informs us that the ancient -rabbis were wont to say that a soul invoked within 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. - -[Sidenote: Gregory of Nyssa and Eustathius concerning the -ventriloquist.] - -Two ecclesiastics of the fourth century composed special treatises upon -the ventriloquist or witch of Endor in which they took the opposite -view from that of Origen. The briefer of these two treatises is by -Gregory of Nyssa[2037] who states, without mentioning Origen by name, -that some previous writers have contended that Samuel was truly invoked -by magic with divine permission in order that he might see his mistake -in having called Saul the enemy of ventriloquists. But Gregory believes -that Samuel was already in paradise and hence could not be invoked -from the infernal regions; but that it was a demon from the infernal -regions who predicted to Saul, “To-morrow you and Jonathan 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_,[2038] indicates. Eustathius holds that it was illegal -to consult ventriloquists 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, 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.[2039] Furthermore, David was already so prominent in public -affairs that a demon might easily guess that he would succeed Saul. - -[Sidenote: Gregory of Nyssa _Against Fate_.] - -Gregory of Nyssa also composed a treatise, entitled _Against -Fate_,[2040] in the form of a disputation between a pagan philosopher -and himself at Constantinople in 382 A. D. His opponent holds that -the life of man is determined by the constellations at his nativity, -upon whose decree even conversion to Christianity would thus be made -dependent. Gregory 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 widespread 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. - -[Sidenote: Astrology and the birth of Christ.] - -When the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew included the story -of the wise men from the east who had seen the star, there can be -little or no doubt that he inserted 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 -Matthew is in a sense an attempt to present the birth of Christ in a -way to comply with the most searching tests of contemporary science. -But the early Christians were relatively rude and unlettered, and this -effort to construct a royal horoscope for Jesus is a crude and faulty -one from the astrological standpoint. For this, however, the author -of the Gospel and not the art of astrology is obviously responsible. -As a result, however, of the Gnostic reaction against astrological -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 criticizing -the art of astrology itself. - -[Sidenote: Chrysostom on the star of the Magi.] - -Of patristic commentaries upon the passage in the Gospel of Matthew -dealing with the Magi and the star of Bethlehem one of the fullest -and most frequently cited by medieval writers is that attributed to -Chrysostom. I say “attributed,” because in addition to his genuine -sixth homily upon Matthew[2041] there was generally ascribed to -Chrysostom in the middle ages another homily which is extant only in -Latin[2042] 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 Cappadocia 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. -Chrysostom and a playmate later unsuspectingly fished an object out of -the water which turned out to be this very book, and 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.[2043] - -[Sidenote: Sixth homily on Matthew.] - -In his sixth homily upon Matthew Chrysostom recognizes the difficulties -presented by the Scriptural account of the Magi and the star, and -approaches the task of expounding 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 -argues 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 narrative 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 further argues -that the star of Bethlehem was not like other stars nor even a star -at all,[2044] 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 standing over the head of the child. Chrysostom -therefore concludes 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 something 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. - -[Sidenote: The spurious homily.] - -The other homily ascribed to Chrysostom repeats some of the 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 appearance of this -star and the gifts to be offered. This writing was handed down from -father to son through successive 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 of the harvest they climbed a mountain -to a cave with delightful 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 instructed them to set out for Judea.[2045] 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 resurrection, 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 certainly 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. - -[Sidenote: Number, names, and home of the Magi.] - -We have already noted that Origen seems to have been the first of -the fathers to state the number of the Magi as three, whereas the -homily just considered implies that there were twelve of them. Their -representation in art as three in number did not become general -until the fourth century,[2046] while the depiction of them as kings -was also a gradual and, according to Kehrer, later growth.[2047] -Bouché-Leclercq, citing an earlier monograph,[2048] states that the -royalty of the Magi was invented towards the sixth century to show -the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies,[2049] and that Bede is -the first who knows their names. But Mâle 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.”[2050] The provenance of the Magi was -variously stated by the Christian fathers:[2051] 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_.[2052] The homily which we were just considering -gave the impression that they came from India. - -[Sidenote: Liturgical drama of the Magi: _The Three Kings of Cologne_.] - -In the middle ages the Magi appeared in liturgical drama as well as in -art. An early instance is a tenth century lectionary from Compiègne, -now preserved at Paris,[2053] where 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 -existence the _History_ or _Deeds of the Three Kings of Cologne_, as -the Magi came to be called from the supposed translation 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,[2054] -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 chapter. 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.[2055] After they had -returned home and had successively migrated to Christ above, another -apparition of a star marked this fact.[2056] The treatise exists in -many manuscripts[2057] and was printed more than once before 1500. - -[Sidenote: Another homily on the Magi.] - -Finally we may note the contents of the homily on the Magi which -immediately precedes the liturgical drama concerning them in the -above mentioned tenth century lectionary.[2058] 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 born 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. - -[Sidenote: Priscillianists answered.] - -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 case of Jacob and Esau. The -star was merely a sign to the Magi and by its twinkling 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. - -[Sidenote: Number and race of the Magi again.] - -The homily goes on to say that opinions differ as to who the Magi were -and whence they came. Owing to the prophecy that the kings of Tarsus -and the isles offer 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 Chaldeans 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 contributions 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.[2059] - - - - - 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 _Hexaemeron_ - of Ambrose—Basil’s medieval influence—Science and religion—Scientific - curiosity of Basil’s audience—Allusions to amusements—Conflicts - 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. - - -[Sidenote: Lactantius not a fair example.] - -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.[2060] -He ridicules the theory of the Antipodes,[2061] which he perhaps -understands none too well, asking if anyone can be so inept as to -think that there are men whose feet are above their heads, although -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, however, 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. - -[Sidenote: Commentaries on the Biblical account of creation.] - -But in the commentaries upon the books of the Bible which the fathers -multiplied so voluminously it was necessary for them, if they began -their labors with _Genesis_, to deal at the very start in the first -verses of the first book of 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[2062] seems to have been both the best[2063] and the most -influential, and will be considered by us as an example of Christian -attitude towards the natural science and, to some extent, the -superstition of the ancient world. - -[Sidenote: Date and delivery of Basil’s _Hexaemeron_.] - -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 -approach of darkness surprising him and of its consequently being time -to stop.[2064] 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. - -[Sidenote: The _Hexaemeron_ of Ambrose.] - -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 of Theophilus _To Autolycus_ we -find a few chapters[2065] devoted 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.”[2066] 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.[2067] 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 possible, -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 and Basil differed fundamentally in -this respect, that Origen indulged to a great extent in allegorical -interpretation of the Mosaic account of creation,[2068] 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.”[2069] - -[Sidenote: Basil’s medieval influence.] - -At any rate, Basil’s _Hexaemeron_ seems to have supplanted all such -previous treatises in Greek, while its western 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,[2070] and include -an Anglo-Saxon epitome ascribed to Aelfric in the Bodleian Library. -Bartholomew of England[2071] in the thirteenth 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 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 translated from Greek into Latin, Ambrose of -Milan, and Augustine, 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.[2072] - -[Sidenote: Science and religion.] - -The general tenor of Basil’s treatise may be described as follows. -He accepts the literal sense of the first chapter 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 statements 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.”[2073] -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. - -[Sidenote: Scientific curiosity of Basil’s audience.] - -Moreover, while Basil may affirm that the edification of the church -is his sole aim and interest, it is evident that his audience are -possessed by a lively scientific curiosity, 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 previous 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 questions.” 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.[2074] -It is perhaps on their account that Basil often speaks of God as the -supreme artisan or artificer or artist,[2075] or calls their attention -to “the vast and varied workshop of divine creation,”[2076] and makes -other flattering allusions to arts which support life or produce -enduring work, and to waterways and sea trade.[2077] He also seems to -have a sincere appreciation of the arts and admiration of beauty, which -he twice defines.[2078] - -[Sidenote: Allusions to amusements.] - -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,[2079] apparently as the surest way of quickly -catching 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.”[2080] He also -alludes to the spinning of tops and to what was apparently the game of -push-ball.[2081] - -[Sidenote: Conflicts with Greek science.] - -Taking up the contents of the _Hexaemeron_ more in detail, we may -first note those points upon which Basil supports 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.[2082] He also denies that the form of the -world alone is due to God and that matter is of separate origin.[2083] -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 evident from the first -word.”[2084] He also defends the statement of Scripture that there are -waters above the firmament, not only against the doctrines of ancient -astronomy,[2085] 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 representing 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.”[2086] - -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 development,” and that “the prevailing view was that of -the sevenfold division of the heavens.”[2087] He fails, however, -to discriminate 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 example, 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.”[2088] - -[Sidenote: Agreement with Greek science.] - -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.”[2089] He advances numerous proofs of the immense size of the -sun and moon.[2090] He accepts the hypothesis of four elements but -abstains from passing judgment upon the question of a fifth element of -which the heavens and celestial bodies may be composed.[2091] He thinks -that “it needs not the space of a moment for light to pass through” the -ether.[2092] - -[Sidenote: Qualification of the Scriptural account of creation.] - -Moreover, Basil finds it necessary to qualify some of the statements -in the first chapter of _Genesis_. He interprets 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,[2093] recognizing that otherwise -“our explanation 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 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 -communicate with each other and together discharge themselves into the -Great Sea.” He speaks of “the vast ocean, so dreaded by navigators, -which surrounds the isle of Britain and western Spain.”[2094] Later -he contends that “sea water is the source of all the moisture of the -earth.”[2095] 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.”[2096] - -[Sidenote: The four elements and four qualities.] - -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 singular, simple, and pure. Earth is at the same time dry -and cold; water, cold and moist; air, moist and warm; fire, warm and -dry.”[2097] 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.[2098] - -[Sidenote: Enthusiasm for nature as God’s work.] - -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.”[2099] As he had said in the preceding -homily, “A single plant, a blade of grass is sufficient to occupy all -your intelligence in the contemplation of the skill which produced -it.”[2100] He sees “great wisdom in small things.”[2101] 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.”[2102] - -[Sidenote: Sin and nature.] - -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.”[2103] - -[Sidenote: Habits of animals.] - -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 characteristic of the _Physiologus_. But he also -refers in a number 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 foretells 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.”[2104] - -[Sidenote: Marvels of nature.] - -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.”[2105] He is ready to ascribe astounding -powers to animals, and believes, like Pliny, that “the greatest -vessels, sailing with full sails, are easily stopped by a tiny -fish.”[2106] 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.”[2107] 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.”[2108] - -[Sidenote: Spontaneous generation.] - -Like most ancient scientists, Basil believes that some animals 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.[2109] Grasshoppers and other -nameless insects and sometimes frogs and mice are “born from the earth -itself,” and “mud alone produces eels,”[2110] a theory not much more -amazing 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 without noting that abundant rain in upper Egypt in -hot weather would itself be in the nature of a miracle. - -[Sidenote: Lack of scientific scepticism.] - -Basil is less sceptical than Apollonius of Tyana in regard to the -birth of lions and of vipers, repeating unquestioningly the statement -that the viper gnaws its way out of its mother’s womb, and that -the lioness bears only one whelp because it tears her with its -claws.[2111] Of purely scientific 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 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.”[2112] - -[Sidenote: Sun worship and astrology.] - -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.[2113] However, he does “not pretend to -be able to separate light from the body of the sun.”[2114] Theophilus -in his earlier discussion of creation had stated, perhaps copying -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 produced from the heavenly bodies”—which is, -indeed, a fundamental hypothesis 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.”[2115] 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[2116] to refutation 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 attribute to the -constellations and signs of the zodiac the characteristics of animals -is to subject them to external influences, 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 -influence upon the organization of animals and of all living things,” -and that the moon makes “all nature participate in her changes.”[2117] - -[Sidenote: Permanence of species.] - -Basil’s utterances concerning the world of nature are not always -consistent. In describing the creation of vegetation 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 reproduction of kind.”[2118] 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.”[2119] 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 -peculiarities destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature, -as though it had just been constituted, follows the course of ages -forever young.”[2120] - -[Sidenote: Final impression from the _Hexaemeron_.] - -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 compare 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 than Basil’s attitude -is that of his audience, curious concerning 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 successful in checking it than they were in checking -the commerce 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.”[2121] - -[Sidenote: _The Medicine Chest_ of Epiphanius.] - -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.[2122] 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,[2123] buprestis,[2124] lizard, dog-fish or shark, -mole, centipede, scorpion, and various vipers. We are further told of -substances that drive away serpents, such as the herbs _dictamnon_, -_abrotonum_, and _libanotis_, the gum _storax_,[2125] 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, Iolaos the Bithynian, Heraclides of Tarentum, and a number of -other names.[2126] - -[Sidenote: Gems in the high priest’s breastplate.] - -If in his _Panarion_ Epiphanius makes use of ancient botany, medicine, -and zoology for purposes of comparison, in his treatise on the twelve -gems in the breastplate of the Hebrew high priest[2127] 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.[2128] -This treatise probably was better known in the middle ages than the -_Panarion_, 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, however, 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 without any -such qualification, however, that he declares that the topaz,[2129] -when ground on a physician’s grindstone, although red itself, emits a -white milky fluid, and, moreover, 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. - -[Sidenote: Some other gems.] - -Epiphanius mentions a few other gems than those in the high priest’s -breastplate. Among these is the stone hyacinth[2130] 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. Certain varieties of it are found in the north among the -barbarous Scythians. The gems lie at the bottom of a deep valley which -is inaccessible to men because walled in completely 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 valley 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.[2131] - -[Sidenote: The so-called _Physiologus_: problem of its origin.] - -The problem of an early Christian work entitled _Physiologus_ is no -easy one, although much has been written concerning it[2132] and more -has been taken for granted. For instance, one often meets such wild -and sweeping statements as that “the name Physiologus” was “given to a -cyclopedia 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.”[2133] My later treatment of medieval science will -make patent the inaccuracy of such a statement. But to return to the -problem of the origin of Physiologus. The original Greek text,[2134] -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 imitations, -abbreviations, amplifications, adaptations, and translations of it in -other languages and of later date. Thus we have versions or fragments -in Armenian,[2135] Syriac,[2136] Ethiopian,[2137] and Arabic;[2138] -a Greek text from medieval manuscripts, mostly of late date;[2139] -various Latin versions in numerous manuscripts from the eighth century -on;[2140] in Old High German a prose translation of about 1000 A. D. -and a poetical version later in the same language;[2141] and Bestiaries -such as those of Philip of Thaon[2142] and William the Clerk[2143] -in the Romance languages[2144] and other vernaculars.[2145] 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 -concerning 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_,[2146] regarded Origen as its author. In a -medical manuscript at Vienna is a _Physiologus_ in Greek ascribed -to Epiphanius of Cyprus,[2147] 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,[2148] who so closely duplicated the _Hexaemeron_ of -Basil. A work on the natures of animals is also attributed to John -Chrysostom.[2149] I am not sure whether a _Physiologus_ ascribed -to John the Scot in a tenth century Latin manuscript is the same -work.[2150] - -[Sidenote: Does the title apply to any one particular treatise?] - -The _Physiologus_ is commonly described as a symbolic bestiary, in -which the characteristics and properties of animals are accompanied -by Christian allegories and instruction. 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, centuries, and languages, he noted one common -feature, that the allegorical interpretation was sharply separated -from the extracts from _Physiologus_ and sometimes omitted entirely. -This is what one would naturally expect since a _physiologus_ is a -natural scientist on whose statements concerning this or that the -allegorical interpretation is presumably 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_ -(physical scientists), and just as medieval writers often cite what -the philosophers say or the _phisici_ say without having reference 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 bestiis_ ascribed to Hugh of St. Victor of the twelfth century -_physici_ are cited[2151] as well as _Physiologus_. When Albertus -Magnus states in the thirteenth century in his work on minerals -that the _physiologi_ have assigned very different causes for the -marvelous occult virtue in stones, he evidently simply alludes to the -opinions of scientists in general and has no such work or works as the -so-called _Physiologus_ in mind.[2152] 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 authorities.[2153] Furthermore, even in works -which deal with the natures of animals and which either have the word -_Physiologus_ 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 _Physiologus_ 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 common origin. Or at least the greatest liberties -were taken with the original text and title,[2154] so that the word -_Physiologus_ came to apply less to any particular book, author, or -authority than to almost any treatment of animals in a certain style. - -[Sidenote: And to what sort of a treatise?] - -But of what style? It has too often been assumed that theology -dominated all medieval thought and that natural science was employed -only for purposes of religious symbolism. Of this general assumption -the _Physiologus_ has been seized upon as an apt illustration and -it has been represented as a symbolic bestiary which influenced the -middle ages more than any other book except the Bible[2155] and whose -allegories accounted for the animal sculpture of the Gothic cathedrals -and the strange or familiar beasts in the borders of the Bayeux -Tapestry, the margins of illuminated manuscripts, and so on and so -forth. - -[Sidenote: Medieval art shows almost no symbolic influence of the -_Physiologus_.] - -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 Mâle, “craftsmen who delighted in nature for -its own sake, sometimes lovingly copying the living forms, sometimes -playing with them, combining and contorting 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 -inveighed 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 -Mâle, “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 book (_Speculum ecclesiae_, -c. 1090-1120) and from that book into sermons. I have searched in vain -(with but two exceptions) for representations of the hedgehog, beaver, -tiger, and other animals which figure in the Bestiaries but which are -not mentioned by Honorius.”[2156] - -[Sidenote: Physiologus was more natural scientist than allegorist.] - -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 scientific zoology of Aristotle submerged that of the -_Physiologus_ in writers like Thomas of Cantimpré and Albertus Magnus -who, although they may still embody portions of the _Physiologus_, -divest it of its characteristic religious elements.[2157] But were -its characteristic elements ever religious? Were they not always -scientific or pseudo-scientific? 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 introductory scriptural texts appear in -the Greek version ascribed to Epiphanius. Moreover, in the Bestiaries -where the allegorical 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 without 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.[2158] 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. - - - - -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—Marvels - wrought by magic—Cannot be equalled by most Christians—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—Augustine’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. - - -[Sidenote: Date and influence of Augustine.] - -The utterances of Augustine concerning magic and astrology have been -reserved for separate treatment in this 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 the Christian attitude toward natural -science.[2159] But later in treating of medieval writers on nature I -may have occasion to point out certain passages in which they may have -been influenced by Augustine. - -[Sidenote: Christianity and magic.] - -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.[2160] And he -tells us of books of magic which are ascribed to Christ Himself or -to the apostles Peter and Paul.[2161] In reply to such charges or -assertions he insists that Christians 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 depraved -curiosity.”[2162] 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.[2163] He admits, however, -that condemnation of magic and legislation against it had begun before -Christianity.[2164] - -[Sidenote: Magic and theurgy censured as well as _Goetia_.] - -Augustine uniformly speaks of magic with censure and several times -adverts to “the crimes of magicians.”[2165] 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 distinction between the _malefici_ or sorcerers or practitioners of -_goetia_, whom they call truly guilty of illicit arts and deserving -of condemnation, and those who practice theurgy, whom they call -praiseworthy. Porphyry, for instance, had stated that theurgy was -useful to purge the soul and prepare it to receive spirits and to -see God. Augustine, however, holds that in other passages Porphyry -condemned theurgy, and in any case he himself refuses to sanction -it.[2166] He stoutly denies that “souls are purged and reconciled to -God through sacrilegious likenesses and impious curiosity and magic -consecrations.”[2167] Very possibly Augustine would have classed as -improper theurgy some of the use of powerful names described by Origen. - -[Sidenote: Magic due to demons.] - -At any rate Augustine declares that theurgists and sorcerers alike “are -entangled in the deceitful rites of demons who may masquerade under the -names of angels.”[2168] 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 offerings -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,[2169]—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. - -[Sidenote: Marvels wrought by magic.] - -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,[2170] 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 appearance of their earthly -bodies, why may not the demons with their aerial bodies produce -marvelous changes in elementary substances or by occult influence -construct phantom images to delude human senses?[2171] Augustine even -grants that the magicians are able to terrify the inferior spirits into -obedience 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 regard 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.[2172] - -[Sidenote: Cannot be equalled by most Christians.] - -Augustine further grants that magicians, although stained with crime, -can at present work miracles which most Christians and even most saints -cannot perform. For this, 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. -Augustine, like earlier fathers, usually fails to mention Aaron in this -connection.[2173] 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.[2174] - -[Sidenote: Miracles of heretics.] - -Like Origen, Augustine further distinguishes the miracles wrought by -heretics both from magic and from the miracles of true Christians. He -holds that every soul in part controls itself and exercises as it were -a private jurisdiction, 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.[2175] 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. - -[Sidenote: Theory of demons.] - -For his theory of demons and their characteristics Augustine 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_,[2176] 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.[2177] - -[Sidenote: Limitations to the power of magic.] - -There were, for example, some things which Pharaoh’s magicians could -not do and in which Moses clearly excelled 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 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.[2178] Augustine furthermore has -some hesitation about accepting the stories of magic transformations -of men into animals, which he represents 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 -administered in the cheese, just as Circe transformed the companions of -Ulysses and as Apuleius says happened to himself 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.”[2179] 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. - -[Sidenote: Its fantastic character.] - -Thus, as we have already seen over and over again, the fantastic and -deceptive character of magic is dimly realized. 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 ultimate and eternal -damnation through the attractions of the magic art.[2180] - -[Sidenote: Samuel and the witch of Endor.] - -Augustine twice responded to questions concerning the witch of Endor’s -apparent invocation of the spirit of Samuel, repeating in his _De octo -Dulcitii quaestionibus_[2181] what he had already said in _De diversis -quaestionibus ad Simplicianum_.[2182] In certain respects Augustine’s -treatment of the problem differs from those which we have previously -examined. 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 calling 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 -appeared to the living long after his death? - -[Sidenote: Natural marvels.] - -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 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.”[2183] 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.[2184] - -[Sidenote: Relation between magic and science.] - -Once at least, however, Augustine associates science and magic. In his -_Confessions_, after speaking of sensual pleasure he also censures “the -vain and curious desire of investigation” 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.”[2185] - -[Sidenote: Superstitions akin to magic.] - -Of this dangerous borderland between magic and science Augustine -has more to say in some chapters of his _Christian Doctrine_.[2186] -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_,[2187] -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 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 Doctrine_ 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 suspensions 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. - -[Sidenote: Survival of pagan superstition among the laity.] - -The same attitude toward superstitious medicine is shown in a sermon -attributed to Augustine but probably spurious.[2188] 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 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[2189] -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. - -[Sidenote: Augustine’s attack upon astrology.] - -Nor will Augustine, to return to his remarks in the _Christian -Doctrine_,[2190] exempt “from this genus of pernicious superstition -those who are called _genethliaci_ from their consideration 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 invention, and that if their predictions come -true, this is due either to chance or to demons who wish to confirm -mankind in its error.[2191] 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 refused to employ a -_haruspex_.[2192] Perhaps on this account he 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.[2193] - -[Sidenote: Fate and free will.] - -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 constellations, 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 astrologers will answer that the stars -simply signify and in no way cause evil, just as God foresees but does -not compel human sinfulness. - -[Sidenote: Argument from twins.] - -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,[2194] Augustine adopts another 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 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 intellect,” 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.[2195] - -[Sidenote: Defense of the astrologers.] - -But the astrologers reply that even twins are not born at precisely the -same instant and do not have the same horoscope, but are born under -different constellations, so 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 horoscope -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 simultaneously -in the same womb may be born at different times and have different -fates after birth, he sees no reason why persons 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 -said to have selected a certain hour for intercourse with his wife in -order to beget a marvelous son—possibly an inaccurate allusion to the -story of Nectanebus[2196]—unless the hour of conception controls the -hour of birth, and consequently twins conceived together must have the -same horoscope. 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. - -[Sidenote: Elections.] - -With this Augustine turns from the case of twins to urge the -inconsistency of the astrological doctrine of elections, 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 determined 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 subject to the constellations. - -[Sidenote: Are animals and plants under the stars] - -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 -determined 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. Nevertheless, -Augustine feels that he has reduced the art of casting horoscopes to -an absurdity, as he feels sure that beasts and plants which are so -numerous must frequently be born at precisely the same instant as -human beings. Furthermore, it is plain that crops which are sown and -ripen simultaneously meet with very diverse fates in the end. Augustine -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 endowed 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. - -[Sidenote: Failure to disprove the control of nature by the stars.] - -Augustine cannot then be said to have advanced any 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 unrebutted. 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 _Tetrabiblos_ -of Ptolemy. His attack upon and criticism of astrology was therefore -narrow, partial, and inadequate, and did not prevent medieval men -from devoting themselves to that subject, although they might cite -his objections 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 concede 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 discussion of the -subject in _The City of God_ 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. - -[Sidenote: Natural divination and prophetic visions.] - -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 -predictions 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.[2197] - -[Sidenote: The star at Christ’s birth.] - -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.[2198] -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 creation, 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.[2199] Augustine further affirms that the star did not 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 born, 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 -satisfactorily. - -[Sidenote: Nature of the stars.] - -The problem of the nature of the stars is one which Augustine -prefers to leave unsolved, although it comes up several times in his -writings.[2200] 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 -Priscillianists to which we now come. - -[Sidenote: Orosius on the Priscillianists and Origenists.] - -An interchange of letters between Augustine and his Spanish -disciple Orosius deals with the error of the Priscillianists and -Origenists.[2201] Nothing is said to convict them of magic, which -was, however, the charge on which Priscillian 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 descended 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;[2202] 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. - -[Sidenote: Augustine’s letter.] - -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 somewhat -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, “If 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 sight,’ seems -to me to convey some such idea.”[2203] 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. - -[Sidenote: Attitude towards astronomy.] - -So set is Augustine against astrology that he even holds that -Christians may well leave the subject of astronomy alone, “because it -is related to the most pernicious error of 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, knowledge -of the stars is of little or no help in interpreting the divine -Scriptures.[2204] In another passage Augustine is somewhat 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 assertion 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.[2205] - -[Sidenote: Perfect numbers.] - -Augustine himself, however, was not above occupying his readers’ time -with discussion of the occult significance of numbers, towards belief -in which he shows himself inclined. 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 according 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.[2206] It is therefore not surprising to find ascribed to -Augustine a sermon on the correspondence between the ten plagues of -Egypt and the ten commandments which opens by remarking that it is not -without cause that the number of precepts in God’s law is the same as -the number of plagues with which Egypt was afflicted.[2207] - - - - - 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 astrology 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 declamations—Fusion of Christianity and paganism - in Synesius of Cyrene—His career—His interest in science—Belief in - occult sympathy between 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. - - -[Sidenote: Need of qualifying the patristic attitude.] - -In reading the writings of the Christian fathers one is impressed by -the fact that their tone is almost invariably that of the preacher. -In estimating therefore the practical 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 suggest -that as both clerics and apologists they were professionally 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 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 Constantine’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.”[2208] Others believed that astrology was the truth back of -all religions.[2209] - -[Sidenote: Plan of this chapter.] - -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 fusion of Neo-Platonism, Christianity, and -astrological theory. This, indeed, we have already done to some extent, -as our previous chapters on Neo-Platonism and on the Christian fathers -have carried us more or less into those centuries. 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 Capella 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. - -[Sidenote: Julius Firmicus Maternus] - -Julius Firmicus Maternus[2210] flourished during the reigns of -Constantine the Great and his sons. Sicily was his native 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_,[2211] -is addressed to Constantius and Constans, 340-350 A. D., and urges -them to eradicate pagan cults. The other, _Mathesis_,[2212] 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 -consuli designato_,[2213] 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.”[2214] This involves two -considerations, whether the attitude expressed in the two works is -really incompatible and whether the _Mathesis_ was written before or -after the _De errore_. - -[Sidenote: Date of the _Mathesis_.] - -Mommsen contended that “it is beyond doubt”[2215] 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 Constantius are frequently confused in the -sources, however,[2216] and even while the words, “_Constantinum -maximum principem et huius invictissimos liberos, domines et -Caesares nostros_,” seem to refer unmistakably to Constantine, it -must be remembered 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 -consuli designato_ as mere prophetic flattery or as an appointment -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, _consul 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,[2217] 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 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 continued -his importunities. Finally, after Lollianus has become proconsul and -ordinary consul elect, Firmicus completes the work and presents it -to him. Meanwhile Firmicus himself—who had formerly “resisted with -unbending confidence and firmness” factious and wicked and avaricious -men, “who from fear of law-suits seemed terrible to the unfortunate”; -and who “with liberal mind, despising 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;[2218]—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 -before 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.[2219] -It is possible, but seems unlikely. - -[Sidenote: Are the attitudes in Firmicus’ two works incompatible?] - -Certainly the date of the _Mathesis_ should be determined without -any assumption as to what Firmicus’ religion was when he wrote it. -For, if we regard his attitudes in _Mathesis_ and _De errore_ as -incompatible, it will be as difficult to explain how he could write -the _De errore_ after having composed the _Mathesis_ as _vice versa_. -After the steadfast affirmation of astrological principles in the -_Mathesis_ it is no easier to explain the fierce spirit of intolerance -toward paganism 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 explained 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 leisure for a -friend with the help of previous treatises on the subject. Why should -Firmicus mention Christ in the _Mathesis_? 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 contradictions in Constantine the -Great, the first Christian emperor, why balk at some inconsistency in a -writer who urges Constantine’s children against profane cults? On the -other hand, there are some striking correspondences between the _De -errore_ and _Mathesis_. - -[Sidenote: _De errore_ is not unfavorable to astrology.] - -It is noteworthy in the first place that in the _De errore_ Firmicus -does not attack astrology. But if he had been converted 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 _Mathesis_. 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. Another argument against pagan -worships is that they include human and immoral elements which cannot -be explained as based upon natural law[2220] 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,[2221] occur both in the _De errore_ and _Mathesis_. Furthermore, -in the _De errore_ Firmicus’ allusions to the planets, which include -a representation of the Sun making a reproachful address to certain -pagans,[2222] indicate that he regarded the stars as of immense -importance in the administration of the universe. - -[Sidenote: Attitude of both works to the emperors.] - -It is also worth remarking that in both works Firmicus sets the -emperors above the rest of mankind and closely associates 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 predictions 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”:[2223]—if he says this -in _Mathesis_, in _De errore_ he repeatedly addresses the emperors as -“most holy”[2224] and in one passage says, “You now, O Constantius and -Constans, most holy emperors, and the virtue of your venerated 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.”[2225] - -[Sidenote: Religious attitude of the _Mathesis_.] - -If the author of _De errore_ is not unfavorable to astrology the -author of the _Mathesis_ is strongly inclined towards monotheism -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 -demonstrate their might and majesty.”[2226] 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 attitude of the astrological works which -he uses as his authorities 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 respects they fit his -own age.[2227] 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,”[2228] and who made man the microcosm from the four -elements.[2229] He is prayed to thus: - -[Sidenote: An astrologer’s prayer.] - -“But lest my words be bereft of divine aid and the envy of some -hateful man impugn them by hostile attacks, whoever 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 refreshest 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 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 supplication we venerate; -grant us grace to attempt the explanation of the courses of thy stars; -thine is the power that somehow 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.”[2230] -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. - -[Sidenote: Christian objections to astrology met.] - -Firmicus provides not only for divine government of the universe and -creation of the world and man, but also for prayer to God and for -human free will,[2231] since by the divinity 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.[2232] -Indeed, not only is the astrologer himself urged at considerable 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.”[2233] The human soul is -also immortal, a spark of that same divine mind which through the stars -exerts its influence upon terrestrial bodies.[2234] All this may be -consistent 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. - -[Sidenote: Astrology proved experimentally.] - -These and other objections to the art of nativities are the theme to -which the first of the eight books of the _Mathesis_ 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,[2235] 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 experimentally are unfit to pass upon its -merits.[2236] He affirms that the human spirit which has discovered -so many other sciences and to which so much of divinity and religion -has been revealed is capable also of casting horoscopes, and that -astrological 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 successfully.[2237] 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 escaping; the best men such as Socrates, Plato, and Pythagoras -meeting an ill fate; and unprincipled persons like Alcibiades and Sulla -prospering.[2238] - -[Sidenote: Information to be gained from the third and fourth books.] - -The remaining seven books of the _Mathesis_ are given over to the art -of horoscope casting. The second book consists chiefly of preliminary -directions, but the others state what men will be born 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 details 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 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 Firmicus wrote, the predictions are more -sensational and rhetorical. Only the latter part of the eighth book -carries the conviction of reality that books three and four do. These -two books are both independent units and through their predictions of -the future supply a general picture of human society, 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 prominent features of his age. Let us see what his picture is of -religion, divination, the occult science and magic, natural science and -medicine.[2239] - -[Sidenote: Religion and magic; exorcists.] - -To religion Firmicus gives less space than to politics. There are -no clear references to Christianity, but there are few allusions to -any particular cults. Firmicus, however, 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,[2240] priests, and -divination[2241] are the three features of religion that he mentions -most. Magic and religion are closely associated in his predictions, -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 hear of men “investigating the -secrets of all religions and of heaven itself.” Other interesting -descriptions[2242] 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 predict the future”; and -of “men terrible to the gods and who despise 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 -however 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 precepts with a certain -veneration. These are they who are called exorcists by the people.” -Religious games and contests 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 professionally -engaged in religion as growing rich thereby. - -[Sidenote: Divination.] - -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.”[2243] Augurs, _aruspices_, -interpreters of dreams, _mathematici_ (astrologers), diviners, and -prophets are mentioned. Once Firmicus alludes to false divination but -he usually implies that it is a valid art. - -[Sidenote: Magic as a branch of learning.] - -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, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy or -astrology, showing that magic was not invariably regarded as evil in -that age, and that it was confused and intermingled with the arts and -philosophy as well as with the religion of the times.[2244] There are -a number of other allusions to secret and illicit arts or writings; -these, however, appear to be more unfavorably regarded and probably -largely consist of witchcraft and poisoning. - -[Sidenote: Interest in science.] - -The evidence of the _Mathesis_ suggests that the civilization of -declining Rome was at least not conscious of the intellectual decadence -and lack of scientific interest so generally 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 -inventors,” 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 factors in fourth-century -culture as well as the rhetorical studies whose rôle 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 “philologists or those -skilled in laborious letters” suggests that four instances of the -phrase _difficiles litterae_ 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, -contradictory dialecticians, professing that they know what no -teaching has acquainted them with, mischievous fellows, but unable to -do any effective thinking.”[2245] On the other hand, there are fourteen -allusions to astronomy and astrology (not including the _mathematici_ -already listed under divination), three to geometry, and six to other -varieties of mathematics.[2246] Philosophers are mentioned five times; -practitioners of medicine, eleven times;[2247] surgeons, once; and -botanists, twice. These professions seem to be well paid and are spoken -of in complimentary terms. - -[Sidenote: Diseases in antiquity.] - -Death, injury, and disease loom up large in Firmicus’ prospectus for -the human race, making us realize the benefits of nineteenth-century -medicine as well as of modern peace.[2248] No less than 174 passages -deal with disease and many of them list two or more ills. Mental -disorders are mentioned in 37 places;[2249] 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, 1; foul odors, 1; dyspeptics, 4; other stomach complaints, -7; dysentery, 2; liver trouble, 1; jaundice, 1; dropsy, 5; spleen -disorders, 1; gonorrhoea, 2; other diseases of the urinary bladder and -private parts, 6; consumption 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, 1; fever, 1; 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, -and seeking divine aid, which last is mentioned most often. The eleven -references to medical practitioners should, however, be recalled here. -The predictions as to length of life are inadequate to the drawing of -conclusions on that point. - -[Sidenote: Place of Firmicus in the history of astrology.] - -Firmicus regards his work as a new contribution so far as the -Latin-speaking world is concerned.[2250] Not that there had not -been previous writing in Latin on the subject. 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.”[2251] Firmicus supplies this -essential preliminary 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.[2252] Firmicus gives no systematic account of -his authorities[2253] 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 Petosiris and the Hermetic works to or by Aesculapius and Hanubius. -An Abram or Abraham is also cited several times. But Firmicus also -gives the _Sphaera Barbarica_, “unknown to all the Romans and to -many Greeks,” and which escaped the notice even of Petosiris and -Nechepso.[2254] Firmicus himself is named by no ancient author[2255] -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 own[2256] and expresses his intention of composing another work -in twelve books on the subject of _Myriogenesis_.[2257] 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.[2258] - -[Sidenote: Libanius accused of magic.] - -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 impressions 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 sorcery against another. This incidentally is -another good illustration of how easily astrology passed from mere -prediction of the future to operative magic, and of the essential unity -of all magic arts. The mob was aroused against Libanius and a praetor -who tried to protect him was ousted and another installed at daybreak -who was ready to put Libanius 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.[2259] - -[Sidenote: Declamation against a magician.] - -Among the declamations of Libanius is one against a magician,[2260] -supposed to have been delivered under the following circumstances. The -city was afflicted with a pestilence 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 disturbing 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. -Libanius 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 supports the oft-made general assertion that the -magic arts waxed as pagan religion and its superstitious observances -waned. Libanius concludes his oration or imaginary oration with the -cutting and heartless witticism that the magician 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. - -[Sidenote: Faith of Libanius in divination.] - -Libanius’ own faith in divination is not only suggested by the attitude -toward the Delphic oracle in the foregoing declamation but is attested -by two passages in his autobiography. His great-great-grandfather had -so excelled in _mantike_ that he foresaw that his children would die -by steel, although they would be handsome and great and good speakers. -It also was rumored that a celebrated sophist had predicted many things -concerning Libanius himself, which Libanius assures us had since come -to pass.[2261] - -[Sidenote: Magic and astrology in the pseudo-Quintilian declamations.] - -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.”[2262] - -[Sidenote: Fusion of Christianity and paganism in Synesius of Cyrene.] - -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,[2263] a fellow-African and contemporary of -Augustine. Synesius, however, traced his descent from the Heracleidae, -wrote in Greek, and displayed a Hellenism unusual for his time,[2264] -and, 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![2265] Moreover, he distinctly -stipulated[2266] 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,[2267] in addition 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.[2268] - -[Sidenote: Career of Synesius.] - -The dates of Synesius’ birth and death are uncertain. He seems to have -been born about 370. His last dateable 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 survival of the past, in his fondness for the chase and -dogs and horses and his repulsion of an invasion of Libyan marauders -he was the forerunner of many a medieval feudal bishop. And after he -became bishop, he launched an excommunication against the tyrannical -prefect Andronicus. - -[Sidenote: His interest in science.] - -But our particular interest is less in his political and more purely -literary activities than in his taste for mathematics and science. He -knew some medicine and was well acquainted with geometry and astronomy. -He believed himself to be the inventor of an astrolabe and of a -hydroscope. - -[Sidenote: Belief in occult sympathies between natural objects.] - -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 correlated not only led him to maintain, -like Seneca, that whatever 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 themselves, if -endowed with sufficient intelligence, would be able to predict the -future by observing the movements of human bipeds.[2269] 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 material substances and forms.”[2270] -Synesius explained that plants 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.[2271] He evidently believed that it was quite legitimate to -control the processes of nature by invoking demons. - -[Sidenote: Synesius on divination and astrology.] - -The devotion of Synesius to divination has been already implied. He -regarded it as among the noblest of human pursuits.[2272] Dreams, on -which he wrote a treatise, he viewed 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.[2273] -Warned by a dream that he would have a son, he wrote a treatise for the -child before it was born.[2274] 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.[2275] In _On Providence_ he explained the -supposed fact that history repeats itself by the periodical return to -their former positions of the stars which govern our life.[2276] 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.[2277] - -[Sidenote: Synesius as an alchemist.] - -Finally, he held the view common among students of magic that knowledge -should be esoteric; that its mysteries and marvels should be confined -to the few fitted to receive them and that they should be expressed in -language incomprehensible to the vulgar crowd.[2278] It is perhaps on -this 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.”[2279] - -[Sidenote: Macrobius on number, dreams, and stars.] - -Synesius influenced the Byzantine period but probably not the western -medieval world. But the Commentary of 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 -philosopher”; in the thirteenth Aquinas cited him as an authority for -the doctrines of Neo-Platonism.[2280] Macrobius himself affirmed that -Vergil contained practically all necessary knowledge[2281] and that -Cicero’s _Dream of Scipio_ was a work second to none and contained -the entire substance of philosophy.[2282] Macrobius believed that -numbers possess occult power. He dilated at considerable length -upon every number 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 number rules the harmony -of the celestial bodies, and that from the music of the spheres we -derive the numerical values proper to musical consonance.[2283] His -opinion was that dreams and other striking occurrences will reveal an -occult meaning to the careful investigator.[2284] 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.[2285] 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.[2286] In his sole other extant work, -the _Saturnalia_, Macrobius displays 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.[2287] - -[Sidenote: Martianus Capella.] - -The medieval vogue of the fifth century work of Martianus Capella, The -_Nuptials of Philology and Mercury, and the Seven Liberal Arts_,[2288] -has been too frequently demonstrated 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 contained so much pagan mythology, to say nothing of a marriage -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 birthplace of Apuleius, 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. - -[Sidenote: Absence of astrology.] - -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. - -[Sidenote: Orders of spirits.] - -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.[2289] 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 substance. These are the celestial gods who prepare -the secrets of occult causes. They are pure and impassive and immortal -and have little or no direct relation with mankind. Between 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 -category. 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 possess great power of foresight and of inflicting -injury.[2290] It is evident that Capella’s spiritual world is one well -fitted for astrology, divination, and magic. - -[Sidenote: _The Celestial Hierarchy_ of Dionysius the Areopagite.] - -Very different are the orders of spirits described in _The Celestial -Hierarchy_, supposed to be the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, where -are set forth nine orders of 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 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 association 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 -unspeakable and sacred enigmas of whose invisibility, transcendence, -infinity, and incomprehensibility any description can be merely -symbolic and figurative. Their functions seem to consist chiefly in -contemplation of the deity or their superior 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 -objects, 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 variety of theurgy and sublimated -theosophy. Although the Pseudo-Dionysius wrote in Greek,[2291] his work -was made available for the Latin middle ages by the translation of John -the Scot in the ninth century.[2292] - - - - - 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 Centuries. - - ” 30. Gerbert and the Introduction of Arabic Astrology. - - ” 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. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS - OR - THE ALEXANDER LEGEND IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES[2293] - - The _Pseudo-Callisthenes_—Its unhistoric character—Julius - Valerius—Oriental versions—Medieval epitomes of Julius - Valerius—Letters of Alexander—Leo’s _Historia de praeliis_—Medieval - metamorphosis of ancient 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 serpent—More dream-sending; magic transformation—An - omen interpreted—The birth of Alexander—The death of Nectanebus—The - Amazons and Gymnosophists—_The Letter to Aristotle_. - - -[Sidenote: The _Pseudo-Callisthenes_.] - -The oldest version of the legend or romance of Alexander is naturally -believed to have been written in the Greek language but is thought to -have been produced in Egypt at Alexandria. But the Greek manuscripts -of the story are all of the medieval or Renaissance period; indeed, -none of them antedates the eleventh or twelfth century. Furthermore, -they differ very considerably in content and arrangement, 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 various scholars have grappled. It has been held -that the original 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 culture, 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.”[2294] Fortunately we are less interested in -the original version than in the medieval development of the tradition. -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 true Callisthenes was a historian who accompanied Alexander upon -his Asiatic campaigns but then offended the conqueror by opposing -his adoption of oriental dress, absolutism, 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.[2295] Since -Callisthenes was also a relative and pupil of Aristotle, his name was -an excellent one upon which to father the romance. However, the oldest -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,[2296] -and the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_ has also been attributed to Antisthenes, -Aristotle, and Arrian. - -[Sidenote: Its unhistoric character.] - -Perhaps no better single illustration of the totally unhistorical and -romantic character of the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_ 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. Presently he is found back in Greece sacking -Thebes and dealing with Corinth, Athens, and Sparta. Then his Asiatic -conquests are resumed. - -[Sidenote: Julius Valerius.] - -The oldest Latin version of the Alexander romance is 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 gestae_ is copied in certain portions of the _Itinerarium -Alexandri_, which was written during the years 340-345 A. D. This -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, mentions the story of a sage who selected a certain hour -for intercourse with his wife in order that he might beget a marvelous -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.[2297] The text of -Valerius differs considerably from the Greek _Pseudo-Callisthenes_ and -was to undergo further alteration in later medieval Latin versions. - -[Sidenote: Oriental 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 seventh or eighth century and was “much read by -the Nestorians,” 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 considerable section of the Greek version -besides adding episodes which are not found in it, although contained -in Julius Valerius. 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 victory in the -chariot race, and transforming Philip and Alexander into Christian -martyrs, or the Greek gods into patriarchs and prophets like Enoch -and Elijah. Even the Greek version did not remain unaltered in the -Byzantine period when two recensions in prose and two more in verse -are distinguished. 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. - -[Sidenote: Medieval epitomes of Julius Valerius.] - -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 characteristic of the declining Roman Empire -and composed almost on the verge of the middle ages, was to undergo -further 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, manuscripts of the shorter of -these epitomes become far more numerous than those of the original -Valerius.[2298] - -[Sidenote: Letters of Alexander.] - -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.[2299] It is longer than the corresponding -chapter of Valerius[2300] where a letter of Alexander to Aristotle -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.[2301] -Julius Valerius does not even mention Dindimus, but a third epistolary -discussion of the Brahmans exists in Latin, _De moribus Brachmannorum_, -ascribed to St. Ambrose.[2302] - -[Sidenote: Leo’s _Historia de praeliis_.] - -Leo, an archpriest of Naples, who went to Constantinople about 941-944 -on an embassy for two dukes of Campania, 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 science, -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,[2303] 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 Germany, 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 -overestimated, 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.[2304] - -[Sidenote: Medieval metamorphosis of ancient tradition.] - -In the foregoing observations we may seem to have digressed 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 interested: 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 permeated. - -[Sidenote: Survival of magical and scientific features.] - -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 concerning the adventures of Nectanebus, the sage and magician -from Egypt, the astrologer and the natural father of Alexander. 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 -Egypt_,[2305] or an account _Of the Life and Deeds of Neptanabus, -astronomer of Egypt_,[2306] 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 Neptanabus their king who -afterwards was the true father of Alexander_.[2307] - -[Sidenote: Who was Nectanebus?] - -Pliny in the _Natural History_ describes the obelisk of Necthebis, -king of Egypt, whom he places five centuries before Alexander the -Great.[2308] 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, Damigeron, and Berenice, by -Tertullian, writing about 200 A. D.[2309] As a matter of fact, in -the Thirtieth Dynasty were two kings named respectively Nektanebes -or _Nekht-Har-ehbēt_, who ruled 378 to 361 B. C., and Nektanebos or -_Nekhte-nebof_, who ruled 358 to 341 B. C. Both have left considerable -buildings.[2310] 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 Metternich is covered with magical -formulae ascribed to Nectanebo.[2311] - -[Sidenote: A scientific key-note.] - -A note suggestive of both natural science and occult science is struck -by the opening passage of the Latin epitomes 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 sentence 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.[2312] 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 wisdom 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 knowledge 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.”[2313] In one Latin manuscript -of the fifteenth century the _History of Alexander the Great_ begins -with the - -5 sentence, “Books tell us how powerful the race of the Egyptians were -in mathematics and the magic art.”[2314] - -[Sidenote: Magic of Nectanebus.] - -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. - -[Sidenote: Nectanebus as an astrologer.] - -In this he soon became so celebrated that the fame of his predictions -reached the ears of the queen Olympias, who consulted 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 elaborate -lists of various kinds of diviners.[2315] Nectanebus next produced an -astrological tablet adorned with gold and ivory and with each planet -and the horoscope represented by a different stone or metal. With the -aid of this he read the queen’s horoscope and told her that she would -have a son by the God Ammon and would 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. - -[Sidenote: A magic dream.] - -Nectanebus thereupon sought for herbs useful to command 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 incantation 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 beforehand to Olympias by making by his -“science” a dragon which glided into her presence. - -[Sidenote: Lucian on Olympias and the serpent.] - -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 suggests 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.”[2316] 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. - -[Sidenote: More dream-sending: magic transformation.] - -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.”[2317] -The vision in question was explained by an interpreter of dreams to -Philip as signifying that his wife would have a son by the god Ammon. -Nevertheless Philip was somewhat suspicious and hastened to bring his -wars to a close and hurry home. Nectanebus, however, rendering himself -invisible by means of the magic art, continued to deceive both king -and queen. Once he terrified the court by appearing again in the form -of a huge hissing 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. - -[Sidenote: An omen interpreted.] - -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 re-enter the shell was prevented by death. When -Antiphon, the interpreter of omens, was consulted concerning 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. - -[Sidenote: The birth of Alexander.] - -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 born 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, therefore, the moment of birth is regarded -as controlling the destiny. Many astrologers, however, considered the -moment of conception as of greater importance; we have already 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.”[2318] - -[Sidenote: The death of Nectanebus.] - -The death of Nectanebus was as closely in accord with the stars as was -the birth of Alexander. At the age of twelve Alexander found Nectanebus -in consultation with 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 unmindful of what threatened him from the ground. -But Nectanebus 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.[2319] - -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 astrologer and that in general magic, -astrology, and divination are indissolubly connected. - -[Sidenote: The Amazons and Gymnosophists.] - -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 Gymnosophists of India (i. e. the Brahmans) and -their replies. Neither of these promising themes, however, results in -the introduction of any magic or occult science. We also find in the -_Stromata_ of Clement of Alexandria[2320] a list of ten questions which -Alexander propounded to ten of the Gymnosophists of India and their -ingenious answers given under pain of death if their responses proved -unsatisfactory. - -[Sidenote: The letter to Aristotle.] - -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 former -letters I informed you about the eclipse of the sun and moon and the -constancy of the stars and the signs of the air.”[2321] 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.” Accordingly he made his way -to the spot despite the innumerable 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.[2322] The third and final response, 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 sentence of his letter, with building a monument to perpetuate -his name among all mortals.[2323] - -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. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE - - Three representatives of post-classical medicine—Bibliographical - note—Medical compendiums: Oribasius and Paul of Aegina—Aëtius of - Amida—How superstitious are Aëtius and Alexander of Tralles?—Compound - medicines—Aëtius merely reproduces the superstition of Galen—Occult - science mixed with some scepticism—Alexander of Tralles—Originality - of his work—His medieval influence—His personal 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—Conjuration 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. - - -[Sidenote: Three representatives 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, -Aëtius of Amida in Mesopotamia, and Alexander of Tralles in Asia -Minor.[2324] They have just been mentioned in their chronological -order, 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 been a native of Gaul, -if not of Bordeaux,[2325] and thus is geographically closer to the -scene of medieval Latin learning. Aëtius and Alexander have the closer -connection not only with the eastern and Greek world 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. - -[Sidenote: Medical compendiums: Oribasius and Paul of Aegina.] - -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, writing in the seventh century, observes in his -preface[2326] 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 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 compendium by that emperor’s order. In this he -embodied so much of Galen’s teachings that he became known as “the -ape of Galen,”[2327] 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 although only twenty-five -are now extant, and so essayed a briefer compilation of his own. Two -centuries ago, however, Friend and Milward protested against regarding -Paul, Aëtius, and Alexander as mere compilers and maintained that they -“were really men of great learning and experience”[2328] 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.”[2329] -Puschmann more recently states that Paul’s compendium was “composed -with great originality and independence” and is of great value -“particularly in its surgical sections.”[2330] After Paul, however, -the Byzantine medical writers, such as Palladius, Theophilus, Stephen -of Alexandria, Nonus, and Psellus, were of an inferior caliber.[2331] -With Paul’s work, however, we are not now further concerned, nor with -that of Oribasius, but with the somewhat similar compendiums of Aëtius -and Alexander which lie chronologically between these other two. It is -Aëtius and Alexander whom Payne accuses of “introducing into classical -medicine the magical elements derived from the East”[2332] and whom -we might therefore expect to possess an especial interest for our -investigation. - -[Sidenote: Aëtius of Amida.] - -Of the life and personality of Aëtius we know very little, but inasmuch -as he mentions St. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, 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.[2333] 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 Aëtius was almost contemporary -with him and wrote in the sixth rather than the fifth century. His -_Tetrabiblos_—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. -Aëtius’ 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 Aëtius, until the copyists of the time of the Italian -Renaissance began to touch up the style in accordance with their -erroneous notions of what constituted classical Greek.[2334] It may -also be said that these systematically arranged handbooks of Oribasius, -Aëtius, 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.[2335] This more -logical, if somewhat cut-and-dried method, was also to be a virtue of -medieval Latin learning. Whether Aëtius directly influenced the Latin -middle ages is doubtful, since no early Latin translation of him seems -to be known.[2336] The work of Oribasius, however, exists in Latin -translation in manuscripts of the seventh century as well as in others -of the ninth and twelfth.[2337] - -[Sidenote: How superstitious are Aëtius and Alexander?] - -The works of Aëtius 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 Aëtius 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. - -[Sidenote: Compound medicines.] - -It is true that Aëtius and Alexander abound in recipes for elaborate -medical compounds composed of numerous ingredients. Of such concoctions -one example must suffice, a plaster which Aëtius 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 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 presently 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 medicament has cooled sprinkle the ashes of asps upon -it.”[2338] Such concoctions are to a large extent borrowed by Aëtius, -Alexander, 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. - -[Sidenote: Aëtius merely reproduces the superstition of Galen.] - -Indeed, it was from Galen himself and not from the east that Aëtius -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 account of the passages in the _Tetrabiblos_ -of Aëtius 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 Aëtius 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;[2339] 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;[2340] 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.