De speculariis, et quod maligni spiritus inter
The Sacrilege of Divination
Divination is a grave betrayal of the faith that cannot be excused by ignorance or the desire for hidden knowledge.
They pass over future things, both through the subtlety of nature and long experience of time, and through the revelation of higher powers, and through the fact that they are often deceived—either the deceivers themselves or those who are deceived—and through the fact that they follow the empty, uncertain paths of the seers. It's in vain that these seers flatter themselves, claiming they offer nothing, harm no one, and often do good by uncovering thefts, cleansing the world of evil deeds, and seeking only what is useful or necessary truth. Not so the wicked, not so. He says, "Whoever does not gather with me, scatters; and whoever is not with me is against me." While the wicked practice these things against the Lord's prohibition, what else are they doing but lifting their heel against the One who forbids them? Certainly, it is a grave sacrifice that he offers, who casts out the Holy Spirit and prostitutes his mind to idolatry. It is a grave sacrifice that he offers, who solicits the polluted ears of demons with a voice consecrated to the Lord. It is a grave sacrifice that he offers, who adapts the movements of his body to perform a detestable act of sacrilege. What does a creator retain when he offers his mind, tongue, and body to demons? Doesn't he do an injustice to the truth who seeks its integrity in such great corruption? No one is excused in such matters through ignorance. For everyone knows, or ought to know, that this disgrace to the faith is condemned as an anathema. Certainly, a soldier is not excused from the Sacrament, nor is a minor excused by age, a woman by the weakness of her sex, or a peasant by the duties of agriculture, which he oversees for the public good. Although in matters of loss, help may be given to them through ignorance of the law, yet in the subversion of faith, there is no remedy from ignorance; it is established that the one who is ignorant should remain ignorant, and the foolish should be educated in their fault through punishment, and the one who did not want to understand should be wisely punished for not doing good. For who could learn to stop such labor without labor, while they laboriously learn that which they laboriously and pestilently err in? No one who is capable of deviating from the faith through the anxiety of the mind and the exercise of the body can rest in the faith without labor.
The Illusion of Hidden Knowledge
Even if diviners occasionally predict the truth, their practices are deceptive and must be rejected as contrary to God's command.
Anyone who follows these trifles has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever; even if they confess God with their lips, they contradict Him with their perverse actions. It's no easier for a person like this to be faithful than it is for a corrupt judge who loves bribes and chases after rewards to be upright. However, the thing that troubles the minds of simpler people—namely, that the hidden things of the future cannot be revealed through such consultations except by the hand of Him in whose power are the times and the moments—does not present a difficult problem. For although there is only one Arbiter of the future, who is both God and Lord of all, yet sometimes these things become known to people through signs. Why is it surprising, then, if they sometimes foresee things, since they are strengthened by the subtlety of nature and are warned about many things through the longer experience of time and the revelation of higher powers? If, then, spirits weighed down by the mass of the body—whom the muddy garment of flesh holds back, and whose sharpness is dulled by the corruption of a troubled sense—can infer what is to come from precedents or from any signs at all, what prevents spirits who are freed from every bodily bond, whom no harmful mass holds back, from measuring out the outcome of things that are imminent or that follow over a long span of time? But someone who is born almost yesterday and will pass away after a few days gathers similar things from similar things in the meantime and reasons about the future from causes known to him; cannot the Ancient of Days, who was established from the beginning, full of wisdom and adorned with perfection, do this more easily? Who is so dull and remarkably slow that, over such a long stretch of time, he wouldn't rise up to guess at things that are to come? Furthermore, favorable powers that serve the Lord diligently through the practice of charity and devotion can indeed—and are sometimes believed to—reveal hidden things to them. Yet it isn't immediately true just because the wicked feel or predict something; sometimes they rush to announce what they suspect or fear, just so they might appear to be in the know about secrets. Consider what the demons who presided over the temples in Egypt predicted regarding the Lord’s coming birth—the desolation of those temples and their own departure. Hence that statement in Trismegistus about the destruction of the religion of idolatry: 'Egypt, Egypt,' he says, 'the time will come when only fables of your religion will remain.' And often, what they do out of necessity and under compulsion, they pretend to do of their own free will, acting as if they are indignant at the people they are actually trying to harm. They also lie often, whether they are the ones doing the deceiving or are themselves deceived. But even if they only speak the truth, they must nonetheless be restrained or avoided. Hence it says in Deuteronomy: 'If a prophet arises among you, or one who claims to have seen a dream, and predicts a sign or a wonder, and what he spoke comes to pass, and he says to you, "Let us go and follow other gods, whom you do not know, and let us serve them," do not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God is testing you to see whether you love him or not.'
