Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/453

 ASTROLOGY. 437 solely through the devil. A monk was seized in Paris in 1323 for possessing a book on the subject ; his book was burned, and he probably escaped with abjuration and penance.* The most prominent and most puzzling to the lawgiver of all the occult arts was astrology. This was a purely Eastern science — the product of the Chaldean plains and of the Nile valley, unknown to any of the primitive Aryan races, from Hindostan to Scandi- navia. When the dominion of Rome spread beyond the confines of Italy it was not the least of the Orientalizing influences which so profoundly modified the original Roman character ; and after a struggle it established itself so firmly that in great measure it superseded the indigenous auguries and haruspicium, and by the early days of the empire some knowledge of the influences of the stars formed an ordinary portion of liberal education. The same motives which led to the prohibition of haruspicium — that the death of the emperor was the subject most eagerly inquired into — caused the Chaldeans or astrologers to be the objects of re- peated savage edicts, issued even by monarchs who themselves were addicted to consulting them, but it was in vain. Human credulity was too profitable a field to remain uncultivated, and, as Tacitus says, astrologers would always be prohibited and always retained. Although the complexity of the science was such that it could be grasped in its details only by minds exceptionally con- stituted, through lifelong application, it was brought in homely fashion within the reach of all by restricting it to the observation of the moon, and applying the results by means of the diagram and tables known as the Petosiris, a description of which, attrib- uted to the Venerable Bede, shows how the superstitions of pagan- dom were transmitted to the Northern races, and were eagerly ac- cepted in spite of the arguments of St. Augustin to prove the nullity of the influence ascribed to the heavenly bodies. f Artis c. iii.— Th. Aquin. Suram. Sec. Sec. xcvi. i.— Ciruelo, Reprovacion de las Superstitiones, P. in. c. 1.— Grandes Chroniques V. 272.— Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1323— Savonarola contra V Astrologia, Vinegia, 1536, fol. 33.— Ars Notoria, ap. Cornel. Agrippse Opp. Ed. Lugduni, I. G06.— The Notory Art of Solomon, translated by Robert Turner, London, 1657. t Tacit. Annal. n. 28-32 ; in. 22 ; xn. 14, 52, 68 ; Histor. n. 62.— Zonarse T. ii. (pp. 185, 192).— Sueton. Vitell. 14. — Tertull. de Idololat. ix.— Lib. ix. Cod.
 * Doat, XXVII. 7; XXX. 185.— Rogeri Bacon Epist. de Secretis operibus