Part 2 / Book 5 — BOOK V

ON LAWS[291]

INTRODUCTION

There was a marked difference between the development of law and that of the other subjects so far treated by Isidore in the Etymologies. The latter were of Greek origin, and, with the exception of rhetoric, they appeared as strangers in the Roman environment and never formed an integral part of Roman culture. Instead, they suffered from continuous decay, and by the time of the disintegration of the Roman state they were reduced to such a condition that the “fall of Rome” meant nothing to them. On the other hand, law was an indigenous product of Roman society, upon which the Roman intellect had expended its greatest and most successful efforts, and although it inevitably shared in the general intellectual deterioration of the time, and showed a marked decline after the period of the great jurists, the beginning of its rapid decay is coincident in each section of western Europe with the close of Roman rule. Thus “the fall of Rome” played much the same part in the history of law as the transition from a Greek to a Roman environment had done for the bulk of the intellectual possession of the ancient civilization. After this event law was on terms of equality with the other branches of knowledge, and within two centuries, as judged by its presentation in the Etymologies, it was reduced to as low an estate as they.

Isidore’s De Legibus is divided into two distinct parts. The first is of a general nature, and embraces such topics as law-givers, jus civile, jus gentium, jus naturale, why laws are made, and what character a law ought to have. The second part is more specific; it treats of legal instruments, the law of property, crimes, and punishments. The whole forms a scholastic conglomerate of elements derived from every stage in the development of Roman law and exhibits a point of view that is philological and Christian as much as legal.

Because of its importance in the history of law, this book of the Etymologies has been subjected to more detailed study than any other, but in spite of this its sources have not been clearly determined. In addition to the Scriptures and Isidore’s authorities on word derivation, he is believed to have drawn on the Breviarium Alaricianum, the Theodosian code, the text-books of Gaius and Ulpian, and the Sentences of Paulus. Although the Justinian code was issued a century before the compilation of the Etymologies, it seems improbable that Isidore made any use of it, or had even heard of it.[292]

The purpose of the De Legibus was, no doubt, to serve as a text-book.[293] The amount of space given to it, which is about the average of that allotted to each of the liberal arts, and the fact that it treats of law in a general way, point to this conclusion. Its position in the Etymologies, following, with Medicine, immediately after the liberal arts, is also an indication of its educational character. The best proof of this, however, is found in the number of separate manuscripts in which the De Legibus is reproduced in a catechetical form.[294] At least eight of these are in existence, and the earliest of them is attributed to the ninth century.

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On law-givers.

1. Moses first of all set forth the divine laws in the sacred writings for the Hebrew people. King Phoroneus was the first to establish laws and courts for the Greeks.

2. Mercurius Trismegistus first gave laws to the Egyptians. Solon first legislated for the Athenians. Lycurgus first made rules of law for the Lacedaemonians and pretended Apollo’s authority for them.

3. Numa Pompilius, who succeeded Romulus in the kingdom, was the first to give laws to the Romans. Later, when the people could not endure their quarrelsome magistrates they appointed decemvirs to write the laws, and they translated the laws from the books of Solon into the Latin language, and set them up on twelve tables.

4. These men were A. Claudius, T. Genutius, P. Sextius, Spur. Viturius, C. Julius, A. Manlius, Ser. Sulpitius, P. Curiatius, T. Romilius, Sp. Postumius. These were the decemvirs chosen to write the laws.

5. The consul Pompeius was the first who wished to arrange the laws systematically, but he did not persevere, through fear of detractors. Then Caesar began to do it, but he was slain.

6. By degrees the old laws became obsolete through time and neglect; but a mention of them seems necessary although they are not in use now.

7. The new laws began with the emperor Constantine and the rest who followed him, but they were confused and in disorder. Later, in imitation of Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, the younger Theodosius arranged a code of constitutions from the time of Constantine, under the title of each emperor, which he called Theodosian from his own name.

Chapter 2. On laws human and divine.

1. All laws are either divine or human. Divine laws depend on nature, human laws on customs; and so the latter differ, since different laws please different peoples. Divine law is fas; human law is jus. To pass through another’s property is of divine but not of human law.

Chapter 3. On the difference between jus, leges, mores.

1. Jus is the general term and lex is a kind of jus. Jus is so-called because it is just (justum). All jus is made up of laws and customs.

2. Lex is the written ordinance. Mos is custom approved by its antiquity, or unwritten lex. For lex is derived from legere (to read), because it is written.

3. Mos is old custom and is drawn merely from mores. Consuetudo (custom) is a sort of jus established by mores, which is taken instead of lex when lex fails. And it makes no difference whether it depends on writing or reason, since reason commends written law also.

4. Moreover if lex is in accordance with reason, all that is in accordance with reason will be lex, as far as it agrees with religion, is in harmony with knowledge, and is beneficial for salvation. And consuetudo is so-called because it is in common use.

Chapter 4. On jus naturale.

1. Jus is either natural, or civil, or universal (jus gentium). Jus naturale is what is common to all peoples, and what is observed everywhere by the instinct of nature rather than by any ordinance, as the marriage of man and woman, the begetting and rearing of children, the common possession of all,[295] the one freedom of all, the acquisition of those things that are taken in the air or sea or on the land.

2. Likewise the restoring of property entrusted or lent, the repelling of violence by force. For this, or whatever is like this, is nowhere considered unjust, but natural and fair.

Chapter 5. On jus civile.

1. Jus civile is what each people or state has enacted as its own law, for human and divine reasons.

Chapter 6. On jus gentium.

1. Jus gentium is the seizing, building, and fortifying of settlements, wars, captivities, servitudes, postliminies, treaties, peaces, truces, the obligation not to violate an ambassador, the prohibition of intermarriage with aliens. And [it is called] jus gentium because nearly all nations observe it.

Chapter 7. On jus militare.

1. Jus militare is the ceremony of beginning war, the obligation in making a treaty, the going out against the enemy when the signal is given, and the joining of battle; likewise the retreat when the signal is given; likewise the punishment of a soldier’s fault if a post should be deserted. Likewise the amount of pay, the grades of office, and the honor of rewards, as when a crown or a necklace is given.

2. Likewise the determination of the booty, and the just division according to rank of persons and labors undergone, likewise the share of the commander.

Chapter 8. On jus publicum.

1. Jus publicum has to do with sacred things, and priests and magistrates.

Chapter 9. On jus quiritium.

1. Jus quiritium is the law proper to the Romans, by which none is bound but the Quirites, that is, the Romans, as in regard to inheritances, declarations of entry upon inheritances, guardianships, acquiring by prescription; which laws are found among no other people, but they are proper to the Romans and made for them alone.

2. The jus quiritium is made up of laws, plebiscites, decrees of the senate, constitutions and edicts of emperors and opinions of jurists.

Chapter 10. On lex.

1. Lex is the enactment of the people, by which the elders, together with the plebeians, passed some law.

Chapter 11. On plebiscites.

1. Plebiscites (scita) are what the common people alone enact....

Chapter 12. On the senatus consultum.