[2341] Such passages are usually repeated -by Aëtius 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 Aëtius 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.”[2342] He further reproduces Galen’s -attitude of mingled credulity and scepticism concerning the basilisk, -combining the two passages into one;[2343] also Galen’s questioning the -efficacy of incantations and telling of having seen a scorpion killed -by the mere spittle of a fasting man without any incantation.[2344] -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.[2345] -Like Galen he announces his intention to omit all “abominable and -detestable recipes and those which are prohibited by law,” mentioning -as instances the eating of human flesh and drinking urine or _menses -muliebres_.[2346] 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.[2347] -Somewhat similar to Galen’s recommendation to fill cavities in the -teeth with roasted earthworms is the recipe of Aëtius 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. “Therefore use this remedy with confidence, for -it has already often been celebrated as a mystery.”[2348] Such use of -earthworms continued a feature of medieval dentistry. - -[Sidenote: Occult science mixed with some scepticism.] - -Of my original selections from Aëtius 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. Aëtius asserts that drinking bitumen or asphalt -in water will prevent hydrophobia from developing,[2349] and recommends -for wounds inflicted by sea serpents an application of lead with a -slice of the serpent itself.[2350] 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.[2351] On the other hand, an instance of -a sceptical tendency is the citation of the view of Posidonius that -the so-called _incubus_ is not a demon but a disease akin to epilepsy -and insanity and marked by suffocation, loss of voice, heaviness, -and immobility.[2352] It may also be noted that in discussing the -medicinal virtues of the beaver’s testicles Aëtius does not include -the story of its biting them off in order to escape its hunters.[2353] -He does, however, cite several authorities, Piso, Menelbus, Simonides, -Aristodemus, and Pherecydes for instances of the remarkable 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 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.[2354] Aëtius shows a slight tendency in the -direction of astrological medicine, giving a list of “times ordained 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.”[2355] But on the whole, of our three authors, Aëtius seems to -contain the smallest proportional amount of superstitious medicine and -occult science. - -[Sidenote: Alexander of Tralles.] - -Alexander of Tralles was the son of a physician and, according to the -Byzantine historian, Agathias,[2356] the youngest of a group of five -distinguished brothers, including Anthemius of Tralles, architect of -St. Sophia at Constantinople, 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[2357] before settling -down in old age, when he could no longer engage in active medical -practice,[2358] 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 Aëtius in the book on fevers, the -latest writer named by Alexander is Jacobus Psychrestus, physician to -Leo the Great about 474.[2359] It seems rather strange that Alexander -says nothing of the pestilence of 542.[2360] - -[Sidenote: Originality of his work.] - -Alexander embodied the results of his own practice to a much greater -extent than Oribasius and Aëtius. His book is more a record of his -own medical observations and experiences than a compilation from past -writings, a fact recognized 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 implicit faith in what they have -advanced that he very often dissents from their doctrines.”[2361] -Puschmann regarded him as the first doctor for a long time who had -done any original thinking,[2362] and esteemed his pathology as -highly as his therapeutics had been esteemed by his sixteenth century -translator, Guinther of Andernach.[2363] Friend wrote of him in the -early eighteenth century, “His method is extremely rational and just -and after all our discoveries and improvements in physick scarce -anything can be added to it.”[2364] 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 -dislodge a foreign object from the ear.[2365] According to Milward, -Alexander was the first Greek medical writer to mention rhubarb and -tape-worms, and the first practitioner to open the jugular veins.[2366] -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.”[2367] Finally, Alexander’s concise -and orderly method of presentation compares favorably with that of the -classical medical writers. - -[Sidenote: His medieval influence.] - -Alexander’s book traveled west, as its author had done, and was current -in a free and abbreviated Latin translation from an early date.[2368] -In fact, it was from the Latin version that the work was translated -into Hebrew and Syriac.[2369] Not only are Latin manuscripts of -Alexander’s work as a whole or of extracts from it[2370] 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,[2371] and -Gilbert of England.[2372] It is not, however, always safe to assume -that citations of _Alexander medicus_, encountered in thirteenth -century writers on the nature of things like Thomas of Cantimpré and -Bartholomew of England, have reference to Alexander of Tralles, since a -treatise on fevers is also ascribed to Alexander of Aphrodisias,[2373] -while a work on the pulse and urine in fevers is thought to be by -some medieval Alexander.[2374] And medical treatises are sometimes -ascribed even to Alexander the Great of Macedon in the medieval -manuscripts.[2375] - -[Sidenote: His personal experience.] - -We have already said that Alexander is no mere compiler 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,”[2376] so that it -is not surprising that we find the name Alexander still associated -with medical “experiments” in manuscripts dating from the twelfth to -fifteenth centuries.[2377] One of his cures for epilepsy he learned -“from a rustic in Tuscany” (_Thuscia?_) but afterwards often employed -with success himself.[2378] “It is a marvelous and exceptional medicine -which you will communicate to no one,” concludes Alexander, 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. - -[Sidenote: Extent of his superstition.] - -Two centuries ago Milward wrote of Alexander of Tralles, “But there -is another objection to our author’s character which I cannot pretend -to say much in defence of, and that is, his being addicted to charms -and amulets. It is very surprising that one who discovers so much -judgment in other matters should show so much weakness in this.”[2379] -Alexander certainly devotes more space to superstition relatively to -the length of his book than Aëtius 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 distinction can be sharply drawn that magic was resorted to more in -those diseases which seemed most mysterious and incurable. - -[Sidenote: _Physica._] - -The chief circumstance which renders some parts of Alexander’s work -more superstitious than others is that he sometimes, after concluding -the usual medical description of the disease and prescriptions for -it, adds a list of what he calls physical or natural medicines -(φυσικά), 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 property or occult virtue of the -substance which is bound on or suspended and constitute a sort of -natural magic. Alexander 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.”[2380] 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, however, -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.[2381] 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. - -[Sidenote: Occult virtue of substances applied externally.] - -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.[2382] 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 ass as -amulets.[2383] 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.[2384] 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.”[2385] - -[Sidenote: Other things used as ligatures and in amulets.] - -The materials employed in Alexander’s therapeutics are sometimes those -which we associate especially with magic arts, such as the hair and -nail-parings already mentioned. Against epilepsy he employs nails from -a cross or wrecked 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 recommended 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 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.[2386] - -[Sidenote: Astrology and sculpture of rings.] - -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.[2387] 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.[2388] 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.[2389] For gout, however, one writes a verse of -Homer on a copper plate when the moon is in Libra or Leo.[2390] For -colic one inscribes upon an iron ring with an octangular circumference -a charm beginning, “Flee, flee, colic.”[2391] - -[Sidenote: Incantations.] - -The employment of such incantations is expressly justified 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_.[2392] “So some think that incantations are like old-wives’ -tales and so I thought for a long while, but in process of time from -perfectly plain instances I have become persuaded 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 himself -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 trustworthy friends?” - -[Sidenote: Conjuration of an herb.] - -Both incantations and observance of astrological conditions play an -important part in the instructions given by 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, Iaoth, 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, Iaoth, 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.”[2393] -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 or Christian -influence, while the number 360 perhaps points to the Gnostics. - -[Sidenote: Medieval version seems less superstitious than the original -text.] - -While in conformity with the character of our investigation 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 apparently[2394] 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 retaining 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 influential through the medieval period -than was Alexander’s book. - -[Sidenote: Marcellus: date and identity.] - -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.[2395] This ascription -is generally accepted as genuine, and Grimm believed this to be the -same Marcellus as the physician who is gratefully mentioned, together -with his sons, then mere infants, in the letters of Libanius, whose -severe headaches Marcellus had alleviated, and as the _Marcellus -magister officiorum_ 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 -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.”[2396] 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 Aëtius 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 introductory letter to his sons and so may -be taken as his work. - -[Sidenote: “Marcellus Empiricus.”] - -The empiricism which we have already noted in Alexander of Tralles -becomes most pronounced and most extreme in Marcellus, who indeed -is often called Marcellus Empiricus on this account, and many of -whose chapter and other headings[2397] terminate with these words -descriptive of their contents, “various rational 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 populace and simples which they have -tested by experience.” One prescription, which he characterizes as -efficacious beyond human hope and incapable of being satisfactorily -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.[2398] 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.”[2399] 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.”[2400] -Marcellus also frequently couples marvelousness 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_,[2401] but his commonest -expressions are _de experimento_ or _de experimentis_, _expertum_, and -_experieris_ or _experietur_.[2402] Some of his “experiences” really -are purposive experiments, as where one discovers whether a tumor is -scrofulous by applying an earthworm to it. Then put the worm on a leaf -and if the tumor was scrofulous, the worm will turn into earth.[2403] -The following 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.[2404] - -[Sidenote: Superstitious character of his medicine.] - -As Marcellus appeals the most to experience, so he is by far the most -given to superstition and folk-lore of our three authors. Practically -his entire work is of the character of the passages devoted to -_Physica_ 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 Aëtius 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[2405]—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. - -[Sidenote: Preparation of goat’s blood.] - -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 various herbs and drugs, there are further -directions to follow as to how it may best be administered to the -patient. Marcellus, by the way, affirms that adamant can be broken only -by goat’s blood.[2406] - -[Sidenote: A rabbit’s foot.] - -The following prescription involves the familiar superstition 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.”[2407] - -[Sidenote: Magic transfer of disease.] - -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.[2408] Even -consumptives who seem certain to die and who labor continually with -an unbearable cough, may be cured by giving them 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.”[2409] Splenetic -persons are benefited by imposing any one of three kinds of fish upon -the spleen and then replacing the fish alive in the sea.[2410] 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.[2411] 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.[2412] 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.[2413] 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.”[2414] 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,[2415]—which would very likely spread the germs, if not take away -the cold. - -[Sidenote: Pliny and Marcellus compared on green lizards as eye cures.] - -In his preface Marcellus refers to Pliny as one of his authorities -and many of his quaint animal remedies will be found substantially -duplicated in the _Natural History_. Both, for example, state that one -can stop one’s nose from running by kissing a mule.[2416] 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.[2417] Marcellus omits the following portion of Pliny’s -account: “Some shut up a green lizard in a new earthen pot, and they -mark the little 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 differently 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 -performed 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. - -[Sidenote: More lizardry.] - -Marcellus employs green lizards in other connections 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.[2418] In another -passage 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 _ita ut per anum eius exeant_, -after which the puppy is to be thrown into the river.[2419] But to -return to our lizards. For those suffering from liver complaint the -liver of a lizard 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.”[2420] 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.[2421] 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.[2422] - -[Sidenote: Use of stones and an herb.] - -One or two other prescriptions may be added where the procedure is -connected with herbs or stones rather than with animals. On entering -a city one is advised to pick up 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.[2423] 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.[2424] - -[Sidenote: Right and left number.] - -Right and left, as just illustrated, are much observed in Marcellus’ -medicine. When a tooth aches on the left side of the mouth, a hot -cooked dried bean is applied to the right elbow for three days, a -process which is reversed if the tooth is on the right side.[2425] -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.[2426] A ring worn -on the middle finger of the left hand is said to stop hiccough.[2427] -The power of the planets or of mere number is indicated in the advice, -given several times, to make seven knots in a string.[2428] Once -instructions are given to make as many knots as there are letters in -the patient’s name.[2429] - -[Sidenote: Incantations and characters.] - -Incantations and characters, as has already been incidentally -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_,[2430] which is to be repeated seven times on Tuesday and -Thursday in a waning moon to cure toothache. Marcellus well calls one -of these _carmen idioticum_.[2431] For stomach 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. _Alabanda, alabandi, -alambo_ is another incantation, 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 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.[2432] The following is a specimen -of the characters prescribed by Marcellus:[2433] - - ΛΨΜΘΚΙΑ - ΛΨΜΘΚΙΑ - ΛΨΜΘΚΙΑ - -[Sidenote: The art of medicine survives the barbarian invasions.] - -It is perhaps worth while to point out in concluding this chapter -that apparently at no time during the period of barbarian invasions -and early medieval centuries did medical practice or literature cease -entirely in the west. We have 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[2434] 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. - - - - - 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_. - - -[Sidenote: General character.] - -A class of writings which seems to have been very characteristic -of the waning culture of the declining Roman Empire and the scanty -erudition of the early medieval period were the brief epitomes of, -or disorderly collections of fragments 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 natural 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 latter’s _De materia medica_ is so full of vicissitudes and -uncertainties 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. 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. - -[Sidenote: _Medicine of Pliny._] - -The _Medicina_, or _Art of Medicine_, of the Pseudo-Pliny[2435] -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 compilation 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 -rearrangement is an essential one, if the medical recommendations 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 -Plinius 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 composing 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 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,[2436] 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.[2437] - -[Sidenote: _The Herbarium of Apuleius._] - -Several works besides the six commonly regarded as genuine[2438] -were attributed to Apuleius in the middle ages, grammatical[2439] -and rhetorical[2440] treatises, the Hermetic _Asclepius_,[2441] a -treatise on physiognomy,[2442] and the very widespread _Sphere of -Life and Death_, of which we shall treat in another chapter.[2443] We -shall now consider the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,[2444] 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 from a manuscript at Monte -Cassino, and then, after various 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 _Herbarium_ 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.[2445] The oldest manuscripts 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 -received his work from the centaur Chiron, the master of Achilles, and -from Esculapius.[2446] - -[Sidenote: Specimens of its occult science.] - -In the _Herbarium_ the plants are listed and described and their -virtues, especially medicinal, stated. Usually the names for each -herb in several languages or regions are given—Latin, Greek, Punic, -Biblical (by the Prophets), 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 involved 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 Christianity and in some -manuscripts have been omitted and replaced by the Lord’s Prayer or -other Christian forms, or left in with their wording slightly altered -to avoid paganism.[2447] Personal purity and clean clothing are often -enjoined upon those gathering the herbs and such instructions 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.[2448] - -[Sidenote: A “Precantation of All Herbs.”] - -In some manuscripts a “Precantation of all herbs” is placed at the -beginning of the treatise.[2449] It prescribes such procedure as -holding a mirror over the herb before plucking it before sunrise -under a waning moon. The person plucking 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 meaningless words are also repeated. - -[Sidenote: Other treatises accompanying the _Herbarium_.] - -The _Herbarium_ is often accompanied in the manuscripts 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[2450] -Actor[2451]—an otherwise quite unknown personage;[2452] by a “letter -concerning a little beast” from the king of Egypt or Aesculapius to -the emperor Octavian Augustus;[2453] and by introductory letters, such -as we find prefaced to the _De medicamentis_ of Marcellus Empiricus, -of “Hippocrates to his Moecenas”[2454] 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 properties of -animals, and after the little beast or quadruped called _mela_ or -_taxo_[2455] 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 -lustration 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. - -[Sidenote: _Cosmography_ of Aethicus.] - -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 century in the British Museum,[2456] where it is also found in -several other fairly early manuscripts[2457] in the respectable company -of Vitruvius, Vegetius, Sallust, and Suetonius,[2458] as well as with -the more congenial work of Solinus. This _Cosmographia_ was not printed -until 1852, when it was edited 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 _Cosmography_ -of Aethicus but is really to be identified with fragments of Julian -Honorius and Orosius. The Latin translator of our treatise had been -identified in the middle ages with St. Jerome, the church father, -and Wuttke still ascribed it to him, but Bunbury protested against -this,[2459] and Mommsen placed our treatise not earlier than the -seventh century.[2460] - -[Sidenote: Its medieval influence] - -Bunbury added, however, that the _Cosmography_ “appears to have been -much read in the middle ages, and is 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 -importance. Aethicus himself is spoken of as from Istria and according -to the _Explicit_ of at least one manuscript[2461] 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 interpret the faulty syntax of its Latin, -that from him the ethical philosophy of other sages drew its origins. -Somewhat later Roger Bacon said in discussing faults in the study of -theology in his day, “From the authorities of the philosophers 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.”[2462] - -[Sidenote: Character of the work.] - -As Bacon’s words indicate, Christian influence is manifest in the -_Cosmography_, although, as they also indicate, the original Aethicus -is not supposed to have been a Christian, but, as one manuscript -informs us, an Academic philosopher.[2463] 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 extraordinary 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. - -[Sidenote: Its attitude to marvels.] - -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 Aethicus, 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 regards 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 unknown in other lands which ward off famine. Very beautiful 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 rhetoric, 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 passage 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[2464] cited -_Ethicus Astronomicus in Cosmographia_ as one of his authorities 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 absurd of astrological works.[2465] As for magic, in -one passage _malefici_ and _magi_ are censured along with idolaters, -and the author presently speaks of vain characters and superstitious -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 _Cosmography_ not only is romantic and religious -enough to appeal to medieval readers, it also is of a character to -offer encouragement, if not data, to a later and more detailed interest -in alchemy, occult virtues, astrology, and magic. - -[Sidenote: The _Geoponica_.] - -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 portion of it upon vineyards was translated -into Latin by Burgundio of Pisa in the twelfth century.[2466] In any -case as the “only formal treatise on Greek agriculture” extant it -is a rather important historical source; it also is a good specimen -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 beginning 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.[2467] - -[Sidenote: Magic and astrology therein.] - -Nevertheless, magic and astrology find no place in the index to the -most recent edition of the work.[2468] A survey, however, of the -text itself reveals some indications of the presence of both. The -very first of its twenty books deals with astrological prediction -of the weather and cites some spurious work or works by Zoroaster a -great deal. In later books, too, Zoroaster is sometimes cited for -semi-astrological 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.[2469] Zoroaster is also used as an authority on -the sympathy and antipathy existing between natural objects.[2470] -Damigeron and Democritus are other names cited which are suggestive -of the occult and magical.[2471] There are not, however, many cases -of extreme superstition in the _Geoponica_. Something is said of the -marvelous properties 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.[2472] Incantations of a sort are -occasionally recommended.[2473] 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.[2474] 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.[2475] - -[Sidenote: Dioscorides.] - -Perhaps the chief ancient work on pharmacology was the _De materia -medica_ or Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς 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 traveled in many lands as a soldier, and his work -was based partly upon personal observation and experience as well as -previous books. - -[Sidenote: Textual history of the _De materia medica_.] - -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 compilations 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 entirely -successful.[2476] 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.[2477] - -[Sidenote: Alterations made in the Greek text.] - -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 illuminated -manuscript made for Juliana Anicia, daughter of the emperor Olybrius -(472 A. D.) and wife of the consul Areobindus (about 512 A. D.).[2478] -The alphabetical rearrangement 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 medica_ interpolated, but additional spurious books were added -“On Harmful Drugs” and “On Poisons.”[2479] The work on medicinal -simples attributed to Dioscorides is extant in no manuscript earlier -than the fourteenth century and some versions of it are much more -interpolated than others. As Galen does not cite it while Oribasius -and Aëtius do use it, it is assumed that it was composed in the third -or early fourth century with a forged dedication 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 -compiler of the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth century introduced a -great deal of new material from Galen’s genuine and spurious works in -that field and from John of Damascus.[2480] - -[Sidenote: Dioscorides little known to Latins before the middle ages.] - -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 little known to Latin writers until the verge of the -medieval period. Gargilius Martialis, a Roman writer on agriculture 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 oleribus et pomis_. This has led to the suggestion -that he was perhaps responsible 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 medical -authors as Serenus Sammonicus, Cassius Felix, Theodorus Priscianus, and -Marcellus Empiricus. - -[Sidenote: Partial versions in Latin.] - -But at least a portion of Dioscorides seems to have been translated -into Latin by the time of Cassiodorus, who, writing in the first half -of the sixth century, states that those who cannot read Greek may -consult the _Herbarium Dioscoridis_.[2481] This naturally suggests -a version limited to medicinal 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 -discovered in one of the manuscripts of the _Herbarium of Apuleius_ -in the British Museum.[2482] This preface implies that the translation -which it introduced was limited to the botanical books of Dioscorides -and states that it was accompanied by illustrations of herbs. - -[Sidenote: _De herbis femininis._] - -Based upon this partial translation rather than identical with it -is believed to have been the _De herbis femininis_,[2483] which was -ascribed to Dioscorides in the middle ages and which often accompanies -the _Herbarium_ of the Pseudo-Apuleius 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 complaints. Rose dated this work before Isidore -of Seville by whom he believed it was used.[2484] It seems to combine -a free Latin translation of excerpts from the genuine Dioscorides with -numerous additions from other sources. - -[Sidenote: The fuller Latin versions.] - -Besides such abbreviated and interpolated Latin versions or perversions -of Dioscorides, there was also in existence in the early middle ages -a literal translation of all five books of the _De materia medica_. -It is full of Latinisms and barbarisms but otherwise reproduces the -complete and genuine Dioscorides, or is supposed to do so. Rose and -Wellmann[2485] say that it was current from the sixth century on, -and the few extant manuscripts of it date from the early medieval -period.[2486] One reason for this seems to be that this literal -translation was replaced by another Latin version which in a Bamberg -manuscript[2487] is ascribed to Constantinus Africanus, the medical -translator and writer of the eleventh century. In this version the -items are arranged alphabetically, and additions are embodied from -other sources. This version apparently became much better known -than the earlier literal translation and has been called “the -most widely disseminated handbook of pharmacy of the whole later -middle ages.”[2488] It is stated by Rose to be identical with the -“Dyascorides,” upon which Peter of Abano lectured and commented about -1300 and which was printed at Colle in 1478 and again at Lyons in -1512.[2489] - -[Sidenote: Peter of Abano’s account of the medieval versions.] - -Peter of Abano tells us in his preface[2490] 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 version contained fewer but longer chapters with material -added from Galen, Pliny, and other writers. This version was arranged -alphabetically. It was this version which _Aggregator_[2491] 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. - -[Sidenote: Pseudo-Dioscorides on stones.] - -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 materia medica_, whose discussion of the -virtues of stones is incredible enough.[2492] 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 extant -in manuscripts at Erfurt and Montpellier.[2493] A work on physical -ligatures is ascribed to Dioscorides in a late manuscript,[2494] but is -really a collection of items from various authors since Dioscorides on -the marvelous virtues of animals, herbs, and stones, especially when -bound on the body, held in the hand, or worn around the neck. - -[Sidenote: Conclusions from the textual history of Dioscorides.] - -The history of the medieval versions of Dioscorides, even in the brief -and incomplete outline given here, is instructive, 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 middle 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 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 appearance of new -versions of an ancient author. - -[Sidenote: Macer on herbs; its great currency.] - -With the possible exception of the _Herbarium_ of the Pseudo-Apuleius, -probably the best known single and distinct treatment of the virtues -of herbs produced during the middle ages was the poem _De viribus -herbarum_ which circulated under the name of Macer Floridus.[2495] It -was often cited by the medieval encyclopedists and other writers on -nature and medicine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.[2496] It -is found in an Anglo-Saxon version[2497] and was even translated into -Danish in the early thirteenth century.[2498] Manuscripts of it are -very numerous[2499] and there are many early printed editions.[2500] -Even as recently as the first half of the nineteenth century a -historian of medicine and natural science, 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 concerning the virtues of herbs.[2501] - -[Sidenote: Problem of date and author] - -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 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.[2502] But Oribasius is -not the latest author cited since Walafrid Strabo is also used.[2503] -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.[2504] -Indeed Stadler holds that the Pseudo-Macer uses the _De gradibus_ -of Constantinus Africanus who did not die until 1087.[2505] The -true author of our poem ascribed to Macer is said on the authority -of certain 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 portion of _The Romance of the -Rose_. Choulant, however, did not regard this as sufficiently proved, -and Stadler has recently 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.[2506] 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,[2507] the -Anglo-Saxon version, the many twelfth century manuscripts, and the -frequent use of his poem in the _Regimen Salernitanum_.[2508] Although -Macer seems a pseudonym to begin with, the original poem, consisting of -2269 lines in which 77 herbs are discussed, is sometimes accompanied by -additional lines regarded as spurious.[2509] - -[Sidenote: 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 statement 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 repeats 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.”[2510] - -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 ‘Ill,’ there is no hope of safety.”[2511] - -Our poet not only thus associates with herbs the virtue of divination, -but is guilty of sympathetic magic when he believes 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.[2512] Odo or Macer repeats Galen’s story of curing an epileptic -boy by suspending a root of peony about his neck,[2513] and later -asserts the same virtue for the herb _pyrethrum_.[2514] Even more -magical is the ceremony for curing toothache which he takes from -Pliny and which consists in digging up the herb _Senecion_ 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.[2515] Pliny is also cited concerning the swallow’s -restoring the sight of its young by swallow-wort.[2516] Our poet -also repeats such beliefs as that the herb _Buglossa_ preserves the -memory,[2517] or that the smoke of _Aristochia_ dispels demons and -exhilarates infants.[2518] 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.[2519] 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 superstition, although rather more proportionally -than Walafrid Strabo. - -[Sidenote: _Experiments of Macer._] - -Although Odo or Macer seems to make no original contribution to botany, -cites authorities frequently, and speaks often of the ancients or men -of old, he also at least once cites “experts”[2520] 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 rearranged -under diseases instead of by herbs.[2521] - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - - OTHER EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING: BOETHIUS, ISIDORE, BEDE, GREGORY THE - GREAT - - Aridity of early medieval learning—Historic importance of _The - Consolation of Philosophy_—Medieval reading—Influence of the works - of Boethius—His relation to antiquity and middle ages—Attitude to - the stars—Fate and free will—Music of the stars and universe—Isidore - of Seville—Method of the _Etymologies_—Its sources—Natural - marvels—Isidore is rather less hospitable to superstition than - Pliny—Portent—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—Incantations in Old Irish—The _Fili_. - - -[Sidenote: Aridity of early medieval learning.] - -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 intellectual thirst. As a rule the writings of the -time show no originality whatever, and least of all any scientific -investigation; 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 category 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 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 literature. We should gain little or nothing by adding to -the list Alcuin at the close of the eighth century and Rabanus Maurus -in the ninth century, although it may be noted now 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. - -[Sidenote: Historic importance of _The Consolation of Philosophy_.] - -Of the distinguished family and political career of Boethius 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 Augustine, -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 nevertheless perhaps less surprising than is their subsequent -preservation 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. - -[Sidenote: Medieval reading.] - -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,[2522] and Cassiodorus urged those monks whose duty it was -to tend the sick to read a number of standard medical works.[2523] I -sometimes wonder if too much attention has not been given to medieval -writing and too little 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, especially 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 collections of medieval -manuscripts I have noticed few _florilegia_ or anthologies from the -classics in medieval Latin manuscripts,—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 extracts, 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 importance, and that the -theory hitherto based upon them is a survival of the prejudice of the -classical renaissance against “the dark ages.” - -[Sidenote: Influence of the works of Boethius.] - -At any rate, however scanty medieval libraries may have been, they -were apt to include a copy of _The Consolation of Philosophy_, and -however little read some of their volumes may have been, its pages -were certainly well thumbed. Lists of its commentators, translators, -and imitators, and other indications of its vast medieval influence -may be found in Peiper’s edition.[2524] Other writings of Boethius -were also well known in the middle ages and increased his reputation -then. His translations and commentaries upon the Aristotelian logical -treatises[2525] are of course of great importance in the history of -medieval scholasticism. His translations and adaptations of Greek -treatises in arithmetic, geometry, and music occupy a similar place -in the history of medieval mathematical studies.[2526] 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 eighteenth -century.”[2527] 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 modern scholars and place -Boethius’ Christianity beyond question.[2528] - -[Sidenote: His relation to antiquity and middle ages.] - -Boethius has often been regarded as a last representative of Roman -statesmanship and of classical civilization. His defense of Roman -provincials against the greed of the Goths, his stand even unto -death against Theodoric on behalf of the rights of the Roman senate -and people, his preservation through translation of the learned -treatises of expiring antiquity, and the almost classical Latin -style and numerous allusions to pagan mythology of _The Consolation -of Philosophy_:—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 influenced 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, combined with Boethius’ great medieval -popularity, gave perpetual license to those medieval writers who chose -to discuss 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,[2529] but this -ascription of spurious statements to the Stagirite also corresponds to -the attribution of entire spurious treatises to him later in the middle -ages. - -[Sidenote: Attitude to the stars.] - -Of the ways in which _The Consolation 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 -mentioning Phoebus, the moon, the universe, the sky, and the starry -constellations. _Per ardua 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 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.”[2530] - -He loves to think of God as ruling the universe by perpetual reason and -certain order, as sowing stars in the sky, as binding the elements by -number, as Himself immovable, yet revolving the spheres and decreeing -natural events in a fixed series.[2531] The attitude is like that -of the _Timaeus_ and Aristotle’s _Metaphysics_, closely associating -astronomy and theology, favorable to belief in astrology, in support of -which later scholastic writers cite Boethius. - -[Sidenote: Fate and free will.] - -We may further note the main points in Boethius’ argument concerning -fate and free will, providence and predestination,[2532] which was -often cited by later writers. He declares that all generation and -change and movement proceed from the divine mind or Providence,[2533] -while fate is the regular arrangement inherent in movable objects -by which divine providence is realized.[2534] 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.”[2535] It -is with the last that Boethius seems most inclined to identify _fati -series mobilis_. “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 immovable -Providence, must needs itself also be immutable.”[2536] Boethius, -however, does not believe in a complete fatalism, astrological or -otherwise. He holds that nothing escapes divine providence, to which -there is no distinction between past, present, and future.[2537] As the -human reason can conceive universals, although 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 subject to fate.[2538] Divine -providence imposes no fatal necessity upon the human will, which is -free to choose its course.[2539] The world of nature, however, existing -without will or reason of its own, conforms absolutely to the fatal -series provided 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 unexpected coincidence of -causes, as when a man plowing a field finds a treasure which another -has buried there.[2540] Thus Boethius maintains the co-existence of the -fatal series expressed 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 rhapsodizing over the stars and -heavens would lead them to regard the science of the stars as second -only to divine worship. Indeed, his position was the usual one in the -subsequent middle ages. - -[Sidenote: Music of the stars and universe.] - -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 connected 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 different and contrary -elements could never be united in one system unless some harmony joined -them.[2541] - -[Sidenote: Isidore of Seville.] - -Isidore was born about 560 or 570, became bishop of Seville in 599 -or 600, and died in the year 636. Although mention should perhaps be -made of his briefer _De natura rerum_,[2542] a treatise dedicated to -King Sisebut who reigned from 612 to 620, Isidore’s chief work from -our standpoint is the _Etymologiae_.[2543] 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 Isidore 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 composed seven years before this.[2544] The _Etymologies_ -was undoubtedly 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.[2545] 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 entirely beneficial, since writers continued to cite it as -an authority 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 encourage intellectual laziness and -stagnation more than any anthology of literary quotations did. Arevalus -listed ten printed editions of it before 1527, showing that it was as -popular in the time of the Renaissance as in the middle ages. - -[Sidenote: Method of the _Etymologies_.] - -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 derivation and definition for each -term. The method is, as Brehaut well says, “to treat each subject -by ... defining the terms belonging to it.”[2546] Pursuing this -method, Isidore treats of various arts and sciences, human interests -and natural phenomena: the seven liberal arts, medicine, and law; -chronology and bibliography; the church, religion, and theology; the -state and family, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geography, -and astronomy; architecture and agriculture; 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; sometimes there are chronological tables, -family trees, or lists of signs and abbreviations. In short, Isidore -forms a connecting link between Pliny and the encyclopedists of the -thirteenth century. - -[Sidenote: Its sources.] - -In a prefatory word to Braulio Isidore describes the _Etymologies_ as a -collection made from his recollection and notes of old authors,[2547] -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 -selection 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 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 -accounts for Isidore’s being so much cited. Many of the derivations -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.[2548] Isidore, however, still -displays a considerable 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 science Isidore -borrows chiefly from Pliny and Solinus, sometimes from Dioscorides, -giving us a faint adumbration of their much fuller confusion of science -and superstition. Occasionally bits of information or misinformation -are borrowed through the medium of the church fathers. A work of -Galen, for instance, is cited[2549] through the letter of Jerome to -Furia against widows remarrying. Galen, indeed, is seldom mentioned by -Isidore who draws his unusually brief fourth book on medicine chiefly -from Caelius Aurelianus.[2550] - -[Sidenote: Natural marvels.] - -In his treatment of things in nature Isidore seldom gives their -medicinal properties as Pliny does, and this reduces 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 vegetation 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 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,[2551] -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.[2552] On the other hand, Isidore omits Pliny’s superstitious -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 incredible.[2553] Even in the books on minerals -and vegetation we still hear of animal marvels:[2554] how the coloring -matter, cinnabar, 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. - -[Sidenote: Isidore is rather less hospitable to superstition than -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.[2555] He mentions the use of mandragora as an anaesthetic in -surgical operations, and remarks that its root is of human form, but -says nothing of its applications in magic.[2556] In his discussion -of stones he repeats after Pliny and Solinus the marvelous virtues -ascribed to a number of them, but follows Pliny’s method of making -the magicians responsible for these assertions or of inserting a word -of caution such as “if this is to be believed” with each statement. -Finally he introduces together a number of cases of marvelous powers -ascribed to stones with the introduction, “There are certain gems -employed by the Gentiles in their superstitions.”[2557] - -[Sidenote: Portents.] - -Isidore lists a number of mythical monsters as well as 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.”[2558] - -[Sidenote: Words and numbers.] - -Brehaut is impressed by Isidore’s “confidence in words,” which he -thinks “really amounted to a belief, strong though perhaps somewhat -inarticulate, that words were transcendental entities.”[2559] 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, Isidore is not the -first to do this; he is, indeed, simply quoting one of the fathers, -Epiphanius.[2560] “The _modius_ 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 performed twenty-two works. For on the first day He made 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.[2561] 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 -examples the _modius_ of twenty-two _sextarii_ was established by Moses -following the measure of sacred law. And although various peoples have -added something to or ignorantly 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. - -[Sidenote: History of magic.] - -Isidore’s chapter on the _Magi_ or magicians, which occurs in his -eighth book on the church and divers sects, is a notable one, of whose -great future influence we shall presently 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 chapter is that he has made magic and magicians the general -and inclusive head under which he presently lists various other minor -occult arts and their practitioners for separate definition. 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 mentioned 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 astrology 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 magicians, 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. - -[Sidenote: Definition of magic.] - -Next comes a formal definition of the _Magi_. They are “those who are -popularly called _malefici_ or sorcerers on account 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 -enchantment.’[2562] 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 _mathematici_, 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 religion through certain devices called _sortes sanctorum_ 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 ligatures 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 -Tagus to the Etruscans, Isidore closes the chapter. Some of its items -will be found again in his _De differentiis verborum_,[2563] 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_. - -[Sidenote: Future influence of Isidore’s account of magic.] - -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 Christian writers down into the twelfth -century. Somewhat altered 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 consanguineorum nuptiis et de magorum praestigiis falsisque -divinationibus tractatus_, and by Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres -(died 1115) in their respective collections of _Decreta_, while -Hincmar of Rheims in his _De divortio Lotharii et Tetbergae_ copied it -with more omissions.[2564] It was also in substance retained in the -_Decretum_ of Gratian in the twelfth century, when, too, Hugh of St. -Victor 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 subject and give us any assurance that such arts were still -practiced 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 Isidore’s stock definition of -magic, were probably not generally regarded as reprehensible.[2565] - -[Sidenote: Attitude to astrology.] - -Isidore’s repetition of the views of the fathers concerning demons is -so brief and trite[2566] 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 superstitious 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 superstitions “are without doubt -contrary to our faith; Christians 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 -Isidore, “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 astrology, but what it -is, especially between astronomy and natural astrology, he fails to -elucidate.[2567] - -[Sidenote: In the _De natura rerum_.] - -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 nature 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, “Concerning the waters -which are above the heavens,” and “Whether the stars have souls?”[2568] -Isidore rejects as “absurd 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.”[2569] Yet later -in the same treatise we find him saying that everything in nature grows -and increases according to the waxing and waning of the moon.[2570] -Moreover, he calls Saturn a cold star and explains that the planets are -called _errantia_, not because they wander themselves but because they -cause men to err.[2571] He also describes man as a microcosm.[2572] -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.[2573] In the _Etymologies_ he not -only attributes racial and temperamental differences among the peoples -of different regions to “force of the star”[2574] and “diversity of the -sky,”[2575] phrases which seem to imply astrological influence rather -than the mere influence of climate in our sense. He also encourages -astrological medicine when he says that the doctor should know -astronomy, since human bodies change with the qualities of the stars -and the change of times.[2576] Isidore might as well have taken the -planets as signs in the astrological sense as have ascribed to them the -absurd allegorical significance 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.[2577] - -[Sidenote: Bede’s scanty science.] - -The scientific acquisitions of Bede have too often been 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.”[2578] Dr. R. L. -Poole more moderately 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 generations to come.”[2579] -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_[2580] 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 temporibus_, 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[2581] of the -_De natura rerum_ and _De temporibus_ suggests that they were employed -as text-books in the monastic schools of the early middle ages. As the -Carolingian poet expressed it, - - _Beda dei famulus nostri didasculus evi - Falce pia sophie veterum sata lata peragrans._ - -[Sidenote: Bede’s _De natura rerum_.] - -Of Bede’s _Hexaemeron_ we spoke in an earlier chapter. His chief extant -genuine scientific treatise is the aforesaid _De natura rerum_,[2582] -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.[2583] -Like Isidore he accepts comets as signs of war and political change, of -tempests and pestilence.[2584] He also states that the air is inhabited -by evil spirits who there await the worse torments of the day of -judgment.[2585] In his Biblical commentaries Bede briefly echoes some -of the views of the fathers concerning magic and demons, for instance, -in his treatment of the witch of Endor.[2586] - -[Sidenote: Divination by thunder.] - -Bede also translated into Latin a treatise on divination from thunder, -perhaps from the works of the sixth century 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 perhaps 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, 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 bombastic -phraseology concerning the agile genius or sagacious investigation of -the philosophers who discovered it.[2587] Other tracts on divination -which were attributed to Bede are probably spurious and will for the -most part be considered later in connection with other treatises of the -same sort.[2588] - -[Sidenote: Riddles of Aldhelm.] - -Some interest in and knowledge of natural science is displayed in the -metrical riddles[2589] 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 preserved.” 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 Adhelmus -made in the thirteenth century by Thomas of Cantimpré in his _De natura -rerum_.[2590] Pitra,[2591] however, suggested that the Adhelmus cited -by Thomas of Cantimpré was a brother of John the Scot of the ninth -century. - -[Sidenote: Gregory’s _Dialogues_.] - -The total lack of originality and the extremely abbreviated character -of the infrequent scientific writing 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 -investigation, 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,[2592] pope from 590 to 604. We shall sufficiently -illustrate the nature of this farrago of pious folk-lore by a résumé -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 -emphasize 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 -naïve 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. - -[Sidenote: Signs and wonders wrought by saints.] - -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 experience or indirectly from the -statements of good and trustworthy 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 presently 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 avalanche 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 looking as if they were sure to fall. - -[Sidenote: More monkish miracles.] - -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 Honoratus -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. - -[Sidenote: A monastic snake-charmer.] - -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: “In -the name of 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. - -[Sidenote: Basilius the magician.] - -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.[2593] According 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 expelled 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 injure anyone who was -in it. This is more detailed information concerning the nature of -Basilius’ magic than Cassiodorus gives us. Gregory further adds that -not long after Basilius was burned to death at Rome by the zeal of the -Christian people. - -[Sidenote: A demon salad.] - -A female servant of this same monastery once ate a lettuce 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. - -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. - -[Sidenote: Incantations in Old Irish.] - -We may add a word at this point concerning Old Irish literature[2594] -which, as it has reached us, is almost entirely religious in -character,[2595] produced and preserved by the Christian 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 language which is ascribed to St. Patrick is a _Hymn_ or -incantation 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 century codex preserved in Carinthia. - -[Sidenote: The _Fili_.] - -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 divination. 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. - - - - - 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—Astrological 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 Incantation_—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 Relations 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. - - -[Sidenote: Plan of the chapter.] - -In this chapter we shall consider a number of learned men who wrote -in Arabic or other oriental languages in the ninth and early tenth -century: Alkindi, Albumasar, Costa ben Luca, Thebit ben Corat, and -Rasis—to mention for the present 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 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. - -[Sidenote: Works of Alkindi.] - -One of the great names in the history of Arabic learning is that -of Alkindi (Ya‘kûb ibn Ishâk ibn Sabbâh al-Kindî), who died about -850 or 873 A. D.[2596] 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, astronomy, and -astrology, 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.[2597] In 1875 Loth printed an Arabic text of his -treatise on the theory of conjunctions. More recently Nagy has edited -Latin versions of some of his philosophical opuscula, and Björnbo has -published an optical treatise by him entitled _De spectaculis_. - -[Sidenote: _On Stellar Rays_, or _The Theory of the Magic Art_.] - -In a manuscript of the closing fourteenth century are contained several -sets of errors of Aristotle and various Arabs, also others condemned at -Paris in 1348 and 1363, at Oxford in 1376, and so on. Among these are -listed the _Errors of Alkindi in the Magic Art_.[2598] 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,[2599] but which has never been published or -described at all fully. - -[Sidenote: Radiation of occult force from the stars.] - -Alkindi begins the treatise by asserting the astrological 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 collision 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 no 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 suggested 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. - -[Sidenote: The border-line between science and magic.] - -Alkindi has thus prepared the reader’s mind for the consideration of -phenomena beyond the realm of ordinary 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 science and superstition, yet he tries to formulate -a scientific basis for what is really a belief in magic. - -[Sidenote: Magic power of words.] - -Although Alkindi does not, as I recall, use the word magic, 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 accompanied 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. Some go -best with Saturn, others with 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. - -[Sidenote: Problem of prayer.] - -Alkindi even ventures to touch upon the subject of 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 observance of the proper -time and place and attendant circumstances 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 influence -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. - -[Sidenote: Figures, characters, and sacrifice.] - -The treatise concludes by discussing the virtues of figures, -characters, images, and sacrifices in much the same way as it has -treated of the power of words. We are assured 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 having -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 animals. Images constructed in conformity -with the constellations 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 thereby 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 produced will be -discordant and perverted. - -[Sidenote: Experiment and magic.] - -It will have been noted that Alkindi more than once asserts that his -conclusions have been demonstrated experimentally. Thus we have one -more example of the connection, supposititious or real, between magic -and experimental method. - -[Sidenote: Alkindi’s medieval influence.] - -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, repeating the same views in almost the same language -concerning stellar rays and the power of words, and it is appropriate -that in two manuscripts his utterances are placed together with those -of Alkindi.[2600] - -[Sidenote: Divination by visions and dreams.] - -Alkindi’s treatise _De somno et visione_, as we have it in the Latin -translation by Gerard of Cremona,[2601] accepts clairvoyance 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.[2602] His answer is that the mind or soul -has innate 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. - -[Sidenote: Weather prediction.] - -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 _Rogatus fui_.[2603] This -is a work on weather prediction which still exists in a number of -manuscripts[2604] and was printed in 1507 at Venice, and in 1540 at -Paris, together with a treatise on the same theme by Albumasar, of whom -we shall say more presently.[2605] - -[Sidenote: Alkindi as an astrologer.] - -A majority, indeed, of the works by Alkindi extant in Latin translation -are astrological.[2606] Several were translated by Gerard of Cremona, -and one or two by John of Spain and Robert of Chester.[2607] Geomancies -are attributed to Alkindi in manuscripts at Munich.[2608] Loth notes -concerning 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. - -[Sidenote: Alkindi on conjunctions.] - -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 hundred and forty years, and -great conjunctions which occur only every nine hundred and sixty years, -exert a great influence not only upon the world of nature but upon -political and religious events, and, especially the great conjunctions, -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 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 -subject 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 -Conjunctions_ without mentioning Alkindi as his authority. - -[Sidenote: Alkindi and alchemy.] - -Although a believer in astrology to the point of magic, and not -unacquainted with metals as his work _On the Properties of Swords_ -shows, Alkindi regarded the art of alchemy as a deception and the -pretended transmutation of other metals into gold as false.[2609] He -affirmed this especially in his treatise entitled, _The Deceits of the -Alchemists_, but also in his other writings.[2610] - -[Sidenote: Astrological works of Albumasar.] - -Something further should be said concerning the astrological treatises -of Albumasar (Abu Maؗ’shar Ja’far ben Muhammad al-Balkhî) whence also -his briefer appellations, Japhar and Dja’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[2611]—and the eight books concerning great -conjunctions and revolutions of the years. Of these the _Introduction_ -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 work on conjunctions and revolutions was -printed again in 1515 and also exists in many manuscripts.[2612] A -French translation which Hagins the Jew, working for Henri Bate of -Malines, made in 1273 of “Le livre des revolutions de siècle,” of whose -six chapters he translated only four,[2613] probably applied to a part -of this work. - -[Sidenote: The _Experiments_ of Albumasar.] - -Albertus Magnus in the _Speculum astronomiae_, in listing -irreproachable works of astronomy and astrology, mentions a “Book of -Experiments” by Albumasar instead of the Conjunctions and Revolutions -along with his _Flowers_ and _Introduction_.[2614] 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 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.[2615] - -[Sidenote: _Albumasar in Sadan._] - -Another work on astrology with which the name of Albumasar is connected -is cited by medieval writers, notably Peter of Abano,[2616] as -_Albumasar in Sadan_ (or Sadam), and is also found in Latin manuscripts -where it is also called “Excerpts from the Secrets of Albumasar.”[2617] -Steinschneider regarded the Latin translation as a shortened or -incomplete version of an Arabic original entitled _al-Mudsakaret_, or -_Memorabilia_ by Abu Sa’id Schâdsân, who wrote down the answers of his -teacher to his questions.[2618] There is also a Greek text, entitled -_Mysteries_, which differs considerably from the Latin and of which -Sadan perhaps made use.[2619] The Latin version might be described as -a miscellaneous collection of astrological teachings, anecdotes, and -actual cases of Albumasar gathered up by his disciples and somewhat -resembling Luther’s _Table-Talk_ in form. - -[Sidenote: _Book of rains._] - -We have already alluded to the treatise on weather prediction by -Albumasar which was printed with a similar work by Alkindi in 1507 -and 1540, and also often accompanies it in the manuscripts. In this -“book of rains according to the Indians”[2620] Albumasar is variously -disguised under the names of Gaphar, Jafar, and Iafar and is called -an Indian, Egyptian, or Babylonian.[2621] In his Latin translation 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.[2622] To Japhar is also attributed a _Minor Isagoga_ to -astronomy in seven lectures or _sermones_, which Adelard of Bath is -said to have translated from the Arabic.[2623] - -[Sidenote: Costa ben Luca’s translation of Hero’s _Mechanica_.] - -We turn next to Costa ben Luca, or Qustá ibn Lūqá, of Baalbek, and -especially to his treatise _On Physical Ligatures_, or more fully, _The -Epistle concerning Incantations, Adjurations, and Suspensions from the -Neck_. The scientific importance of Costa ben Luca may be seen from the -circumstance 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 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.[2624] - -[Sidenote: Latin versions of his _Epistle concerning Incantation, etc._] - -The work in which we are more especially interested has also been -printed in editions of the works of Galen, of Constantinus Africanus, -of Arnald of Villanova, and of Henry Cornelius Agrippa.[2625] -The treatise is also attributed to Rasis in the library at -Montpellier.[2626] 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 perhaps -rendered the treatise from that language.[2627] But it had certainly -been translated before his time, the end of the thirteenth century, and -presumably by Constantinus Africanus, c1015-1087, 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.[2628] -In a fifteenth century manuscript Unayn or Honein ben Ishak is named -as the author of our treatise, but this seems to be a mistake.[2629] -Albertus Magnus in the middle of the thirteenth century cites our -treatise both in his _Vegetables and Plants_,[2630] 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_,[2631] where the _Liber de ligaturis physicis_, as he calls -it, is the source whence he has borrowed statements concerning gems -ascribed to Aristotle and Dioscorides. - -[Sidenote: Form of the epistle.] - -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, adjurations, 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. - -[Sidenote: Incantations directly affect the mind alone.] - -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 imperfect 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 perhaps 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 interpretation 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 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 health or of chronic -infirmity.[2632] Costa states that the medical men of India believe -that incantations and adjurations are beneficial. But he says nothing -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 anything to indicate that demons may -be summoned and given orders by this method. Perhaps his discussion of -incantations 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. - -[Sidenote: Men imagine themselves bewitched.] - -Costa ben Luca’s attitude towards sorcery seems the same as towards -incantations. He concludes his discussion of this point by a story -of “a certain great noble of our country” who had convinced himself -that he had been bewitched 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.[2633] The -noble followed the prescription and had so much faith in it that his -imaginary complaint disappeared. - -[Sidenote: How are amulets effective?] - -Finally Costa considers the question of the validity of amulets, or -ligatures and suspensions, which we have heard 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 -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. - -[Sidenote: Citations from the lapidary of the Pseudo-Aristotle.] - -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 examples 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.” - -[Sidenote: From Galen and Dioscorides.] - -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 -elephantinum cum melle mixtum et in vulva mulieris positum 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. - -[Sidenote: Occult virtue.] - -Costa concludes by saying that he himself has not tested these -statements extracted from the works of the ancients, 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 cannot 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.[2634] 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. - -[Sidenote: _On the Difference between Soul and Spirit._] - -Another treatise by Costa ben Luca, _On the Difference between Soul -and Spirit_,[2635] has little to do with occult science, but gives -too good a glimpse of medieval notions in the field of physiological -psychology to pass it by. It was translated into Latin by John of -Spain for Archbishop Raymond of Toledo in the twelfth century,[2636] -and is found in many manuscripts, often together with the works of -Aristotle.[2637] Probably by a confusion of the names Costa ben Luca -and Constantinus[2638] it was printed among the latter’s works,[2639] -and indeed we find very similar views in his _Pantegni_[2640] and -in his treatise _On Melancholy_. The work has also been ascribed -to Augustine,[2641] Isaac,[2642] Avicenna,[2643] Alexander Neckam, -Thomas of Cantimpré, and Albertus Magnus.[2644] 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[2645] but -which cites such later authors as Boethius, Isidore, Bede, Alcuin, -St. Bernard, and Hugh of St. Victor, to whom also it has been -attributed.[2646] Thomas Aquinas called it the work of an anonymous -Cistercian.[2647] But to return to our treatise. - -[Sidenote: The nature of _spiritus_.] - -Costa ben Luca has, as we have hinted, some diverting passages in the -fields of physiological psychology. He believes 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, -sensation and movement. The two former processes are operated by -_spiritus_ “arising from the heart and borne in the pulsating 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 subjected to excessive heat -or cold like the Ethiopians or Slavs. Here we have the same views -repeated as in the _Epistle concerning 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. - -[Sidenote: Thought explained physiologically.] - -Costa ben Luca gives an amusing explanation of how these processes take -place in the brain. The opening between 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 posterior cavity. -Moreover, the speed with which this valve works or responds differs -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 intellectual ability. - -[Sidenote: Views of other medieval writers.] - -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 natura_,[2648] and Petrocellus -the Salernitan in his _Practica_;[2649] in the twelfth century both -Hildegard of Bingen[2650] and the Pseudo-Augustinian _Liber de spiritu -et anima_;[2651] in the thirteenth century both Bartholomew of England, -who seems to cite Johannitius (Hunain ibn Ishak) on this point,[2652] -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.[2653] The Pseudo-Augustine, however, represents it -further as the source of motor activity. Constantinus 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 retains the smaller -number of forms selected by reason contains 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 -hind-brain the center of motor activity, and the mid-brain the seat of -memory.[2654] - -[Sidenote: Thebit ben Corat.] - -Thabit ibn Kurrah ibn Marwan ibn Karaya ibn Ibrahim ibn Marinos ibn -Salamanos (Abu Al Hasan) Al Harrani 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;[2655] or -Thebit ben Corat, or Thebith ben Corath, or Thebit filius Core, or -Thebites filius Chori, also Tabith, Tebith, 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.[2656] 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.”[2657] As a matter of fact, he was a heathen or -pagan, a member of the sect of Sabians, whose chief seat was at his -birthplace, Harran. - -[Sidenote: The Sabians.] - -The Sabians appear to have continued the paganism and astrology of -Babylonia, but also to have accepted the Agathodaemon and Hermes -of Egypt,[2658] and to have had relations with Gnosticism and -Neo-Platonism. They seem to have laid especial stress upon the spirits -of the planets,[2659] to whom they made prayers, sacrifices, and -suffumigations,[2660] while days on which the planets reached their -culminating-points were celebrated as festivals.[2661] 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.[2662] Some planets were masculine, others feminine; -some lucky, others unlucky;[2663] they were related to different -metals;[2664] the different members of the human body were placed under -different signs of the zodiac;[2665] and in general each planet had its -own appropriate figures and forms, and ruled over certain climates, -regions, and things[2666] in nature. Most of this, however, is -astrological commonplace whether of pagans, Mohammedans, or Christians. -Nor were the Sabians peculiar in associating intellectual substances -or spirits with the planets.[2667] 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,[2668] -magic knots and figures,[2669] 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.[2670] - -[Sidenote: Thebit’s relations to Sabianism.] - -Thebit, at any rate, seems to have prided himself upon being a -descendant of pagan antiquity. In a passage praising his native town -he said, “We are the heirs and posterity of heathenism,”[2671] and he -described with veneration a ruined Greek temple at Antioch.[2672] He -had, however, some religious disagreement with the Sabians of Harran -and was finally forced to leave.[2673] He met a philosopher who took -him to Bagdad where he became one of the Caliph’s astronomers[2674] -and founded there a Sabian community to his own taste. 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 different planets.[2675] - -[Sidenote: Thebit as encyclopedist, philosopher, astronomer.] - -Thebit was a writer of encyclopedic range and translated from the -Greek[2676] into Arabic or Syriac such authors as Apollonius, -Archimedes, Aristotle, Euclid, Hippocrates, and Galen. He “was famed -above all as a philosopher,”[2677] but most of his philosophical -works are lost, but some geometrical treatises by him are extant, -and a work on weights appears in Latin translation.[2678] A group of -four astronomical treatises by him also occurs with fair frequency in -medieval manuscripts.[2679] On the basis of these specimens of his -astronomy Delambre was not moved to assign him any great place in -the history of the science;[2680] Chwolson objects that they are too -brief to do him justice,[2681] 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. - -[Sidenote: His occult science.] - -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 the fourteenth century and some notes against the -art in another[2682]. But of his adhesion to astrology there is no -doubt[2683], and Chwolson notes his interest in the mystic power of -letters and magic combinations of them[2684]. 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[2685] and by -John of Seville[2686], since the manuscripts of it are numerous,[2687] -and it also was printed,[2688] and since Thebit is cited as an -authority on the subject of images by such medieval writers as Roger -Bacon, Albertus Magnus,[2689] the author of _Picatrix_,[2690] Peter of -Abano,[2691] and Cecco d’Ascoli.[2692] - -[Sidenote: Astrological and magic images.] - -The work begins by emphasizing the need of a knowledge of astronomy in -order to perform feats of magic (_praestigia_). The images described -are astronomical or astrological and must be constructed under -prescribed constellations in order to fulfill the end sought. Often, -however, they are human forms rather than astronomical figures. It is -not necessary to engrave them upon gems; Thebit expressly states that -the material of which they are made or upon which they are engraved -is unimportant, and that lead or tin or bronze or gold or silver or -wax or mud or anything you please will do. The essential thing and -“the perfection of mastery” is careful conformity to astrological -conditions. This science of images is indeed, as Aristotle and Ptolemy -have testified, the acme of astrology. Nevertheless, 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 burying 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, destroying 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, at least in the printed text, with an -admission of its essentially 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 and other authors, and of which we shall treat later -under the head of such experimental literature. - -[Sidenote: Life of Rasis.] - -The full name of Rasis or Rhazes was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya -ar-Razi,[2693] the last word indicating his birthplace in Persia. The -date of his birth is uncertain, perhaps about 850. He died in 923 or -924.[2694] For the facts of his life we are dependent upon two Arabic -writers of the thirteenth century[2695] 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 physician 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. - -[Sidenote: His 232 works.] - -There has come down to us a list of some 232 works ascribed to -Rasis.