Qui sint Tnagi, et unde dicantur
The Deception of Magicians
The author defines the nature of magic as a destructive force and illustrates its historical opposition to divine truth through the example of Pharaoh's magicians.
Magicians are so named because of the magnitude of their evil deeds. With the Lord’s permission, they shake the elements, strip things of their natural forms, often predict the future, disturb people’s minds, send dreams, and kill men simply by the power of a spell—a fact that did not escape our Lucan. For it says: 'The mind, once tainted by the venom of a deadly draught, perishes under the spell.' And so that you don't think his authority is trivial, you know that Jannes and Mambres, the magicians of Pharaoh (for Egypt is the mother of such superstitions and evil deeds)—you know, I say, that they not only resisted Moses but contended with him through signs and miracles, even if they were later forced, however unwillingly, to acknowledge the finger of God in the signs of Moses.
Read the original Latin
Et quidem magi sunt et ob magnitudinem maleficiorum ■sic appellantur, qui Domino permittente elementa concutiunt, rebus adimunt species suas, uentura plerumque praenuntiant, turbant mentes hominum, immittunt sompnia, hominesque uiolentia carminis dumtaxat occidunt, quod et Lucanum nostrum non latuit. Ait enim: Mens hausti nuUa sanie poUuta ueneni incantata perit. Et ne tibi p&rua uideatur illius auctoritas, nosti quod lannes et Mambre magi Pharaonis (Egyptus etenim huiusmodi superstitionum et maleficiorum mater est), nosti, inquam, eos non modo Moysi restitisse sed cum eo signis et miraculis contendisse, licet postmodum uel inuiti coacti sint digitum Dei in signis Moysi confiteri.
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
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