V. 2.

Ill, 4. VI, I.
490
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
single plant, a blade of grass is sufficient to occupy all your intelligence in the contemplation of the skill which pro- duced it." ^ He sees "great wisdom in small things." ^ Thus by the argument from design he is apt to work back from nature to the Creator, so that his enthusiasm cannot be regarded as purely scientific. Going a step farther than Galen's argument from design, he contends that "not a single thing has been created without reason; not a single thing is useless." ^
Basil also cherishes the notion, which we have already found both in pagan and Christian writers, that human sin leaves its stain or has its effect upon nature. The rose was without thorns before the fall of man, and their addition to its beauty serves to remind us that "sorrow is very near to pleasure." *
Basil discusses the habits of animals largely in order to draw moral lessons from them for human beings and he has several passages in the style supposed to be charac- teristic of the Physiologus. But he also refers in a num- ber of places to the ability of animals to find remedies with which to cure themselves of ailments and injuries, or to their power of divining the future. The sea-urchin fore- tells storms; sheep and goats discern danger by instinct alone. The starling eats hemlock and digests it "before its chill can attack the vital parts"; and the quail is able to feed on hellebore. The wounded bear nurses himself, filling his wounds with mullein, an astringent plant; "the fox heals his wounds with droppings from the pine tree" ; the tortoise counteracts the venom of the vipers it has eaten by means of the herb marjoram; and "the serpent heals sore eyes by eating fennel." ^
Indeed, far from being led by his acquaintance with Greek science into doubting the marvelous, Basil finds "in nature a thousand reasons for believing in the marvelous." ^ He is ready to ascribe astounding powers to animals, and
* Homily V, 3. *V, 6.
"V, 9. "vii, s;ix. 3.
'V. 4. • VIII, 6.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
491
Spon- taneous genera- tion.
believes, like Pliny, that "the greatest vessels, sailing with full sails, are easily stopped by a tiny fish." ^ He tells us that nature endowed the lion with such loud and forceful vocal organs "that often much swifter animals are caught by his roaring alone." ^ He also repeats in charming style the familiar story of the halcyon days. The halcyon lays its eggs along the shore in mid-winter when violent winds dash the waves against the land. Yet winds are hushed and waves are calm during the seven days that the halcyon sits, and then, after its young are hatched and in need of food, "God in his munificence grants another seven days to this tiny animal. All sailors know this and call these days halcyon days." ^
Like most ancient scientists, Basil believes that some ani- mals are spontaneously generated. "Many birds have no need of union with males to conceive," a circumstance which should make it easy for us to believe in the Virgin birth of Christ.^ Grasshoppers and other nameless insects and some- times frogs and mice are "born from the earth itself," and "mud alone produces eels," ^ a theory not much more amaz- ing than the assertion of modern biologists that eels spawn only in the Mediterranean Sea. Basil states that "in the environs of Thebes in Egypt after abundant rain in hot weather the country is covered with field mice," but with- out noting that abundant rain in upper Egypt in hot weather would itself be in the nature of a miracle.
Basil is less sceptical than Apollonius of Tyana in regard to the birth of lions and of vipers, repeating iin- questioningly the statement that the viper gnaws its way ticism out of its mother's womb, and that the lioness bears only one whelp because it tears her with its claws. ^ Of purely scien- tific scepticism there is, indeed, little in the Hexaemeron. Basil does, however, question one of the powers ascribed to magicians, and this is his only mention of the magic
* Homily VII, 6. 'IX, 3.
*VIII, 5. See also Aristotle, History of Animals, V, 8.
Lack of scientific scep-
* Homily VIII, 6. "IX, 2. IX, s.