[2696] Some of them are probably merely different 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 ground he covered, although of course some may be incorrectly -attributed to him. Editions of the Latin translations of some of his -chief medical works were printed before the end of the fifteenth -century at Milan in 1481 and Bergamo in 1497.[2697] These contain the -famous _Liber Almansoris_ or _Liber El-Mansuri dictus_ with its ten -subordinate treatises: (1) introduction to medicine and discussion -of human anatomy, (2) the doctrine of temperaments and humors and a -discussion of the art of physiognomy,[2698] 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. Following -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 editions are a brief treatise on Surgery, Cautery, and -Leeches,[2699] 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. - -[Sidenote: Charlatans discussed.] - -In the list of 232 titles are three works which all seem to bear on the -same point and are perhaps different descriptions 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, 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.[2700] - -[Sidenote: His interest in natural science.] - -Other titles show that Rasis was interested in natural science and not -merely in the practice of medicine. Besides what would appear to have -been a general treatise entitled, _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.[2701] -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_.[2702] Other titles attest his experimental -tendency.[2703] - -[Sidenote: Rasis and alchemy.] - -Eight titles deal with alchemy[2704] and show that Rasis regarded -transmutation as possible. One is a reply to Alkindi who held the -opposite opinion.[2705] 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 of Beauvais, made a number of citations from the treatise -_De salibus et aluminibus_ attributed to Rasis, but Berthelot[2706] -regarded this work as later than Rasis and it is not found among our -eight titles. The _Lumen luminis_, which is ascribed to Rasis[2707] -and seems to have been translated by Michael Scot[2708] 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. Berthelot 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, remarking 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.[2709] - -[Sidenote: Titles suggestive of astrology and magic.] - -Rasis also wrote treatises on mathematics and the stars but it is not -always easy to infer their contents from the titles which have alone -reached us or to tell when _mathematica_ 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.[2710] 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.[2711] In another letter he discussed -the opinion of natural philosophers concerning the sciences of the -stars and whether or not the stars were living beings.[2712] Rasis -also discussed the difference between dreams from which the future -can be forecast and other dreams.[2713] The title, _Of exorcisms, -fascinations, 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 Ranking’s opinion, be more -accurately translated as _The Book of Divisions and Branches_.[2714] A -work _On the Necessity of Prayer_ is also included in the list of 232 -works ascribed to Rasis,[2715] while a Lapidary produced for Wenzel -II of Bohemia (1278-1305) cites Rasis _On the virtues of words and -characters_.[2716] - -[Sidenote: Conclusion.] - -Herewith we conclude our present survey of Arabian 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 associated 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 superstition pretends to -be or attempts to be scientific. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - - LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION: ESPECIALLY IN THE NINTH, TENTH, AND - ELEVENTH CENTURIES - - Astrology in Gaul before the twelfth century—Figures of astrological - 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—Relation of Latin astrology to Arabic—Appendix I. Some - manuscripts of the Sphere of Pythagoras or Apuleius—Appendix II. - Egyptian days in early medieval manuscripts. - - -[Sidenote: Astrology in Gaul before the twelfth century.] - -Astrology had continued to flourish in Gaul in the last declining days -of the Roman Empire, despite the strictures of Christian writers and -clergy,[2717] and it was one of the first subjects to revive after -the darkness of the Merovingian 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 increasingly 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.”[2718] With the study of astronomy naturally developed a -belief in astrology. According to the _Histoire Littéraire de la -France_ it became quite the fashion during the reign of Louis the -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 phenomena as comets and eclipses were feared as sinister -portents, and men resorted to enchantments, auguries, and other forms -of divination.[2719] A brief treatise in a manuscript of the ninth -century in the Vatican library also develops the thesis that comets -signify disasters.[2720] In the eleventh century Engelbert, a monk of -Liège, 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 Littéraire_ and replies to its -own question, “The making of some wretched astrologers and not a single -true astronomer!”[2721] - -[Sidenote: Figures of astrological medicine.] - -These words were written nearly two hundred years ago, but such a -recent investigation of manuscripts in French libraries as that of -Wickersheimer on figures illustrative of 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.[2722] -The manuscripts 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 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.[2723] 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 describes 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 manuscripts of -the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.[2724] - -[Sidenote: The divine quaternities of Raoul Glaber.] - -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 incarnation, corresponds -to earth; Mark to water, since it emphasizes baptism; Luke to air, -because it is the longest Gospel; 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 Paradise: -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 Abraham 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. - -[Sidenote: Celestial portents and other marvels.] - -The faith of Raoul and his contemporaries in the mystic significance -of numbers, if not also in astrology, and the fact that they were -constantly on the lookout for portents 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 industrious 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, -including 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. But from the -superstition of medieval chroniclers we must turn back to astrological -manuscripts proper. - -[Sidenote: An eleventh century calendar.] - -An eleventh century calendar at Amiens[2725] 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.[2726] 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.”[2727] - -[Sidenote: Astrology and divination in ecclesiastical _Compoti_.] - -Indeed works of astrology and divination are especially likely to -be found in the same manuscripts with ecclesiastical calendars and -_computi_. _Computus_ or _compotus_, as one manuscript states, was “the -science considering times.”[2728] For example, in a brief _compotus_ of -the ninth century[2729] 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,[2730] -sandwiched in between calendars and reckonings of Easter and eclipses -and Bede’s work _On the Natures of Things_, are a sphere of divination, -an account of Egyptian days, a method of divination from thunder, and -a portion of a work on judicial astrology beginning with the eleventh -chapter which tells how to determine whether anyone will be poor or -rich by inspection of the planet in his nativity.[2731] - -[Sidenote: Notker on the mystic date of Easter.] - -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,[2732] in a treatise to his -disciple Erkenhard on four questions of _compotus_,[2733] 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 mystery connected with the date of Easter, and it -merely celebrated 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. - -[Sidenote: Prediction from the Kalends of January.] - -But let us consider in more detail the methods of divination found -in such manuscripts. Simplest of all perhaps are predictions as to -the character of the ensuing year according 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.”[2734] In some manuscripts these predictions -concerning the weather, crops, wars, and king for the ensuing year are -called _Supputatio Esdrae_ or signs which God revealed to the prophet -Esdras.[2735] In another manuscript[2736] 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[2737] predictions 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 that year kings -and pontiffs will perish,” and “If on twelfth night there shall be -wind, kings will perish in war.” - -[Sidenote: Other divination by the day of the week] - -Divination from thunder is another form of judicial astrology, if -it may so be called, found in these early manuscripts. Perhaps the -simplest variety of it is according to the day of the week on which -thunder is heard.[2738] Predictions were also made according to the -month in which thunder was heard,[2739] or the direction from which -it was heard.[2740] 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 direction from which -the thunder is heard, the month, and the day of the week. Nativities of -infants are also given according 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.[2741] It is also regarded as important to -note upon which day of the week the new moon occurs,[2742] and we are -further informed of the various hours of the days of the week when it -is advisable to perform blood-letting.[2743] 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.[2744] Since the days of -the week bore the names of the planets, it was not strange that they -should have been credited with something of the virtues of the stars. - -[Sidenote: Divination by the day of the moon.] - -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.[2745] 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;[2746] a work ascribed -to “Saint Daniel” on nativities by the day of the moon;[2747] and an -equally brief interpretation of dreams upon the same basis.[2748] 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 -animals, to build an aqueduct or mill, or whether it is best to -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.[2749] -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 on.[2750] - -[Sidenote: Authorship of moon-books.] - -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,[2751] where -Adam is said to have worked out these “lunations” “by true experience.” -A fifteenth century one is attributed to a philosopher, astrologer, -and physician named Edris,[2752] 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 recover and captives escape. In a sixteenth -century manuscript 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.”[2753] But such an ascription is rather obviously a late fiction. - -[Sidenote: Spheres of life and death: in Greek.] - -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 employed 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 Democritus, prognostic of life and death” -found in a Leyden papyrus,[2754] while the very similar _Sphere of -Petosiris_, the 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.[2755] 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 outcome of -gladiatorial combats.[2756] - -[Sidenote: Medieval Latin versions.] - -In the medieval Latin versions of these Spheres of life and death the -numerical value of the Greek letters was naturally 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.[2757] But more common than this in manuscripts of -the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries was the Sphere of life and -death of Apuleius or Pythagoras or both[2758] which replaced that of -Democritus. Like it, it consisted of the numbers from one to thirty -arranged in six compartments, three above a line each containing six -numbers, and three below the line having four each. John of Salisbury, -in the twelfth century, presumably refers to it when he speaks of -divination or lot-casting “by inspection of the so-called Pythagorean -table”;[2759] and it continues to be found with great frequency in the -manuscripts of subsequent centuries.[2760] 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.[2761] - -[Sidenote: Survival of such methods in medical practice of about 1400.] - -The survival of such superstitious methods of divination into the later -middle ages is attested not only by the frequent recurrence of the -_Sphere of Apuleius_ 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.[2762] 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 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.” - -[Sidenote: Egyptian days.] - -Brief lists of “Egyptian Days” are of rather common occurrence in both -Latin and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the ninth, tenth, and succeeding -centuries.[2763] Often it is merely stated what days of the year they -are; sometimes it is simply added that the doctor should not bleed -the patient upon them. As early as a ninth century manuscript,[2764] -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 December 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 manuscript a bare list -of the Egyptian days is followed by a somewhat similar account of the -three which must be observed with especial care.[2765] In a calendar -of saints’ days in this same manuscript only the third of March and -the third of July are marked _dies egiptiagus_.[2766] Egyptian days -are also marked in the calendar of Marianus Scotus, the well-known -chronicler and chronologist.[2767] A somewhat different account in a -twelfth century manuscript states that “these are the days which God -sent without mercy.” It also, however, lists two of them for each -month and distinguishes the three in April, August, and December as -especially dangerous.[2768] - -[Sidenote: Their history.] - -There seems to be no doubt that these Egyptian days were a relic of the -unlucky days in the ancient Egyptian calendar,[2769] 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 calendars -of the Roman Empire about 354 A. D., and in the _Fasti Philocaliani_ -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.[2770] They were mentioned in the _Life -of Proclus_ by Marinus, and both Ambrose and Augustine testified that -many Christians still had faith in them.[2771] Indeed, they passed into -the ecclesiastical calendar, as the Franciscan, Bartholomew of England, -states in the thirteenth century.[2772] - -[Sidenote: Medieval attempts to explain them.] - -By that time the notion had become prevalent that they were -anniversaries of the days upon which God afflicted Egypt with plagues, -as our citations from the manuscripts have shown. Bartholomew, indeed, -is at pains to explain that the days are placed in the church calendar, -“not because 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 they were called Egyptian days because they -had been discovered by the Egyptians, and since Egypt means dark,[2773] -they are called _tenebrosi_, because they are declared to bring the -incautious to the shadows of death.[2774] The Dominican, Vincent of -Beauvais,[2775] 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 unlucky. 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 ecclesiastical calendar. Bernard Gordon, a -medical writer at the 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.[2776] -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.[2777] - -[Sidenote: Other perilous days.] - -On the other hand, not only did the twenty-four Egyptian 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 century manuscript we read of forty perilous days which -should be observed with the utmost care and which Greek masters have -tested by experience;[2778] while in a second manuscript of the closing -medieval period appear fifty-eight dangerous days “according to the -Arabs.”[2779] 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 August entirely, which perhaps should contain the missing -eleven days.[2780] 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 conceived, and if by chance a male is conceived or -born, its body will never be freed from putridity.”[2781] - -[Sidenote: Firmicus read by an archbishop of York.] - -That astrological knowledge in England, at least soon after the -Norman conquest, was not limited to such meager and simple treatises -as the moon-books described above from 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 struggle -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 inhabitants 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 addiction 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 manuscripts 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 work by Julius Firmicus Maternus -should be found under his pillow when he died.”[2782] 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 1114. -F. Liebermann states that the author was in the service of archbishop -Gerard aforesaid.[2783] - -[Sidenote: Relation of Latin astrology to Arabic.] - -Charles Jourdain once made the generalization that before 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.[2784] An even -more erroneous assertion was that in Burckhardt’s _Die Kultur der -Renaissance in Italien_ that “at the beginning of the thirteenth -century” the superstition of astrology “suddenly appeared in the -foreground of Italian life.”[2785] Even Jourdain’s assertion the entire -present chapter tends to disprove, but since it has been quoted with -approval by a subsequent writer on the thirteenth century,[2786] 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 cultivated astrology had no other guides than -Censorinus, Manilius, and Julius Firmicus, who might indeed seduce -a few isolated dreamers but did not have enough weight to convince -philosophers. Ptolemy and the Arabs, on the contrary, 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 presentation of the art of astrology than the elementary -_Quadripartite_ of Ptolemy. It is true that Ptolemy had a great -scientific 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 concerning nature and regarded -such works as _De vetula_ and the _Secret of Secrets_ as genuine works -of Ovid and Aristotle, 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 developed 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 introduction of Arabic astrology. - - - - - APPENDIX I - - SOME MANUSCRIPTS OF THE SPHERE OF PYTHAGORAS OR APULEIUS - - -Besides the copies noted by Wickersheimer (1913) in French manuscripts -from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, such as Laon 407, Orléans -276, and BN nouv. acq. 1616, where in fact it occurs twice: at fol. 7v, -“Ratio spere phytagor philosophi quem epulegus descripsit,” and at fol. -14r, “Ratio pitagere de infirmis,”—the following may be listed. - - BN 5239, 10th century, # 12. - - Harleian 3017, 10th century, fol. 58r, “Ratio spherae Pythagorae - philosophi quam Apuleius descripsit.” - - Cotton Tiberius C, VI, 11th 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, 11th century, fol. 1r, 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, 10th century, # 5, De spera Putagorae. - - CLM 22307, 10-11th 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, 10th century, fol. 162v, “Eulogii ratio - sperae Pitagorae philosophi,” in a MS containing works of Jerome, - Augustine, and Ambrose. - - Vatican Urb. Lat. 290, 11-13th century, fol. 2v, Ratio spere Pitagoras - quam Apuleius descripsit; fol. 3, Petosiris Micipso regi salutem. - -I suspect that the following would also prove upon examination to be -one of these Spheres of life and death. - - CLM 18629, 10th century, fol. 95, Characteres literarum secretarum, - 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, 10-11th century, fol. 16v. - -Of the numerous occurrences of the _Sphere of Pythagoras_ or of -Apuleius in MSS later than the eleventh century 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. 67r 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 numerical 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 apollonius scripsit;” - fol. 392, S(p)era Fortune. - - Digby, 58, 14th century, fol. 1v, “Spera philosophorum.” - - - Bodleian 26 (Bernard 1871), 13-14th century, fols. 207 and 216v. - - Bodleian 177 (Bernard 2072), late 14th century, # 1, Pythagorae - sphaera quam Apuleius exaravit ut scias an aeger convalescat; # 14, - fol. 22r, Apuleii Platonici 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, 13-14th century, fol. 108, “Spera (Pictagore) de - vita et morte sive de re alia quacunque secundum Apuleium.” - - Harleian 5311, 15th century, folder i, “Spera Apullei.” - - S. Marco XI, 111, 16th century, ascribes a wheel of life and death to - “Bede the presbyter,” and another to Apollonius and Pythagoras. - - - - - APPENDIX II - - EGYPTIAN DAYS IN EARLY MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS - - -The following citations could probably be greatly multiplied. - - BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th century, fol. 12r. - - Digby 63, end of 9th century, Anglo-Saxon minuscule, fol. 36, “Dies - Egiptiachi.” - - Berlin 131 (Phillips 1869, Trier), 9th century, fol. 12r. - - 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, 10th 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, 10th century (?), fol. 121, Versus ad dies Egyptiacas - inveniendas. See also Baehrens, _Poet. lat. min._ V, 354-6; Mommsen - CIL I, 411. - - Sloane 475, this portion of the MS 10-11th century, fol. 216v, Versus - de significatione dierum mensis, opening, “Tenebrae Aegyptus Grecos - sermone vocantur....” - - Additional 22398, 10th 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, 10th century, fol. 3v. - - Cotton Vitellius A, XII, fol. 39v. - - Cotton Vitellius C, VIII, in Anglo-Saxon, fol. 23, de tribus anni - diebus Aegyptiacis. - - CU Trinity 945, early 11th century, fol. 37. - - CU Trinity 1369, 11th century (perhaps 1086 A. D.), fol. 1v. - - Vatican 644, 10-11th century, fol. 77r, versus duodecim de diebus - aegyptiis, and a fragment “de tribus diebus aegyptiis.” - - Dijon 448, 10-12th century, fol. 88, Calendrier, avec jours - égyptiaques ajoutés; fol. 191, “De Egyptiacis diebus.” Bede’s _De - temporibus_ 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 earlier 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, 12th century, fol. 37r. - - CLM 23390, 12-13th century, the last item is, “Verses concerning the - twelve signs and the Egyptian days.” The previous contents were mainly - religious. - - Cambrai 195, fol. 208; 229, fol. 56; 829, fol. 54; all three MSS of - the 12th 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, -10th 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. 251v, -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 relation -to Gerbert and the Arabic—Hermann’s _De mensura astrolabii_—Attitude -towards astrology in the preface—Question of Gerbert’s attitude -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-calculations—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. - - -[Sidenote: Arabic influence in early manuscripts.] - -The usual view has been that western Latin learning was not affected -by Arabic science until the twelfth or even the thirteenth century. We -shall see in other chapters that the translations of the Aristotelian -books of natural philosophy were current rather earlier than has been -recognized, 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 misinterpretation 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—Berthelot -in his history of medieval alchemy placed the introduction 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 centuries by -numerous signs of Arabic influence in works of 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 -century in the British Museum[2787] and Wickersheimer was similarly -surprised at the traces of Arabic influence in a similar but still -earlier manuscript of the tenth century at Paris.[2788] Bubnov, -however, had already noted this Paris manuscript as a proof that Arabic -books were being translated into Latin in Gerbert’s time,[2789] and one -of Gerbert’s letters, written in 984 to a Lupitus of Barcelona (_Lupito -Barchinonensi_), asking him to send Gerbert a book on “astrology” which -he had translated, points in the same direction. In the present chapter -we shall discuss the contents of the early manuscripts just mentioned -and of some others which seem to have some connection either with -Gerbert or the introduction of Arabic astrology into Latin learning. - -[Sidenote: A preface and twenty-one chapters on the astrolabe.] - -In an eleventh century manuscript at Munich[2790] the astrological -work of Firmicus is preceded by writings in a different hand upon the -astrolabe. One of these, in its present state an anonymous fragment, is -a stilted and florid introduction to a translation from the Arabic of -a work on the astrolabe.[2791] Another is a treatise on the astrolabe -in twenty-one chapters and containing many Arabic names.[2792] Bubnov -lists three other copies of the introductory fragment, and they are -all in manuscripts where the second treatise is also included;[2793] -it, however, is often found in other manuscripts where the anonymous -fragment does not appear, and it must be admitted that its omission is -no great loss. - -[Sidenote: Are they parts of one work?] - -Although the fragment precedes the other treatise in only one -manuscript mentioned by Bubnov, there is reason 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 chapters except that it ends incompletely. Bubnov recognized -this, yet did not unite them as a single work.[2794] In 984 Gerbert -wrote to a _Lupito Barchinonensi_ asking Lupitus to send him a work -on “astrology” which Lupitus had translated.[2795] 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 introductory -fragment,[2796] but the treatise in twenty-one chapters he placed among -the doubtful works of Gerbert,[2797] because a monastic catalogue -composed before 1084 speaks of a work of Gerbert on the astrolabe, -while six manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, -although none earlier to his knowledge, ascribe this very treatise -of twenty-one chapters 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,[2798] why did he not prefix 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? - -[Sidenote: Their relation to Gerbert and the Arabic.] - -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 more evidence of an early and -widespread interest in astronomy and knowledge of Arabic in the -western Latin learned world. - -[Sidenote: Hermann’s _De mensura astrolabii_.] - -One reason why the treatise on the astrolabe in twenty-one chapters -is so seldom found in the manuscripts preceded by the introduction of -the translator may be that it is more 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.”[2799] This treatise tells how to construct an astrolabe, -thus filling in the deficiency left by the incomplete ending 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 Gerbert’s treatise.[2800] Of late there has been -a tendency to identify this Hermann with Hermann of Dalmatia, the -twelfth century translator from the Arabic,[2801] rather than with -Hermann the Lame, the chronicler, who died in 1054, but if Bubnov is -correct in dating two manuscripts[2802] containing Hermann’s treatise -on the astrolabe in the eleventh century, they could not be the work -of Hermann the translator of the next century.[2803] Moreover, in the -thirteenth century the treatise seems to have been regarded as the work -of Hermann the Lame.[2804] 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.”[2805] - -[Sidenote: Attitude towards astrology in the preface.] - -In the treatise of twenty-one chapters, which simply tells how to use -the astrolabe, there is naturally no reference 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 of divinity and by -natural law” and testified to by scientists.[2806] 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 miraculous 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 _genethlialogi_, -“who account for the entire life of man by astrological reasons” and -“try to explain conceptions and nativities, 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 egg which is not to be -sucked unless rid of the bad odors of error.[2807] The translator 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. - -[Sidenote: Question of Gerbert’s attitude toward astrology.] - -If Gerbert could be shown to be the translator who wrote this -introduction, it would be a more valuable bit of evidence 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 -disciple, the historian Richer, tells in the well-known passage[2808] -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 probably 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.[2809] Richer does, however, state -that Berbert especially studied _mathesis_, a word which, as various -medieval writers inform us, may mean either mathematics or divination. -Apparently Richer uses it in the former sense, for later he mentions -only Gerbert’s achievements in arithmetic, geometry, music, and -astronomy.[2810] But Robert, king of France, 987-1031, whose teacher -Gerbert had been, seems to refer to him as “that master Neptanebus” in -some verses,[2811] a name which certainly suggests an astrologer, as -well as an instructor of royalty, if not also a magician. - -[Sidenote: His posthumous reputation as a magician.] - -But Gerbert’s reputation for magic seems to start with William of -Malmesbury in the first half of the twelfth century, who makes him flee -by night from his monastery to Spain to study “astrology” and other -arts with the Saracens, 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 whatever human curiosity -has encompassed whether harmful or salutary.” William then adds some -more sober facts concerning Gerbert’s mathematical achievements and -associates.[2812] Michael Scot in his _Introduction to Astrology_ in -the early thirteenth century speaks of a master _Gilbertus_ who was -the best nigromancer in France and whom the demons obeyed in all that -he required of them day and night because 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.[2813] In a manuscript early in the -thirteenth century is a statement that Gerbert became archbishop and -pope by demon aid and had a spirit enclosed in a golden head whom -he consulted as to knotty problems in composing his commentary 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_.[2814] - -[Sidenote: An anonymous astronomical treatise; its possible relation to -Gerbert.] - -In a manuscript in the Bodleian library which seems to have been -written early in the twelfth century[2815] is an astronomical treatise -in four books which Macray suggested might be the _Liber de planetis -et mundi climatibus_ which Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester from 963 -to 984, is said to have composed.[2816] The present treatise indeed -embodies a _Letter of Ethelwold to Pope Gerbert_ on squaring the -circle.[2817] It seems, however, that this letter on squaring the -circle was really written by Adelbold, bishop of Utrecht from 1010 -to 1027.[2818] Adelbold speaks of himself in the letter as a young -man[2819] and of course wrote it before Gerbert’s death in 1003, and -very probably before Gerbert became 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 astronomical -treatise in four books is therefore not by Ethelwold, unless the -letter be a later interpolation, but it is possibly by Adelbold or by -Gerbert.[2820] Its opening words, “Quicumque mundane spere rationem et -astrorum legem ...,” are similar to those of the treatise on the uses -of the astrolabe which has often been ascribed to Gerbert, “Quicumque -astronomice peritiam discipline....”[2821] - -[Sidenote: Contents of its first two books.] - -Our treatise then may be by Gerbert or it may be a specimen of the -astronomy of the eleventh or early twelfth 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 concerned, -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 considered 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, beginning 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 if the habitat of peoples is known one -can more easily arrive at the effect of the stars.[2822] - -[Sidenote: Attitude towards astrology.] - -This suggests that the author believes in astrological influence, -and in the two following books he states a number of astrological -doctrines, not, however, as his own convictions 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.”[2823] -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, prognostication, -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,[2824] 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 reasoning and -intelligence, logic and theory. Jupiter is practical and represents -the power of action. Mars signifies animosity; 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 moonlight than when they did not.[2825] 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,”[2826] the author goes on to tell which signs are masculine -and which are feminine, to relate them to the four cardinal points and -to the four elements, to define the twenty-eight mansions and their -distribution among the twelve signs and seven planets,[2827] and to -tell how the planets differ in quality.[2828] All this is providing at -least the basis for astrological prediction. - -[Sidenote: The fourth book.] - -The fourth book of the treatise is mainly taken up with descriptions -and figures of the constellations, concerning which the author often -repeats the fables of antiquity. After discussing the six ages of the -world, the author intended 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 Wickersheimer investigated in the early medieval -manuscripts in the libraries of France. - -[Sidenote: Citations: Arabic names.] - -Our author does not make many citations, but among them are -Eratosthenes,[2829] Aratus, Ptolemy, Macrobius, and 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, hachim, 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.”[2830] He also gives the -Arabic names for the twenty-eight mansions into which the circle of -the zodiac subdivides.[2831] We now turn to another treatise, found in -tenth and eleventh century manuscripts, in which Arabian influence is -apparent. - -[Sidenote: The _Mathematica_ of Alchandrus or Alhandreus.] - -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, Alandraeus in his knowledge of the distances between -the stars, and Julius Firmicus in his knowledge of fate.[2832] It is -rather remarkable that a work ascribed to Alhandreus or Alcandrus, -“supreme astrologer,” should be found in two manuscripts of the -eleventh century[2833] 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 Maternus. 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 _facies_ 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 questions of merchants.[2834] Peter of Abano in his -_Lucidator astronomiae_,[2835] written in 1310, mentions Alchandrus as -a successor of Hermes Trismegistus in the science of astronomy but as -flourishing before the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Alchandrus was probably -scarcely as ancient as that, but the treatise ascribed to him also -exists in Latin in a manuscript of the tenth century,[2836] and seems -to be a translation from 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 Argafalaus[2837] the Chaldean -in particular. Since the name Alchandrus or Alhandreus is found so -far as I know in no historian or bibliographer of Arabian literature -or learning,[2838] we shall treat somewhat fully of the work and its -author here. - -[Sidenote: An account of its contents.] - -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 Hebrews,” the other “according to others.”[2839] There follow -letters of the Greek alphabet with Roman numerals expressing their -respective numerical values, perhaps for future reference 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 movements 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,”[2840] and then of their sex and courses, which last leads to -considerable digressions anent the solar and lunar calendars.[2841] -Then the twelve signs are related to the four “climates” and elements. - -[Sidenote: Astrological doctrine.] - -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 according to the will of God.[2842] Since -man like the world is composed of the four elements it is no false -opinion which persuades us that under God’s government human affairs -are principally regulated by the celestial bodies.[2843] 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.[2844] - -[Sidenote: Nativities and name-calculations.] - -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.”[2845] These twenty-eight parts -are 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 instructed how to determine under which one of -them anyone was born 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 Hebrew instead of Greek -letters.[2846] 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.”[2847] Also the number -of their children is roughly predicted. - -[Sidenote: Interrogations and more name-calculations.] - -Next is discussed the course of the planets through the signs, -the houses of the planets, and their positions in the signs at -creation.[2848] The author then turns to the influence of the planets -upon men and gives another method of numerical calculation of a man’s -name in order to determine which planet he is under.[2849] Under -the heading “Excerpts from the books of Alexander, the astrologer -king,”[2850] directions 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.[2851] After some further discussion of astrological -interrogations the manuscript at the British Museum closes with the -Breviary of Alhandreus, supreme astrologer[2852], for learning anything -unknown by a method of computation from Hebrew and Arabic letters. - -[Sidenote: Alchandrus or Alhandreus not the same as Alexander.] - -Someone may wonder if the names Alhandreus and Alchandrus may not be -mere corruptions of Alexander who is cited and quoted even more than -has yet been indicated[2853], and if some careless head-line writer has -not inserted the name _Alchandri_ or _Alhandrei_ instead of _Alexandri_ -in the _Titulus_. 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 astrologi,”[2854] but while -the title is the same, the contents are different from the “Mathematica -Alhandrei summi astrologi.” - -However, the treatise itself is found together with the _Mathematica -Alhandrei_ in a tenth century manuscript.[2855] But no author is -mentioned, and instead of _Mathematica_ the title reads “Incipiunt -proportiones cppfcfntfs knkstrprx indxstrkb,” which may be deciphered -as “Incipiunt proportiones competentes in astrorum industria.”[2856] -Possibly therefore this treatise is a part of the work of Alchander, -and the title _Mathematica Alexandri_ is an error for _Mathematica -Alhandrei_. - -[Sidenote: Alkandrinus or Alchandrinus on nativities according to the -mansions of the moon.] - -Moreover, in later manuscripts we encounter authors with names very -similar to Alchandrus and works by them of the same sort as that we -have just considered. In a fifteenth century manuscript at Oxford we -find ascribed to Alkandrinus an account of the types of men born in -each of the twenty-eight mansions of the moon[2857] such as we have -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 revision of that same part of the _Mathematica -Alhandrei_.[2858] What appears to be another revision and working over -of this same discussion of nativities according to the twenty-eight -mansions of the moon[2859] appeared in print a number of times in -the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in 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 Alchandrin.”[2860] - -[Sidenote: Albandinus.] - -Two other manuscripts at Paris[2861] 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 Alhandrei_, 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 alphabet but gives numerical -equivalents directly for the Latin letters. Some treatise by Albandinus -on sickness and the signs in a manuscript at Munich[2862] is perhaps -identical with the foregoing. - -[Sidenote: Geomancy of Alkardianus or Alchandiandus.] - -To an Alkardianus or Alchandiandus is ascribed a geomancy,[2863] 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 questions, it would seem almost certain that it is -by the same author who treated of the influences of the 28 houses or -_facies_ 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 dispositions of the signs and the courses of the -planets and on prediction of the future from them. “But since moderns -always rejoice in brevity,” he has added this handy and rapid geomantic -means of answering questions and ascertaining 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[2864] commonly included in the -_Experimentarius_[2865] of Bernard Silvester, a work of geomancy which -he is said to have translated from the Arabic.[2866] He lived in the -twelfth century and will be the subject of one of our later chapters. - -[Sidenote: An anonymous treatise or fragment of the tenth century.] - -It still remains to speak of a portion of our tenth century -manuscript at Paris which begins, after the book of Alchandrus seems -to have concluded, with the words, “Quicunque nosse desiderat legem -astrorum....”[2867] This _Incipit_ is so similar to that of the -twenty-one chapters on the astrolabe, “Quicumque astronomiam peritiam -disciplinae ...” 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 -astrological in character, “following for the present the wisdom of -the _mathematici_ who think that mundane affairs are carried 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 astronomy, so that perhaps the present -text is the missing fragment required to fulfil his promise to treat of -the subject of prognostication in later chapters. If so it indulges in -some repetition, as it goes into the relations existing between signs, -planets, and elements, and gives the “Saracen” names[2868] for the -twenty-eight mansions of the moon. It includes 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 _Mathematical_ of Alchandrus. - - - - - 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 - ancient 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 veterinary - 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 superstition—The _Practica_ - of Archimatthaeus—A Salernitan treatise of about 1200—The wives of - Salerno. - - -[Sidenote: Plan of this chapter.] - -In this chapter our purpose is to treat of early medieval medicine -as distinct on the one hand from post-classical 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 influence. 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 manuscripts 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 preserved. Some are in Anglo-Saxon; more, in Latin. Some it has -been customary to classify under the caption of Salernitan. We shall -postpone until the next chapter our consideration of Constantinus -Africanus, although the dates of his life fall within the eleventh -century, because he already at that early date represents the -introduction of Arabic medicine to the western world. - -[Sidenote: Instances of early medieval additions to ancient medicine.] - -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.[2869] 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[2870] 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.”[2871] -The manuscript also comprises more than one tract on how dreams or the -fate of the patient or child born can be foretold from the day of the -moon.[2872] Another tract[2873] 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. - -[Sidenote: _Leech-Book of Bald and Cild._] - -The Anglo-Saxon _Leech-Book of Bald and Cild_[2874] has been called -“the first medical treatise written in western Europe which can be -said to belong to modern history.”[2875] 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,[2876] a remedy also found in the _Euporista_ -ascribed 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.”[2877] -And a man about to engage in combat is advised to eat swallow nestlings -boiled in wine.[2878] 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.”[2879] There are directions for plucking herbs -similar to those in Pliny,[2880] 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 spoon silently over a wagon -way.”[2881] Eight virtues of the stone agate are enumerated.[2882] - -[Sidenote: Magical procedure and incantations.] - -Not only such occult virtues of animals, vegetables, and minerals, -but also magical procedure and incantations abound in the work. In a -prescription “for flying venom and every 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.[2883] 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 evangelists, and -masses, psalms, and exorcisms. Fear of witchcraft 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 additional ecclesiastical hocus-pocus.[2884] “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.”[2885] - -[Sidenote: A superstitious compound.] - -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, harewort, -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 mutton fat; much holy salt is added; the -salve is strained through a cloth; and what remains of the worts is -thrown into running 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.[2886] - -[Sidenote: Summary.] - -The “modern” character of Bald’s and Cild’s book cannot 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 considerable amount of Teutonic and perhaps -also Celtic folk-lore, which, however, has been more or less -Christianized. Indeed the connection between medicine and religion is -remarkably close. - -[Sidenote: Cauterization.] - -The medicine of this period may be further illustrated by two Latin -manuscripts of the eleventh century in the Sloane collection of the -British Museum.[2887] 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,[2888] are presented a series -of human figures showing where the cautery should be applied. These -pictures of naked patients marked all over their anatomy with spots -where the red-hot iron should be applied, or submitting with smiling or -wry faces to its actual administration in the most tender places, are -both amusing and, when we reflect that this useless pain was actually -repeatedly inflicted through long centuries, pathetic.[2889] - -[Sidenote: Treatment of demoniacs.] - -In a general and much longer work on diseases and their remedies which -follows in the same manuscript and which is professedly compiled from -Hippocrates, Galen, and Apollonius, the treatment prescribed for -demoniacs,[2890] who, it states, are in Greek called _epilemptici_ -(epileptics), includes among 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,”[2891] shaving and “imbrocating”[2892] the scalp, and -anointing the hands and feet with oil. Both our manuscripts contain -recipes for expelling or routing demons.[2893] For this purpose such -substances are employed as the stone _gagates_ and holy water, and -elsewhere the usual confidence is reposed in the virtues of herbs and -such parts of animals as the liver of a vulture. - -[Sidenote: Incantations and characters.] - -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.[2894] Later on in the manuscript instructions for plucking a -medicinal herb include facing east and reciting a paternoster.[2895] - -[Sidenote: In a twelfth century manuscript.] - -The twelfth century portion of this same manuscript consists mainly of -a long medical medley with no definitely marked beginning or ending but -apparently originally in five books.[2896] Towards its close occur a -number of incantations and characters quite in the style of Marcellus -Empiricus.[2897] Indeed, “a marvelous charm” for toothache is an exact -copy of his instructions to repeat seven times in a waning moon on -Tuesday or Thursday an incantation beginning, “Aridam, margidam, -sturgidam.”[2898] To make all his enemies fear him a man should gather -the herb verbena on a Thursday, repeating seven times a formula in -which the plant is personally addressed and the desire expressed to -triumph over all foes as the verbena conquers winds and rains, hail and -storms.[2899] 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.”[2900] 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.[2901] 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.”[2902] - -[Sidenote: Magic with a split hazel rod.] - -In the same work occurs the earliest instance of which I am aware -of the magical “experiment” with a split rod and an incantation, to -which we shall hear William of Auvergne, 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 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,”[2903] 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 remaining in one’s -grasp.[2904] - -[Sidenote: More incantations and the virtues of a vulture.] - -Another manuscript of the twelfth century[2905] contains many similar -charms, incantations, prayers, and characters for healing purposes. -One formula employed is, “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ -commands.” In cases of miscarriage a drink of verbena is recommended -and repetition 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[2906] 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 incantation containing -such names as Adonai and Abraam. Various 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 struggling in child-birth -produces a quick delivery. One who wears its tongue will receive the -adoration of all his enemies; if one has its heart bound in the skin of -a lion or wolf, all demons will avoid one and robbers will only worship -one. Its gall taken in quite a mixture cures epileptics and lunatics; -its lung in another compound cures fevers; and so on. - -[Sidenote: _Lots of the saints._] - -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 deceive us.” The treatise -closes, “These are the lots of the saints which never fail; so ask God -and obtain what you desire.” - -[Sidenote: Superstitious veterinary and medical practice.] - -The next items in the manuscript are some cases of superstitious -veterinary practice, with such pious incantations as “May God who saved -the thief on the cross save this beast!”[2907] and with instructions -concerning the religious invocations 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.[2908] 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 -employed 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....”[2909] - -[Sidenote: Two Paris manuscripts.] - -If we turn from medical manuscripts of the eleventh and twelfth -centuries in the British Museum to those of the Bibliothèque Nationale, -we find the same occurrence of superstitious passages. In an eleventh -century codex which contains parts of the medical work of Celsus and -the _De dinamidis_ of Galen are also found prayers to God for the -medicinal aid of the angel Raphael against the treacherous attacks 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.[2910] Much more superstitious, -however, is an anonymous treatise occupying the first ten leaves of a -twelfth century manuscript[2911] 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. - -[Sidenote: Blood-letting.] - -After discussing the effect of food upon health, listing potions of -herbs to be drunk in each month of the year,[2912] 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 reforms the -bladder, it warms the marrow, it opens the hearing, 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. - -[Sidenote: Resemblances to Egerton 821.] - -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.[2913] 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.”[2914] - -[Sidenote: Virtues of blood.] - -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 (_oudehsam?_) when “you cut it in two near the -tail.”[2915] 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.[2916] Another remedy consists of three drops of the milk of a -woman nursing a male child given in a raw egg to the patient without -his knowledge.[2917] - -[Sidenote: Pious incantations and magical procedure.] - -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: “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 departed.”[2918] 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, “Jesus 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. “If you do this three times, God helping -the patient will be cured.”[2919] - -[Sidenote: More superstitious veterinary practice.] - -Our manuscript further resembles Egerton 821 of the British Museum in -containing remedies for beast as well as man. If a 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 -outlandish 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.[2920] - -[Sidenote: The School of Salerno.] - -We now come to the consideration of treatises supposed to have been -produced by the school of medicine at Salerno. But not only are the -origins of the so-called School of Salerno “veiled in impenetrable -obscurity,”[2921] 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 Salernitans produced in the early -eleventh century. But one is inclined to view with some scepticism the -assumption of historians of medicine[2922] 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 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 medical authors -and upon independent medical practice. Such activity was not confined -to Salerno. But if we so employ 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 continuations 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 Constantinus Africanus, -the earliest known importer of Arabic medicine, comes. - -[Sidenote: Was Salernitan medicine free from superstition?] - -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 -chronicle[2923] 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 Deroldus, 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 sorcery” and -tried to poison the bishop, who cured himself with theriac and secretly -poisoned his rival in turn. The Salernitan 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 medicine was far -from being free from magic and empiricism. - -[Sidenote: The _Practica_ of Petrocellus.] - -It is fairer, however, to judge Salerno by its own best written -productions rather than by the stories of perhaps jealous -northerners, and we may note Payne’s comparison of the _Practica_ of -Petrocellus,[2924] written probably in the early eleventh century, -with the earlier _Leech-Book of Bald and Cild_. Selected recipes, -it may first be said, were translated from the _Practica_ into -Anglo-Saxon.[2925] Dr. Payne was impressed by “the complete freedom -of the former from the magic and superstition which tainted the -Anglo-Saxon and all other European medicine of the time.” Payne noted -that the compounds of Petrocellus contained fewer ingredients, and -regarded the Salernitan selection of drugs as “more intelligent.” -The Salernitan formulae are “clear, simple, and written on a uniform -system which implies traditional skill and culture.”[2926] “The -pharmacy is generally very simple; and, as might be expected, there -is an entire absence of charms and superstitious rites.”[2927] Such -simplicity, however, 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 superstition 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[2928] 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.”[2929] - -[Sidenote: Its sources.] - -Petrocellus is thought to have used Greek writings directly without -the intermediary of Arabic versions.[2930] 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.”[2931] 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 assure this person that everything in the work -has been tested by experience and that nothing should be added to or -subtracted from it. - -[Sidenote: Fourfold origin of medicine.] - -This introductory epistle also embodies an account of the origin of -medicine which, while not exactly superstitious, is quite in the usual -naïve 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 medical art. Apollo discovered _methoyca_, which presumably -means methodism, but which Petrocellus proceeds to identify with -surgery. Esculapius invented _empirica_, which is described as -pharmacy rather than empiricism, although perhaps the distinction _is_ -slight. Asclepius founded _loyca_, which is probably meant for the -dogmatic school. Hippocrates’ 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. - -[Sidenote: Therapeutics of Petrocellus.] - -In the _Practica_ proper the method of Petrocellus is to take up one -disease at a time, tell what the Greeks call it, 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 instead of but seven as in the other text,[2932] one is -advised to use antimony in the holy water “which the Greeks bless on -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 Petrocellus wrote the longer passage, he could be praised -for having resorted to charms and formulae only in the case of that -mysterious disease. - -[Sidenote: The _Regimen Salernitanum_.] - -The work most generally known as a characteristic product of the -School of Salerno is the Latin poem[2933] which opens with the line, -“To the King of the English writes the whole School of Salerno.”[2934] -This poem has been variously entitled _Schola Salernitana_, _Regimen -Salernitanum_, and _Flos medicinae_. 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 -published by Renzi in the nineteenth century, whereas about one -hundred manuscripts and two hundred and fifty printed editions 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 century, 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 -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.[2935] Pliny is used a -great deal for the virtues of herbs. Much of it sounds like a late -versification of commonplaces 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.[2936] - -[Sidenote: Its superstition.] - -The brief version of the poem commented upon by 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 -superstitious 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[2937] 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.[2938] And not far away is a passage[2939] on the virtue of the -_Agnus Dei_, 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 character as a sign that they belonged in the Salernitan collection. - -[Sidenote: The _Practica_ of Archimatthaeus.] - -A third work which may be considered as an example of the medicine -of Salerno is the _Practica_ of Archimatthaeus which Renzi placed -in the twelfth century and conjectured to be the work of Matthaeus -Platearius the Elder.[2940] 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.[2941] Renzi -hailed this treatise with delight as “a true medical clinic,”[2942] -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.”[2943] Through the work -we encounter such phrases as _expertum est, aliud probatissimum_, “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 experience and not to be copied from previous authors. -The following 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. 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 together 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.”[2944] -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 practice 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.[2945] - -[Sidenote: A Salernitan treatise of about 1200.] - -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.[2946] He described its contents as purely therapeutical and -regarded its author as showing “a certain repugnance” to the popular -remedies and superstitions recommended by other contemporary treatises. -For 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 ribbon or holding the stone found in the -head of an ass, says that he thinks that such remedies “operate more -by faith than reason.”[2947] 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 _expertissimum_. 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.[2948] - -[Sidenote: The wives of Salerno.] - -We promised to say something of the female practitioners of Salerno. -Trotula is no longer believed to be a woman and we have to judge the -women of Salerno mainly 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 together.[2949] In these cases the practices -are chiefly those employed 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 comforted.” “When the women of Salerno -fear abortion, they carry with them the pregnant stone,” which our -author explains is not the magnet. The other recipe had perhaps better -remain untranslated: _Stercus asini comedunt mulieres Salernitanae -in crispellis et dant viris suis ut melius retineant sperma et sic -concipiant_. As we shall see in our chapter on 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 favorably the -cures wrought by female practitioners at Rome and Montpellier. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXII - - CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS: C. 1015-1087. - - 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 - comparatively 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 Afflacius—Afflacius more - superstitious than his master. - - -[Sidenote: Reputation and influence.] - -Constantinus Africanus will be here considered at perhaps 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.[2950] 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.”[2951] 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.”[2952] 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.[2953] - -[Sidenote: His studies in the Orient.] - -A brief sketch of Constantinus’ career and a list of his works[2954] -is twice supplied us by Peter the Deacon, who wrote in the next -century,[2955] and who treats of Constantinus both in the chronicle of -Monte Cassino, which he continued to the year 1138,[2956] and in his -work on the illustrious men of Monte Cassino.[2957] Peter tells that -Constantinus was born at Carthage, by which he probably means Tunis, -since Carthage 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,[2958] to improve his education. His birth -must have been in about 1015. There he is said to have studied grammar, -dialectic, geometry, arithmetic, “mathematics,” astronomy, and physics -or medicine (_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 ortu scientiarum_,[2959] -and we shall find this classification reproduced by two western -Christian scholars of the twelfth century.[2960] 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 Apollonius 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 jealousy of other physicians who accused -him of magic,[2961] or from fear that his fellow citizens would kill -him as a wizard. 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,[2962] and gives no further indication of -their motives. - -[Sidenote: His later life in Italy.] - -Constantinus secretly boarded ship and made his escape to Salerno, -where he lived for some time in poverty, until a brother of the caliph -(_regis Babiloniorum_) 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,[2963] but of these matters again Peter -the Deacon is silent. When Constantinus left the Norman court, it was -to become a monk at Monte Cassino, where he remained until his death -in 1087. In a work addressed to the archbishop of Salerno he speaks -of himself as _Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis_[2964] and Albertus -Magnus cites him as _Constantinus Cassianensis_.[2965] What purports -to be a picture of Constantinus is preserved in a manuscript of the -fifteenth century at Oxford.[2966] - -[Sidenote: His works were mainly translations.] - -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 number 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 authorities 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 sometimes even destroyed earlier works -which they had copied in order to receive sole credit for ideas which -were not their own.[2967] - -[Sidenote: _Pantegni._] - -The longest of Constantinus’ translations and the one most often cited -in the middle ages was the _Pantechni_ or _Pantegni_, comprising ten -books of theory and ten of practice as printed in 1515 with the works -of Isaac,[2968] 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.[2969] 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.[2970] 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[2971] says nothing of Ali 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,[2972] accused Constantinus of having suppressed 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 contributions of his own.[2973] 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 “corrupted by the shrewd -fraud of its translator,” but also that the last and greater portion -was missing in the version by Constantinus.[2974] 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.[2975] A third medieval writer, Giraldus -Bituricensis, adds[2976] that Constantinus substituted in its place -the _Liber simplicis medicinae_ and _Liber 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[2977] -that Constantinus wrote only its first two books[2978] 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[2979] who had recently been converted -to Christianity[2980] and whom Rose was inclined to identify with -John Afflacius, “a disciple of Constantinus,” of whom we shall have -more to say presently. Rose further held that this John completed the -_Practica_[2981] commonly ascribed to Constantinus with the exception -of its tenth book which, as we have suggested, seems originally to have -been a distinct _Antidotarium_. 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. - -[Sidenote: _Viaticum._] - -Perhaps the next best known and the most frequently printed[2982] -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 Constantinus 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 persons 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 designated 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.[2983] -Constantinus seems to be alluded to in the _Ephodia_ or Greek version -of the same work.[2984] - -[Sidenote: Other translations.] - -If neither the original of the _Pantegni_ nor of the _Viaticum_ is -to be assigned to Isaac, Constantinus nevertheless did translate -some of his works, namely, those on diets, urines, and fevers.[2985] -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 translated the -treatise on fevers from the Arabic. We have already 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[2986] and the _Tegni_ of Galen. Constantinus 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. - -[Sidenote: _The book of degrees._] - -In his list of the works which Constantinus translated from various -languages.[2987] Peter the Deacon includes _The book 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 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 degrees 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_.[2988] This interesting though crude beginning in the -direction of scientific thermometry and hydrometry unfortunately rested -upon incorrect assumptions as to the nature and causation of heat and -moisture, and so was perhaps destined to do more harm than good. - -[Sidenote: _On melancholy._] - -A glossary of herbs and species and a work on the pulse, which -Peter the Deacon includes in both his lists of Constantinus’ 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[2989] -which are not mentioned in Peter’s list. In a preface to the _De -melancholia_ which is not included in the printed edition[2990] -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 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 contemplation of the last -judgment and desire of seeing the _summum bonum_. Such persons think of -nothing and seek for nothing save to love and fear God alone, and they -incur this complaint and become drunk as it were with their excessive -anxiety and vanity.”[2991] Such passages would seem to describe -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[2992] 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. - -[Sidenote: _On disorders of the stomach._] - -That the treatise on disorders of the stomach is Constantinus’ 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 Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου[2993] -and was the center of a group of learned writers: the dialectician, -Alberic the Deacon, the historian, Amatus of Salerno, and the -mathematician and astronomer, Pandulf of Capua.[2994] Constantinus -states that he writes this treatise for Alfanus as a compensation for -his recent failure to relieve 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. - -[Sidenote: Medical works ascribed to Alfanus.] - -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.[2995] 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.[2996] They follow a treatise on -melancholy which does not, however, appear to be that of Constantinus -Africanus.[2997] - -[Sidenote: Constantinus and experiment.] - -Peter the Deacon’s bibliography of the works of Constantinus 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 remembered that such expressions as “we state what we have tested -and what our authorities have used,”[2998] and “we have had personal -experience of the confection which we now mention,”[2999] may refer to -the experience of the past authors whose works Constantinus is using -or translating rather than to his own. In the _Pantegni_[3000] “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 knowledge 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,”[3001] 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.”[3002] Such medical “experiments” by -Constantinus were often cited by subsequent medieval writers. - -[Sidenote: “Experiments” involving incantations.] - -Incantations are involved in some of these “experiments.” 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 Saturday. 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.[3003] - -[Sidenote: Superstition comparatively rare in Constantinus.] - -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 _divinatio_ and account for by possession by demons.[3004] 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 superstitious ligatures -often found in medieval works of medicine.[3005] 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.[3006] 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 assuming the existence of -occult virtues. - -[Sidenote: And of Greek rather than Arabic origin.] - -It is also to be noted that those passages where Constantinus’ 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 authorities introduced most of these superstitious elements into -medicine. In his work on degrees Constantinus repeats Galen’s story of -the boy who fell into an epileptic fit whenever the suspended peony was -removed from his neck.[3007] In the _Viaticum_[3008] 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.[3009] Theriac and _terra sigillata_ -are of course not forgotten. 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 Aristotle_, a spurious work. Constantinus -adds that Rufus says that the magnet comforts those afflicted with -melancholy and removes their fears and suspicions.[3010] However, it -is without citation of other authors that Constantinus states that the -plant _agnus castus_ will mortify lust if it is merely suspended over -the sleeper.[3011] - -[Sidenote: Some signs of astrology and alchemy.] - -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,[3012] Galen being twice cited to the effect that epilepsy -in a waxing moon is a very moist disease, while in a waning moon it -is very cold. In a chapter of the _Pantegni_[3013] 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[3014] 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 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_[3015] where he traces the formation of the child in the womb -and the influence 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 _Speculum naturale_.[3016] Belief in -alchemy is suggested when Constantinus 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.[3017] - -[Sidenote: Constantinus and the School of Salerno.] - -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 remembered, however, -that Constantinus himself both attended 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 at the monastery. In any case a -Master John Afflacius, who is associated with other Salernitan writers -in a compilation 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. - -[Sidenote: _Liber aureus_ and John Afflacius.] - -In a medical manuscript which Henschel discovered at Breslau in -1837[3018] 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[3019] that the passages -ascribed to a Master John Afflacius, who was described as “a disciple -of Constantinus,”[3020] were identical with passages in the _Liber -aureus_ or _De remediorum et aegritudinum cognitione_ published as a -work of Constantinus in the Basel edition of 1536. He also identified -a _Liber urinarum_ attributed to the same John Afflacius, disciple of -Constantinus, in the Breslau manuscript 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[3021] as -in the case of the writings of his Arabic predecessors. - -[Sidenote: Afflacius more superstitious than his master.] - -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, after the correspondence -with the _Liber aureus_ has ceased, the text goes on to prescribe the -suspension of goat’s horn over one’s head as a soporific and gives -the following “prognostic of life or death.” Smear the forehead of -the patient from ear to ear with _musam eneam_. “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 -patient’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 -1215 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 medicine 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—Different character of our - Latin treatises—_Compositiones ad tingenda_—_Mappe Clavicula_—Some - of its recipes—Question 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—Experimental 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 perscrutari_....” - —_Theophilus, Schedula, I, Praefatio._ - - -[Sidenote: Latin treatises on the arts and colors.] - -We come to the consideration of several treatises dealing with colors -and the arts and dating from about the eighth to the twelfth centuries -and probably in part of earlier origin. These are the _Compositiones ad -tingenda_ in a manuscript 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.[3022] The oldest known manuscripts -of Theophilus are of the twelfth century and he has been dated at the -beginning of that century 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.[3023] 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. - -[Sidenote: Progress of the arts even during the early middle ages.] - -Berthelot regarded these treatises on the arts as proof that the -knowledge of industrial and alchemical processes continued unbroken -even in western Europe from Egypt to the middle ages, although he -held that the theories of transmutation and the like reached the west -only in the twelfth century through the Arabs.[3024] 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.[3025] 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 or fifth century A. -D.[3026] 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 -themselves?”[3027] However, his aim is to resurrect these arts; he -assures the reader that he writes nothing which he has not first -proved himself;[3028] and he tells in particular how he discovered -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.[3029] On the other hand, lead glazing, according to Alexandre -Brongniart, director of the Sèvres manufactory, is not found in -European pottery before the twelfth century, when it was applied in -Pesaro about 1100 and is found on pottery in a tomb at Jumièges of -about 1120.[3030] - -[Sidenote: Scantiness of the sources.] - -During the early medieval centuries the Byzantine Empire, 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 backward 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. - -[Sidenote: Character of Arabic alchemy.] - -A number of treatises on alchemy in Arabic have reached us but they, -like 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 Alexandria, 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 revealed 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 concerning 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 involving -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 Quicksilver_, 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.[3031] - -[Sidenote: Different character of our Latin treatises.] - -Our Latin treatises are as free from mysticism and obscurity, from -dreams and visions, as they are from theoretical discussion. They are -collections of recipes and directions 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 gold. Of this there -is least in the first treatise we have to consider. - -[Sidenote: _Compositiones ad tingenda._] - -The _Compositiones ad tingenda_,[3032] a treatise or collection of -notes and recipes preserved in a manuscript dating from the time of -Charlemagne, throws some light on the technical 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 Aristotle and the Greek -alchemists. But several things are mentioned, at least so far as we -know, for the first time, although Berthelot believed that the compiler -of the _Compositiones 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 Brundisium. _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.[3033] 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 -is employed in another connection. But these are trifling signs of -occult science. - -[Sidenote: _Mappe Clavicula._] - -More alchemistic in character is the _Mappe Clavicula_,[3034] which, -in its fuller twelfth century form, embodies the _Compositiones ad -tingenda_ in a different order,[3035] 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.[3036] 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.[3037] The _Mappe Clavicula_ adds a good deal -that is of a superstitious character to the _Compositiones ad tingenda_ -which it includes, and at the same time lays considerable stress upon -experimental method. - -[Sidenote: Some of its recipes.] - -It opens with a recipe “for making the best gold,” the first of a long -series. One of the ingredients in this case is “a bit of moon-earth, -which the Greeks call _Affroselinum_.” 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.[3038] 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 -injunctions to secrecy so dear to the alchemist: “Hide the sacred -secret which should be transmitted to no one, nor give to anyone the -prophetic.”[3039] 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 _celidonius_. The gall of a bull and the -blood of a pig are used again in recipes sixty-eight and one hundred -and twenty-eight. - -[Sidenote: Question of symbolic nomenclature.] - -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 periods, 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 -Berthelot 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.[3040] -But despite what Berthelot goes on to say about the “old prophetic -nomenclature” of the Egyptians, I am inclined to think that such -symbolism is mainly a refinement of later alchemists, and that -originally most such expressions were intended literally. Certainly -it would be impossible 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 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 impressing -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 literally. Indeed, in -many passages it must be so taken, as in a later item of the _Mappe -Clavicula_[3041] 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 -following experiments with goats also illustrate the great value set -upon animal fluids and substances. - -[Sidenote: Magical procedure with goats in the _Mappe Clavicula_.] - -We are reminded of the directions given by Marcellus Empiricus for the -preparation of goat’s blood by a recipe for making figures of crystal -which occurs near the close of the _Mappe Clavicida_.