Chapter IX — On vain observance

I. Vain observance is the third species of superstition, which attempts to produce some external effect by the consideration of vain things. St. Thomas treats this question fully in four articles (q. 96). From the first article it is gathered that this vain observance is a kind of superstition, since it employs instruments unsuited, and not instituted by God or by nature, to produce some external effect. He divides this observance into three species. The first is the notory art; the second, the observance of health; the last, the observance of future events. In these, as in the other species of superstition, a pact with a demon — tacit or explicit — may be involved.

II. Question I. Is the notory art lawful? Response: St. Thomas answers this question thus (loc. cit.): "It must be said that the notory art is unlawful, because it makes use of certain signs to acquire knowledge — but not signs divinely instituted... Whence it remains that these are empty and vain signs, and consequently pertain to certain pacts of signification, agreed upon and struck with demons. And so the notory art is to be altogether repudiated, since it does not use these things" as effective causes, but as vain signs "...and so this art is also ineffective for acquiring knowledge. For since through such an art the acquisition [of knowledge] is not intended in a manner connatural to man — namely, by discovery or by learning — it follows that this effect is expected either from God or from demons. Now it is certain that some have had wisdom and knowledge from God through infusion, as is read of Solomon (3 Kings 3)... The Lord also said to his disciples (Luke 21): 'I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist.' But this gift is not given to whomever, or by means of a fixed observance, but according to the will of the Holy Spirit, as is said (1 Cor. 12): 'To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit'; and it is added afterward: 'But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will.' It does not, however, pertain to demons to illuminate the intellect... Now the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom occurs by the illumination of the intellect; and therefore no one has ever acquired knowledge through demons. Whence Augustine says (Bk. X, City of God) that Porphyry admits that nothing of purification accrues to the intellectual soul from the theurgic arts — that is, the operations of demons — that would render it fit to see its God, and to discern truly the things that are true, such as the theorems of all the sciences. Demons could, nevertheless, in conversing with men, express certain teachings of the sciences; but this is not what is sought through the notory art." Though it has been rather lengthy to transcribe all this, it seemed worth doing, given its usefulness on many points. It should be observed that demons, being angels of darkness, cannot illuminate the intellect toward God, since this illumination is directed toward manifesting truth in relation to God; every truth, indeed, is from God. But it is the demon's aim, on the contrary, to separate men from God, not to lead them to him. Wherefore those who enter into a pact with a demon for the acquisition of knowledge, beyond the most grave crime of superstition, are also defrauded of their hope. As for what is related of the Anabaptists — namely, that after partaking of the sacrilegious morsel at their supper, they discourse on the Scriptures — if this is true, it must be said that a demon takes possession of their bodies, and speaks through their mouth and tongue, as in those possessed. And this is so true that, once they have abjured their heresy, they remain as stupid and ignorant as before. But if they retained this knowledge even after abjuring the heresy, its use would then be lawful — provided it were certain and established that its continuation did not depend on the demon. Vain observance, then, or the notory art, is unlawful, and all agree that this is a certain and grave crime of superstition.

III. Question II. Is the observance of remedies for health lawful? Response: It is called the observance of health when unsuited instruments — ceremonies, prayers, astronomical images — are employed to cure diseases, soothe pains, stop the flow of blood, and ward off other such afflictions. Since, in fact, the aforesaid means and similar things of this kind have no power at all to produce such effects, either by their own nature or by divine institution, it follows that every effect that such things are wont to produce is from a demon. There intervenes, then, a pact — either explicit or implicit — with a demon; and thus the crime of superstition is committed. Guilty of superstition, likewise, are those who carry with them written charms, wrappings, amulets, or prayers, with the firm conviction that they will not die without confession, or that they will not be wounded by a firearm or cannon-shot. The reason is the same: for these signs have, of themselves and by no institution of God, any power to produce such effects. As for relics, however, it must be observed, with St. Thomas (II-II, q. 96, art. 4, ad 3): "If it is expected from faith in God, and the veneration of the Saints whose relics they are, this will not be unlawful. But if something else is attended to in this regard — as if the relic were, say, triangular in shape, or something of this sort, that had nothing to do with reverence for God and the Saints — it would be superstitious and unlawful." The Angelic Doctor further warns that, when sacred images or pages on which the Gospel is written are carried, care must be taken, first, that they contain nothing false, contrary to Sacred Scripture, the custom, and the tradition of the Church; and second, that nothing be written that pertains to the invocation of demons, and that no unknown names, characters, or figures be mixed in — the sign of the Cross excepted. In a word: the carrying of relics and sacred images is lawful when hope is placed in God alone, and in the intercession of the Saints; and honor and reverence is shown to sacred things on this account alone, and for no other vain observance.

IV. It is superstitious to utter sacred words in order to move a ring off a suspended thread — since these words have no power at all to produce such a motion. If, therefore, motion occurs, it is from a demon. Superstition is likewise committed by those who wear phylacteries, or bound-up remedies, suspended from the neck, which are by their very nature unfit to drive away illnesses; likewise those who cast images of the Saints into a river, and keep them there until they obtain rain from God. If you wish to read more on this, consult Del Rio (Bk. III, Disquisitiones Magicae, part 2, q. 4).

V. The observance of future events is the prediction of good or bad fortune from signs altogether unsuited to foreknowing such things: as if someone observed days, seasons, chance encounters with people, and other similar things, by which he was moved to do, or to omit, something as though it were ill-omened. It is worth transcribing a few things here from St. Augustine, who, in Book II On Christian Doctrine, gives a full account of many examples of this superstition. I will pass over for now what pertains to the other species of superstition, and briefly present some of what pertains to vain observance. Augustine writes as follows (ch. 20 and following): "To this class belong also all amulets and remedies, which the discipline of physicians also condemns — whether in incantations, or in certain marks which they call characters, or in certain things to be hung up and bound on, or even in a kind of dancing not for the tempering of the body, but for certain significations, either occult or even manifest, which they call, by a gentler name, 'physics' — as though these things were not superstitiously entangling, but seemed to be of benefit by nature; such as earrings at the top of each ear, or rings of ostrich bones on the fingers, or telling you, when you hiccup, to hold your left thumb with your right hand. To these are joined a thousand vain observances: if some limb twitches; if, while walking together, a stone, or a dog, or a boy comes between two friends. And that stepping on the stone, as though it were a divider of friendship, is less troublesome than that they strike the innocent boy with a blow, if he happens to run between them while walking together. But it is a fine thing that boys are sometimes avenged by dogs — for many are so superstitious that they even dare to strike the dog that came between them, not without being bitten in turn. For a vain remedy will sometimes quickly send the striker to a real doctor. Hence come also these: stepping on the threshold when one passes in front of one's own house; returning to bed if one sneezes while putting on one's shoes; returning home if one, having set out, stumbles; fearing a future ill omen more than one grieves over a present loss, if one's garment is gnawed by mice. Whence that remark of Cato is elegantly said: when consulted by someone who told him that his boots had been gnawed by mice, he replied that this was no portent — but it would indeed have been a portent if the mice had been gnawed by the boots." Very much else that Augustine pursues in this place I pass over, since from the reasons already given it can be understood by anyone what is to be condemned as superstitious, and to be purged from this vice.