492 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
art. Discussing the immense size of the moon and its great influence upon terrestrial nature, he declares ridiculous the old-wives' tales which have been circulated everywhere that magic incantations "can remove the moon from its place and make it descend to the earth." ^
Sun worship still existed in Basil's time and he hails the fact that the sun was not created until the fourth day, after both light and vegetation were in existence, as a severe blow to those who reverence the sun as the source of life.^ However, he does "not pretend to be able to separate light from the body of the sun." ^ Theophilus in his earlier discussion of creation had stated, perhaps copy- ing Philo Judaeus, that the luminaries were not created until the fourth day, "because God, who possesses foreknowledge, knew the follies of the vain philosophers, that they were going to say, that the things which grow on earth are pro- duced from the heavenly bodies" — which is, indeed, a funda- mental hyopthesis of astrology — "so as to exclude God. In order, therefore, that the truth might be obvious, the plants and seeds were produced prior to the heavenly bodies, for what is posterior cannot produce that which is prior." ^ Basil does not make this point against the rule of inferior creation by the heavenly bodies, but in a succeeding homily he feels it necessary to devote several paragraphs ^ to refuta- tion of the "vain science" of casting nativities, which some persons have justified by the words of God concerning sun, moon, and stars in the first chapter of Genesis, "And let them be for signs.'' Basil questions if it be possible to determine the exact instant of birth, declares that to at- tribute to the constellations and signs of the zodiac the characteristics of animals is to subject them to external in- fluences, and defends human free will in much the usual fashion. He is ready, however, to grant that "the variations of the moon do not take place without exerting great influ- ence upon the organization of animals and of all living
'Homily VI, li. * Ad Autolvcum, II, 15.
»V, I, ^Homily VI, S-7.
•VI, 3.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 493
things," and that the moon makes "all nature participate in her changes." ^
Basil's utterances concerning the world of nature are not always consistent. In describing the creation of vege- tation he asserts that species are unchanging, affirming that "all which sprang from the earth in the first bringing forth is kept the same to our time, thanks to the constant repro- duction of kind." ^ Yet a few paragraphs later we find him saying, "It has been observed that pines, cut down or even submitted to the action of fire, are changed into a forest of oaks." ^ Nevertheless in the last homily he again asserts that "nature, once put in motion by divine command, . . . keeps up the succession of kinds through resemblance to the last. Nature always makes a horse succeed to a horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it to the end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiari- ties destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature, as though it had just been constituted, follows the course of ages forever young." ■*
Concerning Basil in conclusion we may say that while he can scarcely be called much of a scientist, he is a pretty good scientist for a preacher. His knowledge of, and errors concerning, the world of nature will probably com- pare quite as well with the science of his day as those of most modern sermons will with the science of our days. His occasional flings at Greek philosophy are probably not to be taken too seriously. But what interests us rather more
' Homily VI, lo.
""V, 2.
' V, 7. But perhaps he simply means that oaks will grow where pines used to.
Tertullian, De pallio, cap. 2, dwelling on the law of change, speaks of the washing down of soil from mountains, the alluvial formation by rivers, and of sea-shells on mountain tops as a proof that the whole earth was once covered by water. He seems to have in mind a gradual process
of geological evolution rather than Noah's flood, and Sir James Frazer states that Isidore of Seville is the first he knows of the many writers who have ap- pealed "to fossil shells imbedded in remote mountains as witnesses to the truth of the Noachian tra- dition,"— Origines, XIII, 22, cited by J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore in the Old Testament (1918), I, 159, who cites the passage in Tertullian at
PP- 338-9- ' Homily IX, 2.
Perma- nence of species.
Final im- pression from the Hexaent- eron.
494
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The Medi- cine Chest of Epipha- nius.
than Basil's attitude is that of his audience, curious con- cerning nature. Just as it is evident that many of them go to theaters and circuses, or play with dice, despite Basil's denunciation of the immoral songs of the stage and the evils of gambling; just so, we suspect, it was the attractive morsels of Greek astronomy, botany, and zoology which he offered them that induced them to come and listen further to his argument from design and his moral lessons based upon these natural phenomena. Nor were they likely to observe his censure of incantations and nativities more closely than his condemnation of theater and gaming. It would be rash to infer that they always practiced what he preached. By the same token, even if the church fathers had opposed scientific investigation — and it hardly appears that they did — they would probably have been no more suc- cessful in checking it than they were in checking the com- merce of Constantinople, although "S. Ambrose regards the gains of merchants as for the most part fraudulent, and S. Chrysostom's language has been generally appealed to in a similar sense." ^
The same recognition of an interest In nature on the part of his audience and the same appeal to their scientific curiosity, which we have seen in Basil's sermons, is shown by Epiphanius of Cyprus (315-403) writing in 374-375 A. D.^ He calls his work against heresies the Panarion, or "Medicine Chest," his idea being to provide antidotes and healing herbs in the form of salubrious doctrine against the venom of heretics whose enigmas he compares to the bites of serpents or wild beasts. This metaphor is more or less adhered to throughout the work, and particular heresies are compared to the asp, basilisk, dipsas,^ buprestis,* lizard, dog-fish or shark, mole, centipede, scorpion, and various
* Cunningham, Christian Opinion on Usury, p. 9.