1. A senatus consultum is that which the senators alone determine in council for the people.

Chapter 13. On the constitution or edict.

1. A constitution or edict is what the king or emperor enacts or proclaims.

Chapter 14. On the responses of the jurists (responsa prudentum).

1. They are the responses which the jurisconsults are said to make to men who consult them. From this the responses of Paulus were so named. For there were certain wise men and judges of equity who composed and published institutions of civil law, by which they settled the suits and contentions of disputants.

Chapter 15. On consular and tribunitian laws.

1. Certain laws are named from those who secured their enactment, as consular, tribunitian, Julian, Cornelian. Papius and Poppaeus, consules suffecti[296] under Caesar Octavianus, carried a law which was called from their names Papia Poppaea, offering rewards to fathers for rearing children.

2. Under the same emperor, Falcidius, a tribune of the people, carried a law that no one should bequeath property in such a way that a fourth, at least, should not remain for the heirs. And it was named the lex Falcidia from him. Aquilius also secured the passage of a law which is called Aquilia to the present time.

Chapter 16. On the lex satyra.

1. A lex satyra is one which speaks at the same time of many things, being so called from the abundance of things, as it were from saturitas (fullness); whence to write satire is to compose poems with varied contents, as those of Horace, Juvenal, and Persius.

Chapter 17. On the Rhodian laws.

1. The Rhodian laws are the laws of commerce on the sea, being so called from the island of Rhodes where was a great trade in ancient times.

Chapter 18. On privileges.

1. Privileges (privilegia) are laws applying to individuals, private laws, as it were. For privilegium is so called because it is applied to a private person (in privato feratur).

Chapter 19. What law can do.

1. Every law either permits something, as that a brave man should compete for a prize, or forbids, as that no one should be allowed to ask the sacred maidens in marriage, or punishes, as that he who has committed murder should suffer capital punishment. For human life is governed by the reward or punishment of the law.[297]

Chapter 20. Why law was made.

1. Laws were made in order that the boldness of men may be checked by fear of them, and innocence be safe among the wicked, and the power of harm bridled among the wicked by the dread of punishment.

Chapter 21. What law ought to be.

1. Law will be honorable, just, possible, according to nature, according to the custom of the country, adapted to the place and time, necessary, useful, clear also, lest it contain anything in its obscurity that tends to fraud, drawn up for no one’s private advantage, but for the common good of all citizens.

Chapter 24. On legal instruments.

1. Voluntas (will) is the general name for all legal instruments, and it has received this name because it issues from free will, not from compulsion.

2. Testamentum (will) is so named because, unless the testator dies, what is written in it cannot be established or known, since it is closed and sealed; and it is called testamentum because it is not in effect until the burial of the testator (testatoris monumentum); whence the Apostle says: Testamentum in mortuis confirmatur.

3. Testamentum has not only this meaning in the Holy Scriptures, that it is in effect only when the testators are dead, but they also called every agreement (pactum et placitum) testamentum; for Laban and Jacob made a testamentum which was certainly to be in effect while they were living. And in the Psalms is read: Adversum te testamentum disposuerunt; and many others of the sort.

4. The tabulae of a will are so called because not only wills but letters were written on hewn tabulae (boards) before paper and parchment were used. Whence letter-carriers are called tabularii.

5. The testament of the civil law is made valid by the signature of five witnesses.

6. The testament of the praetorian law is sealed with the seals of seven witnesses; the former testament is made in the presence of citizens, and from that is called civile; the latter in the presence of the praetors, and thence is of the praetorian law.

7. A testamentum holographum is one wholly written and signed in the hand-writing of the maker. From this it got its name. For the Greeks use the word ὅλον for whole, and γραφή for writing.

8. A testament has no legal force if its maker has forfeited his civil rights, or if it has not been made in due form.

9. A testament is inofficiosum where an attempt has been made to disinherit the children and recourse has been had to persons outside [the family] without regard to the duty of natural affection.[298]

10. The testamentum ruptum is so named because it is made void through the birth of a posthumous child who is neither disinherited nor made an heir by name.

11. A testament is suppressed when it is not publicly made known, to the injury of heirs or legatees or freedmen; and although it is not kept secret, it nevertheless is thought to be suppressed if it is not made known to the aforesaid persons.

12. Nuncupatio (nuncupative will) is when the testator reads the will aloud, saying: “These things I thus give and bequeath as they are written on these tablets and on this wax; and do you Roman citizens be my witness”, and this is called nuncupatio. For nuncupare means to name and confirm openly.

13. The jus liberorum is the right of childless couples to name each other as heir in the place of children.

23. Emptio (purchase) and venditio (sale) is an exchange of goods and a contract arising from agreement.

24. Emptio (purchase) is so called because it is a me tibi (from me to you); venditio is as it were venundinatio, that is, from nundinae (market day).

27. Donatio usufructuaria is so named because the giver retains the usufruct of the thing, the title vesting in him to whom it has been given.

Chapter 25. On property (rebus).

3. Res is derived from possessing rightly (recte); jus from possessing justly (juste).... What is wickedly possessed is not the owner’s. He possesses wickedly who uses his own wickedly or takes possession of another’s.... He who is captured by greed is possessed, not possessing.

4. Bona belong to the honorable or noble, and they are called bona so that they may not have a base use but men may use them for good things.

5. Peculium belongs properly to minors or slaves. For peculium is that which the father or master allows his son or slave to treat as his own....

ON TIMES[299]

INTRODUCTION

To the early and medieval Christian chronology was a subject of absorbing interest. For him the course of the world’s history was authoritatively laid down in the Biblical account, and looking back over it he thought he saw that it was passing by well-marked stages to an end that was to be as sharply defined as its beginning had been. It was inevitable that there should be an attempt to plot its progress and even to form some general notion as to its end. For this purpose the Greek chronology was accepted in its entirety and extended by a set of extravagant assumptions, acceptable to the uncritical minds of the time, back to the beginning of the world. By this means an authoritative chronological exposition of past time was secured, such as under wise interpretation would disclose more clearly the rate and manner in which God’s purpose was working itself out.[300]

The chronology presented by Isidore traces the course of time along the line of the Roman emperors from Heraclius back to Julius Caesar, and then by way of the Ptolemaic dynasty to Alexander the Great. Here a transition is made to the Persian kings, who are followed back to Darius near the beginning of the fifth age. The four ages between the captivity of the Jews and the creation are marked by Biblical personages only.

There are two matters of importance to be noted in connection with the De Temporibus.[301] Isidore is the first to introduce into formal chronology the division of the world’s history into six ages. The idea was not his, however; he was merely putting into practice a suggestion given repeatedly in Augustine’s writings,[302] and used by Orosius in his History Against the Pagans. In the second place, it should be remarked that Isidore shows no signs of being aware of the proposal of Dionysius Exiguus for an era beginning with the birth of Christ. It is true that Isidore’s sixth age is supposed to begin at that time,—although as a matter of fact it begins at the death of Julius Caesar,[303]—but his era is a world era beginning at the creation.