[3042] A he-goat -which has never indulged 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.[3043] The glass is to be softened and the steel is to be -tempered by placing them either in the milk of a Saracen she-goat, who -has been fed upon ivy and milked by scratching her udders with nettles, -or in the lotion of a small girl of ruddy complexion, which must be -taken before sunrise. - -[Sidenote: Similar passages in Heraclius.] - -Very similar passages are found in the works of Heraclius and -Theophilus, the former of whom gives the following 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.”[3044] -In another passage Heraclius recommends the use of the urine and blood -of a goat in engraving gems,[3045] and he also states that the blood of -a goat makes crystal easier to carve.[3046] - -[Sidenote: And Theophilus.] - -Theophilus states that poets and artificers have greatly cherished -the ivy, “because they recognized the occult powers which it contains -within itself.”[3047] 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 between the animal’s breast and abdomen.[3048] He -also recommends a somewhat similar procedure to that of the _Mappe -Clavicula_ with a goat and a cask.[3049] In this case the goat should -be three years old, and after being bound for three 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. - -[Sidenote: A magic figure.] - -Returning to the _Mappe Clavicula_ we note the employment of a magic -figure called _arragab_, which Berthelot thinks is a small lead -image.[3050] 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 produce 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 revolved in any direction without -spilling its contents.[3051] - -[Sidenote: Use of an incantation in tenth century alchemy.] - -The passages which we have just noted in the _Mappe Clavicula_ 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 Schlestadt manuscript and which covers only a portion of -the chapters of the twelfth century manuscript, but also some 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 fabrication of gold mentions a prayer or incantation to be recited -during the process.[3052] - -[Sidenote: Experimental character of the work of Theophilus.] - -The great importance of the work of Theophilus in the history of art -is too generally recognized to need elaboration here. Our purpose is -rather to point out that in it information of great value is found -side by side with a considerable amount of misguided natural theory -and magical ceremony. The stress laid by Theophilus upon personal -observation, 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 experience,” has tested everything -by eye and hand, has as a “curious explorer” made all sorts of -experiments, and appears to represent transparent stained glass as his -own discovery or idea.[3053] 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.”[3054] - -[Sidenote: How to make Spanish gold.] - -Theophilus, however, believes that other metals can really be -transmuted into gold, and we may repeat his amusing account of how -Spanish gold “is made from red copper 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 this 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 chamber not paved with stone. Guarding against this, -their masters have round brazen vessels of great amplitude, perforated -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 perforations. 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 pulverize -them, adding a third part of the blood of a ruddy man, which blood -is dried and powdered. Having compounded 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.”[3055] - -[Sidenote: The question of symbolic terminology again.] - -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 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.”[3056] Mr. Hendrie leaves, however, a -number of details unexplained and he admits that “Unfortunately each -chemist appears to have varied the symbols in use.” Certainly one -would have to vary them in almost every case to make any sense out of -such procedures as this of Theophilus. 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 connection, 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 egg 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. - -[Sidenote: Alchemy in the eleventh century.] - -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 possible 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,[3057] but -a scholium to Adam of Bremen records the presence at the court of -Bishop Adalbert of Bremen of an alchemist in the person of a baptized -Jew.[3058] - -[Sidenote: St. Dunstan and alchemy and magic.] - -To St. Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glastonbury, archbishop of -Canterbury, and statesman of the tenth century (924 or 925 to 988), is -attributed a treatise on the philosopher’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 his 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.[3059] - -[Sidenote: Introduction of Arabic alchemy in the twelfth century.] - -Berthelot has associated the introduction of Arabic alchemy into -Christian western Europe with the Latin translation by Robert of -Chester of _The Book of Morienus_, but incorrectly dated it in 1182 -A. D.,[3060] whereas the mention of that date in the manuscripts has -reference to the Spanish era and denotes the year 1144 A. D.[3061] -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 of alchemy in another twelfth -century manuscript.[3062] 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. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIV - - MARBOD, BISHOP OF RENNES, 1035—1123 - - 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 et genesi_. - - “_Nec dubium cuiquam debet falsumque videri - Quin sua sit gemmis divinitus insita virtus; - Ingens est herbis virtus data, maxima gemmis._” - —_Marbod, Liber lapidum._ - - -[Sidenote: Career of Marbod.] - -Of medieval Latin Lapidaries the earliest and what also seems to have -been the classic on the subject of the marvelous properties of stones -is the _Liber lapidum seu de gemmis_ by Marbod, bishop of Rennes,[3063] -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[3064] 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 school there, became the -schoolmaster himself from 1067 to 1081, during which time he probably -composed the _Liber lapidum_, 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 September, -1123, in an Angevin monastery, whose monks issued a eulogistic -encyclical letter on that occasion, while two archdeacons celebrated -his integrity, learning, and eloquence 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.” - -[Sidenote: Relation of the _Liber lapidum_ to the prose _Evax_.] - -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.[3065] - 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.[3066] There is also, however, extant a work in Latin -prose which opens, “Evax, king of Arabia, to the emperor Tiberius -greeting.”[3067] 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 Damigeron,[3068] 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 appropriate, not, strangely enough, to the seven -planets, but to seven of the signs of the zodiac.[3069] 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 _Sardius_ -comes tenth in Marbod’s poem. Marbod’s own order, however, sometimes -varies in the manuscripts.[3070] - -[Sidenote: Problem of Marbod’s sources.] - -King, and Rose after him, asserted[3071] that despite Marbod’s -professed abridgement of a work which Evax was supposed to have -presented to Tiberius, he drew largely from Isidore 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 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. - -[Sidenote: Influence of the _Liber lapidum_.] - -However, there seems to be little doubt that the poem of Marbod is -itself an outstanding work among medieval accounts 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.[3072] -Its convenient form perhaps accounts to a considerable extent for -its popularity. 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 _Lapidarius_ cannot always be assumed -to refer to Marbod. But at least the notions 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. - -[Sidenote: Occult virtue of gems.] - -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 -effects.” No one should doubt them or think them false, “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 with 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 overcame 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; fumigation 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 incantations. 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. - -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 experience 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 occupants of the house. - -In the case of _Chelonitis_ Marbod’s account is very similar to that -in Pliny’s _Natural History_,[3073] 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 resemblance between Marbod and Pliny and there only partial. - -Pliny also briefly states that the stone _diadochos_ resembles 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.[3074] - -[Sidenote: _Liber lapidum_ was meant to be taken seriously.] - -The vast powers, not only medicinal and physical, but of divination -and magic, over the mind and affections, miraculous and supernatural, -even over God, as in the statement that the sapphire can be employed to -secure a more favorable answer to prayer, which Marbod assigns to gems -without 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 talismanic powers of gems to such a -degree by a Christian clergyman who became a bishop, that Marbod must -have composed 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 beginning 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. - -[Sidenote: _De fato et genesi._] - -Marbod’s belief in the almost boundless talismanic virtues of gems -is thrown into the higher relief by the fact that in another of his -poems he makes an attack upon genethlialogy or the prediction of the -entire life of the individual from the constellations at his birth. -In _De fato et genesi_ he writes against “the common notion” (_opinio -vulgi_) that all things are ruled by fate, that the hour of nativity -controls 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 adultery 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 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, -Firmicus, employs “infirm arguments,” and that his own horoscope, -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[3075] was not the only -bishop of the eleventh century who was acquainted with the work of -Julius Firmicus 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 horoscope - 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.” - - - - - 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, Galen, 125, 165-7; - alchemists, 194; - Apuleius, 222, 232-40; - Apollonius 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, 505; - pagans, 415; - philosophers, 416; - heretics, 415, 424; - Origen, 461; - Priscillian, 380-1, 519-20; - Libanius, 538; - Bede, 635; - Gerbert, 704-5; - Constantinus Africanus, 744, 755; - Dunstan, 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, 681 - - Adamant, 81, 294, 636; - swords of, 253, 258; - breakable by goat’s blood, 56, 85, 511, 588, 779; - by lead, 657 - - Adder, 279, 721 - - Adonai, 365, 367, 451, 583, 726 - - Adrianaion, 434 - - Adultery, discovery of, 364, 644 - - 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_, 737 - - Agricultural magic, 21, 70, 79-80, 93-4, 216, 219, 294, 604-5, 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, 773 - - Alcmaeon, 324 - - Alcohol, 468, 765 - - Alcoholism, 253 - - Alexander the Great, chap. xxiv, 186, 496, 602; - and see other index - - Alexander of Abonutichus, 277-8 - - Alexander V, pope, 106 - - Alexandria, as a center of ancient learning, 27, 39, 48, 105, 109, 123, - 145, 187, 224, 291, 318, 348, 449, 541, 552, 763; - dissection at, 147; - measures of, 144; - relations with India, 245; - in the pseudo-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 interpretation, in alchemy, 195-8; - of the Bible, 350, 479, 484, 633; - in zoology, 396, 500, 502; - miscellaneous, 545, 626; - and see Symbolism - - Almanac, 318 - - Almond, 78 - - Aloaeus, see Eloeus - - Alphabet in magic and divination, 197, 370, 380, 592, 664, 711; - and see Vowel - - 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 Galen, 166, 172-3, 176; - in Plutarch, 204, 294; - Gnostic, 380; - Aristotle 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; - Empirics 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 remedies 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, 275; - 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; - Indian, 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, 480-1 - - _Antiscia_, 537 - - Anubion, 420 - - Ape, 148, 256; - and see Cynocephalus - - 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 - - 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, 31, 159, 174, 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, Unguent - - 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 various 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, 571-4, 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 Manetho, 292-3; - Solinus, 330; - Horapollo, 333; - Hermes, 290-2; - Enoch, 340-1; - Philo Judaeus and Jewish, 353-6; - Pseudo-Clement, 410-3; - church fathers, 444, 455-8, 464, 466, 471-5, 492; - Augustine, 513-21; - Firmicus, 529-38; - Pseudo-Quintilian, 540; - Synesius, 543; - Nectanebus, 560-3; - Alexander of Tralles, 583; - _Herbarium of Apuleius_, 598; - _Geoponica_, 604-5; - Boethius, 621-2; - Isidore, 632-3; - Arabic, 644-52, 661-6, 670; - Salernitan, 738; - Constantinus Africanus, 756; - Marbod, 781-2; - alchemy and, 763; - 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; - history 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 by Atomists, 178; - accepted by Stoics, 180; - Neo-Platonists, 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; - Zosimus, 198; - bogus, 215; - Cicero, 270; - Solinus, 327-8; - Hippolytus, 469; - Firmicus, 537; - Aëtius, 570; - Marcellus, 585-6; - medieval freedom with, 611; - Macer, 614; - Isidore, 624-5; - Petrocellus, 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, 486 - - Beaver, 502, 636; - castration of, 231, 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, 737 - - 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 individual 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, 684-5, 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, 175, 587, 590, - 727, 729, 737, 766-7; - and see Adamant, Bleeding, Hemorrhage - - Blotch, 640 - - Boar, 69, 92, 580, 599 - - Boëthus, 134 - - Boil, 88 - - Bones, stuck in throat, 71, 583; - number in body, 372; - prehistoric, 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 individual animals - - Bread, 89, 424; - blessing and breaking, 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, 332, 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, 666; - early Christian attitude to, 494 - - Butter, 154, 721-2 - - Byzantine, 189, 194-5, 323, 398, 482, 555, 569, 607, 732, 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 - - _Camaleon_, 600; - and see Chameleon - - Camel, 396, 636 - - 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, - 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, 76, 78, 84, 87, 92, 94, 102, 175, 177, - 216, 253, 260, 295, 325, 496, 581, 685, 713, 726, 738, 740; - formation 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, 404-5, 422, 510, 527, 529, 620, - 674-5, 782; - accused of magic, see Accusation; - birth of, and astrology, 386, 438, 457, 464, 471-9, 703; - birth, virgin, 460; - child, chap. xvi, 390; - power of name of, 434, 452, 466, 638-9, 725, 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 Divination, 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 articles 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; - changing, 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, 673 - - Commodus, emperor, 125, 129 - - Compass, points of, 91, 114, 378, 586, 591, 724 - - _Compotus_ or _Computus_, 536, 676-7, 728 - - Compound, magical or medicinal, 10, 83, 140, 152, 159-60, 172, 571, - 586-7, 722, 734 - - 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, invocation of - - Consecration, of a painted grape, 80; - of gems, 295, 781; - and see Holy - - Constantine the Great, 525ff. - - 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, 373, 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, 85, 325, 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, 737 - - 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 Empirics, 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, - 655, 671, 780 - - Crete, 129, 135, 249, 260 - - Cricket, 67, 737 - - 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, 366, 434 - - Cynics, 277 - - _Cynocephalia_, an herb, 67 - - Cynocephalus, 70, 333 - - Cyprus, magic of, 59; - oil of, 68; - Galen’s visit to, 131-2 - - Cyrene, 541 - - - Dacian, 597 - - Daedalus, 283 - - Daily life, magic in, 9-10, 20; - experience 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-Callisthenes and Julius Valerius, 552-5; - Aëtius, 570; - Marcellus, 584-5; - early medieval pseudo-literature, 594-6; - Macer, 612-3; - Thebit, 661; - introduction of Arabic alchemy, 773; - and see Calendar, - - Chronology, _Compotus_, Creation, Easter - - Day, observance of, lucky and unlucky, 14, 21, 106, 383, 513, 582, 588, - 590, 592, 661, chap. xxix, 721, 725, 727, 754; - and see Critical; 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, 733 - - 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, 668, 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, numbers, 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, Sacrifice, Sieve, Selenomancy, - Thunder - - Dog, kennel, 69; - jealous, 75; - puppyhood, 150; - omens from, 231; - prescience of, 325; - as symbol, 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, 373, - 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 - - Door, used in magic, 71, 591; - affected by magic, 226-7, 314, 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 elephant, 74, 257, 626; - flying, 347 - - _Dragontes_, an herb, 614 - - Drama, and magic, 22-3, 324; - liturgical, 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; - Plutarch, 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, 18 - - 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, personified, 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, 81, 173, 582, 588; - sphericity of, 480; - miscellaneous, 211, 373; - and see Burial, Land and Water, Underground - - Earthquake, 97, 101, 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, 110; - Galen, 119; - Solinus, 326; - Firmicus, 525; - Pseudo-Callisthenes and Julius Valerius, 551-2; - _Letter 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 Salernitanum_, 736; - Constantinus Africanus, chap. xxxii; - treatises on arts, 760; - Marbod, 775, 778 - - Education, as experienced or discussed by, Galen, 118-28; - Vitruvius, 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, 773; - 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; - portents from, 562, 773; - 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; - white, 763; - and see Dragon for combat with - - Elephantiasis, 57, 170, 572 - - Eleusinian mysteries, 101, 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 emperors - - 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 divination - - 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, 603ff. - - Er, vision of, 212 - - Erataoth, a spirit, 367 - - 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, Experimental 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; - Dioscorides, 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 Fascination - - Eyebrow, 151, 159, 175 - - Eyelash, 92, 151 - - - _Facies_, 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 - - Fasting, 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 - - 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 - - _Fili_, 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, 77, 218, 236-7, 260, 325-6, 469, 589, 636, 657, 756 - - Five, 92, 169, 357, 383, 590 - - Flea, 605 - - Float, 192 - - Flood, 16, 340, 475, 493 - - _Florilegia_, 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, 732 - - 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, 85, 142, 599, 724 - - Fumigation, 69, 282, 512, 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 Seia_, 599 - - _Galactis_, 294 - - _Galactites_, 329 - - Gall, 68, 71, 587, 726, 764-6 - - Gall nut, 467 - - Games, Greek national, 186, 201 - - Ganges, 258 - - _Garamantica_, a gem, 97 - - Garlic, 213, 722 - - Gas, 55, 142 - - Gate, city, 591, 600 - - Gaudentius, 404 - - Gaul, 46, 76, 92, 568, 597, 672, 776; - 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; - Origen, 460; - Epiphanius, 495-6; - Augustine, 511; - in medicine, 590; - Pseudo-Dioscorides, 611, 654; - _Geoponica_, 605; - Isidore, 626-7; - found in animals, 75, 294, 603, 737, 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 corruption, 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; - Philostratus, 244; - Solinus, 327; - other ancient, 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, 70 - - Gerard, archbishop of York, 689, 782 - - Germ of disease, 219 - - German, invaders, 148, 351; - language, 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 Roman 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; - Plutarch, 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, 73; - language, ancient, 154, 186, 222-3, 377, 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 - - Halcyon days, 255, 491 - - _Halicacabum_, 77 - - 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, 511, 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, 737; - used in medicine and magic, 70, 89, 727 - - - 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, 502, 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; - Nectanebus, 561, post-classical medicine, 583, 591; - _Herbarium of Apuleius_, 597-9; - Pseudo-Dioscorides, 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; - Roman, 14, 94, 96, 201, 602; - omens and portents in, 14, 675; - attitude to, of Empirics, 156; - Vitruvius, 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; - astrological interpretation of, see Conjunctions, Planets, - _Magnus Annus_; - quantitative method and source-analysis in, 533ff.; - medieval 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 Hymettus, 132 - - Honoratus, 638 - - Hoopoe, 324 - - Horaeus, 367 - - Horn, 496, 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, 195 - - 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, 779-80 - - Hydromel, 79 - - Hydrophobia, 56, 169, 171, 496, 574; - and see Dog, mad - - Hydroscope, 542 - - 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 - - - Ialdabaoth, 367, 383 - - Iao, Iaoth, etc., 367, 379-80, 583 - - Iarchas the Brahman, 251ff. - - 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, power of, 644, 660 - - Iman, doctrine of the hidden, 356 - - Immortality, see Soul - - Impotence, 391 - - Incantation, antiquity of, 6; - Egyptian, 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-classical 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; - ailments, 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 Renaissance - - Italians and Italy, 184, 557 - - Iunx, 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 Professions, 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; - magic, 59, 437-9, 449; - religion, 137; - tradition, 473 - - Jewelry, 301; - and see Gem - - John the Baptist, 364, 737 - - 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 - - Khîrgeh, 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 surface, 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; - Mosaic, 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, 332, 580, 583, 591-2, 722, 726 - - Legends of saints, chaps. xvi, xviii, 637; - and see names of individuals - - 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 Radiation - - 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, 332, 367, 394, 636; - roar of, 491; - use of parts of, 67, 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; - divination, 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, 10-1, 72, 214 - - _Logos_, doctrine of, 350 - - Loigaire, king, 640 - - Lollianus Avitus, 223 - - Lollianus Mavortius, 525ff., 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 _Sortes sanctorum_ (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 Insanity - - 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 Mechanical - - 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, 506, 518-9, - 730 - - Magic (only leading passages where magic in general is discussed under - that name are here included), preliminary definition, 4-6; - primitive, 5-6; - Egyptian, 7-12; - Babylonian and Assyrian, 15-9, 33; - Greek and Roman, 20-8; - Pliny, 44, 58-64; - Plutarch, 203; - Apuleius, 234-7; - Philostratus, 247-50; - Neo-Platonists, 299-300; - Enoch, 343; - Philo, 352; - heretics and Gnostics, 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 criminal, 61-2, 313, 344, 377, 431-2, 439, 505, 539, 543; - good or natural, 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 - - _Maleficium_, 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 Manicheism, and Manicheism, 381-2, 398, 409, - 513 - - Mansions of moon or sun, 693, 713, 715 - - _Mantike_, 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_, 401ff.; - Basil and Ambrose, 484; - _Physiologus_, 498ff.; - Firmicus, 532; - and Book III _passim_ - - Maps, 107, 114, 707 - - Marble, 729 - - Marcus Aurelius, emperor, 124-5, 130, 148 - - Marcus the heretic, 369-70 - - 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, 111, 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 Instruments, Time - - Meat offered to idols, 452 - - Mecca, 337 - - Mechanical devices and toys, 167, 426; - Applied Science; see Bird, mechanical; Machine - - Mede and Medea, 21, 65, 215, 295, 324, 329, 780 - - Medicine, chaps. iv, v, 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 theologians, 460-3, 593, 617; - and see Animal, remedies employed by; Astrological; Compound; - Disease; 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 - - Menander the heretic, 368, 421 - - Menippus, 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 - - Meroë, 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 Transformation - - 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, 51-3, 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; - Alexander legend, chap. xxiv; - post-classical medicine, 571, 576-8, 584; - Ethicus, 601-4; - Dioscorides, 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 history; - 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 - - Mineralogy, 606 - - Minerva, 79 - - Minotaur, 603, 636 - - Mint, wild, 57 - - Miracle, 8, 327, 541, 637, 686; - distinguished 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, 337, 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, 737, 774; - 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, 101, 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, 737; - field-, 98, 279; - shrew-, 76, 86, 88 - - Mountain, marvelous, 346-7; - magnetic, 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 - - _Myrmecia_, a gem, 166 - - Myrrh, 586, 765 - - Mysia, 216 - - Mysteries, 139, 216, 221, 223, 243, 245, 248, 317, 360-1, 368, 377, - 428-9; - and see Eleusis, Mithra - - Mysticism, 211, 254-5, 677, 763 - - Mythology, and magic, 8, 21; - and astrology, 16, 282-3; - miscellaneous, 211, 215, 282, 294, 327, 407, 415-6, 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; - Seneca, 101; - 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 - - - Neo-Platonism, chap. xi, 116, 208, 296-7, 349, 540, 544-5, 661 - - Nero, emperor, 61, 171, 201, 260, 262, 423-5, 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 _Recognitions_, 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, 110, 112; - Galen, 156; - reputed Chaldean, 95, 316; - Dioscorides, 606; - and see Experimental method - - Obstetrics, see Child-birth - - Occult virtue, discussions of and - references to of a general character, 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-wives, 166, 204, 234, 250, 272, 586; - and see Witch - - Olybrius, emperor, 606 - - Olympias, mother of Alexander, 560ff. - - 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 estimate 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 - - 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 - - _Pantarbe_, 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, 373, 376 - - Partridge, 168, 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, 77 - - Persecution, fear of, 194 - - Persia and Persian, 58, 66, 376, 451, 475, 479, 503, 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 Apparition, Ghost - - Phanuel, an angel, 342 - - Pharaoh’s dream, 358; - magicians, 379, 385, 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, 560ff. - - Philoctetes, 294 - - Philology, 535, 545 - - Philosopher’s stone, 52, 197, 398, 763; - and see Alchemy - - Philosophy, Greek, 21; - and alchemy, 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, 133, 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 and, 259, 391; - of 542 A. D., 575; - of Egypt, 325, 357, 491, 522, 685, 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, 383, 526, 529, 662, 711; - in Gnosticism, 361; - in art, 379; - and the metals, 347, 368, 709, 763, 767; - and herbs, 291; - position at creation, 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, 511, 535 - - 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; - miscellaneous, 81, 86-7, 231-2, 397, 417, 460, 535, 565, 572, 574, - 668, 721, 733 - - Polar star, 384 - - Polion, an herb, 77 - - 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 Pottery, 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, 645, 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, 172 - - Presentation, literary and scientific, 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 - - Proconsul, 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, 63, 65-6, 179, 184, 243, 258, 260, - 280, 370, 456, 544 - - - Quail, 490 - - Quadrivium, 632 - - Qualities, the four, 114, 139-40, 154, 157, 218, 485, 751, 755; - and see Cold, Heat - - Quartan fever, 269, 579-81, 736 - - 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 - - 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, 367, 763 - - Raymond, archbishop of Toledo, 657 - - Reading, medieval, 604, 617-8 - - Reason, 218, 660; - free from magic, 300; - and experience, 157 - - Red, used, 65, 581, 508, 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, 15-7, 524, 529-31; - and science, 407-8, 479, chap. xxi; - other than Christian, 94, 361, 725, - and see Mohammedanism, 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, 415, 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, 705, 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, 451, 583, 599 - - Sabbath, 204, 513 - - Sabians, 661-3 - - _Sacerdos_, 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 amarum_, 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, 373, 392, 573, 588, 592, 656, 769 - - Salmon, 424 - - Salt, 213, 373, 467, 583, 670; - and see Holy, Sodom - - _Saltus Gilberti_, 705 - - Salve, 87, 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 - - 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, 633, 768 - - Saturninus, a heretic, 372 - - Satyr, 263-4, 546 - - Saul, 448, 469 - - Scarab, 10, 68, 333 - - 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, Observation - - 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, 295, 372, 405, 420, 579, 765, - 776 - - Seed, 605; - seedless herbs, 489 - - _Seia_, 599 - - Selene, 215 - - Selenomancy, 98 - - _Semen_, 369 - - Semitic, 15 - - Semo Sancus, 421 - - _Senecion_, 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, 482ff. - - Serpent, lifted up in the wilderness, 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, 371, 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 - - Sèvres, 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; - predicted, 175-6, 516; - intercourse, 141, 639, 767 - - 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, Pastoral - - 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, 525 - - _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 - - 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, 372-5, 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, 596 - - 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, 175, 258, 295, 365, 386, 392, 495, - 599, 614; - animals antipathetic to, 84-5, 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 knowledge 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, 733; - counter-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; - Plutarch, 206-7, 213, 217; - Neo-Platonists, 309-10, 318; - Gnostics, 364; - location of, 735; - apart from body, 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 - - _Sphaera barbarica_, 537 - - Sphere, see Earth, Universe, and other index - - Spice, 250, 257, 295, 606 - - Spider, 90, 94, 168-9, 171, 175, 587 - - 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; - Iamblichus, 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, 429ff., - 442, 453; - disease and, 11, 18-9, 299, 343, 452, 722; - expulsion of, and power over, 253, 262, 386, 405, 414, 417-8, 441, - 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 nature, 181, 296, 308, 310, 347, 382, 414, 430, 443, 452-4, 543; - invocation 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 between 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; - safeguards 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, water 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; - personified, 347, 410, 457, 529; - and magic, 141, 225-7, 308, 386; - astrological 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; - experiment 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 - - - Symptoms, 735 - - 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, 559-61, 577, 597, 601, 661, 663, 747, 762 - - Syrian goddess, 231 - - Syringe, 192 - - Syrup, 560 - - - Tablecloth, 214 - - Tables, astronomical, 14; - of contents, 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; - devices, 192-3; - in alchemy, 197-8, 763; - Egyptian, 261, 301, 559; - Jewish, 395; - Greek, 407; - of the Sun, 435; - of Liber, 496; - Christian, 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, 119-21; - Hero, 189; - alchemy, 193; - Plutarch, 202; - Aelian, 322; - Philo, 348-9; - patristic, 374, 377, 389, 401-6, 477, 495; - _Physiologus_, 497-9; - Alexander legend, chap. xxiv; - _Medicine of Pliny_, 596; - Dioscorides, 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; - explained 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, 767 - - 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, 333, 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, 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, 373 - - 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; - Galen, 121, 176; - Hero, 189; - church fathers, 445, 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; - Apollonius, 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, 118-9, 123, 127; - Plotinus, 300; - Plain of, 211; - Simon’s Helen and, 364-5 - - Tube, hidden, 469 - - Tübingen 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; - sphericity of, 408 - - Urine, use of, 81-3, 325, 573, 581, 640, 684, 737, 746, 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, 76, 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, 218, 294, 331, 572, and see - Theriac; - remedy against, 213, 490, 721; - mode of generation, 172, 238, 255, 277, 323, 409, 491 - - Virgin and Virginity, 55, 83, 90, 93, 216, 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, 333, 580, 724, 726, 729 - - - Wall, of house, 69 - - Wand, magic, 20, 252, 508, 560 - - War and Warfare, 187, 358; - decried, 6, 46-7, 122 - - Warts, to get rid of, 71, 88, 166, 589, 737 - - Washing, ceremonial, 295, 730 - - Wasp, 332 - - Water, and Waters, 142, 373, 408, 490; - above the firmament, 181, 346, 458, 487, 632; - drinking, 685; - dissolves magic, 227, 722; - in which feet washed, 175; - marvelous, 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; - predicted, 97, 115, 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; - diseases 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 words as _De_ and -_Liber_ are omitted to facilitate alphabetical 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, 665, 710, 714 - - Abdallah, 693 - - Abdias, 425-6 - - Abel, A., 434 - - Abel, E., 291, 293, 463 - - Abelard, Peter, 475, 544 - - Abgarus, 395 - - _Abhandlungen d. bayr. Akad._, 567-8 - - _Abhandlungen 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 Schâdsan, 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 Andrew_, 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, 773 - - Adam of St. Victor, 398 - - Adams, F., 568 - - Ad-Damîrî, 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 Philosophy_, 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 et vigilia_, 359 - _Speculum astronomiae_, 647, 650, 664 - _Veget. et plantis_, 653 - - Albucasis, 742 - - Albumasar, 524, 647, _649-52_, 691 - _Conjunctions_, 649-51 - _Experiments_, 649 - _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_, 714ff. - _Mathematica_, 710ff. - - _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, 712ff. - _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 Sibyllina_, 287 - - Alexis, _Mandragorizomene_, 22 - - Alfanus, 752-3 - - Al-Farabi, 744 - - Alfraganus, 737 - - Alfred the Great, king, 637 - - Algazel, 744 - - _Alhabib, 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 - - _Alte Orient_, 7, 33-5 - - Amatus of Salerno, 752 - - Ambrose, 426, 447, 494, 499, 505, 686 - _Hexaemeron_, 482-3, 485 - _Moribus Brachmannorum_, 557 - - Amélineau, 360, 377 - - _American Historical Association Papers_, 632 - - _American Journal of Archaeology_, 17 - - _American Mathematical Monthly_, 31 - - _American Society of Church History 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 - - _Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Bordeaux_, 704 - - _Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Egypte_, 14 - - _Année Sociologique_, 6 - - Ansileubus, 503 - - _Ante-Nicene Fathers_, 387, and Book II _passim_ - - _Anthropologie, 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_, _Didascalia_ - - 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 - _Natural Questions_, 237 - _Universe_, 222 - dubious or spurious - _Asclepius_, see Hermes Trismegistus - grammatical and rhetorical, 596 - _Herbarium_, _chap. xxvi_, 696 - _Sphere_, _chap. xxix_, 197, 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. Medizin_, 188, 737 - - _Archiv f. Kunde österreich. Geschichtsquellen_, 498 - - _Archiv f. Studium d. Neuer. Sprachen_, 673 - - Arendzen, J. P., 360, 371 - - Aretaeus, 570 - - Aretinus Quilichinus, 558 - - Arevalus, 402, 623 - - Arfarfan or Argafalan or Argafalaus, 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 - _Interpretatione_, 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, 611 - - Arrian, 553 - - Artemidorus, 201 - - Artephius or Artesius, 774 - - _Asakki marsûti_, 18 - - Ascalu the Ishmaelite, 711 - - _Ascension of Isaiah_, 399 - - Asclepiades, 141, 168 - - _Asclepius_, see Hermes Trismegistus - - 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, 485, 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 Evangelistarum_, 505 - _Contra Academicos_, 518 - _Contra Faustum_, 518 - _Contra Priscillianistas_, 519 - _Diversis quaestionibus_, 508, 510, 514 - _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 - _Quaestiones 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 - _Divis. philos._, 744 - - Axt and Riegler, 293 - - - Babelon, E., 341 - - Babut, E. C., 381 - - Bacon, Roger, 108, 163, 341, 409, 601, 603, 646, 661, 665, 766 - - Baethgen, 73 - - Bald and Cild, _720-2_, 733 - - 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., 773 - - 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, _Philocalia_, 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 - - Bentwich, 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 - _Archéologie_ (1906), 12 - _Chimie_ (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’École des Hautes Études_, 381, 765 - - Bikélas, 73 - - Billerbeck, 73 - - Bisse, E., 557 - - Bivilaqua, 525 - - Björnbo and Vogl, 642, 663 - - _Bl. f. bayr. Gymn._, 73 - - Boethius, 109, 527, _618-22_, 658, 677 - - Boissier, A., 34 - - Boll, F., 14, 16, 105, 111, 291, 316, 524-5, 683 - - _Bollettino della Società geografica italiana_, 480 - - Bolus de Mendes, 50 - - Boncompagni, B., _Gherardo Cremonese_, 163 - - Bonnet, _Acta apostolorum apocrypha_, 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 Alhabib, Baruch, Crates, Enoch, Helxai, Jeû - - Borgnet, A., 664 - - Bostock, J., and Riley, H. T., chap. ii, 175, 214, 329 - - Bouché-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_, 8-12 - _Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, 7-10 - - Brehaut, E., 623, 625 - - Bréhier, E., 348-9 - - _Breslau, 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, 501, chap. xxx - - Budge, E. A. W. - _Alexander_, 551, 562-3 - _Egyptian Magic_, 7-14, 233, 686 - - _Bulletin Hispanique_, 704 - - _Bulletin et Mém. d. l. Société Archéol. d. dept. d’Ille-et-Vilaine_, - 775 - - _Bulletin d. l. Société d. Géographie_, 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 Mélanges_, 498 - - Cahier et Martin, Mélanges, 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 astrologorum_, 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 - - Cillié, G. G., 555 - - Clark and Geikie, 101 - - _Classical Philology_, 530 - - _Classical Review_, 21, 525 - - Clement Pseudo, 363-4, _chap. xvii_ - _Circuits_, 404 - _Homilies_, 364-5, chap. xvii - _Itinerarium_, 402 - _Recognitions_, 231, 364-5, _chap. xvii_ - - 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, 720ff., 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 - - _Congrès scientifique international des catholiques_, 7, 297, 701 - - _Congress, International, of Medicine_, 131, 145, 640, 667, 673 - - _Congress, International, of Orientalists_, 380 - - Constantinus Africanus, _chap. xxxii_, 577, 610, 653, 657, 731 - _Antidotarium_, 747 - _Aureus_, 757-9 - _Chirurgia_, 747-8 - _Coitu_, 742, 753 - _Compendium megategni_, 749 - _Experimentis_, 753 - _Febrium_, 742, 750 - _Graduum_, 613, 748, 750-1, 755-6 - _Humana natura_, 659-60, 757 - _Melancholia_, 658-9, 742, 751-2, 755 - _Oblivione_, 742 - _Pantegni_, 658-9, 746ff. - _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., _Procli 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, Abbé, 466 - - Cumont, F. - _Babylon u. d. Griech. Astrologie_, 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, _Convivio_, 619 - _Divine Comedy_, 340, 361 - - Daremberg, C. V., 600, 731, 736 - _Galien comme philosophe_, 124 - _Galien sur l’anatomie_, 122, 141, 145 - _Hist. d. Sciences Médicales_, 570-1, 577, 743ff. - _Notices et Extraits_, 598, 742ff. - - 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 - - _Dict. Chris. Biog._, 362-3 - - _Dict. 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 - - Döllinger, I. I., 705 - - Domitius Piso, 44 - - Donatus, St., 684 - - Dorotheus, 648 - - Doutté, E., 5 - - Druon, H., 540 - - Dryoff, A., 73 - - Dübner, Fr., 552 - - Duhem, P., _Système du Monde_, 106, 456-9, 481, 504 - - Duncker, 466 - - Dunstan, 773 - - Duruy, 135 - - - Ebers, G., 10 - - Ebrubat Zafar filie Elbazar, 745 - - _Ecclesiasticus_, 510 - - Edling, 381 - - Egidius de Tebaldis, 110 - - _Egyptian Days_, chap. xxix, app. ii - - _Elizinus_, 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 Liège, 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, 451 - - Epigenes, 95 - - Epimenides, 234 - - Epiphanius, 405-6, 476, 488, 499, 503 - _Contra haereses_, 369, 458 - _Duodecim gemmis_, 495-6 - _Epist. ad Joan. Jerosolymit._, 458-9 - _Panarion_, 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 - - _Erlanger Beiträge z. engl. Philol._, 733 - - Erman, A., 7 - - Ernault, L. V. E., 775 - - _Errors condemned at Oxford and Paris_, 642-3 - - Esdras, _Supputatio_, 677, 682 - - Ethé, 551 - - Ethelwold, 705 - - Ethicus, _Cosmographia_, _600-604_ - - Étienne, 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 - - Eustache 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 - - Ewald, 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, _525-38_, 689, 698, 705, 710, 782 - _Errore_, 525-9 - _Mathesis_, 525-38 - - Fischer, A., 673 - - Flaccus Africanus, 267 - - Florentinus, 425 - - _Florilegia_, 618 - - Flügel, G., 640 - - Fogginius, 495 - - Folcz, John, 612 - - _Folk-lore_, 24 - - Forbes, see Charles and - - Förster, M., 673 - - Fossey, 15, 17-20, 33 - - Fossi, F., 53 - - Fowler, H. W., and F. G., 277 - - Fowler, W. W., 73 - - _Französiche 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_, 1, 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 morbis_, 123 - _Compound medicines_, 125, 152, 160, 172 - _Critical days_, 157, 179 - _Diagnosis from Dreams_, 177 - _Differentiis pulsorum_, 137 - _Dinamidis_, 727-8, 742 - _Euporista_, see _Remediis parabilibus_ - _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, 155, 178 - _Naturalibus facultatibus_, 123 - _Ordine librorum_, 133 - _Platonic commentaries_, 124, 138 - _Prognos. ad Epigenem_, 124 - _Remediis parabilibus_, 127, 161, 175 - _Substantia facultatum naturalium_, 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 - _Secrets_, 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_, 181, 193, 341, 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, 737 - - 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 individual names - - _Gospel of the Infancy_, chap. xvi - - Goujet, 672 - - Goupyl, J., 567 - - Govi, G., 107 - - Graetz, 349 - - Gratian, _Decretum_, 630-1 - - Gray, C. D., 33 - - Gray, L. A., 296 - - Greenwood, J. G., 188 - - Gregory I, the Great, pope, _Dialogues_, 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 Thompson and - - Grimm, Jacob, 567-8, 584 - - Groff, _Egyptian Sorcery_, 7 - - Grosseteste, Robert, 106, 189 - - Grützmacher, 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_, 101 - - 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 - _Pluviis_, 647 - _Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum_, 110 - - Hammer-Jensen, 107 - - Hannubius, 537 - - Hansen, J., 2, 631 - - Hardouin, 42 - - Harleian MSS, Catalogue of, 684-5 - - Harnack, A., 405 - _Gesch. d. altchr. Lit._, 400 - _Medicinisches aus d. ältest. 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 Philology_, 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_, 1 - - 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, 115-6, 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, _188-93_, 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 Maecenas_, 600, 724 - - Hippolytus, chaps. xv, xx, 107, 278, 387, 399, 421, 482, 765 - - Hirn, Y., 6 - - Hirschberg, J., 566 - - _Histoire Littéraire 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 - _Fourteenth Epigram_, 434 - and see _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ - - _Homily on Magi_, 478-9 - - Hommel, _Aethiop. Physiologus_, 498, 503 - - Hommel, F., _Gestirndienst_, 355 - - Hone, 387, 395 - - Honein ben Ishak, 653, 660, 752 - - Honorius of Autun, 502 - - Hooten, 12 - - Hoover, H. C. and H. L., 132, 329 - - Hopf, L., 73 - - 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 - - - Iamblichus, _chap. xi_, 296 - _Fato_, 316 - _Mysteriis_, 288, 307ff. - - Ibn Abi Usaibi’a, 667 - - Ibn Khallikan, 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 Congress - - Ioachos, 138 - - Ioannes, see John - - Iolaos 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 - _Differentiis verborum_, 630, 632 - _Etymologiae_, 609, 623-33, 777 - _Natura rerum_, 401, 623, 632-3 - _Origines_, 459, 493 - _Viris illus._, 380 - - Israelson, L., 141 - - _Itinerarium Alexandri_, 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. archäol. Instit._, 28 - - _Jahrb. f. Class. Philologie_, 349, 605 - - _Jahrb. f. Philol. u. Pädagogik_, 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 - - Jastrow, 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 - - _Jeû, 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 - - John Agarenus, 748 - - John Angelus, 106, 525 - - John of Antioch, 194 - - John Crophill, see Crophill - - John of Damascus, 608 - - John of Hildesheim, 446, 477 - - John 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., 11, 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_, 763 - - _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 - - Kirchoff, A., 299 - - Kitterman and Holmes, 10 - - Klatsche, E. H., 24 - - Kleffner, A. J., 541 - - Knyghton, 690 - - Knudtzon, J. A., 34 - - Köbert, H., 596 - - Koch, H., 541 - - Koch, K., 121 - - Koechly, 293 - - Koeler, G. D., 101 - - Koetschau, P., 436 - - Kopp, U. F., 545-6 - - _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 - - Krüper, 73 - - Kübler, B., 551 - - Küchler, F., 20 - - Kugler, F. X., 16, 34 - - Kühn, C. G., chap. iv, 572, 605 - - Küster, E., 73 - - - Lactantius, 220, 241, 243, 246, 465, 479 - - _La Grande Encyclopédie_, 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, 73 - - Leclerc, 50 - - Le Coq, A. v., 383 - - _Leech-Book 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, 551 - - _Leviticus_, 439, 459 - - Lewes, G. H., 29-30, 50 - - Lewysohn, 73 - - Libanius, 472, _538-40_, 584 - - _Library of Harvard University_, _Bibliographical Contributions_, 166 - - Liddell and Scott, 120, 265 - - Lidzbarski, M., 383 - - Liebermann, F., 690 - - Liechtenstein, P., 642 - - Lilius Tifernates, 347 - - Lindermayer, A., 73 - - 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, 73 - - Lockwood, see Haskins and - - Locy, W. A., 29-30 - - Lods, A., 341-2 - - Lones, T. E., 26, 29 - - Lorenz, 73 - - Loth, O., 641, 649 - - Löweneck, 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 - - Lüring, H. L., 10 - - Luther, Martin, 651 - - Lycon, 237 - - Lydus, John, 635 - - Lydus, Laurentius, 240 - - - Macdonald, D. B., 232, 356, 699 - - Macer Floridus, _De viribus herbarum_, _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 - - Mâle, E., 390, 397, 427, 435, 475-6, 502 - - Manetho, 289, 292-3 - - Mangey, 348 - - Manilius, 95, 690-1 - - Manitius, Max, 619, 623, 631 - - Mann, M. F., 497-9 - - Mansi, 499 - - Mantuani, J., 607 - - _Mappe clavicula_, 468, chap. xxxiii - - Marbod, 463, 761, _chap. xxxiv_ - _Fato et genesi_, 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, I., 119 - - Martianus Capella, 326, _545-6_, 677, 709 - - Martin, _Héron_, 188 - - Martin, J., _Philon_, 347 - - Martin, see Cahier and - - _Martyrium of Cyprian and Justina_, 428 - - Marx, A., 73 - - Marx, F., 423 - - Mary the Jewess, 196-7 - - Masselieau, L., 349 - - _Matthew, Gospel of_, 397, 455, 471ff., 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, 425 - - Mechitarists, 95, 366 - - _Medicae artis principes_, 566ff. - - _Medici antiqui_, 567, 612 - - Mela, see Pomponius - - _Mémoires couronnés par l’Académie de Belgique_, 139 - - Menander, 22, 49 - - Menecrates, 135 - - Menelbus, 574 - - Mentz, F., 76 - - Mercurius Cilenius (or Tillemus), 652; - and see Hermes - - Merrifield, Mrs., chap. xxxiii - - Merx, A., 121, 373 - - Mesue (Yuhanna ibn Masawaih), 162, 164 - - Metrodorus, _Letter to Celsus_, 441 - - Metrodorus, Byzantine grammarian, 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, _Dict. 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 - - _Morgenländische Forschungen_, 642 - - Morienus Romanus, 697, 761 - - Moser, G. H., 299 - - Moses the law-giver, 59, 137-8, 151, 195, 350, 357, 437, 507 - - Moses ben Maimon, or, of Cordova, see Maimonides - - Moses ibn Tibbon, 749 - - _Moyen Âge, Le_, 241 - - Mucianus, 81 - - Mueller, I., 119 - - Muhammad b. Muh. b. Tarchân b. Uzlag, Abû Nasr, see Al-Farabi - - Muhammad ibn Zakariya, see Rasis - - Mühle, H. v. d., 73, 132 - - Muir, W., 337, 642 - - Müller, 667 - - Müller, C., 106, 215, 466, 552 - - Müller, F. W. K., 479 - - Müller, H. F., 299 - - Münter, _Stern der Weisen_, 354-5, 443, 473. - - Muratori, _Antiquitates_, 764 - - Murray, M. A., 2 - - Musa ibn Maimon, see Maimonides - - Musaeus, 77 - - _Musée Guimet_, 7, 360 - - - Nagy, A., 641, 646 - - Nallino, C. A., 106 - - _Nansen’s North Polar Expedition, Reports of_, 491 - - Nau, F., 374 - - Naudé, 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. ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde_, 684 - - Newton, _Dict. 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 Mâle, 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 - - 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_, 444-5, 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, 465, 558, - 582, 763 - - Otho of Cremona, 612 - - Ovid, 612 - _Halieuticon_, 74 - _Vetula_ (spurious), 691 - - Owen, A. S., see Butler and - - - _Padmuthiun Acheksandri Maketonazwui_, 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, 101 - - 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, _568ff._, 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_, 119-22, 145-7 - - Peiper, R., 619ff. - - 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. Mémoires_, 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 - _Monarchia_, 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 - - 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, 151-2, 180-1, 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, 110 - - Pliny the Elder, _Natural History_, _chap. ii_, 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, 737, 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, 542 - - 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 - _Pythiae oraculis_, 205 - _Quaestiones naturales_, 217, 219 - _Romulus_, 209, 330 - _Sera numinis vindicta_, 213 - _Solertia animalium_, 218 - _Superstitione_, 203-4 - _Symposiacs_, 205, 211-3, 217, 219 - _Whether an old man should engage in politics_, 201 - dubious or spurious - _Fato_, 202, 210 - _Institutione principis_, 200 - _Placitis philosophorum_, 202 - _Rivers and Mountains_, 202, 215 - - Pognon, H., 384 - - Poirée, 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, 111 - - Prächter, K., 541 - - Preisendanz, K., 28 - - Preller, L., 296, 429 - - Premerstein, A. v., 607 - - _Prenostica Pitagorice_, 684 - - Preuschen, E., 366 - - Priaulx, _Indian Travels_, 244 - - Prince, J. D., 15 - - Priscian, 326, 761 - - Priscillian, _380-1_, 461 - - _Proceedings, Biblical Archaeology_, 33 - - _Proceedings, Royal Society of Medicine_, 284 - - Procharus, 397 - - Proclus, 116, 307, 316 - _Sacrificio et magia_, 319-20 - - _Protevangelium of James_, chap. xvi - - Pruckner, M., 525 - - Prudentius, 500 - - _Psalms_ and _Psalter_, 442, 521, 759 - - Psellus, Michael, 290, 569, 772 - - Ptolemy, _chap. iii_, 32, 118, 135, 272, 307, 341, 537, 661, 664, 666, - 703, 709-10, 737 - _Almagest_, 105-9 - _Centiloquium_, 111 - _Exortatio ad artem_, 693 - _Geography_, 105-7 - _Music_, 107 - _Optics_, 107-8 - _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_, 567ff., 577ff. - _Hist. of Medical Education_, 120-1, 129, 143, 569, 731 - - Pythagoras, 50, 58, 61-3, 65-6, 80, 91-2, 176, 180-1, 204, 232-4, 247, - 263, 269, 274, 288, 317, 349-50, 355, 373, 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 - - _Realencyklopädie f. protest. Theol._, 381, 399 - - _Regimen Salernitanum_, _736ff_. - - Reginald or Retinaldus, 52 - - _Regulae ... de compositione astrolapsus_, 699 - - Reinach, S., 6 - - Reisner, G. A., 34 - - Reitzenstein, R., 290, 379, 553 - - Renzi, S. D., _Collectio Salernitana_, 578, 600, 660, chap. xxxi - - Reuss, F. A., 613 - - Reuvens, 369 - - _Revelation, Book of_, 386 - - Réville, J., 350 - - _Revue des Études anciennes_, 672 - - _Revue des Études juives_, 551 - - _Revue d. l’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, 773 - - Robertson Smith, W., 34 - - Roger Bacon, see Bacon - - Rohde, _Psyche_, 293 - - Rolleston, J. D., 284 - - _Rom. Forsch._, 610 - - _Romanic Review_, 499, 631 - - Roscher, _Lexicon_, 34 - - Rose, V., 120, 463, 567, 576, 601 - _Analecta_, 121 - _Anecdota_, 596, 610 - _Aristoteles De lapidibus_, 775, 777 - _HSS Verzeichnisse_, 702, 720, 748, 774 - _Medicina Plinii_, 595, 600, 609, 612 - _Ptolemaeus_, 612 - _Soranus_, 571 - - Roussat, R., 116 - - Roux de Rochelle, 564 - - Rück, _Plinius im Mittelalter_, 51 - - Ruelle, 195, 291; - and see Berthelot and - - Ruelle et Poirée, 371 - - Ruellius, 600 - - Ruffer, 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 - - Schmidt, 188 - - Schmidt, C., 299, 361, 377-8 - - Schneider, J. G., 237 - - Schneider, O., 237 - - Schneidewin, 466 - - Schultze, 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 Cordo of Genoa, 567, 610 - - Simon Papiensis, 525 - - Simon, the heretic, _Great Declaration_, 362; - and see Simon Magus in other index - - Simonides, 574 - - Singer, Charles, 345, 597, 607, 609, 660, 674 - - _Sitzungsberichte_ (Bavaria), 51 - - _Sitzungsberichte_ (Berlin), 121 - - _Sitzungsberichte_ (Erlangen), 763, 775 - - _Sitzungsberichte_ (Heidelberg), 34, 524 - - Skutsch, see Kroll et - - Smith, _Dict. 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 cum commentis_, 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, 742-3, 745, 749, 756 - _Europäisch. Übersetz._, 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 - - Strzygowski, J., 497 - - Stubbs, W., 773 - - Stücken, 15, 35 - - _Studi Romanzi_, 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 Cyrene, 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 - - _Testaments of Twelve Patriarchs_, 345 - - _Texte und Untersuchungen_, 299, Book II _passim_ - - Thabit ben Corra, see Thebit ben Corat - - Thales, 97, 563 - - Thatcher, G. W., 383 - - _Theatrum chemicum Britannicum_, see Ashmole, E. - - Thebit ben Corat, _661-6_ - _Almagest_, 109 - _Imaginibus_, 664-6 - _Iudiciis_, 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, _Schedula 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 Cantimpré, 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, 255, 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 Philological Association_, 24, 28, 293 - - _Transactions of Provincial Medical and Surgical Association_, 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 - - _Virchow’s Archiv_, 668, chap. xxxii - - Virolleaud, C., 35 - - Vitruvius, 143, _183-8_, 199, 601 - - Vogelstein, 552 - - Vogl, S., see Björnbo 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., 387 - - _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 - - Wendland, P., 348, 350 - - Wescher, C., 188 - - Wessely, C., 365, 607 - - Westenberger, 119 - - Westermann, A., 552 - - Westermarck, E., 73 - - Wickersheimer, E., 673-4, 683, 692, 698, 709 - - Wiedemann, A., 7-8, 14 - - Wiedemann, E., 649, 763 - - 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 - - Wünsch, R., 28, 366 - - Wuttke, M. H., 601 - - Wynkyn de Worde, 478 - - Wyttenbach, 299 - - - Xanthus, 75 - - Xenocrates Aphrodisiensis, 167 - - Xenophanes, 180, 270 - - Xenophon, 22 - - - Ya’kûb ibn Ishâk ibn Sabbâh, see Alkindi - - Yonge, C. D., 349 - - Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, see Mesue - - Yule, H., _Marco Polo_, 132, 214, 479 - - - Zacher, J., chap. xxiv - - _Zeitschrift f. ægypt. 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 f. wiss. Theol._, 400 - - Zeller, E., 24, 316 - - Zervòs, 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 34111, p. 578 - - Alençon 10, p. 484 - - Amiens 222, p. 634 - - Amiens 481, p. 478 - - Amiens fonds Lescalopier 2, p. 676 - - Amiens fonds Lescalopier 30, p. 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, p. 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 1431, pp. 597, 599, 609 - - Ashmole 1462, p. 597 - - Avranches 235, p. 664 - - - 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 - - Berlin 130, p. 634 - - Berlin 131, p. 695 - - Berlin 165, p. 720 - - Berlin 799, p. 477 - - Berlin 800, p. 477 - - Berlin 898, p. 748 - - Berlin 902, p. 163 - - Berlin 903, p. 163 - - 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 1787A, p. 484 - - BN 2200, p. 484 - - BN 2387, p. 484 - - BN 2598, p. 710 - - BN 2621, p. 776 - - BN 2633, p. 484 - - BN 2637, p. 484 - - BN 2638, p. 484 - - BN 2695A, p. 556 - - BN 2780, p. 500 - - BN 2874, p. 556 - - BN 3660A, pp. 681-2 - - BN 3836, p. 484 - - BN 4126, p. 556 - - BN 4161, p. 714 - - BN 4801 to 4804, p. 106 - - BN 4838, p. 106 - - BN 4877, p. 556 - - BN 4880, p. 556 - - - BN 5062, 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 6323A, 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 7299A, pp. 676, 679, 686, 696 - - BN 7316, pp. 647, 652 - - BN 7328, p. 647 - - BN 7329, p. 652 - - BN 7332, p. 647 - - BN 7337, pp. 664, 687 - - BN 7349, p. 716 - - BN 7351, P. 716 - - BN 7377B, 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 8501A, 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 11624, p. 484 - - BN 12134, p. 484 - - BN 12135, 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 15685, p. 634 - - BN 16082, p. 657 - - BN 16083, p. 657 - - BN 16088, p. 657 - - BN 16142, p. 657 - - BN 16204, p. 650 - - BN 16216, 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. 695 - - Chartres 63, p. 484 - - Chartres 113, p. 692 - - Chartres 342, p. 577 - - CLM 27, p. 665 - - CLM 51, p. 650 - - CLM 59, p. 665 - - CLM 161, pp. 749-50 - - CLM 168, p. 750 - - CLM 187, p. 750 - - CLM 215, p. 560 - - CLM 270, p. 750 - - CLM 337, p. 610 - - CLM 344, p. 377 - - CLM 392, p. 648 - - CLM 489, p. 648 - - CLM 527, p. 716 - - CLM 560, pp. 559, 698, 710 - - 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 233, p. 652 - - Corpus Christi 254, p. 648 - - Cortona 110, p. 164 - - Cotton Appendix VI, pp. 643, 646 - - Cotton Caligula A, XV, pp. 680, 695 - - Cotton Galba E, VIII, 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. xxix - - 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. 110, 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. 110 - - Digby 58, p. 693 - - Digby 63, 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. 695 - - 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 - - - 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 1, 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 5311, 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 I, L, p. 764 - - Lucca 236, pp. 597, 695 - - 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 - - - Orléans 35, p. 484 - - Orléans 192, p. 484 - - Orléans 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 - - Rawlinson 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-VI, 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. Geneviève 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, 111, 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 - - Sloane 3821, p. 340 - - Sloane 3826, p. 267 - - Sloane 3846, p. 665 - - Sloane 3847, pp. 340, 665 - - Sloane 3848, 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 33, p. 477 - - University College 89, p. 750 - - - Vatican 180 to 185, p. 349 - - Vatican 269 to 273, 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 - - Vendôme 109, pp. 577-8 - - Vendôme 122, p. 484 - - Vendôme 129, p. 484 - - Vendôme 172, p. 577 - - Vendôme 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 2511, 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 - - Wolfenbüttel 2725, p. 340 - - Wolfenbüttel 2885, p. 668 - - Wolfenbüttel 3266, p. 477 - - Wolfenbüttel 4435, p. 498 - - Wolfenbüttel palimpsest, p. 121 - - - - - FOOTNOTES: - -[1] H. Cotton, _Five Books of Maccabees_, 1832, pp. ix-x. - -[2] But Professor Haskins’ recent article in _Isis_ on “Michael Scot -and Frederick II” and my chapter on Michael Scot were written quite -independently. - -[3] Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion; quoted by Sir James Frazer, -_The Magic Art_ (1911), I, 426. - -[4] That field has already been treated by Joseph Hansen, _Zauberwahn, -Inquisition und Hexenprozess im Mittelalter_, 1900, and will be further -illuminated by _A History of Witchcraft in Europe_, soon to be edited -by Professor George L. Burr from H. C. Lea’s materials. See also a -work just published by Miss M. A. Murray, _The Witch-Cult in Western -Europe_, Oxford, 1921. - -[5] Some of my scientific friends have urged me to begin with -Aristotle, as being a much abler scientist than Pliny, but this would -take us rather too far back in time and I have not felt equal to a -treatment of the science of the genuine Aristotle _per se_, although in -the course of this book I shall say something of his medieval influence -and more especially of the Pseudo-Aristotle. - -[6] Frazer has, of course, repeatedly 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.” - -[7] I am glad to see that other writers on magic are taking this view; -for instance, E. Doutté, _Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du Nord_, -Alger, 1909, p. 351. - -[8] _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 conflict 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 doctrine, was based on magic.” - -[9] _Chaldean Magic and Sorcery_, 1878, p. 70. - -[10] Jules Combarieu, _La musique et la magie_, Paris, 1909, p. v. - -[11] _Ibid._, pp. 13-14. - -[12] Among the early Arabs “poetry is magical utterance” (Macdonald -(1909) p. 16), and the poet “a wizard in league with spirits” -(Nicholson, _A Literary History of the Arabs_, 1914, p. 72). - -[13] See S. Reinach, “L’Art et la Magie,” in _L’Anthropologie_, XIV -(1903), and Y. Hirn, _Origins of Art_, London, 1900, Chapter xx, “Art -and Magic.” J. Capart, _Primitive Art in Egypt_. - -[14] P. Huvelin, _Magie et droit individuel_, Paris, 1907, in _Année -Sociologique_, X, 1-471; see too his _Les tablettes magiques et le -droit romain_, Mâcon, 1901. - -[15] R. R. Marett, _Psychology and Folk-Lore_, 1920, Chapter iii on -“Primitive Values.” - -[16] E. A. Wallis Budge, _Egyptian Magic_, 1899, p. vii. Some other -works on magic in Egypt are: Groff, _Études sur la sorcellerie, -mémoires présentés à l’institut égyptien_, Cairo, 1897; G. Busson, -_Extrait d’un mémoire sur l’origine égyptienne de la Kabbale_, in -_Compte Rendu du Congrès Scientifique International des Catholiques, -Sciences Religieuses_, Paris, 1891, pp. 29-51. Adolf Erman, _Life in -Ancient Egypt_, English translation, 1894, “describes vividly the -magical conceptions and practices.” F. L. Griffith, _Stories of the -High Priests of Memphis_, Oxford, 1900, contains some amusing demotic -tales of magicians. Erman, _Zaubersprüche für Mutter und Kind_, 1901. -F. L. Griffith and H. Thompson, _The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London -and Leiden_, 1904. See also J. H. Breasted, _Development of Religion -and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, New York, 1912. - -The following later but briefer treatments add little to Budge: Alfred -Wiedemann, _Magie und Zauberei im Alten Ægypten_, Leipzig, 1905, and -_Die Amulette der alten Ægypter_, Leipzig, 1910, both in _Der Alte -Orient_; Alexandre Moret, _La magie dans l’Egypte ancienne_, Paris, -1906, in _Musée Guimet, Annales, Bibliothèque de vulgarisation_. XX. -241-81. - -[17] Budge (1899), p. 19. At pp. 7-10 Budge dates the Westcar Papyrus -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. - -[18] Budge, p. ix. - -[19] Budge, pp. xiii-xiv. - -[20] For magical myths see E. Naville, _The Old Egyptian Faith_, -English translation by C. Campbell, 1909, p. 233 _et seq._ - -[21] Budge, pp. 3-4; Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 100; Wiedemann -(1905), pp. 12, 14, 31. - -[22] So labelled in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. - -[23] Budge, p. 185. - -[24] Breasted (1912), pp. 84-5, 93-5. “Systematic study” of the Pyramid -Texts has been possible “only since the appearance of Sethe’s great -edition,”—_Die Altægyptischen Pyramidentexte_, Leipzig, 1908-1910, 2 -vols. - -[25] Budge, pp. 104-7. - -[26] Many of them are to enable the dead man to leave his tomb at -will; hence the Egyptian title, “The Chapters of Going Forth by Day,” -Breasted, _History of Egypt_, p. 175. - -[27] Budge, p. 28. - -[28] _History of Egypt_, p. 175; pp. 249-50 for the further increase -in mortuary magic after the Middle Kingdom, and pp. 369-70, 390, etc., -for Ikhnaton’s vain effort to suppress this mortuary magic. See also -Breasted (1912), pp. 95-6, 281, 292-6, etc. - -[29] Breasted (1912), pp. 290-1. - -[30] Budge, pp. xi, 170-1. - -[31] Budge, p. 4. - -[32] Budge, pp. 67-70, 73, 77. - -[33] Budge, pp. 27-28, 41, 60. - -[34] From the abstract of a paper on _The History of Egyptian -Medicine_, read by T. Wingate Todd at the annual meeting of the -American 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_. - -[35] See H. L. Lüring, _Die über die medicinischen Kenntnisse der alten -Ægypter berichtenden Papyri_ _verglichen mit den medic. Schriften -griech. u. römischer Autoren_, Leipzig, 1888. Also Joret, I (1897) -310-11, and the article there cited by G. Ebers, _Ein Kyphirecept aus -dem Papyrus Ebers_, in _Zeitschrift f. ægypt. Sprache_, XII (1874), p. -106. M. A. Ruffer, _Palaeopathology of Egypt_, 1921. - -[36] _History of Egypt_, p. 101. - -[37] _Ibid_, p. 102. - -[38] Budge, p. 206. - -[39] _History of Egypt_, p. 101. - -[40] _Archéologie et Histoire des Sciences_, Paris, 1906, pp. 232-3. - -[41] Professor Breasted, however, feels that the contents of the new -Edwin Smith Papyrus will raise our estimate of the worth of Egyptian -medicine and surgery: letter to me of Jan. 20, 1922. - -[42] Petrie, “Egypt,” in EB, p. 73. - -[43] Berthelot (1885), p. 235. See E. B. Havell, _A Handbook of Indian -Art_, 1920, p. 11, for a combination of “exact science,” ritual, and -“magic power” in the work of the ancient Aryan craftsmen. - -[44] Berthelot (1889), pp. vi-vii. - -[45] Berthelot (1885), pp. 247-78; E. O. v. Lippmann (1919), pp. 118-43. - -[46] Budge, pp. 19-20. - -[47] Berthelot (1885), p. 10. - -[48] Lippmann (1919), pp. 181-2, and the authorities there cited. - -[49] Budge, pp. 214-5. - -[50] Budge, pp. 225-8; Wiedemann (1905), p. 9. - -[51] Wiedemann (1905), pp. 7, 8, 11. See also G. Daressy, _Une ancienne -liste des décans égyptiens_, in _Annales du service des antiquités de -l’Egypte_, I (1900), 79-90. - -[52] F. Boll in _Neue Jahrb._ (1908), p. 108. - -[53] Budge, pp. 222-3. - -[54] Budge, p. 229. - -[55] Some works on the subject of magic and religion, astronomy and -astrology in Babylonia and Assyria will be found in Appendix I at the -close of this chapter. - -[56] Thompson, _Semitic Magic_, pp. xxxvi-xxxvii; Fossey, pp. 17-20. - -[57] Farnell, _Greece and Babylon_, p. 102. - -[58] Prince, “Sumer and Sumerians,” in EB. - -[59] Webster, _Rest Days_, pp. 215-22, with further bibliography. See -Orr (1913), 28-38, for an interesting discussion in English of the -problem of the origin of solar and lunar zodiac. - -[60] Lippmann (1919), pp. 168-9. - -[61] Although Schiaparelli, _Astronomy 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 planets.” I have -not seen F. von Andrian, _Die Siebenzahl im Geistesleben der Völker_, -in _Mitteil, d. anthrop. Gesellsch. in Wien_, XXI (1901), 225-74; see -also Hehn, _Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im alten -Testament_, 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. - -[62] 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 ascribed -to the number seven” can only in part be accounted for by the seven -planets; “Our American 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 composed verses on the -subject of astrology, according to Garcilasso (cited by W. I. Thomas, -_Source Book for Social Origins_, 1909, p. 293). - -[63] L. W. King, _History of Babylon_, 1915, p. 299. - -[64] Fossey (1902), pp. 2-3. - -[65] Farnell, _Greece and Babylon_, pp. 301-2. On liver divination -see Frothingham, “Ancient Orientalism Unveiled,” _American Journal of -Archaeology_, XXI (1917) 55, 187, 313, 420. - -[66] Fossey, p. 66. - -[67] Fossey, p. 16. - -[68] Lenormant, pp. 35, 147, 158. - -[69] Thompson, _Semitic Magic_, pp. xxxviii-xxxix. - -[70] _Greece and Babylon_, p. 296. - -[71] Lenormant, pp. 146-7. - -[72] _Ibid._, p. 158. - -[73] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylon and Assyria_, pp. 283-4. - -[74] Zimmern, _Beiträge_, p. 173. - -[75] _Ibid._, p. 161. - -[76] Fossey, p. 399. - -[77] Fossey, p. 83. - -[78] _Ibid._, pp. 89-91. F. Küchler, _Beiträge zur Kenntnis der -Assyr.-Babyl. Medizin; Texte mit Umschrift, Uebersetzung und -Kommentar_, Leipzig, 1904, treats of twenty facsimile pages of -cuneiform. - -[79] Lenormant, p. 190. - -[80] _Ibid._, p. 159. - -[81] So enlightened in fact that they spoke with some scorn of the -“levity” and “lies” of the Greeks. - -[82] _Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism_, Chicago, 1911, p. 189. - -[83] Thorndike (1905), p. 63. - -[84] E. E. Sikes, _Folk-lore in the Works and Days of Hesiod_, in _The -Classical Review_, VII (1893). 390. - -[85] Freeman, _History of Sicily_, I, 101-3, citing Herodotus VII, 153. - -[86] Butler and Owen, _Apulei Apologia_, note on 30, 30. - -[87] For details concerning operative or vulgar magic among the ancient -Greeks see Hubert, _Magia_, in Daremberg-Saglio; Abt, _Die Apologie -des Apuleius von Madaura und die antike Zauberei_, Giessen, 1908; and -F. B. Jevons, “Græco-Italian Magic,” p. 93-, in _Anthropology and the -Classics_, ed. R. Marett; and the article “Magic” in ERE. - -[88] 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. - -[89] J. E. Harrison, _Themis_, Cambridge, 1912. The chapter headings -briefly suggest the argument: “1. Hymn of the Kouretes; 2. Dithyramb, -Δρώμενον, and Drama; 3. Kouretes, Thunder-Rites and Mana; 4. a. Magic -and Tabu, b. Medicine-bird and Medicine-king; 5. Totemism, Sacrament, -and Sacrifice; 6. Dithyramb, Spring Festival, and Hagia Triada -Sarcophagus; 7. Origin of the Olympic Games (about a year-daimon); -8. Daimon and Hero, with Excursus on Ritual Forms preserved in Greek -tragedy; 9. Daimon to Olympian; 10. The Olympians; 11. Themis.” - -[90] F. M. Cornford, _Origin of Attic Comedy_, 1914, see especially pp. -10, 13, 55, 157, 202, 233. - -[91] A. B. Cook, _Zeus_, Cambridge, 1914, pp. 134-5, 12-14, 66-76. - -[92] Rendel Harris, _Picus who is also Zeus_, 1916; _The Ascent of -Olympus_, 1917. - -[93] Farnell, _Greece and Babylon_, pp. 292, 178-9. - -[94] See Ernest Riess, _Superstitions and Popular Beliefs in Greek -Tragedy_, in _Transactions of the American Philological Association_, -vol. 27 (1896), pp. 5-34; and _On Ancient superstition_, _ibid._ 26 -(1895), 40-55. Also J. G. Frazer, _Some Popular Superstitions of the -Ancients_, in _Folk-lore_, 1890, and E. H. Klatsche, _The Supernatural -in the Tragedies of Euripides_, in _University of Nebraska Studies_, -1919. - -[95] See Zeller, _Pre-Socratic Philosophy_, II (1881), 119-20, for -further boasts by Empedocles himself and other marvels attributed to -him by later authors. - -[96] _Laws_, XI, 933 (Steph.). - -[97] _Timaeus_, p. 71 (Steph.). - -[98] _Symposium_, p. 188 (Steph.); in Jowett’s translation, I, 558. - -[99] _Timaeus_, p. 40 (Steph.); Jowett, III, 459. - -[100] _Ibid._, pp. 41-42 (Steph.). - -[101] _Timaeus_, p. 39 (Steph.); Jowett, III, 458. - -[102] W. Windelband, _History of Philosophy_, English translation by J. -H. Tufts, 1898, p. 147. - -[103] Windelband, _History of Ancient Philosophy_, English translation -by H. E. Cushman, 1899. - -[104] For a number of examples, which might be considerably multiplied -if books VII-X are not rejected as spurious, see Thorndike (1905), -pp. 62-3. T. E. Lones, _Aristotle’s Researches in Natural Science_, -London, 1912, 274 pp., discusses “Aristotle’s method of investigating -the natural sciences,” and a large number of Aristotle’s specific -statements showing whether they were correct or incorrect. The best -translation of the _History of Animals_ is by D’Arcy W. Thompson, -Oxford 1910, with valuable notes. - -[105] See the edition of the _History of Animals_ by Dittmeyer (1907), -p. vii, where various monographs will be found mentioned. - -[106] Perhaps pure literature was over-emphasized in the Museum at -Alexandria, and magic texts in the library of Assurbanipal. - -[107] A list of magic papyri and of publications up to about 1900 -dealing with the same is given in Hubert’s article on _Magia_ in -Daremberg-Saglio, pp. 1503-4. See also Sir Herbert Thompson and F. L. -Griffith, _The Magical Demotic Papyrus of London and Leiden_, 3 vols., -1909-1921; _Catalogue of Demotic Papyri in the John Rylands Library, -Manchester, with facsimiles and complete translations_, 1909, 3 vols. -Grenfell (1921), p. 159, says, “A corpus of the magical papyri was -projected in Germany by K. Preisendanz before the war, and a Czech -scholar, Dr. Hopfner, is engaged upon the difficult task of elucidating -them.” - -[108] W. C. Battle, _Magical Curses Written on Lead Tablets_, in -_Transactions of the American Philological Association_, XXVI (1895), -pp. liv-lviii, a synopsis of a Harvard dissertation. Audollent, -_Defixionum tabulae_, etc., Paris, 1904, 568 pp. R. Wünsch, _Defixionum -Tabellae Atticae_, 1897, and _Sethianische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom_ -(390-420 A. D.), Leipzig, 1898. - -[109] Since 1898 various volumes and parts have appeared under the -editorship of Cumont, Kroll, Boll, Olivieri, Bassi, and others. Much of -the material noted is of course post-classical and Byzantine, and of -Christian authorship or Arabic origin. - -[110] For example, see R. Wünsch, _Antikes Zaubergerät aus Pergamon_, -in _Jahrb. d. kaiserl. deutsch. archæol. Instit., suppl._ VI (1905), p. -19. - -[111] T. L. Heath, _The Works of Archimedes_, Cambridge, 1897, pp. -xxxix-xl. - -[112] On “Aristotle as a Biologist” see the Herbert Spencer lecture by -D’Arcy W. Thompson, Oxford, 1913, 31 pp. Also T. E. Lones, _Aristotle’s -Researches in Natural Science_, London, 1912. Professor W. A. Locy, -author of _Biology and Its Makers_, writes me (May 9, 1921) that -in his opinion G. H. Lewes, _Aristotle; a Chapter from the History -of Science_, London, 1864, “dwells too much on Aristotle’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 -partibus_. Thompson (1913), p. 14, calls Aristotle “a very great -naturalist.” - -[113] This quotation is from Professor Locy’s letter of May 9, 1921. - -[114] The quotations are from a note by Professor D’Arcy W. Thompson 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 inquiry, but here and there so remote from -fact as to suggest that things once seen have been half forgotten, -or that superstition 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 example 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.” - -[115] Professor Locy called my attention to it in a letter of May 17, -1921. See also Thompson (1913), p. 14. - -[116] Thompson (1913), p. 19. - -[117] L. C. Karpinski, “Hindu Science,” in _The American Mathematical -Monthly_, XXVI (1919), 298-300. - -[118] Sir Thomas Heath, _Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus: -a history of Greek astronomy to Aristarchus together with Aristarchus’s -treatise, “On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon,” a new -Greek text with translation and notes_, Oxford, 1913, admits that “our -treatise does not contain any suggestion of any but the geocentric -view of the universe, whereas Archimedes tells us that Aristarchus -wrote a book of hypotheses, one of which was that the sun and the -fixed stars remain unmoved and that the earth revolves round the sun -in the circumference of a circle.” Such evidence seems scarcely to -warrant applying the title of “The Ancient Copernicus” to Aristarchus. -And Heath thinks that Schiaparelli (_I precursori di Copernico -nell’antichità_, and other papers) went too far in ascribing the -Copernican hypothesis to Heraclides of Pontus. On Aristotle’s answer to -Pythagoreans who denied the geocentric theory see Orr (1913), pp. 100-2. - -[119] “Farewell, Nature, parent of all things, and in thy manifold -multiplicity bless me who, alone of the Romans, has sung thy praise.” - -[120] 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, London, 1855, 6 vols. (Bohn Library), -which is superior to both the German 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. - -[121] Bostock and Riley (1855), I, xvi. - -[122] NH, Preface. - -[123] NH, Preface. - -[124] NH, XXII, 7. - -[125] NH, II, 6. - -[126] NH, II, 46. - -[127] NH, II, 5. “Deus est mortali iuvare mortalem....” - -[128] NH, VII, 56. - -[129] Letter to Macer, Ep. III, 5, ed. Keil. Leipzig, 1896. - -[130] NH, VII, 1; XXIII, 60; XXV, 1; XXVII, 1. - -[131] XXVI, 76. - -[132] XXXVII, 11. - -[133] XXI, 88. - -[134] XXXII, 24. - -[135] Yet C. W. King, _Natural History of Precious Stones_, p. 2, -deplores the loss of Juba’s treatise, which he says, “considering -his position and opportunities for exact information, is perhaps the -greatest we have to deplore in this sad catalogue of _desiderata_.” - -[136] NH, XXXII, 4. - -[137] XXX, 30. - -[138] Bouché-Leclercq (1899), p. 519, notes, however, that Aulus -Gellius (X, 12) protested against Pliny’s credulity in accepting -such works as genuine and that “Columelle (VII, 5) cite un certain -Bolus de Mendes comme l’auteur des ὑπομνήματα attribués à Démocrite.” -Bouché-Leclercq adds, however, “Rien n’y fit: Démocrite devint le grand -docteur de la magie.” - -[139] NH, VII, 21. - -[140] G. H. Lewes, _Aristotle; a Chapter from the History of Science_, -London. 