' Twice in the course of the Panarion (Dindorf, I, 280, and II, 428; Petavius, 2D and 404A) he gives the year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens. namely,
the eleventh and the twelfth.
^ Lucian's De dipsadibus will be recalled; see also Pliny, NH, XXIII, 80; Lucan, Pharsalia, IX,
* Pliny, NH, XXIII, 18; XXX, 10.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 495
vipers. We are further told of substances that drive away serpents, such as the herbs dictamnon, abrotonum, and lihanotis, the gum storax,^ and the stone gagates. As his authorities in such matters Epiphanius states that he uses Nicander for the natures of beasts and reptiles, and for roots and plants Dioscorides, Pamphilus, Mithridates the king, Callisthenes and Philo, lolaos the Bithynian, Hera- cleides of Tarentum, and a number of other names. ^
If in his Panarion Epiphanius makes use of ancient Gems in botany, medicine, and zoology for purposes of comparison, pj-^ests in his treatise on the twelve gems in the breastplate of the breast- Hebrew high priest ^ he perhaps gives an excuse and sets the fashion for the Christian medieval Lapidaries. This work was probably composed after the Panarion, and in the opinion of Fogginius even later than 392 A. D.^ This treatise probably was better known in the middle ages than the Paimrion, since the fullest version of it extant is the old Latin one, while the Greek text which has survived seems only a very brief epitome. The Greek version, how- ever, embodies a good deal of what is said concerning the gems themselves and their virtues, but omits entirely the long effort to identify each of the twelve stones with one of the twelve tribes of Israel, which is left unfinished even in the Latin version. Epiphanius shows himself rather chary in regard to such virtues attributed to gems as to calm storms, make men pacific, and confer the power of divination. He does not go so far as to omit them entirely, but he usually qualifies them as the assertion of "those who construct fables" or "those who believe fables." It is with- out any such qualification, however, that he declares that the topaz, ^ when ground on a physician's grindstone, al- though red itself, emits a white milky fluid, and, moreover,
* Pliny, NH, XXV, 53; XXI, edition of the Opera of Epipha-
92; XIX, 62; XII, 40 and 55. nius, vol. IV, pp. 141-24S, with
' Dindorf , II, 450; Petavius, the preface and notes of Foggi-
422C. nius, and both the Latin and
^ Liber de XII gemmis ration- Greek versions.
alis summi sacerdotis Hebraeo- * Ibid., 160-62.
rum, published in Dindorf's " P. 174.
496 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
that as many vessels as one wishes may be filled with this fluid without changing the appearance or shape or lessening the weight of the stone. Skilled physicians also attribute to this liquid a healing effect in eye troubles, in hydrophobia, and in the case of those who have gone mad from eating grape-fish. Some Epiphanius mentions a few other gems than those in the
other high priest's breastplate. Among these is the stone
hyacinth ^ which, when placed upon live coals, extinguishes them without injury to itself and which is also beneficial to women in childbirth, and drives away phantasms. Cer- tain varieties of it are found in the north among the bar- barous Scythians. The gems lie at the bottom of a deep valley which is inaccessible to men because walled in com- pletely by mountains, and moreover from the summits one cannot see into the valley because of a dark mist which covers it. How men ever became cognizant of the fact that there are gems there may well be wondered but is a point which Epiphanius does not take into consideration. He simply tells us that when men are sent to obtain some of these stones, they skin sheep and hurl the carcasses into the val- ley where some of the gems adhere to the flesh. The odor of the raw meat then attracts the eagles, whose keener sight is perhaps able to penetrate the mist, although Epiphanius does not say so, and they carry the carrion to their nests in the mountains. The men watch where the eagles have taken the meat and go there and find the gems which have been brought out with it. In the middle ages we find this same story in a slightly different form told of Alexander the Great on his expedition to India. Epiphanius has one thing to tell of India himself in connection with gems, which is that a temple of Father Liber (Bacchus) is located there which is said to have three hundred and sixty-five steps, — all of sapphire.^
'Pp. 190-91. 'Ibid., 184.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 497
The problem of an early Christian work entitled The so- Physiologiis is no easy one, although much has been writ- physiolo-
ten concerning: it ^ and more has been taken for granted, f"-^-' vjpb-
r 1-1,1 • lem of Its
For instance, one often meets such wild and sweepmg state- origin.