EXTRACTS

Book V, Chapter 28. On the word chronica.

1. Chronica is the Greek word which in Latin is rendered series temporum (succession of times), such as Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, wrote in Greek and the priest Hieronymus translated into Latin; for χρόνος in Greek is translated by tempus in the Latin.

Chapter 29. On moments and hours.

1. Time is divided into moments, hours, days, months, years, lusters, generations (saecula), ages. A moment is the least and briefest time, so-called from the motion (motu) of the stars.

2. ... Hora is a Greek name and still has a Latin sound. For hora is a limit (finis) of time, just as horae are the limits of the sea and of streams and the borders of garments.[304]

Chapter 30. On days.

5. The days are named from the gods (dii) whose names the Romans bestowed on certain heavenly bodies. They named the first day from Sol, which is the chief of the heavenly bodies just as this same day is the chief of all the days.

6. The second they named from Luna, which is next to Sol in splendor and size and borrows its light from it. The third they named from the star of Mars, which is called Pyrois; the fourth, from the star of Mercurius, which certain ones name Stilbon.

7. The fifth, from the star of Jupiter, which they call Phaeton; the sixth, from the star of Venus, which they call Lucifer, which has more light than all the other stars.

The seventh day, from the star of Saturnus, which being placed in the seventh heaven is said to complete its course in thirty years. And the heathen gave names to the days from the seven stars because they thought that some influence was active upon themselves through the same [stars], saying that they had life (spiritus) from Sol, body from Luna, ability and eloquence from Mercurius, pleasure from Venus, blood from Mars, self-control (temperantia) from Jupiter, and the humors from Saturn. Such indeed was the folly of the heathen who created such ridiculous imaginations. But among the Hebrews the first day is called una Sabbati, which among us is dies Dominicus, which the heathen have dedicated to Sol. The second day of the week is secunda Sabbati, which the heathen call dies Lunae; the third day of the week, tertia Sabbati, which they call dies Martis; the fourth day of the week, quarta Sabbati, which is called Mercurii dies by the pagans; the fifth day of the week, quinta Sabbati, that is, fifth day from dies Dominicus, which among the heathen is called dies Jovis: the sixth day of the week, sexta Sabbati, which is called by them dies Veneris. The seventh from dies Dominicus is Sabbatum, which the gentiles have devoted to Saturnus and have named dies Saturni. Sabbatum is translated from the Hebrew into the Latin as requies, because God rested on that day from all his works.

The ecclesiastical method of speaking the names of the days comes better from the lips of Christians; still, if custom should perchance influence anyone so that what he disapproves of in his heart comes forth from his mouth, let him know that all those from whom these days were named were men, and on account of certain services of a human sort (mortalia), since they were very powerful and were prominent in this world, divine honors were bestowed on them by their admirers, both in respect to the days and the stars, but first the stars were named after men and then the days were named after the stars.

Chapter 31. On night.

1. Nox is derived from nocere (to injure) because it injures the eyes. And it has the light of the moon and stars in order that it may not be without beauty, and that it may comfort all who work by night, and that the light may be sufficiently tempered for certain creatures that cannot endure the light of the sun.

3. Night is caused either because the sun is worn out with his long journey and is weary when he comes to the last stretch of heaven and blows out his weakened fires; or because he is driven under the lands with the same force with which he carried his light over them, and thus the shadow of the earth makes night. Whence Virgilius says:

Chapter 33. On months.

1. The word mensis is Greek, being derived from the word for moon. For in the Greek language the moon is called μήνη; whence among the Hebrews the regular (legitimi) months are reckoned not from the circle of the sun, but from the course of the moon, which is from new moon to new moon.

2. Because of the swifter course of the moon and the fear that an error of reckoning might arise because of its speed, the Egyptians began to reckon the day of the month from the course of the sun, since the slower course of the sun could be comprehended more easily.

Chapter 34. On the solstices and equinoxes.

2. There are two solstices: first, the summer solstice, eight days before the Kalends of July, from which time the sun begins to return to the lower circles; the second, the winter solstice, eight days before the Kalends of January, when the sun begins to make for the higher circles, whence the day of the winter solstice is the shortest and that of the summer solstice the longest.

3. Likewise there are two equinoxes: one in the spring and the other in the autumn, which the Greeks call ἰσημερίαι. These equinoxes are the eighth day before the Kalends of April and the eighth day before the Kalends of October, because the year formerly was divided into two parts only, that is, into the summer and the winter solstice, and into two hemispheres.

Chapter 35. On the seasons.

1. There are four seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn, winter. And they are called seasons (tempora) from tempering,[305] since they are tempered in turn by moisture, dryness, heat, and cold.

2. It is known that after the creation of the universe the seasons were divided into three months each, according to the quality of the sun’s course.... And the ancients make the following divisions of these seasons: in the first month spring is called novum, in the second, adultum, in the third, praeceps.[306]

7–8. These seasons are assigned also to separate parts of the heavens. The spring is given to the Orient, because then all things arise (oriuntur) from the earth; summer to the South, because its division is more intense in its heat; winter to the North, because it is torpid with colds and perpetual frost; autumn to the Occident, because it has serious diseases. Whence, too, the leaves of the trees fall. The bordering of cold and heat and the contending of opposite airs causes the autumn to abound in diseases.

Chapter 36. On years.

1. The year is the circle of the sun when it returns to the same place in relation to the stars, after three hundred and sixty-five days....

3. There are three kinds of years. For the year is the lunar, of thirty days, the solstitial, which contains twelve months, or the great year, when all the planets return to the same place, which happens after many solstitial years.

Chapter 38. On generations and ages.

5. Age (aetas) is used properly in two ways: for it is either the age of man, as infancy, prime, old age; or the age of the world, whose first age is from Adam to Noe; the second, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the migration of Judah to Babylon; the fifth, from then to the coming of the Saviour in the flesh; the sixth, which is now in progress and which will continue until the world is ended.

6. Julius Africanus was the first of our [writers] to set forth in the style of simple history, in the time of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the passing of these ages by generations and reigns. Then Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the priest Hieronymus of holy memory, published a complex history of chronological tables, using reigns and dates at the same time.[307]

7. Then others, among them especially Victor, bishop of the church of Tununa, reviewed the histories of earlier writers and filled out the deeds of subsequent ages down to the consulate of the second emperor Justinus.

8. We have noted with what brevity we could the total of these times from the beginning of the world to the emperor Augustus Heraclius and Suinthilanus, king of the Goths, adding at the side a column of dates by the evidence of which the total of past time may be known.

Chapter 39. On the ordering of times (chronology).[308]

1. The first age contains at its beginning the creation of the world. On the first day under the name of light God created the angels; on the second, under the name of firmament, the heavens; on the third, under the name of parting, the waters and the land; on the fourth day, the lights of heaven; on the fifth, living things of the waters; on the sixth, living things of the land and man, whom he called Adam.

