Chapter 21.—Superstition of Astrologers.

32.  Nor can we exclude from this kind of superstition those who were called genethliaci, on account of their attention to birthdays, but are now commonly called mathematici.  For these, too, although they may seek with pains for the true position of the stars at the time of our birth, and may sometimes even find it out, yet in so far as they attempt thence to predict our actions, or the consequences of our actions, grievously err, and sell inexperienced men into a miserable bondage.  For when any freeman goes to an as trologer of this kind, he gives money that he may come away the slave either of Mars or of Venus, or rather, perhaps, of all the stars to which those who first fell into this error, and handed it on to posterity, have given the names either of beasts on account of their likeness to beasts, or of men with a view to confer honor on those men.  And this is not to be wondered at, when we consider that even in times more recent and nearer our own, the Romans made an attempt to dedicate the star which we call Lucifer to the name and honor of Cæsar.  And this would, perhaps, have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages, only that his ancestress Venus had given her name to this star before him, and could not by any law transfer to her heirs what she had never possessed, nor sought to possess, in life.  For where a place was vacant, or not held in honor of any of the dead of former times, the usual proceeding in such cases was carried out.  For example, we have changed the names of the months Quintilis and Sextilis to July and August, naming them in honor of the men Julius Cæsar and Augustus Cæsar; and from this instance any one who cares can easily see that the stars spoken of above formerly wandered in the heavens without the names they now bear.  But as the men were dead whose memory people were either compelled by royal power or impelled by human folly to honor, they seemed to think that in putting their names upon the stars they were raising the dead men themselves to heaven.  But whatever they may be called by men, still there are stars which God has made and set in order after His own pleasure, and they have a fixed movement, by which the seasons are distinguished and varied.  And when any one is born, it is easy to observe the point at which this movement has arrived, by use of the rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy Writ in these terms:  “For if they were able to know so much that they could weigh the world, how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?”97    Wisd. xiii. 9.

CAPUT XXI. Superstitio mathematicorum.

32. Neque illi ab hoc genere perniciosae superstitionis segregandi sunt, qui genethliaci, propter natalium dierum considerationes, nunc autem vulgo mathematici vocantur. Nam et ipsi quamvis veram stellarum positionem, cum quisque nascitur, consectentur, et aliquando etiam pervestigent; tamen quod inde conantur vel actiones nostras vel actionum eventa praedicere, nimis errant, et vendunt imperitis hominibus miserabilem servitutem. Nam quisque liber ad hujusmodi mathematicum cum ingressus fuerit, dat pecuniam ut servus inde exeat aut Martis, aut Veneris, vel potius omnium siderum; quibus illi qui primi erraverunt, erroremque posteris propinaverunt, vel bestiarum propter similitudinem, vel hominum ad ipsos homines honorandos imposuerunt vocabula. Non enim mirandum est, cum etiam propioribus recentioribusque temporibus, sidus quod appellamus Luciferum, honori et nomini Caesaris Romani dicare conati sunt . Et fortasse factum esset atque isset in vetustatem, nisi avia ejus Venus praeoccupasset hoc nominis praedium; neque jure ullo ad haeredes trajiceret, quod nunquam viva possederat aut possidendum petiverat. Nam ubi vacabat locus, neque alicujus priorum mortuorum honore tenebatur, factum est quod in rebus talibus fieri solet. Pro quintili enim et sextili mensibus, Julium atque Augustum vocamus, de honoribus hominum Julii Caesaris et Augusti Caesaris nuncupatos; ut facile qui voluerit intelligat etiam illa sidera prius sine his nominibus coelo vagata esse: mortuis autem illis quorum honorare memoriam vel coacti sunt homines regia potestate, vel placuit humana vanitate, nomina eorum imponentes sideribus, eos ipsos sibi mortuos in coelum levare videbantur. Sed quodlibet vocentur ab hominibus, sunt tamen sidera, quae Deus instituit et ordinavit ut voluit; et est certus motus illorum, quo tempora distinguuntur atque variantur. Quem motum notare, cum quisque nascitur, quo modo se habeat, facile est, per eorum inventas conscriptasque regulas, quos sancta Scriptura condemnat, dicens: Si enim tantum potuerunt scire, ut possent aestimare saeculum, quomodo ejus Dominum non facilius invenerunt (Sap. XIII, 9)?