ment as that "the name Physiologus" was "given to a cyclo- pedia of what was known and imagined about earth, sea, sky, birds, beasts, and fishes, which for a thousand years was the authoritative source of information on these matters and was translated into every European tongue." ^ My later treatment of medieval science will make patent the in- accuracy of such a statement. But to return to the prob- lem of the origin of Physiologus. The original Greek text,^ which some would put back in the first half of the second century of our era, if it ever existed, is now lost, and its previous existence and character are inferred from numerous apparent citations of it, possible extracts from it, and what are taken to be imita- tions, abbreviations, amplifications, adaptations, and trans- lations of it in other languages and of later date. Thus we have versions or fragments in Armenian,* Syriac,^
* Pitra, Spicilegium Solesme'nse, XXXIX (1897), 49-55. J. Strzy-
Paris, 185s, III, xlvii-lxxx. K. gowski, D e r Bilderkreis des
Ahrens, Zur Geschichte des so- griechischen Physiologus, in Bys.
genannten Physiologus, 1885. M. Zeitsch. Erganzungsheft, I (1899).
F. Mann, Bestiaire Divin de E. P. Evans, Animal Symbolism in
Guillaume Le Clerc. Heilbronn, Ecclesiastical Architecture, 1896, is
1888, pp. 16-33, "Entstehung des disappointing, being mainly com-
Physiologus und seine Entwick- piled from secondary sources and
lung im Abendlande." F. Lau- having little to say on ecclesias-
chert, Geschichte des Physioloaiis, tical architecture.
Strassburg, 1889. E. Peters, Der ' EB, nth ed., "Arthropoda."
griechische Physiologus und seine ^Lauchert (1889), pp. 229-79,
orientalise hen Uehersetzungen, attempts a critical edition of the
Berlin, 1898. M. Goldstaub, Der Greek text.
Physiologus und seine Weiter- * Pitra (1855), III, 374-90;
bildung, besonders in dcr_ latein- French translation in Cahier,
ischcn und in der byzantinischen Nouveaux melanges (1874), I,
Litteratur, in Philologus, Suppl. 117, ct seq.
Bd. yill (1898-1901), 337-404- °0. G. Tychsen, Physiologies
Also in Verhandl. d. 41 Ver- Syrus, 1795; from an incomplete
sammlung deutscher Philologen Vatican AIS. Land, Otia Syriaca,
u. _ Schulmdnner in MUnchen, p. 31, et seq., or in Anecdota
Leipzig (1892), pp. 212-21. V. Syriaca, IW , lis, et seq., g\vts tha
Schultze, Der Physiologus in der complete text with a Latin trans-
kirchlichen Kunst des Mittelal- lation. ters, in Christliches Kunstblatt,
498
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Ethiopian/ and Arabic ; ^ a Greek text from medieval manu- scripts, mostly of late date ; ^ various Latin versions in numerous manuscripts from the eighth century on ; * in Old High German a prose translation of about looo A. D. and a poetical version later in the same language ; ^ and Bestiaries such as those of Philip of Thaon ^ and William
^ Hommel, Die aethiopische Uebersetzung des Physiologus, Leipzig, 1877. A bit of it was translated by Pitra (1855), III, 416-7.
* Land, Otia Syriaca, p. 137, et seq., with Latin translation. A fragment in Pitra (1855), III, 535.
^ Pitra (1855), HI, 3Z^-72„ used MSS from the 13th to 15th cen- tury. The earliest known illu- minated copies are of iioo A. D. and later : see Dalton, Byzantine Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 191 1, pp. 481-2.
*The oldest Latin MSS seem to be two of the 8th and 9th cen- turies at Berne. Edited by Mai, Classici auctores, Rome, 1835, VII, 585-96, and more completely by Pitra (1855), III, 418; also by G. Heider, in Archiv f. Kunde osterreich. Geschichtsquel- len, Vienna, 1850, II, 545 ; Cahier et Martin, Melanges d'archeologie, Paris, II (1851), 85fif., Ill (1853), 203ff., IV (1856), 55fif. Cahier, Nouveaux melanges (1874), p, io6ff.
Mann (1888), pp. 37-73, prints the Latin text which he regards as William le Clerc's source from Royal 2-C-XII, and gives a list of other MSS of Latin Bestiaries in English libraries.