[Years]

2. Adam in his 230th year begat Seth, from whom [sprang] the children of God. 230

Seth in his 205th year begat Enos, who began to call upon the name of the Lord. 435

Enos in his 190th year begat Cainan. 625

Cainan in his 170th year begat Malaleel. 795

Second Age

5. Sem in the second year after the flood begat Arphaxad, from whom sprang the Chaldeans. 2244

Arphaxad in his 135th year begat Sala, from whom sprang the Samaritans and Indians. 2379

Sala in his 130th year begat Heber, from whom sprang the Hebrews. 2509

6. Heber in his 144th year begat Phaleg. The tower was built. 2643

Phaleg in his 130th year begat Ragan. The gods are first worshiped. 2773

Ragan in his 132nd year begat Seruch. The kingdom of the Scythians begins. 2905

7. Seruch in his 130th year begat Nachor. The king of the Egyptians appears. 3035

Nachor in his 79th year begat Tharam. The kingdom of the Scythians and the Sycionii appears. 3114

Tharam in his 70th year begat Abraham. Zoroaster discovered magic. 3184

Third Age

12. Abdon ruled eight years. Troy was captured. 4025

Samson ruled twenty years. Ascanius founded Alba. 4045

The priest Eli ruled forty years. The ark of the covenant was captured. 4085

Samuel ruled forty years. Homer is believed to have lived at this time. 4125

Fourth Age

13. David ruled forty years. Carthage is founded by Dido. Gad, Nathan and Asaph prophesied. 4165

Solomon ruled forty years. The temple at Jerusalem was built. 4205

Fifth Age

19. The captivity of the Hebrews, seventy years. Judith writes history. 4680

Darius, thirty-four years. The captivity of the Jews is ended. 4714

Xerxes, twenty years. The tragedians Sophocles and Euripides are famous. 4734

20. Artaxerxes, forty years. Esdras renews the law which was burned. 4774

Darius, called also Nothus, nineteen years. This time possessed Plato and Gorgias, the first teacher of rhetoric. 4793

25. Ptolemaeus, eight years. The art of rhetoric begins at Rome. 5118

Dionysius, thirty years. Pompey takes Judaea. 5148

Cleopatra, two years. Egypt is conquered by the Romans. 5150

Julius Caesar, five years. He was the first to possess sole authority. 5155

Sixth Age

26. Octavian, fifty-six years. Christ is born. 5211

Tiberius, twenty-three years. Christ is crucified. 5234

Caius Caligula, four years. Matthew wrote his gospel. 5238

27. Claudius, fourteen years. Mark published his gospel. 5252

Nero, fourteen years. Peter and Paul are put to death. 5266

Vespasian, ten years. Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus. 5266

41. Tiberius, six years. The Lombards take Italy. 5779

Mauritius, twenty-one years. The Goths become Catholic. 5800

Phocas, eight years. The Romans are defeated by the Persians. 5808

42. Eraclius is now governing the empire in his seventeenth year.

The Jews in Spain are being made Christian. The remainder of the sixth age is known to God alone.

BOOKS VI-VIII

THEOLOGY[309]

INTRODUCTION

After the five books devoted to the seven liberal arts there follow three which are grouped together by unity of subject and are sharply differentiated from the remainder of the Etymologies, which is prevailingly secular in tone. The contents of these three form a summary of the non-secular thought of the time.[310] Their presence in the midst of an encyclopedia of secular learning is to be explained, as we have seen, by the probability that their purpose was educational, and that they are to be regarded as the texts of the final stage in the priestly training. They thus form the conclusion of Isidore’s educational encyclopedia.[311]

ANALYSIS

I. The books and services of the Church (Book VI).

1. The Old and New Testaments (ch. 1).

2. The writers and names of the holy books (ch. 2).

3. Books (chs. 3–14).

a. Libraries.

b. Translators.

c. Writers of many books.

d. Kinds of books.

e. Writing materials.

4. The canons of the Gospels (ch. 15).

5. The canons of the Councils (ch. 16).

6. The Easter cycle and other feasts (ch. 17).

7. The services of the Church (ch. 18).

II. God, the angels and the orders of the faithful (Book VII).

1. God (ch. 1).

2. The Son of God (ch. 2).

3. The Holy Spirit (ch. 3).

4. The Trinity (ch. 4).

5. The angels (ch. 5).

6. The meaning of biblical names (chs. 6–10).

7. Martyrs (ch. 11).

8. The clergy (ch. 12).

9. Monks (ch. 13).

10. The remainder of the faithful (ch. 14).

III. The Church and the different sects (Book VIII).

1. The Church and the synagogue (ch. 1).

2. Religion and faith (ch. 2).

3. Heresy (chs. 3–5).

a. The heresies of the Jews.

b. The heresies of the Christians.

4. Heathen philosophers (ch. 6).

5. Poets (ch. 7).

6. Sibyls (ch. 8).

7. Magi (ch. 9).

8. Pagans (ch. 10).

9. Heathen gods (ch. 11).

BOOK VI

On the Books and Services of the Church

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On the Old and New Testaments.

1. The Old Testament is so-called because when the New came it was at an end, of which the Apostle speaks: Vetera transierunt, et ecce facta sunt omnia nova.

2. The New Testament is so-called because it brings in the new. For men do not learn it, except those renewed from their former state through grace and now belonging to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven.

3. The Hebrews accept on Esdras’ authority twenty-two books of the Old Testament, according to the number of their letters,[312] dividing them into three series, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographi.

4. The first series of the Law is accepted in five books, of which the first is Beresith, which is Genesis; the second, Veele Samoth, which is Exodus; the third, Vaicra, which is Leviticus; the fourth, Vajedabber, which is Numbers; the fifth, Elleaddebarim, which is Deuteronomy.

6. The second series is that of the Prophets, in which eight books are contained, of which the first is Josue Ben-Nun, which in Latin is called Jesu Nave; the second, Sophtin, which is Judges; the third, Samuel, which is the first of Kings; the fourth, Malachim, which is the second of Kings; the fifth, Isaias; the sixth, Jeremias; the seventh, Ezechiel; the eighth, Thereazer, which is called ‘Of the Twelve Prophets,’ which books are taken as one since they are placed together on account of their brevity.

7. The third is the series of the Hagiographi, that is, those who write what is holy, in which are nine books, of which the first is Job; the second, the Psalms; the third, Misse, which is the Proverbs of Solomon; the fourth, Cohaleth, which is Ecclesiastes; the fifth, Sir Hassirim, which is the Song of Songs; the sixth, Daniel; the seventh, Dibrehajamin, which is Verba dierum, i.e., Paralipomenon (Chronicles); the eighth, Esdras; the ninth, Esther. And all of these together, five, eight, and nine, make twenty-two just as they were inclusively given above.

8. Certain add Ruth and Cinoth, which in the Latin is Lamentatio Jeremiae, to the hagiographa and make twenty-four volumes of the Old Testament, like the twenty-four elders who stand in the sight of the Lord.