1864. - -[141] _Letters of Pliny the Younger_, III, 5, ed. Keil, Leipzig, 1896. - -[142] NH, VIII, 34. - -[143] XXVIII, 1. - -[144] Rück, _Die Naturalis Historia des Plinius im Mittelalter_, in -_Sitzb. Bayer. Akad. Philos-Philol. Classe_ (1908) pp. 203-318. For -citations of Pliny by writers of the late Roman empire and early middle -ages, see Panckoucke, _Bibliothèque Latine-Française_, vol. CVI. - -[145] Concerning the MSS see Detlefsen’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 century 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, 12th century, containing all -37 books except that the last book is incomplete, and with a full page -miniature (fol. 10v) showing 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 Detlefsen failed to use. - -[146] See M. R. James, Eton Manuscripts, p. 63, MS 134, Bl. 4. 7., -Roberti Crikeladensis Prioris Oxoniensis excerpta ex Plinii Historia -Naturali, 12-13th century, in a large English hand, giving extracts -extending from Book II to Book IX. - -Of Balliol 124, fols. 1-138, _Cosmographia 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 nothing -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_ appears -in epitome, with a prologue opening, “I, Reginald (_Retinaldus_), -servant of Christ, perusing the books of Pliny....” - -[147] Bologna, 952, 15th century, fols. 157-60, “Tractatus optimus in -quo exposuit et aperte declaravit plinius philosophus quid sit lapis -philosophicus et ex qua materia debet fieri et quomodo.” - -[148] Fossi, _Catalogus codicum saeculo XV impressorum qui in publica -Bibliotheca Magliabechiana Florentiae adservantur_, 1793-1795, II, -374-81. - -[149] _De erroribus Plinii et aliorum in medicina_, Ferrara, 1492. - -[150] _Pliniana defensio_, 1494. - -[151] Escorial Q-I-4, and R-I-5, both of the 14th century. - -[152] NH, V, 1, 12. - -[153] XXVI, 6, “usu efficacissimo rerum omnium magistro”; XVII, 2, 12, -“quare experimentis optime creditur.” - -[154] II, 66. - -[155] XXIX, 23. - -[156] XXIX, 11. - -[157] XXV, 54, “coramque nobis”; XXV, 106, “nos eam Romanis -experimentis per usus digeremus.” - -[158] Sometimes another term, as _usus_ in note 2 above, is employed. - -[159] See II, 41, 1-2; II, 108; VII, 41; VII, 56; VIII, 7; XIV, 8; -XVI, 1; XVI, 64; XVII, 2; XVII, 35; XXII, 1; XXII, 43; XXII, 49; XXII, -51; XXV, 7; XXXIV, 39 and 51. Experience is also the idea in the -two following passages, although the word _experimentum_ could not -smoothly be rendered as “experience” in a literal translation: VII, 50, -“Accedunt experimenta et exempla recentissimi census ...”; XXVIII, 45, -“Nec uros aut bisontes habuerunt Graeci in experimentis.” - -[160] XVI, 24; XXII, 57; XXVI, 60. - -[161] X, 75. - -[162] XXXV, 30. - -[163] VII, 35 - -[164] XIII, 3. - -[165] XIV, 25. - -[166] XVII, 4; XX, 3 and 76; XXII, 23; XXIX, 12; XXXIII, 19 and 43 and -44 and 57; XXXIV, 26 and 48; XXXVI, 38 and 55; XXXVII, 22 and 76; such -phrases as _sinceri experimentum_ and _veri experimentum_ are used for -“test of genuineness.” - -[167] XXIII, 31; XXXI, 28. - -[168] XXXI, 27. - -[169] XVII, 26. - -[170] II, 75. - -[171] IX, 7. - -[172] XXVIII, 6. - -[173] XXVIII, 14. - -[174] XXIX, 8. “Discunt periculis nostris et experimenta per mortes -agunt.” Bostock and Riley translate the last clause, “And they -experimentalize by putting us to death.” Another possible translation -is, “And their experiments cost lives.“ - -[175] XXV, 17. ” ... adeo nullo omnia experiendi fine ut cogerentur -etiam venena prodesse.“ - -[176] XXIX, 4 ” ... ab experimentis se cognominans empiricen.“ - -[177] IX, 86. - -[178] XXXVII, 15. - -[179] According to Galen, as we shall hear later, the Empirics relied a -good deal upon chance experience and dreams. - -[180] XXV, 6. - -[181] XX, 52. - -[182] XXV, 20. - -[183] XXIII, 27. - -[184] Among other virtues of vinegar, besides its supposed property of -breaking rocks, Pliny mentions that if one holds some in the mouth, it -will prevent one from feeling the heat in the baths. - -[185] XXV, 6 and 21 and 50; XXVII, 2. - -[186] XVI, 24; XXVI, 60. - -[187] XXIII, 59. - -[188] XXVIII, 7. - -[189] In the opening chapters of Book XXX, unless otherwise indicated -by specific citation. - -[190] Aulus Gellius, X, 12, and Columella, VII, 5, dispute this -(Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, p. 519). Berthelot -(_Origines de l’alchimie_, p. 145) believes in a Democritan school at -the beginning of the Christian era which wrote the works of alchemy -attributed to Democritus as well as the books of medical and magical -recipes which are quoted in the _Geoponica_ and the _Natural History_. - -[191] XVI, 95. - -[192] XXX, 2. ” ... quamquam animadverto summam litterarum claritatem -gloriamque ex ea scientia antiquitus et paene semper petitam.” - -[193] Examples are: XXV, 59, “Sed magi utique circa hanc insaniunt”; -XXIX, 20, “magorum mendacia”; XXXVII, 60, “magorum inpudentiae vel -manifestissimum ... exemplum”; XXXVII, 73, “dira mendacia magorum.” - -[194] See XXII, 9; XXVI, 9; XXVII, 65; XXVIII, 23 and 27; XXIX, 26; -XXX, 7; XXXVII, 14. - -[195] XXXVII, 40. - -[196] XXX, 5-6. - -[197] XXX, 6. “Proinde ita persuasum sit, intestabilem, inritam, inanem -esse, habentem tamen quasdam veritatis umbras, sed in his veneficas -artis pollere, non magicas.” - -[198] XXV, 7. - -[199] XXVIII, 23. - -[200] XXVIII, 2. - -[201] XXX, 4. - -[202] XXVIII, 19; XXX, 6. - -[203] XXVIII, 29. - -[204] XXX, 7. - -[205] XXIX, 26. - -[206] For instance, XXX, 27, he mentions the magi, but not in XXX, 28. -Nor are they mentioned in XXX, 29, but in XXX, 30 “plura eorum remedia -ponemus” seems to refer to them, although we must look back three -chapters for the antecedent of _eorum_. - -[207] XXXVII, 14, he says that he is going to confute “the unspeakable -nonsense of the magicians” concerning gems, but makes no specific -citation from them until the thirty-seventh chapter on jasper. - -[208] XXX, 47. - -[209] XXXVII, 11. - -[210] XX, 30; XXI, 38, 94, 104; XXII, 24, 29. - -[211] XXI, 36; XXIV, 99. - -[212] XXV, 5. - -[213] XXIV, 99-102. - -[214] See XX, 30; XXI, 36, 38, 94, 104; XXII, 9, 24, 29; XXIV, 99, 102; -XXV, 59, 65, 80-81; XXVI, 9. - -[215] XXI, 38. - -[216] XXI, 104; XXII, 24. - -[217] XXI, 94. - -[218] XXII, 29. - -[219] XX, 30. - -[220] XXI, 38. - -[221] XXIV, 99 and 102. - -[222] XXV, 5. - -[223] XXV, 59. - -[224] XXVI, 9. - -[225] XXX, 6. - -[226] XXX, 7. - -[227] XXVIII, 27. - -[228] XXVIII, 25. - -[229] XXX, 24. - -[230] XXIX, 39. - -[231] XXIX, 12. - -[232] XXX, 6. - -[233] XXVIII, 57; XXX, 17. - -[234] Use of goat, XXVIII, 56, 63, 78-79; cat, XXVIII, 66; puppy, XXIX, -38; dog, XXX, 24. - -[235] XXVIII, 60, 66, 77; XXIX, 26. - -[236] XXVIII, 66; XXIX, 15; XXX, 7; XXX, 27; XXXII, 38. - -[237] XXX, 8 and 36; see also XXVIII, 60; XXXII, 19 and 24. - -[238] XXIX, 23; XXX, 18, 20, 30, 49; XXXII, 14, 18, 24. - -[239] XXX, 27. - -[240] XXX, 24. - -[241] XXX, 24. - -[242] XXVIII, 27. - -[243] XXVIII, 66; and see XXIX, 12. - -[244] XXVIII, 60. - -[245] XXVIII, 68. - -[246] XXVIII, 78. - -[247] XXX, 17. - -[248] XXX, 18. - -[249] XXXII, 38. - -[250] XXIX, 26. - -[251] XXVIII, 63. - -[252] XXVIII, 56; XXIX, 15. - -[253] XXIX, 19. - -[254] XXIX, 20. - -[255] XXIX, 26; XXX, 7. - -[256] Pliny ascribes statements concerning stones to the _magi_ in the -following chapters: XXXVI, 34; XXXVII, 37, 40, 49, 51, 54, 56, 60, 70, -73. - -[257] XXXVII, 54 and 40. - -[258] XXXVII, 40, 60, 56, 73. - -[259] XXVIII, 12, “Magorum haec commenta sunt....“ - -[260] XXVIII, 23. - -[261] Some works upon animals in antiquity and Greece are: - -Aubert und Wimmer, _Aristoteles Thierkunde_, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1868. - -Baethgen, _De vi et significatione galli in religione et artibus -Graecorum et Romanorum_, Diss. Inaug., Göttingen, 1887. - -Bernays, _Theophrasts Schrift über Frömmigkeit_. - -Bikélas, O., _La nomenclature de la Faune grecque_, Paris, 1879. - -Billerbeck, _De locis nonnullis Arist. Hist. Animal. difficilioribus_, -Hildesheim, 1806. - -Dryoff, A., _Die Tierpsychologie des Plutarchs_, Progr. Würzburg, 1897. -_Über die stoische Tierpsychologie_, in _Bl. f. bayr. Gymn._, 33 (1897) -399ff.; 34 (1898) 416. - -Erhard, _Fauna der Cykladen_, Leipzig, 1858. - -Fowler, W. W., _A Year with the Birds_, 1895. - -Hopf, L., _Thierorakel und Orakelthiere in alter und neuer Zeit_, -Stuttgart, 1888. - -Hopfner, T., _Der Tierkult der alten Ægypter nach den -griechisch-römischen Berichten und den wichtigen Denkmälern_, in -_Denkschr. d. Akad. Wien_, 1913, ii Abh. - -Imhoof-Blumer, F., und Keller, O., _Tier-und Pflanzenbilder auf Münzen -und Gemmen des klassischen Altertums_. illustrated, 1889. - -Keller, O., _Thiere des class. Altertums_. - -Krüper, _Zeiten des Gehens und Kommens und des Brütens der Vögel in -Griechenland und Ionien_, in Mommsen’s _Griech. Jahreszeiten_, 1875. - -Küster, E., _Die Schlange in der griechischen Kunst und Religion_, -Giessen, 1913. - -Lebour, _Zoologist_, 1866. - -Lewysohn, _Zoologie des Talmuds_. - -Lindermayer, A., _Die Vögel Griechenlands_, Passau, 1860. - -Locard, _Histoire des mollusques dans l’antiquité_, Lyon, 1884. - -Lorenz, _Die Taube im Alterthume_, 1886. - -Marx, A., _Griech. Märchen von dankbaren Tieren_, Stuttgart, 1889. - -Mühle, H. v. d., _Beiträge zur Ornithologie Griechenlands_, Leipzig, -1844. - -Sundevall, _Thierarten des Aristoteles_, Stockholm, 1863. - -Thompson, D’Arcy W., _A Glossary of Greek Birds_, 1895. _Aristotle 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 punishment of animal culprits. - -[262] VIII, 1-12. - -[263] VIII, 17-21. - -[264] XXXII, 5. - -[265] VIII, 37. - -[266] VIII, 11-12. - -[267] XXVII, 2; XVIII, 1. - -[268] XXVII, 2; VIII, 41. - -[269] XX, 51 and 61; XXII, 37 and 45. - -[270] XX, 26. - -[271] VIII, 41; XX, 95. - -[272] XXIX, 39. - -[273] XXV, 50. - -[274] XXV, 5. - -[275] VIII, 40; XXVIII, 31. - -[276] For further remedies used by animals see VIII, 41; XXIX, 14, 38; -XXV, 52-53; XXVIII, 81. - -[277] XXVII, 2. “ ... quod certe casu repertum quis dubitet et quotiens -fiat etiam nunc ut novom nasci quoniam feris ratio et usus inter se -tradi non possit?” Perhaps Pliny would have denied the inheritance of -acquired characteristics. - -[278] XXV, 51. - -[279] XXXVII, 57. - -[280] VIII, 4. - -[281] VIII, 33. - -[282] XXIX, 34; XXX, 10, 19; XXVIII, 46; XXIX, 11; XXX, 16. - -[283] XXX, 46. - -[284] XXXII, 14. - -[285] XXVIII, 37. - -[286] A recent work on the general theme is Joret, _Les plantes dans -l’antiquité_, Paris, 1904; see also F. Mentz, _De plantis quas ad rem -magicam facere crediderunt veteres_, Leipzig, 1705, 28 pp.; F. Unger, -_Die Pflanze als Zaubermittel_, Vienna, 1859. - -[287] XXII, 3; XXV, 59; XXVII, 28. - -[288] XXI, 105. “Halicacabi radicem bibunt qui vaticinari gallantesque -vere ad confirmandas superstitiones aspici se volunt.” - -[289] XXV, 43-44. - -[290] XXI, 21, 84. - -[291] XXV, 5. - -[292] XXIII, 64. - -[293] XXV, 35. - -[294] XXII, 36. - -[295] XXIV, 94. - -[296] XXV, 46. - -[297] XXV, 54. - -[298] XXV, 78. - -[299] XXIII, 75. - -[300] XXIV, 56-57. - -[301] XXV, 18; XXVII, 100. - -[302] XX, 14; XXIV, 82; XXV, 92. - -[303] XXV, 10; XXVII, 60. - -[304] XXIV, 6, 93. - -[305] XXV, 6. - -[306] XX, 49; XXI, 83; XXIII, 54; XXIV, 63; XXV, 59; XXVI, 12. - -[307] XXIII, 59. - -[308] XXIV, 62. - -[309] XXV, 21, 94. - -[310] XXIV, 63 and 118. - -[311] XXI, 19. - -[312] XXIV, 62; XXIII, 59. - -[313] XXIII, 81; XXIV, 6, 62, 116. - -[314] XXVI, 12. - -[315] XXI, 19; XXV, 21, 94. - -[316] XXIII, 71, 81; XXIV, 6; XXVII, 62. - -[317] XXI, 83; XXV, 109; XXVI, 12. - -[318] XXII, 16; XXIII, 54; XXIV, 82; XXVII, 113. - -[319] XXIV, 116. - -[320] XXV, 92. - -[321] XXI, 19; XXV, 11. - -[322] XXIV, 62; XXV, 21. - -[323] XXIV, 62-63. - -[324] XVI, 95. - -[325] See XXIV, 6, for other methods of plucking the mistletoe. - -[326] XVIII, 45. - -[327] See also XXV, 6. - -[328] XIX, 58. - -[329] XVIII, 70. - -[330] XVIII, 73. - -[331] XXVIII, 81. - -[332] XVIII, 8. - -[333] XXXVII, 14, 73. - -[334] XXXVII, 55-56. - -[335] XXXVII, 13. - -[336] For instance, XXXVII, 12 amber, 37 jasper, 39 aetites, 55 -“baroptenus.” - -[337] XXXVI, 31. - -[338] XXXVII, 15, 58, 67. - -[339] XXXVI, 25, 39. - -[340] XVI, 20. - -[341] XXXIII, 25. - -[342] XXX, 12, 25. - -[343] XX, 3; XXVIII, 6, 9; etc. - -[344] II, 63; XXIX, 23. - -[345] XXXIII, 34 - -[346] XX, 51; XXVIII, 21. - -[347] VII, 13; XXVIII, 23. - -[348] XX, 33; XXII, 30; XXVIII, 18-19. - -[349] XXVIII, 8. - -[350] XXVIII, 9. - -[351] XXVIII, 9-11. - -[352] XXVIII, 7. - -[353] VII, 2. - -[354] XXVIII, 6. - -[355] XXII, 49. - -[356] XXIV, 102. - -[357] In this paragraph I have combined views expressed by Pliny in -three different passages: XXII, 49 and 56; XXIV, 1. - -[358] IX, 88; XXIV, 1; XXVIII, 23; XXXII, 12; XXXVII, 15; etc. - -[359] XXIV, 1; XXIX, 17. - -[360] VIII, 50; XXVIII, 42. - -[361] XXIX, 17 and 23. - -[362] XXVIII, 43. - -[363] XX, 1. “Odia amicitiaque rerum surdarum ac sensu carentium ... -quod Graeci sympathiam appellavere.” XXIV, 1. “Surdis etiam rerum sua -cuique sunt venena ac minimis quoque ... Concordia valent.” - -[364] 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.” - -[365] “Nunc quod totis voluminibus his docere conati summus de -discordia rerum concordiaque quam antipathiam Graeci vocavere ac -sympathiam non aliter clarius intelligi potest.” - -[366] XXIV, 41. - -[367] XXI, 47. - -[368] XX, 36. - -[369] XVI, 24. - -[370] XXV, 55. - -[371] XXXVII, 54. - -[372] XXIII, 62; XXIV, 1. - -[373] XXVIII, 41. - -[374] XXIX, 32. - -[375] XXVIII, 61. - -[376] XXIX, 27. - -[377] XXVII, 74. - -[378] XXXVI, 11. - -[379] XXV, 3. - -[380] XXII, 29. - -[381] XXVIII, 9. - -[382] XXVIII, 17. - -[383] XXVIII, 47. - -[384] XXIX, 38. - -[385] XXX, 20. - -[386] XXVIII, 49. - -[387] XXXII, 52. - -[388] XXIX, 27. - -[389] XXX, 7. - -[390] XXXII, 14. - -[391] XXX, 20 and 14. - -[392] XXXII, 29; XXX, 11. - -[393] XXVIII, 42. - -[394] XXII, 65. - -[395] XXII, 72. - -[396] XXII, 32. - -[397] XXX, 12. - -[398] XXV, 106. - -[399] XX, 81. - -[400] XXVIII, 47. - -[401] XXX, 12, 15. - -[402] XXVII, 62. - -[403] XXIX, 17. - -[404] XXIX, 24. - -[405] XXVI, 89. - -[406] XXXII, 16; also XX, 39. - -[407] XXII, 30. - -[408] XXIV, 32, 38. - -[409] XX, 72, 82. - -[410] XXVI, 69. - -[411] XXIX, 36. - -[412] XXX, 8. - -[413] XXVIII, 10. - -[414] XXXII, 24. - -[415] XXX, 18. - -[416] See also XXX, 8. - -[417] XXIV, 106 and 109. - -[418] XXIV, 107 and 110. - -[419] Some examples are: XVIII, 75, 79; XXII, 72; XXIII, 71; XXVIII, -47; XXIX, 36; XXXII, 14, 25, 38, 46. - -[420] XXXII, 14. - -[421] XXX, 12. - -[422] XXIV, 112. - -[423] VIII, 50. - -[424] XXVIII, 6. - -[425] XXIV, 17. - -[426] XXX, 15. - -[427] XXIX, 34. - -[428] XXXII, 24. - -[429] XXXII, 38. - -[430] XVII, 47. - -[431] XIX, 36. - -[432] XVIII, 35. - -[433] XXVI, 60. - -[434] XXVIII, 7. - -[435] XXVII, 75. - -[436] XXVII, 106. - -[437] XXVIII, 3-4. - -[438] XXVII, 35. “Catanancen Thessalam herbam qualis sit describi 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.” - -[439] XXV, 7. “Ego nec abortiva dico ac ne amatoria quidem, memor -Lucullum imperatorem clarissimum amatorio perisse....” - -[440] A few examples are: XX, 15, 84, 92; XXIV, 11, 42; XXVI, 64; -XXVII, 42, 99; XXVIII, 77, 80; XXX, 49; XXXII, 50. - -[441] XXII, 9. - -[442] XXV, 7. - -[443] XXIX, 27. - -[444] XXX, 1. On the general attitude to astrology of the preceding -Augustan Age and its poets see H. W. Garrod, _Manili Astronomicon Liber -II_, Oxford, 1911, pp. lxv-lxxiii, but I think he overestimates the -probable effect of the edict of 16 A. D. upon the poem of Manilius. - -[445] II, 5. “Astroque suo eventus adsignat nascendi legibus semelque -in omnes futuros umquam deo decretum in reliquom vero otium datur.” - -[446] VII, 37. - -[447] VII, 50. - -[448] VII, 57. - -[449] II, 24. - -[450] II, 6, “Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est ut nostro fato -mortalis sit ibi quoque siderum fulgor.” - -[451] II, 9. - -[452] II, 18. - -[453] II, 23. - -[454] II, 30. - -[455] XXV, 5. - -[456] II, 1. - -[457] II, 4. - -[458] II, 16. - -[459] II, 13. - -[460] II, 6; and see II, 39. - -[461] II, 6. “Potentia autem ad terram magnopere eorum pertinens.” - -[462] II, 6. - -[463] XVIII, 5, 57, 69. - -[464] XVIII, 68. Other authorities tell the story of Thales; see -Cicero, _De divinatione_, II, 201; Aristotle, _Polit._ I, 7; and -Diogenes Laertius. - -[465] XVIII, 78. - -[466] II, 81. - -[467] XXXVII, 28. - -[468] XXXVII, 59. - -[469] XXIX, 5. - -[470] XXX, 29. - -[471] II, 40. - -[472] II, 102. - -[473] II, 41. - -[474] XXXII, 19. - -[475] _L. Annaei Senecae Naturalium Quaestionum Libri Septem_, VI, 4, -“Aliquando de motu terrarum volumen iuvenis ediderim.” The edition -by G. D. Koeler, Göttingen, 1819, devotes several hundred pages to a -_Disquisitio_ and _Animadversiones_ upon Seneca’s work. I have also -used the more recent Teubner edition, ed. Haase, 1881, and the English -translation in Clark and Geikie, _Physical Science in the Time of -Nero_, 1910. In Panckoucke’s _Library_, vol. 147, a French translation -accompanies the text. - -[476] VII, 25. - -[477] VII, 31. - -[478] III, 26. - -[479] V, 6, for animals generated in flames; II, 31, for snakes struck -by lightning; III, _passim_ for marvelous fountains. - -[480] III, 25. - -[481] IV, 7. - -[482] II, 32. - -[483] II, 46. - -[484] I, 1. - -[485] VII, 30. - -[486] II, 10. - -[487] VII, 28. - -[488] That is to say, five in addition to the sun and the moon. - -[489] II, 32. - -[490] III, 29. - -[491] II, 31-50. - -[492] II, 32. - -[493] A complete edition of Ptolemy’s works has been in process of -publication since 1898 in the Teubner library by J. L. Heiberg and -Franz Boll. They are also the authors of the most important recent -researches concerning Ptolemy. See Heiberg’s discussion of the MSS -in the volumes of the above edition which have thus far appeared; -his articles on the Latin translations of Ptolemy in _Hermes_ XLV -(1910) 57ff, and XLVI (1911) 206ff; but especially Boll, _Studien -über Claudius Ptolemäus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der griechischen -Philosophie und Astrologie_, 1894, in _Jahrb. f. Philol. u. Pädagogik_, -Neue Folge, Suppl. Bd. 21. A recent summary of investigation and -bibliography concerning Ptolemy is W. Schmid, _Die Nachklassische -Periode der Griechischen Litteratur_, 1913, pp. 717-24, in the fifth -edition of Christ, _Gesch. d. Griech. Litt._ - -[494] Some strictures upon Ptolemy as a geographer are made by Sir W. -M. Ramsay, _The Historical Geography of Asia Minor_, 1890, pp. 69-73. - -[495] Schmid would appear to be mistaken in saying that the _Geography_ -was already known in Latin and Arabic translation in the time of -Frederick II (p. 718, “Seine in erster Linie die Astronomie, dann auch -die Geographie und Harmonik betreffenden Schriften haben sich nicht -bloss im Originaltext erhalten; sie wurden auch frühzeitig von den -Arabern übersetzt und sind dann, ähnlich wie die Werke des Aristoteles, -schon zur Zeit des Kaisers Friedrich II, noch ehe man sie im Urtext -kennen lernte, durch lateinische, nach dem Arabischen gemachte -Übersetzungen ins Abendland gelangt”), for in his own bibliography (p. -723) we read, “_Geographie_ ... Frühste latein. Übersetzung des Jacobus -Angelus gedruckt Bologna, 1462.” Apparently Schmid did not know the -date of Angelus’ translation. - -However, Duhem, III (1915) 417, also speaks as if the _Geography_ were -known in the thirteenth century: “les considérations empruntées à la -Géographie de Ptolémée fournissent à Robert de Lincoln une objection -contre le mouvement de précession des équinoxes tel qu’il est définé -dans l’Almageste.” See also C. A. Nallino, _Al-Huwarizmi e il suo -rifacimento della geografia di Tolomeo_, 1894, cited by Suter (1914) -viii-ix, for a geography in Arabic preserved at Strasburg which is -based on Ptolemy’s _Geography_. - -[496] In this Latin translation it is often entitled _Cosmographia_. -Some MSS are: CLM 14583, 15th century, fols. 81-215, Cosmographia -Ptolomei a Jacobo Angelo translata. Also BN 4801, 4802, 4803, 4804, -4838. Arsenal 981, in an Italian hand, is presumably incorrectly dated -as of the 14th century. - -This Jacobus Angelus was chancellor of the faculty of Montpellier -in 1433 and is censured by Gerson in a letter for his superstitious -observance of days. - -[497] 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. See Justin Winsor, _A Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geography_, 1884, -in _Library of Harvard University, Bibliographical Contributions_, No. -18:—a bibliography which deals only with printed editions and not with -the MSS. According to Schmid, however, the _editio princeps_ of the -Greek text was that of Basel, 1533. C. Müller’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_, 1737. - -[498] _L’ottica di Claudio Tolomeo da Eugenio ammiraglio di Sicilia -ridotta in latino_, ed. Gilberto Govi, Turin, 1885. - -[499] Schmid (1913) still cites it without qualification. Hammer-Jensen -has an article, _Ptolemaios und Heron_, in _Hermes_, XLVIII (1913) 224, -_et seq._ - -[500] Haskins and Lockwood, _The Sicilian Translators of the Twelfth -Century_, in _Harvard Studies in Classical Philology_, XXI (1910), 89. - -[501] _Ibid._, 89-94. - -[502] A. Heller, _Geschichte der Physik von Aristoteles bis auf die -neueste Zeit_, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1882-1884. The statement sounds a -trifle improbable in view of the number of MSS still in existence. - -[503] _Opus Maius_, II, 7. - -[504] The _Dioptra_ of Hero is really geodetical. - -[505] Govi (1885), p. 151. - -[506] _Ptolemy_ in Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_. - -[507] It was also so printed in _Sphera cum commentis_, 1518: “Explicit -secundus et ultimus liber Ptolomei de Speculis. Completa fuit eius -translatio ultimo Decembris anno Christi 1269.” - -[508] C. H. Haskins and D. P. Lockwood, _The Sicilian Translators of -the Twelfth Century and the First Latin Version of Ptolemy’s Almagest_, -in _Harvard Studies in Classical Philology_, XXI (1910) 75-102. - -C. H. Haskins, _Further Notes on Sicilian Translations of the Twelfth -Century_, _Ibid._, XXIII, 155-66. - -J. L. Heiberg, _Eine mittelalterliche Uebersetzung der Syntaxis des -Ptolemaios_, in _Hermes_ XLV (1910) 57-66; and _Noch einmal die -mittelalterliche Ptolemaios-Uebersetzung_, _Ibid._, XLVI, 207-16. - -[509] Digby 51, 13th Century, fols. 79-114, “Liber iiii tractatuum -Batolomei Alfalisobi in sciencia judiciorum astrorum.... Et perfectus -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.” - -[510] It is found in an edition printed at Venice in 1493, “per Bonetum -locatellum impensis nobilis viri Octaviani scoti civis Modoetiensis.” - -[511] In the British Museum are editions of Venice, 1484, 1493, 1519; -Paris, 1519; Basel, 1533; Louvain, 1548; it was also printed in 1551, -1555, 1578. - -[512] In the British Museum are but three editions of the Greek text, -all with an accompanying Latin translation: Nürnberg, 1535; Basel, -1553; and 1583. - -[513] _Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus_, 1894. - -[514] “C’était la capitulation de la science.” Bouché-Leclercq in _Rev. -Hist._, LXV, 257, note 3. - -[515] In the medieval Latin translation the Slavs replace the Scythians -of Ptolemy’s text. - -[516] Indeed, Hephaestion’s first two books are nothing but Ptolemy -repeated. About contemporary with Ptolemy seems to have been -Vettius Valens whose astrological work is extant: Vettius Valens, -_Anthologiarum libri primum edidit_ Guilelmus Kroll, Berlin, 1908. See -also CCAG _passim_ concerning both Hephaestion and Vettius Valens, -and Engelbrecht, _Hephästion von Theben und sein astrologisches -Compendium_, Vienna, 1887. - -[517] James Finlayson, _Galen: Two Bibliographical Demonstrations in -the Library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow_, -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). - -[518] 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. 1136. - -[519] In the Teubner texts: _Scriptora minora_, 1-3, ed. I. Marquardt, -I. Mueller, G. Helmreich, 1884-1893; _De victu_, ed. Helmreich, -1898; _De temperamentis_, ed. Helmreich, 1904; _De usu partium_, ed. -Helmreich, 1907, 1909. - -In _Corpus Medicorum Graecorum_, V, 9, 1-2, 1914-1915, _The Hippocratic -Commentaries_, ed. Mewaldt, Helmreich, Westenberger, Diels, Hieg. - -[520] Carolus Gottlob Kühn, _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. - -[521] The article on Galen in PW regards some of the treatises as -printed in Kühn as almost unreadable. - -[522] Although Kühn’s Index fills a volume, it is far from dependable. - -[523] Liddell and Scott often fail to allude to germane passages in -Galen’s works, even when they include, with citation of some other -author, the word he uses. - -[524] Perhaps at this point a similarly candid confession by the -present writer is in order. I have tried to do a little more than Dr. -Payne in his modesty seems ready to admit of himself, and to look over -carefully enough not to miss anything of importance those works which -seemed at all likely to bear upon my particular interest, the history -of science and magic. In consequence I have examined long stretches -of text from which I have got nothing. For the most part, I thought -it better not to take time to read the Hippocratic commentaries. At -first I was inclined to depend upon others for Galen’s treatises on -anatomy and physiology, but finally I read most of them in order to -learn at first hand of his argument from design and his attitude -towards dissection. Further than this the reader can probably judge for -himself from my citations as to the extent and depth of my reading. My -first draft was completed before I discovered that Puschmann had made -considerable use of Galen for medical conditions in the Roman Empire in -his _History of Medical Education_, English translation, London, 1891, -pp. 93-113. For the sake of a complete and well-rounded survey I have -thought it best to retain those passages where I cover about the same -ground. I have been unable to procure T. Meyer-Steineg, _Ein Tag im -Leben des Galen_, Jena, 1913. 63 pp. - -[525] For an account of the MSS see H. Diels, _Berl. Akad. Abh._ -(1905), 58ff. 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. Wellmann in _Hermes_, XXXVIII (1903), 292ff. The first -two books of his περὶ τῶν ἐν ταῖς τροφαῖς δυνάμεων were discovered in a -Wolfenbüttel palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century by K. Koch; see -_Berl. Akad. Sitzb._ (1907), 103ff. - -[526] _Lancet_ (1896), p. 1135. - -[527] For these see V. Rose, _Analecta 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 ownership was added in 1334 -at Canterbury) fols. 437, double columned pages. For the titles and -_incipits_ of the individual treatises see Coxe (1852). - -[528] A. Merx, “Proben der syrischen Uebersetzung von Galenus’ Schrift -über die einfachen Heilmittel,” _Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morgendl. -Gesell._ XXXIX (1885), 237-305. - -[529] Payne, _Lancet_ (1896), p. 1136. - -[530] Ch. V. Daremberg, _Exposition des connaissances de Galien sur -l’anatomie, la physiologie, et la pathologie du système nerveux_, -Paris, 1841. - -[531] _Lancet_ (1896), p. 1140. - -[532] Brock (1916), p. xvi, says in 131 A. D. Clinton, _Fasti Romani_, -placed it in 130. - -[533] These details are from the _De cognoscendis curandisque animi -morbis_, cap. 8, Kühn, V, 40-44. - -[534] _De naturalibus facultatibus_, III, 10, Kühn, II, 179. - -[535] Kühn, X, 609 (_De methodo medendi_); also XVI, 223; and XIX, 59. - -[536] _De anatom. administ._, Kühn, II, 217, 224-25, 660. See also XV, -136; XIX, 57. - -[537] His recorded astronomical observations extend from 127 to 151 A. D. - -[538] Kühn, X, 16. - -[539] _Fragments du commentaire de Galien sur le Timée de Platon_, were -published for the first time, both in Greek and a French translation, -together with an _Essai sur Galien considéré comme philosophe_, by Ch. -Daremberg, Paris, 1848. - -[540] Kühn, XIII, 599-600. - -[541] 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. - -[542] Kühn, XIX, 15. - -[543] Kühn, XIV, 622, 625, 648; see also I, 54-57. and XII, 263. - -[544] Kühn, XIV, 649-50. - -[545] R. M. Briau, _L’Archiatrie Romaine_, Paris, 1877, however, held -that Galen never received the official title, _archiater_; see p. 24, -“il est difficile de comprendre pourquoi le médecin de Pergame qui -donnait des soins à l’empereur Marc Aurèle, ne fut jamais honoré de ce -titre.” But he is given the title in at least one medieval MS—Merton -219, early 14th century, fol. 36_v_—“Incipit liber Galieni archistratos -medicorum de malitia complexionis diversae.” - -[546] _De venae sectione_, Kühn, XIX, 524. - -[547] Kühn, XIII, 362-63; for another allusion to this fire see XIV, -66. Also II, 216; XIX, 19 and 41. - -[548] For the statements of this paragraph see Kühn, XIV, 603-5, 620-23. - -[549] Kühn, X, 114. - -[550] Kühn, XIV, 599-600. - -[551] Kühn, X, 1, 76. - -[552] Kühn, X, 609. - -[553] Kühn, X, 4-5. - -[554] Kühn, X, 10. - -[555] Kühn, XII, 909, 916, and in vol. XIV the entire treatise _De -remediis parabilibus_. - -[556] Kühn, X, 560. - -[557] Kühn, X, 1010-11. - -[558] Kühn, XIII, 571-72. - -[559] Kühn, XIV, 62, and see Puschmann, _History of Medical Education_ -(1891), p. 108. - -[560] Kühn, XIV, 10, 30, 79; and see Puschmann (1891), 109-11, where -there is bibliography of the subject. - -[561] Kühn, X, 792. - -[562] Kühn, XIV, 26. - -[563] The meaning of the word “apothecary” is explained as follows in -a fourteenth century manuscript at Chartres which is a miscellany of -religious treatises with a bestiary and lapidary and bears the title, -“Apothecarius moralis monasterii S. Petri Carnotensis.” - -“Apothecarius est, secundum Hugucium, qui nonnullas diversarum rerum -species in apothecis suis aggregat.. .. Apothecarius dicitur is -qui species aromaticas et res quacunque arti medicine et cirurgie -necessarias habet penes se et venales exponit,” fol. 3. “According -to Hugutius an apothecary is one who collects samples of various -commodities in his stores. An apothecary is called one who has at hand -and exposes for sale aromatic species and all sorts of things needful -in medicine and surgery.” - -[564] The nest of the fabled cinnamon bird was supposed to contain -supplies of the spice, which Herodotus (III, 111) tells us the Arabian -merchants procured by leaving heavy pieces of flesh for the birds to -carry to their nests, which then broke down under the excessive weight. -In Aristotle’s _History of Animals_ (IX, 13) the nests are shot down -with arrows tipped with lead. For other allusions to the cinnamon bird -in classical literature see D’Arcy W. Thompson, _A Glossary of Greek -Birds_, Oxford, 1895, p. 82. - -[565] Kühn, XIV, 64-66. - -[566] _Ad Pisonem de theriaca_, Kühn, XIV, 217. - -[567] Kühn, XIII, 704. - -[568] Kühn, XII, 168-78. - -[569] M. Berthelot, “Sur les voyages de Galien et de Zosime dans -l’Archipel et en Asie, et sur la matière médicale dans l’antiquité,” in -_Journal des Savants_ (1895), pp. 382-7. The article is chiefly devoted -to showing that an alchemistic treatise attributed to Zosimus copies -Galen’s account of his trips to Lemnos and Cyprus. Of such future -copying of Galen we shall encounter many more instances. - -As for the _terra sigillata_, C. J. S. Thompson, in a paper on “Terra -Sigillata, a famous medicament of ancient times,” published in the -_Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Congress of Medical -Sciences_, London, 1913, Section XXIII, pp. 433-44, tells of various -medieval substitutes for the Lemnian earth from other places, and of -the interesting religious ceremony, performed in the presence of the -Turkish officials on only one day in the year by Greek monks who had -replaced the priestess of Diana. Pierre Belon witnessed it on August -6th, 1533. By that time there were many varieties of the tablets, -“because each lord of Lemnos had a distinct seal.” When Tozer visited -Lemnos in 1890 the ceremony was still performed annually on August -sixth and must be completed before sunrise or the earth would lose its -efficacy. Mohammedan khodjas now shared in the religious ceremony, -sacrificing a lamb. But in the twentieth century the entire ceremony -was abandoned. Through the early modern centuries the _terra sigillata_ -continued to be held in high esteem in western Europe also, and was -included in pharmacopeias as late as 1833 and 1848. Thompson gives a -chemical analysis of a sixteenth century tablet of the Lemnian earth -and finds no evidence therein of its possessing any medicinal property. -Agricola in the sixteenth century 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 excavated, -for the whole is of a reddish-yellow color which furnishes for the -inhabitants that valuable clay so especially beneficial to mankind.” - -[570] Kühn, XIV, 72. - -[571] Kühn, XII, 226-9. See the article of Berthelot just cited -in a preceding note for an explanation 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 Dioscorides (V, 75-77) and Pliny (NH, XXXIV, -29-31) on the subject, 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 _Pompholyx_ and _Spodos_.” - -[572] Kühn, XIV, 7-8; XIII, 411-2; XII, 215-6. - -[573] Kühn, XIV, 22-23, 77-78; XIII, 119. - -[574] Kühn, XIV, 255-56. The beasts of course were also in demand for -the arena. - -[575] Kühn, X, 456-57, opening passage of the seventh book. - -[576] περὶ τῶν ἰδίων βιβλίων, Kühn, XIX, 8ff.; and περὶ τῆς τάξεως τῶν -ἰδίων βιβλίων, XIX, 49 ff. - -[577] See, for instance, in the _De methodo medendi_ itself, X, 895-96 -and 955. - -[578] Kühn, XIV, 651: henceforth this text will generally be cited -without name. - -[579] XIX, 8. - -[580] II, 217. - -[581] XIX, 9. - -[582] XIX, 41. - -[583] II, 283. - -[584] XIV, 630. - -[585] XIX, 34. - -[586] XV, 109. - -[587] XIII, 995-96; XIV, 31-32. - -[588] X, 633. Duruy refers to the passage in his _History of Rome_ -(ed. J. P. Mahaffy, Boston, 1886, V, i, 273), but says, “Extensive -sanitary works were undertaken throughout all Italy, and the celebrated -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 illustration, comparing his own systematic treatment of medicine -to the emperor’s great work in repairing and improving the roads, -straightening them by cut-offs that saved distance, but sometimes -abandoning an old road that went straight over hills for an easier -route that avoided them, filling in wet and marshy spots with stone or -crossing them by causeways, bridging impassable rivers, and altering -routes that led through places now deserted and beset by wild beasts so -that they would pass through populous towns and more frequented areas. -The passage thus bears witness to a shifting of population. - -[589] V, 49. - -[590] V, 17-19. - -[591] Mentioned in _Acts_, xviii, 18, “ ... having shorn his head in -Cenchrea: for he had a vow.” - -[592] V, 46-47. - -[593] X, 3-4. - -[594] X, 831-36; XIII, 513; XIV, 27-29, and 14-19 on the heating and -storage of wine. - -[595] IV, 777-79. - -[596] Similarly Milward (1733), p. 102, wrote of Alexander of Tralles, -“He has in most distempers a separate article concerning wine and I -much doubt whether there be in all nature a more excellent medicine -than this in the hands of a skillful and judicious practitioner.” - -[597] IV, 821. - -[598] Kühn, VIII, 579, ὡς εἰς Μωϋσοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ διατριβὴν ἀφιγμένος -νόμων ἀναποδεἍκίτων ἀκούη - -[599] _Ibid._, p. 657, θᾶττον γὰρ ἄν τις τοὺς ἀπὸ Μωϋσοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ -μεταδιδάξειεν I have been unable to find a passage in which, according -to Moses Maimonides of the twelfth century in his _Aphorisms_ from -Galen, Galen said that the wealthy physicians and philosophers of -his time were not prepared for discipline as were the followers of -Moses and Christ. Perhaps it is a mistranslation of one of the above -passages. Particula 24 (56), “medici et philosophi cum aere augmentati -non sunt preparati ad disciplinam sicut parati fuerunt ad disciplinam -moysis et christi socii predictorum. decimotercio megapulsus.” - -[600] Kühn, III, 905-7. - -[601] Kühn, XI, 690-4; XII, 372-5. - -[602] Finlayson (1895); pp. 8-9; Harnack, _Medicinisches aus der -ältesten Kirchengeschichte_, Leipzig, 1892. - -[603] Wellmann (1914), p. 16 note. - -[604] Kühn, IV, 816. - -[605] Kühn, IV, 815. - -[606] Quoted by Eusebius, V, 28, and reproduced by Harnack, -_Medicinisches aus der ältesten Kirchengeschichte_, 1892, p. 41, and by -Finlayson (1895), pp. 9-10. - -[607] Kühn, X, 16-17. J. Leminne, _Les quatre éléments_, in _Mémoires -couronnés par l’Académie de Belgique_, vol. 65, Brussels, 1903, traces -the influence of the theory in medieval thought. - -[608] Kuhn, XIII, 763-4. - -[609] Kühn, I, 428. - -[610] Kühn, X, 111. - -[611] Kühn, XII, 166. - -[612] I, 417. - -[613] XIV, 250-53. - -[614] XIII, 948. - -[615] X, 657. - -[616] X, 872. - -[617] XIX, 344-45. - -[618] More recently Galen’s _Materia medica_ has been treated of in a -German doctoral dissertation by L. Israelson, _Die materia medica des -Klaudios Galenos_, 1894, 204 pp. - -[619] X, 624. - -[620] XIV, 253-54. - -[621] V, 911. - -[622] X, 817-19. - -[623] X, 843. - -[624] XIV, 281. - -[625] XII, 270-71. - -[626] X, 368-71. - -[627] Kühn, VIII, 363. Finlayson (1895), pp. 39-40, gives an English -translation of Galen’s full account of the case. - -[628] Puschmann (1891), pp. 105-6. Vitruvius, too, however (V, iii), -states that sound spreads in waves like eddies in a pond. - -[629] XIII, 435, 893, are two instances. - -[630] V, 80; XIV, 670. - -[631] Various treatises on the pulse by Galen will be found in vols. V, -IX, and X of Kühn’s edition. - -[632] Galen’s contributions to the arts of clock-making and -time-keeping have been dealt with in an article which I have not had -access to and of which I cannot now find even the author and title. - -[633] XIV, 631-34. - -[634] C. V. Daremberg, _Exposition des connaissances de Galien sur -l’anatomie, la physiologie, et la pathologie du système nerveux_, -Paris, 1841. J. S. Milne discussed “Galen’s Knowledge of Muscular -Anatomy” at the International Congress of Medical Sciences held at -London in 1913; see pp. 389-400 of the volume devoted to the history of -medicine, Section XXIII. - -[635] _Lancet_ (1896), p. 1139. - -[636] I have failed to obtain K. F. H. Mark, _Herophilus, ein Beitrag -zur Geschichte der Medizin_, Carlsruhe, 1838. - -[637] D’Arcy W. Thompson (1913), 22-23, thinks that the precedence of -the heart over all other organs in appearing in the embryo of the chick -led Aristotle to locate in it the central seat of the soul. - -[638] XIV, 626-30. - -[639] II, 683, 696. This and the other quotations in this paragraph are -from Dr. Payne’s Harveian Oration as printed in _The Lancet_ (1896), -pp. 1137-39. - -[640] Kühn, V, 216, cited by Payne. - -[641] Kühn, II, 642-49; IV, 703-36, “An in arteriis natura sanguis -contineatur.” J. Kidd, _A Cursory Analysis of the Works of Galen so -far as they relate to Anatomy and Physiology_, in _Transactions of the -Provincial Medical and Surgical Association_, VI (1837), 299-336. - -[642] _Lancet_ (1896), p. 1137, where Payne states that Colombo (_De re -anatomica_, Venet. 1559, XIV, 261) was the first to prove by experiment -on the living heart that these veins conveyed blood from the lungs. - -[643] II, 146-47. - -[644] II, 384-86. - -[645] II, 220-21. - -[646] Augustine testifies in two passages of his _De anima et eius -origine_ (Migne PL 44, 475-548), that vivisection of human beings was -practiced as late as his time, the early fifth century: IV, 3, “Medici -tamen qui appellantur anatomici per membra per venas per nervos per -ossa per medullas per interiora vitalia etiam vivos homines quamdiu -inter manus rimantium vivere potuerunt dissiciendo scrutati sunt ut -naturam corporis nossent”; and IV, 6 (Migne, PL 44, 528-9). - -[647] II, 537. - -[648] II, 619-20. - -[649] II, 701. - -[650] II, 631 ff. - -[651] XIII, 599-600. Galen states that the pontifex’s term of office -was seven months, a fact which perhaps had some astrological bearing. - -[652] X, 454-55. - -[653] II, 682. - -[654] II, 291. - -[655] IV, 360, _et passim_. - -[656] IV, 687. - -[657] IV, 694, 696. - -[658] IV, 688. - -[659] IV, 700. - -[660] IV, 692; II, 537. Others contend, he says (IV, 693), that one -soul constructs the parts and another soul incites them to voluntary -motion. - -[661] IV, 701. - -[662] II, 28. - -[663] XVIII B, 17ff. - -[664] _De usu partium_, XI, 14 (Kühn, III, 905-7). The passage seems to -me an integral part of the work and not a later interpolation. Moses -Maimonides in the twelfth century took exception at some length, in the -25th _Particula_ of his _Aphorisms_ from Galen, to this criticism of -his national law-giver. - -[665] IV, 513; see also II, 55, ὡς ἔγωγε πρῶτον μὲν ἀκούσας τὸ -γινόμενον, ἐθαύμασα καὶ αὐτὸς ἐβουλήθην αὐτόπτης αὐτοῦ καταστῆναι. - -[666] X, 608; XIII, 887-88. - -[667] XIII, 964. - -[668] II, 136; X, 385; XII, 311; he credited Plato with the same -attitude, see II, 581. - -[669] II, 659-60. - -[670] XII, 446. - -[671] II, 141, 179. - -[672] II, 179; X, 609. - -[673] II, 621. - -[674] XIII, 891. - -[675] XIII, 430-31. - -[676] XIII, 717. - -[677] XI, 794; also XIII, 658; XIV, 61-62, and many other passages of -the _Antidotes_. - -[678] XII, 203. Pliny, NH XXXVI, 34, makes the same statement as -Dioscorides. - -[679] XII, 272. - -[680] Pliny, NH XXVIII, 35, however, both tells how butter is made and -of its use as food among the barbarians. - -[681] X, 40-41. - -[682] X, 127, 962. - -[683] X, 31. - -[684] X, 29. - -[685] X, 668. - -[686] X, 123. - -[687] X, 915-16. - -[688] I, 75-76; XIV, 367. - -[689] I, 145; II, 41-43; X, 30-31, 782-83; XIII, 188, 366, 375, 463, -579, 594, 892; XIV, 245, 679. - -[690] X, 159. - -[691] XIV, 675-76. - -[692] I, 144-55. - -[693] XVI, 82. - -[694] I, 135. - -[695] XIV, 680. - -[696] I, 131. - -[697] I, 134. - -[698] XVI, 82. - -[699] II, 288. - -[700] IX, 842; XIII, 887. - -[701] XIII, 116-17. - -[702] X, 28-29. - -[703] X, 684. - -[704] X, 454-55. - -[705] XI, 420. - -[706] XI, 434-35. - -[707] XI, 456. - -[708] XII, 246. - -[709] XII, 336. - -[710] XII, 365. - -[711] XII, 258, 262, 269, 331. - -[712] XII, 334. - -[713] VI, 453-55. - -[714] XIII, 463. - -[715] XII, 895. - -[716] XIV, 222. - -[717] XIII, 700-701. - -[718] XIII, 706-707. - -[719] XIII, 467. - -[720] XIII, 867. - -[721] XII, 392-93, 884; XIII, 116-17, 123, 125, 128-29, 354, 485, -502-503, 582, 656. - -[722] XII, 968, 988. - -[723] See XII, 988; XIII, 960-61; XIV, 12, 60, 341. - -[724] XIV, 82. - -[725] XIII, 570. - -[726] XII, 350. - -[727] XVI, 86-87; XI, 518. - -[728] XI, 485. - -[729] XVI, 85. - -[730] IX, 842. - -[731] II, 206. - -[732] I, 138. - -[733] XVI, 80. - -[734] There would seem to be something wrong, at least with its -arrangement as it now stands, for the first book ends (XIV, 389) with -the words, “This my fourth book, O Glaucon, ends thus. If it has been -useful to you, you will readily follow what I’ve written to Salomon -the archiater.” But then the present second book opens with the words -(XIV, 390), “Since you’ve asked me to write you about easily procurable -remedies, O dearest Solon,” and goes on to say that the author will -state what he has learned from experience beginning with the hair and -closing with the feet. - -[735] XIV, 378. - -[736] XIV, 462. - -[737] XIV, 534. - -[738] XI, 205. - -[739] John of St. Amand, _Expositio in Antidotarium Nicolai_, fol. 231, -in _Mesuae medici clarissimi opera_, Venice, 1568. Pietro d’Abano, -_Conciliator_, Venice, 1526, Diff. X, fol. 15; Diff. LX, fol. 83. -Arnald of Villanova, _Repetitio super Canon “Vita brevis,”_ fol. 276, -in his _Opera_, Lyons, 1532. - -[740] Gilbertus Anglicus, _Compendium medicinae_, Lyons, 1510, fol. -328v., “Experimenta ex libro experimentorum Gal. experta.” - -[741] In his _Expositio in Antidotarium Nicolai_, as cited above (note -5). - -[742] J. L. Pagel, _Die Concordanciae des Johannes de Sancto Amando_, -Berlin, 1894, pp. 102-104. John also wrote commentaries on Galen, -(_Histoire Littéraire de la France_, XXI, 263-65). - -[743] ed. Lyons, 1515, fols. 19v-2Ov. - -[744] Berlin, 902, 14th century, fol. 175; Berlin 903, 1342 A. D., fol. -2. - -[745] Boncompagni (1851), pp. 3-4. - -[746] Moses ben Maimon, _Aphorisms_, 1489. “Incipiunt aphorismi -excellentissimi Raby Moyses secundum doctrinam Galieni medicorum -principis ... collegi eos ex verbis Galieni de omnibus libris suis.... -Et ego protuli super his afforismis quedam dicta que circumspexi et ea -meo nomine nominavi et similiter protuli aliquos aphorismos aliquorum -modernorum quos denominavi eorum nomine.” - -[747] Ed. C. V. Daremberg, _Notices et Extraits des manuscrits -médicaux_, 1853, pp. 44-47, Greek text; pp. 229-33, French translation. - -[748] 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 dierum creticorum m’i Gentilis anni 1362,” at fol. -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 possible but rather unlikely that the dates later than -1348 refer to the labors of copyists. Venetian MSS contain not only a -_De reductione medicinarum ad actum_ by Gentile, written at Perugia in -April, 1342 (S. Marco, XIV, 7, 14th century, fols. 44-48); but also -“Suggestions concerning the pestilence which was at Genoa in 1348,” by -him (S. Marco, XIV, 26, 15th century, fols. 99-100, consilia de peste -quae fuit Ianuae 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) Valentinelli assures us -that he died at Bologna in 1310, and in another place (V, 19) says that -he died at Perugia in 1348. - -[749] Cortona 110, early years of 15th century, fol. 128, Rationes -Gentilis contra Galenum in quinto aphorismi. This MS contains several -other works by Gentile da Foligno. - -[750] XIV, 601. - -[751] XIV, 605. - -[752] XIV, 615. - -[753] XIV, 625. - -[754] XIV, 655. - -[755] I, 54-55. - -[756] XII, 263. - -[757] XII, 306. - -[758] XII, 307. - -[759] XI, 792-93. - -[760] XII, 283. - -[761] XII, 251-53. - -[762] IV, 688. - -[763] _Natural History_, XXVIII, 2. - -[764] XII, 248, 284-85, 290. - -[765] XII, 293. - -[766] XIV, 255. (_To Piso on theriac._) - -[767] XII, 291-92. - -[768] XII, 298. - -[769] XII, 304. - -[770] XII, 342. - -[771] XII, 276-77. - -[772] XII, 367-69. - -[773] XIII, 949-50, 954-55. - -[774] XII, 343. These form the titles of four successive chapters, _De -simplic._, XI, i, caps. 19-22. - -[775] XII, 359, 942-43, 977. - -[776] XII, 856. - -[777] XII, 860. - -[778] XII, 360. - -[779] XII, 366-67. - -[780] XII, 335. - -[781] A fact which—one cannot help remarking—considering the character -of most ancient remedies for hydrophobia, only tends to make their -recovery seem the more marvelous. - -[782] XIV, 233. - -[783] XII, 250-51. - -[784] XIV, 224-25. - -[785] II, 45-48. - -[786] XII, 358-59. Concerning the virtue of river crabs we may also -quote from a story told in Nias Island, west of Sumatra: “for had 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. - -[787] περὶ τῶν ἰδιότητι τῆς ὅλης οὐσίας ἐνεργοῦντων. - -[788] IV, 760-61, ἐνεργεῖν τὰς οὐσίας κατ’ ἰδίαν ἑκάστην φύσιν. - -[789] XII, 311-15. - -[790] _Ad Pisonem de theriaca_; _De theriaca ad Pamphilianum_. - -[791] XIV, 2-3. - -[792] XIV, 217. - -[793] XIV, 271-80. - -[794] XIV, 283. - -[795] XIV, 294. - -[796] XII, 317-18; XIV, 45-46, 238. - -[797] XIV, 238-39. - -[798] XIII, 371, 374. - -[799] XIII, 134. - -[800] XIII, 242. - -[801] XI, 859. - -[802] XII, 573; see also XIII, 256. - -[803] XI, 860. - -[804] XII, 295-96. - -[805] XII, 207. - -[806] A representation of the Agathodaemon; see C. W. King, _The -Gnostics and their Remains_, London, 1887, p. 220. - -[807] XII, 288-89. At II, 163, Galen again accepts the notion that -human saliva is fatal to scorpions. - -[808] XIV, 321. - -[809] XIV, 349. - -[810] XIV, 386-87. - -[811] XIV, 343. - -[812] XIV, 413. - -[813] XIV, 427. - -[814] XIV, 430. - -[815] XIV, 471. - -[816] XIV, 472. - -[817] XIV, 476. And others, “Ut ne cui penis arrigi possit,” and “Ad -arrectionem pudendi.” - -[818] “The _Psoranthea bituminosa_ of Linnaeus. It is found on -declivities near the sea-coast in the south of Europe,” says a note in -Bostock and Riley’s _The Natural History of Pliny_ (Bohn Library), IV, -330. Pliny, too (XXI, 88), states that trefoil is poisonous itself and -to be used only as a counter-poison. - -[819] XIV, 491; a good example of the power of suggestion. - -[820] XIV, 498. - -[821] XIV, 502. - -[822] XIV, 505. - -[823] XIV, 517. - -[824] XIV, 567ff. - -[825] I, 305-412. - -[826] _Galen_ in PW. - -[827] I, 325-6. - -[828] XVII B, 212 and 834. - -[829] Partic. 6, Kühn, XIV, 253. - -[830] Kühn, XIV, 255. - -[831] These passages all come from the 24th _Particula_ of Maimonides’ -_Aphorisms_, which is devoted especially to marvels:—“Incipit particula -xxiiii continens aphorismos dependentes a miraculis repertis in libris -medicorum,” from an edition of the _Aphorisms_ dated 1489 and numbered -IA.28878 in the British Museum. The same section contains still other -marvels from the works of Galen. - -[832] Kühn, VI, 832-5. - -[833] VI, 833. - -[834] XVI, 222-23. - -[835] I, 53. - -[836] _Coeli status_, or ἡ κατάστασις. X, 593-96, 625, 634, 645, -647-48, 658, 662, 685, 737, 759-60, 778, 829, etc. - -[837] X, 688; XIII, 544; XIV, 285. - -[838] XII, 356. - -[839] XIV, 298. - -[840] XI, 798. - -[841] II, 26-28. - -[842] XIX, 529-30. - -[843] XIX, 534-73. - -[844] IX, 794. - -[845] IX, 901-2. - -[846] IX, 904. - -[847] IX, 908-10. - -[848] IX, 913. - -[849] IX, 922. - -[850] IX, 935. - -[851] Kühn, XIX, 22-345. Plutarch, _Opera_, ed. Didot, _De placitis -philosophorum_, pp. 1065-1114; in _Plutarch’s Miscellanies and Essays_, -English translation, 1889, III, 104-92. The wording of the two versions -differs somewhat and in Galen’s works it is divided simply into 37 -chapters, whereas in Plutarch’s works it is divided into five books and -many more chapters. - -[852] XIX, 320-21; _De plac. philos._, V, 1-2. - -[853] XIX, 253; _De plac. philos._, I, 8. - -[854] Kühn, XIX, 261-62; _De placitis philosophorum_, I, 28; “ἡ δὲ -εἱμαρμένη ἐστὶν αἰθέριον σῶμα. σπέρμα τῆστῶν πάντων γενέσεως.“ - -[855] XIX, 333. - -[856] XIX, 274; _De plac. philos._, II, 19. - -[857] XIX, 265; _De plac. philos._, II, 5. - -[858] As much can hardly be said of our present day architects, whose -fantastic tin cornices projecting far out from the roofs of high -buildings and rows of stones poised horizontally in mid-air, with no -other visible support than a plate glass window beneath, remind one -forcibly and painfully of the deceits and levitations of magicians. - -[859] _De architectura_, ed. F. Krohn, Leipzig, Teubner, 1912, VIII, -iii, 24. A recent English translation of Vitruvius is by M. H. Morgan, -Harvard University Press, 1914. - -[860] VIII, iii, 16, 20-21, 24-5. - -[861] III, i. - -[862] V, Introduction, 3-4. - -[863] V, vi, 1. The wording is that of Morgan’s translation. - -[864] VI, i, 3-4, 9-10. - -[865] IX, vi, 2-3, Morgan’s translation. - -[866] III, Introduction, 3, ” ... There should be the greatest -indignation when, as often, good judges are flattered by the charm of -social entertainments into an approbation which is a mere pretence.” - -[867] _Idem._ - -[868] VI, Introduction, 5. - -[869] II, Introduction. Vitruvius continues, “But as for me, Emperor, -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.” - -[870] III, Introduction, 2. - -[871] VII, Introduction, 1-10. - -[872] VI, Introduction, 2. Also IX, Introduction, where authors are -declared superior to the victorious athletes in the Olympian, Pythian, -Isthmian, and Nemean games. - -[873] VII, Introd., 11-14; IX, Introd. - -[874] IX, Introd., 17. - -[875] VII, Introd., 10. - -[876] VIII, iii, 27. - -[877] IX, vii, 7. - -[878] IX, Introd. - -[879] VII, v. - -[880] VII, Introd., 18. - -[881] V, i, 6-10. - -[882] X, i, 4. - -[883] X, vii. - -[884] IX, viii. - -[885] IX, viii, 2 and 4; X, vii, 4. - -[886] NH, VII, 38. - -[887] The work of Martin, _Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages -d’Héron d’Alexandrie_, Paris, 1854, and the accounts of Hero in -histories of physics and mathematics such as those of Heller and -Cajori, must now be supplemented by the long article in Pauly and -Wissowa, _Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, -(1912), cols. 992-1080. A recent briefer summary in English is -the article by T. L. Heath, EB, 11th edition, XIII, 378. See also -Hammer-Jensen, _Ptolemaios und Heron_, in _Hermes_, XLVIII (1913), p. -224, _et seq._ - -The writings ascribed to Hero, hitherto scattered about in various -for the most part inaccessible editions and MSS, are now appearing in -a single Teubner edition, of which five vols. have appeared, 1899, -1900, 1903, 1912, 1914, including respectively, the _Pneumatics_ and -_Automatic Theater_, the _Mechanics_ and _Mirrors_, the _Metrics_ and -_Dioptra_, the _Definitions_ and geometrical remains, _Stereometrica_ -and _De mensuris_ and _De geodaesia_. For the _Belopoiika_ or work on -military engines see C. Wescher, _Poliorcétique des Grecs_, Paris, -1867. In English we have _The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria_, -translated for Bennet Woodcroft by J. G. Greenwood, London, 1851. A -number of articles on Hero by Heiberg, Carra de Vaux, Schmidt, and -others will be found in _Bibliotheca Mathematica_ and Sudhoff’s _Archiv -f. d. Gesch. d. Naturwiss. u. d. Technik_. - -[888] παρὰ Ἥρωνος Κτησιβίου. - -[889] Heath in EB, XIII, 378; Heiberg (1914), V, ix. - -[890] PW, _Heron_. - -[891] Baur (1912), p. 417. - -[892] In the first chapter of the _Automatic Theater_ he says, “The -ancients called those who constructed such things thaumaturges because -of the astounding character of the spectacle.” - -[893] PW, 1045. - -[894] But perhaps this is a medieval interpolation in the nature of -a crude Christian attempt to depict “the firmament in the midst of -the waters” (Genesis, I, 6). However, it also somewhat resembles the -universe of the Greek philosopher, Leucippus, who “made the earth a -hemisphere with a hemisphere of air above, the whole surrounded by -the supporting crystal sphere which held the moon. Above this came -the planets, then the sun”—Orr (1913), p. 63 and Fig. 13. See also K. -Tittel, “Das Weltbild bei Heron,” in _Bibl. Math._ (1907-1908), pp. -113-7. - -[895] Berthelot (1885), pp. 68-9. For the following account of Greek -alchemy I have followed Berthelot’s three works, _Les Origines de -l’Alchimie_, 1885; _Collection des anciens Alchimistes Grecs_, 3 vols., -1887-1888; _Introduction à l’Étude 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 statements; but -still remains the fullest account of the subject. E. O. v. Lippmann, -_Entstehung und Ausbreitung 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. - -[896] The earliest of them is John of Antioch of the reign of -Heraclius, 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. - -[897] Berthelot (1885), pp. 26, 72, etc., took this story about -Diocletian far too seriously. - -[898] Berthelot (1885), 192-3. - -[899] But the _Labyrinth of Solomon_, which Berthelot (1885), p. 16, -had cited as an example of the sort of ancient magic figures which had -been largely obliterated by Christians, and of the antiquity of alchemy -among the Jews (_ibid._, p. 54), although he granted (_ibid._, p. 171) -that it might not be as old as the Papyrus of Leyden of the third -century, later when he had secured the collaboration of Ruelle (1888), -I, 156-7, and III, 41, he had to admit was not even as old as the -eleventh century MS in which it occurred but was an addition in writing -of the fourteenth century and “a cabalistic work of the middle ages -which does not belong to the old tradition of the Greek alchemists.” - -[900] Berthelot (1885), p. 59. - -[901] _Ibid._, p. 53. - -[902] Berthelot (1888), III, 251. - -[903] Berthelot (1885), p. 56. - -[904] Berthelot (1888), III, 23. - -[905] Berthelot (1888), III, 251. - -[906] Berthelot (1885), p. 164. - -[907] _Ibid._, pp. 179-80. - -[908] _Ibid._, p. 60. - -[909] Berthelot (1888), II, 115-6; III, 125. - -[910] Berthelot (1885), pp. 211-2. - -[911] Berthelot (1889), p. vi. - -[912] _De institutione principis epistola ad Traianum_, a treatise -extant only in Latin form. - -[913] IV, 72. On the biography and bibliography of Plutarch consult -Christ, _Gesch. d. Griechischen Litteratur_, 5th ed., Munich, 1913, II, -2, “Die nachklassische Periode,” pp. 367ff. - -[914] See also the essay, “Whether an old man should engage in -politics,” cap. 16. - -[915] See R. Schmertosch, in _Philol.-Hist. Beitr. z. Ehren -Wachsmuths_, 1897, pp. 28ff. - -[916] Language and literary form are surer guides and have been applied -by B. Weissenberger, _Die Sprache Plutarchs von Chäronea und die -pseudoplutarchischen Schriften_, II Progr. Straubing, 1896, pp. 15ff. -In 1876 W. W. Goodwin, editing a revised edition of the seventeenth -century English translation of the _Morals_, declared that no critical -translation was possible until a thorough revision of the text had been -undertaken 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. - -[917] The English translation of Plutarch’s _Morals_ “by several -hands,” first published in 1684-1694, sixth edition corrected and -revised by W. W. Goodwin, 5 vols., 1870-1878, IV, 10, renders a passage -in the seventh chapter of _De defectu oraculorum_, in which complaint -is made of the “base and villainous questions” which are now put to -the oracle of Apollo, as follows: “some coming to him as a mere paltry -astrologer to try his skill and impose upon him with subtle questions.” -But the corresponding clause in the Greek text is merely οἱ μὲν ὡς -σοφιστοῦ διάπειραν λαμβάνοντες, and there seems to be no reason for -taking the word “sophist” in any other than its usual meaning. The -passage therefore cannot be interpreted as an attack upon even vulgar -astrologers. - -[918] _De defectu oraculorum_, 13. - -[919] Cap. 12. - -[920] Cap. 7. - -[921] Cap. 8. - -[922] Cap. 9. - -[923] Cap. 10. - -[924] _De genio Socratis_, 21-22. - -[925] _Ibid._, 24. - -[926] _De defectu oraculorum_, 40. - -[927] _De genio Socratis_, 12. - -[928] _Sympos._, VIII. 10. - -[929] _De defectu oraculorum_, 44. - -[930] _Ibid._, 48. - -[931] _Ibid._, 13. - -[932] _Ibid._, 10. - -[933] _Ibid._, 13. - -[934] _De genio Socratis_, 22. - -[935] Cap. 26. - -[936] Cap. 29. - -[937] Cap. 30. - -[938] Cap. 24. - -[939] Cap. 22. - -[940] _De defectu oraculorum_, 10. - -[941] _Ibid._, 18. - -[942] _Ibid._, 13-14. - -[943] _De defectu oraculorum_, 21. - -[944] _De genio Socratis_, 11. - -[945] _Ibid._, 20. - -[946] _Romulus_, cap. 12. - -[947] Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἴσως καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῷ ξένῳ καὶ περιτ τῷ -προσάξεται μᾶλλον ἢ διὰ τὰ μυθῶδες ἐνοχλήσει τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας αὐτοῖς. - -[948] Cap. 2. - -[949] Cap. 22. - -[950] Cap. 3. - -[951] Caps. 5-8. - -[952] Cap. 9. - -[953] _De facie in orbe lunae_, 28. - -[954] VIII, 9. - -[955] _De defectu oraculorum_, 31-32. The resemblance of the stranger’s -tale to the vision of Er in Plato’s _Republic_ is also evident. - -[956] _Ibid._, 34. - -[957] _Ibid._, 37. - -[958] _Ibid._, 36; and see 11-12. - -[959] Caps. 8-16. - -[960] Cap. 17. - -[961] Cap. 31. - -[962] Cap. 33. - -[963] _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 elegantly explained by V. W. Elkman, ‘On Dead -Water,’ in the Reports of Nansen’s North Polar Expedition, Christiania, -1904.” - -[964] See above p. 77 for the somewhat different statement of Pliny -(NH, XXIII, 64). - -[965] _Symposiacs_, V, 10. - -[966] _De sera numinis vindicta_, 14. - -[967] _De defectu oraculorum_, 43. - -[968] X, 1 (Casaub., 446); for this and some other source citations -and a brief bibliography of modern discussions on the subject see the -article, “Amiantus” (3) in Pauly-Wissowa. - -[969] Article on “Asbestos” in the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th -edition, which further states that Charlemagne was said to own a -tablecloth which was cleaned by throwing it into the fire, and -that in 1676 a merchant from China exhibited to the Royal Society -a handkerchief of “salamander’s wool” or _linum asbesti_ (asbestos -linen). See also Marco Polo, I, 42, and Cordier’s note in Yule (1903), -I, 216. - -[970] XIX, 4. In Bostock and Riley’s English translation, note 44 -states that “the wicks of the inextinguishable lamps of the middle -ages, the existence of which was an article of general belief, were -said to be made of asbestus.” On its use in lamp-wicks see also -Pausanias, I, 26, 7. - -[971] “In the year 1702 there was found near the Naevian Gate at Rome -a funeral urn, in which there was a skull, calcined bones, and other -ashes, enclosed in a cloth of asbestus of a marvelous length. It is -still preserved in the Vatican,” (Bostock and Riley, note 45). - -[972] “On the contrary, it is found in the Higher Alps in the vicinity -of glaciers, in Scotland, and in Siberia even” (Bostock and Riley, -note 46). The article on “Amiantus (3)” in Pauly-Wissowa incorrectly -assumes that in XIX, 4, Pliny has it in mind. In XXXVI, 31, however, -Pliny briefly describes the stone amianthus, which Bostock and Riley -(note 52) call “the most delicate variety of asbestus,” as “losing -nothing in fire” and “resisting all potions (or, spells) even of the -_magi_,”—“Amiantus alumini similis nihil igni deperdit. Hic veneficis -resistit omnibus privatim magorum.” In XXXVII, 54, in an alphabetical -list of stones, he briefly states that asbestos is iron-colored and -found in the mountains of Arcadia,—“Asbestos in Arcadiae montibus -nascitur coloris ferrei.” - -[973] Ed. by R. Hercher, Lipsiae, 1851; and by C. Müller in _Geograph. -Graeci Minores_, II, 637ff. - -[974] In Christ’s _Gesch. d. Griech. Litt._, not only is the _On Rivers -and Mountains_ itself called a “Schwindelbuch,” but these citations are -rejected as fraudulent. - -[975] Cap. 5. - -[976] Cap. 18. - -[977] Cap. 21. - -[978] Cap. 6. - -[979] Cap. 1. - -[980] Cap. 7. - -[981] Caps. 9, 10, 12. - -[982] Caps. 16, 18, 24. - -[983] Cap. 17. - -[984] V, 7. - -[985] _Bruta animalia ratione uti_, cap. 9; also _Quaest. Nat._, cap. -26, “Why certain brutes seek certain remedies.” - -[986] _De solertia animalium._ - -[987] _Ibid._, 36-37; also the closing chapters of _The Banquet of the -Seven Sages_. - -[988] Cap. 31. - -[989] Cap. 25. - -[990] Cap. 12. - -[991] Cap. 10. - -[992] Cap. 29. - -[993] _Isis and Osiris_, 10. - -[994] VIII, 9, ἴδια δὲ σπέρματα νόσων οὐκ ἔστιν. - -[995] _Nat. Quaest._, caps. 6, 14, 22, 24, 36. - -[996] _Symposiacs_, II, 9; IV, 2; III, 10; IV, 5. - -[997] _De facie in orbe lunae_, 9-10; also the opening chapters of _De -defectu oraculorum_. - -[998] Cap. 7. - -[999] Cap. 18. - -[1000] “Tam graece quam latine, gemino voto, pari studio, simili -studio.” - -[1001] _Florida_, cap. 9. - -[1002] _Apologia_, cap. 4. - -[1003] Caps. 73 and 55. - -[1004] Caps. 55-56. - -[1005] Cap. 17. - -[1006] _Apologia_, cap. 70. - -[1007] Cap. 89. - -[1008] To Professor Butler (_Apulei Apologia_, ed. H. E. Butler and A. -S. Owen, Oxford, 1914) this difficulty seems so insurmountable that he -places the _Apology_ earlier. But for the reasons already given I agree -with the article on Apuleius in Pauly and Wissowa and its citations -that the _Metamorphoses_ is Apuleius’s first work. - -[1009] The work opens with the statement that the author “will stitch -together varied stories in the so-called Milesian manner,” and that “we -begin with a Grecian story.” - -[1010] I, 3. - -[1011] II, 1. - -[1012] I, 8. - -[1013] II, 5. - -[1014] III, 15. The wording of the translated passages throughout this -chapter is mainly my own, but I have made some use of existing English -translations. - -[1015] III, 16. - -[1016] I, 8. - -[1017] I, 9-10. - -[1018] I, 11-13. - -[1019] II, 22 and 25. - -[1020] II, 20 and 30; IX, 29. - -[1021] I, 11; II, 11. - -[1022] II, 20, 22; III, 18. - -[1023] Very similar practices are recounted by A. W. Howitt, _Native -Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 355-96; “the medicine-men of -hostile tribes sneak into the camp in the night, and with a net of a -peculiar construction garotte one of the tribe, drag him a hundred -yards or so from the camp, cut up his abdomen obliquely, take out the -kidney and caul-fat, and then stuff a handful of grass and sand into -the wound.” - -[1024] VI, 26. - -[1025] II, 22. - -[1026] I, 10; VII, 14; IX, 23, 29. - -[1027] II, 28. - -[1028] II, 6; III, 19. - -[1029] III, 29. - -[1030] III, 17. - -[1031] III, 21. - -[1032] I, 10; II, 20-21. - -[1033] III, 16. - -[1034] II, 23-30. - -[1035] I, 13. - -[1036] II, 5. “Surculis et lapillis et id genus frivolis inhalatis.” - -[1037] III, 18. - -[1038] III, 21. - -[1039] III, 23. - -[1040] III, 25. - -[1041] II, 28. - -[1042] Examples are: I, 3, magico susurramine; II, 1, artis magicae -nativa cantamina; II, 5, omnis carminis sepulchralis magistra creditur; -II, 22, diris cantaminibus somno custodes obruunt; III, 18, tunc -decantatis spirantibus fibris; III, 21, multumque cum lucerna secreta -collocuta. - -[1043] I, 11, quo numinis ministerio. - -[1044] I, 8, saga, inquit, et divina; IX, 29, saga illa et divini -potens. - -[1045] III, 19. - -[1046] II, 12-14. - -[1047] VIII, 26-27; IX, 8. - -[1048] I, 4. - -[1049] X, 11, 25. - -[1050] VIII, 24; XI, 22, 25. - -[1051] I, 5. - -[1052] II, 26. - -[1053] IX, 33-34. - -[1054] II, 11-12. - -[1055] X, 11. For bibliography on the mandragora see Frazer (1918) I, -377 note 2 in his chapter “Jacob and the Mandrakes.” - -[1056] VIII, 21. - -[1057] XI, 1. - -[1058] Macdonald (1909), p. 128. - -[1059] VIII, 9. - -[1060] Cap. 1. - -[1061] _Florida_, caps. 24-26. - -[1062] Caps. 61-63. The following passages from E. A. W. Budge, -_Egyptian Magic_ (1899), perhaps furnish an explanation of the true -purpose and character of Apuleius’s wooden figure: p. 84, “Under -the heading of ‘Magical Figures’ must certainly be included the -so-called Ptah-Seker-Ausar figure, which is usually made of wood; -it is often solid, but is sometimes made hollow, and is usually let -into a rectangular wooden stand which may be either solid or hollow.” -To get the protection of Ptah, Seker, and Osiris, says Budge at p. -85, “a figure was fashioned in such a way as to include the chief -characteristics of the forms of these gods, and was inserted in a -rectangular wooden stand which was intended to represent the coffin -or chest out of which the trinity Ptah-Seker-Ausar came forth. On the -figure itself and on the sides of the stand were inscribed prayers....” -Such a figure in a coffin might well be described by the accusers as -the horrible form of a ghost or skeleton. - -[1063] Cap. 31. - -[1064] Cap. 42. - -[1065] Cap. 43. - -[1066] Caps. 1-3. - -[1067] Cap. 2. - -[1068] Caps. 27 and 31. For the same thought applied in the case -of medieval men see Gabriel Naudé, _Apologie pour tous les grands -personages qui out esté faussement soupçonnez de Magie_, Paris, 1625. - -[1069] Cap. 25. - -[1070] Cap. 47. - -[1071] Cap. 25. - -[1072] Caps. 9, 42, 61, 63. - -[1073] Cap. 28. - -[1074] Cap. 48. - -[1075] Cap. 25. - -[1076] Cap. 26. - -[1077] Cap. 31. - -[1078] Cap. 6. - -[1079] Cap. 13. - -[1080] Caps. 30, 33. - -[1081] Cap. 61. - -[1082] Cap. 53. - -[1083] Cap. 58. - -[1084] Cap. 41. - -[1085] Nicander lived in the second century B.C. under Attalus III -of Pergamum. Of his works there are extant the _Theriaca_ in 958 -hexameters and another poem, the _Alexipharmaca_, of 630 lines; ed. -J. G. Schneider, 1792 and 1816; by O. Schneider, 1856. There is an -illuminated eleventh century manuscript of the _Theriaca_ in the -Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, which O. M. Dalton (_Byzantine Art and -Archaeology_, p. 483) says “is evidently a painstaking copy of a very -early original, perhaps almost contemporary with Nicander himself.” - -[1086] Cap. 40. - -[1087] Caps. 49-51. - -[1088] Caps. 15-16. - -[1089] Cap. 40. - -[1090] Cap. 36. - -[1091] Cap. 8. - -[1092] Cap. 85. - -[1093] Cap. 38. - -[1094] Cap. 45. - -[1095] Cap. 51. - -[1096] Caps. 30, 42. - -[1097] Cap. 40. - -[1098] P. 98. - -[1099] Cap. 35. - -[1100] So Abt has pointed out: _Die Apologie des Apuleius von Madaura -und die antike Zauberei_, Giessen, 1908, p. 224. - -[1101] Caps. 42-43. - -[1102] Cap. 38. - -[1103] Cap. 90. - -[1104] Cap. 97. - -[1105] Cap. 84. - -[1106] _De mundo_, cap. 1; _De deo Socratis_, cap. 4. - -[1107] _De mens._, IV., 7, 73; _De ostent._, 3, 4, 7, 10, 44, 54. - -[1108] Cap. 43. - -[1109] Cap. 6. - -[1110] _De deo Socratis_, cap. 8. - -[1111] _Hist. Anim._, V, 19. - -[1112] _De deo Socratis_, cap. 13. - -[1113] _Ibid._, caps. 9-10. - -[1114] XVIII, 18. - -[1115] VIII, 14-22. - -[1116] Epistles 102, 136, 138, in Migne, PL, vol. 33. - -[1117] _Divin. Instit._, V, 3. - -[1118] Codex Laurentianus, plut. 68, 2. The same MS contains the -_Histories_ and _Annals_ (XI-XVI) of Tacitus. A subscription to -the ninth book of the _Metamorphoses_ indicates that the original -manuscript from which this was derived or copied was produced in 395 -A. D. and 397 A. D. G. Huet, “Le roman d’Apulée était-il connu au moyen -âge,” _Le Moyen Age_ (1917), 44-52, holds that the _Metamorphoses_ -was not known directly to the medieval vernacular romancers. See also -B. Stumfall, _Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche in Seinem Fortleben_, -Leipzig, 1907. - -[1119] CLM 621. - -[1120] Harleian 3969. - -[1121] VII, 5. - -[1122] Ep. 136. - -[1123] _Divin. Instit._, V, 2-3. - -[1124] Concerning other writers named Philostratus and which works -should be assigned to each, see Schmid (1913) 608-20. - -[1125] See article on Apollonius of Tyana in Pauly-Wissowa. Priaulx, -_The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana_, London, 1873, p. 62, found -the geography of Apollonius’s Indian travels so erroneous that he came -to the conclusion that either Apollonius never visited India, or, if -he did, that Damis “never accompanied him but fabricated the journal -Philostratus speaks of.” - -[1126] Priaulx, however, regarded its statements concerning India -as such as might have been “easily collected at that great mart for -Indian commodities and resort for Indian merchants—Alexandria,” or from -earlier authors. - -[1127] III, 23, 35; IV, 9, 32; V, 20; VI, 12, 16; VII, 10, 12, 15-16. - -[1128] 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 wonderful as -those of Christ. - -[1129] So Origen says (_Against Celsus_, VI, 41) and Philostratus -implies (I, 3). - -[1130] See the _Against Apollonius_, caps. 31, 35. - -[1131] Ἀλέξανδρος, ἢ ψευδόμαντις, cap. 5. In the passage quoted I have -used Fowler’s translation. - -[1132] In other respects, however, I have usually found this -translation, which accompanies the Greek text in the recent Loeb -Classical Library edition, both racy and accurate, and have employed it -in a number of the quotations which follow. - -[1133] I, 32. - -[1134] I, 29. - -[1135] I, 26. - -[1136] I, 40. - -[1137] V, 12. - -[1138] VII, 39. - -[1139] V, 12. - -[1140] IV, 18. - -[1141] VIII, 19. - -[1142] VIII, 30. - -[1143] VIII, 7. - -[1144] VII, 20. - -[1145] VII, 34. - -[1146] VII, 39. - -[1147] VI, 11; III, 43. - -[1148] VI, 41. - -[1149] I, 2. - -[1150] V, 12. - -[1151] VI, 11. - -[1152] J. E. Harrison, _Themis_, Cambridge, 1912, p. 72. “The Buddha -himself condemned as worthless the whole system of Vedic sacrifices, -including in his ban astrology, divination, spells, omens, and -witchcraft; but in the earliest Buddhist stupas known to us, the -symbolism is entirely borrowed from the sacrificial lore of the Vedas:” -E. B. Havell, _A Handbook of Indian Art_, 1920, p. 6, and see p. 32 for -the birth of Buddha under the sign Taurus. - -[1153] VI, 10. - -[1154] III, 12. - -[1155] III, 16. - -[1156] III, 13. - -[1157] III, 12. But perhaps the translation should be, “men who are -exceedingly wise.” - -[1158] III, 15. - -[1159] III, 46-47. - -[1160] III, 17. - -[1161] III, 27. - -[1162] III, 38-40. - -[1163] III, 44. - -[1164] III, 41. - -[1165] III, 21. - -[1166] III, 41. - -[1167] V, 37. - -[1168] V, 37. - -[1169] III, 34. - -[1170] III, 37. - -[1171] VI, 38. - -[1172] III, 34. - -[1173] V, 17. - -[1174] I, 22. - -[1175] NH, VIII, 17; _Hist. Anim._, VI, 31. - -[1176] VI, 37. - -[1177] The ancient authorities, pro and con, will be found listed in -D. W. Thompson, _Glossary of Greek Birds_, 106-107. He adds: “Modern -naturalists accept the story of the singing swans, asserting that -though the common swan cannot sing, yet the Whooper or whistling swan -does so. It is certain that the Whooper sings, for many ornithologists -state the fact, but I do not think that it can sing very well; at -the very best, _dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cygni_. This -concrete explanation is quite inadequate; it is beyond a doubt that the -swan’s song (like the halcyon’s) veiled, and still hides, some mystical -allusion.” - -[1178] II, 14. - -[1179] I, 22. Pliny, NH, VIII, 17, repeats a slightly different popular -notion that the lioness tears her womb with her claws and so can bear -but once; against this view he cites Aristotle’s statement that the -lioness bears five times, as described above. - -[1180] III, 2. - -[1181] III, 47; VI, 25. Scylax was a Persian admiral under Darius who -traveled to India and wrote an account of his voyages. The work extant -under his name is of doubtful authorship (Isaac Vossius, _Periplus -Scylacis Caryandensis_, 1639), but some date it as early as the fourth -century B.C. - -[1182] II, 11-16. - -[1183] II, 2; III, 4. - -[1184] II, 28. - -[1185] III, 1. Greek fire? - -[1186] III, 48-9. - -[1187] III, 6; II, 17. - -[1188] III, 7. - -[1189] NH, VIII, 11. - -[1190] III, 8. - -[1191] III, 9. - -[1192] III, 7. - -[1193] III, 8. - -[1194] II, 14. - -[1195] II, 40. - -[1196] III, 27. - -[1197] III, 21. - -[1198] III, 1. - -[1199] VIII, 7. - -[1200] III, 30. - -[1201] III, 42. - -[1202] VIII, 7. - -[1203] IV, 44. - -[1204] VIII, 7. - -[1205] VIII, 7. - -[1206] VIII, 26; VI, 43. The historian, Dio Cassius, a contemporary of -Philostratus, also states that Apollonius announced the assassination -of Domitian and even named the assassin in Ephesus on the very day -that the event occurred at Rome. His account differs too much from -that by Philostratus to have been copied from it. He concludes it with -the positive assertion, “This is really what took place, though there -should be ten thousand doubters.” (LXVII, 18.) - -[1207] III, 42. - -[1208] VI, 11. - -[1209] I, 23. - -[1210] IV, 34. - -[1211] VIII, 7. - -[1212] IV, 37. - -[1213] I, 22. - -[1214] V, 13. - -[1215] VIII, 7. - -[1216] I, 20. - -[1217] I, 31. - -[1218] V, 25. - -[1219] IV, 4. - -[1220] IV, 24. - -[1221] IV, 43. - -[1222] V, 18. - -[1223] VII, 18. - -[1224] IV, 10. - -[1225] VIII, 7. - -[1226] IV, 44. - -[1227] II, 4. - -[1228] VI, 27. - -[1229] IV, 20. - -[1230] IV, 25. - -[1231] I, 4. - -[1232] I, 19. - -[1233] Epist. 50. - -[1234] VII, 32. - -[1235] VI, 27. - -[1236] IV, 11, 15-16. - -[1237] VI, 43. - -[1238] IV, 45. - -[1239] IV, 44. - -[1240] VIII, 8. - -[1241] VII, 38. - -[1242] VIII, 30. - -[1243] The passages are not listed in Liddell and Scott, nor mentioned -by Professor Bury in his note on “The ἴυγξ in Greek Magic,” _Journal of -Hellenic Studies_ (1886), pp. 157-60. Hubert’s article on “Magia” in -Daremberg-Saglio cites only one passage and seems to regard the _iunx_ -solely as a magic wheel. D’Arcy W. Thompson, _A Glossary of Greek -Birds_, Oxford, 1895, also cites but one passage from Philostratus. A. -B. Cook, _Zeus_, Cambridge, 1914, I, 253-65, notes both main passages -but tries to interpret the _iunges_ as solar wheels rather than birds. -But the _iunx_ is found as a bird on several Greek vases of the latest -period; see _British Museum Catalogue of Vases_, vol. IV, figs. 94, 98, -342, 163, 331b; magic wheels are also represented on the vases, but are -not described as _iunges_ in the catalogue; see vol. IV, figs. 331a, -373, 385, 399, 409, 436, 450, 458, and vol. III, E 774, F 223, F 279. - -[1244] VI, 10; see also VIII, 7. - -[1245] I, 25. - -[1246] VI, 11. - -[1247] Cited by Cook, _Zeus_, I, 266, who, however, fails to connect it -with the _iunx_. - -[1248] Newton’s _Dictionary of Birds_; a reference supplied me by the -kindness of my colleague, Professor F. H. Herrick. - -[1249] Professor Bury’s theory that “the bird was called ἴυγξ from its -call which sounded like ἰώ ἰώ; and it was used in lunar enchantments -because it was supposed to be calling on Io, the moon”: and that “ἴυγξ -originally meant a moon-song independently of the wryneck,” which came -to be employed in magic moon-worship on account of its cry, has already -been refuted by Professor Thompson, who pointed out that “the bird does -not cry ἰώ,, ἰώ, and the suggested derivation of its name and sanctity -from such a cry cannot hold.” - -[1250] See Chapter 49 for a fuller account of it. - -[1251] See Chapter 71. - -[1252] Math. 54, Liber Appollonii magi vel philosophi qui dicitur -Elizinus. - -[1253] BN 13951, 12th century, Liber Apollonii de principalibus -rerum causis. Vienna 3124, 15th century, fols. 57v-58v, “Verba de -proprietatibus rerum quomodo virtus unius frangitur per alium. Adamas -nec ferro nec igne domatur .../ ... cito medetur.” - -[1254] Royal 12-C-XVIII, Baleni de imaginibus; Sloane 3826, fols. -100v-101, Beleemus de imaginibus; Sloane 3848, fols. 52-8, Liber -Balamini sapientis de sigillis planetarum, fols. 59-62, liber sapientis -Baleym de ymaginibus septem planetarum. But these forms might suggest -Balaam. We also hear of Flacius Affricus, a disciple of Belenus. - -[1255] M. Steinschneider, “Apollonius von Thyana (oder Balinas) bei den -Arabern,” in _Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft_, -XLV (1891), 439-46. - -[1256] T. Schiche, _De fontibus librorum Ciceronis qui sunt de -divinatione_, Jena, 1875; K. Hartfelder, _Die Quellen von Ciceros zwei -Büchern de Divinatione_, Freiburg, 1878. - -[1257] Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticae_, XIV, I. - -[1258] _Adv. astrol._, in _Opera_, ed. Johannes Albertus Fabricius, -Leipzig, 1718. - -[1259] _De divinatione_, I, 39. - -[1260] _Ibid._, I, 58. - -[1261] _Ibid._, II, 11. - -[1262] _Ibid._, II, 33. - -[1263] _Ibid._, II, 36. - -[1264] I, 50. - -[1265] II, 3-4. - -[1266] II, 5. “Quae enim praesentiri aut arte aut ratione aut usu aut -coniectura possunt, ea non divinis tribuenda putas sed peritis.” - -[1267] II, 30. - -[1268] II, 12. An astrologer, however, would probably say that seeming -contradiction could be accounted for by the varying influence of the -constellations upon different regions. - -[1269] II, 12. - -[1270] II, 19. “Quid igitur minus a physicis dici debet quam quidquam -certi significari rebus incertis?” - -[1271] II, 60-71. - -[1272] II, 54. - -[1273] II, 16. - -[1274] II, 42-47. - -[1275] NH, VII, 21. - -[1276] _Republic_, II, 10. - -[1277] _Ibid._, II, 15. - -[1278] _Ibid._, II, 18. - -[1279] _Apologia pro mercede conductis._ Most of Lucian’s Essays have -been translated into English by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, 1905, 4 -vols. - -[1280] _De defectu oraculorum_, 45. - -[1281] Fowler’s translation. - -[1282] Fowler omits it. It appears in the Teubner edition, _Luciani -Samosatensis opera_, ed. C. Jacobitz, II (1887), 187-95, but both -Jacobitz and Dindorf mark it as spurious. Croiset, _Essai sur la vie et -les œuvres de Lucien_, Paris, 1882, p. 43, also rejects it. - -[1283] See the interesting paper of J. D. Rolleston, “Lucian and -Medicine,” 1915, 23 pp., reprinted from _Proceedings of the Royal -Society of Medicine_, VIII, 49-58, 72-84. - -[1284] See the close of _Nigrinus_. - -[1285] _Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt_, XXI, i, 14. - -[1286] The wording of these excerpts is that of Fowler’s translation. - -[1287] See Sackur, _Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen_, Halle, 1898; -Alexandre, _Oracula Sibyllina_, 2nd ed., Paris, 1869; Charles (1913) -II, 368 ff. - -[1288] Besides the works to be cited later in this chapter, the reader -may consult: A. Dieterich, _Abraxas_ (_Studien z. relig. gesch. d. -spät. alt._), Leipzig, 1891, especially chapter II (pp. 136ff.), -“Jüdisch-orphisch-gnostiche Kulte und die Zauberbücher”; and G. A. -Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, 1829, 2 vols. - -[1289] Steinschneider (1906), 24. He mentions the dissertation of R. -Pietschmann, _Hermes Trismegistus_, Leipzig, 1875. - -[1290] See Galen, citing Pamphilus, Kühn, XI, 798. - -[1291] XXI, 14, 15. - -[1292] VI, 4. - -[1293] I, 1; VIII, 1-4. - -[1294] VIII, 1. - -[1295] VIII, 2. - -[1296] VIII, 4. - -[1297] I, 1. - -[1298] R. Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, Leipzig, 1904, p. 319. This work -is the fullest scientific treatment of the subject. - -[1299] Citations supporting this and the preceding sentences may be -found in Kroll’s article on Hermes Trismegistus in Pauly-Wissowa, -809-820. The _Poimandres_ was translated into English by John Everard, -D.D., a mystic but also a popular preacher whose outspoken sermons -caused his frequent 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? His name shall be Dr. Never-out,” (_Dict. 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_, published at London. Kroll mentions only the more recent -translation by Mead, _Thrice Greatest Hermes_. London, 1906. - -[1300] Consult the bibliography in Kroll’s article in Pauly-Wissowa. - -[1301] See the various volumes of _Catalogus codicum astrologorum -Graecorum_, _passim_. - -[1302] Unprinted. - -[1303] An English translation by John Harvey was printed in London, -1657, 12mo. It also exists in manuscript form in the British Museum; -Sloane 1734, fols. 283-98, “The learned work of Hermes Trismegistus -intituled hys Phisicke Mathematycke or Mathematicall Physickes, direct -to Hammon Kinge of Egypte.” - -[1304] _Orphica_, ed. Abel (1885), p. 141. - -[1305] It was to a work on this last subject that Pamphilus, cited by -Galen, referred in mentioning the herb ἀετοῦ, but this plant is not -named in the extant treatise on the decans. Such treatises are more or -less addressed to Asclepius: printed in J. B. Pitra, _Analecta Sacra_, -V, ii, 279-90; _Cat. cod. astrol. Graec._, IV, 134; VI, 83; VII, 231; -VIII, ii, 159; VIII, iii, 151; and by Ruelle, _Rev. Phil._, XXXII, 247. - -[1306] Berthelot (1885), pp. 133-6, and his article on Hermes -Trismegistus in _La Grande Encyclopédie_; also Kroll on Hermes in -Pauly-Wissowa, 799. - -[1307] Berthelot (1885), p. 134. - -[1308] Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, 1899, pp. xi, 519-20, -563-4. - -[1309] NH, II, 21; VII, 50. - -[1310] Kühn, XII, 207. - -[1311] They have been collected and edited by E. Riess, _Nechepsonis et -Petosiridis fragmenta magica_, in _Philologus_, Supplbd. VI, Göttingen -(1891-93), pp. 323-394. See also F. Boll, _Die Erforschung der antiken -Astrologie_, in _Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altert._, XI (1908), -p. 106, and his dissertation of the same title published at Bonn, -1890. I have found that Riess, while including some of the passages -attributed to Nechepso by the sixth century medical writer, Aetius, -seems to have overlooked the “Emplastrum Nechepsonis e cupresso,” -Aetius, _Tetrabibl._, IV, Sermo III, cap. 19 (p. 771 in the edition of -Stephanus, 1567). - -[1312] Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, 1898, p. xiii. Axt and -Riegler, _Manethonis Apotelesmaticorum libri sex_, Cologne, 1832. Also -edited by Koechly. - -[1313] E. Riess, On Ancient Superstition, in _Transactions American -Philological Association_ (1895), XXVI, 40-55. Grenfell (1921), p. 151, -announces that J. G. Smyly is about to publish “a remarkable fragment -of an Orphic ritual” among some thirty papyrus texts in the _Cunningham -Memoirs of the Royal Irish Academy_. - -[1314] The Greek text of the Lithica is contained in _Orphica_, ed. -E. Abel, Lipsiae et Pragae, 1885. A rather too free English verse -translation, _Orpheus on Gems_, is given in C. W. King, _The Natural -History, Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones and Gems and of -Precious Metals_, London, 1865. - -[1315] Pp. 397-98. - -[1316] Line 94, περίφρονι Θειοδάμαντι; line 165, δαιμόνιος φώς. - -[1317] Lines 410-411. - -[1318] _Confessio S. Cypriani_, in _Acta Sanctorum_, ed. Bollandists, -Sept., VII, 222; L. Preller, _Philologus_ (1846), I, 349ff.; cited by -A. B. Cook, _Zeus_, Cambridge, 1914, I, 110-111. The work is treated -more fully below in Chapter 18. - -[1319] Franz Cumont, _op. cit._, Chicago, 1911, p. 189. See also -Windischmann, _Zoroastrische Studien_, Berlin, 1863. - -[1320] See below, Chapter 26. - -[1321] Cap. 16. - -[1322] Edited by Kroll, _De oraculis Chaldaicis_, in _Breslau Philolog. -Abhandl._, VII (1894), 1-76. Cory, _Ancient Fragments_, London, 1832. - -[1323] L. A. Gray in A. V. W. Jackson, _Zoroaster_, 1901, pp. 259-60. - -[1324] G. Wolff, _Porphyrii de philosophia ex oraculis hauriendis_, -Berlin, 1886. Pitra, _Analecta Sacra_, V, 2, pp. 192-95, Πρόκλου ἐκ -τῆς Χαλδαικῆς φιλοσοφίας. Many quotations of oracles from Porphyry’s -_De philosophia ex oraculis hausta_ are made by Eusebius, _Praeparatio -evangelica_, in PG, XXI. - -[1325] Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, p. 599. - -[1326] Paul Allard, _La transformation du Paganisme romain au IVe -siècle_, pp. 113-33, in _Compte Rendu du Congrès Scientifique -International des Catholiques. Deuxième Section, Sciences religieuses_. -Paris, 1891. - -[1327] _Plotini opera omnia, Porphyrii liber de vita Plotini, cum -Marsilii Ficini commentariis_ ... ed D. Wyttenbach, G. H. Moser, and -F. Creuzer, Oxford, 1835, 3 vols. Page references in my citations are -to this edition, but I have also employed: _Plotini Enneades_, ed. R. -Volkmann, Leipzig, 1883; _Select Works of Plotinus translated from -the Greek with an Introduction containing the substance of Porphyry’s -Life of Plotinus_, by Thomas Taylor, new edition with preface and -bibliography by G. R. S. Mead, London, 1909; K. S. Guthrie, _The -Philosophy of Plotinus_, Philadelphia, 1896, and _Plotinos, Complete -Works_, 4 vols., 1918, English Translation. Where my citations give the -number of the chapter in addition to the _Ennead_ and Book, these agree -with Volkmann’s text and Guthrie’s translation,—which, however, are not -quite identical in this respect. A noteworthy recent publication is W. -R. Inge, _The Philosophy of Plotinus_, 1918, 2 vols. - -[1328] H. F. Müller, _Plotinische Studien II_, in _Hermes_, XLIX, -70-89, argues that the philosophy of Plotinus was genuinely Hellenic -and free from oriental influence, that all theurgy was hateful to -him, and that he opposed Gnosticism and astrology. Müller seems to me -to overstate his case and to be too ready to exculpate Plotinus, or -perhaps rather Hellenism, from concurrence in the superstition of the -time. - -[1329] For Gnosticism see Chapter 15. - -[1330] _Ennead_, II, 9, 14. Πλωτίνου πρὸς τοὺς Γνωστικούς, ed. G. -A. Heigl, 1832; and _Plotini De Virtutibus et Adversus Gnosticos -libellos_, ed. A. Kirchhoff, 1847; are simply extracts from the -_Enneads_. See also C. Schmidt, _Plotin’s Stellung zum Gnosticismus u. -kirchl. Christentum_, 1900; in TU, X, 90 pp. - -[1331] _Ennead_, IV, 4, 40 (II, 805 or 434). Τὰς δὲ γοητείας πῶς; ἢ -τῇ συμπαθείᾳ, καὶ τῷ πεφυκέναι συμφωνίαν εἶναι ὁμοίων καὶ ἐναντίωσιν -ἀνομοίων, καί τῇ τῶν δυνάμεων τῶν πολλῶν ποικιλίᾳ εἰς ἓν ζῷον -συντελούντων. _Ibid._ 42 (II, 808 or 436) ... καὶ τέχναις καὶ ἰατρῶν -καὶ ἐπαοιδῶν ἄλλο ἄλλῳ ἠναγκάσθη παρασχεῖν τι τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς αὐτοῦ. -_Ennead_, IV, 9 (II, 891 or 479). Greek: εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπωδαὶ καὶ ὅλως -μαγεῖαι συνάγουσι καὶ συμπαθεῖς πόῤῥωθεν ποιοῦσι, πάντως τοι διὰ ψυχῆς -μιᾶς. - -[1332] _Ennead_, IV, 4 (II, 810 or 437). - -[1333] _Ennead_, IV, 4, 43-44. - -[1334] _Ennead_, IV, 4, 44. - -[1335] See Chapter XII, pp. 323-4. - -[1336] _Vita Plotini_, cap. 10. - -[1337] _Vita_, cap. 10. - -[1338] Cap. 10. - -[1339] A748. - -[1340] Shown in the article on “Jewelry” in the eleventh edition of -the _Encyclopedia Britannica_, Plate I, Figure 50. The article says -of the pendant, “Here we find the themes of archaic Greek art, such -as a figure holding up two water-birds, in immediate connexion with -Mycenaean gold patterns.” See further A. J. Evans in _Journal of -Hellenic Studies_, 1893, p. 197. - -[1341] J. E. Harrison, _Themis_, Cambridge, 1912. p. 114, Fig. 20. - -[1342] _Vita_, cap. 15. It will be noted that like some of the church -fathers Plotinus attacked genethlialogy rather than astrology. -Προσεῖχε δὲ τοῖς μὲν περὶ τῶν ἀστέρων κανόσιν οὐ πάνυ τι μαθηματικῶς, -τοῖς δὲ τῶν γενεθλιαλόγων ἀποτελεστικοῖς ἀκριβέστερον. καὶ φωράσας -τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τὸ ἀνεχέγγυον ἐλέγχειν πολλαχοῦ καὶ (τῶν) ἐν τοῖς -συγγράμμασιν οὐκ ὤκνησε. - -[1343] _Ennead_ II, 3, Περὶ τοῦ εἰ ποιεῖ τὰ ἄστρα. Porphyry arranged -his master’s treatises in the form of six enneads of nine each and -perhaps somewhat revised them at the same time. - -[1344] _Matheseos libri VIII_, ed. Kroll et Skutsch, Lipsiae, 1897. I, -7, 14-22. - -[1345] See below, pp. 353-4. - -[1346] _Ennead_ II, 3 (p. 242), Ὅτι ἡ τῶν ἄστρων φορὰ σημαίνει -περὶ ἕκαστον τὰ ἐσόμενα ἀλλ’ οὐκ αὐτὴ πάντα ποιεῖ, ὡς τοῖς πολλοῖς -δοξάζεται, εἴρηται μὲν πρότερον ἐν ἅλλοις. See also _Ennead_ III, 1, -and IV, 3-4. - -[1347] I, 18. - -[1348] Cap. 19. - -[1349] _Polycraticus_, II, 19, (ed. C. C. I. Webb, 1909, I, 112). Mr. -Webb (I, xxviii) holds that John of Salisbury “certainly did not have -Plotinus,” and derived some passages from his works through Macrobius -and Augustine; but he is unable to state in what intermediate source -John could have found the passage now in question. It does not seem to -reflect Plotinus’ doctrine very accurately. - -[1350] _Ennead_ IV, iv, 6 and 8. - -[1351] _Ibid._, 30. Guthrie’s translation, “We have shown that memory -is useless to the stars: we have agreed that they have senses, namely, -sight and hearing,” is quite misleading, as caps. 40-42 make evident. - -[1352] _Ennead_ II, iii, 6 and 13 (249-50). - -[1353] _Ennead_ IV, iv, 31. ὅτι μὲν οὗν ἡ φορὰ ποιεῖ ... ἀναμφισβητήτως -μὲν τὰ ἐπίγεια οὐ μόνον τοῑς σώμασιν ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεσι -καὶ τῶν μερῶν ἕκαστον εἰς τὰ ἐπίγεια καὶ ὅλως τὰ κάτω ποιεῖ, πολλαχῇ -δῆλον. - -[1354] _Idem._ Guthrie heads the passage, “Absurdity of Ptolemean -Astrology.” See also _Ennead_, II, iii, 1-5. - -[1355] _Ennead_ II, iii, 6. - -[1356] _Ennead_ II, iii, 4. - -[1357] Guthrie’s translation, _Ennead_ IV, iv, 35. εἰ δὴ δρᾷ τι ὁ ἥλιος -καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἄστρα εἰς τὰ τῇδε, χρὴ νομίζειν αὐτὸν μὲν ἄνω βλέποντα -εἶναι. - -[1358] _Idem._ καὶ ἐν τοῖς παρ’ ἡμῖν εἰσι πολλαί, ἃς οὐ θερμὰ ἢ ψυχρὰ -παρέχεται, ἀλλὰ γενόμενα ποιότησι διαφόροις καὶ λόγοις εἰδοποιηθέντα -καὶ φύσεως δυνάμεως μεταλαβόντα, οἷον καὶ λίθων φύσεις καὶ βοτανῶν -ἐνέργειαι θαυμαστὰ πολλὰ παρέχονται. - -[1359] _Ennead_ IV, iv, 34. καὶ ποιήσεις καὶ σημασίας ἐν πολλοῖς -ἀλλαχοῦ δὲ σημασίας μόνον. - -[1360] _Ennead_ II, iii (p. 256). - -[1361] _Ibid._ (pp. 250-1). - -[1362] _Ibid._, II, iii (pp. 243-6, 254-5, 263-5). - -[1363] _Ennead_, II, ix, 13. τῆς τραγῳδίας τῶν φοβερῶν, ὡς οἴονται, ἐν -ταῖς τοῦ κόσμου σφαίραις. - -[1364] The references for the statements in this paragraph are in the -order of their occurrence: _Ennead_, II, iii (pp. 257, 251-2); III, iv -(p. 521); IV, iv (p. 813); II, iii (p. 260); III, iv (p. 520); IV, 3 -(p. 711): in these cases the higher page-numbering is used. - -[1365] Edited Venice, Aldine Press, 1497 and 1516; Oxford, 1678; by -G. Parthey, Berlin, 1857. In the following quotations from it I have -usually adhered to T. Taylor’s English translation, London, 1821. - -[1366] Carl Rasche, _De Iamblicho libri qui inscribitur de mysteriis -auctore_, Aschendorff, 1911, 82 pp. - -[1367] Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_ (1898), p. 599, citing -Kroll, _De oraculis Chaldaicis_. - -[1368] _De mysteriis_, I, 5. - -[1369] VIII, 2. - -[1370] I, 9. - -[1371] I, 17 (Taylor’s translation). - -[1372] IV, 6. - -[1373] I, 10. - -[1374] V, 10-12. - -[1375] I, 20. - -[1376] II, 6. - -[1377] II, 7. - -[1378] IV, 1. - -[1379] IV, 2. - -[1380] IV, 10. - -[1381] II, 11. - -[1382] II, 3. - -[1383] V, 20. - -[1384] I, 9; VI, 6; II, 11. - -[1385] I, 11. - -[1386] V, 23. - -[1387] IV, 2. - -[1388] I, 12. - -[1389] I, 15; III, 24 (Taylor’s translation). - -[1390] VII, 4. - -[1391] VII, 5. - -[1392] III, 29. - -[1393] II, 10. - -[1394] IV, 10. - -[1395] IV, 12. - -[1396] IV, 3. - -[1397] IV, 10; III, 31. - -[1398] IV, 7. - -[1399] II, 10. - -[1400] VI, 5; III, 25; III, 13. - -[1401] II, 10. - -[1402] E. S. Bouchier, _Syria as a Roman Province_, Oxford, 1916, p. -231. - -[1403] _De abstinentia_, II, 48. - -[1404] III, 1, 10. - -[1405] III, 2-3. - -[1406] III, 11. - -[1407] III, 24; III, 17. - -[1408] III, 14. - -[1409] III, 25. Although, as stated above, one may be divinely inspired -while diseased. But there is no causal connection between the two. - -[1410] III, 26. - -[1411] III, 15. - -[1412] I, 17. - -[1413] VIII, 4. - -[1414] VIII, 6. - -[1415] IX, 3-4. - -[1416] I, 18. - -[1417] Iamblichus, _In Nicomachi Geraseni arithmeticam introductionem -et De fato_, published by Tennulius, Deventer and Arnheim, 1668. - -[1418] Zeller, _Philos. d. Gr._, III, 2, 2, p. 608. cites passages -to show Porphyry’s leanings towards astrology; but F. Boll, _Studien -über Claudius Ptolemaeus_, 115-17, and Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie -grecque_, 601-602, are inclined to the opposite view. - -[1419] CCAG, _passim_. - -[1420] Ed. Hieronymus Wolf, Basel, 1559, Greek and Latin. - -[1421] III, 28. - -[1422] III, 29. - -[1423] Eusebius, _Praep. evang._, IV, 6-15, 23; V, 6, 11, 14-15; VI, 1, -4-5; etc., in Migne, PG, XXI. - -[1424] Loeb Library edition of Julian’s works, I, 398, 412, 433. - -[1425] I, 482, 498. - -[1426] I, 405. - -[1427] I, 374-75. - -[1428] I, 366-67. - -[1429] I, 368. - -[1430] I, 419. - -[1431] XXII, xii, 8. - -[1432] XXI, i, 7. - -[1433] XXVIII, iv, 24. - -[1434] XXII, xvi, 17-18. - -[1435] Published at Venice (Aldine), 1497, along with the _De -mysteriis_, and other works edited or composed by Marsilius Ficinus. -See also _Procli Opera_, ed. Cousin, Paris, 1820-1827, III, 278; and -Kroll, _Analecta Graeca_, Greisswald, 1901, where a Greek translation -accompanies the Latin text. - -[1436] _Eusebii Caesariensis Opera_, _Pars II_, _Apologetica_, _Praep. -Evang._, IV, 22; V, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14; VI, 1, 4; XIV, 10 (Migne, -_Patrologia Graeca_, vol. 21). - -[1437] X, 9-10. - -[1438] Berthelot (1889), p. ix. - -[1439] Περι ζώων ἰδιότητος. I have used both the _editio princeps_ by -Gesner, Zurich, 1556, and the critical edition by R. Hercher, Paris, -1858, and Teubner, 1864. The work will henceforth be cited without -title in the notes. - -[1440] See PW, and Christ, _Gesch. d. griech. Litt._, for further -details. - -[1441] I, 22. - -[1442] I, 24. - -[1443] I, 35. D. W. Thompson, _Glossary of Greek Birds_, p. 57, notes -that in the _Birds_ of Aristophanes, where the hoopoe appears, “the -mysterious root in verse 654 is the magical ἀδίαυτον.” - -[1444] I, 48. - -[1445] I, 52. - -[1446] I, 54. - -[1447] II, 2 and 31; III, 5. - -[1448] III, 17. - -[1449] III, 23 and 25. - -[1450] III, 26; in I, 45, the woodpecker similarly employs the virtue -of an herb to remove a stone blocking the entrance to its nest. - -[1451] III, 32 and 38. - -[1452] IV, 10, 14, 17. - -[1453] IV, 27. - -[1454] IV, 29. - -[1455] IV, 53. - -[1456] V, 37. - -[1457] VI, 4. - -[1458] VI, 16. - -[1459] VI, 33. - -[1460] VI, 41. - -[1461] VI, 59. - -[1462] VII, 7-8. - -[1463] VII, 14. - -[1464] VII, 16. The story is also found in Pliny NH, X, 3, where it is -added that Aeschylus remained out-doors that day, because an oracle -predicted that he would be killed by the fall of a (tortoise’s) house. - -[1465] VIII, 5. - -[1466] VIII, 22. - -[1467] IX, 1. - -[1468] X, 40. - -[1469] XI, 2 and 16. - -[1470] XII, 21. - -[1471] XIII, 3. - -[1472] XIV, 19. - -[1473] _C. Iulii Solini Collectanea rerum memorabilium iterum -recensuit_ Th. Mommsen, Berlin, 1895, pp. xxxi-li. Beazley, _Dawn of -Modern Geography_, I, 520-2, lists 152 MSS. - -[1474] Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, I, 247. - -[1475] Mommsen (1895), p. 48. - -[1476] _Ibid._, p. 7. - -[1477] Yet one medieval MS of Solinus is described as _De variarum -herbarum et radicum qualitate et virtute medica_; Vienna 3959, 15th -century, fols. 56-74. - -[1478] In Mommsen’s edition critical apparatus occupies more than -one-half of the 216 pages. - -[1479] C. W. King, _The Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of -Precious Stones and Gems_, London, 1865, p. 6. - -[1480] Mommsen (1895), pp. 132, 188. - -[1481] _Ibid._, 46-7. Mommsen could give no source for these statements -concerning Sardinia, and they do not appear to be in Pliny. But it is -from a footnote in the English translation of the _Natural History_ by -Bostock and Riley (II, 208, citing Dalechamps, and Lemaire, III, 201) -that I learn that the laughter which Pliny (NH, VII, 52) speaks of as a -premonitory sign of death in cases of madness, “is not the indication -of mirth, but what has been termed the _risus Sardonicus_, the -‘Sardonic laugh,’ produced by a convulsive action of the muscles of the -face.” This form of death may be what Solinus has in mind. Agricola in -his work on metallurgy and mines still believes in the poisonous ants -of Sardinia; _De re metallica_, VI, near close, pp. 216-7, in Hoover’s -translation, 1912. - -[1482] Mommsen (1895), p. 57. - -[1483] _Ibid._, p. 39. - -[1484] Mommsen (1895), p. 82. - -[1485] _Ibid._, pp. 45-46. - -[1486] _Ibid._, pp. 13, 68. - -[1487] _Ibid._, pp. 18, 41, 159. - -[1488] _Ibid._, p. 50, and elsewhere, “siderum disciplinam.” - -[1489] _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. - -[1490] Mommsen (1905), pp. 75-6. - -[1491] _Ibid._, p. 66. - -[1492] PW, for the problem of his identity and further bibliography. - -[1493] I have used the text and English translation of A. T. Cory, -_The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous_, 1840. Philip’s Greek is so -bad that some would date it in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. -The oldest extant Greek codex was purchased in Andros in 1419. The -work was translated into Latin by the fifteenth century at latest; see -Vienna 3255, 15th century, 82 fols., Horapollo, Hieroglyphicon latine -versorum liber I et libri II introductio cum figuris calamo exaratis et -coloratis. - -[1494] I, 1; II, 61; II, 65; II, 36 and 59; II, 57; II, 83; I, 34-5; -II, 57; II, 44 and 39 and 76-7 and 85-6 and 88. - -[1495] II, 45. - -[1496] II, 46; Aelian says the same, however, as we stated above. - -[1497] II, 64. - -[1498] NH, XXVIII, 27. - -[1499] II, 72. - -[1500] I, 6. According to Pliny (NH, XX, 26), the hawk sprinkles its -eyes with the juice of this herb; Apuleius (_Metamorphoses_, cap. 30) -says that the eagle does so. - -[1501] I, 3. - -[1502] II, 57. - -[1503] I, 10. - -[1504] I, 11. - -[1505] I, 14. - -[1506] I, 16. - -[1507] I, 13. - -[1508] I, 23. - -[1509] Sir William Muir, “Ancient Arabic Poetry, its Genuineness and -Authenticity,” in _Royal Asiatic Society’s Journal_ (1882), p. 30. - -[1510] Ascribed to Enoch in Harleian MS 1612, fol. 15r, Incipit: “Enoch -tanquam unus ex philosophis super res quartum librum edidit, in quo -voluit determinare ista quatuor: videlicet de xv stellis, de xv herbis, -de xv lapidibus preciosis et de xv figuris ipsis lapidibus sculpendis,” -and Wolfenbüttel 2725, 14th century, fols. 83-94v; BN 13014, 14th -century, 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-XVIII; -Berlin 963, fol. 105; Vienna 5216, 15th century, fols. 63r-66v; “Dixit -Enoch quod 15 sunt stelle / ex tractatu Heremeth (i. e. Hermes) et -enoch compilatum”; and in the Catalogue of Amplonius (1412 A. D.), Math. -53. See below, II, 220-21. - -The stars are probably fifteen in number because Ptolemy distinguished -that many stars of first magnitude. Dante, _Paradiso_, XIII, 4, also -speaks of “quindici stelle.” See Orr (1913), pp. 154-6, where Ptolemy’s -descriptions of the fifteen stars of first magnitude and their modern -names are given. - -[1511] Digby 67, late 12th century, fol. 69r, “Prologus de tribus -Mercuriis.” They are also identified by other medieval writers. Some -would further identify with Enoch Nannacus or Annacus, king of Phrygia, -who foresaw Deucalion’s flood and lamented. See J. G. Frazer (1918), -I, 155-6, and P. Buttmann, _Mythologus_, Berlin, 1828-1829, and E. -Babelon, _La tradition phrygienne du déluge_, in _Rev. d. l’hist. d. -religs._, XXIII (1891), which he cites. - -Roger Bacon stated that some would identify Enoch with “the great -Hermogenes, whom the Greeks much commend and laud, and they ascribe to -him all secret and celestial science.” Steele (1920) 99. - -[1512] R. H. Charles, _The Book of Enoch_, Oxford, 1893, p. 33, citing -Euseb. _Praep. Evan._, ix, 17, 8 (Gaisford). - -[1513] Charles (1893), p. 10, citing Ewald. - -[1514] ed. Dindorf, 1829. - -[1515] Lods, Ad. _Le Livre d’Hénoch, Fragments grecs découverts à -Akhmin_, Paris, 1892. - -Charles, R. H., _The Book of Enoch_, Oxford, 1893, “translated from -Professor Dillman’s Ethiopic text, amended and revised in accordance -with hitherto uncollated Ethiopic manuscripts and with the Gizeh -and other Greek and Latin fragments, which are here published in -full.” _The Book of Enoch, translated anew_, 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 Slavonic, Oxford, 1896. Also by Forbes and Charles -in Charles (1913) II, 425-69. - -[1516] Charles (1893), p. 22. - -[1517] Charles (1913), II, 165-6. - -[1518] Charles (1893), pp. 2 and 41. - -[1519] V., 54. - -[1520] XV, 23. - -[1521] Introd., vi. - -[1522] _Spec. Nat._, I, 9. A Latin fragment, found in the British -Museum in 1893 by Dr. M. R. James and published in the Cambridge _Texts -and Studies_, II, 3, _Apocrypha Anecdota_, pp. 146-50, “seems to point -to a Latin translation of Enoch”—Charles (1913) II, 167. - -[1523] _Book of Enoch_, XL, 9. - -[1524] _Ibid._, XLIII; _Secrets of Enoch_, IV. - -[1525] _Book of Enoch_, XLIII; XC, 21. - -[1526] _Ibid._, LX, 17-18. - -[1527] _Secrets of Enoch_, XIX. - -[1528] Caps. VI-XI in both Lods and Charles. - -[1529] _Book of Enoch_, VIII, 3, in both Charles and Lods. - -[1530] _Book of Enoch_, LXV, 6. - -[1531] _Ibid._, LXV, 7-8; LXIX, 6-9. - -[1532] _Ibid._, LXIX, 10-11. - -[1533] _Secrets of Enoch_, X. - -[1534] _Book of Enoch_, XVIII, XXI. - -[1535] _Ibid._, XC, 24. - -[1536] Singer’s translation. _Studies in the History and Method of -Science_, Vol. I, p. 53, of _Scivias_, III, 1, in Migne, PL, 197, 565. -See also the Koran XV, 18. - -[1537] Charles, p. 32 and cap. LXXX. - -[1538] Singer, 25-26. - -[1539] Pp. 187-219. - -[1540] _Secrets of Enoch_, I and XXX. - -[1541] See Morfill-Charles, pp. xxxiv-xxxv, for mention of three and -seven heavens in the apocryphal _Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_, -“written about or before the beginning of the Christian era,” and for -“the probability of an Old Testament belief in the plurality of the -heavens.” For the seven heavens in the apocryphal _Ascension of Isaiah_ -see Charles’ edition of that work (1900), xlix. - -[1542] _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 represented 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. - -[1543] _Secrets of Enoch_, XXX. - -[1544] _Ibid._, 45-46, see also the Ethiopic _Book of Enoch_, XCIII, -for “seven weeks.” - -[1545] _Book of Enoch_, XVIII, XXIV. - -[1546] _Ibid._, XXXII. - -[1547] _Book of Enoch_, LII, 2. - -[1548] _Ibid._, LXV, 7-8. - -[1549] _Ibid._, LX, 7. - -[1550] _Ibid._, XXXIII. - -[1551] _Secrets of Enoch_, XII, XV, XIX. - -[1552] The literature dealing in general 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 concerning -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_), London, 1892. The -most recent edition of the Greek text of Philo’s works is by L. -Cohn and P. Wendland, _Philonis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt_, -Berlin, 1896-1915, in six vols. The earlier edition was by Mangey. -Recent editions of single works are: F. C. Conybeare, _Philo about -the Contemplative Life_, critically edited with a defence of its -genuineness, 1895. E. Bréhier, _Commentaire allégorique des Saintes -Lois après l’œuvre des six jours_, Greek and 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 quatrième Évangile_, 1910. - - N. Bentwich, _Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria_, 1910 (a small general - book). - - T. H. Billings, _The Platonism of Philo Judaeus_, 1919. - - W. Bousset, _Jüdisch-Christlicher Schulbetrieb in Alexandria und Rom_, - 1915. - - E. Bréhier, _Les Idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon - d’Alexandrie_, 1908, a scholarly work with a ten-page bibliography. - - M. Caraccio, _Filone d’Alessandria e le sue opere_, 1911, a brief - indication of the contents of each work. - - K. S. Guthrie, _The Message of Philo Judaeus_, 1910, popular. - - H. Guyot, _Les Réminiscences de Philon le Juif chez Plotin_, 1906. - - P. Heinsch, _Der Einfluss Philos auf die älteste christliche Exegese_, - 1908, 296 pp. - - H. A. A. Kennedy, _Philo’s contribution to Religion_, 1919. - - J. Martin, _Philon_, 1907, with a five-page bibliography. - - L. H. Mills, _Zarathustra, Philo, the Achaemenids and Israel_, 1905, - 460 pp. - - L. Treitel, _Philonische Studien_, 1915, is of limited scope. - - H. Windisch, _Die Frömmigkeit Philos und ihre Bedeutung für das - Christentum_, 1909. - -[1553] The genuineness of this treatise, denied by Graetz and -Lucius in the mid-nineteenth century, was amply demonstrated by L. -Massebieau, _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, XVI (1887), 170-98, -284-319; Conybeare, _Philo about the Contemplative Life_, Oxford, -1895; and P. Wendland, _Die Therapeuten und die Philonische Schrift -vom Beschaulichen 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 ff) with Dionysius -the Areopagite on the ecclesiastical hierarchy, is, Philonis de -excircumcisione credentibus in Aegypto Christianis simul et monachis ex -suprascripto ab eo sermone de vita theorica aut de orantibus. - -[1554] _De mundi opificio_, caps. 49 and 50. - -[1555] _On the Contemplative Life_, Chapter 9. - -[1556] So he states in the opening sentences of the other treatise; it -is not extant. - -[1557] _De mundi opificio_, caps. 54 and 55. - -[1558] Réville, J., _Le logos, d’après Philon d’Alexandrie_, Genève, -1877. - -[1559] Lincoln College, Oxford, has a 12th century MS in Greek of the -_De vita Mosis_ and _De virtutibus_,—MS 34. - -[1560] The _Alexander sive de animalibus_ and the complete text of the -_De providentia_ exist only in Armenian translation,—see Cohn (1892), -p. 16. _The Biblical Antiquities_, extant only in an imperfect Latin -version, is not regarded as a genuine work,—see W. O. E. Oesterley and -G. H. Box, _The Biblical Antiquities of Philo_, now first translated -from the old Latin version by M. R. James (1917), p. 7. - -[1561] Cohn (1892), 11. - -[1562] II, 17. - -[1563] (_Quod omnis probus liber sit_, cap. xi); also _The Law -Concerning Murderers_, cap. 4. - -[1564] _On Dreams_, I, 38. - -[1565] Numbers XXII-XXV. Balaam is, of course, referred to in a number -of other passages of the Bible: Deut., XXIII, 3-6; Joshua, XIII, 22; -XXIV, 9-10; Nehemiah, XIII, 1ff; Micah, VI, 5; Second Peter, II, 15-16; -Jude, 11; Revelation, II, 14. - -[1566] _Vita Mosis_, I, 48-50. Besides discussion of Balaam in -various Biblical commentaries, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, see -Hengstenberg, _Die Geschichte Bileams und seine Weissagungen_, 1842. - -[1567] _De migrat. Abrahami_, cap. 32. - -[1568] _Idem_, and _De somniis_, cap. 10. - -[1569] _De monarchia_, I, 1. _De mundi opificio_, cap. 14. - -[1570] _De mundi opificio_, caps. 18, 50 and 24. See also his _De -gigantibus_ and Περὶ τοῦ θεοπέμπτους εἶναι τοὺς ὀνείρους. - -[1571] _Ibid._, Cap. 50. Huet, the noted French scholar of the 17th -century, states in his edition of Origen that “Philo after his custom -repeats an opinion of Plato’s and almost his very words for ... he -asserts that the stars are not only animals but also the purest -intellects.” Migne PG, XVII, col. 978. - -[1572] _De monarchia_, I, 1; _De mundi opificio_, cap. 14. - -[1573] _De monarchia_, I, 1; _De migratione Abrahami_, cap. 32; _De -mundi opificio_, cap. 40. - -[1574] Eusebius, _De praep. Evang._, cap. 13. - -[1575] _De mundi opificio_, cap. 19. - -[1576] _De somniis_, II, 16. - -[1577] _Ibid._, I, 22. - -[1578] _De bello Jud._, V, 5, 5; _Antiq._, III, 7, 7-8. - -[1579] _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 göttliche Wesen und Mächte des Himmels.” - -[1580] Münter (1827), pp. 38-39, 43, 45, etc. On the subject of -Jewish astrology see also: D. Nielsen, _Die altarabische Mondreligion -und die mosaische Überlieferung_, Strasburg, 1904; F. Hommel, _Der -Gestirndienst der alten Araber und die altisraelitische Überlieferung_, -Munich, 1901. - -[1581] Such as Aulus Gellius, Macrobius, and Censorinus. These writers -seem to have taken it from Varro. We have also noted number mysticism -in Plutarch’s _Essays_. - -[1582] Browne (1650) IV, 12. - -[1583] _De mundi opificio_, cap. 40. - -[1584] _Ibid._, caps. 30-42. - -[1585] For the later influence of such doctrines in the Mohammedan -world see D. B. Macdonald, _Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and -Constitutional Theory_, 1903, pp. 42-3, concerning the “Seveners” and -the “Twelvers” and the doctrine of the hidden Iman. - -[1586] _Ibid._, “Thus we have a series of seven times seven Imans, the -first, and thereafter each seventh, having the superior dignity of -Prophet. The last of the forty-nine Imans, this Muhammad ibn Isma’il, -is the greatest and last of the Prophets.” - -[1587] _De vita contemplativa_, cap. 8. It will be recalled that the -fifty books of the _Digest_ of Justinian are similarly divided. - -[1588] _De mundi opificio_, cap. 3. - -[1589] _De mundi opificio_, caps. 15-16. See also on perfect numbers -_On the Allegories of the Sacred Laws_. - -[1590] _Ibid._, cap. 20. - -[1591] _Vita Mosis_, I, 17. - -[1592] _De mundi opificio_, cap. 24. - -[1593] _Ibid._, cap. 50. - -[1594] _De somniis_, II, 21-22. - -[1595] _De somniis_, II, I. - -[1596] Cap. 38. - -[1597] II, 37. - -[1598] Cap. 5. - -[1599] 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 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 impartial 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 bloodstains? - -[1600] A good account of the Gnostic sources and bibliography of -secondary works on Gnosticism will be found in CE, “Gnosticism” (1909) -by J. P. Arendzen. - -[1601] Anz, _Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus_, 1897, 112 -pp., in TU, XV, 4. - -[1602] Amélineau, _Essai sur le gnosticisme égyptien, ses -développements et son origine égyptienne_, 1887, 330 pp., in _Musée -Guimet_, tom. 14; and various other publications by the same author. - -[1603] Bousset, _Hauptprobleme der Gnosis_, 1911; and “Gnosticism” in -EB, 11th edition. - -[1604] The dating is somewhat disputed. Some of the Gnostic writings -discovered in 1896 have, I believe, not yet been published, although -announced to be edited by C. Schmidt in TU. Grenfell and Hunt will -soon publish “a small group of 21 papyri ... among which is a gnostic -magical text of some interest”: Grenfell (1921), p. 151. - -[1605] The Gospel of Matthew, XXIV, 29-31. Not to mention Paul’s -“angels and principalities and powers.” - -[1606] St. George Stock, “Simon Magus,” in EB, 11th edition. See also -George Salmon in _Dict. Chris. Biog._, IV, 681. - -[1607] Irenaeus, _Against Heresies_, I, 23. - -[1608] _Homilies_, XVIII, 1-. - -[1609] Epiphanius, _Panarion_, A-B-XXI; Petavius, 55-60; Dindorf, II, -6-12. - -[1610] _First Apology_, cap. 26. - -[1611] Irenaeus and Epiphanius as cited above; also Hippolytus, -_Philosophumena_, VI, 2-15; X, 8. - -[1612] See, for example, Irenaeus, _Against Heresies_, I, i, 3, where -we are told among other things that the disciples of the Gnostic -Valentinus affirm that the number of these aeons is signified by the -thirty years of Christ’s life which elapsed before He began His public -ministry. - -[1613] _Homilies_, II, 23-25; _Recognitions_, II, 8-9. - -[1614] _Homilies_, II, 25. - -[1615] _Reply to Celsus_, I, 57, and VI, 11. - -[1616] Irenaeus, _Against Heresies_, I, 30. - -[1617] G. Parthey, _Zwei griech. Zauberpapyri des Berliner Museums_, -1860, p. 128; C. Wessely, _Griech. Zauberpapyrus von Paris und London_, -1888, p. 115; F. G. Kenyon, _Greek Papyri in the British Museum_, 1893, -p. 469ff. - -[1618] Josephus, _Antiquities_, I, ii, 3. - -[1619] R. Wünsch, _Sethianische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom_, Leipzig, -1898. - -[1620] E. Preuschen, _Die apocryph. gnost. Adamschrift_, 1900. -_Mechitarist collection of Old Testament Apocrypha_, Venice, 1896. - -[1621] The diagram is described in the _Reply to Celsus_, VI, 24-38; in -the following description I have somewhat altered the order. An attempt -to reproduce this diagram will be found in CE, “Gnosticism,” p. 597. - -[1622] _Reply to Celsus_, VI, 22. - -[1623] Anz. (1897), p. 78. - -[1624] _Adv. haer._, I, 23. - -[1625] Wm. Hartel, _S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera Omnia_, Pars III, -_Opera Spuria_ (1870), p. 90, _De rebaptismate_, cap. 16, “quod si -aliquo lusu perpetrari potest, sicut adfirmantur plerique huiusmodi -lusus Anaxilai esse, sive naturale quid est quo pacto possit hoc -contingere, sive illi putant hoc se conspicere, sive maligni opus et -magicum virus ignem potest in aqua exprimere.” - -[1626] _Contra haereses_, II, 2. - -[1627] _Pistis-Sophia_, ed. Schwartze and Petermann (1851), pp. 386-7; -ed. Mead (1896), p. 390. - -[1628] Irenaeus, _Against Heresies_, I, 13, _et seq._; Hippolytus, -_Philosophumena_, VI, 34, _et seq._; Epiphanius, _Panarion_, ed. -Dindorf, II, 217, _et seq._ (ed. Petav., 232, _et seq._). Concerning -Marcus see further Tertullian, _De praescript._, L; Theodoret, _Haeret. -Fab._, I, 9; Jerome, _Epist._, 29; Augustine, _Haer._, xiv. “D’après -Reuvens,” says Berthelot (1885), p. 57, “le papyrus n^o 75 de Leide -renferme un mélange de recettes magiques, alchimiques, et d’idées -gnostiques; ces dernières empruntées aux doctrines de Marcus.” - -[1629] Hippolytus, _Philosophumena_, VI, preface; I, 2; and IV, 43-4. - -[1630] Censorinus, _De die natali_, caps. 7 and 14. - -[1631] Arendzen, _Gnosticism_, in CE. - -[1632] Ruelle et Poirée, _Le chant gnostico-magique_, Solesmes, 1901. - -[1633] Irenaeus, I, 25; Hippolytus, VII, 20; Epiphanius, ed. Dindorf, -II, 64. - -[1634] Irenaeus, I, 24; Epiphanius, ed. Dindorf, II, 27-8. - -[1635] Hippolytus, VII, 14-15. - -[1636] The more correct title for the _Philosophumena_, see IX, 8-12. - -[1637] Dindorf, II, 109-10, 507-9. - -[1638] A. Merx, _Bardesanes der letzte Gnostiker_, Jena, 1864. F. -Haase, _Zur bardesanischen Gnosis_, Leipzig, 1910, in TU, XXIV, 4. - -[1639] English translation in AN, VIII, 723-34. - -[1640] _Recognitions_, IX, 17 and 19-29. - -[1641] English translations by A. A. Bevan, 1897; F. C. Burkett, 1899; -G. R. S. Mead, 1906. - -[1642] F. Nau, _Une biographie inédite de Bardesane l’astrologue_, 1897. - -[1643] ed. Coptic and Latin by M. G. Schwartze and J. H. Petermann, -1851; French translation by E. Amélineau, 1895; English by G. R. S. -Mead, 1896; German by C. Schmidt, 1905. The Coptic text is thickly -interspersed with Greek words and phrases. In the same manuscript -occurs the _Book of the Saviour_ of which we shall also treat. - -[1644] _Pistis-Sophia_, 25-6. - -[1645] _Ibid._, 336-50. - -[1646] _Ibid._, 355, _et seq._ - -[1647] _Ibid._, 389-90. - -[1648] _Ibid._, 255 and 258. - -[1649] _Pistis-Sophia_, 29-30. - -[1650] _Ibid._, 319-35. - -[1651] _Ibid._, 357-8, 375-6. - -[1652] Carl Schmidt, _Gnostische Schrifte in koptischer Sprache aus -dem codex Brucianus_, 1892, 692 pp., in TU, VIII, 2, with German -translation of the Coptic text at pp. 142-223. Portions have been -translated into English by G. R. S. Mead, _Fragments of a Faith -Forgotten_, 1900. - -[1653] _Pistis-Sophia_, 205-15. - -[1654] C. W. King, _The Gnostics and their Remains_, 1887, pp. -xvi-xviii, 215-8. Also his _The Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of -Precious Stones and Gems_, London, 1865. - -[1655] A. B. Cook, _Zeus_, p. 235, citing J. Spon, _Miscellanea -eruditae antiquitatis_, Lyons, 1685, p. 297. - -[1656] Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, pp. 111-3. On the planets in later -medieval art see Fuchs, _Die Ikonographie der 7 Planeten in der Kunst -Italiens bis zum Ausgange des Mittelalters_, Munich, 1909. - -[1657] E. S. Bouchier, _Spain under the Roman Empire_, p. 125. - -[1658] Hermann Gollancz, _Selection of Charms from Syriac Manuscripts_, -1898; also pp. 77-97 in _Acts of International Congress of -Orientalists_, Sept., 1897; Syriac text and English translation. - -[1659] In 1885-1886 eleven tracts by Priscillian were discovered by G. -Schepss in a Würzburg MS. They shed, however, little light upon the -question whether he was addicted to magic. They have been published in -_Priscilliani quae supersunt_, etc., ed. G. Schepss, 1889, in CSEL, -XVIII. - -See also E. Ch. Babut, _Priscillien et la Priscillienisme_, Paris, 1909 -(_Bibl. d. l’École d. Hautes Études_, Fasc. 169), which supersedes the -earlier works of Paret, 1891; Dierich, 1897; and Edling, 1902. - -[1660] _Sulpicii Severi Historia Sacra_, II, 46-51 (Migne, PL, XX, 155, -_et seq._) S. Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi, _De viris illustribus_, -Cap. 15 (Migne, PL, LXXXIII, 1092). - -[1661] _Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie_, XVI, 63. - -[1662] My following statements in the text are based upon E. Chavannes -et P. Pelliot, _Un traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine_, 1913,—they -date the Chinese translation about 900 A. D. and the MS of it within a -century later; W. Radloff, _Chuastuanift, Das Bussgebet der Manichäer_, -Petrograd, 1909; A. v. Le Coq, _Chuastuanift, ein Sündenbekenntnis der -Manichäischen Auditores_, Berlin, 1911. There are further publications -on the subject. - -[1663] The following details are drawn from the articles on the -Mandaeans in EB, 11th edition, by K. Kessler and G. W. Thatcher, -and in ERE by W. Brandt, author of _Mandäische Religion_, 1889, and -_Mandäische Schriften_, 1893, and from Anz (1897), pp. 70-8. Further -bibliography will be found in these references. - -[1664] The number five also appears in the _Pistis-Sophia_ and other -Gnostic literature. - -[1665] H. Pognon, _Une Incantation contre les génies malfaisants en -Mandäite_, 1893; _Inscriptions mandaïtes des coupes de Khonabir_, -1897-1899. M. Lidzbarski, _Mandäische Zaubertexte, in Ephemeris f. -semit. Epig._, I (1902), 89-106. J. A. Montgomery, _Aramaic Incantation -Texts from Nippur_, 1913. - -[1666] Genesis XLIV, 5, and J. G. Frazer (1918), II, 426-34. - -[1667] In the apocryphal _Protevangelium of James_, cap. 16, both -Joseph and Mary undergo the test. - -[1668] Joachim consults the plate in the _Protevangelium_, cap. 5. - -[1669] See J. G. Frazer, _Folk-Lore in the Old Testament_, 1918, -3 vols., and also his other works; for instance, _The Magic Art_, -1911, I, 258, for the contest in magic rain-making between Elijah and -the priests of Baal in First Kings, Chapter XVIII, while I do not -understand why Joshua is not mentioned in connection with “The magical -control of the sun,” _Ibid._, I, 311-19. - -[1670] However, the _Apocrypha of the New Testament_ may be read in -English translation by Alexander Walker in _The Ante-Nicene Fathers_ -(American edition), VIII, 357-598, and in that by Hone in 1820, which -has since been reprinted without change. It includes only a part of -the apocrypha now known and presents these in a blind fashion without -explanation. It differs from Tischendorf’s text of the apocryphal -gospels (_Evangelia Apocrypha_, ed. Tischendorf, Lipsiae, 1876) both -in the titles of the gospels, the distribution of the texts under the -respective titles, and the division into chapters. I have, however, -sometimes used Hone’s wording in making quotations. Older than -Tischendorf is Thilo, _Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti_, Leipzig, -1832; Fabricius, etc. - -[1671] It is ascribed to the second century both by Tischendorf and -_The Catholic Encyclopedia_ (“Apocrypha,” 607). There are plenty of -fairly early Greek MSS for it. - -[1672] The Greek MSS are of the 15th and 16th centuries; Tischendorf -examined only partially a Latin palimpsest of it which is probably of -the fifth century. - -[1673] So argues _The Catholic Encyclopedia_, 608; Tischendorf seems -inclined to date the Gospel of Thomas a little later than that of -James, and to hold that we possess only a fragment of it. - -[1674] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 25, “fecitque dominus Iesus plurima in -Egypto miracula quae neque in evangelio infantiae neque in evangelio -perfecto scripta reperiuntur.” - -[1675] Tischendorf (1876), p. xlviii. As I have already intimated on -other occasions, it seems to me no explanation to call such stories -“oriental.” Christianity was an oriental religion to begin with. -Moreover, as our whole investigation goes to show, both classical -antiquity and the medieval west were ready enough both to repeat and to -invent similar tales. - -[1676] It may be noted, however, that the chief miracles of the Gospels -were attacked as “absurd or unworthy of the performer” nearly two -centuries ago by Thomas Woolston in his _Discourses on the Miracles of -our Saviour_, 1727-1730. The words in quotation marks are from J. B. -Bury’s _History of Freedom of Thought_, 1913, p. 142. - -[1677] Migne, PL, 59, 162 ff. The list was reproduced with slight -variations by Hugh of St. Victor in the twelfth century in his -_Didascalicon_ (IV, 15), and in the thirteenth century by Vincent of -Beauvais in the _Speculum Naturale_ (I, 14). - -[1678] Tischendorf (1876), pp. xxiii-xxiv. - -[1679] Mâle (1913), pp. 207-8. - -[1680] Since writing this, I find that Mâle has been impressed by the -same resemblance. He writes (1913), p. 207, “Some chapters in the -apocryphal gospels are like the _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_ or even -like _The Golden Ass_, permeated with the belief in witchcraft and -magic.” The resemblance to Apuleius is also noted in AN, VIII, 353. - -[1681] Tischendorf, _Evang. Infantiae Arabicum_, caps. 20-21. - -[1682] _Ibid._, cap. 17. - -[1683] _Ibid._, cap. 20, “nullum in mundo doctum aut magum aut -incantatorem omisimus quin illum accerseremus; sed nihil nobis profuit.” - -[1684] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 35, “Extemplo exivit ex puero illo -satanas fugiens cani rabido similis.” The apocryphal gospel adds, “This -same boy who struck Jesus,” i. e., while he was still possessed by the -demon, “and out of whom Satan went in the form of a dog, was Judas -Iscariot, who betrayed Him to the Jews. And that same side, on which -Judas struck him, the Jews pierced with a lance.” - -[1685] _Ibid._, cap. 44; _Evang. Thomae Lat._, cap. 7; _Ps. Matth._, -cap. 32. - -[1686] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 15. - -[1687] _Ibid._, cap. 19, “qui veneficio tactus uxore frui non poterat.” - -[1688] _Ibid._, cap. 14. - -[1689] _Ibid._, cap. 16. - -[1690] See below, chapter 24. - -[1691] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, caps. 33-34. - -[1692] _Ibid._, caps. 10-11. - -[1693] _Ibid._, caps. 27-32. - -[1694] _Ibid._, cap. 30. - -[1695] _Ibid._, cap. 24. - -[1696] _Ibid._, caps. 42-43; _Ps. Matth._, 41; _Evang. Thom. Lat._, 14. -Compare pp. 279-80 above. - -[1697] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 37. - -[1698] _Ibid._, 38-39; _Ps. Matth._, 37; _Evang. Thom. Lat._, 11. - -[1699] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 36; _Ps. Matth._, 27; _Evang. Thom. -Lat._, 4. - -[1700] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 40. See Ad-Damîrî, translated by A. S. -G. Jayakar, 1906, I, 703, for a Moslem tale of Jews who called Jesus -“the enchanter the son of the enchantress,” and were transformed into -pigs. - -[1701] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, 46; _Evang. Thom. Lat._, 4; _Ps. Matth._, -26, where Mary afterwards induces Jesus to restore him to life, and 28. - -[1702] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 47; _Evang. Thom. Lat._, 5; _Ps. -Matth._, 29. - -[1703] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, cap. 49; _Evang. Thom. Lat._, 12; _Ps. -Matth._, 38. - -[1704] _Ps. Matth._, caps. 35-36. - -[1705] _Ibid._, cap. 29. - -[1706] _Ibid._, cap. 40. - -[1707] Later the same gospel (cap. 54) rather inconsistently represents -Jesus as engaged in the study of law until his thirtieth year. - -[1708] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, caps. 51-52. - -[1709] Eusebius states that he discovered these letters written in -Syriac in the public records of Edessa. Hone says that it used to be a -common practice among English people to have the epistle ascribed to -Christ framed and place a picture of the Saviour before it. - -[1710] _Gospel of Nicodemus_, I, 1-2. - -[1711] CE, _Apocrypha_, p. 611. - -[1712] Greek text in Tischendorf, _Apocalypses Apocryph._, pp. 161-7; -English translation, _The Ante-Nicene Fathers_, VIII, 526-7. - -[1713] _Evang. Inf. Arab._, 7-8. - -[1714] Cap. 19 (AN, I, 57). - -[1715] _Ante-Nicene Fathers_, VIII, 494. - -[1716] W. Anz, _Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizisnus_ (1897), -pp. 36-41. Lipsius et Bonnet, _Acta apostolorum apocrypha_, 1891-. - -[1717] Mâle (1913), 299. For the text of this apocryphal work see -Migne, _Dictionnaire des Apocryphes_, II, 759, _et seq._, or more -recently, Bonnet, _Acta apostolorum apocrypha_, 1898, II, 151-216. - -[1718] Mâle (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. - -[1719] 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. - -[1720] René Basset, _Les apocryphes Éthiopiens_, Paris, 1893-1894, vol. -iv. - -[1721] 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. - -[1722] The Ethiopic version, made from the Greek between the fifth and -seventh centuries, is translated by Basset (1894), vol. iii; and was -printed before him by Dillmann, _Ascensio Isaiae aethiopice et latine_, -Leipzig, 1877, and by Laurence, _Ascensio Isaiae vatis, opusculum -pseudepigraphus_, Oxford, 1819. See also R. H. Charles, _Ascension of -Isaiah_, 1900; reprinted 1917 in Oesterley and Box, _Translations of -Early Documents_, Series I, vol. 7. - -[1723] The fragments of the _Book of Baruch_ by Justin, preserved in -the _Philosophumena_ of Hippolytus, are from an entirely different -Gnostic work. - -[1724] R. Basset, _Les apocryphes Éthiopiens_, Paris, 1893-1894, vol. -i, _Le Livre de Baruch et la légende de Jérémie_. - -[1725] Text of _The Recognitions_ in Migne, PG, I; of _The Homilies_ -in PG, II, or P. de Lagarde, _Clementina_, 1865. E. C. Richardson had -an edition of _The Recognitions_ in preparation in 1893, when a list -of some seventy MSS communicated by him was published 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. Hilgenfeld, _Die klement. Rekogn. u. Homilien_, 1848, -the Pseudo-Clementines have provided a much frequented field of -research and controversy, of which the articles in CE, EB, and -_Realencyklopädie_ (1913), XXIII, 312-6, provide fairly recent -summaries from varying ecclesiastical standpoints. For bibliography see -pp. 4-5 in the recent monograph of W. Heintze, _Der Klemensroman und -seine griechischen Quellen_, 1914, in TU, XL, 2. In the same series, -TU, XXV, 4, H. Waitz, _Die Pseudo-Klementinen_, 1904. - -Concerning Simon Magus may be mentioned: H. Schlurick, _De Simonis Magi -fatis Romanis_; A. Hilgenfeld, _Der Magier Simon_, in _Zeitschr. f. -wiss. Theol._, XII (1869), 353 ff.; G. Frommberger, _De Simone Mago_, -Pars I, _De origine Pseudo-Clementinorum_, Diss. inaug., Warsaw, 1866; -G. R. S. Mead (Fellow of the Theosophical Society), _Simon Magus_, -1892; H. Waitz, _Simon Magus in d. altchr. Lit._, in _Zeitschr. f. d. -neutest. Wiss._, V (1904), 121-43. - -[1726] BN, Greek, 930; Ottobon, 443. - -[1727] Isidore, _De natura rerum_, caps. xxxi, xxxvi, xxxix-xli (PL, -83, 1003-12). - -[1728] PL, 83, 1003, note, “Sunt haec lib. VIII Recognitionum sed -apparet Isidorum alia interpretatione usum ac dubitare posse an ea quae -circumfertur Rufini sit.” - -[1729] See CU, Trinity 1041, 14th century, fols. 7-105, “Inc. prologus -in librum quem moderni itinerarium beati Petri vocant.” - -[1730] Valois (1880), p. 204. - -[1731] PL, 59, 162, “Notitia librorum apocryphorum qui non recipiuntur.” - -[1732] Vincent of Beauvais, _Speculum naturale_, 1485, I, 14. - -[1733] PL, 176, 787-8, _Erudit. Didasc._, IV, 15. - -[1734] “Itinerarium nomine Petri apostoli quod appellatur sancti -Clementis libri octo apocryphum (or, apocryphi).” - -[1735] _Speculum naturale_, XXXII, 129, concerning the morality of the -Seres. - -[1736] Compare _Recognitions_, I, 27 (PG, I, 122) with Rabanus, -_Comment. in Genesim_, I, 2 (PL, 107, 450). - -[1737] _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 education 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 corresponds to the close of -the 42nd chapter of the tenth book of _The Recognitions_. - -[1738] 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 additional chapters -which someone has added in the French group of MSS,—chapters which -Rufinus seems to have omitted because they were difficult to translate. - -[1739] Heintze (1914), 23, however, argues that the conclusion of _The -Recognitions_ is dependent upon _The Homilies_. - -[1740] Professor E. C. Richardson, after kindly reading this chapter -in manuscript, writes me (Sept. 5, 1921) that he doubts if this Syriac -MS is correctly described as three books of _The Recognitions_ and -four books of _The Homilies_, and that he thinks it may represent an -earlier form in the evolution than either of them. He writes further, -“I have a strong notion that a study of Greek MSS of the Epitomes will -reveal still more variant forms in Greek, and there are certainly other -oriental compilations not yet brought into comparison with the Greek, -Latin, and Syriac forms.” - -[1741] In _The Homilies_ it is a trip only from Alexandria to Caesarea -that consumes this number of days. - -[1742] About 375 A. D. Epiphanius (Dindorf, II, 107-9) describes _The -Circuits_ in such a way that he might have either _The Homilies_ or -_The Recognitions_ in mind. On the other hand, the _Philocalia_, -composed about 358 by Basil and Gregory, cites a passage on astrology -from the fourteenth book of _The Circuits_ which is in the tenth book -of _The Recognitions_ and not in _The Homilies_ at all. - -[1743] Heintze (1914), p. 113. - -[1744] Waitz (1904), pp. 151 and 243. - -[1745] See E. C. Richardson in _Papers of the American Society of -Church History_, VI (1894). - -[1746] Neither Philostratus nor Apollonius of Tyana is mentioned, -however, in the index of W. Heintze’s _Der Klemensroman und seine -griechischen Quellen_ (1914), 144 pp. - -[1747] _Recogs._, VII, 6. - -[1748] _Recogs._, I, 29; not mentioned in the corresponding chapter of -_The Homilies_, VIII, 15. - -[1749] _Recogs._, IX, 19-29. - -[1750] _Recogs._, VII, 12. - -[1751] _Recogs._, X, 15, _et seq._ - -[1752] _Recogs._, I, 8; _Homilies_, I, 10. - -[1753] Extraordinary, of course, only in that single animals instead -of angels, as in the Enoch literature, are set over birds, beasts, -serpents, etc. - -[1754] _Recogs._, I, 27 and 45. - -[1755] _Recogs._, VI, 8. - -[1756] _Recogs._, VIII, 9, 20-22. - -[1757] _Recogs._, VIII, 15-17. - -[1758] _Recogs._, VIII, 21. - -[1759] _Recogs._, VIII, 25-32. - -[1760] On the other hand, in the apocryphal _Epistle of Barnabas_, IX, -9, it is stated that the weasel conceives with its mouth and hence -typifies persons with unclean mouths. - -[1761] _Recogs._, II, 7. - -[1762] _Recogs._, VIII, 31. - -[1763] _Recogs._, VIII, 30. - -[1764] _Recogs._, VIII, 42. - -[1765] _Recogs._, VIII, 34. - -[1766] _Recogs._, VIII, 44. - -[1767] _Recogs._, VIII, 45. - -[1768] _Recogs._, VIII, 46. - -[1769] _Recogs._, VIII, 47. - -[1770] _Recogs._, V, 27. - -[1771] _Recogs._, I, 28. - -[1772] _Recogs._, VIII, 57, “frater meus Clemens tibi diligentius -respondebit qui plenius scientiam mathesis attigit;” IX, 18, “quoniam -quidem scientia mihi mathesis nota est.” - -[1773] _Recogs._, X, 11-12. - -[1774] _Recogs._, IX, 18. - -[1775] _Recogs._, VIII, 2. - -[1776] _Recogs._, I, 32. - -[1777] _Recogs._, I, 21, 43, 72. - -[1778] _Recogs._, IV, 35. - -[1779] Irenaeus, I, 3. - -[1780] _Recogs._, III, 68. - -[1781] _Recogs._, VIII, 28, “qui est parvus in alio mundus.” - -[1782] _Recogs._, VIII, 45. - -[1783] _Recogs._, X, 12. In _Homilies_, XIV, 5, the existence of -astrological medicine is implied when Peter promises to cure by prayer -to God any bodily ill, even “if it is utterly incurable and entirely -beyond the range of the medical profession—a case, indeed, which not -even the astrologers profess to cure.” - -[1784] _Recogs._, VIII, 2. In _The Homilies_, however, Peter argues -that, even if Genesis prevails, which he does not admit, still he can -“worship Him who is also Lord of the stars,” and that the doctrine of -genesis is far more destructive to polytheism and pagan worship. - -[1785] _Recogs._, IX, 16-17. - -[1786] _Recogs._, IX, 6 and 12. - -[1787] _Recogs._, IX, 30. - -[1788] _Recogs._, X, 11. - -[1789] _Recogs._, X, 12. - -[1790] _Recogs._, IX, 32-7. - -[1791] _Recogs._, IX, 19, and VIII, 48. - -[1792] _Recogs._, X, 66. - -[1793] _Recogs._, II, 42. - -[1794] _Recogs._, IV, 7. - -[1795] _Recogs._, IX, 38. - -[1796] _Recogs._, IX, 6 and 12; IV, 21; V, 20 and 31. - -[1797] _Recogs._, II, 71; IV, 16. - -[1798] _Recogs._, IV, 30. - -[1799] _Recogs._, IX, 9. - -[1800] _Recogs._, IV, 32-33. - -[1801] _Recogs._, IV, 21. - -[1802] _Recogs._, IV, 26. - -[1803] Reminding one of Benjamin Franklin’s more successful attempt to -“snatch the thunderbolt from heaven.” - -[1804] _Recogs._, IV, 27, and I, 30. - -[1805] _Recogs._, IV, 29. - -[1806] Dindorf, I, 282, 286-7. - -[1807] _Recogs._, X, 55; III, 64. - -[1808] _Recogs._, I, 70. - -[1809] _Recogs._, I, 42 and 58; III, 12, 47, and 73; X, 54. - -[1810] _Recogs._, I, 72. - -[1811] _Recogs._, X, 22 and 25. - -[1812] But by no means always in early Christian writings: thus Clement -of Alexandria (c150-c220) in the _Stromata_, II, 1, asserts that the -Greeks eulogize “astrology and mathematics and magic and sorcery” as -the highest sciences. - -[1813] In contrast to Lucian’s _Menippus_ or _Necromancy_, in which the -Cynic philosopher Menippus resorts to a _Magus_ at Babylon in order to -gain entrance to the lower world and question Teiresias. - -Necromancy is given as a proof of the immortality of the soul in -Justin’s _First Apology_, cap. 18, where we read, “For let even -necromancy, and the divinations you practise by means of immaculate -children, and the evoking of departed human souls ... let these -persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation.” - -[1814] _Recogs._, I, 5. - -[1815] _Recogs._, II, 9. - -[1816] _Recogs._, II, 15. - -[1817] _Recogs._, II, 6. - -[1818] _Recogs._, III, 57. - -[1819] _Recogs._, II, 11. - -[1820] _Recogs._, II, 12. - -[1821] _Recogs._, X, 53, _et seq._ - -[1822] _Recogs._, III, 57-60; X, 66. - -[1823] _Recogs._, VIII, 53. - -[1824] _Recogs._, VIII, 60. - -[1825] _Recogs._, II, 5. - -[1826] _Recogs._, II, 10. - -[1827] _Recogs._, II, 16, and III, 49. - -[1828] Similarly, in a passage contained only in _The Homilies_, V, 5, -Appion, recommending to Clement a love incantation which he had learned -from an Egyptian who was well versed in magic, explains that demons -obey the magician when invoked by the names of superior angels, who in -their turn may be adjured by the name of God. - -[1829] Concerning this boy see _Recogs._, II, 13-15; III, 44-45;, -_Homilies_, II, 25-30. - -[1830] _Recogs._, II, 6; III, 13. - -[1831] _Recogs._, III, 73; X, 54. - -[1832] _Recogs._, X, 58. - -[1833] _Recogs._, III, 63. - -[1834] _Recogs._, II, 7. - -[1835] _Recogs._, II, 5. - -[1836] _Recogs._, II, 9, “Multa etenim iam mihi experimenti causa -consummata sunt.“ - -[1837] _First Apology_, caps. 26 and 56; _Dialogue with Trypho_, 120. - -[1838] _Adv. haer._, I, 23. - -[1839] See above, chapter 15, p. 365. - -[1840] Tertullian, _De anima_, cap. 57, in PL, II, 794; _De idolatria_, -cap. 9. - -[1841] _Philosophumena_, VI, 2-15. - -[1842] F. X. Funk, _Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum_, 1905, I, -320-1. - -[1843] τὰ δὲ ἔθνη ἐξιστῶν μαγικῇ ἐμπειρίᾳ καὶ δαιμόνων ἐνεργείᾳ. - -[1844] “ ... in una die procedens vidi illum per aera volantem et -ferebatur. Et subsistens dixi: In virtute sancti nominis Iesu excido -virtutes tuas. Et sic ruens femur pedis sui fregit.” - -[1845] Arnobius, _Adversus gentes_, II, 12. - -[1846] Cyril, _Cathechesis_, VI, 15, in PG 33, 564. - -[1847] _Filastrii diversarum hereseon liber_, cap. 23, ed. F. Marx, -1898, in CSEL; also in PL, vol. 12. - -[1848] Sulpicius Severus, 363-420, _Chron._, II, 28, and Theodoret, -c386-456, _Haereticarum fabularum compendium_, I, 1 (PG 83, 344) have -nothing new to say. - -[1849] AN, VIII, 673-5. - -[1850] _Ibid._, 477-85; Greek text in Tischendorf, _Acta Apostolorum -Apocrypha_, 1851, pp. 1-39. The Greek scholar, Constantine Lascaris, -translated part of the work into Latin in 1490. - -[1851] Mead (1892), p. 37, notes that Dr. Salmon (article _Simon Magus_ -in _Dict. Chris. Biog._ IV, 686) “connects this with the story, told -by Suetonius and Dio Chrysostom, that Nero caused a wooden theater -to be erected in the Campus, and that a gymnast who tried to play -the part of Icarus fell so near the emperor as to bespatter him with -blood.” Hegesippus (_De bello judaico_, III, 2), Abdias (_Hist._ 1), -and Maximus Taurinensis (_Patr._ VI, _Synodi ad Imp. Const. Act._ 18) -compare Simon’s flight with that of Icarus. - -[1852] Tischendorf (1851), p. xix. - -[1853] “De mirificis rebus et actibus beatorum Petri et Pauli, et -de magicis artibus Simonis:” Fabricius, _Cod. apocr._, III, 632; -Florentinus, _Martyrologium Hieronymi_, 103. - -[1854] A slightly different version of the dog incident is found in the -_Acts of Nereus and Achilles_ (AS, May III, 9). - -[1855] _Hegesippus_, III, 2 ed. C. F. Weber and J. Caesar, Marburg, -1864, “et statim in voce Petri implicatis remigiis alarum quas -sumserat corruit, nec exanimatus est, sed fracto debilitatus crure -Ariciam concessit atque ibi mortuus 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. - -[1856] ed. Fabricius, _Cod. apocr._, I, 411; AS, June V, 424. - -[1857] _Biblioth. Patrum_, Cologne, 1618, I, 70. - -[1858] Printed PL, 39, 2121-2, among the works of Augustine, _Sermones -Supposititi_, CCII. The greater number of MSS assign it to Maximus. - -[1859] Mâle, _Religious Art in France_, 1913, p. 297, notes 3 and 4; p. -298, note 1. - -[1860] The two representations are essentially identical. Simon falls -head first, and the accompanying legend reads, “_Hic praecepto Petri -oratione Pauli Simon Magus cecidit in terram_,”—“Here at Peter’s -command and Paul’s prayer Simon Magus falls to earth.” - -[1861] Greek and Latin text in parallel columns in AS, Sept. VII -(1867), pp. 204ff. For an account of previous editions see _Ibid._, -p. 182. Bishop John Fell published a Latin text from three Oxford -MSS. In Digby 30, 15th century, fol. 29-, which I have examined, the -wording differed considerably from that of the Latin text in AS. The -brief _Martyrium_ of Cyprian and Justina follows in the same volume -of AS at pp. 224-6. _Sahidische Bruchstücke der Legende von Cyprian -von Antiochen_, ed. O. v. Lamm, 1899, Ethiopic, Greek, and German, -in _Petrograd Acad. Scient. Imper. Mémoires, VIII série, Cl. hist. -philol._, IV, 6. Πρᾶξις τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων Κυπριανοῦ καὶ Ἰουστίνης, -with an Arabic version, ed. Margaret D. Gibson, 1901, in _Studia -Sinaitica_, No. 8. - -[1862] _Ibid._, p. 180, “ipsa S. Cypriana nomine vulgata Confessio quam -ante Constantini aetatem scriptam esse critici plurimi etiam rigidiores -fatentur.” - -[1863] _Ibid._, p. 205, “et initiatus sum sonis sermonum ac strepitum -narrationibus.” L. Preller in _Philologus_, I (1846), 349ff., and A. -B. Cook, _Zeus_, 110-1, suggest that these rites on Mount Olympus were -Orphic. - -[1864] “Et aliorum insidiantium decipientium permiscentium....” - -[1865] Shelley, it may be recalled, in 1822 translated some scenes, -published in 1824, from Calderón’s _Magico Prodigioso_, in which -Cyprian, Justina, and the demon figure. - -[1866] Bouchier, _Syria as a Roman Province_, p. 237. - -[1867] Bouchier, _Spain Under the Roman Empire_, p. 123, citing AS, -July 19. - -[1868] Epiphanius, _Panarion_, ed. Dindorf, II, 97-104; ed. Petavius, -131A-137C. - -[1869] _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 furnaces,”—Σύντριβ’ ὁμῶς Σμάραγόν τε καὶ Ἄσβετον ἠδὲ -Σαβάκτην,—words usually interpreted as names for mischievous Pucks and -brawling goblins who smash pottery. But the two middle names suggest -the stones, smaragdus or emerald, and asbestos. The poet also invokes -“Circe of many drugs” to cast injurious spells, and appeals to Chiron -to complete the work of destruction. He further prays that the face -of any potter who peers into the furnace may be burned. This epigram -is probably of late date. See A. Abel, _Homeri Hymni, Epigrammata, -Batrachomyomachia_, Lipsiae, 1886, pp. 123-4. - -[1870] Mâle, _Religious Art in France_, 1913, pp. 304-6. - -[1871] Mâle (1913), p. 306. - -[1872] _Ibid._, p. 307. - -[1873] Greek text in Migne PG, Vol. XI. English translation in the -_Ante-Nicene Fathers_, of which I generally make use in quotations -from the work. On the MSS of the _Against Celsus_ see Paul Koetschau, -_Die Textüberlieferung der Bücher des Origenes gegen Celsus in den -Handschriften dieses Werkes und der Philokalia. Prolegomena zu einer -kritischen Ausgabe_, 1889, 157 pp., (TU, VI, 1). - -[1874] I, 71; also II, 32. - -[1875] I, 38; also VIII, 9; II, 48. - -[1876] I, 68; III, 52. - -[1877] II, 49. - -[1878] VII, 36. - -[1879] I, 6. - -[1880] VI, 40. - -[1881] V, 51. - -[1882] I, 26. - -[1883] IV, 33. - -[1884] V, 6. - -[1885] V, 9. - -[1886] VII, 9. - -[1887] VII, 11. - -[1888] VII, 3. - -[1889] III, 1. - -[1890] III, 5. - -[1891] III, 46; IV, 51. - -[1892] I, 28. - -[1893] I, 38. - -[1894] I, 60. - -[1895] I, 38. - -[1896] II, 49. - -[1897] II, 51. - -[1898] I, 68. - -[1899] VII, 25. - -[1900] V, 42. - -[1901] I, 68. - -[1902] VI, 41. - -[1903] III, 52. - -[1904] See cap. 21. - -[1905] Kühn, XIX, 48 (_de libris propriis_). Μετροδώρου ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς -Κέλσον Ἐπικούρειον. - -[1906] VI, 39. - -[1907] IV, 86. - -[1908] VII, 67. - -[1909] VI, 39. - -[1910] VI, 40. - -[1911] VII, 3 and 35. - -[1912] Ps. XCVI, 5. - -[1913] VII, 69. - -[1914] V, 42. - -[1915] II, 51. See also V, 38; VI, 45; VII, 69; VIII, 59; I, 60. - -[1916] See VII, 67, “demons ... and their several operations, whether -led on to them by the conjurations of those who are skilled in the art, -or urged on by their own inclinations....” - -Also VII, 5, “those spirits that are attached for entire ages, as I may -say, to particular dwellings and places, whether by a sort of magical -force or by their own natural inclinations.” - -Also VII, 64, “... the demons choose certain forms and places, whether -because they are detained there by virtue of certain charms, or because -for some other possible reason they have selected those haunts....” - -[1917] VII, 4. ὡς ἐπίπαν γὰρ ἰδιῶται τὸ τοιοῦτον πράττουσι. - -[1918] V, 38. - -[1919] VIII, 61. - -[1920] VI, 80. - -[1921] I, 58. - -[1922] I, 60. - -[1923] I, 58. The Magi had been confused with the Chaldeans several -centuries before by Ctesias in his _Persica_, cap. 15; see D. F. -Münter, _Der Stern der Weisen: Untersuchungen über das Geburtsjahr -Christi_, Kopenhagen (1827), p. 14. - -[1924] Balaam himself was something of an astrologer according to -Münter, _Der Stern der Weisen_, 1827, p. 31. “Die sieben Altäre die der -moabitische Seher Bileam an verschiedenen Orten errichtete (IV B. Mose, -XXIII) waren gewiss den sieben Planetfürsten gewidmet.” - -[1925] Numbers, XXIV, 17. - -[1926] Similarly an English version (in an Oxford MS of the early -15th century, Laud Misc., 658) of _The History of the Three Kings of -Cologne_, or medieval account of the translation of the relics of the -Magi, in forty-one chapters with a preface, opens its first chapter -with the words, “The mater of these three worshipful and blissid kingis -token the begynnyng of the prophecye of Balaam.” - -[1927] _In Numeros Homilia XIII_, in Migne, PG, XII, 675. - -[1928] _In Numeros Homilia XV_, col. 689. - -[1929] _In Genesim Homilia XIV_, 3, in PG, XII, 238. - -[1930] _Origenis in Numeros Homiliae, Prologus Rufini Interpretis ad -Ursacium._ Migne, PG, XII, 583-86. - -[1931] _Origenis in Numeros Homilia XIII_, Migne, PG, XII, 670-677. -In at least one medieval manuscript we find the homily upon Balaam -preserved separately, BN 13350, 12th century, fol. 92v, et omeliae de -Balaham et Balach. - -[1932] W. H. Bennett, _Balaam_, in EB, 11th edition. - -[1933] One cannot help wondering whether Pharaoh’s magicians lost their -rods for good as a result of this manœuvre, but it is a point upon -which the Scriptural narrative fails to enlighten us. - -[1934] II, 15-16. - -[1935] _Antiq._, IV, 6. - -[1936] Johannis Hildeshemensis, _Liber de trium regum translatione_, -1478, cap. 2. - -[1937] E. W. Hengstenberg, _Die Geschichte Bileams und seine -Weissagungen_, Berlin, 1842. Hengstenberg tried to take middle ground -between Philo Judaeus, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret, -and others who regarded Balaam as a godless false prophet and magician, -and the contrary opinion of Tertullian, Jerome, and some moderns who -hold that Balaam was originally a devout man and true prophet who fell -through his covetousness. - -[1938] “Et ideo quasi expertus in talibus in opinione erat omnibus qui -erant in Oriente ... Certus ergo Balach de hoc et frequenter expertus.” - -[1939] In Homily XIV. - -[1940] Migne, PG, XII, 1011-28. - -[1941] 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 modern critics, instead -of, ‘And when the woman saw Samuel.’” - -[1942] VI, 41. - -[1943] V, 48. - -[1944] I, 30. - -[1945] II, 34. - -[1946] IV, 33, and I, 22. - -[1947] 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 Introduction to M. Gaster’s -edition of _The Sword of Moses_, 1896,—a book of magic found in a -13-14th century Hebrew MS, but which is mentioned in the 11th century -and which he would trace back to ancient times. - -[1948] I, 6. It also, however, suggests the efficacy ascribed by the -Mandaeans to the repetition of passages from their sacred books. - -[1949] II, 49. - -[1950] I, 25; V, 45. - -[1951] V, 45. - -[1952] I, 24. - -[1953] IV, 33; I, 22, etc. - -[1954] _In Math._ XXVI, 23 (Migne, PG, XIII, 1757). - -[1955] See p. 366 in Chapter XV on Gnosticism. - -[1956] V, 25. - -[1957] VIII, 28. - -[1958] VIII, 58. - -[1959] VIII, 60. - -[1960] VIII, 63. - -[1961] VII, 68. - -[1962] VII, 69. - -[1963] VIII, 59. - -[1964] V, 28. - -[1965] V, 29; see _Deut._ xxxii, 8. - -[1966] V, 30. - -[1967] V, 32. - -[1968] VIII, 31. - -[1969] Migne, PG, XII, 680. - -[1970] III, 12. - -[1971] I, 8. - -[1972] V, 54; see _Book of Enoch_, XL, 9. - -[1973] Matthew, XVIII, 10. - -[1974] VII, 5. - -[1975] V, 6-9. - -[1976] V, 6. - -[1977] IV, 67; V, 20-21. - -[1978] VI, 80. - -[1979] Duhem (1913-1917) II, 447, treats of “Les Pères de l’Église et -la Grande Année.” - -[1980] V, 11. - -[1981] _De principiis_, I, 7. - -[1982] V, 10. - -[1983] _Deut._, IV, 19-20. - -[1984] V, 12. - -[1985] I, 59. - -[1986] V, 11. - -[1987] P. D. Huet, _Origenianorum_ Lib. II, Cap. II, Quaestio VIII, _De -astris_, in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, XVII, 973, _et seq._ - -[1988] XVII, 28. - -[1989] “In prooemio libri prioris eiusdem Περὶ ἀρχῶν, num. 10.” - -[1990] Eusebius, _Praep. Evang._, VI, 11, in Migne, PG, XXI, 477-506. - -[1991] PG, XXI, 489. - -[1992] _Ibid._, 501-502. - -[1993] P. D. Huet, _Origenianorum_ Lib., II, ii, v. 10, cites Basil, -_Homil. 3 in Hexaem._; Epiphanius, _Haer._, LXIV, 4, and _Epist. ad -Joan. Jerosolymit._, cap. 3; Jerome, _Epist. 61 ad Pammach._, cap. -3; Gregory Nyss., _lib. in Hexaem._; Augustine, _Confess._, XIII, 15; -Isidore, _Origin._, VII, 5. - -See also Duhem (1913-1917) II, 487, “Les eaux supracélestes.” - -[1994] VI, 21. - -[1995] IV, 90-95. - -[1996] Origen quotes, “Ye shall not practise augury nor observe the -flight of birds,” which is found in the Septuagint, _Levit._, XIX, 26. - -[1997] I, 66. - -[1998] I, 36. - -[1999] I, 33. - -[2000] IV, 86-88. - -[2001] IV, 98. - -[2002] IV, 93; it will be recalled that the witches in _The Golden Ass_ -of Apuleius assume the bodies of weasels in order to rob a corpse. - -[2003] I, 37. - -[2004] VII, 30. - -[2005] VIII, 19-20. - -[2006] Homily 18 on Numbers, Migne, PG, XII, 715. - -[2007] _Epistola_ 96 in Migne, PL, XXII, 78. - -[2008] Migne, PG, XVII, 1091-92. - -[2009] Tertullian, _Apology_, cap. 21; so also Cyprian, _Liber de -idolorum vanitate_, cap. 13. Latin text of Tertullian in PL, vols. 1-2; -English translation in AN, vol. 3. - -[2010] _Apology_, cap. 23. - -[2011] _De cultu feminarum_, I, 2. - -[2012] _Apology_, cap. 22. - -[2013] _De anima_, cap. 57. - -[2014] _Apology_, cap. 23. - -[2015] _De anima_, cap. 57. Damigeron is mentioned in the Orphic poem, -_Lithica_, and in the _Apology_ of Apuleius, cap. 45; is cited in the -_Geoponica_, and was regarded by V. Rose as the Greek source of the -Latin “Evax” and Marbod on stones. BN 7418, 14th century, _Amigeronis -de lapidibus_, was printed by Pitra, _Spic. Solesm._, III, 324-35, and -Abel, _Orphei Lithica_, p. 157, _et seq._ See further PW, “Damigeron.” - -[2016] Presumably Nectanebus. - -[2017] It is Aaron’s rod in the King James version. - -[2018] _De idolatria_, cap. 9. - -[2019] _Apology_, cap. 35. - -[2020] PL, vol. 3; AN, vol. 4. - -[2021] Thus Minucius Felix says, _Octavius_, cap. 26, “Magi ... -quidquid miraculi ludunt ... praestigias edunt,” while Tertullian, -_Apology_, cap. 23, writes, “Porro si et magi phantasmata edunt ... si -multa miracula circulatoriis praestigiis ludunt.” - -[2022] Cyprian, _Liber de idolorum vanitate_, caps. 6-7. - -[2023] PL, vol. VI; AN, vol. VII; the following references are all to -this work. - -[2024] V, 3. - -[2025] II, 15. - -[2026] II, 17. - -[2027] IV, 27. - -[2028] II, 17. - -[2029] The work was discovered in 1842 at Mount Athos and edited by E. -Miller in 1851, Duncker and Schneidewin in 1859, and Abbé Cruice in -1860. Greek text in PG, vol. XVI, part 3; English translation in AN, -vol. V. - -[2030] R. Ganschinietz, _Hippolytos’ Capitel gegen die Magier_, 1913, -in TU, 39, 2, is a commentary on the text. - -[2031] _Refutation of All Heresies_, IV, 28. - -[2032] Since writing this sentence I have found an article by Diels -on the discovery of alcohol in _Societas Regia Scientiarum, Abhandl. -Philos.-Hist. Classe_, Berlin, 1913, in which he argues from this -passage in Hippolytus that the discovery was made in the Alexandrian -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 clavicula_. 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. - -[2033] _Refutation of All Heresies_, IV, 29-41. - -[2034] In some places the text is illegible. - -[2035] Cap. 105. - -[2036] Leo Allatius “in syntagmate” _De engastrimytho_, cap. 7; -Sulpicius Severus, _Historia sacra_, liber I; Anastasius Antiochenus, -Ὁδηγός, quaest., 112; “et eorum quos laudat Bellarminus liber IV _de -Christo_, cap. 11.” - -[2037] Περὶ τῆς ἐγγαστριμύθου, PG, XLV, 107-14. - -[2038] Migne, PG, XVIII, 613-74. - -[2039] The King James version, First Samuel, XXVIII, 19, reads, “and -to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me,” instead of “thou and -Jonathan.” - -[2040] Migne, PG, XII, 143-74. - -[2041] Migne, PG, LVI, 61, _et seq._ - -[2042] Migne, PG, LVI, 637, _et seq._ _Homily_ II, “Opus imperfectum -in Matthaeum quod Chrysostomi nomine circumfertur.” _Ibid._, 602, _et -seq._, for opinions of various past writers as to its authenticity. - -[2043] Migne, PG, LX, 274-5, in the 38th homily on the Book of Acts. - -[2044] On the other hand, D. Friedrich Münter, _Der Stern der Weisen: -Untersuchungen über 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, -1911; Kritzinger, _Der Stern der Weisen_, Gütersloh, 1911; von Oefele, -_Die Angaben der Berliner Planetentafel P8279 verglichen mit der -Geburtsgeschichte Christi im Berichte des Matthäus_, Berlin, 1903, in -_Mitteil. d. Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft_. - -[2045] Mâle, _Religious Art in France_, 1913, p. 208, was not able to -trace the legend that the star of the Magi appeared with the face of -a child beyond _The Golden Legend_ compiled by James of Voragine in -the thirteenth century. We shall, however, find it mentioned in the -twelfth century by Abelard, who derived it from this spurious homily of -Chrysostom. - -[2046] They are twice so represented on the elaborately carved -Christian sarcophagus in the museum at Syracuse, Sicily, where also the -manger, ox, and ass are shown (compare note 4 below). - -[2047] Hugo Kehrer, _Die Heiligen drei Könige in Litteratur und Kunst_, -Leipzig, 1908, 2 vols. An earlier work on the three Magi is Inchofer, -_Tres Magi Evangelici_, Rome, 1639. - -[2048] J. C. Thilo, _Eusebii Alexandrini oratio_ Περὶ ἀστρονόμων -(_praemissa de magis et stella quaestione_) _e Cod. Reg. Par. primum -edita_, Progr. Halae, 1834. - -[2049] A. Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, 1899, p. 611, “La -royauté des Mages fut inventée (vers le VIe siècle), comme la crèche -(_sic!_ see Luke, II, 12 and 16), le bœuf et l’âne pour montrer -l’accomplissement des prophéties.” - -[2050] _Religious Art in France_, 1913, p. 214 note, following, I -presume, Kehrer’s work, as he does on p. 213. - -[2051] For detailed references see Münter, _Der Stern der Weisen_, -1827, p. 15; and Bouché-Leclercq, 1899, p. 611, where they are stated -somewhat differently. - -[2052] _Comm. in Platonis Timaeum_, II, vi, 125; quoted by Münter -(1827), pp. 27-8. - -[2053] BN 16819, fol. 49r. Corpus Christi 134, early 12th century, fol. -1 v., has a brief “Magorum trium qui Domino Infanti aurum obtulere -nomina et descriptio.” - -[2054] Cotton Galba E, VIII, 15th century, fols. 3-28, Fabulosa -narratio de tribus magis qui Christum adorarunt sive de tribus regibus -Coloniensibus. - -[2055] Cap. 12 in the 1478 edition. - -[2056] _Ibid._, cap. 34. - -[2057] At Munich all the following MSS are 15th century: CLM 18621, -fol. 135, _Liber trium regum_, fol. 215, _Legenda trium regum excerpta -ex praecedenti_; 19544, fols. 314-49, and 26688, fols. 157-92, -_Laudes et gesta trium regum_, etc.; 21627, fols. 212-31, _Historia -de tribus regibus_; 23839, fols. 112-37, and 24571, fols. 50-104, -_Gesta trium regum_; 25073, fols. 260-83, _de nativitate domini et -de tribus regibus_. At Berlin MSS 799 and 800, both of the 15th -century, have the _Gesta trium regum_ ascribed to John of Hildesheim. -So Wolfenbüttel 3266, anno 1461. The printed edition of 1478 in 46 -chapters and about 30 folios is also ascribed to John of Hildesheim. -We read on the binding, “Ioannis Hildeshemensis Liber de trium regum -translatione.” The Incipit is: “Reverendissimo in Christo patri ac -domino domino florencio de weuelkouen divina providencia monasteriensis -ecclesie episcopo dignissimo.” The colophon is: “Liber de gestis ac -trina beatissimorum trium regum translacione ... per me Johannem -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, University College 33, Liber collectus de gestis et -translationibus sanctorum 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 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, fols. 1-58, “Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac -domino domino Florentino de Wovellonem (_sic_) divina providencia -Monasteriensis ecclesie episcopo dignissimo. Cum venerandissimorum -trium Magorum, ymo verius trium Regum.” The work ends in the MS with -the words, “... summi Regis servant legem incole Colonie. Amen. -Explicit hystoria.” - -[2058] BN 16819, 10th century, fols. 46r-49r. - -[2059] Marco Polo (I, 13-14, ed. Yule and Cordier, 1903, vol. I, -78-81), who located the Magi in Saba, Persia, recounts further legends -concerning them and their gifts. - -See also F. W. K. Müller, _Uigurica_, I, i, _Die Anbetung der Magier, -ein Christliches Bruchstück_, Berlin, 1908. - -[2060] Beazley, _Dawn of Modern Geography_, I, 274, says, “Augustine -and Chrysostom felt and spoke in the same way, though in more measured -language, and nearly all early Christian writers who touched upon the -matter did so to echo the voice of authorities so unquestioned.” But I -cannot agree with this statement. He goes on to imply that a majority -of the fathers, like Cosmas Indicopleustes, attacked the belief in -the sphericity of the earth; but here, too, I wonder if he is not -following Letronne, _Des Opinions Cosmographiques des Pères_, without -having examined the citations. Certainly no such attitude is found in -Basil’s _Hexaemeron_, Hom. 3 and 9 as the citation implies. I have not -seen Marinelli, _La geographia e i Padri della Chiesa, estratto dal -Bollettino della Società geografica italiana_, anno 1882, pp. 11-15. - -[2061] _Divin. Instit._, III, 24. - -[2062] Migne, PG, vol. 29; PN, vol. 8. - -[2063] Duhem (1914) II, 394, however, prefers Gregory of Nyssa’s work -as “à la fois plus sobre, plus concis, et plus philosophique....” - -[2064] 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 evening. 