Qui sint incantatores, arioU, araspices, phycii, ao
The Varieties of Forbidden Divination
The author categorizes various forms of ancient divination, including haruspicy and augury, as practices condemned by divine law.
These are the people who divine using faces, imaginations, conjectures, palmistry, reflections, mathematics, jumping, lots, and augury. Enchanters are those who practice their art through words. Soothsayers are those who perform wicked prayers or cursed sacrifices around altars; the hand of the Lord is upon their necks, as the prophet says: 'You shall not let soothsayers and magicians live.' Augurs are those who observe the hours and prescribe what should be done at specific times; the Apostle condemns their error, saying: 'I am afraid I have labored over you in vain,' because you observe days, years, months, and seasons, even though the success of a work should be expected not from the time, but from the name of the Lord. Haruspicy also thrives in the inspection of entrails, an art which a certain Tages is said to have discovered. Hence Lucan says: 'No faith should be placed in entrails; Tages, the founder of the art, invented these things.' By the name of 'entrails,' however, everything covered by the outer skin is meant. From this it is clear that those who divine using the bones of animals without blood—whether they predict the future, or announce the present or the past—are haruspices.
Necromancy and the Illusion of Control
The text distinguishes between true prophecy and the demonic deceptions of necromancy, pythonic spirits, and image-based sorcery.
A prophecy is, in fact, something that brings hidden truths to light with understanding; it’s established that prophecy concerns not only future events, but also those in the present, future, and past. If blood is used, however, it moves into the realm of necromancy—which is named for its total preoccupation with investigating the dead. Its purpose, it seems, is to enable someone to raise the dead to interpret the truth. For it is nothing but a deception of mocking demons and the treachery of deluding human malice. The 'phycii' are those filled by a pythonic spirit, a practice that occurs more frequently in virgins to make the deception more effective—as if the integrity of mind or body could please a most unclean spirit. The 'vultiuoli' are those who, to change people's affections, fashion images of those they wish to subvert out of soft material, like wax or mud. Virgil mentions this illusion in his 'Pharmaceutria': 'As this mud hardens, and as this wax melts, by one and the same fire, so may Daphnis by my love.' Naso also writes in his 'Heroides': 'She bewitches the absent, fashions waxen images, and drives thin needles into the wretched liver.' The malice of these people, even when they do great harm, is easily dissolved by a simple trick: if those suspected are confronted by someone and deny their crime, or if they have confessed, they are compelled to revoke their sorcery.
The Errors of Astrology and Occult Inquiry
The author critiques those who seek hidden knowledge through idols, dreams, palmistry, mirrors, and the movements of the stars.
The 'imaginarii' are those who place the images they create into the possession of presiding spirits, so that they might be taught by them about doubtful matters. Holy Scripture convicts these people of being idolaters and condemns them by the judgment of the divine majesty. The 'coniectores' are those who claim to interpret dreams through a certain artifice. The 'chironomantici' are those who predict hidden things by inspecting hands. They call those 'specularii' who divine by looking into polished and clean objects—such as bright swords, basins, cups, and various kinds of mirrors—to satisfy curious inquiries; it is described that Joseph practiced, or rather feigned, this when he accused his brothers of stealing the cup in which he was accustomed to practice divination. The 'mathematici'—though the term generally encompasses everything—are those who predict what is to come from the position of the stars, the state of the firmament, and the movement of the planets, as in that saying: 'Our fate, holding the scales of truth, suspends our times with an equal balance; or the hour born for the faithful divides the concordant fates into twins; I know not what star it is that surely tempers you for me.' It is as if the dances of the stars and the applications of one to another could provide some origin of necessity for things that actually arise from the freedom of the will. Among them, the 'genelliaci', who focus on 'geneses'—that is, the hours of birth—imitate this error; hence the satirist says: 'Your birth-chart is known to the mathematicians.' These same people are also called 'horoscopi'; hence it is said again: 'You produce twins, horoscope, with a varied genius.'
The Finality of Faith Over Superstition
The chapter concludes by noting that the coming of Christ rendered these superstitious practices obsolete and forbidden.
This knowledge was once common, and perhaps it was even allowed to be practiced to some extent, until a star from heaven announced the birth of God and, through a new and unheard-of guidance, led the Magi—who were not reprobates—as the first fruits of faith to adore Him. From then on, however, it was completely forbidden. The 'jumpers'—those who believe that a twitch of the limbs or an unexpected movement of the body signifies that something prosperous or adverse is about to happen—are sorcerers, as are those who, under the guise of a false religion, promise the outcomes of events through certain superstitious observations; this category includes the casting of lots by apostles and prophets, the dividing of lots, the inspection of the table called 'Pythagorean,' and the observation of any chance occurrence as a sign of the matter being inquired about. Augury, which involves observing birds, is said to have been discovered by the Phrygians, and it is revealed through either their cries or their flight. According to their tradition, this includes the flight of both wings and feet; for the 'liola' is the inner part of the palm or the foot. Hence, in the sixth book of Virgil, doves are described as flying instead of walking. This actually relates to the happiness of an omen if the doves are walking, provided, however, that they are feeding while they lead the way for those traveling.