9. There is with us a fourth series consisting of those books of the Old Testament which are not in the Hebrew canon. Of which the first is the book of Wisdom (Sapientiae); the second, Ecclesiasticus; the third, Thobias; the fourth, Judith; the fifth and sixth, of the Machabees. Although the Jews set these aside as apocryphal, still the church of Christ honors and preaches them among the divine books.

10. In the New Testament are two series: first the Evangelic, in which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; second, the apostolic, in which are Paul in fourteen epistles, Peter in two, John in three, James and Jude in one each, the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse of John.

11. Moreover the whole of each Testament is triply divided, that is, into history, morals, and allegory. Again those three have many divisions, for example, what was done and said by God, what by the angels, or by men, what was foretold by the prophets of Christ and his body; what of the devil and his members; what of the old and the new people; what of the present age, and the coming kingdom, and the judgment.

Chapter 2. On the writers and names of the sacred books.

1. These are said to be the authors of the Old Testament according to the Hebrew tradition. First Moses wrote a cosmography of divine history in five volumes, which is named Pentateuch.

8. The book of Josue received its name from Jesus, son of Nave, whose history it contains, and the Hebrews assert that the same Josue was its writer, in the text of which, after the crossing of the Jordan, the kingdoms of the enemy are overthrown and the land divided among the people, and by the separate cities, villages, mountains and boundaries the spiritual realms of the church and the heavenly Jerusalem are prefigured.

18. Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, wrote three volumes according to the number of his names, of which the first is in Hebrew Misle, which the Greeks name Parabolae, the Latins, Proverbia, because in it he sets forth figurative expressions and likenesses of the truth under the form of a parallel.

19. The truth itself he has reserved to its readers to understand. The second book is called Coheleth, which in the Greek is Ecclesiastes, in Latin, Concionator, because its discourse is not especially addressed to one, as in Proverbs, but generally to all, teaching that all things which we see in the universe are perishable and short-lived, and for this reason little to be desired.

20. The third book he called Sir hassirim, which is translated Cantica Canticorum in the Latin, where in a marriage song he sings in mystic fashion the union of Christ and the church....

21. The songs in these three books are said to be written in hexameter and pentameter verse as Josephus and Hieronymus say.

40. These are the four Evangelists whom the holy spirit indicated in Ezechiel in the four animals. And there are four animals, because the faith of the Christian religion is spread by their preaching through the four quarters of the world.

41. And they were called animals (animalia) because the Gospel of Christ is preached by them on account of the soul (anima) of man. And they were full of eyes within and without, since they perceive that what was said by the prophets and what had been promised was being fulfilled.

42. And their legs were straight because there is nothing crooked in the Gospels. And as for the six wings apiece that cover their legs and faces, those things which were hid are revealed at the coming of Christ.

50. These are the writers of the sacred books who, speaking by the holy spirit for our edification, wrote both the precepts of living and the rule for believing.

51. In addition to these there are other volumes called apocrypha, and they are called apocrypha, that is, set aside, because they are doubted. For their origin is hidden and was not clear to the Fathers from whom the authority of the genuine scriptures has come down to us by a most certain and well-known tradition. In these apocrypha, although some truth is found, there is no canonic authority, on account of the many things that are false, and it is rightly judged by the wise that they ought not to be believed [to be the work] of those to whom they are ascribed.

52. For many [works] were brought forward by the heretics under the name of the prophets, and many of later origin under the name of the apostles, and all of those after careful examination were separated from the authority of the canon, under the name of apocrypha.

Chapter 4. On translators.

1. This man [Ptolemy Philadelphus] asked Eleazer the high-priest for the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and had them translated from Hebrew into Greek by seventy translators, and kept them in the library of Alexandria.

2. Being placed separately in separate cells they so translated all, by the influence of the holy spirit, that nothing was found in the text of any one of them, that was different in the rest, even in the order of the words.

5. The priest, Hieronymus, being expert in the three languages, translated the Scriptures also from Hebrew into Latin and expressed them with eloquence, and his translation is rightly preferred to the rest. For it is nearer to the literal, and plainer because of the clearness of its expression, and truer, as being done by a Christian translator.

Chapter 7. Those who wrote much.

1. Marcus Terentius Varro among the Latins wrote innumerable books. Among the Greeks also Chalcenterus is extolled with marvelous praises because he wrote so many books that no one of us could even copy in his own hand-writing as many works of other men.

2. Of our own writers, too, among the Greeks, Origen in his toil upon the Scriptures surpassed both Greeks and Latins in the number of his works. Hieronymus asserts that he had read 6,000 of his books.

3. However Augustine surpassed the zeal of all these by his genius and wisdom. For he wrote so much that no one is able in the days and nights even to read his books, far less to write them.

Chapter 16. On the canons of the councils.

5. Among the rest of the councils we know there are four venerable synods which embrace the whole faith in its chief heads, like the four Gospels or the four rivers of Paradise.

6. Of these the first, the Nicene synod of 318 bishops, was held when Constantine was emperor. In it the blasphemy of the Arian perfidy was condemned, which the same Arius gave utterance to concerning the inequality of the holy Trinity. The same holy synod in the creed defined God the son as consubstantial with God, the father.

7. The second synod of 150 fathers gathered at Constantinople under Theodosius the elder, and condemning Macedonius, who denied that the Holy Spirit was God, proved that the Holy Spirit was consubstantial with the Father and the Son, giving the form of the creed which the whole confession, Greek and Latin, preaches in the churches.

8. The third synod, the first of Ephesus, of 200 bishops, was held under Theodosius II, and it condemned with a just anathema Nestorius, who asserted that there were two persons in Christ, and showed that the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ was immanent in the two natures.

9. The fourth synod of 630 priests was held at Chalcedon under Martianus, and it condemned by the unanimous vote of the fathers Euthyches, abbot of Constantinople, who asserted that the nature of the Word of God and of flesh was one, and his defender, Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, and Nestorius himself a second time, along with the remaining heretics, the same synod stating that Christ the Lord was so born of the virgin that we confess in him the substance both of the divine and of the human nature.

These four are the principal synods, stating most fully the doctrine of faith; and whatever councils there are which the holy Fathers, full of the spirit of God, have ratified, after the authority of these four, they continue established in all strength.

Chapter 17. The cycle of Easter.

10. After the completion of this [95-year cycle][313] a return must be made to the beginning. In ancient times the church used to celebrate Easter on the 14th of the moon at the same time as the Jews, whatever day it came on; this way of celebrating the holy Fathers forbade at the council of Nicaea, giving directions to make inquiry not only for the Easter moon and month, but also to observe the day of the resurrection of the Lord, and because of this they extended Easter from the 14th of the moon to the 21st, in order that the dies Dominicus might not be left out.

12. The eve of Easter is spent in watching because of the coming of our King and God, that the time of the resurrection may find us not sleeping but waking. And the reason for this night is a double one, either because he received life at that time when he suffered, or because he is to come for judgment at the same hour at which he arose.

13. And we celebrate Easter in such a way as not merely to call to memory the death and resurrection of Christ but also to consider the rest that is told about him with reference to its mystic meaning (ad sacramentorum significationem).