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. - -[2065] Bk. II, caps. 10-17. - -[2066] _Epistola 65, ad Pammachium._ Augustine’s _De Genesi ad -litteram_, which Cassiodorus (_Institutes_, I, 1) esteemed above the -commentaries of Basil and Ambrose upon Genesis, is a somewhat similar -work, but, after a briefer treatment of the work of creation, continues -to comment on the text up to Adam’s expulsion from Paradise. - -[2067] Migne, PL, 14, 131-2. The most recent edition of the -_Hexaemeron_ of Ambrose is by C. Schenkl. Vienna, 1896. - -[2068] Fialon, _Étude sur St. Basile_, 1869, p. 296. - -[2069] Homily IX. - -[2070] 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, 1; 1702, 1; 1787A, 2; 2633, 1; and fifteen -copies of the _Hexaemeron_ of Ambrose—1718; 1702, 2; 1719 to 1727 -inclusive; 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; Vendôme 122, 11th century, fols. 1 v-60; Soissons -121, 12th century, fol. 97, Eustathius’ prologue and a part of his -translation; Grenoble 258, 12th century, fols. 1-45, “Eustathii -translatio....” - -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 Lombard script of the 8th century which closely resembles BN -3836. Other MSS are: BN 11624, 11th century; BN 12135, 9th century; BN -12136, 12-13th century; BN 13336, 11th century; BN 14847, 12th century, -fol. 163; BN nouv. acq. 490, 12th century; Vatican 269-273 inclusive, -10-15th centuries; Alençon 10, 12th century; Vendôme 129, 12th century, -fols. 48-126; Semur, 10, 12th century; Chartres 63, 10-11th century, -fols. 3-46; Orléans 35, 11th century; Orléans 192, 7th century, part of -the first two books only; Amiens fonds Lescalopier 30, 12th century; -le Mans 15, 11th century; Brussels 1782, 10th century; CLM 2549, 12th -century; CLM 3728, 10th century; CLM 6258, 10th century; CLM 13079, -12th century; CLM 14399, 12th century; Novara 40, 12th century; and -many other MSS of later date in these and other libraries. - -[2071] _De proprietatibus rerum_, VIII, 4. - -[2072] Bede, _Hexaemeron, sive libri quatuor in principium Genesis -usque ad nativitatem Isaac et electionem Ismaelis_, in Migne, PL, 91, -9-100. Bede originally intended to carry his work only to the expulsion -of Adam from Paradise, but subsequently added three more books. - -[2073] Homilies I, VIII, and X. - -[2074] Homily III, 1 and 10. - -[2075] I, 7; III, 5 and 10. - -[2076] IV, 1. - -[2077] I, 7; III, 5; IV, 3, 4, and 7; VI, 9; VII, 6. - -[2078] II, 7; III, 10. - -[2079] IV, 1; VI, 1. - -[2080] VIII, 8. - -[2081] Homily V, 10; IX, 2. - -[2082] I, 3. - -[2083] II, 1. - -[2084] III, 3. - -[2085] II, 4, _et seq._ - -[2086] III, 9. - -[2087] Charles, _The Book of the Secrets of Enoch_, Introduction, pp. -xxxi, xxxix. - -[2088] Irenaeus, I, 5; Epiphanius, ed. Petavius 186AB. - -[2089] Homily I, 10. - -[2090] VI, 9-11. - -[2091] I, 11. - -[2092] II, 7. - -[2093] IV, 2-4. - -[2094] Homily IV, 4. - -[2095] IV, 6. - -[2096] V, 2. - -[2097] IV, 5. - -[2098] III, 4. - -[2099] VI, 1. - -[2100] Homily V, 3. - -[2101] V, 9. - -[2102] V, 4. - -[2103] V, 6. - -[2104] VII, 5; IX, 3. - -[2105] VIII, 6. - -[2106] Homily VII, 6. - -[2107] IX, 3. - -[2108] VIII, 5. See also Aristotle, _History of Animals_, V, 8. - -[2109] Homily VIII, 6. - -[2110] IX, 2. - -[2111] IX, 5. - -[2112] Homily, VI, 11. - -[2113] V, 1. - -[2114] VI, 3. - -[2115] _Ad Autolycum_, II, 15. - -[2116] Homily VI, 5-7. - -[2117] Homily VI, 10. - -[2118] V, 2. - -[2119] 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 appealed “to fossil shells -imbedded in remote mountains as witnesses to the truth of the Noachian -tradition,”—_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. - -[2120] Homily IX, 2. - -[2121] Cunningham, _Christian Opinion on Usury_, p. 9. - -[2122] 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. - -[2123] Lucian’s _De dipsadibus_ will be recalled; see also Pliny, NH, -XXIII, 80; Lucan, _Pharsalia_, IX, 719. - -[2124] Pliny, NH, XXIII, 18; XXX, 10. - -[2125] Pliny, NH, XXV, 53; XXI, 92; XIX, 62; XII, 40 and 55. - -[2126] Dindorf, II, 450; Petavius, 422C. - -[2127] _Liber de XII gemmis rationalis summi sacerdotis Hebraeorum_, -published in Dindorf’s edition of the _Opera_ of Epiphanius, vol. IV, -pp. 141-248, with the preface and notes of Fogginius, and both the -Latin and Greek versions. - -[2128] _Ibid._, 160-62. - -[2129] P. 174. - -[2130] Pp. 190-91. - -[2131] _Ibid._, 184. - -[2132] Pitra, _Spicilegium Solesmense_, Paris, 1855, III, xlvii-lxxx. -K. Ahrens, _Zur Geschichte des sogenannten Physiologus_, 1885. -M. F. Mann, _Bestiaire Divin de Guillaume Le Clerc_. Heilbronn, -1888, pp. 16-33, “Entstehung des Physiologus und seine Entwicklung -im Abendlande.” F. Lauchert, _Geschichte des Physiologus_, -Strassburg, 1889. E. Peters, _Der griechische Physiologus und seine -orientalischen Uebersetzungen_, Berlin, 1898. M. Goldstaub, _Der -Physiologus und seine Weiterbildung, besonders in der lateinischen -und in der byzantinischen Litteratur_, in _Philologus_, Suppl. Bd. -VIII (1898-1901), 337-404. Also in _Verhandl. d. 41. Versammlung -deutscher Philologen u. Schulmänner in München_, Leipzig (1892), pp. -212-21. V. Schultze, _Der Physiologus in der kirchlichen Kunst des -Mittelalters_, in _Christliches Kunstblatt_, XXXIX (1897), 49-55. J. -Strzygowski, _Der Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus_, in _Byz. -Zeitsch._ Ergänzungsheft, I (1899). E. P. Evans, _Animal Symbolism -in Ecclesiastical Architecture_, 1896, is disappointing, being -mainly compiled from secondary sources and having little to say on -ecclesiastical architecture. - -[2133] EB, 11th ed., “Arthropoda.” - -[2134] Lauchert (1889), pp. 229-79, attempts a critical edition of the -Greek text. - -[2135] Pitra (1855), III, 374-90; French translation in Cahier, -_Nouveaux mélanges_ (1874), I, 117, _et seq._ - -[2136] O. G. Tychsen, _Physiologus Syrus_, 1795; from an incomplete -Vatican MS. Land, _Otia Syriaca_, p. 31, _et seq._, or in _Anecdota -Syriaca_, IV, 115, _et seq._, gives the complete text with a Latin -translation. - -[2137] Hommel, _Die aethiopische Uebersetzung des Physiologus_, -Leipzig, 1877. A bit of it was translated by Pitra (1855), III, 416-7. - -[2138] Land, _Otia Syriaca_, p. 137, _et seq._, with Latin translation. -A fragment in Pitra (1855), III, 535. - -[2139] Pitra (1855), III, 338-73, used MSS from the 13th to 15th -century. The earliest known illuminated copies are of 1100 A. D. and -later: see Dalton, _Byzantine Art and Archaeology_, Oxford, 1911, pp. -481-2. - -[2140] The oldest Latin MSS seem to be two of the 8th and 9th centuries -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 österreich. Geschichtsquellen_, Vienna, 1850, II, -545; Cahier et Martin, _Mélanges d’archéologie_, Paris, II (1851), -85ff., III (1853), 203ff., IV (1856), 55ff. Cahier, _Nouveaux mélanges_ -(1874), p. 106ff. - -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, 1022-1035, and it was printed under the name -of Theobald before 1500,—see the volume numbered IA.12367 in the -British Museum and entitled, _Phisiologus Theobaldi Episcopi de naturis -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, 177, 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 Wolfenbüttel 4435, 11th -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, 12th 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; -Fisiologus dicit, Tres res naturales habere leonem....” Library of -Dukes of Burgundy 10074, 10th century, “Etenim Jacob benedicens.” CLM -19648, 15th century, fols. 180-95, “Igitur Jacob benedicens.” CLM -23787, 15th century, 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. - -[2141] Printed by Lauchert (1889), pp. 280-99. - -[2142] Max F. Mann, _Der Physiologus des Philipp von Thaon und seine -Quellen_, Halle, 1884, 53 pp. - -[2143] Mann, _Bestiaire Divin de Guillaume Le Clerc_, Heilbronn, 1888, -in _Französische Studien_, VI, 2, pp. 201-306. Most recent edition by -Robert, Leipzig, 1890. - -[2144] Besides the two foregoing see Goldstaub und Wendriner, _Ein -tosco-venez. Bestiarius_, Halle, 1892. Magliabech. IV, 63, 13th -century, mutilated, 53 fols., bestiario moralizato, in Italian prose. -E. Monaci, _Rendiconti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei, Classe di scienze -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 -nell’ archivio degli avvocati Pietro e Oderisi Lucarelli,” MS 25, fols. -112-27. See also M. Garver and K. McKenzie, _Il Bestiario Toscano -secondo la lezione dei codice di Parigi e di Roma_, in _Studi romanzi_, -Rome, 1912; McKenzie, _Unpublished Manuscripts of Italian Bestiaries_, -in _Modern Language Publications_, XX (1905), 2; and Garver, “Some -Supplementary Italian Bestiary Chapters,” in _Romanic Review_, XI -(1920), 308-27. - -[2145] For instance, A. S. Cook, _The Old English Elene, Phoenix, and -Physiologus_, Yale University Press, 364 pp., 1919. - -[2146] K. Ahrens, _Das “Buch der Naturgegenstände,”_ 1892. - -[2147] _Cod. Vind. Med._ 29, τοῦ ἅγιου Ἐπιφανίου ἐπισκόπου Κύπρου περὶ -τῆς λέξεως πάντων τῶν ζώων φυσιολόγος. In the edition of Ponce de -Leon, Rome, 1587, there are twenty animals described, and the symbolic -interpretation is very short compared to later versions. Heider (1850), -p. 543, regarded this as the oldest version and as extant in complete -form. - -[2148] Mansi, _Concil._, VIII, 151, “Liber Physiologus ab hereticis -conscriptus et beati Ambrosii nomine presignatus apocryphus.” - -[2149] Heider (1850), II, 541-82, “Physiologus nach einer Handschrift -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 considerably -different and was furthermore combined with the Physiologus of -Theobald. An earlier MS than either of the foregoing is CLM 19417, -9th century, fols. 29-71, Liber Sancti Johannis episcopi regiae urbis -Constantinopoli ... Crisostomi quem de naturis animalium ordinavit. -Another Vienna MS is 2511, 14th century, fols. 135-40, “Incipiunt dicta -Johannis Chrysostomi de naturis animalium et primo de leone .../ ... -Sic erit et scriba doctus in regno celorum qui profert de thesauro suo -noua et uetera. Expliciunt dicta Johannis Crisostomi.” A Paris MS of -the same is BN 2780, 13th century, 14, Sancti Ioannis Chrysostomi liber -qui physiologus appellatur. - -[2150] Additional 11,035, Johannis Scottigenae Phisiologiae liber. -In the same MS are Macrobius’ _Dream of Scipio_ and the poems of -Prudentius. - -[2151] _De bestiis et aliis rebus_, II, 1 (Migne, PL 177, 57). “Physici -denique dicunt quinque naturales res sive naturas habere leonem....” - -[2152] _Mineral._, II, i, 1 (ed. Borgnet, V, 24). - -[2153] Bubnov (1899), p. 372. - -[2154] Thus even Lauchert (1899), p. 105, admits that Bartholomew -of England, the thirteenth century Latin encyclopedist, cites -_Physiologus_ for much which does not come from _Physiologus_. - -[2155] Goldstaub (1899-1901), p. 341. - -[2156] This and the preceding quotations in the paragraph are from Mâle -(1913), pp. 48, 35, 49, 45. - -[2157] Goldstaub (1899-1901), pp. 350-1. The same statement could be -made with equal truth of Vincent of Beauvais and Bartholomew of England. - -[2158] Hommel (1877), pp. xii, xv. - -[2159] Duhem, II (1914), 314, seems to me to have overestimated the -significance of _Confessions_, V, 5, and _De Genesi ad litteram_, I, -19, in saying, “L’assurance avec laquelle les Basile, les Grégoire de -Nysse, les Ambroise, les Jean Chrysostome opposaient aux enseignements -de la Physique profane les naïves assertions de leur science puérile -contristait fort l’Évêque 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. - -[2160] _De consensu Evangelistarum_, I, 11; in Migne, PL 34, 1049-50. - -[2161] _Ibid._, I, 9-10. - -[2162] _De civitate Dei_, X, 9; PL vol. 41. - -[2163] _Ibid._, VII, 34-35; and see Arnobius, _Against the Heathen_, V, -1, for Augustine’s probable source. - -[2164] _De civ. Dei_, VIII, 19. - -[2165] _Ibid._, VIII, 18, 19, 26; IX, 1. - -[2166] _De civ. Dei_, X, 9-10. - -[2167] _De trinitate_, IV, 11; in Migne, PL 42, 897. - -[2168] _De civ. Dei_, X, 9. - -[2169] _De civ. Dei_, XXI, 6. - -[2170] In Grenoble 208, 12th century, containing works of Augustine, -there is listed separately at fol. 54v, “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. - -[2171] _De trinitate_, IV, 11. - -[2172] _De diversis quaestionibus_, cap. 79; Migne, PL 40, 92-3. - -[2173] See also _De cataclysmo_ (perhaps spurious), cap. 5, Migne, PL -40, 696; and _Sermo VIII_, PL 38, 74. _Sermo XC_, PL 38, 562, however, -speaks of “Moyses et Aaron.” - -[2174] _De civ. Dei_, XXI, 6; XVIII, 18. - -[2175] _De diversis quaestionibus_, cap. 79; _De doctrina Christiana_, -II, 20, in Migne, PL 34, 50. - -[2176] Migne, PL 40, 581-92. - -[2177] _De trinitate_, III, 8; PL, 42, 875. - -[2178] _De trinitate_, 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. - -[2179] _De civitate Dei_, XVIII, 22. In commenting on Genesis (PL 34, -445) he speaks even more harshly of “that absurd and harmful 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. - -[2180] _Confessions_, X, 42, in PL vol. 32. - -[2181] Quaest. VI; PL 40, 162-5. - -[2182] II, 3; PL 40, 142-4. - -[2183] _De civitate Dei_, XXI, 4-6; PL 41, 712-6. - -[2184] _De Genesi ad litteram_, XI, 28-9; PL 34, 444-5. - -[2185] _Confessions_, X, 35; in PL vol. 32. - -[2186] II, 20 and 29. - -[2187] IV, 2-3. - -[2188] PL 39, 2268-72. - -[2189] _Sermo CXXX_, PL 39, 2004-5. - -[2190] II, 21-3; PL 34, 51-3. - -[2191] _De civitate Dei_, V, 7. - -[2192] _Confessions_, VII, 6. - -[2193] Unless otherwise noted, the ensuing arguments are found in _The -City of God_, V, 1-7. - -[2194] _De Genesi ad litteram_, II, 17; PL 34, 278. _De diversis -quaestionibus_, cap. 45; PL 40, 28-9. _Epistola_ 246; PL 33, 1061. -_Sermo_ 109; PL 38, 1027. - -[2195] _Confessions_, IV, 2-3. - -[2196] See below, chapter 24. - -[2197] _De Genesi ad litteram_, XII, 22 and 17 and 12; PL 34, 472-3, -467-9, 464-5. See also the marvelous divinations of Albicerius -recounted in _Contra Academicos_, I, 6; PL 32, 914-5. - -[2198] _Sermones_ 199 and 374; PL 38, 1027-8, and 39, 1666. _Contra -Faustum_, II, 15; PL 42, 212. - -[2199] In _Quaestiones ex Novo Testamento_, Quaest. 63, PL 35, 2258, -which is probably a spurious work but was cited as Augustine’s by -Thomas Aquinas (_Summa_, 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 curiositate speculabantur_). - -[2200] _Enchiridion, sive de fide, spe, et charitate_, I, 58; PL -40, 259-60. _De civitate Dei_, XIII, 16; PL 41, 388. _De Genesi ad -litteram_, II, 18; PL 34, 279-80. - -[2201] _Orosii ad Augustinum Consultatio sive Commonitorium de -errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum_, PL 31, 1211-22; also -in G. Schepss (1889), in CSEL XVIII. _Augustini ad Orosium contra -Priscillianistas et Origenistas_, PL 41, 669, _et seq._ 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. - -[2202] This charge was later repeated by St. Leo, _Epistola XV_; see -Withington, _History of Medicine_, 1894, p. 178; but the offense would -seem a trivial one in any case. - -[2203] _De principiis_, I, 7. - -[2204] _De doctrina Christiana_, II, 29, in Migne, 34, 57. - -[2205] _De Genesi ad litteram_, II, 16, in Migne, 34, 277. - -[2206] _De civitate Dei_, XI, 30-31. He says about the same things -concerning six and seven in _De Genesi ad litteram_, IV, 2. - -[2207] _Sermo supposititius_ 21, in Migne, PL XXXIX, 1783, “De -convenientia decem preceptorum et decem plagarum Egypti. Non est sine -causa, fratres dilectissimi, quod preceptorum legis Dei numerus cum -numero plagarum quibus Aegyptus percutitur exaequari videtur.” - -[2208] _Cambridge Medieval History_, I, 9. - -[2209] The Greek work, _Hermippus or Concerning Astrology_, however, -can no longer be regarded as an example of Christian belief in -astrology at this period, since F. Boll, _Heidelberger Akad. Sitzb._, -1912, No. 18, has shown it to be a fourteenth century work of John -Katrarios, who makes use of a Greek translation of Albumasar. - -[2210] For bibliography see F. Boll’s “Firmicus” in PW. It does not -include my article written subsequently on “A Roman Astrologer as a -Historical Source: Julius Firmicus Maternus,” in _Classical Philology_, -VIII, No. 4, pp. 415-35, October, 1913. For bibliography see also Kroll -et Skutsch, II, xxxiv. - -[2211] The edition of _De errore profanarum religionum_ by K. Ziegler, -Leipzig, 1907, is more critical than that in Migne, PL. - -[2212] _Iulii Firmici Materni Matheseos Libri VIII_, ed. W. Kroll et -F. Skutsch, _Fasciculus prior libros IV priores et quinti prooemium -continens_, Leipzig, 1897; _Fasciculus alter libros IV posteriores cum -praefatione et indicibus continens_, 1913. My references will be by -page and line to this text, unless otherwise noted. Earlier editions, -which I used for the later books before 1913, are the _editio princeps, -Julius Firmicus de nativitatibus, ... Impressum Venetiis per Symonem -papiensem dictum bivilaqua, 1497 die 13 Iunii_, cxv fols.; the Aldine -edition of 1499 containing apparent interpolations, _Julii Firmici -Astronomicorum libri octo integri et emendati ex Scythicis oris ad -nos nuper allati...._; and the Basel editions of 1533 and 1551 by M. -Pruckner which reproduce the Aldine text. See Kroll et Skutsch, II, -xxxiii, for another reproduction of the Aldine text, printed in 1503, -and p. xxviii for a partial edition of books 3-5 of the _Mathesis_ in -1488 and 1494 in _Opus Astrolabii plani ... a Iohanne Angeli_. - -[2213] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 3, 27. - -[2214] Boll in PW, VI, 2365. - -[2215] _Hermes_, XXIX, 468-72. The treatise could not have been -composed before 334 since Firmicus (I, 13, 23) refers to an eclipse in -the consulship of Optatus and Paulinus which occurred in that year. - -[2216] For instance, at I, 37, 25, “_Constantinus scilicet maximus divi -Constantini filius_,” might as well be rendered, “Constantius, son of -Constantine,” as “Constantine, son of Constantius.” - -[2217] I, 1, 3, “Olim tibi hos libellos, Mavorti decus nostrum, me -dicaturum esse promiseram verum diu me inconstantia verecundiae -retardavit.” - -[2218] I, 195-6. - -[2219] Ammianus Marcellinus, XVI, 8, 5, “iubetur Mavortius, tunc -praefectus praetorio, vir sublimis constantiae, crimen acri -inquisitione spectari.” - -[2220] Ziegler, p. 7, “Physica ratio quam dicis, alio genere celetur”; -p. 9, “quod dicant physica ratione conpositum.” - -[2221] Ziegler, p. 5. - -[2222] Ziegler, p. 23. - -[2223] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 86, 12-21. - -[2224] Ziegler, pp. 15, 38, 39, 64, 67, 81, 82, “sacratissimi -imperatores”; pp. 31, 40, “sacrosancti principes”; p. 65, “sanctarum -aurium vestrarum.” - -[2225] Ziegler, pp. 53-4. - -[2226] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 17-18. - -[2227] See my “A Roman Astrologer as a Historical Source,” _Classical -Philology_, VIII, 415-35, especially p. 421. - -[2228] I, 16, 20, “Summo illi ac rectori deo, qui omnia perpetua legis -dispositione composuit....” - -[2229] I, 16, 14; I, 57, 2; I, 90, 11, to 91, 10. - -[2230] I, 280, 2-28. - -[2231] Besides the prayer just quoted, see I, 18, 10-13. See also the -long prayer at the end of the first book to the planets and supreme God -for the successful continuance of the dynasty of Constantine. - -[2232] I, 18, 25-9. - -[2233] I, 85-89 (Book II, chapter 30). - -[2234] I, 17, 2-23. - -[2235] I, 10, 3-. - -[2236] I, 11, 7-. - -[2237] Book I, Chapter 4 (I, 11-15). - -[2238] Book I, Chapter 7 (I, 19-30). - -[2239] For a fuller exposition of this quantitative method of -source-analysis and the results obtained thereby see Thorndike (1913), -pp. 415-35. - -[2240] Temple-robbers, 5; servile or ignoble employ in temples, -5; spending one’s time in temples, 4; builders of temples, 3; -beneficiaries of temples, 3; temple guards, 2; _neocori_, 3; and -so on, making 35 references to temples in all. It is perhaps worth -remarking that H. O. Taylor, _The Classical Heritage_, 1901, p. 80, -notes that Synesius about 400 A. D. speaks of the Christian churches at -Constantinople as “temples.” - -[2241] Chief priests, 5; priests, 9; of provinces, 1; priestess, 1; -priests of Cybele (_archigalli_), 3; _Asiarchae_, 1; priest of some -great goddess, 1; illicit rites, 1. There are 27 passages concerning -divination. - -[2242] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 148, 8 and 123, 4. - -[2243] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 201, 6. - -[2244] Cumont says (_Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism_, p. 188): -“But the ancients expressly distinguished ‘magic,’ which was always -under suspicion and disapproved of, from the legitimate and honorable -art for which the name ‘theurgy’ was invented.” This distinction was -made by Porphyry and others, and is alluded to by Augustine in the -_City of God_, but it is to be noted that Firmicus does not use the -word “theurgy.” Cumont also states (p. 179) that in the last period -of paganism the name philosopher was finally applied to all adepts -in occult science. But in Firmicus, while magic and philosophy are -associated in two passages, there are five other allusions to magic and -three separate mentions of philosophers. - -[2245] Kroll et Skutsch, I, 161, 26. - -[2246] _Computus_, 3; _calculus_, 2; and “those who excel at numbers,” -1. - -[2247] Including two mentions of court physicians (_archiatri_). See -_Codex Theod._, Lib. XIII, Tit. 3, _passim_, for their position. - -[2248] I leave this sentence as I wrote it in 1913. - -[2249] _Aestus animi_, 5; insanity, 13; lunatics, 10; epileptics, 8; -melancholia, 3; inflammation of the brain (_frenetici_), 4; delirium, -dementia, demoniacs, alienation, and madness, one or two each; vague -allusions to mental ills and injuries, 5. - -[2250] 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 the other -books we have transmitted to the Romans the discipline of a new work,” -(II, 360, 10-15). And in the 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). - -[2251] I, 41, 7 and 15; I, 40, 9-11. - -[2252] I, 41, 5 and 11; I, 40, 8. - -[2253] They are listed by Kroll et Skutsch, II, 362, _Index auctorum_. - -[2254] II, 294, 12-21. - -[2255] Kroll et Skutsch, II, p. iii. - -[2256] I, 258, 10, “in singulari libro, quem de domino geniturae et -chronocratore ad Murinum nostrum scripsimus”; II, 229, 23, “exeo libro -qui de fine vitae a nobis scriptus est.” - -[2257] II, 18, 24; II, 283, 19. - -[2258] Engelbrecht, _Hephästion von Theben und sein astrologisches -Compendium_, Vienna, 1887. - -[2259] _De vita sua_, in _Libanii sophistae praeludia oratoria LXXII -declamationes XLV et dissertationes morales, Federicus Morellus regius -interpres e MSS maxime reg. bibliothecae nunc primum edidit idemque -Latine vertit ... ad Henricum IV regem Christianissimum_, Paris, 1606, -II, 15-18. - -[2260] _Magi accusatio_, _Ibid._, I, 898-911. - -[2261] _De vita sua, Opera_, II, 2-3. - -[2262] X, 196, 11, _De sepulcro incantato_. - -[2263] My citations of Synesius’ works, unless otherwise noted, are -from the edition: _Synesii 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, _Œuvres de Synésius_, Paris, 1878. The _Letters_ -and _Hymns_ have often been published separately. For this and other -further bibliography see Christ, _Gesch. d. griech. Litt._, 1913, II, -ii, 1167-71, where, however, no note is taken of Berthelot’s discussion -of Synesius as a reputed author of alchemistic treatises. - -Some works on Synesius are: H. Druon, _Études sur la vie et les -œuvres de Synésius_, Paris, 1859; R. Volkmann, _Synesius von Cyrene_, -Berlin, 1869; W. S. Crawford, _Synesius the Hellene_, London, 1901; -G. Grützmacher, _Synesios von Kyrene_, Leipzig, 1913. In periodicals: -F. X. Kraus in _Theol. Quartalschrift_, 1865 and 1866; O. Seeck, in -_Philologus_, 1893. - -[2264] See Crawford, _op. cit._, and monographs listed in Christ, _op. -cit._, p. 1168, notes 4 and 8. - -[2265] The date is variously stated as 411, 406, or 410. - -[2266] A. J. Kleffner, _Synesius von Cyrene ... und sein angeblicher -Vorbehalt bei seiner Wahl und Weihe zum Bischof von Ptolemais_, -Paderborn, 1901. H. Koch, _Synesius von Cyrene bei seiner Wahl und -Weihe zum Bischof_, in _Hist. Jahrb._, XXIII (1902), pp. 751-74. - -[2267] Christ, _op. cit._, p. 1168, note 1. - -[2268] _Ibid._, p. 1170, citing K. Prächter, in _Genethliakon für C. -Robert_, 1910, p. 244, _et seq._ - -[2269] Περὶ ἐνυπνίων (_On dreams_), ch. 2. - -[2270] Περὶ ἐνυπνίων (_On Dreams_), ch. 3. Ἔδει γὰρ, οἶμαι, τοῦ παντὸς -τούτου συμπαθοῦς τε ὄντος καὶ σύμπνου τὰ μέρη προσήκειν ἀλλήλοις, ἅτε -ἑνὸς ὅλου τὰ μέλη τυγχάνοντα. Καὶ μή ποτε αἱ μάγων ἴυγγες αὗται; καὶ -γὰρ θέλγεται παρ’ ἀλλήλων, ὥσπερ σημαίνεται· καὶ σοφὸς ὁ εἰδὼς τὴν τῶν -μερῶν τοῦ κόσμου συγγένειαν. Ἕλκει γὰρ ἄλλο δί’ ἄλλον, ἔχων ἐνέχυρα -παρόντα τῶν πλεῖστον ἀπόντων, καὶ φωνὰς, καὶ ὕλας καὶ σχήματα.... -Evidently Synesius did not regard the magi as mere imposters. - -[2271] Περὶ ἐνυπνίων, ch. 3. Καὶ δὴ καὶ θεῷ τινὶ τῶν εἴσω τοῦ κόσμου -λίθος ἐνθένδε καὶ βοτάνη προσήκει, οἷς ὁμοιοπαθῶν εἴκει τῇ φύσει καὶ -γοητεύεται. In his _Praise of Baldness_ (Φαλάκρας ἐγκώμιον), ch. 10, -Synesius tells how the Egyptians attract demons by magic influences. - -[2272] Περὶ ἐνυπνίων, ch. 1. Αὗται μὲν ἀποδείξεις ἔστων τοῦ μαντείαν ἐν -τοῖς ἀρίστοις εἶναι τῶν ἐπιτηδευομένων ἀνθρώποις. - -[2273] _Ibid._, ch. 18. - -[2274] Δίων ἢ περὶ τῆς κατ’ αὐτὸν διαγωγῆς. - -[2275] Φαλάκρας ἐγκώμιον, ch. 10. - -[2276] Αἰγύπτιοι ἢ περὶ προνοίας, bk. ii, ch. 7. - -[2277] Πρὸς Παιόνιον περὶ τοῦ δώρου, ch. 5. - -[2278] Δίων, ch. 7. Περὶ ἐνυπνίων, ch. 4. Ἐπιστολαί, 4, 49, and 142. - -[2279] On Synesius as an alchemist see Berthelot (1885), pp. 65, -188-90; (1889), p. ix. - -[2280] T. R. Glover, _Life and Letters in the Fourth Century A. D._, -Cambridge, 1901, p. 187, note 1. - -[2281] _Saturnalia_, I, xvi, 12. - -[2282] _Commentary on the Dream of Scipio_, II, 17, “Universa -philosophiae integritas”; ed. Nisard, Paris, 1883. - -[2283] _Ibid._, I, 5-6; II, 1-2. - -[2284] _Ibid._, I, 7. - -[2285] _Ibid._, I, 19. - -[2286] _Ibid._, I, 14. - -[2287] Glover (1901), p. 178. - -[2288] _De nuptiis philologiae et mercurii et de septem artibus -liberalibus libri novem, Lugduni apud haeredes Simonis Vincentii_, -1539; ed. U. F. Kopp, Frankfurt, 1836; ed. F. Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, -1866. - -[2289] It occurs toward the close of the second book. - -[2290] In Kopp’s edition pp. 202-23 are almost entirely taken up with -notes setting forth other passages in the classics concerning such -spirits. - -[2291] Greek text in Migne, PG 3, 119-370. - -[2292] Migne, PL 122, 1037-70. - -[2293] The following bibliography includes the editions of the texts -concerned and the chief critical researches in the field. A. Ausfeld, -_Zur Kritik des griechischen Alexanderromans; Untersuchungen über -die unechten Teile der ältesten Ueberlieferung_, Karlsruhe, 1894. A. -Ausfeld and W. Kroll, _Der griechische Alexanderroman_, Leipzig, 1907. -H. Becker, _Die Brahmannen in der Alexandersage_, Königsberg, 1889, -34 pp. E. A. W. Budge, _History of Alexander the Great_, Cambridge -University Press, 1889; the Syriac version of the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_ -edited from five MSS, with an English translation and notes. E. A. -W. Budge, _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, Cambridge -University Press, 1896; Ethiopic Histories of Alexander by the -Pseudo-Callisthenes and other writers. D. Carrarioli, _La leggenda -di Alessandro Magno_, 1892. G. G. Cillié, _De Iulii Valerii epitoma -Oxoniensi_, Strasburg, 1905. G. Favre, _Recherches sur les histoires -fabuleuses d’Alexandre le Grand_, in _Mélanges d’hist. litt._, II -(1856), 5-184. Ethé, _Alexanders Zug zur Lebensquelle im Lande der -Finsterniss_, in _Atti dell’ Accademia di Monaco_, 1871. B. Kübler, -_Julius Valerius; Res gestae Alexandri Macedonis_, Leipzig, 1888 -(see pp. xxv-xxvi for further bibliography). Levi, _La légende -d’Alexandre dans le Talmud_, in _Revue des Études juives_, I (1880), -293-300. Meusel, _Pseudo-Callisthenes nach der Leidener Handschrift -herausgegeben_, Leipzig, 1871. M. P. H. Meyer, _Alexandre le Grand -dans la littérature française du moyen âge_, 2 vols., Paris, 1886. -C. Müller, _Scriptores rerum Alexandri Magni_, Firmin-Didot, Paris, -1846 and 1877 (bound with Arrian, ed. Fr. Dübner); the first edition -of the Greek text of the _Pseudo-Callisthenes_ from three Paris -MSS, also Julius Valerius, etc. Noeldeke, _Beiträge zur Geschichte -des Alexanderromans, Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der -Wissenschaften in Wien, Philos. Hist. Classe_, vol. 38, Vienna, -1890; Budge says of this work, “Professor Noeldeke discusses in his -characteristic masterly manner the Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Persian, -and Arabic versions, and ably shows how each is related to the other, -and how certain variations in the narrative have arisen. No other -writer before him was able to control, by knowledge at first hand, -the statements of both the Aryan and Semitic versions; his work is -therefore of unique value.” _Padmuthiun Acheksandri Maketonazwui, I -Wenedig i dparani serbuin Chazaru_, Hami, 1842; the Armenian version -published by the Mechitarists, Venice, 1842. F. Pfister, _Kleine Texte -zum Alexanderroman_, Heidelberg, 1910; _Sammlung vulgärlateinischer -Texte herausg. v. W. Heraeus u. H. Morf, 4 Heft_. Spiegel, _Die -Alexandersage bei den Orientalen_, Leipzig, 1851. Vogelstein, -_Adnotationes quaedam ex litteris orientalibus petitae quae de -Alexandro Magno circumferuntur_, Warsaw, 1865. A. Westermann, _De -Callisthene Olynthio et Pseudo-Callisthene Commentatio_, 1838-1842. J. -Zacher, _Pseudo-Callisthenes: Forschungen zur Kritik und Geschichte der -ältesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867 (see pp. 2-3 for -further bibliography of works written before 1851). J. Zacher, _Julii -Valerii Epitome, zum ersten mal herausgegeben_, Halle, 1867. - -[2294] _Hexaemeron_, VI, 7. On the other hand, Augustine, _De civitate -dei_, V, 6-7, alludes to the sage who selected a certain hour for -intercourse with his wife in order that he might beget a marvelous son. - -[2295] Seneca in the _Natural Questions_ (VI, 23) called the death of -Callisthenes “the eternal crime” of Alexander which all his military -victories and conquests could not outweigh,—a passage which did not -keep Nero from forcing Seneca to commit suicide. - -[2296] Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, Leipzig, 1904, pp. 308-309. - -[2297] _Res gestae_ of Alexander of Macedon, contained in three MSS -of the Royal Library in the British Museum, dating according to the -catalogue from the eleventh and twelfth centuries: Royal 13-A-I, Royal -12-C-IV, and Royal 15-C-VI, are not the full text of Julius Valerius, -but the epitome of which I shall soon speak. - -[2298] The longer epitome is known from an Oxford MS, Corpus Christi MS -82, and was believed by Meyer to be intermediary between Valerius and -the other briefer epitome. Cillié, however, tries to prove the shorter -epitome to be the older. - -[2299] _Alexandri Magni Epistola ad Aristotelem de mirabilibus Indiae_, -first printed with _Synesii Epistolae, graece; adcedunt aliorum -Epistolae_, Venice, 1499; then Bologna, 1501; Basel, 1517; Paris, 1520, -fols. 102v-14v, following the Pseudo-Aristotle, _Secret of Secrets_; -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. 51v-78r, a beautifully clear MS of the late 11th -century with clubbed strokes. The Epistola is preceded by the _Epitome -of Valerius_ and followed by the correspondence with Dindimus. - -Royal 12-C-IV, 12th century. - -Royal 15-C-VI, 12th century. - -Cotton Nero D VIII, fol. 169. - -Sloane 1619, 13th century, fols. 12-17. - -Arundel 242, 15th century, fols. 160-83. - -BL Laud. Misc. 247, 12th century, fol. 186; preceded at fol. 171 by the -“Ortus vita et obitus Alexandri Macedonis,” and followed at fol. 196v -by the letter to Dindimus. - -BN MSS 2874, 4126, 4877, 4880, 5062, 6121, 6365, 6503, 6831, 7561, -8518, 8521A, _Epistola de itinere et situ Indiae_; 8607, _Epistolae -eius nomine scriptae_; and 2695A, 6186, 6365, 6385, 6811, 6831, 8501A, -for _Responsio ad Dindimum_. - -CLM 11319, 13th century, fol. 88, _Alexandri epistola ad Aristotelem -de rebus in India gestis_, preceded at fol. 72 by the _Epitome_ and -followed at fol. 97 by the _Dindimus_. - -In the library of Eton College an imperfect copy of the _Epistola_ -follows _Orosius_ in a MS of the early 13th century, 133, BL 4, 6, -fols. 85r-87. - -A somewhat different and later version of the _Letter to Aristotle_ was -published in 1910 at Heidelberg by Friedrich Pfister from a Bamberg MS -of the 11th century, together with _Palladius_ and the correspondence -with Dindimus. Pfister believed all these to be translations from the -Greek. - -An Anglo-Saxon version of the _Letter to Aristotle_ was edited by -Cockayne in 1861 (see T. Wright, RS 34; xxvii). - -[2300] III, 17. - -[2301] First published by Joachim Camerarius about 1571. - -[2302] Published with _Palladius_ by Sir Edward Bisse in 1665; MSS are -numerous. - -[2303] From this same MS Pfister published the _Letter to Aristotle_ -and other treatises mentioned above. - -[2304] 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 Germany, its popularity became general in western -Europe toward the close of the middle ages. - -[2305] Harleian 527, fols. 47-56. - -[2306] Amplon. Quarto 12, fols. 200-201; presumably it includes only -those chapters concerned with Nectanebus. - -[2307] CUL 1429 (Gg. I, 34), 14th century, No. 5, 35 fols. Also in CU -Trinity 1041, 14th century, fols. 200v-212v, “De Nectanabo mago quomodo -magnum genuerit Alexandrum. Egipti sapientes....” - -[2308] NH XXXVI, 14 and 19. - -[2309] _De anima_, cap. 57, in Migne, PL II, 792. - -[2310] The former built a Temple of Isis, now a heap of ruins, at -Behbit el-Hagar and a colonnade to the Temple of Hibis in the oasis -of Khîrgeh; and his name appears upon a gate in the Temple of Mont at -Karnak. Besides the Vestibule of Nektanebos at Philae there is a court -of Nektanebos before the Temple of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Medinet -Habu. - -[2311] Berthelot (1885), pp. 29-30. - -[2312] The Syriac version, on the contrary, emphasizes this point less. - -[2313] Budge’s translation of the Ethiopic version. - -[2314] CLM 215, fols. 176-94, “Egiptiorum gentem in mathematica magica -quam in arte fuisse valentem littere tradunt.” - -[2315] _Pseudo-Callisthenes_, I, 4, “casters of horoscopes, -readers of signs, interpreters of dreams, ventriloquists, augurs, -genethlialogists, 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 ‘sorcerers’; and others are counters of the stars. As for -me, all of these are in my hands and I myself am an Egyptian prophet, -a magus, and a counter of the stars.” Budge, _Ethiopic Histories_, -p. 11, “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 because -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.’” - -[2316] From Fowler’s translation of _Alexander: the False Prophet_. See -also Plutarch’s _Alexander_. - -[2317] The Syriac and Ethiopic versions are somewhat more detailed -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 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.” - -[2318] In another place, however, Albert calls Philip Alexander’s -father, _De causis et proprietatibus elementorum et planetarum_, II, -ii, 1. - -[2319] The story is better told in the Syriac version (Budge, 14-17), -where Alexander does not push Nectanebus into the pit until after he -has asked the astrologer if he knows his own fate and has been told -that Nectanebus is to be slain by his own son. Alexander then attempts -to foil fate by pushing Nectanebus into the pit, but only fulfills -it. In the Ethiopic version Nectanebus is represented as educating -Alexander from his seventh year on in “philosophy and letters and the -working of magic and the stars and their seasons.” Aristotle becomes -Alexander’s tutor only after the death of Nectanebus. Aristotle, too, -is represented as an adept in astrology, amulets, and the use of magic -wax images. (Budge, _Ethiopic Histories_, pp. 31, xlv). - -[2320] VI, 4. - -[2321] Royal 13-A-I, fol. 53v. - -[2322] In CU Trinity 1446 (1250 A. D.) _The Romance of Alexander_ in -French verse by Eustache (or Thomas) of Kent, among 152 pictures listed -by James (III, 483-91) are two representing the hero’s colloquy with -the moon tree (fol. 31r). Marco Polo also tells of these marvelous -trees. And see Roux de Rochelle, “Notice sur l’Arbre du Soleil, ou -Arbre Sec, décrit dans la relation des voyages de Marco Polo,” in -_Bulletin de la Société de géographie_, série 3, III (1845), 187-94. - -[2323] For the _Letter to Aristotle_ I have employed the Paris, 1520 -edition and Royal 13-A-I, which follow the early Latin version. As -stated above, Pfister’s edition (Heidelberg, 1910) gives a later -version probably translated from the Greek. - -[2324] There appears to have been no complete edition of Aëtius in -Greek. The first eight of his sixteen 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 principes_, 1567. - -Recent editions of portions of Aëtius are: Αετιου λογος δωδεκατος -πρωτον νυν εκδοθεις ὑπο Γεωργιου Α. Κωστομοιρου, pp. 112, 131, Paris, -1892. - -_Die Augenheilkunde des Aëtius aus Amida_, Griechisch und deutsch -herausg. von J. Hirschberg, pp. xi, 204, Leipzig, 1899. - -_Aetii sermo sextidecimus et ultimus_ (Αετιου περι των εν μητρα παθων -etc.). Erstens aus HSS veröffentl. mit Abbildungen, etc., v. S. Zervòs, -pp. k’, 172, Leipzig, 1901. - -Αετιου Αμιδινου Λογος δεκατος πεμπτος, ed. S. Zerbos, 1909, in -Επιστημονικη Εταιρεια, Αθηνα, vol. 21. - -My references to Alexander of Tralles are both to the text of Stephanus -(1567) and the more recent edition by Theodor Puschmann, _Alexander -von Tralles, Originaltext und Übersetzung nebst einer einleitenden -Abhandlung_, Vienna, 1878-9, 2 vols. This gives a more critical text -than any previous edition, but unfortunately Puschmann adopted still -another arrangement into books than those of the MSS and previous -editions, and also in my opinion did not make a sufficient study of the -Latin MSS. His introduction 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. Milward, published -in 1733 under the title, _A Letter to the Honourable Sir Hans Sloane -Bart., etc._, and in 1734 as _Trallianus Reviviscens_, 229 pp. Milward -was preparing an edition of Alexander of Tralles, but it was never -published. His estimate of Alexander’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 cum 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 Étienne) in 1548 (ed. J. Goupyl). -The Latin translation by Guinther of Andernach, which is included in -Stephanus (1567), first appeared in 1549, Strasburg, and was reprinted -a number of times. - -Another work by Puschmann may also be noted: _Nachträge zu Alexander -Trallianus. Fragmente aus Philumenus und Philagrius nebst einer bisher -noch ungedruckten Abhandlung über Augenkrankheiten_, 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 extant codex of the -work. As a result Rose indulged in ingenious theories to explain how -the _editio princeps_ by Ianus Cornarius, Basel, 1536, included the -prefatory 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 written MS of -the ninth century, contains the _De medicamentis_ entire with all the -preliminary letters. Moreover, it is evident that the _editio princeps_ -was printed directly from this MS, which contains 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 Stephanus, -_Medicae artis principes_, 1567. - -Jacob Grimm, _Über Marcellus Burdigalensis_, in _Abhandl. d. kgl. Akad. -d. Wiss. z. Berlin_ (1847), pp. 429-60, discusses the evidence for -placing Marcellus under the older Theodosius, lists the Celtic 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 Schriften_, II (1865), 114-51, where it is followed at pp. -152-72 by a supplementary paper, _Über die Marcellischen Formeln_, -likewise reprinted 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, where he adds _nova magica ex Marcelli libris -collata_ which Grimm had omitted. - -[2325] Marcellus is often called of Bordeaux, notably in Grimm’s -article, _Über Marcellus Burdigalensis_, 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 -reference to the following incantation recommended by Marcellus, -_tetunc resonco bregan gresso_, “Je remarque en passant qu’il faut -frotter l’œil en disant ce _carmen_, et que dans le patois du Midi, -_brégua_ ou _brége_, signifie frotter. Marcellus, si je ne me trompe, -était de Bordeaux.” - -Grimm, however (1847), p. 455, interpreted _bregan_ as “lies”—“breigan -gen. pl. von breag lüge,” and the whole line as in modern Irish _teith -uainn cre soin go breigan greasa_ (“fleuch von uns staub hinnen zu der -lügen genossen!”). - -[2326] Stephanus (1567), I, 347, _et seq._ For an English translation -of the text see F. Adams, _The Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta_, London, -1844-1847. - -[2327] _Simia Galieni_, according to Guinther in his translation of -Alexander of Tralles, Stephanus (1567), I, 131. - -[2328] Milward (1733), 9-11. - -[2329] John Friend (or Freind), _History of Physick_ (1725), I, 297. - -[2330] Puschmann, _History of Medical Education_, 1891, p. 153. - -[2331] Milward (1733), p. 11. - -[2332] J. F. Payne, _English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times_, 1904, pp. -102-8. - -[2333] Milward (1733), p. 19; Puschmann (1878), I, 104. - -[2334] Ch. Daremberg, _Histoire des Sciences Médicales_, Paris, 1870, -I, 242. - -[2335] This general impression received from reading many classical -and medieval works I was glad to find confirmed by Milward (1733), p. -29, in the particular case of Alexander of Tralles, of whom he writes: -“As our author’s stile is excellent, so likewise is his method, and -there is no respect in which he is more distinguished from the other -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 together with little or no order, as is evident -enough to all such as have been conversant with them.” - -[2336] Daremberg (1870), I, 258-9, said that a mass of MSS in a score -of European libraries contained as yet unidentified Latin translations -of Greek medical writers. - -[2337] BN 10233, 7th century uncial; BN nouv. acq. 1619, 7-8th century, -demi-uncial; BN 9332, 9th century, fol. 1-, Oribasii synopsis medica; -CLM 23535, 12th century, fols. 72 and 112. V. Rose, _Soranus_, 1882, -pp. iv-v, speaks of a sixth century Latin version of _Oribasius_. - -[2338] _Tetrabiblos_, IV, iii, 15. - -[2339] _Ibid._, I, iv, 9, where Galen is not cited, and III, i, 9, -where Galen is cited. In Galen, _De simplicibus_, IX, ii, 19 (Kühn, -XII, 207). - -[2340] _Ibid._, I, ii, 170, where Galen is not cited; _De simplicibus_, -XI, i, 1 (Kühn, XII, 311-4). - -[2341] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 175; Kühn 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. - -[2342] _Tetrabiblos_ at the beginning, pp. 6-7 in Stephanus (1567). - -[2343] _Tetrabiblos_ IV, i, 33; Kühn XIV, 233, and XII, 250-1. - -[2344] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 109; Kühn XII, 288. - -[2345] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 84; Kühn XII, 253. - -[2346] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 84; Kühn XII, 248, 284-5. - -[2347] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 111; Kühn XII, 291-3. - -[2348] _Tetrabiblos_ II, iv, 34; Kühn XII, 860. Perhaps a closer -correspondence than this could be found. In his preceding 33rd chapter, -headed _Curatio erosorum dentium ex Galeno_, Aëtius includes 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 oil in which earthworms have been cooked. - -[2349] _Tetrabiblos_ I, ii, 49. - -[2350] _Tetrabiblos_ IV, i, 39. - -[2351] _Tetrabiblos_ III, iii, 35. - -[2352] _Tetrabiblos_ II, ii, 12. Marcellus, cap. 20 (p. 188) also -speaks of “those who often think that they are made sport of by an -incubus.” - -[2353] _Tetrabiblos_, I, ii, 177. - -[2354] _Tetrabiblos_, IV, i, 86. - -[2355] _Tetrabiblos_, I, iii, 164. This passage was printed separately -in the _Uranologion_ of D. Petavius, Paris, 1630 and 1703. - -[2356] Agathias, _De imperio et rebus gestis Justiniani_, Paris, 1860, -p. 149. - -[2357] Milward (1733), p. 17, “he travel’d through Greece, Gaul, Spain, -and several other places whose mention we find up and down in his -works.” - -[2358] Puschmann (1878), I, 288, διὸ καὶ γέρων λοιπὸν πειθαρχῶ καὶ -κάμνειν οὐκέτι δυνάμενος.... - -[2359] Milward (1733), p. 25. - -[2360] Puschmann (1878), I, 83. - -[2361] Milward (1733), p. 27. - -[2362] Puschmann (1891), 152-3. - -[2363] Stephanus (1567), I, 131. - -[2364] Friend (1725), I, 106. - -[2365] Milward (1733), pp. 65-6, 57 _et seq._ - -[2366] _Ibid._, pp. 104, 92-3, 71. - -[2367] _Ibid._, pp. 48-9. - -[2368] See V. Rose, _Hermes_, VIII, 39; _Anecdota_, II, 108. I -presume that BN 9332, 9th century, fol. 139, “Alexandri hiatrosofiste -therapeut(i)con” (libri tres) is the free Latin translation in a 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 9-10th century and an Angers MS of the 10-11th century. He also -alludes to a MS at Chartres without giving 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, 12-13th century, fols. 1-60, libri III 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 Torinus and -Guinther of Andernach, seem to have taken greater liberties 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 Puschmann, -_Nachträge_, 1886, has published separately as fragments of Philumenus -and Philagrius, medical writers of the first and fourth centuries. His -chief reason seems to be that cap. 79 is entitled, _De reumate ventris -filominis_, and cap. 104, _Ad splenem philogrius_, while cap. 151 -is headed, _Causa que est ydropicie alexandri_. These passages 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. - -[2369] Puschmann (1878), I, 91. - -[2370] As in Vendôme 109, 11th century, fol. 1, 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 nefreticorum.” The _Mulsa Alexandri_ is found also in -two other 11th century MSS of the same library: Vendôme 172, fol. 1, -and 175, fol. 2. - -In Royal 12-E-XX, 12th century, fols. 146v-151v, “Incipit liber -dietarum diversarum medicorum, hoc est Alexandri et aliorum.” This -extract, made up of a number of Alexander’s chapters on the diet -suitable in different ailments, is often found in the MSS, as here, -with the Pseudo-Pliny and was printed as its fifth book in 1509 and -1516. - -[2371] Puschmann (1878), I, 97. - -[2372] Milward (1773), p. 179. - -[2373] Thus in Vendôme 109 (see note 2, p. 577) besides the -extracts from Alexander of Tralles we find at fol. 58, “Alexander -(Aphrodisiensis) amicus veritatis in tertio libro suo ubi de febribus -commemorat.” The Arabs seem to have confused these two Alexanders: see -Steinschneider (1862), p. 61; Puschmann (1878), I, 94-5. - -[2374] See the discussion by Choulant in _Janus_ (1845), p. 52, and -Henschel in De Renzi (1852-9) II, 11, of a 12th century MS at Breslau, -“Liber Alexandri de agnoscendis febribus et pulsibus et urinis”; also -Puschmann (1878) I, 105-6, concerning BN Greek MS 2316, which seems to -be a late Greek translation of it,—another instance that a Greek text -is not necessarily the original. - -[2375] Corpus Christi 189, 11-12th century, fols. 1-5, “Antidotum -pigra magni Alexandri Macedonii quod facit stomaticis epilenticis.” -Steinschneider, cited by Puschmann (1878) I, 106, has also noted the -attribution in Hebrew MSS to Alexander the Great of a work on fever, -urine, and pulse, presumably identical with that mentioned in the -foregoing note. - -[2376] Stephanus (1567) I, 176, 204, 216, 225; and Puschmann, II, 575, -are a few specimens. - -[2377] Amplon. Quarto 204, 12-13th century, fols. 90-5, Experimentorum -Alexandri medici collectio succincta. Digby 79, 13th century, fols. -180-92v, “Alexandrina experimenta de libro percompendiose extractata -meliora ut nobis visum est ad singulas egritudines.” Additional 34111, -15th century, fol. 77, “Experimenta Alexandri,” in English. - -[2378] Stephanus I, 156; Puschmann II, 563. - -[2379] Milward (1733), p. 168. - -[2380] Stephanus I, 312; Puschmann II, 579. - -[2381] Stephanus I, 345, see also 296 and 339; Puschmann I, 407, 437. - -[2382] Stephanus I, 312; Puschmann II, 579. - -[2383] Stephanus I, 156; Puschmann I, 565. - -[2384] Stephanus I, 345; Puschmann I, 437. - -[2385] Καὶ θαυμαστῶς ὅπως ἀντιπαθείᾳ τινὶ καὶ λόγῳ ἀρρήτῳ. - -[2386] For the passages in this paragraph see Stephanus I, 156-7, 313; -Puschmann I, 561, 567-73. - -[2387] Stephanus I, 312. - -[2388] Stephanus I, 281; Puschmann II, 475. - -[2389] Stephanus I, 296; Puschmann II, 377. - -[2390] Stephanus I, 313. - -[2391] Stephanus I, 296; Puschmann II, 377. - -[2392] Stephanus I, 281; Puschmann II, 475. - -[2393] Stephanus I, 314; Puschmann II, 585. - -[2394] If the MSS, which I have not examined, agree with the 1504 -edition. - -[2395] Both in BN 6880 and the edition of Basel, 1536, “Marcellus -vir inluster ex magno officio Theodosii 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.” - -[2396] Cap. 20 (1889), p. 204. - -[2397] In BN 6880 there are other headings written in capitals than -those which mark the openings of the 36 chapters. - -[2398] Cap. 29 (1889), pp. 304-6. - -[2399] Cap. 35 (1889), p. 361. - -[2400] Cap. 8 (1889), p. 80. - -[2401] Cap. 5 (1889), p. 49. - -[2402] For such mentions of experience and experiment see the following -passages in the 1889 edition, numbers referring to page and line: 31, -7; 34, 3; 35, 14; 44, 2; 53, 1; 58, 21; 64, 34; 65, 30; 66, 26; 72, -22; 73, 7; 74, 2; 77, 9; 80, 28; 81, 29; 89, 3 and 29; 96, 14 and 31; -102, 27; 120, 32; 123, 15; 129, 21; 133, 10; 145, 33; 148, 25; 149, 26; -160, 18; 176, 5; 178, 25; 186, 15; 190, 20; 192, 31; 211, 1; 222, 18; -224, 31; 230, 3; 235, 15; 236, 14; 239, 8 and 26; 242, 8 and 23; 248, -20; 256, 9; 258, 5; 264, 21; 276, 35; 281, 19 and 27; 282, 15; 308, 21; -312, 6 and 19 and 22; 314, 25; 326, 28; 327, 13; 334, 29; 343, 23; 351, -23 and 25; 353, 4; 354, 19; 356, 6; 362, 32; 370, 22 and 37. - -[2403] Cap. 15 (1889), p. 146. - -[2404] Cap. 23 (1889), p. 239. - -[2405] Caps. 20 and 24 (1889), pp. 208 and 244. - -[2406] Cap. 26 (1889), pp. 264-6. - -[2407] Cap. 29 (1889), p. 311; and see cap. 28, p. 298. - -[2408] Cap. 12, p. 123. - -[2409] Cap. 16, p. 166. - -[2410] Cap. 23, p. 238. - -[2411] Cap. 34, p. 357. - -[2412] Cap. 8, p. 69. - -[2413] Cap. 8, p. 66. - -[2414] Cap. 12, p. 125. - -[2415] Cap. 10, p. 113. - -[2416] Cap. 10, p. 112; NH 30, 11. - -[2417] Cap. 8, p. 68; NH 29, 38. - -[2418] Cap. 29, p. 313. - -[2419] Cap. 29, p. 314. Pliny has a similar procedure with a frog and a -reed. - -[2420] Cap. 22, p. 230. - -[2421] Cap. 33, p. 347, “mulierem verendaque eius dum cum ea cois -tange.” - -[2422] Cap. 23, p. 239. - -[2423] Cap. 1, p. 34. - -[2424] Cap. 25, p. 247. - -[2425] Cap. 12, p. 126. - -[2426] Cap. 18, p. 178. - -[2427] Cap. 17, p. 176. - -[2428] Cap. 32, pp. 337, 338, 340. - -[2429] Cap. 8, p. 70. - -[2430] Cap. 12, p. 123. - -[2431] Cap. 36, p. 379. Marcellus employs the phrase, of course, to -indicate a private or personal incantation, and as a matter of fact it -is somewhat less absurd than a number of others. - -[2432] Cap. 28, p. 301. - -[2433] Cap. 29, p. 310. For further instances of incantations and -characters in the _De medicamentis_ see page 110, lines 18-27; 111, -26-33; 112, 29-113, 2; 116, 8-11; 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, 9-15; 382, 16-18. - -[2434] Daremberg (1870) I, 257-8. - -[2435] _Plinii Secundi Iunioris de medicina libri tres_, ed. V. Rose, -Lipsiae, 1875. V. Rose, “Ueber die Medicina Plinii,” in _Hermes_, VIII -(1874) 19-66. - -[2436] _C. Plinii Secundi Medicina_, ed. Thomas Pighinuccius, Rome, -1509. - -[2437] Codex St. Gall 751; described by V. Rose, _Hermes_, VIII, 48-55; -_Anecdota_ II, 106. - -[2438] For the list of his six genuine works see above p. 222. - -[2439] De nota aspirationis and De diphthongis, ed. Osann, Darmstadt, -1826, with _De orthographia_, a forgery by a sixteenth century humanist. - -[2440] Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, sometimes printed as the third book of the _De -dogmate Platonis_. Some scholars, however, regard it as genuine, and -there are a number of MSS of it from the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries. -See Schanz (1905), 127-8. - -[2441] See above p. 290. - -[2442] See Schanz (1905), 139-40. - -[2443] See below p. 683. Schanz fails to mention it among the -apocryphal works of Apuleius. - -[2444] H. Köbert, _De Pseudo-Apulei herbarum medicaminibus_, Bayreuth, -1888. Schanz (1905) 138, mentions only continental MSS, although there -are numerous MSS of it in the British Museum and Bodleian libraries, -some of which have been used and others described by O. Cockayne in his -edition of the _Herbarium_ and the other treatises accompanying it in -his _Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England_, Vol. I -(1864) in RS XXXV. Nor does Schanz note Cockayne’s book. - -[2445] See Sloane 1975, a vellum MS of the 12th or early 13th century -written in fine large letters and beautifully illuminated; Ashmole -1431, end of 11th century, and 1462, 13th century, fol. 45r. Harleian -4986, Apuleii Platonici de medicamentis cum figuris pictis, is another -early illuminated English MS. Cockayne I, lxxxii, 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. - -[2446] Lucca 236, 9-10th century, “Herbarium Apuleii Platonici -quem accepit a Chironi magistro Achillis et ab Escolapio explicit -feliciter.” In Cotton Vitellius C-III, early 11th century, in -Anglo-Saxon, although the title reads, “The Herbarium of Apuleius the -Platonist which he received from Esculapius and Chiron the centaur, -the master of Achilles,” a full page painting shows Plato and Chiron -receiving the volume from Aesculapius (Cockayne, I, lxxxviii). And -Sloane 1975 and Harleian 1585 speak of the _Herbarium_ as “Liber -Platonis Apoliensis.” In a 15th century MS (Rawlinson C-328, fol. -113v-, Incipit de herbis Galieni Apolei et Ciceronis) Galen and Cicero, -who perhaps replace Chiron and Aesculapius, are associated with -Apuleius as authors. - -[2447] Daremberg (1853), 11-12, said that the pagan incantations -were preserved intact in a number of MSS at Oxford and Cambridge. -Conjurations of herbs are not limited to the Pseudo-Apuleius in -medieval MSS but sometimes occur singly as in Perugia 736, 13th -century, where at fol. 267 a 14th century hand has added a passage in -Latin which may be translated: “In the name of Christ, Amen. I conjure -you, herb, that I may conquer by lord Peter etc. by moon and stars etc. -and may you conquer all my enemies, pontiff and priests and all laymen -and all women and all lawyers 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_. - -[2448] The above passages are from Sloane 1975 and the edition of 1547. - -[2449] Ashmole 1431, 11th century, fol. 3r, “In nomine domini incipit -herboralium apuleii platonis quod accepit ascolapio et chirone centauro -magistro. Lege feliciter. Precantatio omnium herbarum ad singulas -curas.” CU Trinity 1152, 14th century, fol. 1. Gonville and Caius 345, -14th century, fol. 89v. - -[2450] Or Papyriensis Placitus. - -[2451] Perhaps merely for “auctor.” ed. Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. XIII, -395-423, _Sexti Placiti liber de medicina ex animalibus_. - -[2452] In Montpellier 277, 15th century, “Liber Sesti platonis de -animalibus,” 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 Rawlinson -C-328, 15th century, fol. 128, “Incipit liber Papiriensis ex animalibus -ex avibus.” The work is sometimes found in juxtaposition with a -somewhat similar “Liber medicinalis de secretis Galieni,” concerning -which see below, chapter 64, II, 761. - -[2453] V. Rose (1875) 337-8 suggests that this is a fragment from a -fuller work of Aesculapius to Augustus cited by Thomas of Cantimpré, -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. - -[2454] Ed. Ruellius, with Scribonius Largus, Paris, 1529. - -[2455] In a later medieval vocabulary _taxus_ is given as a synonym for -the animal called _camaleon_: _Alphita_, ed. Daremberg from BN 6954 and -6957 in De Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, III, 272-322. - -[2456] Cotton Vespasian B, X, #6. - -[2457] Harleian 3859, called tenth century in the Harleian catalogue -which is often incorrect in its dating, but 11th or 12th century -by d’Avezac, Mommsen in his edition of Solinus, and Beazley, _Dawn -of Geography_, I, 523. Royal 15-B-II and 15-C-IV, both of the 12th -century. For other MSS at Paris, Leyden, and Rome see Beazley, _op. -cit._ - -[2458] But after all is Suetonius any more respectable a historian than -Aethicus and Solinus are geographers? - -[2459] Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography_, II, Appendix: “How -M. Wuttke can attach any value to such a production is to me quite -incomprehensible; still more that he should ascribe the translation -to the great ecclesiastical writer,” Jerome. Bunbury believed that -the work was not earlier than the seventh century. Beazley, _Dawn of -Geography_, I, 355-63, is of the same opinion. - -[2460] In his edition of Solinus, p. xxvii, he contends that certain -passages which Wuttke pointed out as common to Aethicus and Solinus are -borrowed by Aethicus from Isidore who died in 636. - -[2461] Harleian 3859. - -[2462] Steele, _Opera hactenus inedita_, 1905, Fasc. I, pp. 1-2. - -[2463] CUL 213, 14th century, fols. 103v-14, “Qui hunc librum legit -intelligat Ethicum philosophum non omnia dixisse que hic scripta sunt, -set Solinus (so James, but _Jeronimus_ in d’Avezac, p. 237) qui eum -transtulit sententias veritati consonas ex libro eiusdem excerpsit et -easdem testimonias scripture nostre confirmavit. Non enim erat iste -philosophus Christianus sed Ethnicus et professione Achademicus.” - -[2464] Bridges I, 267-8. - -[2465] Cited by d’Avezac, pp. 257 and 267. - -[2466] Vienna 2272, 14th century, fol. 92, De vindemiis a Burgundione -translatus: Pars Geoponicorum. - -[2467] Such is the view set forth in PW _Geoponica_. - -[2468] H. Beckh, _Geoponica sive Cassiani Bassi scholastici de re -rustica eclogae_, Lipsiae, Teubner, 1895. PW criticizes this edition as -“_leider völlig verfehlten_.” Its preface lists the earlier editions. - -[2469] _Geoponica_, VII, 5; II, 15. - -[2470] VII, 11; XV, 1. - -[2471] I, 12; VII, 13; etc. - -[2472] XV, 1. - -[2473] R. Heim, _Incantamenta magica graeca latina_, in _Jahrb. -f. class. Philologie_, Suppl. Bd. 19, Leipzig, 1893, pp. 463-576, -drew from the _Geoponica_ 13 out of his total of 245 instances of -incantations from Greek and Latin literature. - -[2474] VII, 14. - -[2475] XIII, 15. - -[2476] The first two volumes, published at Berlin in 1907, 1906, -covered the first four of the five genuine books. A previous attempt -was K. Sprengel’s edition in vols. 25-26 of C. J. Kühn’s _Medici -Graeci_, Leipzig, 1829. On the textual history and problems see further -Wellman’s articles: “Dioskurides” in Pauly-Wissowa, and in _Hermes_, -XXXIII, (1898) 360ff. - -[2477] Περὶ βοτανῶν, περὶ ζῴων παντοίων, περὶ παντοίων ἐλαίων, περὶ -ὕλης δένδρων, περὶ οἴνων καὶ λίθων, is another order suggested. - -[2478] 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 1555 for the future Emperor Maximilian 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 Iulianae_, etc., 1906). See also A. v. -Premerstein in the Austrian _Jahrbuch_ (1903) XXIV, 105ff. - -I have examined the facsimile 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 reproduce here. These large illuminations include a portrait -of Juliana Anicia, an ornamental peacock with tail spread, groups -of doctors engaged in medical discussions, and Dioscorides himself -seated writing, and again seated on a folding stool receiving the herb -mandragora (which, of course, was a medieval favorite) from a female -figure personifying Discovery (Εὕρησις), “while in the foreground a dog -dies in agony,” presumably from the fatal effects 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 Neapolitanus_, formerly -at Vienna, now at St. Mark’s, Venice, an eighth century 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 emperor sent a Greek manuscript of -Dioscorides to the caliph in Spain. - -For the full text of the _De materia medica_ we are dependent on MSS of -the 11th, 12th, 13th and later centuries. - -[2479] Περὶ δηλητηρίων φαρμάκων and περὶ ἰοβόλων, edited by Sprengel -in Kühn (1830), XXVI, as was the Περὶ εὐπορίστων ἁπλῶν τε καὶ συνθέτων -φαρμάκων. The Περὶ φαρμάκων ἐμπειρίας, (“Experimental Pharmacy”), of -which a Latin version, _Alphabetum empiricum, sive Dioscoridis et -Stephani Atheniensis ... de remediis expertis_, was edited by C. Wolf, -Zürich, 1581, is an alphabetical arrangement by diseases ascribed to -Dioscorides and Stephen of Athens (and other writers). - -[2480] Max Wellmann, _Die Schrift des Dioskurides_ Περὶ ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων, -1914, and col. 1140 of his article “Dioskurides” in Pauly-Wissowa. - -[2481] _De inst. div. lit._ cap. 31. - -[2482] V. Rose in Hermes VIII, 38A. Harleian 4986, fol. 44v, “... -marcelline libellum botanicon ex dioscoridis libris in latinum sermonem -conversum in quo depicte sunt herbarum figure ad te misi....” - -[2483] Heinrich Kaestner, _Kritisches und Exegetisches zu -Pseudo-Dioskorides de herbis femininis_, Regensburg, 1896; text in -_Hermes_ XXXI (1896) 578-636. Singer (1921) 68, gives as the earliest -MS, Rome Barberini IX, 29, of 9th century. Some other MSS are: BN -12995, 9th century; Additional 8928, 11th century, fol. 62v-; Ashmole -1431, end of 11th century, fols. 31v-43, “Incipit liber Dioscoridis ex -herbis feminis”; Sloane 1975, 12th or early 13th century, fols. 49v-73; -Harleian 1585, 12th century, fol. 79-; Harleian 5294, 12th century; -Turin K-IV-3, 12th century, #5, “Incipit liber dioscoridis medicine ex -herbis femininis numero LXXI .../ ... Liber medicine dioscoridis de -herbis femininis et masculinis explicit feliciter.” - -In Vienna 5371, 15th century, fols. 121v-124v, is a briefer Latin -treatise ascribed to Dioscordes, which begins with the herb -_aristologia_ and mentions silk (_sericum_) 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). - -[2484] _Hermes_ VIII, 38, comparing _Etymologies_ XVII, 93, with cap. -30 of the _De herbis femininis_. - -[2485] _Anecdota graeca et graeco-latina_, Berlin, 1864, II, 115 and -119; Hermes VIII, 38; Wellmann (1906), p. xxi. - -[2486] BN 9332, 8th century; CLM 337, 9-10th 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. - -[2487] Cod. Bam. L-III-9. - -[2488] PW “Dioskurides.” A fairly early MS is CU Jesus 44, 12-13th -century, fols. 17-145r, “diascorides per modum alphabeti de virtutibus -herbarum et compositione olerum.” I have not seen it but, if correctly -dated, it and Bologna University Library 378, 12th century, which is -said to differ from the printed editions, are too early to be Peter of -Abano’s version. - -[2489] _Explicit dyascorides quem petrus paduanensis legendo corexit -et exponendo quae utiliora sunt in lucem deduxit_, Colle, 1478. -_Dioscorides digestus alphabetico ordine additis annotatiunculis -brevibus et tractatu aquarum_, Lugduni, 1512. And see Chap. 70, -Appendix II. - -[2490] I have read it in BN 6820, fol. 1r, as well as in the 1478 -edition. - -[2491] A work by Serapion which Simon Cordo of Genoa translated from -Arabic into Latin with the help of Abraham, a Jew of Tortosa. Serapion -states at the beginning that his work is a combination of Dioscorides -and of the work of Galen on medicinal simples. _Aggregator_ was printed -in 1479, _Liber Serapionis aggregatus in medicinis simplicibus. -Translatio Symonis Ianuensis interprete Abraam iudeo tortuosiensi de -arabico in latinum._ - -[2492] Ruska (1912), p. 5, says that Dioscorides, V, 84-133, among -other things describes “eine ganze Reihe von höchst zweifelhaften -Steinen mit unglaublichen Wirkungen die in den Arabischen -Arzneimittelverzeichnissen und Steinbüchern niederkehren.” - -[2493] Amplon. Folio 41, fols. 36-7; Montpellier 277, caps. 46-67 -of the treatise entitled, _Liber aristotelis de lapidibus preciosis -secundum verba sapientium antiquorum_. - -[2494] Sloane 3848, 17th century, fols. 36-40. - -[2495] _Macer Floridus de viribus herbarum una cum Walafridi Strabonis, -Othonis Cremonensis et Ioannis Folcz carminibus similis argumenti_, ed. -Ludovicus Choulant, 1832. - -[2496] 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 centuries. Both the treatise and the name are frequent in the -earlier MSS. - -[2497] Cotton, Vitellius C, III. - -[2498] The Dane, Harpestreng, who died in 1244, translated and -commented upon the poem; published by Christian Molbech, Copenhagen, -1826. - -[2499] There are a large number in the MSS collections of the British -Museum alone. Some said to be of the 12th century are Harleian 4346, -and at Erfurt Amplon, Octavo 62a and 62b. - -[2500] See the British Museum catalogue 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 omnes_, Aldus, Venice, 1547, fols. 223-46. - -[2501] Choulant (1832) Preface. - -[2502] Choulant (1832) _Prolegomena ad Macrum_, p. 14. - -[2503] See the description of _Ligusticum_, lines 900-6. - -[2504] Often printed: ed. F. A. Reuss, Würzburg, 1834; in Migne PL 114, -1119-30. - -[2505] H. Stadler, _Die Quellen des Macer Floridus_, in Sudhoff (1909). - -[2506] Stadler, _op. cit._; Choulant (1832), p. 4. - -[2507] “Macer scripsit metrico stilo librum. de viribus -herbarum,”—Stadler (1909), 65. - -[2508] It was, however, a good deal subject to later interpolation. - -[2509] Choulant (1832) adds as _Macri spuria_ 487 lines concerning -twenty herbs. - -In Vienna 3207, 15th century, fols. 1-50, Macer Floridus, De viribus -herbarum; fols. 50-52, Pseudo-Macer, De animalibus et lignis. - -[2510] Lines 1901-2, _Quae, quamvis natura potens concedere posset Vana -tamen nobis et anilia iure videntur_. - -[2511] Lines 1881-3, _Hanc herbam gestando manu si queris ab egro Dic -frater quid agis? bene si responderit eger, Vivet, si vero male, spes -est nulla salutis_. - -[2512] Herb 54, lines 1728-. - -[2513] Herb 49, lines 1617-27. - -[2514] Herb 67, lines 2095-. - -[2515] Herb 51, lines 1685-9. - -[2516] Herb 52. - -[2517] Herb 34, lines 1135-8. - -[2518] Herb 41, lines 1421-2. - -[2519] Herb 50, lines 1641-63. - -[2520] Herb 69, _Cyminum_, lines 2118-9, “Hoc orthopnoicis miram -praestare medelam Experti dicunt cum pusce saepius haustum.” - -[2521] Vienna 2532, 12th century, fols. 106-17, “Experimenta Macri. -Ad dolorem capitis. Accipe balsamum et instilla .../ ... adde sucum -celidonie et superpone vulneribus.” - -Arundel 295, 14th century, fols. 222-33, “Experimenta Macri collecta -sub certis capitulis a Gotefrido.” - -[2522] R. L. Poole, _Medieval Thought_, 1884, pp. 19, 21. - -[2523] Migne, PL 70, 1146. - -[2524] _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 Philosophy_ after the -death of Beatrice that Dante was led into a new world of literature, -science, and philosophy, as he tells us in his _Convivio_; cited by Orr -(1913), p. 1. - -[2525] Manitius (1911), pp. 29-32. - -[2526] _Ibid._, 26-8. At the time I went through the various catalogues -of MSS in the British Museum item by item it was not my intention to -include Boethius in this investigation, and I am therefore 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. - -[2527] _Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy_, translated from the Latin -by George Colville, 1556; ed. with Introduction by E. B. Box, London, -1897, p. xviii. - -[2528] Manitius (1911) pp. 35-6; Usener, _Anecdota Holderi_, Bonn, -1877, pp. 48-59; E. K. Rand, _Der dem Boethius zugeschriebene Traktat -De fide catholica_, 1901. The _De fide catholica_, however, is not -mentioned by Cassiodorus and is regarded as spurious. - -[2529] _De consol. philos._, III, 8, 21. - -[2530] _De consol. philos._, IV, 1. - -[2531] _Ibid._, III, 9, 1; III, 12, 14; III, 9, 10; III, 12, 99; II, 8, -13. - -[2532] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 10, “In hac enim de providentiae simplicitate, -de fati serie, de repentinis casibus, de cognitione ac praedestinatione -divina, de arbitrii libertate quaeri solet.” To the ensuing argument -are devoted the sixth and seventh chapters of Book IV and all of Book V. - -[2533] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 21. - -[2534] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 30. - -[2535] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 48. - -[2536] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 77. - -[2537] _De consol. philos._, V, 4-6. - -[2538] _Ibid._, IV, 6, 58. - -[2539] _Ibid._, V, 2-3 and 6, 110, “tametsi nullam naturae habeat -necessitatem atqui deus ea futura quae ex arbitrii libertate proveniunt -praesentia contuetur.” - -[2540] _Ibid._, V, 1. - -[2541] _De musica libri quinque_, I, 1-2 and 27; in Migne, PL 63, -1167-1300. - -[2542] Migne, PL 83, 963-1018. In Harleian 3099, 1134 A. D., the -_Etymologies_ at fols. 1-154, are followed by the _De natura rerum_, -the last chapter of which (fol. 164v) is numbered 42 instead of 48 as -in Migne. But up to chapter 27, _Utrum sidera animam habeant_, the -division into chapters seems the same as in the printed text. - -[2543] Migne, PL 82, 73-728, a reprint of the edition of Arevalus, -Rome, 1796. Large portions of the _Etymologies_ have been translated -into English with an introduction of some seventy pages by E. Brehaut, -_An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages_; _Isidore of Seville_, 1912, in -_Columbia University Studies in History_, etc., vol. 48, pp. 1-274. For -Isidorean bibliography see pp. 17, 22-3, 46-7 of Brehaut’s introduction. - -[2544] Manitius (1911), pp. 60-61; Brehaut (1912), p. 34. - -[2545] To say, for example, that “so hospitable an attitude toward -profane learning as Isidore displayed ... was never surpassed -throughout the middle ages” (Brehaut, p. 31), is unfair to many later -writers, as our discussion of the natural science of the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries will show. - -[2546] Brehaut (1912), p. 34. - -[2547] Migne, PL 82, 73, “Opus de origine quarumdam rerum, ex veteris -lectionis recordatione collectum, atque ita in quibusdam locis -adnotatum, sicut exstat conscriptum stylo maiorum.” - -[2548] See, for example, _Etymol._, VIII, 7, 3, “Vates a vi mentis -appellatos, Varro auctor est.” - -[2549] _Etymol._, XX, 2, 37. - -[2550] Cassiodorus, however, urged the monks of the sixth century who -cared for the sick to read Hippocrates and Galen as well as Dioscorides -and Caelius Aurelianus; Brehaut (1912), p. 87, note, citing PL 70, -1146, in the _De instit. divin. litterarum_. - -[2551] _Etymol._, XII, 4, 6 and 6, 34. - -[2552] _Ibid._, XII, 4, 12. - -[2553] _Ibid._, XII, 6, 56. - -[2554] _Ibid._, XVII, 7, 17 and 9, 36; XIX, 17, 8. - -[2555] _Ibid._, XVII, 9, 85. - -[2556] _Ibid._, XVII, 9, 30. - -[2557] _Etymol._, XVI, 15, 21-26. - -[2558] _Ibid._, XI, 3, 4, “quod plurimis etiam experimentis probatum -est.” - -[2559] Brehaut (1912), p. 3. - -[2560] _Etymol._, XVI, 26, 10, from Epiphanius, _Liber de ponderibus et -mensuris_. - -[2561] Hence, presumably, the _sextarii_, from _sex_. - -[2562] - - “Mens hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni - Incantata perit....” - -[2563] Migne, PL 83, 9. - -[2564] For Rabanus’ account see Migne, PL 110, 1097-1110; Burchard, -PL 140, 839 _et seq._; Ivo, PL 161, 760 _et seq._; Hincmar, PL 125, -716-29. Moreover, Burchard continues to follow Rabanus word for word -for some ten columns after the conclusion of their mutual excerpt from -Isidore, while Ivo is identical with Burchard for fifteen more columns. -In “Some Medieval Conceptions of Magic,” _The Monist_, 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 noticed 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 consanguineorum -nuptiis_ im Abschnitt _de magicis artibus_ (Migne, 109, 1097ff.) der -aus _Etym._ 8, 9 stammt.” Also Mr. C. C. I. Webb, in his 1909 edition -of the _Polycraticus_ notes John of Salisbury’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 recurring 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 passage. At p. 128, however, -he notes that John of Salisbury’s description 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 (_Romanic Review_, -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 Isidore’s chapter as “quoted at length” by Gratian—who seems -to me, however, to give the substance 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), 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 relation -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.” - -[2565] See below, chapter 60 on Aquinas. - -[2566] _Etymol._, VIII, 11, 15-17; _Differentiarum_, II, 14. - -[2567] Indeed, _Differentiarum_, II, 39, he defines astrology as he had -astronomy in _Etymol._, III, 27. In _Etymol._, III, 25, he ascribes the -invention of astronomy to the Egyptians and that of astrology to the -Chaldeans. - -[2568] Caps. 14 and 27. - -[2569] _De nat. rer._, III, 4; PL 83, 968. - -[2570] _Ibid._, XIX, 2. - -[2571] _Ibid._, XXII, 2-3. - -[2572] _Ibid._, IX, 1-2. - -[2573] _Ibid._, XXVI, 15; _Etymol._, III, 71, 16. - -[2574] _Etymol._, XIV, 5, “vim sideris.” - -[2575] _Ibid._, IX, 2, “secundum diversitatem enim coeli.” - -[2576] _Ibid._, IV, 13, 4. - -[2577] _De nat. rerum_, XVIII, 5-7. - -[2578] _History of the Anglo-Saxons_, III, 403. - -[2579] _Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought_, 1884, p. 20; -p. 18 in 1920 edition. - -[2580] Migne, PL 90, 293-4. - -[2581] A few MSS, chiefly from France, earlier than the 12th century, -are: BN 5543, 9th century; BN 15685, 9th century; BN nouv. acq. 1612, -1615, and 1632, all 9th or 10th century; Amiens 222, 9th century; -Cambrai 925, 9th century; Ivrea 3, 9th century; Ivrea 6, 10th century; -Berlin 128, 8-9th century; Berlin 130, 9-10th century; CLM 18158, 11th -century; CLM 21557, 11th century. - -I have not noted the MSS of Bede in the British Museum and Bodleian -collections. - -[2582] PL 90, 187-278; the text occupies but a small portion of these -columns. - -[2583] _Ibid._, Cap. 14. - -[2584] _Ibid._, Cap. 24. - -[2585] _Ibid._, Cap. 25. - -[2586] _In Samuelem prophetam allegorica expositio_, IV, 7; PL 91, 701. - -[2587] _De tonitruis libellus ad Herefridum_, PL 90, 609-14. - -[2588] See below, chapter 29. - -[2589] The _Aenigmatum Liber_ forms a part of the _Liber de septenario -et de metris_ in Aldhelm’s works as edited by Giles, Oxford, 1844, and -reprinted in Migne, PL 89, 183-99. - -[2590] Cantimpré’s citations of Adhelmus seem almost certainly -drawn from the _Aenigmata_ in the cases of _Leo_, _ciconia_, -_hirundinus_, _nycticorax_, _salamander_, _luligo_ (or, _loligo_), -_perna_, _draguntia lapis_ (_natrix_), _myrmicoleon_, _colossus_, and -_molossus_. On the other hand, the citations concerning _onocentaur_ -do not correspond to the riddle _De monocero sive unicorni_; the two -accounts of Scylla are different; and I do not find _cacus_ or _onager_ -or harpy or siren or locust or the Indian ants larger than foxes in the -_Riddles_ as edited by Giles. - -The passages in which Thomas of Cantimpré cites Adhelmus are printed -together by Pitra (1855) III, 425-7. - -[2591] Pitra (1855) III, xxvi. Only in the case of the salamander -does Pitra say, “Thomas huc adduxit Adhelmi Shirbrunensis aenigma de -Salamandra vatemque a philosopho clare distinxit.” - -[2592] I have used the text in Migne, PL vol. 77. - -[2593] _Variarum_ IV, _Epist._ 22-23, Migne, PL 69, 624-25. - -[2594] I derive the following facts from E. C. Quiggin, “Irish -Literature,” in EB V, 622 _et seq._, where further bibliography is -given. - -[2595] “The Gaelic medical MSS, whether preserved in Ireland, -Scotland, or elsewhere, ... are all, or nearly all, of foreign -origin”:—Mackinnon, in the _International Congress of Medicine_, -London, 1913, p. 413. - -[2596] G. Flügel, _Alkindi, genannt der Philosoph der Araber, ein -Vorbild seiner Zeit_, Leipzig, 1857. - -F. Dieterici, _Die Naturanschauung und Naturphilosophie der Araber im -zehnten Jahrhundert_, Berlin, 1861. - -O. Loth, _Al-Kindi als Astrolog._ in _Morgenländische Forschungen. -Festschrift für Fleischer_, Leipzig, 1875, pp. 263-309. - -A. Nagy, _Die philosophischen Abhandlungen des Al-Kindis_, 1897 in -_Beiträge z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. Mittelalt._, II, 5. - -A. A. Björnbo and S. Vogl, _Alkindi, Tideus, und Pseudo-Euclid, Drei -Optische Werke_, Leipzig, 1911, in _Abhandl. z. Gesch. d. Math. Wiss._, -XXVI, 3. - -For further bibliography see the last-named work and Steinschneider -(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. - -[2597] _Astrorum iudicis Alkindi, Gaphar de pluviis imbribus et ventis -ac aeris mutatione, ex officina Petri Liechtenstein: Venetiis, 1507._ - -[2598] Amplon. Quarto 151, fols. 17-19. - -[2599] In the 1412 catalogue of Amplonius, Math. 48 was “Theorica -Alkindi de radiis stellicis seu arcium magicarum vel de phisicis -ligaturis”; and at present Amplon. Quarto 349, 14th century, fols. 47v, -65v, 66r-v, 16r-v, 29r, contains “Liber Alkindi de radiis Omnes homines -qui sensibilia / Explicit theorica artis magis (_sic_). Explicit -Alkindi de radiis stellicis.” - -Harleian 13, 13th century, given by John of London to St. Augustine’s -Abbey, Canterbury (#1166, James, 330-1), fols. 166-74, “de radiis -stellicis Omnes homines qui sensibilia / explicit Theoria Artis Magice -Alkindi.” - -Digby 91, 16th century, fols. 66-80, Alkindus de radiis stellarum, -“Omnes homines qui sensibilia sensu percipiunt....” - -Digby 183, end 14th century, fols. 38-45. - -Selden supra 76 (Bernard 3464), fols. 47r-60v, “Incipit theoreita -artium magicarum. Capitulum de origine scientie. Omnes homines qui -sensibilia sensu percipiunt....”; Selden 3467, #4. - -Canon. Misc. 370, fols. 240-59, “Explicit theoria magice artis sive -libellus Alkindi de radiis stellatis 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, “Incipit theorica Alkindi et est de causis reddendis -circa operationes karacterum et conjurationes et suffumigationes et -ceteris huiusmodi 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. Geneviève 2240, 17th century, fol. 32 (?)—since the treatise -is listed between two others which begin at fols. 68 and 112, -respectively—“Alkyndus de radiis; de virtute verborum.” - -Steinschneider (1906), 32, has already listed four of these MSS, but -was mistaken in thinking Cotton Appendix VI, fols. 63v-70r, “Explicit -Iacob alkindi de theorica planetarum,” the same treatise as _The Theory -of the Magic Art_. - -[2600] In Digby 91 Roger Bacon on Perspective is followed by Alkindi 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 celorum,” and following the work of -Alkindi we have Bacon on the retardation of old age and perhaps also -_de radiis solaribus_. - -[2601] Edited by Nagy (1897). A MS of the late 12th or early 13th -century which Nagy fails to note is Digby 40, fols. 15v-25, de somno et -visionibus. - -[2602] Nagy, p. 18, “Quare autem videamus quasdam res antequam sint? et -quare videamus res cum interpretatione significantes res antequam sint? -et quare videamus res facientes nos videre contrarium earum?” - -[2603] Spec. astron. cap. 7. More fully the Incipit is, “Rogatus fui -quod manifestem consilia philosophorum....” - -[2604] Digby 68, 14th century, fols. 124-35, Liber Alkindii de -impressionibus 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 sermone aggregato et utili de arabico -in latinum translata.” - -Steinschneider (1906) 32 gives the title as _De impressionibus -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 -Incipit—Steinschneider (1905) 13—as does a _De imbribus_ in Digby 176, -14th century, fols. 61-63. Steinschneider also suggested that BN 7332, -_De impressionibus planetarum_ was probably the same treatise; and this -is shown to be true by the Explicit of Alkindi’s treatise in another -MS, Cotton Appendix VI, fol. 63v, “Explicit liber de impressionibus -planetarum secundum iacobum alkindi.” See also BN 7316, 7328, 7440, -7482. - -The opening words of an anonymous _Tractatus de meteorologia_ in Vienna -2385, 13th century, fols. 46-49, show that it is the Alkindi. A very -similar treatise on weather prediction, _De subradiis planetarum_ or -_De pluviis_, is ascribed to Haly and exists in three Digby MSS (67, -fol. 12v; 93, fol. 183v; 147, fol. 117v) and in some other MSS noted -by Steinschneider. It belongs, I suspect, together with a brief _Haly -de dispositione aeris_ (Digby 92, fol. 5) which Steinschneider listed -separately. - -[2605] 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, Iohannes Hispalensis, Tractatus de mutatione aeris - - 139, Haomar de pluviis - - 139-40, Idem de qualitate aeris et temporum - - 140, de pluvia, fulgure, tonitruis et vento - - 140-1, Dorochius, De hora pluvie et ventorum caloris et frigoris - - 141, Idem, De hora pluvie - - 141-2, Alkindus, alias Dorochius, De aeris qualitatibus - - 142, Idem, De imbribus - - 143, Jergis, De pluviis - - 198, 206, Iacobus Alkindus, Liber de significationibus planetarum et - eorum naturis, alias de pluviis. - -[2606] Their titles are listed by Steinschneider (1906) 99; 31-3. We -may note BN 6978, 14th century, Incipit epistola Alkindi Achalis de -Baldac philosophi de futurorum scientia; Corpus Christi 254, fol. 191, -“de aspectibus”—a fragment from a 14th century MSS. - -[2607] MSS of Robert’s translation of Alkindi’s _Judgments_ are -numerous in the Bodleian library: Digby 91, fol. 80-; Ashmole 179; 209; -369; 434; and extracts from it in other MSS. It opens, “Quamquam post -Euclidem.” - -[2608] CLM 392, 15th century, fol. 80-; 489, 16th century, fols. 207-21. - -[2609] O. Loth (1875), pp. 271-2; at 280-2 he gives the Latin of the -passage in question from Albumasar, following the Arabic of Alkindi at -273-9. - -[2610] E. Wiedemann in _Journal f. praktische Chemie_, 1907, p. 73, _et -seq._; cited by Lippmann (1919) p. 399. - -[2611] Bridges, _Opus Maius_, I, 262, note. - -[2612] Steinschneider (1905), p. 47. - -[2613] HL 21, 499-503. - -[2614] _Spec. astron._ cap. 6. He gives the Incipit of the -_Experiments_ of Albumasar as “Scito horam introitus” which serves to -identify it with the following: - -Amplon. Quarto 365, 12th century, fols. 1-18, liber experimentorum. - -Ashmole 369-V, 13th century, fols. 103-23v, “... incipit liber in -revolutione annorum mundi. Perfectus est liber experimentorum....” - -Ashmole 393, 15th century, fol. 95v, “Item Albumasar de revolutionibus -annorum mundi sive de experimentis....” - -BN 16204, 13th century, pp. 302-333, “Revolutio annorum mundi.... -Perfectus est liber experimentorum Albumasar....” - -Arsenal 880, 15th century, fol. 1-. - -Arsenal 1036, 14th century, fol. 104v. - -Dijon 1045, 15th century, fol. 81-. - -Other MSS containing _Experiments_ of Albumasar but where I am not sure -of the wording of the Incipit are: - -Laud. Misc. 594, 14-15th century, fol. 123-, Liber experimentorum. - -Harleian 1, fols. 31-41, de experimentis in revolutione annorum mundi. - -CLM 51, 1487, and 1503. - -Vienna 2436, 14th century, following 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 -experimentorum 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 statement that the book of Experiments will -follow. A different hand then adds “The following work is Albumazar on -the revolutions 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 accompanies the -_Experiments_. In Amplon. Quarto 365 it is followed 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 floribus antiquorum philosophorum_, which is the same as -the _Flores_. - -[2615] 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 introductorius maior_ in eight parts; at -183-302 the _Conjunctions_, also in eight parts; at 302-333 the -_Revolutio annorum mundi_ or _Liber experimentorum_; at 333-353 the -_Flores_, and at 353-369 the _De revolutione annorum in revolutione -nativitatum_, which opens “_Omne tempus 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 albumasar de revolutione annorum mundi_,” -and some other hand has crossed out this last word and substituted -“_nativitatis_.” - -[2616] _Conciliator_, Diff. 156. - -[2617] Laud. Misc. 594, 14-15th century, fols. 137-41, Liber Sadan, -sive Albumasar in Sadan. “Dixit Sadan, Audivi Albumayar dicentem 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 secretis Albumasaris per Sadan discipulum 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. 