Question V

GRATIAN. That practitioners of sortilege and diviners, if they are unwilling to desist, are to be excommunicated is proved by reason and authority. For it is a certain kind of worship of idols to predict future things from consultations with demons. For just as the avaricious person, because he expends upon money the worship owed to God, is called a worshiper of idols by the Apostle, so those who labor to discover future things—which are sometimes found to have been revealed from an oracle of God—either by consultation with demons or by any deceptions attribute the rights of divinity to creatures. For to know future things beforehand belongs to God alone, who in contemplation of himself causes even the angels to know them beforehand. Hence Isaiah says: “Announce to me the former and the last things, and I will say that you are gods.” § 1. But worshipers of idols are to be separated from the communion of the faithful. Hence the Apostle says in the epistle to the Corinthians: “If anyone is named a brother and is a fornicator, or avaricious, or serving idols, with such a person do not even take food.” Hence it is also read in the decree of Gregory the Younger, [presiding in the Roman Council, c. 12]:

If anyone shall have observed altar-diviners, haruspices, or incantators, or used phylacteries, let him be anathema.

Likewise from the Council of Ancyra, c. 23, [otherwise 24]. Those who seek divinations and follow the custom of the gentiles, or introduce persons of this kind into their houses for the purpose of seeking something by magical art or of expiation, shall lie under a rule of five years according to the defined grades of penance.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [that is, from the Capitula of Martin of Braga, c. 72]. Let it not be lawful for Christians to maintain the traditions of the gentiles and to observe or worship the elements, or the courses of the moon or stars, or the empty deceit of signs for building a house, planting crops or trees, or joining marriages. For it is written: “Everything you do, whether in word or deed, do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God.” § 1. Nor in the gathering of medicinal herbs is it lawful to attend to any observations or incantations, except only with the divine Creed or the Lord’s Prayer, so that God alone, Creator of all things and Lord, may be honored. § 2. But if anyone, following the custom of pagans, shall introduce diviners and practitioners of sortilege into his house, as though they might cast out evil, discover acts of sorcery, or perform pagan purifications, let him do penance for five years. § 3. Nor is it lawful for Christian women to observe vanity in their wool-working; rather, let them invoke as helper God, who gave them the wisdom of weaving.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea, c. 30. Those dedicated to sacred offices or clerics ought not to be magicians or incantators, or to make phylacteries, which are proved to be bonds of their souls. We have ordered those who use such things to be cast out of the church.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Toledo, c. 30. If any bishop, presbyter, deacon, or anyone from the orders of clerics shall have been discovered to have consulted haruspices, incantators, altar-diviners, augurs, practitioners of sortilege, those who profess the magical art, or any persons practicing things similar to theirs, let him, suspended from the honor of his dignity, undertake the discipline of a monastery and there, dedicated to perpetual penance, discharge the admitted crime of sacrilege.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, c. 38. Some clerics or laypersons devote themselves to auguries and, under the name of a feigned religion, profess knowledge of divination through those things they call the lots of the holy Fathers, or promise future things through inspection of any writings. Any cleric or layperson who shall have been discovered either to consult or to teach this is to be regarded as a stranger from the church.

Likewise Leo IV to the bishops of Britain, [c. 4]. We decree that the lots by which you decide all things in your judgments—which the Fathers condemned—are nothing other than divinations and acts of sorcery. Wherefore, we wish them to be condemned altogether, and we do not wish them to be named any longer among Christians; and we prohibit them from being practiced by the prohibition of anathema.

Likewise Gregory to Hadrian the notary, [Book IX, epistle 47]. It has come to us that you pursued certain incantators and practitioners of sortilege; know that your solicitude and zeal have been altogether pleasing to us. Therefore, let it belong to your diligence to seek them carefully and to correct with strict punishment any enemies of Christ of this kind whom you shall find.

Likewise from the Council of Orléans, [I, c. 32]. If any cleric, monk, or secular person shall have believed that divination, auguries, or the lots that they falsely claim belong to the saints ought to be observed, or shall have thought that they should be disclosed to any persons, let them be expelled from the communion of the church together with those who shall have believed them.

Likewise Gregory, [Book VII, epistle 66, to Bishop Januarius]. We exhort Your Fraternity to watch more vigorously with pastoral vigilance against worshipers of idols, haruspices, and practitioners of sortilege. If you find that they are unwilling to amend themselves from such things, if they are slaves, we wish them to be chastised with lashes; but if they are free, they are to be directed to punishment worthy of confinement and strictness.