14. For on account of beginning the new life, and on account of the new man which we are bidden to put on and to put off the old, purging away the old ferment in order that we may be a new sprinkling (conspersio), since Christ is sacrificed as our Pascha (Passover); on account of this newness of life, then, the first month in the months of the year is mystically assigned to the Easter festival.

15. And that Easter is celebrated on a day in the third week, that is, a day that occurs between the fourteenth and twenty-first, this signifies that in the whole time of the world, which is based on the unit of seven days, this mystery has now opened a third time.

16. For the first time is before the law, the second under the law, the third under grace. Wherein the mystery before hidden in the prophetic allegory is now plain, and the resurrection of the Lord is on the third day on account of these three periods of the world.

17. As to the fact that Easter day is sought through seven days from the fourteenth to the twenty-first, this is done on account of the number seven, by which the meaning of completeness is often figured, which is also assigned to the church itself because it is universal. For this reason also John, the apostle, writes to the seven churches.

18. And by the name of the moon in the Scriptures, on account of its mutability it is signified that the church as yet is established [only] in the mortality of the flesh.

19. An observance of different opinions as to the feast of Easter sometimes produces error. For the Latins seek for the moon of the first month from the third day before the Nones of March to the third before the Nones of April, and if the fourteenth day of the moon comes on Sunday, they postpone Easter to another Sunday.

20. The Greeks observe the moon of the first month from the eighth before the Ides of March to the day of the Nones of April, and if the fifteenth day of the moon comes on the Lord’s day, they celebrate Easter. A difference of this sort between them disturbs the regularity of the Easter canon.

BOOK VII

On God, the Angels, and the Orders of the Faithful

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On God.

1. The most blessed Hieronymus, a man of the greatest learning and skilled in many languages, first rendered into the Latin language the meaning of the Hebrew names. And leaving out many for brevity, I propose to insert certain of them in this work with their meanings in addition.

2. For the explanation of words sufficiently indicates what they mean. For certain have the reason for their names in peculiar causes. And at the beginning we set down ten names by which God is called among the Hebrews....

Chapter 5. On angels.

2. The word angel is the name of a function, not of a nature; for they are always spirits, but are called angels when they are sent.

3. And the license of painters makes wings for them in order to denote their swift passage in every direction, just as also in the fables of the poets the winds are said to have wings on account of their velocity....

4. The sacred writings testify that there are nine orders of angels, namely, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. And we shall explain by derivation why the names of these functions were so applied.

5. Angels are so called because they are sent down from heaven to carry messages to men....

6. Archangels in the Greek tongue means summi nuntii in the Latin. For they who carry small or trifling messages are called angels; and they who announce the most important things are called archangels.... Archangels are so called because they hold the leadership among angels.... For they are leaders and chiefs under whose control services are assigned to each and every angel.

17. Certain functions of angels by which signs and wonders are done in the world are called virtues, on account of which the virtues are named.

18. Those are powers to whom hostile virtues are subject, and they are called by the name of powers because evil spirits are constrained by their power not to harm the world as much as they desire.

19. Principalities are those who are in command of the hosts of the angels. And they have received the name of principality because they send the subordinate angels here and there to do the divine service....

20. Dominions are they who are in charge even of the virtues and principalities, and they are called dominions because they rule the rest of the hosts of the angels.

21. Thrones are the hosts of angels who in the Latin are called sedes; and they are called thrones because the creator presides over them, and through them accomplishes his decisions.

22. Cherubim ... are the higher hosts of angels who, being placed nearer, are fuller of the divine wisdom than the rest....

24. The seraphim in like manner are a multitude of angels, and the word is translated from the Hebrew into the Latin as ardentes or incendentes, and they are called ardentes because between them and God no other angels stand, and therefore the nearer they stand in his presence the more they are lighted by the brightness of divine light.

25. And they veil the face and feet of God sitting on his throne, and therefore the rest of the throng of angels are not able to see fully the essence of God, since the seraphim cover him.

28. To each and every one, as has been said before, his proper duties are appointed, and it is agreed that they obtained these according to merit at the beginning of the world. That angels have charge over both places and men, an angel testifies through the prophet, saying: “Princeps regni Persarum mihi restitit” (Dan. x. 13).

29. Whence it is evident that there is no place that angels have not charge of. They have charge also over the beginnings of all works.

30. Such is the order or classification of the angels who after the fall of the wicked stood in celestial strength. For after the apostate angels fell, these were established in the continuance of eternal blessedness.

32. As to the two seraphim that are read of in Isaiah, they show in a figure the meaning of the Old and the New Testament. But as to their covering the face and feet of God, it is because we cannot know the past before the universe, nor the future after the universe, but according to their testimony we contemplate only the intervening time.

Chapter 6. On men who received prophetic names.

1. Most of the men of early times have the origin of their names in appropriate causes. And their names have been given in such a prophetic way that they are in harmony with either their future or their antecedent causes.

2. However we shall now examine merely their literal meaning in history, without touching on the inner meaning of the spirit.

Chapter 11. On martyrs.

4. There are two kinds of martyrs, one in open suffering, the other in the hidden virtue of the spirit. For many, enduring the lyings-in-wait of the enemy and resisting all carnal desires, have become martyrs even in time of peace, because they have sacrificed themselves in their heart to the omnipotent God, and if they had lived in time of persecution, they could have been martyrs in reality.

Chapter 12. On the clergy.

4. The order of bishops is four-fold, namely, patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops.

5. Patriarch in the Greek tongue means highest of the fathers, because he holds the first, that is, the Apostolic place, and he is honored by such a name because he holds the highest office, as for example, the patriarch of Rome, Antioch or Alexandria.

BOOK VIII[314]

The Church and the Different Sects

EXTRACTS

Chapter 1. On the church and the synagogue.

4. The church began at the place where the holy spirit came from heaven and filled those who were sitting together.

5. In view of its present sojourn in strange parts the church is called Sion, because from the distant viewpoint of this sojourn it contemplates the promise of heavenly things, and therefore it has received the name Sion, that is, contemplation.

6. Moreover in view of the peace of the future land it is called Jerusalem, for Jerusalem means vision of peace. For there, all suffering ended, it shall possess with near contemplation the peace which is Christ.

Chapter 3. On heresy.

1. Haeresis is so-called in the Greek from choosing, because, forsooth, each one chooses for himself what seems to him to be better, as the Peripatetic philosophers, the Academic, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, or as others who, following perverse belief, have departed from the church of their own free will.

2. And so heresy is named in the Greek from its meaning of choice, since each at his own will chooses what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe anything of our own will, nor to choose what someone has believed of his.

3. We have God’s apostles as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose anything of what they should believe, but they faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. And so, even if an angel from heaven shall preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.

Chapter 5. On the heresies of the Christians.

69. There are also other heresies[315] without founders or names: some of whom believe that God has three forms; and others say that the divinity of Christ is capable of suffering; and others set a date in time to the generation of Christ by the Father. Others believe that by the descent of Christ the liberation of all[316] in the lower regions was accomplished; others deny that the soul is the image of God; others think that souls are changed to demons and to animals of every sort; others hold different views about the constitution of the universe; others think there are innumerable universes; others make water co-eternal with God; others go on their bare feet; others do not eat in company with men.