Other medieval Latin Bestiaries have been printed in the works of Hildebert of Tours or Le Mans (Migne, PL, 171, 1217-24: really this poem concerning only twelve animals is by Theobald, who was perhaps abbot at Monte Cassino, 1022-T035, and it was printed under the name of Theobald be- fore 1500, — see the volume num- bered lA. 12367 in the British Museum and entitled, Phisiologus Theobaldi Episcopi de natiiris
duodecim animalium. Indeed, it was printed at least nine times under his name, — see Hain, 15467-75) : and in the works of Hugh of St. Victor (Migne, PL, ''^77, 9-164, De bestiis et aliis rebus libri quatuor). Both of these versions occur in numerous MSS, as does a third version which opens with citation of the remark of Jacob in blessing his sons, "Judah is a lion's whelp." The author then cites Physiologus as usual concerning the three natures of the lion. See Wolfenbiittel 4435, nth century, fols. 159-68V, Liber bestiarum. "De leone rege bestiarum et animalium (est) etenim iacob benedicens iudam ait Catulus leonis iuda. De leone. Leo tres naturas habet." Laud. Misc. 247, I2th century, fol. 140-, . . . caps. 36, praevia tabula . . . Tit. "De tribus naturis leonis." Incip. "Bestiarium seu animalium regis ; etenim Jacob benedicens filium suum Udam ait Catulus leonis Judas filius meus quis suscitabit eum ; Fisiolo- gus dicit, Tres res naturales habere leonem. . . ." Library of Dukes of Burgundy 10074, loth century, "Etenim Jacob benedi- cens." CLM 19648, 15th century, fols. 180-95, "Igitur Jacob bene- dicens." CLM 237S7, 15th cen- tury, fols. 12-20, "Igitur Jacob benedicens." CU Trinity 884, 13th century in a fine hand, with 107 English miniatures, fol. 89-, "Et enim iacob benedicens filium suum iudam ait catulus leonis est iudas filius meus"; this MS ends imperfectly.
''Printed by Lauchert (1889), pp. 280-90.
* Max F. Mann, Der Physiolo- gus des Philipp von Thaon und seine Quellen, Halle, 1884, 53 pp.
XXI
CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE
499
the Clerk ^ in the Romance languages ^ and other vernacu- lars.^ The Physiologus has been thought to have originated in Alexandria because of its use of the Egyptian names for the months and because Clement of Alexandria and Origen are supposed to have made use of it. But it is difficult to determine whether the church fathers drew passages con- cerning animals and nature from some such work or whether it was a collection of passages from their writings upon such themes. Ahrens, who thought he found the original form of the work in a Syriac Book of the Things of Nature,"^ regarded Origen as its author. In a medical manuscript at Vienna is a Physiologus in Greek ascribed to Epiphanius of Cyprus,^ of whom we have just been treating, while we hear that Pope Gelasius at a synod of 496 condemned as apocryphal a Physiologus which was written by heretics and ascribed to Ambrose,® who so closely duplicated the Hexaemeron of Basil. A work on the natures of animals is also attributed to John Chrysostom.'^ I am not sure whether
* Mann, Bestiaire Divin de Guillaume Le Clerc, Heilbronn, 1888, in Fransosische Studien, VI, 2, pp. 201-306. Most recent edition by Robert, Leipzig, 1890.
' Besides the two foregoing see Goldstaub und Wendriner, Ein tosco-venes. Bestiarius, Halle, 1892, Magliabech. IV, 63, 13th century, mutilated, 53 fols., bestiario mo- ralizato, in Italian prose. E. Monaci, Rendiconti dell' Accad. dei Lincei, Class e di scien::e morali, storiche e filol, vol. V, fasc. 10 and 12, has edited a Bestiario in 64 sonetti on as many animals from a private MS at "Gubbio neir archivio degli avvo- cati Pietro e Oderisi Lucarelli," MS 25, fols. 112-27. See also M. Carver and K. McKenzie, // Bes- tiario Toscano secondo la lesione dei codice di Parigi e di Roma, in Studi romansi, Rome, 1912; Mc- Kenzie, Unpublished Manuscripts of Italian Bestiaries, in Modern La'nguage Publications, XX (1905), 2; and Carver, "Some Supplementary Italian Bestiary Chapters," in Romanic Review,
XI (1920), 308-27.