A Personal Testimony of Deliverance
The author recounts his own protection from childhood exposure to magic and warns of the ruin that follows those who practice it.
It’s clear, then, that even if diviners say things that don't align with God, they shouldn't be accepted as if they were meant to be followed or revered. But the apostle did not spare the unclean spirit in the Acts of the Apostles, because it bore witness to the truth before the apostles and their preaching through a ventriloquist woman. Indeed, nothing is more beneficial against this plague than to turn a completely deaf ear to such vanity. I give thanks to God, who provided me with a shield against the snares of the wicked enemy even in my younger years. When I was a boy, being taught the psalms, I was entrusted to a priest who happened to practice magical divination, and it happened that he would apply me and a slightly older boy, sitting at his feet, to the sacrilege of divination, so that something might be revealed to me through the sacred oil or chrism applied to my fingers or in the external and smoothed body. With the names mentioned earlier—which, even as a young boy, seemed to me to be those of demons—and the preceding adjurations, which I’m not sure were from God, my companion indicated that he saw some faint and cloudy images. I, however, remained so blind to it all that nothing appeared to me except nails, hair, and other things I had already known. Because of this, I was judged useless for such things. As if I were condemned for blocking such sacrileges, I was barred from approaching them, and whenever they decided to practice this, I was held back as if I were an impediment to all divination. Thus, the Lord has been gracious to me in that age. But as I moved forward a little, this wickedness became more and more obvious, and my horror was all the more firmly confirmed because, although I knew many people at that time, I saw that all of them—before they failed, whether through natural decline or by a hostile hand—had been robbed of the light of reason, not to mention other troubles by which I saw them struck down or disturbed in the Lord's sight, except for two: the priest I mentioned earlier and a certain deacon, who, seeing the plague of these crystal-gazers, fled, one to the bosom of the canonry and the other to the port of the Cluniac cell, marked by their sacred vestments. Yet I felt pity for those same men, who later suffered more adversities in their congregations than others did. Truly, if the consensus of reason and the authority of our Catholic mother Church weren't enough to challenge this error, the examples of those who have suffered are enough to root it out. But just as no one can drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, or serve two masters—God and Mammon—so no one can attain the grace of God while practicing this malice. But look, why do I pursue this error—which is an enemy to faith and morals—with a needle-point, as if with an awl, when I am capable of running it through with the sword of the Spirit, hilt and all? Let it be struck, then, once with the strong hand and arm of Him who divided the Red Sea to drown the Egyptians, and there will be no need for a second blow. For there is no one who can rescue them from His hand. Let Moses, then, draw his sword, strike down these Egyptian abominations, and hide them away in the sand of barrenness, so that they may no longer appear in the sight of the faithful.
The Sword of the Word
The Word of God acts as a final, decisive judgment against the abominations of divination that lead to the destruction of nations.
Let the Word speak, and let Him pass judgment, condemning the errors we've long tried to drive from your house. For the Word is a two-edged sword, living and effective, sharper than any double-edged blade, reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts. Senseless is the one who does not fear when this sword is hanging over them. And look, it hangs right there in the face of the Church, in plain sight of everyone. Ultimately, it's directed at everyone. For it says: 'When you have entered the land that the Lord your God is giving you, be careful not to imitate the abominations of those nations. Let there not be found in you anyone who purifies their son or daughter by passing them through fire, or anyone who consults mediums, or observes dreams or omens, or is a sorcerer, or an enchanter, or consults spirits, or seeks the truth from the dead; for the Lord detests all these things, and because of such wickedness He will drive them out before you.' You will be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God. Those nations whose land you will possess listen to augurs and diviners; but you have been instructed differently by the Lord your God. Who, then, could doubt that these are criminal acts—not merely a weakness, but the very destruction of faith—which the prophetic word, or rather the word of the Holy Spirit, roots out with such diligence, calling them 'abominations' as the Lord says? Yet a person imagines they are becoming more than human when they have mastered the discipline of these things. It was because of such wickedness that nations were wiped out, and yet human arrogance trusts that it can multiply itself in these very things.
Read the original Latin
duin futura praeTWSCunt et subtUitate naturae et longa experientia tempo ns et reuelatione superiorum potestatum, et quod saepe decipiunt aut decipieinies aut decepti, et quod specularios nnala induhitoia sequuntur. Frustra sibi specularii blandiuntur, quod nichil immolant, nulli nocent, saepius prosunt dum furta detegunt, maleficiis purgant orbem, et solam utilem aut necessariam appetunt ueritatem. Non sic impii, non sic. Qui non colKgit, inquit, mecum, dispergit; et qui non est mecum, contra me est. Dum haec Domino prohibente exercent impii, quid aliud faciunt quam calcaneum erigere aduersus prohibentem? Certe nimis est quod immolat, qui eiecto Spiritu sancto idolatriae mentem prostitmt. Nimium est quod immolat, qui pollutas aures demoniorum solKcitat 5U0ce Domino consecrata. Nimium est quod immolat, qui motimi corporis accommodat ad detestabile sacrilegium peragendum.