70. These heresies have arisen against the catholic faith and have been condemned beforehand by the apostles and the holy fathers, or by the councils, and while they are not consistent with one another, being divided among many different errors, they still conspire with one assent against the church of God. But whoever understands the holy Scripture otherwise than as the sense of the Holy Spirit, by whom it was written, demands, though he do not withdraw from the church, he can be still called a heretic.

Chapter 6. On the heathen philosophers.

1. Philosophers are so-called by a Greek name, which in Latin means amatores sapientiae. For he is a philosopher who has a knowledge of divine and human things, and keeps wholly to the way of right living.

2. The name of the philosophers is said to have first originated with Pythagoras. For when the ancient Greeks boastfully named themselves sophists, that is, wise men, or teachers of wisdom, he was asked what he professed to be, and he modestly replied that he was a philosopher, that is, lover of wisdom, since to make a profession of wisdom seemed very arrogant.

3. And so in later times it became the practice to give only the name of philosopher, no matter how great the learning in matters pertaining to wisdom each seemed to himself or to others to possess. And these philosophers are divided into three classes: for they are either natural philosophers (physici), or moral (ethici), or rational (logici).

4. The natural philosophers are so-called because they treat of nature....

5. The moral philosophers are so-called because they discuss morals....

6. The rational philosophers are so named because they add reason to nature and morals.... These are divided into their schools, some having names from their founders, as Platonici, Epicurei, Pythagorici; others from their places of meeting, as Peripatetici, Stoici, Academici.

7. The Platonici are named from the philosopher Plato. They assert that God is the creator of souls, the angels of bodies; they say that after many cycles of years souls return to different bodies.

9. [The Stoics] assert that no one is happy without virtue. They claim that every sin is equally sinful, saying: “He is as guilty who steals chaff as he who steals gold, he who kills a waterfowl as he who kills a horse; for it is not the thing but the spirit (non animal sed animus) that makes the sin.”

10. These also say that the soul perishes with the body. They love the virtue of self-control, and seek eternal glory although they assert that they are not immortal.

11. The Academici are named from Academia, Plato’s villa at Athens, where he taught. These believe that all things are uncertain; but although it must be admitted that many things which God willed to surpass the understanding of man, are uncertain and hidden from us, yet there are very many things which can be received by the senses and apprehended by man.

15. The Epicureans are named from Epicurus, a certain philosopher, a lover of vanity not of wisdom, whom the very philosophers themselves called a swine because he wallowed in carnal filth and asserted that bodily pleasure was the highest good, and even said that the universe was not formed and ruled by a divine Providence.

16. But he assigned the origin of things to atoms, that is, to indivisible material bodies, from the chance combination of which all things arise and have arisen. He said that God did nothing, that all things are corporeal, that the soul is not different from the body. And so he said, “I shall not exist after I die.”

22. These errors of the philosophers have given rise also to heresies in the church....

23. When it is said that the soul perishes, Epicurus is honored; and the denial of the resurrection of the flesh is taken from all the philosophers; and where matter is put on an equality with God, it is the teaching of Zeno; and where anything is read about a God of fire, Heraclitus comes in. The same material is used and the same errors are embraced over and over by heretics and philosophers.

Chapter 7. On poets.

1. Tranquillus thus tells why poets were so named: “When men putting off savagery first began to have a settled mode of life and to obtain a knowledge of themselves and their gods, they contrived a modest way of living and necessary words for themselves, but sought for magnificence in each for the worship of their gods.

2. And so, just as they made temples more beautiful than the homes of that time, and images larger than men’s bodies, so they thought that [the gods] must be honored with an eloquence even more stately, and they extolled their merits in splendid words and pleasure-giving verse.”

10. The function of a poet is in this, that by the aid of a figurative and indirect mode of speech he gracefully changes and transforms to a different aspect what has really taken place. But Lucan is not placed in the number of poets because he seems to have composed a history, not a poem.

Chapter 8. On the sibyls.

3. The most learned authors relate that there were ten Sibyls. Of whom the first was the Persian; the second, the Libyan; the third, the Delphian, born in the temple of the Delphian Apollo, who foretold the Trojan wars and very many of whose verses Homer inserted in his work; the fourth, the Cimmerian in Italy; the fifth, the Erythraean, Herophyla by name, born in Babylon, who foretold to the Greeks on their way to Ilium that they would perish and Homer would write lies; she was called Erythraean because her verses were found in that island; the sixth, the Samian....

5. The seventh, the Sibyl of Cumae, who brought nine books to Tarquinius Priscus in which were written the secrets[317] of Rome....

6. The eighth, the Sibyl of Hellespont, born in Trojan territory, who is said to have lived in the days of Solon and Cyrus.... The ninth, who prophesied at Ancyra. The tenth, the Sibyl of Tibur, Albunea by name.

7. Verses of all these are published, in which it is manifestly proved that they wrote many things about God and Christ and the heathen. The Erythraean Sibyl, however, is said to be the most celebrated and famous of them all.

Chapter 9. On the magi.

1. The first of the magi was Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, whom Ninus, king of the Assyrians, slew in battle, and of whom Aristotle writes that on the evidence of his works it is clear that he composed 2,000,000 verses.

2. This art was enlarged by Democritus many centuries later when Hippocrates was famous for his knowledge of medicine....

3. And so this vanity of the magic arts flourished during many generations in the whole world by the teaching of the bad angels, through a certain knowledge of the future and the summoning up of infernal spirits. Their inventions are divinations, auguries, the so-called oracles, and necromancy.

4. And there is no miracle in the feats of the magicians, whose arts of wickedness reached such perfection that they actually resisted Moses by wonders very like his, turning twigs to serpents and water to blood.

5. It is said that there was a very famous magician, Circe, who turned Ulysses’ companions into beasts. We also read of a sacrifice which the Arcadians offered to their god Lycaeus when all who ate of it were changed to the shapes of beasts.

6. And it is plain that the famous poet wrote of a certain woman who excelled in the magic arts: “She promises to soothe by her charms the minds of whomsoever she wishes, and to cause others cruel anxieties; to stay the current in the stream, to turn the stars back. She summons the spirits of the dead at night; you shall hear the earth bellow beneath your feet and see the ash trees come down the mountain side.”[318]

7. Why should I tell further of the sorceress—if it is right to believe it—how she summoned the soul of the prophet Samuel from the secret places of hell and presented him to the gaze of the living—if we are to believe that it was the soul of the prophet and not some fantastic deceit created by the trickery of Satan.

8. Prudentius, too, tells of Mercury: “It is said that he recalled the souls of the dead to the light by the power of the wand he held, and others he condemned to death.” And a little later he adds: “The wicked art can summon unsubstantial forms with its magic murmur and utter incantations over sepulchral ashes, and others it can deprive of life.”

