Questions III and IV

GRATIAN. PART I. Augustine explains in the book On the Nature of Demons from whom the kind of divination took its beginning and how many kinds of it there are, saying thus:

Therefore, the kind of divination is said to have been brought from the Persians. § 1. But Varro said that there are four kinds of divination—earth, water, air, and fire—and from these they think geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy are named. § 2. Diviners are so called as though full of God. For they pretend that they are full of divinity, and by a certain fraudulent cunning they conjecture future things for human beings. But there are two kinds of divination: art and frenzy. Incantators are those who accomplish the art by words. § 3. Arioli are so called because around the altars of idols they send forth impious prayers and offer deadly sacrifices, and through these solemnities of demons they receive responses. § 4. Haruspices are named as though inspectors of hours; for they observe days and hours in undertaking affairs and works, and attend to what a person ought to observe at each time. They also inspect the entrails of animals and predict future things from them. § 5. Augurs are those who attend to the flights and calls of birds and report other signs of things or unforeseen observations that occur to human beings. They are the same as auspices, for auspices are the things that those making a journey observe. Auspices and auguries are so called as though “bird-bearing,” because birds bear them. There are two kinds of auspices: one pertains to the eyes, the other to the ears—flight pertains to the eyes, and the call of birds to the ears. § 6. Pythonesses are named from Pythian Apollo, because he was the founder of divining. Astrologers are so called because they augur from the stars. Genethliacs are named because of observations of natal days. For they describe the births of human beings through the twelve signs of heaven and attempt to predict the characters, deeds, and outcomes of those being born from the courses of the stars—that is, they interpret under what sign each person was born or what outcome of life one who is born will have. These are those commonly called mathematicians; the Latins call this kind of superstition constellations—that is, notations of the stars, how they stand when each person is born. § 7. At first those same interpreters of the stars were called Magi, as is read of those who announced in the Gospel that Christ was born. Afterward only mathematicians were called by this name. Knowledge of this art was permitted until Christ, so that after Christ was brought forth no one should thereafter interpret anyone’s nativity from heaven. Horoscopists are so called because they inspect the hours of human births with a dissimilar and diverse fate. Practitioners of sortilege are those who, under the name, etc. As above. § 8. Twitch-diviners are so called because, when any parts of their members twitch, they proclaim that something prosperous or sad is signified to them from it. PART III. GRATIAN. But it is asked concerning the nature of demons: of what nature are they, whether they are able to know future things beforehand, or in how many ways do they know future things beforehand? Augustine writes thus concerning these things in the same book, [On the Divination of Demons, c. 3]:

It must be known that the nature of demons is such that through the perception of an aerial body they easily surpass the perception of earthly bodies; and in speed also, because of the superior mobility of an aerial body, they incomparably surpass not only the courses of any human beings or beasts but even the flights of birds. Endowed with these two things insofar as the aerial body is concerned—that is, keenness of perception and speed of movement—they announce things planned long before, or report things at which human beings marvel because of the slowness of earthly perception. There has also accrued to demons, through the very long time over which their life extends, an experience of things far greater than can come to human beings because of the brevity of life. Through these capacities that the nature of an aerial body has obtained, demons not only predict many future things but also do many things; and because human beings cannot say or do these things, some think them worthy to be served and to receive divine honors, especially through the instigation of the vice of curiosity, because of love of false and earthly felicity and temporal excellence. [c. 5.] § 1. Now therefore, since the question concerns the divination of demons, first it must be known that they very often foretell those things that they themselves will do. For they frequently receive the power both to inflict diseases and, by corrupting the air itself, to render it diseased, and to persuade evil deeds upon perverse persons and lovers of earthly advantages; concerning their characters they are certain that they will consent to those who persuade such things. They persuade in marvelous and invisible ways, penetrating by that subtlety the bodies of human beings who do not perceive them and mingling themselves with their thoughts through certain imaginary visions, whether they are awake or asleep. § 2. Sometimes, however, they foretell not things that they themselves do, but things that they know beforehand will occur from natural signs—signs that cannot enter into human perception. For because a physician foresees what one ignorant of this art does not know how to foresee, he is not therefore to be regarded as a diviner. And what wonder is it if, just as the physician, from the disturbed or failing temperament of a human body, foresees good health or future illnesses, so demons, from a condition of the air known to themselves but unknown to us, foresee future storms? Sometimes also they learn with total ease the dispositions of human beings—not only those uttered by voice but even those conceived in thought—when certain signs are expressed in the body from the mind; and from this they also foretell many future things that are indeed marvelous to others who did not know that these things had been planned. [c. 6.] § 3. They also deceive through zeal for deceiving and through an envious will by which they rejoice in the error of human beings. But lest they lose the weight of authority among their worshipers, they arrange that blame be attributed to their interpreters and to the conjecturers of their signs when they themselves have been deceived or have lied. § 4. Sometimes, however, the malignant spirits themselves, mockers of human beings and enemies of their salvation, are accustomed to predict the failure of their own worship and the ruin of idols so that they may appear to know beforehand what is to come in individual kingdoms or places and what adversity can befall their own faction. Even those who read the histories of the gentiles are not ignorant of this. What wonder is it, therefore, if, when the overthrow of temples and images was already imminent—which the prophets of the supreme God predicted so long beforehand—the demon Serapis disclosed this shortly beforehand to one of his worshipers, so that in departing or fleeing he might commend his supposed divination? PART. GRATIAN. That the devil detects the dispositions of human beings conceived in thought through exterior signs does not appear to be approved by the firmest reasoning. Hence the same Augustine says in Book II of the Retractions, [c. 30]:

In a certain place I said that demons sometimes learn with total ease the dispositions of human beings—not only those uttered by voice but even those conceived in thought—when certain signs are expressed in the body from the mind. I stated a most hidden matter with a bolder assertion than I ought to have done. For it has been learned, even through certain experiments, that these things come to the knowledge of demons. But whether certain signs are given from the body of those thinking, perceptible to them but hidden from us, or whether they know these things by some other spiritual power, can either be discovered by human beings only with the greatest difficulty or cannot be discovered at all.