Read the original Latin
uultiuoli, imaginarii, coniectores, chiromxzntici, specularii, mathematici, salissatores, sortilegi, augures. Incantatores quidem sunt, qui artem uerbis exercent. Arioli, qui circa aras nefarias preces aut execrata sacrificia faciunt, in quorum ceruicibus est manus Domini, dicente propheta: Ariolos et magos non patieris uiuere. Anispices sunt inspectores horarum, praescribentes quid qua hora fieri expediat,quorum errorem dampnat Apostolus dicens: Timeo ne frustra laborauerim in uobis, obseruatis enim dies et annos, menses et tempora; cum felicitas operis non a tempore sed a nomine Domini debeat expectari. Aruspicium quoque in extorum inspectione uiget, quam artem Tages quidam dicitur inuenisse. Vnde Lucanus: Fibris sit nulla fides, sed conditor artis finxerit ista Tages. Extorum uero nomine censentur omnia quae cutis extremitate tegimtur. Ex quo liquet eos esse aruspices, qui uaticinantur in ossibus animalium sine sanguine, siue futura praenuntient, siue praesentia pronuntient uel praeterita.
Vaticinium siquidem est, quo cum intelligentia ueri abscondita proferuntur; cum et prophetiam non modo a de futuris constet esse, sed de praesentibus et futuris et praeteritis. Si uero adhibeatur sanguis, ad nigromantiam iam accedit; quae inde dicitur, quod tota in mortuorum inquisitione uersatur. Cuiusuis ea esse uidetur, ut ad interpretationem ueri mortuos ualeat suscitare. Ea namque ludificantium demonum et humanae perfidiae illudentium fallacia est. Phycii sunt quos spiritus phitonicus replet, et frequentius in uirginibus exercetur, ut magis ludificet; ac si immundissimo spiritui placeat integritas mentis aut corporis. Vultiuoli sunt qui ad affectus hominum immutandos, in moUiori materia, cera forte uel limo, eorum quos perb uertere nituntur effigies exprimunt; cuius illusionis in Farmaceutria Virgilius meminit: Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit, uno eodemque igni, sic nostro Daphnis amore. Naso quoque in libro Heroidum: Deuouet absentes, simulachraque cerea fingit, et miserum tenues in iecur urget acus. Horum uero malitia, etiam cum plurimum nocent, artificio leui dissoluitur, si uidelicet qui suspecti sunt conuenti ab aliquo crimen suum inficientur: aut si confessi fuerint, cogantur maleficium reuocare.
Imaginarii sunt, qui imagines quas fticiunt quasi in possessionem praesidentium spirituum mittunt, ut ab eis de rebus dubiis doceantur. Hos idolatras esse sacra scriptura conuincit et diuinae maiestatis iudicio condempnatos. Coniectores sunt qui artificio quodam sibi uendicant sompniorum interpretationem. Chironomantici sunt qui a manuum inspectione rerum uaticinantur abscondita. Specularios uocant, qui in corporibus leuigatis et tersis, ut sunt lucidi enses, pelues, ciathi, speculorumque diuersa genera diuinantes, curiosis consultationibus satisfaciunt, quam et loseph exercuisse aut potius simulasse describitur, cum fratres argueret surripuisse ciphum, in quo consueuerat augurari. Mathematici sunt, licet appellatio generaliter omnia complectatur, qui a positione stellarum situque firmamenti, et planetaram motu quae sint uentura coniciunt, ut est illud: Nostra uel aequali suspendit tempora libra parca tenax ueri, seu nata fidelibus hora diuidit in geminos concordia fata duonun; nescio quod certe est, quod te michi temperat astrum: ac si stellarum coreas applicationesque unius ad alteram constet rebus, quae ex arbitrii libertate proueniunt, quandam necessitatis praestare originem. Quorum genelliaci, qui geneses id est natalitias horas attendunt, imitantur errorem; unde satiricus: Nota mathematicis genesis tua. Idem uero horoscopi nominantur; unde rursus: Geminos, horoscope, uaro producis genio.
a Viguit autem ista scientia, et forte eam aliquatenus licuit exerceri, donec Deum natum nuntiauit stella de celo, magosque non reprobos primitias fidei ad eum adorandimi nouo et inaudito ducatu perduxit. Exinde uero penitus interdicta est. Salissatores qui ex saltu membrorum aut inopinato corporis motu prosperum aliquid futurum autumant uel aduersum, Sortilegi sunt, qui sub nomine fictae religionis superstitiosa quadam obseruatione rerum pollicentur euentus, quod genus sortes apostolorum et prophetarum et diuidentium, et inspectio tabulae, quae Pitagorica appellatur, obseruatio quoque cuiusque casus in rei de qua quaeritur significatione. Augurium uero, quod est in auium obseruatione, Phriges inuenisse traduntur, quod in uoce proditur aut uolatu. Est autem secundum traditionem eorum uolatus tam alarum quam pedum: liola siquidem est interior pars palmae uel pedis. Vnde apud Maronem in sexto uolantes pro gradientibus columbae describuntur. Hoc etenim ad ominis pertinet felicitatem, si columbae gradientes, dum tamen in pastu, itinerantes praecedant.
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