Likewise from the Council of Carthage, [IV], c. 39. We command that one devoted to auguries or incantations, and likewise one adhering to Jewish superstitions or festivals, be separated from the assembly of the church.

Likewise from the Council of Ancyra, c. 1. Let bishops and their ministers labor with all their strength to eradicate wholly from their parishes the pernicious art of sortilege and magic invented by the devil; and if they find any man or woman a follower of a crime of this kind, let them cast that person, shamefully dishonored, from their parishes. For the Apostle says: “Avoid a heretical person after the first and second correction, knowing that one who is of this kind is subverted.” Those who, having abandoned their Creator, seek the devil’s assistance are subverted and held captive by the devil; and therefore the holy church ought to be cleansed from such a pestilence. § 1. Nor is this to be omitted: certain criminal women, turned backward after Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that during the nocturnal hours they ride upon certain beasts with Diana, goddess of the pagans, or with Herodias and an innumerable multitude of women; that they traverse great spaces of lands in the silence of the dead of night; that they obey her commands as those of a mistress; and that on certain nights they are summoned to her service. But would that these women alone had perished in their unbelief and had not drawn many with them into the destruction of infidelity. For an innumerable multitude, deceived by this false opinion, believe these things to be true; and by believing, they deviate from the right faith and are enveloped in the error of the pagans when they suppose that there is anything of divinity or divine power outside the one God. Wherefore, throughout the churches committed to them, priests ought with every urgency to preach to the people of God so that they may know that these things are altogether false, and that phantasms of this kind are imposed upon the minds of the faithful not by the divine but by a malignant spirit. § 2. Indeed, Satan himself, who transforms himself into an angel of light, when he has captured the mind of any woman and subjugated it to himself through unbelief, immediately transforms himself into the forms and likenesses of diverse persons; and, deluding in dreams the mind he holds captive, showing now joyful things, now sad things, now known persons, now unknown, leads it through every byway. And although the spirit alone suffers this, the unbelieving woman supposes that this happens not in the mind but in the body. For who in dreams and nocturnal visions is not led outside himself and sees many things while sleeping that he had never seen while waking? But who is so foolish and dull that he thinks all these things, which occur in the spirit alone, also happen in the body, since the prophet Ezekiel saw and heard the visions of the Lord in the spirit, not in the body, as he himself says: “Immediately,” he says, “I was in the spirit”? And Paul does not dare to say that he was caught up in the body. Therefore, it is to be announced publicly to all that one who believes such and similar things loses the faith; and one who does not possess the right faith is not Christ’s but belongs to him in whom he believes, that is, the devil. For of our Lord it is written: “All things were made through him.” Therefore, whoever believes that any creature can be changed either for the better or for the worse, or transformed into another form or another likeness, except by the Creator himself, who made all things and through whom all things were made, is without doubt an unbeliever and worse than a pagan. PART II. GRATIAN. Some persons are found who, moved by inward envy to the destruction of their enemies, strip the altar of sacred vestments, clothe it in mournful vesture, withdraw the customary service of lights from the churches of God, or celebrate for living persons the Mass promulgated for the pious repose of the dead. The Council of Toledo [XIII] condemns the most wicked acts of sorcery of all such persons, saying, [c. 7]:

Whichever of the priests or ministers, moved henceforth by the cause of any grievance, shall have presumed either to strip an altar of sacred vestments, clothe it in any other mournful vesture, withdraw the customary service of lights from the temple of God, or order them to be extinguished, unless the satisfaction of true penitence before the metropolitan has previously purged him, let him know that he is to be deprived of the dignity and honor of his place. Without doubt, there are excluded from this sentence of punishments those persons who happen to have done this either fearing the contamination of sacred orders or the subversion of the holy faith, enduring hostility or siege, or also fearing the sentence of divine judgments; in their deed humility by which God is placated is declared more than the deceitfulness of inward envy. § 1. Many priests also, wounded by the deceit of enmity, strive with a deceitful vow to celebrate for living persons the Mass promulgated for the repose of the dead, so that the one for whom they offer that sacrifice may incur the danger of death. Therefore, the assembly of our unanimity has chosen that, if anyone shall henceforth be discovered to have perpetrated such things, he is to be deposed from the grade of his own order; and both that priest himself and the person who is judged to have incited him to perform such things are to be bound in the prison of perpetual exile. PART III. GRATIAN. From the foregoing authorities it is gathered that altar-diviners, haruspices, incantators, practitioners of sortilege, and other followers of this kind are to be eliminated from the church and, unless they return to wisdom, perpetually excommunicated. § 1. But what is said in the last chapter from Ancyra—that the things done through incantators occur not in the body but in the spirit—Augustine appears to assert in the book On the City of God, saying thus:

Nor is it wonderful concerning the deceptions of magicians, whose arts of sorcery have advanced so far that they even resisted Moses in those signs, turning rods into dragons and water into blood, since it is also reported in the books of the gentiles that a certain sorceress, Circe, changed the companions of Ulysses into beasts. It is also read concerning a sacrifice that the Arcadians offered to their god Lycaeus, from which whoever ate was converted into the forms of beasts. But all these things were fashioned by magical deceptions rather than accomplished in the truth of things. Therefore, so that the errors themselves may be made manifest to the ignorant, we judge it fitting first to speak concerning their proper character and inventors according to the tradition of the forebears. § 1. Magicians are those who are commonly called evildoers because of the magnitude of their crimes. They are those who, by God’s permission, shake the elements, disturb the minds of persons who trust less in God, and kill by the force of an incantation alone without any drinking of poison. Hence Lucan also says: “A mind polluted by no corruption from drunk poison perishes through incantation.” For after summoning demons, they dare to agitate them so that by evil arts they may kill any of their enemies. They also use blood and often touch the bodies of the dead with victims. § 2. Necromancers are those through whose invocations the dead appear to be raised, to divine, and to respond to questions. For nigro in Greek means “dead,” and mantia is called “divination”; to raise them blood is applied to a corpse. For demons are said to love blood, and therefore, whenever necromancy is performed, gore is mixed with water, and they are more easily summoned by the color of blood. § 3. Hydromancers are named from water. For hydromancy is to summon the shadows of demons in an inspection of waters, to see the images of their mockeries, and there to hear certain things from them; there, when blood is applied, they are also said to raise those in the lower regions. And below: § 4. To all the aforesaid things belong the amulets of execrable remedies that the physicians’ art does not commend, whether in invocations or in characters to be suspended and bound. In all of these is the art of demons, sprung from a certain pestiferous fellowship of human beings and evil angels. Hence all are to be avoided by a Christian and altogether and wholly repudiated and condemned with execration. § 5. Auguries, however, concern birds. The Phrygians first invented these. § 6. Mercury is said to have first invented deception. Deception is so called because it dazzles the keen sight of the eyes. § 7. A certain Tages is said to have first handed down the art of haruspicy to the Etruscans. Lifeless, he dictated haruspicy and afterward did not appear. For it is said fabulously that, while a certain rustic was plowing, he suddenly leapt from the clods and dictated haruspicy, on which day he died. The Romans changed those books from the Etruscan language into their own. § 8. Therefore, by these portents human curiosity is mocked through the deceit of demons when persons shamelessly desire to know that which by no reason does it belong to them to investigate. This power is therefore given to unclean spirits so that they may fit the perverse to themselves—that is, evil persons—and seduce those who scorn the truth and believe a lie and, according to Paul’s sentence, will not endure sound doctrine but, with itching ears, will heap up teachers for themselves according to their desires; they will turn their hearing away from the truth and be turned to fables; burdened with sins, they will be led by various desires, always learning and never arriving at knowledge of the truth. But just as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these persons resist the truth, being corrupted in mind and reprobate concerning the faith; but they will advance no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, just as that of the former persons was. § 9. Nor ought anyone therefore to believe that any persons are able to do anything by magical arts without God’s permission—who either does all things that occur by his just judgment or permits them thus to occur by his permission—because the aforesaid magicians are read to have done things similar to Moses. He cast down his rod, and it was turned into a dragon; and they each cast down their rods, which were turned into dragons, but Aaron’s rod devoured their rods. For neither the magicians nor the evil angels, by whose ministry those things were worked, were creators of dragons. For throughout all the elements there are present in bodily things certain hidden seminal principles; when a temporal and causal opportunity has been given to them, they burst forth into the forms due to them according to their modes and ends. And thus the angels who do these things are not called creators of animals, just as farmers are not to be called creators of crops or of any things generated on earth, although they know how to furnish certain visible opportunities and causes so that those things may be born. What these persons do visibly, those others do invisibly. But God alone is the one Creator, who inserted the causes themselves and the seminal principles into things. § 10. Moreover, some think it is to be asked how Scripture relates that the Pythoness raised the prophet Samuel for a conversation with Saul, the most impious king, if Pythian divination is to be assigned to the error of magical art. To these it can be answered thus: it is an altogether