Quid retinuit creatori, qui mentem linguam corpus demonibus obtulit? An non ueritati fecit iniuriam, qui integritatem eius in tanta corruptione quaesiuit? Plane nemo in talibus per ignorantiam excusatur. Omnes enim in commune sciunt aut scire debent hanc ignominiam fidei anathematis obprobrio condempnatam. Non utique hic sacramento miles excipitur, pupillus etate, mulier infirmitate sexus, rusticus munere agriculturae qua publicae utilitati inuigilat. Licet enim in dispendiis rerum subueniatur eis per ignorantiam iuris, in subuersione tamen fidei nuUum ab ignorantia remedium est; obtinente eo ut qui ignorat ignoretur et insipiens in culpa erudiatur in pena et sapienter puniatur qui noluit intelligere ut bene ageret. Quis enim potuit iscere ut sine labore a tanto labore cessaret, dum illud laboriose addisceret ut laboriose et pestilenter erraret? Non potest in fide sine labore quiescere qui potens est sollicitudine mentis et exercitio corporis a fide deuiare?
Qui enim his nugis obsequitur, fidem negauit et infideli deterior est; et licet uerbis Deum a confiteatur, ei peruersis operibus contradicit. Nec facilius est hominem huiusmodi esse fidelem, quam iudicem incorruptum qui diligit munera et sequitur retributiones. Ceterum quod simpliciorum animos mouet, scilicet per huiusmodi consultationem abscondita futurorum manifestari non posse, nisi per manum eius in cuius potestate sunt tempora et momenta, nodum non ingerit quaestionis. Licet enim futurorum sit unus arbiter, qui et Deus et Dominus omnium est, tamen ex signis interdum hominibus innotescunt. Quid ergo mirum, si ea quandoque praenoscant, quae et subtilitate naturae uigent et experientia temporis longiore et reuelatione superiorum potestatum de plurimis admonentur'? Si ergo spiritus corporis mole grauati, quos luteum camis retardat indumentum, quorum acumen turbati sensus corruptio hebetat, ex praecedentibus aut quarumcumque rerum indiciis quae sunt uentura comciiint, quid prohibet spiritus ab omni nexu corporis absolutos, quos noxia moles non tardat, rerum imminentium aut in plurima tempora suecedentium praemetiri euentum? Sed qui fere pridie natus est post dies paueulos decessurus medio tempore ex similibus similia coUigit et de causis sibi interim notis ratiocinatur in posterum; nonne hoc facilius potest non modo antiquus sed inueteratus dierum, qui ab initio conditus est plenus sapientia et perf ectione decorus? Quis adeo hebes est et tarditatis egregiae, qui tanto temporis tractu pro parte ad ea conicienda quae futura sunt, non assurgat,?
Praeterea propitiae potestates, quae caritatis cultu deuotione obec diendi Domino assidue famulantur, eis quidem possunt et interdum creduntur occulta reuelare. Nec tamen statim uerum est quod reprobi sentiunt aut praedicunt, sed quandoque quae suspicantur aut timent, ut uideantur conscii secretorum, properant nuntiare. Quale est quod Domino nascituro in templis Egypti desolationem eorum et discessimi suum demones templorum praesides praedicebant. Vnde illud apud Trimegistum de exterminio religionis idolatriae: Egypte, inquit, Egypte, erit cum religionis tuae solae supererunt fabulae. Et saepe quod ex necessitate faciunt et coacti, se sponte facere simulant, quasi hominibus indignantes, quibus se fingunt infensos. Saepe etiam mentiuntur aut decipientes aut decepti. Sed licet uera dumtaxat enuntient, nichilominus aut compescendi sunt aut fugiendi. Vnde in Deuteronomio: Si surrexerit in medio tui propheta, aut qui dicit se somnium uidisse, et praedixerit signum atque portentum, et uenerit quod ■30 locutus est, et dixerit tibi, Eamus et sequamur deos alienos, quos ignoras, et seruiamus eis, non audias uerba prophetae aut somniatoris, quia temptat uos Dominus Deus uester, ut palam fiat utrum diligatis eum an non.