27-33, -Tractatus de nativitatibus, “Dixit Zadan: audivi Albumazar dicentem....” - -[2618] Steinschneider (1906), 36-38. - -[2619] _Cat. cod. astrol. Graec._ V, i, 142. In Vienna MS 10583, -15th century, 99 fols., we find a “de revolutionibus nativitatum” by -Albumasar “greco in latinum.” - -[2620] BN 7316, 15th century, #13, liber imbrium secundos Indos ... -authore Jafar; so too BN 7329, 15th century, #6; BN 7316 #16, de -mutatione temporum secundum Indos, seems, however, to be another -anonymous treatise on the same subject. Perhaps the following, although -not so listed in the catalogue, is by Albumasar. - -Digby 194, fol. 147v- “Sapientes Indi de pluviis indicant secundum -lunam, considerantes ipsius mansiones / quum dominus aspectus aspicit -dominum vel est ei conjunctus.” - -[2621] Corpus Christi 233, 13-15th century, fol. 122-“Japhar philosophi -et astrologi Aegyptii. Cum multa et varia de nubium congregatione -precepta Indorum traxit auctoritas....” - -Cod. Cantab. Ii-I-13, “Incipit liber Gaphar de temporis mutatione -qui dicitur Geazar Babiloniensis. Universa astronomiae iudicia prout -Indorum....” - -[2622] The text printed in 1507 and 1540 is Hugo’s translation. So -is Bodleian 463 (Bernard 2456) 14th century, fols. 20r-24r, “Incipit -liber imbrium editum a Iafar astrologo et a lenio et mercurio (Cilenio -Mercurio) correcto.” See also Savile 15 (Bernard 6561), Liber imbrium -ab antiquo Indorum astrologo nomine Jafar editus, deinde a Cylenio -Mercurio abbreviatus. - -[2623] Digby 68, 14th century, fol. 116-“Ysagoga minor Japharis -mathematici in astronomiam per Adhelardum Bathoniencem ex Arabico -sumpta. Quicunque philosophie scienciam altiorem studio constanti -inquireris....” - -Sloane 2030, fols. 83-86v, according to Haskins in EHR (1913), but -my notes, which it is now too late to verify, suggest that it is a -fragment occupying less than a page at fol. 87. - -[2624] By Carra de Vaux in _Journal asiatique, 9e série_, I, 386, II, -152, 420, with a French translation; and by Nix, Leipzig, 1900, with a -German translation, also printed separately in 1894. - -[2625] Galen, ed. Chart. X, 571; Constantinus Africanus, ed. Basel, -1536, pp. 317-21; Arnald of Villanova, _Opera_, Lyons, 1532, fol. -295, and also in other editions of his works; H. C. Agrippa, _Occult -Philosophy_, Lyons, 1600, pp. 637-40. - -[2626] HL XXVIII, 78-9. - -[2627] _Idem._ - -[2628] Additional 22719, 12th century, fol. 200v, “Quesivisti fili -karissime de incantatione adjuratione colli suspensione....” In view -of this and the citations of the work by Albertus Magnus who wrote -before Arnald of Villanova, I cannot agree with Steinschneider (1905), -pp. 6 and 12, in denying that Constantinus translated the work and in -ascribing the translation exclusively to Arnald. - -[2629] Florence II, III, 214, 15th century, fols. 72-4, “Liber Unayn de -incantatione. Quesisti fili karissime....” - -[2630] _De vegetabilibus_, V, ii, 6. - -[2631] _Mineral._ II, ii, 7, and II, iii, 6. - -[2632] _Mineral_. II, iii, 6 (ed. Borgnet, V, 55-6). - -[2633] I am not certain as to this word: it is _sizamelon_ in one text, -_sesameleon_ in another. - -[2634] “Quorum enim actio ex proprietate est non rationibus, unde sic -comprehendi non potest. Rationibus enim tantum comprehenduntur que -sensibus subministrantur. Aliquando ergo quedam substantie habent -proprietatem ratione incomprehensibilem propter sui subtilitatem et -sensibus non subministratum propter altitudinem sui magnam.” I doubt if -these last three words refer to the influence of the stars. - -[2635] _Liber de differentia spiritus et animae_, or _De differentia -inter animam et spiritum_. The prologue opens: “Interrogasti me—honoret -te Deus!—de differentia....” - -[2636] Steinschneider (1866), p. 404; (1905), p. 43, “wovon ich das -Original in Gotha 1158 erkannte.“ - -[2637] So in Corpus Christi 114, late 13th century, fol. 229, and at -Paris in the following MSS of the 13th or 14th century mostly: BN 6319, -#11; 6322, #11; 6323, #6; 6323A; 6325, #17; 6567A; 6569; 8247; 16082; -16083; 16088; 16142; 16490. - -[2638] Specific illustrations of such confusions between the two names -in the MSS are: BN 6296, 14th century, #15, “... authore filio Lucae -Medici Constabolo”; Brussels, Library of Dukes of Burgundy 2784, -12th century, “Constaben”; Sloane 2454, late 13th century, “Liber -differentiae inter animam et spiritum quem Constantinus Luce amico suo -scriptori Regis edidit.” - -[2639] Constantinus Africanus, _Opera_, Basel, 1536, pp. 307-17, “Qui -voluerit scire differentiam, que est inter duas res .../ ... Hec igitur -de differentiis spiritus et anime tibi dicta sufficiant, valeto.” -Edited more recently by S. Barach, Innsbruck, 1878, pp. 120-39. - -[2640] _Theorica_, III, 12. - -[2641] Corpus Christi 154, late 13th century, pp. 356-74, ascribed to -Augustine in both Titulus and Explicit. - -[2642] S. Marco 179, 14th century, fols. 57-9, 83, Liber Ysaac de -differentia spiritus et animae. - -[2643] CU Gonville and Caius 109, 13th century, fols. 1-6v, “Avicenna -de differencia spiritus et anime.” - -[2644] So says Coxe, anent Corpus Christi 114, and Steinschneider -(1905), p. 43. - -[2645] Migne, PL 40, 779-832. - -[2646] By Trithemius; but earlier so cited by Vincent of Beauvais (PL -40, 779-80). See also Exon. 23, 13th century, fol. 196v. - -[2647] Migne, PL 40, 779-80. - -[2648] Both passages were excerpted by Vincent of Beauvais, _Speculum -naturale_, XXIX, 41. - -[2649] De Renzi (1852-9) IV, 189; Petrocellus is very brief on the -cells of the brain. - -[2650] Singer (1917), pp. 45 and 51, has noted that Hildegard’s -description of the brain as divided into three chambers is anteceded -by the _Liber de humana natura_ of Constantinus, and contained “in the -writings of St. Augustine.” - -[2651] PL 40, 795, cap. 22. - -[2652] _De proprietatibus rerum_, III, 10 and 16; V, 3. - -[2653] Similarly E. G. Browne (1921), p. 123, writing of Arabian -medicine and Avicenna, says, “Corresponding with the five external -senses, taste, touch, hearing, smelling, and seeing, are the five -internal senses, of which the first and second, the compound sense (or -‘sensus communis’) and the imagination, are located in the anterior -ventricle of the brain; the third and fourth, the co-ordinating and -emotional faculties, in the mid-brain; and the fifth, the memory, in -the hind-brain.” Galen had somewhat similar ideas. - -[2654] _De Genesi ad litteram_, VII, 18 (PL 34, 364). - -[2655] The fullest treatment of him will be found in D. A. Chwolson, -_Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, Petrograd, 1856, 2 vols., _passim_. -For a list of his works see Steinschneider. _Zeitschrift f. Math._, -XVIII, 331-38. - -[2656] There is some difficulty with these dates or their Arabic -equivalents, because we are not certain whether the length of his life -is given in lunar or solar years: see Chwolson, I, 532-3, 547-8. - -[2657] Bridges, I, 394. - -[2658] Carra de Vaux, _Avicenne_, Paris, 1900, p. 68. - -[2659] Chwolson, II, 406, 422, 431, 440, 453, 610, 703. - -[2660] _Ibid._, I. 741; II, 7, 258, 386, 677, etc. - -[2661] Chwolson, II, 386-97, 500, 525, 530, 676. - -[2662] _Ibid._, I, 737. - -[2663] _Ibid._, II, 30, 373. - -[2664] _Ibid._, II, 411, 658, 839. - -[2665] _Ibid._, II, 253. - -[2666] _Ibid._, I, 738. - -[2667] _Ibid._, I, 733-4. - -[2668] _Ibid._, II, 19, 148, 150. - -[2669] _Ibid._, II, 21, 138-9. - -[2670] _Ibid._, I, 526; II, 141. - -[2671] Quoted by Bishop Gregory Bar-hebraeus in his _Syrian Chronicle_: -Chwolson, I, 177-80. - -[2672] Chwolson, I, 195; II, 623. - -[2673] _Ibid._, I, 482-3. - -[2674] Again there seems to be uncertainty as to dates, since the -Arabic sources name a caliph who was not contemporary with the -philosopher in question: Chwolson, I, 548-9. - -[2675] Chwolson, I, 485. Chwolson perhaps lays himself open a little to -the charge of arguing in a circle, since Thebit’s writings are his main -source concerning Sabianism. - -[2676] _Ibid._, I, 553-64, for a list of his translations of, extracts -from, and commentaries upon Greek works. - -[2677] _Ibid._, I, 484. - -[2678] BN 10260, 16th century, “Incipit liber Karastoni de ponderibus -.../ ... editus a Thebit filio Core.” Also in BN 7377B, 14-15th -century, #3; 7424, 14th century, #6; Vienna 5203, 15th century, fols. -172-80. For other MSS see Björnbo (1911) 140. - -[2679] Harleian 13, fol. 118-Thebit de motu octave spere; fol. -120v- Liber Thebith ben Corath de his qui indigent expositione -antequam legitur Almagestum; 123- Liber Thebit de ymaginatione spere -et circulorum eius diversorum; 124v- Liber Thebith de quantitatibus -stellarum et planetarum. - -Also in Harl. 3647, #11-14; Tanner 192, 14th century, fol. 103-; BN -7195, 14th century, #12-15; Magliabech. XI-117, 14th century; CUL 1767 -(Ii. III, 3) 1276 A. D., fols. 86-96; and many other MSS. - -[2680] Delambre (1819) 73. - -[2681] Chwolson, I, 551. - -[2682] BN 6514, #10, _Thebit de alchymia_; Amplon. Quarto 312, written -before 1323 A. D., fol. 29, _Notule Thebith contra alchimiam_. - -[2683] A work on judgments is ascribed 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 7337, page 129-. - -[2684] I, 551. - -[2685] Lyons 328, fols. 70-74, Liber prestigiorum Thebidis (Elbidis) -secundum Ptolemeum et Hermetem per Adhelardum bathoniensem translatus, -opening, “Quicunque 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 Albertus Magnus in -listing bad necromantic 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 astronomiae fuerit ...” Undoubtedly the two were the same. - -[2686] Of John of Seville’s translation the MSS are more numerous. -The following will serve as a representative. Royal 12-C-XVIII, 14th -century, fols. 10v-12r, “Dixit thebyth bencorat et dixit aristoteles -qui philosophiam et geometriam exercet et omnem scientiam legit et -ab astronomia vacuus fuerit erit occupatus et vacuus quod dignior -geometria et altior philosophia est ymaginum scientia. / Explicit -tractatus de imaginibus Thebith Bencorath translatus a Iohanne -Hyspalensi atque Limiensi in Limia ex Arabico in Latinum. Sit laus deo -maximo.” - -This is the version cited by Michael Scot in his _Liber Introductorius_ -(Bodleian 266, fol. 200) where he gives the Incipit, “Dixerunt enim -thebith benchorath et aristoteles quod si quis philosophiam ...,” 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” opening “Dixit A. qui -philosophiam ...” which of course is that just mentioned. Thus he -condemns 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 Aristotle, rather than Hermes or Ptolemy, -who is cited at the start in John of Seville’s translation. I therefore -am uncertain whether Chwolson has our treatise in mind, when he speaks -of Thebit’s commenting upon “eine pseudohermetische Schrift über -Talismane 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. - -[2687] Some other MSS differ slightly from the foregoing in their -opening words, but perhaps not enough to suggest a third translation: - -Ashmole 346, 16th century, fols. 113-15v, “Incipit liber de ymaginibus -secundum Thebit. In nomine pii et misericordis Dei. Dixit Thebit qui -geometrie aut Philosophie expers fuerit.” - -Bodleian 463 (Bernard 2456), written in Spain, 14th century, fols. -75r-75v, “Dixit thebit bencorat Ar. qui legit phylosophiam et -geumetriam et omnem scientiam et alienus fuerit ab astronomia 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. 145v-. - -S. Marco XI-102, 14th century, fols. 150-53. - -Berlin 963, 15th century, fol. 140- “Dixit thebit ben corach Cum -volueris operari de ymaginibus,” but then at fol. 199, with 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 3846, fols. 86v-93; 3847; and 3883, fols. 87-93: all three 17th -century. - -Amplon. Quarto 174, 14th century, fols. 120-1. - -BN 7282, 15th century, #4, interprete Joanne Hispalensi. - -Berlin 964, 15th century, fols. 213-5. - -Vienna 2378, 14th century, fols. 41-63. - -CLM 27, 14-15th century, fols. 71-77; 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 Aristotiles qui.” - -[2688] _De tribus imaginibus magicis_, Frankfurt, 1559. - -[2689] _Mineral._ II, iii, 3. - -[2690] Magliabech. XX-20, fol. 12r; Sloane 1305, fol. 19r. - -[2691] _Conciliator_, Diff. X., fol. 16GH, in ed. Venice, 1526. - -[2692] _Commentary on the Sphere_, cap. 3. - -[2693] Also given as Muhammad ibn Zakariya (Abu Bakr) ar-Razi and Abu -Bekr Mohammed ben Zachariah. - -[2694] Withington in his _Medical History_, 1894, gives the date as -932, perhaps by a misprint. - -[2695] Ibn Abi Usaibi’a (1203-1269, himself a physician and son of an -oculist) “Sources of Information concerning Classes of Physicians,” -compiled at Damascus, 1245-1246, ed. by Müller, Cairo, 1882; and Ibn -Khallikan (1211-1282), “Obituaries of Men of Note,” written between -1256 and 1274. - -For these titles and most of the general account of the life and works -of Rasis which follows I am indebted to G. S. A. Ranking’s “The Life -and Works of Rhazes,” pp. 237-68, in _Transactions of the Seventeenth -International Congress of Medicine, Section XXIII_, London, 1913. - -[2696] The list is reproduced by Ranking (1913) in Arabic and Latin, -largely on the basis of a MS at the University of Glasgow, which -contains a Latin translation by a Greek priest, who died in 1729, of -the Arabic work of Usaibi’a, or part of it, mentioned in the previous -note: Hunterian Library, MS 44, fols. 1-19v. - -[2697] I have examined both these editions at the British Museum; -Withington does not mention them in his _History of Medicine_, but -cites editions of the _Continens_, Venice, 1542, and _Opera Parva_, -1510, and a modern edition (1858) by the Sydenham Society of _On the -Small Pox and Measles_. The pages are not numbered in the edition of -1481, so that I shall not be able to give exact references to them. - -[2698] This was sometimes reproduced separately: see Wolfenbüttel 2885, -15th century, fol. 1, Phisonomia Rasis, fol. 2, Phisonomia Aristetelis, -Rasis et Philomenis, summorum magistrorum in philosophia. - -[2699] It occupies but a little over three pages in the 1481 edition. -Since in the middle of the treatise we read “Magister rasis fecit -cauterizari quidem artheticum ...,” etc., it is perhaps by a disciple -rather than Rasis himself. - -[2700] 79, _Dissertatio de causis quae plerorumque hominum animos a -praestantissimis ad viliores quosque medicos solent deflectere_. - -124, _Liber, Quod medicus acutus non sit ille qui possit omnes curare -morbos quoniam hoc non est in hominum potestate_ ..., - -125, _Epistola, Quod artifex omnibus numeris absolutus in quacumque -arte non existat nedum in medicina speciatim: et de causa cur imperiti -medici, vulgus, et etiam mulieres in civitatibus, foeliciores sint in -sanandis quibusdam morbis quam viri doctissimi et de excusatione medici -hoc propter_. - -There appears to be a German translation by Steinschneider of this work -by Rasis on the success of quacks and charlatans in _Virchow’s Archiv -f. Pathologische Anatomie_, XXXVI, 570-86. - -[2701] Ranking (1913), #180, 15, 138, 163. - -[2702] _Ibid._, #137; also 145, _Supplementum libris Plutarchi_. - -[2703] _Ibid._ #126, _Liber, De probatis et experientia compertis in -arte medica; per modum syntagmatis est digestus_. #205, _Liber, Quod in -morbis qui determinari atque explicari non possunt oporteat ut medicus -sit assiduus apud aegrotantem et debeat uti experimentis ad illos -cognoscendos. Et de medici fluctatione_. - -[2704] _Ibid._ #25, 26, 32-35, 38, 40. I should guess that 201, -_Arcanum arcanorum de sapientia_, was the same as 35, _Arcanum -arcanorum_. - -[2705] _Ibid._ #40, _Responsio ad philosophum el-Kendi eo quod artem -al-Chymi in impossibili posuerit_. - -[2706] Berthelot (1893), I, 68 and 286-7. On the alchemy of Rasis see -further in this same volume the chapter, _L’Alchimie de Rasis et du -Pseudo-Aristote_. - -[2707] BN 6514 and 7156. - -[2708] Riccardian 119, fol. 35v, “Incipit liber luminis luminum -translatus a magistro michahele scotto philosopho.” Printed by J. Wood -Brown (1897), p. 240 _et seq._ - -[2709] Lippmann (1919), p. 400, citing the _Biographies_ of Albaihaqi -(1105-1169). - -[2710] Ranking, #8. - -[2711] _Ibid._ #107. - -[2712] Ranking, #134. Other titles in mathematics and astronomy are: -73, _Liber de sphaeris et mensuris compendiosis_; 128, _De septem -planetis et de sapientia_; 155, _De quadrato in mathesi epistola_; also -109 and 110. - -[2713] _Ibid._ #13. - -[2714] _Ibid._ #51. - -[2715] _Ibid._ #158, _De necessitate precationis_. - -[2716] Printed as the Lapidary of Aristotle, Merseburg, 1473, p. 2. - -[2717] See De la Ville de Mirmont, _L’Astrologie chez les -Gallo-Romains_, Bordeaux, 1904; also published in _Revue des Études -anciennes_, 1902, p. 115-; 1903, p. 255-; 1906, p. 128-. - -[2718] Goujet (1737), p. 50; cited by C. Jourdain (1838), pp. 28-9. - -[2719] HL IV, 274-5; V, 182-3; VI, 9-10. - -[2720] Palat. Lat. 487, fol. 40, opening, “Nouo et insolito siderum -ortu infausta quaedam uel tristitia potius quam laeta uel prospera -miseris uentura significari mortalibus pene omnia ueterum aestimauit -auctoritas.” - -[2721] HL VII, 137. - -[2722] Ernest Wickersheimer, _Figures médico-astrologiques des -neuvième, dixième et onzième siècles_, in _Transactions of the -Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine, Section XXIII, History -of Medicine_, London, 1913, p. 313 _et seq._ I have not seen A. Fischer -_Aberglaube unter den Angelsachsen_, Meiningen, 1891, or M. Förster, -_Die Kleinlitteratur des Aberglaubens im Altenglischen_, in _Archiv. f. -d. Studium d. Neuer. Sprachen_, vol. 110, pp. 346-58. - -[2723] 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. - -[2724] Besides those in France mentioned by Wickersheimer may be noted -two of the tenth century at Munich: CLM 18629, fol. 105, “Tabula -cosmica cum nominibus ventorum, germanicorum quoque”; CLM 18764, fols. -79-80, “Schema de genitura mundi.” Also Vatic. Lat. 645, 9th century, -fol. 66, Ventorum imagines et in circulo Adam in medio ferarum; 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 diagram in an Arabic work of the tenth century -see E. G. Browne (1921), 117-8. - -[2725] Amiens, fonds Lescalopier, 2, 11th century, fols. 1-12. - -[2726] For instance, for February, “Bibe agrimoniam et apii semen; -oculos turbulentos sanare debes”: for March, “Merum dulce primum bibe, -assum balneum usita, sanguinem non minuas, ruta et levestico utere.” - -[2727] _Ibid._, fols. 11 and 19. - -[2728] Pembroke 278, early 14th century, fol. 25, “Compotus est -sciencia considerans tempora.” - -[2729] BN nouv. acq. 1616, 14 leaves. - -[2730] BN 7299A. - -[2731] BN 7299A, fols. 35v, 37v, 56r. - -[2732] Notker is especially famed for his translations with learned -commentaries from Latin into German, of which five are extant, namely: -_The Consolation of Philosophy_ of Boethius, _The Marriage of Mercury -and Philology_ of Martianus Capella, the _Psalter_, and Aristotle, -_De categoriis_ and _De interpretatione_: see Piper, _Die Schriften -Notkers_, Freiburg, 1882-1883, vols. I-III. - -[2733] BN nouv. acq. 229, fols. 10v-14v. _Notker erkenhardo discipulo -de IIII questionibus compoti._ It seems not to have been printed. - -[2734] 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 Latin with an Anglo-Saxon interlinear version, and at -fol. 39v in Anglo-Saxon only. - -Cotton Titus D, XXVI, 10th century, fols. 10v-11v, gives a slightly -different version for some days of the week. - -[2735] Harleian 3017, 10th century, fols. 63r-64v, CLM 6382, 11th -century, fol. 42, Supputatio Esdrae; Incipit, “Kal. Jan. si fuerint -dominico die hiems bona erit.” - -Vatican, Palat. Lat. 235, 10-11th century, fol. 39, “Subputatio quam -subputavit Esdras in templo Hierusalem,” opening, “Si in prima feria -fuerint kl. Ianuarii hiemps bona erit.” - -Also found in Egerton 821, fol. 1r, which is of the twelfth century 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, 12th century, fol. 1, is a calendar with verses beginning, -“Jani prima dies et septima fine timetur.” - -[2736] Sloane 475, this portion perhaps 11th century, fol. 217r. Other -MSS of later date than the period we are now considering are: Harleian -2258, fol. 191, “prognostica a die nativitatis Domini a luna et somniis -petita,” predictions from Christmas, the moon, and dreams. CUL 1338, -15th century, fol. 65v, Prognostications 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.” - -[2737] BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th century, fol. 12v. Similar later MSS are: - -Digby 86, 13th century, fols. 32-4, Prognosticatio ex vento in nocte -Natalis Domini, and fols. 40v-41r, “Les singnes del jour de Nouel,” -predictions in French according 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. 40r, “Prognostication -from the sight of the sun on Christmas and the ten days following” -(Prognosticatio ex visione solis in die Natalis Domini et in decem -diebus subsequentibus), 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. - -[2738] Titus D, XXVI, fol. 9v. Tiberius A, III, fols. 38r and 35r. -Cockayne, _Leechdoms_ etc., III, 150-295, in RS vol. 35, published this -and a number of other extracts from Tiberius A, III, and other early -English MSS. - -Vienna 2245, 12th century, fols. 59r-69v are devoted to various -prognostications, beginning with, “Three days are to be observed above -all others,” and ending with, “Thunder at dawn signifies the birth of a -king.” A dream book by Daniel follows at fols. 69v-75r. - -[2739] Vatican Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 40, “In mense Ianuario si -tonitru fuerit.” In Egerton 821, 12th century, the significance of -thunder is given according to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and we -are told of what the Egyptians write, and of famine in Babylon. In -CUL 1687, 13-14th century, fols. 68v-69r, Latin verses containing -prognostications concerning thunder are followed by “a list of the -number of quarters of flour, beer, etc., used in the year _at the -monastery_” and by “a note on the symbolism of the pastoral staff.” - -[2740] Combined with the method by the day of the week in BN 7299A, -12th century, fol. 37v. - -[2741] Tiberius A, III, fol. 63r; Vatican Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 40. - -[2742] Tiberius A, III, fol. 38v. - -[2743] Sloane 475, fol. 135v. - -[2744] Sloane 475, fol. 133r. The method is almost identical with that -of the spheres of life and death, of which we shall speak presently. In -CU Trinity 987, _The Canterbury Psalter_, about 1150 A. D., the value -assigned _Dies Solis_ is 24. - -[2745] Vatic. Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 40, “De lunae observatione: Luna I -omnibus rebus agendis utilis.” - -Tiberius A, III, fol. 63r, where, however, such parts of the day as -morning and evening are further distinguished. - -Vatic. Palat. Lat. 485, 9th century, fol. 15v, “Ad sanguinem -minuendum,” merely states which days of the moon are favorable or -unfavorable for blood-letting. - -St. John’s 17, 1110 A. D., fol. 4, Luna quibus diebus bona est et -quibus non; fol. 154v, a table of lucky and unlucky numbers. - -[2746] Harleian 3017, fol. 58v; 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, 10th 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 century, fol. 13v, “Dies aegyptiaci. Signa in -quibus aegrotus an periclitare aut evadere non potest,” but opening, -“Luna I. qui ceciderit in infirmitatem difficile euadit.” - -[2747] Harleian 3017, fol. 58v, “Incipit lunarium sancti danihel de -nativitate infantium. Luna I qui fuerit natus vitalis erit; Luna II, -mediocris erit ... Luna IIII, tractator regum erit ... Luna XII, -religiosus erit ... Luna XXX, negotias multas tractabit.” - -Tiberius A, III, fols. 63r and 34v. - -Titus D, XXVI, fols. 7v and 6v. - -[2748] Tiberius A, III, fol. 33v. Titus D, XXVI, fol. 9r. CLM 6382, -11th century, fol. 42, De somni ueris uel mendosis quidam incipiunt in -aetatibus lunae exploratis. - -[2749] Tiberius A, III, fols. 30v-33v, “Finiunt somnia danielis -prophete.” - -Sloane 475, fols. 211-6, is almost identical, but I believe does not -mention Daniel as its author. - -Vatic. Palat. Lat. 235, fol. 39v. - -BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th century, 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 incenditur in ipsa sanabitur et bona et in omnibus dare et -accipere et nubere et navigare in mare et vendere et emere et omnis -quicumque fugerit in ipsa aut servus aut liber non poterit sed capitur -aut qui incendit incendio sanabitur (presumably an allusion to the -medical practice of cauterization) et qui natus fuerit vitalis erit -.../ ... Luna XXX bona est ambulare in piscatione et qui fugit post -multos annos revertitur 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, “argumentum 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.” - -[2750] Sloane 2461, end of 13th century, fols. 62-4. No Biblical -character 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, 16th 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. 12r, “Natus est Samuel propheta....” - -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. - -[2751] Ashmole 361, mid 14th century, fols. 156v-158v, “Iste sunt -lunaciones quas Adam primus homo disposuit secundum veram experientiam -quam etiam suis filiis tradidit et quam maxime Abel et ceteris de -posteritate ad quos etiam concordavit Daniel propheta ...”; fol. 159, -“Modo agitur de numero lune ad videndum que sit bona vel que mala et -usum istarum lunacionum invenerunt Adam et Daniel propheta.” - -[2752] Canon. Misc. 517, fol. 35r, “Incipit scientia edita ab edri -philosopho astrologo et medico.” - -[2753] BN 3660A, fols. 53r-57r. In the catalogue of Ashburnham MSS -at Florence the name of Giovannino di Graziano is connected with a -moon-book in Ashburnham 130, 13-15th 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. - -[2754] Ed. Leemans, 1833-1885. - -[2755] Bouché-Leclercq (1899), 537-42; (1879-1882), I, 258-65. -Berthelot, _Alchimistes grecs_ (1888), I, 86-90. K. Sudhoff (1902), pp. -4-6. - -[2756] Arundel 319, 13th century, fol. 2r, Versus de faustis vel -infaustis nominibus pugnantium, is a medieval Latin example. - -[2757] Printed among treatises of dubious or spurious authorship with -Bede’s works, Migne, PL 90, 963-6; and more recently in Riess’ edition -of the fragments of Nechepso and Petosiris (_Philologus_, Suppl. VI, -1891-1893, pp. 382-3) from Cod. Laur. XXXVIII, 24, 9-10th century, fol. -174v. Wickersheimer (1913), pp. 315-7, notes BN 17868, 10th century, -fol. 13. For other MSS see Appendix I to this chapter. - -[2758] Printed by Paul Lehmann, _Apuleiusfragmente_, _Hermes_ XLIX -(1914), 612-20. For a list of some MSS of it see Appendix I at the -close of this chapter. - -[2759] _Polycraticus_ I, 13, ed. Webb, I, 54. Mr. Webb in a note refers -to an article in a German periodical (K. Gillert, _Neues Archiv d. -Gesellschaft f. ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde_, V, 254) concerning -a MS of the _Sphere of Pythagoras_ preserved at Petrograd, but says -nothing of the MSS in the British Museum listed in Appendix I to this -chapter,—a good illustration of the unnecessary obsequiousness of -English towards German scholarship which has frequently prevailed in -the past. - -[2760] A few of them will be found listed in Appendix I to this chapter. - -[2761] Egerton 821, 12th century, fol. 15r, “Hec est spera quod fecit -sanctus Donatus. Quicumque egrotare incipit....” It is followed on the -next page by the usual figure for the _Sphere of Apuleius_. - -[2762] Harleian 1735; the passages referred to in the following account -occur at fols. 36v, 41, 43, 29, 44v, 40, and 39v respectively. - -[2763] See Appendix II to this chapter for a list of MSS other than -those mentioned in the following notes. - -[2764] BN nouv. acq. 1616, 9th century, fol. 12r. - -[2765] Digby 63, end of 9th century, fol. 36. - -[2766] _Ibid._, fols. 40-5. - -[2767] CU Trinity 1369, 11th century, fol. iv. - -[2768] BN 7299A, 12th century, fol. 37v. - -[2769] For further information on this point see Budge, _Egyptian -Magic_, 1899, pp. 225-8; Webster, _Rest Days_, 1916, pp. 295-7. - -[2770] Webster (1916), pp. 300-301, however, speaks of 30 in a 14th -century MS, 32 in an English MS of Henry VI’s reign, and 31 in another -15th century MS. - -[2771] Cited by Bouché-Leclercq, _L’Astrologie grecque_, 1899, pp. -485-6, 623. - -[2772] _De proprietatibus rerum_, 1488, Lindelbach, Heidelberg, -IX, 20. This is not to say, however, that they always appear in -medieval calendars; I did not find them in any of the 14th and 15th -century calendars from Apulia and Iapygia published by G. M. Giovene, -_Kalendaria vetera_, Naples, 1828. His calendars consist of little save -saints’ days, although in some of them the beginning of dog-days is -marked and when the sun enters each sign of the zodiac. - -[2773] “Black earth” was the name given by the Egyptians to their -country. - -[2774] _Imago mundi_, II, 109. - -[2775] _Speculum naturale_, XVI, 83, printed by Anth. Koburger, -Nürnberg, 1485. - -[2776] HL 25, 329. My impression is that some medieval astronomers also -denied to these Egyptian days any astrological importance, since they -always came upon the same days of the months without reference to the -phases of the moon or courses of the other planets: but I cannot put my -hand on such passages. - -[2777] And is approvingly cited to that effect by Arnald of Villanova, -_Regulae generales curationis morborum. Doctrina IV_. - -[2778] Ashmole 361, mid 14th century, fols. 158v-159. - -[2779] BN 7337, 14-15th century, p. 75. Ad-Damîrî states in his -zoological lexicon, (ed. A. S. G. Jayaker, 1906, I, 134) that Mohammed -is reported to have said, “Be cautious of twelve days in the year, -because they are such as cause the loss of property and bring on -disgrace or dishonor.” - -[2780] M. Hamilton, _Greek Saints and Their Festivals_, 1910, p. 187, -states that “in all parts of (modern) Greece on certain days of August -and March it is considered necessary to abstain from particular kinds -of work in order to avoid disaster.” - -[2781] Mention may perhaps be made in this connection of the “Tobias -nights,” three nights of abstinence which newly wedded couples were -sometimes accustomed to observe in the middle ages in order to defeat -the demons. The practice is mentioned in the Vulgate, but not in -most ancient versions of the _Book of Tobit_. In 1409 the citizens -of Abbeville won a lawsuit with the bishop of Amiens who claimed the -right to grant dispensations from the observance of the Tobias nights -and required that fees be paid him for that purpose. See J. G. Frazer -(1918), I, 498-520, where analogous practices of primitive tribes are -listed. - -[2782] 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. William of Malmesbury, _Gesta Pontificum 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 Pontificum_ 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 midday 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. - -[2783] _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. - -[2784] C. Jourdain, _Nicolas Oresme et les astrologues à la cour de -Charles V_, in _Revue des Questions Historiques_, 1875, p. 136. - -[2785] English translation, ed. of 1898, p. 508. - -[2786] N. Valois (1880), p. 305. - -[2787] Additional 17,808, a narrow folio in vellum with all the -treatises written in the same large, plain hand with few abbreviations. -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. - -[2788] 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. 14r _et seq._ as by a slightly older hand than the -first portion. - -[2789] Bubnov (1899), 124-6, note. - -[2790] CLM 560, described in Bubnov, _Gerberti opera mathematica_, -1899, p. xli. - -[2791] _Ibid._, fols. 16r-19, Fragmentum libelli de astrolabio a quodam -ex Arabico versi. Incipit, “Ad intimas summe phylosophie disciplinas et -sublimia ipsius perfectionis archisteria.” Printed by Bubnov (1899), -pp. 370-75. - -[2792] Incipit “Quicumque astronomiam 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 Anecdotorum Noviss._ III, ii, 109-30, (1721) and -incorrectly ascribed by him to Hermannus Contractus, because it often -occurs in the MSS together with another treatise on the astrolabe by a -“Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello -imo limace tardior assecla.” Of this last we shall have more to say -presently. The edition of Pez reappears in Migne, PL vol. 143. Bubnov -(1899), 114-47, gives a new edition, and at pp. 109-13 a list of the -MSS of the work, in which, however, he fails to note the following: -and they are also absent from his general index of 153 codices at -pp. xvii-xc. BM Additional MS 17808, 11th century, fols. 73v-79r, -under the title as in other MSS of “Regulae ex libris Ptolomei regis -de compositione astrolapsus.” Yet Bubnov says, p. cxvi, “Catalogues -of Additional MSS (omnia volumina inspexi, quae ante a. 1895 edita -sunt).” BM Egerton 823, 12th century, fol. 4r. BN 7412, 12th and -13th centuries, fols. 1-9, “Waztalkora sive tract. de utilitatibus -astrolabii.” Professor D. B. Macdonald suggests that _Waztalkora_ is -for _rasmu-l-kura_, “the describing of the sphere in lines.” - -[2793] (1899), p. 370. - -[2794] (1899), p. 374. - -[2795] Ep. 24. - -[2796] (1899), p. 370. - -[2797] P. 109. - -[2798] Bubnov (1899), 370.... “Hoc opusculum ex Arabico versum ad manum -habuit, retractavit dicendique genere expolivit.” - -[2799] Printed by Pez. _Thesaur. Anecdot. Noviss._ III, ii, 95-106. -“Herimannus Christi pauperum peripsima et philosophiae tyronum asello -imo limace tardior assecla.” The MSS are numerous. - -[2800] Digby 174, fol. 210v; also noted by Bubnov (1899), p. 113. -Hermann’s dedicatory prologue, however, does not give his friend’s name -in full, but reads in this MS, “B. amico suo.” - -[2801] See Clerval, _Hermann le Dalmate_, Paris, 1891, in _Compte -rendu du Congrès scientifique international des catholiques, Sciences -Historiques_, 163-9. Also, I believe, published separately as _Hermann -le Dalmate et les premières traductions latines des traités arabes -d’astronomie au moyen âge_, Paris, Picard, 1891, 11 pp. Clerval adduced -only one MS in support of his contention and took up the untenable -position that Arabic astronomy was unknown in Latin until the twelfth -century. He also did not distinguish between the different works on the -astrolabe. - -[2802] Munich CLM 14836, fols. 16v-24r. BM Royal 15-B-IX, fol. 51r-: in -both cases followed by the treatise of twenty-one chapters. - -[2803] Professor Haskins has announced as in preparation an article on -Hermann the translator which will perhaps solve the difficulties. - -[2804] In a Berlin manuscript of the twelfth century (Berlin 956, fol. -11) there is added a note in a thirteenth century hand recounting 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 having 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_ (_Scriptores_, V, 267). -Rose (1905), p. 1179, 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. -210v, 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. - -[2805] This treatise, in which Hermann 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. 17r-19r (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 astrolabe. - -These citations alone are sufficient to demonstrate the error of -Clerval’s assertion: (1891), 165. “On ne peut invoquer aucune preuve -sérieuse en faveur d’Hermann Contract. Jacques de Bergame et Trithème -... sont les premiers qui aient attribué au moine de Constance les -traités en question.” - -[2806] Bubnov (1899) 372. “Habet etiam ex divinitatis archana -institutione et physica lata ratione cum omnibus mundanis creaturis -concordiam in rebus omnibus, secundum phisiologos non parvam -congruentiam....” Bubnov unfortunately used only one of his four MSS in -printing this text, and there often seems to be something wrong with it -or with his punctuation. This criticism applies more especially to the -passage quoted in the following footnote. - -[2807] _Ibid._, “Et ut Chaldaicas reticeam gentilogias (_sic_) qui -omnem humanam vitam astrologicis attribuunt rationationibus et quosdam -constellationum effectus per xii signa disponunt, quique etiam -conceptiones et nativitates, hominumque mores, prospera seu adversa -ex cursu siderum explicare conantur. Quod illorum tamen frivolae -superstitiositati concedendum est, dum omnia divinae dispositioni -commendanda sint. Illud est ovum a nullo forbillandum (Bubnov suggests -the reading _furcillandum_ in parentheses, but _sorbillandum_ seems -to me the obvious reading), nisi prius foetidos inscitiae exhalaverit -ructus et feces mundialium evomerit studiorum.” The passage is rather -incoherent as it stands, but I hope that I have correctly interpreted -its meaning. - -[2808] III, 43-45. - -[2809] Ademarus Cabannensis, who died about 1035 (Bubnov, 1899, 382-3). -For Gerbert’s sources in Barcelona see J. M. Burnam, “A Group of -Spanish Manuscripts,” in _Bulletin Hispanique, Annales de la Faculté -des Lettres de Bordeaux_, XXII, 4, p. 329. - -[2810] III, 48-53. - -[2811] “Plurima me docuit Neptanebus ille magister” (Bubnov, 381). - -[2812] _De rebus gestis regum Anglorum_, II, 167-8. - -[2813] Bodleian 266, fol. 25r. - -[2814] Bubnov (1899), 391. On Gerbert as a magician see further J. J. -I. Döllinger, _Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters_, Munich, 1863, pp. -155-59. - -[2815] Digby 83, quarto in skin, well written in large letters with -few abbreviations and illustrated with many figures in red, 76 leaves. -For the _Incipits_ of the four books and their prologues see Macray’s -Catalogue of the Digby MSS. - -[2816] Another indication of mathematical activity in tenth century -England is provided by some old verses in English in Royal 17-A-I, -fols. 2v-3, which state that Euclid’s geometry was introduced into -England “Yn tyme of good 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. - -[2817] Digby 83, fol. 24, “Epistola Ethelwodi ad Girbertum papam. -Domino summo pontifici et philosopho 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 Gerbert had become pope he should have been -addressed as Pope Silvester. The article on Ethelwold (DNB) states -that “a treatise on the circle, said to have been written by him and -addressed to Gerbert, afterwards Pope Silvester II, is in the Bodleian -Library (1684, Bodl. MS. Digby 83, f. 24).” William of Malmesbury -mentioned “Adelboldum episcopum, ut dicunt, Winterbrugensem” as the -author of the letter to Gerbert, quoted by Bubnov (1899), 388. - -[2818] It has always been so printed: by Pez, Olleris, Curtze, and -Bubnov, 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 connection 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 mathematical question in hand, notably the -entire first paragraph of Bubnov’s text and the close of the second and -third paragraphs. It also abbreviates portions of the fifth paragraph -and the last sentence of the eighth and last paragraph. On the other -hand after the first sentence of the fifth paragraph 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 separatim ponat. Post hoc lineam in VII partitam -triplicet cui triplicate spatium unius septime quod semoverat adiciat. -Ipsa denique totam in IIII partiatur quarum quarta angulis directis per -lineam quadrangulam metiatur. Ad ultimum sumpto spatio alterius duorum -quod prius reposuerat deposito puncto in medio quadranguli eodem spatio -circumducat circinum (circulum) et sic inveniet circuli quadraturam.” - -[2819] Bubnov (1899), 41-42, “quod tantum virum quasi conscolasticum -iuvenis convenio.” - -[2820] Bubnov does not include it in his edition of the mathematical -works of Gerbert, but as we have seen he was unaware of the existence -of this MS, i.e., Digby 83. - -[2821] And also to the _Incipit_ of a treatise in a tenth century -MS at Paris, BN 17,868, fol. 14r, “Quicumque nosse desiderat legem -astrorum....” The treatise or fragment in this Paris MS seems to end -at fol. 17r, or at least at fol. 17v, after which most of the few -remaining leaves of the MS, which has only 21 leaves in all, are -blank. There is some similarity of contents, but the Paris MS is more -astrological. Possibly, however, it is a different part of, or rather -extracts from the same work, since we shall see reasons for thinking -that the text in Digby 83 is incomplete. - -[2822] At least such seems to me to be the meaning of the passage, -fol. 21r, “Quippe cum aliquando per situm gentium ipsarum positionem -stellarum demonstrati simus precognita populorum habitatione rei -effectus ad faciliorem curret eventus.” - -[2823] Fol. 22r. - -[2824] Fol. 76r, the closing words are, “Quod autem de elementis -diximus idem de temporibus deque humoribus intellige sicut hec figura -evidentissime designat.” But the figure is not given. - -[2825] Fol. 27v. - -[2826] Fol. 31v, “per que predicti planete revoluti diversa in diversis -possunt et etiam secundum genethliacos bonum quidam in quibusdam malum -vero in quibusdam quidam nativitatibus hominem astruunt.” - -[2827] Fol. 32r. - -[2828] Fol. 36r. - -[2829] Fol. 59r, “Herastotenes.” - -[2830] Fol. 21r-v. - -[2831] Fol. 32r. - -[2832] _De rebus gestis regum Anglorum_, II, 167. - -[2833] Addit. 17808, fols. 85v-99v, “Mathematica Alhandrei summi -astrologi. Luna est frigide nature et argentei coloris / oculis -descriptio talis subiciatur”: and CLM 560, fols. 61-87, which I have -not seen but which from the description in the catalogue is evidently -the same treatise and has the same _Incipit_, although no author or -title seems to be given. - -[2834] Bodleian 266, fol. 179v, “libellum fortune faciens mentionem de -tribus faciebus signorum et planetis regnantibus in eisdem ... mulieres -docte.” - -[2835] BN 2598, 15th century, fol. 108r. - -[2836] BN 17868, fols. 2r-12v. “Incipit liber Alchandrei” -(Wickersheimer) 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 written before 1000. Also -there is something wrong with the passage 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 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 between the Creation and the Incarnation. - -[2837] The spellings of such proper names vary in the different MSS or -even in the same one. - -[2838] Steinschneider (1905) 30, briefly notes “Alcandrinus,” however. -See below, p. 715 of the present chapter. - -[2839] Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; BN 17868, fol. 2r. - -[2840] Addit. 17808, fols. 86r-87r; BN 17868, fol. 3v. - -[2841] Addit. 17808, fols. 87v-88r. - -[2842] BN 17868, fol. 2r; Addit. 17808, fol. 85v; “Iuxta que quia omnia -humana secundum nutum dei disponuntur per septem planetas que subter -(subtus) feruntur eorum nobis potestas innuitur”: BN 17868, fol. 3r; -Addit. 17808, fol. 86v, “Per has autem vii planetas quia ut diximus -et adhuc probabimus 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 mathematici; Addit. 17808, fol. 88v, “Cum -sint signa xii in zodiaco cumque iuxta mathematicos et secundum horum -diversissimos potestates fata omnium ita volente sapientissimo domino -disponantur....” - -[2843] Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “Que quum ita discernuntur non falsa -opinio persuasit istis humana principaliter gubernante domino moderari -cum itaque ut mundus homo unusquisque ex his iiii compaginetur -elementis.” - -[2844] Addit. 17808, fol. 89v. But the lists are left incomplete and a -blank leaf, which is also left unnumbered, follows in the MS. - -[2845] BN 17868, fol. 5r: Addit. 17808, fol. 90r, “Hec sunt xxviii -principales partes vel astra per que omnium fata disponuntur et -indubitanter tam futura quam presentia prenuntiantur a quocumque -itus reditus ortus occasus horum horoscoporum iocundissimo auxilio -diligenter providentur.” - -[2846] BN 17868, fol. 5v. - -[2847] BN 17868, fol. 6r. - -[2848] BN 17868, fol. 9r-; Addit. 17808, fols. 94v-95v. - -[2849] BN 17868, fol. 10r; Addit. 17808, fol. 96r. - -[2850] Addit. 17808, fol. 97r. - -[2851] Addit. 17808, fol. 97v. In BN 17868, fol. 11r, we read, -“Explicit liber primus. Incipit liber secundus.” And then begins -the letter of Argafalaus with the words, “Regi macedonum Alexandro -astrologo et universa philosophia perfectissimo Argafalaus servuus suus -condicione et nacione ingenuus caldeus, professione vero secundus ab -illo astrologus.” - -[2852] 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. 12v: then more is said concerning hours of the planets -and interrogations until at the bottom of fol. 13r 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. 1172, -James 332) was a “Breviarium alhandredi su’m astrologi 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, 16th century, #5, Breviarium Alhandriae, summi Astrologi de -scientia qualiter ignota nullo indicante investigari possit. - -[2853] Addit. 17808, fol. 89r, “figuram quam super hac re Alexander -Macedo composuit diligentissime posterius describemus”; fol. 95r, -“Hinc Alexander macedo dicit eclipsin solis et lune certissima ratione -colligi”; fol. 96r. “Aut iuxta alexandrum macedonem draco quasi octava -planeta.” - -[2854] Ashmole 369, late 13th century, 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 stellam occupat. Explicit.” A further discussion of the -contents of this work will be found below in Chapter 48, vol. II, p. -259. - -[2855] BN 17868, fol. 17r. The Incipit is the same as in Ashmole 369. -The work here seems to be incomplete, since after fol. 17v most of the -remaining leaves of the MS (which has 21 fols. in all) are blank. - -[2856] The vowels being represented by the consonants following, a -common medieval cipher. - -[2857] All Souls 81, 15th century, fols. 145v-164r. “Cum sint 28 -mansiones lune....” Coxe was mistaken in thinking that the work -of Alkandrinus continued to fol. 188 and was in two parts, for at -fol. 163r we read, “Expliciunt iudicia libri Alkandrini que sunt in -divisione triplici 12 signorum que sunt apparencie per certa tempora -super terram.” Moreover, the seven chapters on the planets which follow -end at fol. 183v “... finem fecimus. Completa fuit hec compilatio in -conversione sancti pauli apostoli anno domini 1350 (1305?) vacante sede -per mortem Benedicti undecimi cuius anima requiescat in pace. Amen.” -It would therefore seem that some compiler has made an extract from -Alchandrus on the twenty-eight mansions. - -[2858] BN 10271, fols. 9r-52v, “Incipit liber alchandrini philosophi -de nativitatibus hominum secundum compositionem duodecim signorum -celi, quem reformavit quidem philosophus cristianus prout patet, -quia in quibusdam differt iste liber ab antiquo primordiali. Primo -facies arietis in homine sive in masculo. Alnaliet est prima facies -arietis....” - -[2859] Steinschneider (1905), 30. - -[2860] The _editio princeps_ seems to be “Arcandam doctor peritissimus -ac non vulgaris astrologus, de veritatibus et praedictionibus -astrologiae et praecipue nativitatum seu fatalis dispositionis -vel diei cuiuscunque nati, nuper per Magistrum Richardum Roussat, -canonicum Lingoniensem, artium et medicinae professorem, de confuso -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 adnotaverit modo -eiusdem dexteritate praelo primo donatus.” Paris, 1542. - -The British Museum also contains 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. - -[2861] BN 7349, 15th century, fol. 56r, seems only a fragment of the -work; BN 7351, 14th century, takes up the various signs. - -[2862] CLM 527, 13-14th century, fols. 36-42, de physica signorum et -supernascentium et aegrotantium. - -[2863] Addit. 15236, English hand of 13-14th century, fols. 130-52r -“libellus Alchandiandi.” BN 7486, 14th century, “Incipit liber -alkardiani phylosophi. Cum omne quod experitur sit experiendum propter -se vel propter aliud....” - -[2864] The set in which the first line reads, “Tuum indumentum durabit -tempore longo.” - -[2865] Very probably this title was derived from the _Incipit_ just -given in note 4, p. 716. - -[2866] See Sloane 2472, 3554, 3857. - -[2867] BN 17868, fol. 14r-16v. The letter of Petosiris on the sphere of -life and death at fol. 13r-v “Incipit epistola Phetosiri de sphaera” -separates this treatise or fragment from the preceding _liber Alchandri -philosophi_. Also this treatise is in a different and slightly older -hand than fols. 2-13 are, or at least such was Bubnov’s opinion (1899), -125, note. - -[2868] BN 17686, fol. 14v, “que sarraceni nuncupant ita.” - -[2869] Berlin 165 (Phillips 1790), 9-10th century. I have not seen the -MS, but follow Rose’s full description of it in his _Verzeichnis der -lateinischen Handschriften_, I, 362-9. - -[2870] Cod. Casin. 97 Gal. I, 24-51. - -[2871] Berlin 165, fol. 88. - -[2872] _Ibid._, fols. 40-2. - -[2873] _Ibid._, fol. 39v. - -[2874] Edited with an English translation, which I employ in my -quotations, by Rev. Oswald Cockayne in vol. II of his _Leechdoms, -Wortcunning, 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 following third book is -therefore presumably of other authorship. - -[2875] J. F. Payne, _English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times_, 1904, p. -155. - -[2876] Book I, cap. 87. - -[2877] I, 45. - -[2878] I, 85. - -[2879] III, 47. - -[2880] I, 86. - -[2881] I, 68. - -[2882] II, 66. - -[2883] I, 45. - -[2884] I, 63. - -[2885] II, 65. - -[2886] III, 61. - -[2887] Sloane 475 (olim Fr. Bernard 116), 231 leaves, including two -codices, one of the 12th century, which is also medical but with -which we shall not deal at present, and the other of the 10th or 11th -century and written in different hands. The MS is mutilated both at the -beginning and the close. - -Sloane 2839, 11th century, 112 leaves. - -[2888] Sloane 2839, fols, iv-3, “Liber Cirrurgium Cauterium Apollonii -et Galieni.” James, _Western MSS in Trinity College_, Cambridge, III, -26-8, describes fifty drawings, chiefly of surgical operations, in MS -1044, early 13th century. By that date cauterization seems to have -become less common. - -[2889] Professor T. W. Todd thinks that I am too severe upon the -practice of cauterization, and that it may sometimes have served as a -counter-irritant like mustard plasters and the blister. - -[2890] Sloane, 2839, fols. 79v-80v. - -[2891] “Ad stomachum ubi ferro operare non oportes sansugias apponas.” - -[2892] _Imbrocare._ I have not discovered exactly what it means. - -[2893] Sloane 475, fol. 224r; Sloane 2839, fol. 97r. - -[2894] Sloane 475, fol. 133, _et seq._ - -[2895] Sloane 475, fol. 224v. - -[2896] Sloane 475, fols. 1-124. At fol. 36r occurs the familiar -pseudo-letter of Hippocrates to Antigonus; at fols. 8v-10r is a passage -almost identical with that at the close of the _De medicamentis_ of -Marcellus, 1889, p. 382; an incantation from Marcellus is repeated -at fol. 117v. At fol. 37r we read “Explicit Liber II. Incipit Liber -Tertius ad ventris rigiditatem”; at fol. 60r, “Explicit liber tertius. -Incipit Liber IIII”; at fol. 85r, “Incipit Liber V.” - -[2897] See fol. 110r, “Cros, oros, comigeos, delig(c)ros, falicros, -spolicros, splena mihi”; and fol. 114r, “Opas, nolipas, opium, -nolimpium.” Those who delight in ciphers will perhaps detect in the -latter incantation a hidden allusion to opiates. - -[2898] Fol. 117v; see Marcellus (1889), p. 123, cap. 12. - -[2899] Fol. 111r. - -[2900] Fol. 111v. - -[2901] BN nouv. acq. 229, fol. 7v (once p. 246), “nomina septem -sanctorum germanorum dormientium que sunt hec, Maximianus, Malchus, -Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionisius, Iohannes, Serapion.” - -[2902] Sloane 475, fol. 122v. - -[2903] “Ellum super ellam sedebat et virgam viridem in manu tenebat et -dicebat, Virgam viridis reunitere in simul.” - -[2904] Sloane 475, fol. 112v. Unintelligible letters follow. - -[2905] Egerton 821, 12th century, fols. 52v-60v. - -[2906] _Ibid._, fol. 53v, _vultilis_, which I assume should be -_vulturis_ rather than _vituli_, or bull-calf. - -[2907] Egerton 821, fol. 57. - -[2908] _Ibid._, fol. 58v. - -[2909] _Ibid._, fol. 60r. - -[2910] BN 7028, 11th century, fols. 136v, 140-3, 154r, and 156r. - -[2911] BN nouv. acq. 229, 12th century, fols. 1r-10r (once pp. 233-51), -opening, “Rationem observationis vestre pietati secundum precepta -doctorum medicinalium ut potui....” - -[2912] BN nouv. acq. 229, fol. 2r. March is treated first and February -last, while a similar discussion later in the same work (fols. 8r-9r, -Quid unoquoque mense utendum quidve vitandum sit) begins with January. - -[2913] BN nouv. acq. 229, fol. 7. - -[2914] Fol. 6r. - -[2915] Fol. 4v. - -[2916] Fols. 4v-5r. - -[2917] Fol. 7r. - -[2918] Fol. 7r-v. - -[2919] Fol. 7v. - -[2920] Fol. 9v. - -[2921] What is known of the School of Salerno has already been -briefly indicated in English by H. Rashdall, _Universities of Europe -in the Middle Ages_, 1895, I, 75-86, and T. Puschmann, _History of -Medical Education_, English translation, London, 1891, pp. 197-211. -The standard work on the subject is Salvatore De Renzi, _Collectio -Salernitana_, in Italian with Latin texts, published at Naples in five -volumes from 1852 to 1859. It contains a history of the School of -Salerno by Renzi and various texts brought to light and dissertations -discussing them by Renzi, Daremberg, Henschel, and others. - -Unfortunately this publication proceeded by the unsystematic piecemeal -and hand-to-mouth method, and new texts and discoveries were brought -to the editor’s attention during the process, so that the history of -the school and the texts in the earlier volumes have to be supplemented -and corrected by the fuller versions and dissertations in the later -volumes. It is too bad that all the materials could not have been -collected and more systematically arranged and collated before -publication. Also some of the texts printed have but the remotest -connection with Salerno, while others have nothing to do with medicine. - -To this collection of materials some further additions have been made -by P. Giacosa, _Magistri Salernitani nondum editi_, Turin, 1901. - -For further bibliography see in the recent reprint of Harrington’s -English translation, _The School of Salerno_ (1920), pp. 50-52. - -[2922] Notably Daremberg. - -[2923] II, 59 (MG. SS. III, 600). - -[2924] S. de Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, IV, 185, _Practica -Petroncelli_, perhaps from an imperfect copy; IV, 315, Sulle opere che -vanno sotto il nome di Petroncello. Heeg, _Pseudodemocrit. Studien_, in -_Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad._ (1913), p. 42, shows that what Renzi printed -tentatively as the table of contents and an extract from the third book -of the _Practica_, is not by Petrocellus but by the Pseudo-Democritus, -and that one MS of it dates from the ninth or tenth century. - -[2925] Petrocellus, Περὶ διδάξεων, Eine Sammlung von Rezepten in -englischer Sprache aus dem 11-12 Jahrhundert. Nach einer Handschrift -des Britischen Museums herausg. v. M. Löweneck (in Anglo-Saxon and -Latin), 1896, pp. viii, 57, Heft 12 in _Erlanger Beiträge z. englischen -Philologie_. The treatise perhaps also contains selections from -the _Passionarius_ of Gariopontus. It had been published before in -Cockayne, _Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms_, 1864-1866, III, 82-143. - -[2926] Payne (1904), pp. 155-6. - -[2927] _Ibid._, p. 148. - -[2928] The Latin text reads, “liver of a hedgehog,” and doubtless -either would be equally efficacious. - -[2929] Quoted by Payne (1904), p. 152, from Cockayne’s translation. - -[2930] Renzi (1852-9), IV, 185. - -[2931] Renzi, IV, 190, “Propterea fili karissime cum diuturno tempore -de medicina tractassemus omnipotentis Dei nutu admonitus placuit ut ex -grecis locis sectantes auctores omnium causarum dogmata in breviloquium -latino sermone conscriberemus.” - -[2932] For the two passages on epilepsy see Renzi, IV, pp. 235 and 293. - -[2933] Renzi, I, 417-516, _Flos medicinae_, a text of 2130 lines; V, -1-104, the fuller text of 3526 lines; 113-72, Notice bibliographique; -385-406, Notes choisies de M. Baudry de Balzac au _Flos Sanitatis_. - -[2934] “Anglorum Regi scribit Schola tota Salerni.” Some MSS have -Francorum or Roberto instead of Anglorum. - -[2935] Lines 2692-3. - -[2936] K. Sudhoff, _Zum Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum_, in _Archiv f. -Gesch. d. Medizin_, VII (1914), 360, and IX (1915-1916), 1-9. - -[2937] Arnald de Villanova, _Opera_, Lyons, 1532, fol. 147v. - -[2938] Lines 1918-9, 1932-3, 1973-4, 1985, in Renzi’s first text -of 2130 lines; in the fuller version they are somewhat more widely -separated: lines 3053, 3130, 3227, 3267. - -[2939] Lines 1845-55 or 2873-83. - -[2940] Renzi, V, 377-8. - -[2941] _Ibid._, 372-3. - -[2942] _Ibid._, 379-81. - -[2943] _Ibid._, 350. - -[2944] 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.’” - -[2945] Renzi, V, 371, “Involuntariam urine emissionem quidam -patiebantur et adhuc multi patiuntur et maxime servi et ancille qui -male induti et discalciati incedunt, unde frigiditate incensa vesica -fit quasi paralitica cum urinam nequeat continere.” - -[2946] Giacosa (1901), pp. 71-166. - -[2947] Giacosa (1901), p. 146. - -[2948] _Ibid._, p. 145. - -[2949] Renzi, V, 331-2. - -[2950] 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, 12-13th century, fol. 1-, Viaticum, 69- de melancholia, -77v- de stomacho, 98v- de oblivione, 100r- de coitu, (no author is named -for 109v- liber elefantie, 113- de modo medendi), 121- liber febrium, -(169- de inamidarium Galieni). - -The chief secondary investigations concerning Constantinus Africanus -are: - -Daremberg, _Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits Médicaux_, 1853, pp. -63-100, “Recherches sur un ouvrage qui a pour titre Zad el-Monçafir en -arabe, Ephrodes en grec, Viatique en latin, et qui est attribué dans -les textes arabes et grecs à Abou Djafar, et dans le texte latin à -Constantin.” - -Puccinotti, _Storia della Medicina_, II, i, pp. 292-350, 1855, devoted -several chapters to Constantinus and tried to defend him from the -charge of plagiarism and to maintain that the _Viaticum_ and some other -works were original. - -Steinschneider, _Constantinus Africanus und seine arabischen Quellen_, -in Virchow’s _Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie_, etc., Berlin, 1866, -vol. 37, pp. 351-410. This should be supplemented by pp. 9-12 of his -_Die europäischen Übersetzungen aus dem Arabischen_ (1905). - -[2951] _Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits Médicaux_ (1853), p. 86. - -[2952] _Histoire des Sciences Médicales_ (1870), I, 261. - -[2953] Indeed Daremberg said in 1853 (p. 85, note) “dans le moyen âge -beaucoup d’auteurs citent volontiers Constantine comme une autorité.” - -[2954] Perhaps through the fault of the printer the list of the -writings of Constantinus given by Peter the Deacon is defective as -reproduced in tabular form by Steinschneider (1866), pp. 353-4. -Steinschneider also incorrectly speaks of Leo of Ostia as well as -Peter the Deacon as a source for Constantinus (p. 352, “Die Schriften -Constantins sind bekanntlich von seinen alten Biographen, Petrus -Diaconus und Leo Ostiensis verzeichnet worden”), since Leo’s portion of -the _Chronicle_ ends before Constantinus is mentioned. - -[2955] Peter was born about 1107 and was placed in the monastery of -Monte Cassino by his parents in 1115. He became librarian. _Monumenta -Germaniae, Scriptores_, VII, 562 and 565. - -[2956] _Chronica Mon. Casinensis_, Lib. III, auctore Petro, MG. SS. -VII, 728-9; Muratori, _Scriptores_, IV, 455-6 (lib. III, cap. 35). - -[2957] _Petri Diaconi De viribus illustribus Casinensibus_, cap. 23, in -Fabricius, _Bibl. Graec._, XIII, 123. - -[2958] Yet modern compilers and writers of encyclopedia articles -invariably repeat “Carthage” and “Babylon.” - -[2959] BN 14700, fol. 171v, cited by Baur (1903), who also notes -parallel passages in Al-Gazel, _Phil. tr._ I, 1; and Avicenna, _De -divis. philos._, fol. 141. - -[2960] Gundissalinus and Daniel Morley. Al-Farabi’s list of eight -mathematical sciences, including “the science of spirits,” was also -reproduced by Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth century, _Speculum -doctrinale_, XVI. - -[2961] Possibly there is some confusion with Galen’s similar experience -with the physicians of Rome, which Constantinus may have reproduced -in some one of his translations of Galen in such a way as to lead the -reader to consider it his own experience. - -[2962] The words are the same both in the _Chronicle_ and _Illustrious -Men_: “quem cum vidissent Afri ita ad plenum omnibus (omnium?) gentium -eruditum, cogitaverunt occidere eum.” - -[2963] Pagel (1902), p. 644, “Vorher soll er kurze Zeit noch in Reggio, -einer kleinen Stadt in der Nähe von Byzanz, als Protosekretär des -Kaisers Constantinos Monomachos sich aufgehalten und das Reisehandbuch -des Abu Dschafer übersetzt haben.” But Pagel gives no source for this -statement. - -Apparently the notion is due to the fact that a Greek treatise entitled -_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 Constantine as its author who was -proto-secretary and lived at Reggio or Rhegium. - -Daremberg (1853), p. 77, held that a Vatican MS of the _Ephodia_ was of -the tenth century and therefore this Greek translation could not be the -work of Constantinus Africanus in the next century, but Steinschneider -(1866), p. 392, only says, “Die griechische Uebersetzung des Viaticum -soll bis in die Zeit Constantins hinaufreichen.” - -Another MS, Escorial &-II-9, 16th century, fol. 1-, contains a -“Commeatus Peregrinantium” whose author is called “Ebrubat Zafar filio -Elbazar,” which perhaps designates Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar, whom -Daremberg and Steinschneider call the author of the Arabic original of -the _Viaticum_. The work is said to have been translated into Greek “a -Constantino Primo a secretis Regis,” which suggests that Constantinus -was perhaps first of the royal secretaries 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. - -[2964] _Opera_ (1536), p. 215. - -[2965] _De animalibus_, XXII, i, 1. - -[2966] 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 illumination shows Constantinus -seated, holding a book on his knees with his left hand, while he raises -his right hand and forefinger in didactic style. He wears the tonsure, -has a beard but no mustache, and seems to be approached by one woman -and two men carrying two jars of urine. - -[2967] See Margoliouth, _Avicenna_, 1913, p. 49. - -[2968] Only the ten books of theory are printed in the 1539 edition of -Constantinus. - -[2969] _Chirurgia_, at pp. 324-41. - -[2970] _Opera omnia ysaac_ (1515), fol. 126v, “Liber decimus practice -qui antidotarium dicitur in duas divisus partes.” - -Isaac Israeli is the subject of the first chapter in Husik (1916), who -calls him (p. 2) “the first Jew, so far as we know, to devote himself -to philosophical and scientific discussions.” - -[2971] Daremberg (1853), pp. 82-5, gives the prefaces of Ali and -Constantinus in parallel columns. - -[2972] Printed in 1492 with the works of Ali ben Abbas; Stephen’s -translation was made at Antioch in Syria. - -[2973] Steinschneider (1866), p. 359. - -[2974] “Ultimam et maiorem deesse sensi partem, alteram vero -interpretis callida depravatam fraude.” - -[2975] Amplon. Octavo 62. - -[2976] In his gloss to the _Viaticum_ of Constantinus. - -[2977] _Berlin HSS Verzeichnis_ (1905), pp. 1059-65, to whom I owe the -preceding references to Ferrarius and Giraldus. - -[2978] Rose cites Bamberg L-iii-9. The two following MSS are perhaps -also worth noting: The _Pantegni_ as contained in CU Trinity 906, 12th -century, finely written, fols. 1-141v, comprises only ten books. The -first opens, “Cum totius generalitas tres principales partes habeat”; -the tenth ends, “Unde acutum oportet habere sensum ad intelligendum. -Explicit.” - -St. John’s 85, close of 13th century, “Constantini africani Pantegnus -in duas partes divisus quarum prima dicitur Theorica continens decem -libros secunda dicitur Practica 33 capita continens,” as a table of -contents written in on the fly-leaf states. The ten books of theory -end at fol. 100r, “Explicit prima pars pantegni scilicet de theorica. -Incipit secunda pars scilicet practica et est primus liber de regimento -sanitatis.” This single book in 33 chapters on the preservation -of health ends at fol. 116v, and at fol. 117r begins the _Liber -divisionum_ of Rasis. - -[2979] In Berlin 898, a 12th century MS of Stephen’s translation of -Ali’s _Practica_, this ninth section by Constantinus and John is for -some reason substituted for the corresponding book of Stephen. - -[2980] He calls himself, “iohannes quidam agarenus (Saracenus?) -quondam, qui noviter ad fidem christiane religionis venerat cum rustico -pisano belle filius ac professione medicus.” - -[2981] The main objection to this theory is that Stephen of Pisa, -translating in 1127, speaks as if the latter portion of Ali’s work -was still untranslated. Rose therefore holds that John had not yet -published his translation, although we have seen that he completed the -surgical section by 1115. - -[2982] In _Opera omnia ysaac_, Lyons, 1515, II, fols. 144-72, “Viaticum -ysaac quod constantinus sibi attribuit”; in the Basel, 1536, edition -of the works of Constantinus, pp. 1-167, under the title, “De morborum -cognitione et curatione lib. vii”; in the Venice, 1505, edition of -Gerardus de Solo (Bituricensis), “Commentum eiusdem super viatico -cum textu”; and in the Lyons, 1511, edition of Rhazes, _Opera parva -Albubetri_. - -A fairly early but imperfect MS is CU Trinity 1064, 12-13th century. - -Laud. Misc. 567, late 12th century, fol. 2, recognizes in its Titulus -that the _Viaticum_ is a translation, “Incipit Viaticum a Constantino -in Latinam linguam translatam.” - -[2983] Steinschneider (1866), 368-9. - -[2984] See above, page 745, note 2. - -[2985] In the 1515 edition of Isaac’s works, I, 11-, 156-, and 203-. -Peter the Deacon presumably refers to these three works in speaking -of “Dietam ciborum. Librum febrium quem de Arabica lingua transtulit. -Librum de urinis.” Whether the two initial treatises in the 1515 -edition of Isaac, dealing with definitions and the elements, were -translated by Constantinus or by Gerard of Cremona is doubtful. - -[2986] See CLM 187, fol. 8; 168, fol. 23; 161, fol. 41; 270, fol. 10; -13034, fol. 49, for 13-14th 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, Incipiunt -amphorismi Ypocratis cum commento domini Constantini Affricani montis -Cassienensis monachi; fol. 155, Eiusdem Prognostica cum Galeni -commento, eodem interprete; fols. 203-61, Eiusdem liber de regimine -acutorum cum eiusdem commento eodem interprete. - -[2987] _De viris illustribus_, cap. 23, “... transtulit de diversis -gentium linguis libros quamplurimos in quibus praecipue ...”: -_Chronica_, Lib. III, “... transtulit de diversorum gentium linguis -libros quamplurimos in quibus sunt hi praecipue....” - -[2988] “Librum duodecim graduum” in _De viris illus._: in the -_Chronicle_, “Liber graduum.” - -[2989] Edition of Basel, 1536, at pp. 280-98 and 215-74 respectively. - -[2990] It is found in Laud. Misc. 567, late 12th century, fol. 51v. - -[2991] Edition of 1536, pp. 283-4. - -[2992] See below, Chapter 64. - -[2993] _Zeitsch. f. klass. Philol._ (1896), pp. 1098ff. - -[2994] J. A. Endres, _Petrus Damiani und die weltliche Wissenschaft_, -1910, p. 35, in _Beiträge_, VIII, 3. - -[2995] James (1903), p. 59, “Tractatus Alfani Salernitanus de quibusdam -questionibus medicinalibus.” - -[2996] CU Trinity 1365, early 12th century, fols. 155-162v, -_Experimenta archiep. Salernitani_. - -[2997] Judging from its opening and closing words as given by James. - -[2998] _De coitu_, edition of 1536, p. 306. - -[2999] _Viaticum_, VI, 19. - -[3000] _Practica_, X, 1; in Isaac, _Opera_, 1515, II, fol. 126. - -[3001] _Ibid._, VII, 31; fol. 111r. - -[3002] _Ibid._, IV, 37; fol. 96r. - -[3003] _Ibid._, V, 17; fol. 99r. - -[3004] _De melancholia_ (1536), p. 290. - -[3005] _Practica_, VIII, 40; ed. of 1515, fol. 118v. - -[3006] _Practica_, IV, 39, and V, 7; ed. of 1515, fols. 96r and 98r. - -[3007] Ed. of 1536, p. 358; also in the _Viaticum_, I, 22; p. 20. - -[3008] _Viaticum_, I, 22; p. 21. - -[3009] _Viaticum_, VII, 13: _De gradibus_ (1536), p. 377. - -[3010] 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, “Invenimus -Rufum clarissimum medicum de melancholia fecisse librum....” - -[3011] _De gradibus_ (1536), p. 378. - -[3012] Edition of 1536, pp. 20, 290, 356. - -[3013] _Theorica_, X, 9; ed. of 1515, fol. 54. - -[3014] _Practica_, VII, 59 (1515), fol. 114v. - -[3015] Ed. of 1541, pp. 319-21. - -[3016] _Spec. nat._, XVI, 49. - -[3017] _De gradibus_ (1536), p. 360, “de quo Arabū (Aristotle?) in -libro de lapidibus intitulato.” - -[3018] _Manoscritto Salernitano dilucidato dal Prof. Henschel_, in -Renzi (1853), II, 1-80, especially pp. 16, 41, 59. - -[3019] _De aegritudinum curatione tractatus_, Renzi, II, 81-386; _De -febribus tractatus_, II, 737-68. - -[3020] 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 Iohanne”; -Cambrai 914, 13-14th century; Cambrai 907, 14th century, fol. 1, -Prefatio Constantini ad Johannem discipulum. - -[3021] 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. - -[3022] Interest in such works was aroused by the almost simultaneous -publication of R. Hendrie’s English translation of Theophilus, -London, 1847; the publication of the _Mappe clavicula_ in a “Letter -from Sir Thomas Phillipps to Albert Way” in _Archaeologia_, XXXII, -183-244, London, 1847; and the inclusion of Heraclius, _De coloribus -et de artibus Romanorum_, in Mrs. Merrifield’s _Ancient Practice of -Painting_, London, 1849. Hendrie printed the Latin text of Theophilus -with his translation. A. Ilg published a revised Latin text with a -German translation in 1874, with a fuller account of the MSS. - -[3023] Merrifield (1849), I, 166-74. - -[3024] Berthelot (1893), I, 29. He dated, however, Robert of Chester’s -translation of Morienus thirty-eight years too late in that century, -mistaking the Spanish for the Christian era. - -[3025] _Ibid._, p. 18. - -[3026] Berthelot (1893), I, 169. - -[3027] Merrifield (1849), I, 183. See also pp. 189-91. - -[3028] _Ibid._, p. 183, “Nil tibi scribo equidem quod non prius ipse -probassem.” - -[3029] _Ibid._, p. 187. - -[3030] _Traité des Arts Céramiques_, p. 304, cited by Merrifield, I, -177. This is not, however, to be regarded 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 Byzantine -Empire, was generally covered with glazes rich in lead.” - -[3031] For these works see Berthelot (1893), III, or Lippmann (1919), -who follows him. I have not had access to E. Wiedemann, _Zur Chemie -bei den Arabern_, in _Sitzungsberichte der physikalisch-medizinischen -Societät in Erlangen_, XLIII (1911); and his _Die Alchemie bei den -Arabern_, in _Journal für praktische Chemie_, LXXVI (1907), 85-87, -105-23. - -[3032] The full title is “Compositiones ad tingenda musiva, pelles et -alia, ad deaurandum ferrum, ad mineralia, ad chrysographiam, ad glutina -quaedam conficienda, aliaque artium documenta.” The MS, Bibliotheca -capituli canonicorum Lucensium, Arm. I, Cod. L, was printed in -Muratori, _Antiquitates Italicae_, II (1739), 364-87. It is described -by Berthelot (1893), I, 7-22, whose comparison of it with previous -treatises I follow. - -[3033] Berthelot (1888), I, 12, note. - -[3034] Text and some discussion thereof in _Archaeologia_, XXXII -(1847), 183-244. Analyzed by Berthelot (1893), I, 23-65. On the -Schlestadt MS of the 10th century, see Giry in _Bibliothèque de l’École -des Hautes Études_, XXXV (1878), 209-27. - -[3035] See recipes 105-93. - -[3036] Berthelot (1893), I, 57. - -[3037] _Ibid._, 61. Others, however, would trace the discovery of -alcohol back to Hippolytus. See above, p. 468. - -[3038] “Accipies ad experimentum donec primitus discas non multum cum -semel facias.” - -[3039] “Absconde sanctum et nulli tradendum secretum neque alicui -dederis propheta.” - -[3040] Berthelot (1893), I, 303-4. - -[3041] Item 265. - -[3042] Item 290. - -[3043] Item 289. - -[3044] _De coloribus et artibus Romanorum_, I, iv. I have somewhat -altered Mrs. Merrifield’s translation (I, 186). - -[3045] _Ibid._, I, xi; Mrs. Merrifield (1849), I, 189-91. - -[3046] _Ibid._, I, xii: - - “Sed vim cristalli cruor antea temperet hirci - Sanguis enim facilem ferro facit his adamantem.” - -Mrs. Merrifield (I, 194) has incorrectly rendered this passage, “But -let the blood of a goat first temper it, for this blood makes 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.” - - -[3047] _Schedula diversarum artium_, III, 98. - -[3048] _Ibid._, III, 94. - -[3049] _Ibid._, III, 21. - -[3050] Berthelot (1893), I, 63. His French translation omits some of -the Latin text as published in _Archaeologia_, cap. 288. - -[3051] “Cardan’s concentric circles,” according to Berthelot (1893), I, -64. - -[3052] Berthelot (1893), I, 55. - -[3053] II, prologus (closing passage). “Huius ergo imitator desiderans -fore, apprehendi atrium agiae Sophiae conspicorque cellulam diversorum -colorum omnimodo varietate refertam et monstrantem singulorum -utilitatem ac naturam. Quo mox inobservato pede ingressus, replevi -armariolum cordis mei sufficienter ex omnibus, quae diligenti -experientia sigillatim perscrutatus, cuncta visu manibusque probata -satis lucide tuo studio commendavi 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 solisque radios non -repelleret. Huic exercitio dans operam vitri naturam 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). - -[3054] III, 47. - -[3055] I have followed Ilg’s rather than Hendrie’s text; III, 48. - -[3056] Hendrie (1847), pp. 432-3. - -[3057] Ernst von Meyer, _History of Chemistry_, 1906. - -[3058] Migne, PL 146, 583-4. Some accused the bishop of resort to magic -arts: _Ibid._, 606. - -[3059] W. Stubbs, in RS LXIII, p. cix. C. L. Barnes, _Science in Early -England_, in Smithsonian Report for 1895, p. 732. Of the alchemy -ascribed to Dunstan, Elias Ashmole remarked in his _Theatrum Chemicum -Britannicum_, 1652, “He who shall have the happiness to meet with St. -Dunstan’s work _De occulta philosophia_ ... may therein read such -stories as will make him amazed to think what stupendous and immense -things are to be performed by virtue of the Philosopher’s Mercury, of -which a taste only and no more.” - -[3060] Berthelot (1893), I, 234. - -[3061] Karpinski (1915), pp. 26-30; Haskins, EHR, XXX (1915), 62-5. - -[3062] Berlin 956, 12th century, “Hic incipit alchamia. Accipe CCCC -ova gauline que generata sunt et facta in mense martii .../ ... ut -recentiora sint semper et calidiora. Explicit alchamia.” The titles -of the last three chapters are, “de iiii ollis, de cognitione, de -observatione stestarum.” I have not seen the MS but follow Rose’s -description in the Berlin MSS catalogue. - -[3063] I have used the edition of Marbod’s poems in Migne, PL vol. 171, -which also contains a life of Marbod. Two secondary accounts of Marbod -are C. Ferry, _De Marbodi Rhedonensis Episcopi vita et carminibus_, -Nemansi, 1877; L. V. E. Ernault, _Marbode, Évêque de Rennes, Sa -vie et ses Œuvres_, in _Bull. et Mém. de la Société Archéologique -du dept. d’Ille-et-Vilaine_, XX, 1-260, Rennes, 1889. See also V. -Rose, _Aristoteles De Lapidibus und Arnoldus Saxo_, in _Zeitsch. f. -deutsches Alterthum_, XVIII (1875), p. 321, _et seq._; L. Pannier, -_Les lapidaires français du moyen âge_, Paris, 1882. C. W. King, _The -Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones and Gems_, -London, 1865. - -[3064] CLM 23479, 11th century, fols. 4-10, Carmina de lapidibus eadem -quae Marbodo tribuuntur sed alio ordine. Of CUL 768, 15th century, -fols. 67-80, “Marbodi liber lapidum,” the Catalogue says, “This Latin -poem has been often printed but it does not appear that the editors -have collated this MS. The order of the sections is different from -all those of which Beckmann speaks in his edition (Göttingen, 1799), -answering, however, most nearly to his own.” - -[3065] The full name of Tiberius was, of course, Tiberius Claudius Nero -Caesar. - -[3066] Library of Dukes of Burgundy 8890, 12th century, Evacis regis. -BN 2621, 12th and 15th centuries, #6, Poemation de gemmis cuius author -dicitur Evax, Rex Arabiae. - -Montpellier 277, Liber lapidum preciosorum Evax rex Arabum. - -Riccard. 1228, 12th century, fols. 41-54; Incipit prologus Evacis regis -Arabie ad Neronem Tyberium de lapidibus. Incipit lapidarius Evacis -habens nomina gemmarum lx. - -BL Hatton 76 contains two letters of Evax, king of the Arabs, to -Tiberius Caesar, on the virtues of stones, according to Cockayne -(1864), I, xc and lxxxiv. - -[3067] Printed by J. B. Pitra, III (1855), 324-35. - -[3068] BN 7418, 14th century, fol. 116-, (D)amigeronis peritissimi de -lapidibus. Since this is the sole MS known of the prose version (Rose, -1875, p. 326) and is of the 14th century, whereas we have numerous -early MSS of Marbod’s poem, it would seem that this may be derived from -Marbod rather than even from the earlier and fuller work which he is -supposed to have used. - -[3069] Namely, Leo, Cancer, Aries, Sagittarius, Taurus, Virgo, and -Capricorn. - -[3070] See page 775, note 2. - -[3071] King (1865), p. 7; Rose (1875), p. 335. - -[3072] Ferry (1887), p. 69. - -[3073] NH XXXVI, 56. Pliny, however, makes these statements about -chelonia and not chelonitis which follows it. - -[3074] The stones which I have taken as examples are numbers 1, 3, 5, -18, 19, 39, and 57 respectively. - -[3075] See above, chapter 29, page 689. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND -EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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