unworthy act if assent is accommodated according to the words of the history. For how could it happen that a man holy from birth and just by the works of his life was drawn forth by magical art? But if he was not drawn and consented, this too is contrary to belief concerning a just man. For justice has no assistance if, whether dragged or willing, he lost the spiritual merit that he had sought while placed in the flesh. This is exceedingly absurd, because one who departs from here just remains just. Rather, this is a deception of Satan, by which, in order to deceive very many, he feigns that even the good are in his power. The Apostle shows this among other things, saying: “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” For in order to create an error in which he might be glorified, he arrayed himself in the appearance and name of a just man, so that he might falsely declare that the hope they preached to the worshipers of God availed nothing, when he feigned that the just departing from here were in his power. But this deceives some persons: that he did not lie concerning the death of Saul and his son, as though it were a great thing for the devil to foresee the death of the body before its occurrence, since certain signs are accustomed to appear to those about to die, especially to those from whom God’s protection appears to have been removed. How much more could the devil foresee it, whom the prophetic oracles testify to have been sublime in angelic majesty, concerning whose magnitude the Apostle says: “Or are you ignorant of the depth of Satan?” What wonder is it, therefore, if he was able to foresee a death closely imminent, since this is the means by which he deceives and wishes to be worshiped as though in God’s power? For Saul had been made mad by such great dullness that he fled to a Pythoness. Depraved because of sin, he betook himself to those things he had condemned. But if anyone, on account of the history, thinks that the things expressed in words are not to be passed over, lest the account of the history be empty, he indeed does rightly, provided that he draws this in no way to the principle of truth, but to Saul’s vision and understanding. For having become reprobate, he could not possess a good understanding. The historian described Saul’s mind and Samuel’s appearance, expressing the things said and seen while passing over whether they were true or false. For he says: “Hearing in what appearance he had been raised, he understood,” it says, “that this was Samuel.” It reported what he understood; and because he did not understand rightly, contrary to Scripture he worshiped another than God, and, thinking him Samuel, he worshiped the devil, so that Satan might possess the fruit of his deceit. For he strives for this: to be worshiped as God. If Samuel had truly appeared to him, the just man certainly would not have permitted himself to be worshiped, for he had preached that the Lord alone was to be worshiped. And how would the man of God, who was with Abraham in refreshment, say to a pestilential man worthy of the burning of Gehenna, “Tomorrow you will be with me”? By these two claims the improvident Satan provided for the subtlety of his deceit: he both permitted himself to be worshiped under Samuel’s appearance and name contrary to the law, and falsely said that a man weighed down by sins would be with the most just Samuel, although there is a great distance between sinners and the just. Yet it can be said to be true and can appear true if Samuel’s name is omitted, because Saul was to be with the devil; for he passed over to the one whom he worshiped. Therefore, the devil, always hidden beneath a veil, betrays himself when he fashions things that adhere to the persons through whom he strives to deceive. § 11. But if anyone objects and says, “How do those things occur which those diviners predict as future? Or how can they furnish healing to the sick or inflict illness upon the healthy if they have no power or capacity of their own?” let him receive this response from us: each person therefore ought not to believe them because the things they predict sometimes occur, or because they appear to heal the sick or injure the healthy, since this happens by God’s permission so that those who hear or see this may be tested and it may appear of what sort their faith or devotion toward God is. Thus in Deuteronomy Moses is read to have commanded the people of God from the word of the Lord, saying: “If there arises in your midst a prophet, or one who says that he has seen a dream, and he predicts a sign and a portent, and what he has spoken occurs, and he says to you, ‘Let us go and follow foreign gods whom you do not know, and let us serve them,’ you shall not hear the words of the prophet or dreamer, because the Lord your God tests you, so that it may be manifest whether you love him or not. Follow the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and fear him; keep his commandments and hear his voice; you shall serve him and cleave to him, etc.” Here he plainly wished it to be understood that even those things said by diviners not according to God, if the things said occur, are not to be received in such a way that the things commanded by them are done or the things worshiped by them are worshiped. Nor did he show that the fact they occur is beyond his power; rather, as though it were asked why he permits them, he set forth the cause of testing: namely, for their love to be known, whether they possess it toward their God—known rather by themselves than by him, who knows all things before they occur.