9. The magi are they who are usually called malefici because of the greatness of their guilt. They throw the elements into commotion, disorder men’s minds, and without any draught of poison they kill by the mere virulence of a charm.

10. ... They summon demons, and dare to work such juggleries that each one slays his enemies by evil arts. They use blood also, and victims, and often touch dead bodies.

11. Necromancers are they by whose incantations the dead appear to revive and prophesy and answer questions.... To summon them blood is thrown on a corpse; for they say demons love blood, and therefore as often as necromancy is practiced blood is mixed with water, that they may be more easily attracted owing to the color of blood.

12. The hydromantii are so named from water. For it is hydromancy to summon the shades of demons by looking into water and to see their likenesses or mockeries, and to be told some things by them, while the pretence is made that it is actually the dead who are being questioned by the aid of blood.[319]

13. This sort of divination is said to have been introduced by the Persians. Varro says there are four kinds of divination, namely, by earth, air, water, fire; hence geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy.

14. Divini (sooth-sayers) are so called as if they were Deo pleni (full of God); for they pretend that they are full of divinity and they guess men’s future by a deceitful cleverness.

There are two sorts of [this] divination, skill and frenzy.

16. Arioli (sooth-sayers) are so named because they utter their execrable prayers at the altars (aras) of idols and make funeral offerings, and because of their solemn observances they receive responses from demons.

23. The genethliaci are so named because of their observance of natal days. They lay out men’s nativities according to the twelve constellations of heaven, and by the course of the stars endeavor to foretell the characters, deeds, and fortunes of the new-born, that is, under what sign each has been born, and what result it has for the life of him who is born.

25. At first the interpreters of the stars were called magi, as is read of those who announced the birth of Christ in the Gospel; later they had only the name of mathematici.

26. A knowledge of this art was granted up to the time of the Gospel, that when Christ was born no one after that should read the nativity of anyone from heaven.

30. To these belong also the ligatures, with their accursed remedies, which medical science condemns, whether in charms or in signs or in suspending and binding articles.

31. In all these the demonic art has arisen from a pestilential association of men and bad angels. Whence all must be avoided by Christians and rejected and condemned with thorough-going malediction.

Chapter 10. On the heathen.

2. The Gentiles are they who are without the law and have not yet believed. Moreover they are called Gentiles because they are in their con-genital state, that is, just as in the flesh they have plunged down into sin, to wit, serving idols and not yet regenerate.

Chapter 11. On the gods of the heathen.

1. They whom the pagans assert to be gods are known to have been men at one time, and in accordance with the life and services of each one they began to be worshiped among their own people after their death, as, in Egypt, Isis; in Crete, Jove; among the Moors, Juba; among the Latins, Faunus; among the Romans, Quirinus.

2. ... And in their praises the poets, too, have helped, and by writing poems have raised them up to the heavens.

3. It is said that the invention of certain arts has given rise to worship, as medicine for Aesculapius, craftsmanship for Vulcan. And they get their names from their activities, as Mercurius because he is in charge of merchandise; Liber from liberty.

4. There were also certain brave men and founders of cities, upon whose death men, because they loved them, made images of them, so as to have some comfort from the contemplation of their likenesses, but this error, it is now plain, so insinuated itself among later men by the influence of demons, that the persons whom earlier men honored for the sake of memory and nothing else, were believed by their successors to be gods, and were worshiped.

5. The use of images arose when, because of longing for the dead, likenesses or representations were made of them as if they had been received into heaven. And demons substituted themselves to be worshiped on earth in their place, and persuaded deceived and wretched men that sacrifices should be made to them.

12. While wicked pride, whether of men or of demons, commands and desires this worship, on the other hand pious humility, whether of men or of holy angels, refuses it when offered to them and shows to whom it is due.

15. Demons, they say, were named by the Greeks as if δαήμονας, that is, clever and knowing about things. For they foreknow many things that are to come, and because of this they are wont to give some responses.

16. For there is in them a knowledge of things greater than is in human weakness, partly by the keenness of their subtler sense, partly by the experience of very long life, partly by God’s command as revealed by the angels. They are strong in the nature of their aerial bodies.

17. Before their transgression, indeed, they had celestial bodies. But they fell and changed to an aerial quality, and they are not allowed to occupy the purer stretches of yonder airy space, but those misty parts, and this serves as a sort of prison for them until the time of judgment. These are the apostate angels, and their chief is the devil.

18. The devil (diabolus) in Hebrew means flowing downward (deorsum fluens), because he despised a calm station at heaven’s height and fell in downward ruin by the weight of his pride; but in Greek devil means accuser, whether because he reports the guilty deeds to which he is himself the tempter, or because he accuses the innocence of the elect with false crimes. Whence the angel’s voice says in the Apocalypse: “The accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accused them in the sight of God day and night.”

19. Satanas signifies in Latin the adversary, or deserter. He is the adversary, for he is the foe of truth, and struggles to resist the virtues of the holy; and the deserter, because he became an apostate and did not stand by the truth in which he was created; and the tempter, because he demands that the uprightness of the just be tried, as is written in Job.

20. Antichrist is so named because he is going to oppose Christ. It is not as certain simple-minded persons understand, that he is called Antichrist because he is going to come before Christ, that is, that Christ will come after him; not so, but Antichrist in the Greek means in the Latin contrarius Christo, for ἀντὶ in Greek means contra in Latin.

21. For when he comes he will say falsely that he is Christ, and he will fight against him, and will oppose the sacraments of Christ, in order to destroy the Gospel of truth.

22. For he will try to repair the temple at Jerusalem and to restore all the ceremonies of the old law; moreover he is Antichrist who denies that Christ is God, for he is opposed to Christ; all who go out of the church and are cut off from the unity of faith are themselves Antichrist.

37. They say that Janus is the gate (janua), as it were, of the universe, or the heavens or the months; they make Janus with two faces because of the East and the West; when they make him with four faces and call him the double Janus they refer this to the four quarters of the universe or to the four elements or seasons. But when they make this pretence they make a monster, not a god.

56. They say that Diana [Apollo’s] sister is at the same time Luna and the divinity of roads. And they represent her as a maiden because nothing grows on a road. And both [Apollo and Diana] are falsely represented as having arrows because the sun and moon send their rays from heaven down to the earth.

81. Pan is a Greek name; the Latin is Silvanus; the god of the country people whom they invented to represent nature, whence he is called Pan, that is, all. For they pretend that he is made out of every kind of element.

82. For he has horns to represent the rays of the sun and moon; he has a skin, marked by spots, because of the stars of heaven; his face is red to represent the ether; he carries a Pan’s-pipe of seven reeds because of the harmony of the heavens in which are seven sounds, and the seven notes of the voice.

89. These[320] and others are the fabulous imaginations of the heathen, and, being rightly understood, they are such that their worship, though in ignorance, brings damnation.

100. They say manes are the gods of the dead, whose power, they assert, is between the moon and the earth....

101. Larvae they say are demons made from men who have been wicked. It is said to be their nature to terrify little ones and to gibber in dark corners.