^ For instance, A. S. Cook, The Old English Elene, Phoenix, and Physiologus, Yale University Press, 364 pp., 1919.
* K. Ahrens, Das "Buch der Naturgegenstdnde," 1892.
* Cod. Vind. Med. 29, tov ayiov 'Kin4>avlov eTrLaKoirov lK.virpov irepl ttjs Xe^ecos Trdfrcof to3v fcowc In the edition of Ponce de Leon, Rome, 1587, there are twenty ani- mals described, and the symbolic interpretation is very short com- pared to later versions. Heider (1850), p. 543, regarded this as the oldest version and as extant in complete form.
^Mansi, Condi, VIII, 151, "Liber Physiologus ab hereticis conscriptus et beati Ambrosii nomine presignatus apocryphus."
'Hejder (1850), II, 541-82, "Physiologus nach einer Hand- schrift des XI Jahrhunderts" : the text opens at p. 552, "Incipiunt Dicta Johannis Chrysostomi de naturis bestiarum." Lauchert used another MS, Vienna 303, 14th century, fol. 124V-, which was
500 MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
a PhysiologMS ascribed to John the Scot in a tenth century
Latin manuscript is the same work.^
TDoes the The Physiologus is commonly described as a symboUc
to any^one bestiary, in which the characteristics and properties of ani-
particular mals are accompanied by Christian allesrories and instruc- treatise? •
tion. Some have almost gone so far as to hold that any
passages of this sort are evidence of an author's having employed the Physiologus, which some have held influenced the middle ages more than any other book except the Bible. But Pitra's point is well taken that the Physiologus is one thing and the allegorical interpretation thereof another. In the case of the discordant versions or fragments which he gathered and published from different manuscripts, cen- turies, and languages, he noted one common feature, that the allegorical interpretation was sharply separated from the extracts from Physiologus and sometimes omitted en- tirely. This is what one would naturally expect since a physiologus is a natural scientist on whose statements con- cerning this or that the allegorical interpretation is presum- ably based and added thereto. But this suggests another difficulty in identifying Physiologus as a single work. The abbreviations for the word in medieval manuscripts are very easily confused with those for philosophers or phisici (phys- ical scientists), and just as medieval writers often cite what the philosophers say or the phisici say without having refer- ence to any particular book, so may they not cite what physiologi or even physiologus says without having any particular writer in mind? In the De hestiis ascribed to
considerably different and was erit et scriba doctus in regno
furthermore combined with the celorum qui profert de thesauro
Physiologus of Theobald. An suo noua et uetera. Expliciunt
earlier SlS than either of the dicta Johannis Crisostomi." A
foregoing is CLM 19417, Qth cen- Paris MS of the same is BN 2780,
tury, fols. 29-71, Liber Sancti 13th century, 14, Sancti loannis
Johannis episcopi regiae urbis Chrysostomi liber qui physiologus
Constantinopoli . . . Crisostomi appellatur.
quern de naturis animalium or- ^Additional 11,035, Johannis
dinavit. Another Vienna MS is Scottigenae Phisiologiae liber.
2511, 14th century, fols. 135-40, In the same^MS are Macrobius'
"Incipiunt dicta Johannis Chry- Dream of Scipio and the poems of
sostomi de naturis animalium et Prudentius. primo de leone .../... Sic
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 501
Hugh of St. Victor of the twelfth century physici are cited ^ as well as Physiologiis. When Albertus Magnus states in the thirteenth century in his work on minerals that the physi- ologi have assigned very different causes for the marvelous occult virtue in stones, he evidently simply alludes to the opin- ions of scientists in general and has no such work or works as the so-called Physiologus in mind.^ This is also clearly the case in a fragment from the introduction to a Latin translation from the Arabic of some treatise on the astrolabe, in which we find phisiologi cited as astronomical authori- ties.^ Furthermore, even in works which deal with the natures of animals and which either have the word Physiolo- gus in their titles or cite it now and then in the course of their texts, there exists such diversity that it becomes fairly evident not only that it is impossible to deduce from them the list of animals treated in the original Physiologiis or the details which it gave concerning each, but also that it is highly probable that the title Physiologus has been applied to different treatises which did not necessarily have a com- mon origin. Or at least the greatest liberties were taken with the original text and title,^ so that the word Physiologus came to apply less to any particular book, author, or au- thority than to almost any treatment of animals in a certain style.
