Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet of God, no\r\nholy angel was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy,\r\nthat he might see the images of the gods in the water\r\n(or, rather, appearances whereby the demons made sport of\r\nhim), and might learn from them what he ought to ordain and\r\nobserve in the sacred rites. This kind of divination, says\r\nVarro, was introduced from the Persians, and was used by\r\nNuma himself, and at an after time by the philosopher\r\nPythagoras. In this divination, he says, they also inquire at\r\nthe inhabitants of the nether world, and make use of blood;\r\nand this the Greeks call νεκρομαντείαν. But whether it be\r\ncalled necromancy or hydromancy it is the same thing, for in\r\neither case the dead are supposed to foretell future things.\r\nBut by what artifices these things are done, let themselves\r\nconsider; for I am unwilling to say that these artifices were\r\nwont to be prohibited by the laws, and to be very severely\r\npunished even in the Gentile states, before the advent of our\r\nSaviour. I am unwilling, I say, to affirm this, for perhaps<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_303\">[Pg 303]</a></span>\r\neven such things were then allowed. However, it was by\r\nthese arts that Pompilius learned those sacred rites which he\r\ngave forth as facts, whilst he concealed their causes; for\r\neven he himself was afraid of that which he had learned.\r\nThe senate also caused the books in which those causes were\r\nrecorded to be burned. What is it, then, to me, that Varro\r\nattempts to adduce all sorts of fanciful physical interpretations,\r\nwhich if these books had contained, they would certainly\r\nnot have been burned? For otherwise the conscript fathers\r\nwould also have burned those books which Varro published\r\nand dedicated to the high priest Cæsar.<a id=\"FNanchor_289_289\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_289_289\">[289]</a> Now Numa is said\r\nto have married the nymph Egeria, because (as Varro explains\r\nit in the forementioned book) he carried forth<a id=\"FNanchor_290_290\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_290_290\">[290]</a> water\r\nwherewith to perform his hydromancy. Thus facts are wont\r\nto be converted into fables through false colourings. It was\r\nby that hydromancy, then, that that over-curious Roman king\r\nlearned both the sacred rites which were to be written in the\r\nbooks of the priests, and also the causes of those rites,—which\r\nlatter, however, he was unwilling that any one besides himself\r\nshould know. Wherefore he made these causes, as it were,\r\nto die along with himself, taking care to have them written\r\nby themselves, and removed from the knowledge of men by\r\nbeing buried in the earth. Wherefore the things which are\r\nwritten in those books were either abominations of demons,\r\nso foul and noxious as to render that whole civil theology\r\nexecrable even in the eyes of such men as those senators, who\r\nhad accepted so many shameful things in the sacred rites\r\nthemselves, or they were nothing else than the accounts of\r\ndead men, whom, through the lapse of ages, almost all the\r\nGentile nations had come to believe to be immortal gods;\r\nwhilst those same demons were delighted even with such rites,\r\nhaving presented themselves to receive worship under pretence\r\nof being those very dead men whom they had caused to be\r\nthought immortal gods by certain fallacious miracles, performed\r\nin order to establish that belief. But, by the hidden providence\r\nof the true God, these demons were permitted to confess\r\nthese things to their friend Numa, having been gained by those\r\narts through which necromancy could be performed, and yet<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_304\">[Pg 304]</a></span>\r\nwere not constrained to admonish him rather at his death to\r\nburn than to bury the books in which they were written.\r\nBut, in order that these books might be unknown, the demons\r\ncould not resist the plough by which they were thrown up, or\r\nthe pen of Varro, through which the things which were done\r\nin reference to this matter have come down even to our knowledge.\r\nFor they are not able to effect anything which they\r\nare not allowed; but they are permitted to influence those\r\nwhom God, in His deep and just judgment, according to their\r\ndeserts, gives over either to be simply afflicted by them, or to\r\nbe also subdued and deceived. But how pernicious these\r\nwritings were judged to be, or how alien from the worship of\r\nthe true Divinity, may be understood from the fact that the\r\nsenate preferred to burn what Pompilius had hid, rather than\r\nto fear what he feared, so that he could not dare to do that.\r\nWherefore let him who does not desire to live a pious life\r\neven now, seek eternal life by means of such rites. But let\r\nhim who does not wish to have fellowship with malign demons\r\nhave no fear for the noxious superstition wherewith they are\r\nworshipped, but let him recognise the true religion by which\r\nthey are unmasked and vanquished.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-557"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ba922d51871ce13e6b738fe13fbd1d3302b7873f594f8171834f16bd66109408","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_289_289","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_289_289","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_289_289\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_289_289\"><span class=\"label\">[289]</span></a> Comp. Lactantius, <i>Instit.</i> i. 6.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_289_289","text_sha256":"221902490b9d255b6f1213b7944f1f54191e6a07b76a293b2a621f003037392e","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_289_289