CHAPTER XXII

AUGUSTINE ON MAGIC AND ASTROLOGY
Date and influence of Augustine — Christianity and magic — Censure of magic and theurgy as well as Goetia — Magic due to demons — Mar- vels wrought by magic — Cannot be equalled by most Christian^ — Miracles of heretics — Theory of demons — Limitations to the power of magic — Its fantastic character — Samuel and the witch of Endor — Natural marvels — Relation between magic and science — Superstitions akin to magic — Survival of pagan superstition among the laity — Augus- tine's attack upon astrology — Fate and free will — Argument from twins — Defense of the astrologers — Elections — Are animals and plants under the stars? — Failure to disprove the control of nature by the stars — Natural divination and prophetic visions — The star at Christ's birth — Nature of the stars — Orosius on the Priscillianists and Origenists — Augustine's letter — Attitude toward astronomy — Perfect numbers.
Date and The utterances of Augustine concerning magic and astrol- of Augus- '^Sy have been reserved for separate treatment in this tine. chapter, partly because of his late date, 354 to 430 A. D.,
partly because of the voluminousness of his writings, but especially because of his approach to and influence upon the thought of the middle ages. It is, moreover, in his epoch-making book, The City of God, which better than any other single event marks, or at least sums up, the transition from classical to medieval civilization, from the life of the ancient city to that of the medieval church, that he descants with especial fulness upon magic, demons, and astrology, although he often also refers to these themes in his other treatises, which we shall cite as well. I separate the words, magic and astrology, here because Augustine, like most of the fathers, does so. Of Augustine's discussion of the Biblical account of creation in his Confessions and De Genesi ad litteram I shall not treat, having already presented Basil's Hexaemeron as an example of this type of work and of
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the Christian attitude toward natural science.^ But later in treating of medieval writers on nature I may have occa- sion to point out certain passages in which they may have been influenced by Augustine.
Even though writing in the fifth century Augustine still finds it necessary to defend Christ against those who imagine that He has converted peoples to Himself by means of the magic art.^ And he tells us of books of magic which are ascribed to Christ Himself or to the apostles Peter and Paul.^ In reply to such charges or assertions he insists that Chris- tians have nothing to do with magic, and that their miracles "were wrought by simple confidence and devout faith, not by incantations and spells compounded by an art of de- praved curiosity." ^ And he brings the counter-charge against Roman religion that King Numa, its founder, learned its secrets and sacred rites by means of hydromancy or necromancy.^ He admits, however, that condemnation of magic and legislation against it had begun before Chris- tianity.®
Augustine uniformly speaks of magic with censure and several times adverts to "the crimes of magicians." '^ He speaks, however, of goetia or sorcery as "a more detestable name" than magia and of "theurgy" as "an honorable name." He also states that some persons draw a distinc- tion between the malefici or sorcerers or practitioners of goetia, whom they call truly guilty of illicit arts and de- serving of condemnation, and those who practice theurgy, whom they call praiseworthy. Porphyry, for instance, had
^Duhem, II (1914), 314, seems to me to have over-estimated the significance of Confessions, V, 5, and De Gencsi ad litteram, I, 19, in saying, "L'assurance ayec laquelle les Basile, les Gregoire de Nysse, les Ambroise, les Jean Chrysostome opposaient aux en- seignements de la Physique pro- fane les naives assertions de leur science puerile contristait fort rfiveque de Hippone." There is nothing, I think, to indicate that Augustine had these men or men
of their stamp in mind, and I doubt if his scientific attainments were superior to Basil's.
^De co'nsensu Evangelistarutn, I, 11; in Migne, PL 34, 1049-50.
^ Ibid., I, 9-10.
*De civitate Dei, X, 9; PL vol.
^ Ibid., VII, 34-35; and see Ar- nobius, Against the Heathen, V, i, for Augustine's probable source.
'De civ. Dei, VIII, 19.
'Ibid., VIII, 18, 19, 26; IX, I.
Christi- anity and magic.
Magic and theurgy censured as well as Goetia.