Vnde plane intelligitur quia, etsi contingant quae a diuinantibus non secundum Deum dicuntur, non sic accipienda sunt, ut fiant quae praecipiuntur ab eis aut colantur quae a coluntur ab eis. Sed nec apostolus in Actis Apostolorum immundo spiritui pepercit, quia in muliere uentriloqua apostolis et praedicationi eorum testimonium perhibuit ueritatis. Nichil uero aduersus pestem istam salubrius est quam si quis huiusmodi uanitati omnino aurem subtrahat. Gratias ago Deo, qui michi etiam in teneriori etate aduersus has maligni hostis insidias beneplaciti sui scutum opposuit. Dum enim puer, ut psalmos addiscerem, sacerdoti traditus essem, qui forte speculariam magicam exercebat, contigit ut me et paulo grandiusculum puerum, praemissis quibusdam maleficiis, pro pedibus suis sedentes ad speculariae sacrilegium applicaret, ut in unguibus sacro nescio oleo aut crismate delibutis uel in exterso et leuigato corpore peluis quod quaerebat nostro manifestaretur indicio. Cum itaque praedictis nominibus, quae ipso horrore licet puerulus essem demonum uidebantur, et praemissis adiurationibus, quas Deo auctore nescio, socius meus se nescio quas imagines tenuiter tamen et nubilosas uidere indicasset, ego quidem ad illud ita cecus extiti, ut nichil michi appareret nisi ungues aut peluis et cetera quae antea noueram. Exinde ergo ad huiusmodi inutilis iudicatus sum, et quasi qui sacrilegia haec impedirem, ne ad talia accederem condempnatus, et quotiens rem hanc exercere decreuerant, ego quasi totius diuinationis impedimentum arcebar. Sic michi in ea etate propitiatus est Dominus.
Cum uero paululum processissem, flagitium hoc magis et magis exhomii, et eo fortius confirmatus est horror meus, quod, cum multos tunc nouerim, omnes antequam deficerent aut defectu naturae aut manu hostili beneficio luminis orbatos uidi, ut cetera incommoda taceam, quibus in conspectu meo a Domino aut prostrati aut perturbati sunt, exceptis duobus, sacerdote uidelicet quem praemisi et diacono quodam, qui speculariorum uidentes plagam efFugerunt alter ad sinum canonicae alt-er ad portum cellulae Cluniacensis sacris uestibus insigniti. Eosdem tamen prae ceteris in congregationibus suis aduersa plurima postmodum perpessos esse misertus sum. Sane si ad impugnandum hunc errorem concursus rationum et catholicae matris Ecclesiae auctoritas non suppeteret, uel exempla malorum eum sufficiunt extirpare. Sicut autem nemo potest bibere calicem Dei et calicem demoniorum aut duobus dominis seruire Deo et Mammonae; sic gratiam Dei et huius malitiae exercitium nullus assequitur. Sed ecce quare punctim et quasi subbula sententiam prosequor fidei et morum inimicam, cum eam caesim Spiritus mucrone capulo tenus transuerberare sufficiam? Feriatur ergo semel in manu forti et brachio illius, qui ad summersionem Egyptiorum diuisit mare rubrum in diuisionee, et secundo opus non erit. Non est enim qui de manu illius possit eruere. Educat ergo gladium Moyses et prostemat Egyptias abominationes et abscondat eas, ne appareant in conspectu fidelium, in sabulo sterilitatis a suae.
LoqUatur Uerbum, sententiam proferat in condempnationem errorum, quos diutius a domo tua abigere procurauimus. Verbum siquidem gladius est bis acutus, uiuus et efficax, penetrabilior omni gladio ancipiti, pertingens usque ad diuisionem animae et spiritus, compagum quoque et meduUarum, discretor etiam cogitationum. Insensatus est qui hoc gladio imminente non timet. Et ecce in facie Ecclesiae in conspectu omnium imminet. Denique et in omnes dirigitur. Inquit enim: Quando ingressus fueris terram quam Dominus Deus tuus dabit tibi, caue ne imitari uelis abominationes illarum gentium; ne inueniatur in te qui lustret filium suum aut filiam suam ducens per ignem, aut qui ariolos sciscitetur aut obseruet somnia aut auguria, ne sit maleficus nec incantator, neque phitones consulat et diuinos et quaerat a mortuis ueritatem; omnia enim haec abominatur Dominus, et propter huiuscemodi scelera delebit eos in introitu tuo. Perfectus eris et absque macula cum Domino Deo tuo. Gentes istae, quarum possidebis terram, augures et diuinos audiunt; tu autem a Domino Deo tuo aliter institutus es.
Quis ergo dubitet haec criminalia, et non modo languorem sed fidei exterminium esse, quod tanta diligentia propheticus immo Spiritus sancti sermo eradit Abominationes sunt, dicente Domino; et homo se supra hominem fieri opinatur, cum istorum assecutus est disciplinam. Propter huiusmodi scelera deletae sunt gentes et humana temeritas se in his multiplicari confidit.
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