Quod mathematici temerarii sunt, indifferenter
The Recklessness of Human Prediction
The author critiques the arrogance of those who claim to predict the future through the stars, arguing that such attempts are inherently uncertain and dangerous.
They presume to judge the future by their own standards. Even those I disagree with on many things admit to me that they don't know everything—even those who claim the stars speak to them and who pull truth, as it were, from the very heart of the heavens. But the most modest among them don't promise that the stars cause events, nor do they bind those events to necessity by some law of nature; rather, they aren't afraid to predict them because they are about to happen and are announced by certain signs. But if the order of future events can be changed, it's reckless to define a matter that is by nature uncertain with a certain judgment. If, however, it cannot be changed, what good is it to investigate with such curiosity what no amount of diligence can avoid? But perhaps even if it could be otherwise, the matter isn't uncertain, and a clear rationale of signs excuses the recklessness of the judgment. For although it may be possible for a thing to be otherwise, clear signs still predict that it will happen that way; 'And it doesn't matter to me,' says the secretary of the stars, 'whether it could be otherwise, as long as I don't doubt that the thing in question will happen as predicted.' But what is this certainty of signs? Surely, the experience of things is often deceptive, judgment is difficult, and the meaning of the signs themselves is varied and complex. Furthermore, variety leads to ambiguity; and in ambiguous matters, every definition is dangerous.
The Light of Divine Wisdom
The author contrasts human speculation with the true, revealed wisdom found only in Christ, the Lamb who opens the sealed book.
But let's assume you're one of the Peripatetic or Attic philosophers. 24. Suppose the signs are uniform and a single meaning becomes clear from them—what keeps that meaning from being false? Nature, you ask? Do you mean the nature that exists in created things, or the one that consists in the divine will? Furthermore, I don't speak against the divine will, knowing that He has done everything He has willed. If that has become clear to you, then it is well. You can certainly see light in that Light, and bring forth true and certain things from the Book that is sealed to others but opened to you—the Book in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, which I had heard no one was permitted to open except the Lamb who was slain and who destroyed death by His own power.
The Sovereignty of the Creator
God alone governs the laws of nature and the cycles of time, making His ways unsearchable and beyond the reach of human calculation.
From now on, don't marvel with the Apostle at the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, since His judgments are comprehensible to you, His ways are searchable by the guidance of the stars, and the great abyss of His judgments is fordable for you. If you rely on that nature which is found in things—that is, in the frequent course of events—you flatter yourself in vain with the familiarity of the stars, since many things deviate from the usual course of events and strike the senses of men with even greater wonder, in that they seem not only unusual but contrary to nature itself; as when an eclipse of the sun happens at the full moon, or if the moon suffers an eclipse near the conjunction or near the full moon, or beyond its own light. For He who gave the law to the stars, who moderates the cycles of time with the bridle of His own will, and who adapts the moments of things to their proper times—whenever and however He wills—can produce a new or rare effect from causes that usually produce something else, leaving nature amazed. For who has been His counselor, or who will say to Him, 'Why are You doing this?' He is indeed the Lord; He will do whatever is pleasing in His own eyes. Only He who arranged them can adapt times to His own plan and vary the moments of things according to the times. Although He has granted creatures the knowledge of many things according to the measure of His own good pleasure, the Trinity has reserved this knowledge for Itself alone. Therefore, He knows when and how long anything will be, and He dispenses the ages of time through whom the times themselves were made. He also paints the times themselves with the motion and variation of things, as if with certain colors, and He entangles the revolving wheel of time with a certain yoke-like connection of things by which it is held, and so that He may impress an incomprehensible thing upon the intellect, He wonderfully informs the same thing with properties as if they were His own.
Resting in the Father's Power
Future events remain in the Father's power rather than under the necessity of fate, calling for humility in the face of the unknown.
It isn't for you, says the Word of the Most High, to know the times, so that you might fully understand when and for how long something will happen; or the moments, so that you might grasp the ways and variations of things that are to come. See why it's reckless to force future events into a fixed judgment; they are placed in the Father's power, not in a necessity of happening. Furthermore, things that are placed in His power can be one way or another. For things that are in necessity must be as they are.