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MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Magic due to demons.
Marvels wrought by magic.
Stated that theurgy was useful to purge the soul and pre- pare it to receive spirits and to see God. Augustine, how- ever, holds that in other passages Porphyry condemned theurgy, and in any case he himself refuses to sanction it.-^ He stoutly denies that "souls are purged and reconciled to God through sacrilegious likenesses and impious curiosity and magic consecrations." ^ Very possibly Augustine would have classed as improper theurgy some of the use of power- ful names described by Origen.
At any rate Augustine declares that theurgists and sor- cerers alike "are entangled in the deceitful rites of demons who may masquerade under the names of angels." ^ For it is to demons that Augustine, like most of our Christian writers, attributes both the origin and the success of magic. The demons are enticed by men to work marvels, not by ciferings of food, as if they were animals, but by symbols which conform to the individual taste of each as a spirit, namely, various stones, plants, trees, animals, incantations, and ceremonies,* — a good brief summary of the materials and methods of magic. Augustine believes that the spirits had first to instruct men what rites to perform and by what names to call them in order to summon them.
But when once the demons have revealed their secrets, henceforth the charms of the magic art have efficacy. Of the marvels worked by means of magic Augustine has little doubt ; to deny them would indeed in his opinion be to deny the truth of the Scriptures, to whose accounts of Pharaoh's magicians,^ the witch of Endor, and the Magi and the star, he adverts many times in his various works. If actors in the theater and performers in spectacles are able by art and exercise to display astounding alterations in the appear- ance of their earthly bodies, why may not the demons with
* De civ. Dei, X, 9-10.
*De trinitate, IV, 11; in Migne, PL 42, 897.
* De civ. Dei, X, 9. *De civ. Dei, XXI, 6.
" In Grenoble 208, 12th century, containing works of Augustine,
there is listed separately at fol. S4V, "De magis Pharaonis," to which the MSS catalogue adds, "et de CLIII piscibus." Probably it is an extract from one of Augustine's longer works as it covers only one leaf.
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tians.
their aerial bodies produce marvelous changes in elementary substances or by occult influence construct phantom images to delude human senses ? ^ Augustine even grants that the magicians are able to terrify the inferior spirits into obedi- ence to their commands by adjuring them by the names of superior spirits, and thereby with divine permission "to exhibit to the eye of sense certain results which seem great and marvelous to men who through weakness of the flesh are incapable of beholding things eternal." He does not re- gard this as inconsistent with the assertion of Jesus that Satan cannot cast out Satan, since while it may be that thus demons are expelled from sick bodies, the evil one thereby only the more surely takes possession of the soul,^
Augustine further grants that magicians, although Cannot be stained with crime, can at present work miracles which most by"mo^st Christians and even most saints cannot perform. For this, Chris- however, he finds Scriptural precedent. Pharaoh's magicians performed feats which none of the Children of Israel could equal except Moses who excelled them by divine aid. Au- gustine, like earlier fathers, usually fails to mention Aaron in this connection.^ This superiority of magicians to most Christians in working marvels Augustine believes is divinely ordained so that Christians may remain humble and practice works of justice rather than seek to perform miracles. Magicians seek their own glory; the saints strive only for the glory of God. And the more marvelous are the feats of magic, the more Christians should shun them ; the greater the power of the demons, the closer Christians should cling to that Mediator who alone can raise men from the lowest depths.*
Like Origen, Augustine further distinguishes the mir- acles wrought by heretics both from magic and from the miracles of true Christians. He holds that every soul in
PL 38, 562, "Moyses et
Miracles of here- tics.
^De trinitate, IV, 11.
'De diversis quaestionibus, cap. 79; Migne, PL 40, 92-3.
' See also De cataclysmo (per- haps spurious), cap. 5, Migne, PL 40, 696 ; and Sermo VIII, PL
38, 74. Sermo XC, however, speaks of Aaron."
*De civ. Dei, XXI, 6; XVIII, 18.
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MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Theory of demons.
Limita- tions to the power of magic.