But of what style? It has too often been assumed that And to theology dominated all medieval thought and that natural ^ f a ^ science was employed only for purposes of religious sym- treatise? holism. Of this general assumption the Physiologus has been seized upon as an apt illustration and it has been repre- sented as a symbolic bestiary which influenced the middle ages more than any other book except the Bible ^ and whose allegories accounted for the animal sculpture of the Gothic
^De hestiis et aliis rebus, II, i ''Thus even Lauchert (1899), P- (Migne, PL 177, 57). "Physici 105, admits that Bartholomew of denique dicunt quinque natu- England, the thirteenth century- rales res sive naturas habere Latin encyclopedist, cites Physi- leonem. . . ." ologus for much which does not
'Mineral., II, i, i (ed. Borgnet, come from Physiologus.
V, 24). 'Goldstaub (1899-1901), p. 341.
* Bubnov ( 1899) , p. 372,
502
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Medieval art shows almost no symbolic influence of the Physiolo- gies,
Physiolo-
gus was
more
natural
scientist
than
allegorist.
cathedrals and the strange or familiar beasts in the borders of the Bayeux Tapestry, the margins of illuminated manu- scripts, and so on and so forth.
The more recent scientific study of medieval art has largely dissipated this latter notion. It has become evident that in the main medieval men represented animals in art because they were fond of animals, not because they were fond of allegories. Their art was natural, not symbolic. They were, says Male, "craftsmen who delighted in nature for its own sake, sometimes lovingly copying the living forms, sometimes playing with them, combining and con- torting them as they were led by their own caprice." St. Bernard, although "the prince of allegorists," saw no sense in the animal sculptures in Romanesque cloisters and in- veighed against them. In short, with the exception of the symbols of the four evangelists, "there are few cases in which it is permissible to assign symbolic meaning to animal forms," and it is "evident that the fauna and flora of medieval art, natural or fantastic, have in most cases a value that is purely decorative." "To sum up," concludes Male, "we are of the opinion that the Bestiaries of which we hear so much from the archaeologists had no real influence on art until their substance passed into Honorius of Autun's bopk (Speculum ecclesiae, c. 1090-1120) and from that book into sermons. I have searched in vain (with but two ex- ceptions) for representations of the hedgehog, beaver, tiger, and other animals which figure in the Bestiaries but which are not mentioned by Honorius." ^
These assertions concerning medieval art hold true also to a large extent of medieval literature and medieval science, although they were perhaps less natural and original than it and more dependent on past tradition and authority. But medieval men, as we shall see, studied nature from scientific curiosity and not in search for spiritual allegories, and even Goldstaub recognizes that by the thirteenth century the
*This and the preceding quotations in the paragraph are from Male (1913), pp. 48, 35, 49. 4S.
XXI CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE 503
scientific zoology of Aristotle submerged that of the Physiologies in writers like Thomas of Cantimpre and Albertus Magnus who, although they may still embody por- tions of the Pkysiologus, divest it of its characteristic re- ligious elements.^ But were its characteristic elements ever religious ? Were they not always scientific or pseudo-scien- tific? Ahrens holds that the title was taken from Aristotle in the first place, and that Pliny was the chief source for the contents. The allegories do not appear in such early texts as the Syriac version or the fragments preserved in the Latin Glossary of Ansileubus. Not even the introduc- tory scriptural texts appear in the Greek version ascribed to Epiphanius. Moreover, in the Bestiaries where the alle- gorical applications are included, it is for the natures of the animals, the supposedly scientific facts on which the symbolism is based, and for these alone that Physiologus is cited in the text. Thus the symbolism would appear to be somewhat adventitious, while the pseudo-science is constant. It is obvious that the allegorical applications cannot do with- out the supposed facts concerning animals; on the other hand, the supposedly scientific information can and does frequently dispense with the allegories. We do not know who was responsible for the allegorical interpretations in the first instance. Hommel would carry the origin of their symbolism back of the Christian era to the animal worship of Persia, India, and Egypt. ^ But we are assured over and over again that Natural Scientist or Physiologus vouches for the statements concerning the natures of animals. Thus the symbolic significance of the literature that has been grouped under the title Physiologus has been exaggerated, while the respect for and interest in natural science to which it testifies have too often been lost sight of.
* Goldstaub (1899-1901), pp. cent of Beauvais and Bartholo 350-1. The same statement could mew of England. be made with equal truth of Vin- 'Hommel (1877), pp. xii, xv.