Read the original Latin
futura iudicio suo mbicere praesumentes. Illi quoque, licet dissentiamus in plurimis, mecum fatentur se omnia non nescire, cum quibus astra loquuntur, et qui quasi de ipso celestium sinu extrahunt ueritatem. Qui uero eorum modestissimi sunt nec sideribus rerum pollicentur effectus nec eas necessitati lege dispositionis astringunt, sed quia uenturae sunt certisque praenuntiantur indiciis, praedicere non uerentur. Sed si futurorum potest ordo mutari, temerarium est rem sui natura incertam certo diffinire iudicio. Sin autem mutari non potest, quid prodest tanta curiositate scrutari, quod nulla pot st diligentia declinari Sed forte etsi aliter esse possit, res incerta non est, temeritatemque iudicii excusat ratio indubitata signorum. Licet enim possibile sit rem aliter esse, eam tamen ita futuram esse manifesta signa praenuntiant; nec mea, inquit astrorum secretarius, interest an ahter a esse possit, dum id, de quo agitur, ita futurum esse non dubitem. Sed quaenam est haec certitudo signorum Nempe rerum plerumque experimentum fallax iudicium difficile ipsorumque signorum uaria est et multiplex significatio. Porro uarietas ambiguitatem inducit; in ambiguis autem omnis diffinitio periculosa est.
Sed esto I peripateticis M atthicis A S' ad cap. xxiv. titidum quod signa uniformia sint, unde illa una significatio innotescit, aut quid eam prohibet esse falsam? Natura, inquis? Illane quae in rebus, an quae in diuina uoluntate consistit? Porro diuinae non obloquor uoluntati, sciens quia omnia, quaecumque uoluit, fecit. Si ea tibi innotuit, bene est. Potes utique in lumine illo uidere lumen, et uera indubitata de libro proferre, qui aliis signatus tibi apertus est, in quo sunt omnes sapientiae et scientiae thesauri absconditi, quem nemini aperire licitum esse audieram, nisi Agno qui occisus est et mortem uirtute propria interemit.
Noli amodo cum Apostolo mirari altitudinem diuitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei, cum tibi comprehensibilia sint iudicia eius et astrorum ducatu peruestigabiles uiae eius, tibique uadabilis sit iudiciorum eius abyssus multa. Si de ea natura niteris quae in rebus, id est, frequenti rerum cursu uersatur, frustra tibi de siderum familiaritate blandiris, cum a solito rerum cursu multa diuertant, et eo maiori admiratione feriant sensus hominum, quo non modo insueta sed ipsi naturae uidentur aduersa; ut, cum solis defectus plenilunio contingit, aut si circa sinodum aut circa plenilunium uel ultra luminis sui luna patiatur eclipsim. Qui enim sideribus legem dedit, qui curricula temporum uoluntatis suae freno moderatur, qui rerum momenta temporibus suis accommodat, quando uult et quo modo uult, nouum stupente natura aut rarum potest producere efFectum ex causis concurrentibus, quae aliter parere consueuerant. Quis enim consiliarius eius fuit, aut dicet ei, Cur ita facis? Vtique Dominus est; quod beneplacitum est in oculis suis faciet. Dispositioni ergo aptare tempora et renim momenta uariare temporibus solus ille qui disposuit, potest; et cum multorum notitiam, secundum beneplaciti sui mensuram concesserit creaturae, hoc sibi Trinitas singulariter reseruauit. Quando itaque et quam diu quid futurum sit nouit, et etates temporum ille dispensat, per quem ipsa tempora facta sunt. Ipsa quoque tempora motu et uariatione rerum quasi quibusdam coloribus pingit, et uolubilem temporis rotam iugali quodara nexu rerum quo teneatur illaqueat, et ut rem incomprehensibilem ingerat intellectui, eandem mirabiliter renmi proprietatibus quasi suis informat.
Non est, inquit Verbum Altissimi, uestrum nosse tempora, ut plene sciatis quando et quam diu quid futurum sit; uel momenta, ut possitis modos et uarietates eorum, quae futura sunt, comprehendere. Ecce quare temerarium sit futura certo subiugare iudicio; in Patris siquidem potestate sunt posita, a non in necessitate eueniendi. Porro quae in potestate posita sunt, sic et non sic esse possunt. Nam quae in necessitate, sic esse necesse est.
Policraticus companion
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