Augustine, Saint, De Doctrina Christiana Libri Quatuor

30. Superstitiosum est quidquid institutum est ab hominibus ad facienda et colenda idola pertinens, vet ad colendam sicuti Deum creaturam partemve ullam creaturae ; vel ad consultationes et pacta quædam significationum cum dxmonibus placita atque foederata, qualia sunt molimina magicarum artium, quae quidem commemorare potius quam docere assolent poetæ. Ex quo genere suut, sed quasi licentiore vanitate, aruspicum et augurum libri. Ad hoc genus pertinent omnes etiam ligaturæ atque remedia, quæ medicorum quoque disciplina condemnat, sive in præcantationibus, sive in quibusdam notis quos characteres vocant, sive in quibusque rebus suspendendis atque illigandis, vel etiam aptandis 1 quodammodo, non ad temperationem corporum, sed ad quasdam significationes aut occultas, aut etiam manifestas ; quæ mitiore nomine physica vocant, ut quasi non superstitione implicare, sed natura prodesse videantur : sicut sunt inaures in summo aurium singularum, aut de struthionum ossibus ansulae in digitis, aut cum libi dicitur singultienti, ut dextera manu sinistrum pollicem teneas.

30. Superstitious is whatever has been instituted by men that pertains to the making and worshipping of idols, or to the worship of a creature or any part of a creature as God; or to consultations and certain compacts about significations agreed and covenanted with demons, such as are the undertakings of the magical arts, which poets are indeed accustomed to mention rather than to teach. Of this kind, though with a vanity as if more freely permitted, are the books of the haruspices and augurs. To this kind also belong all the amulets and remedies that even the discipline of physicians condemns, whether they consist in incantations, or in certain marks which they call characteres [magical signs], or in various things to be hung up and tied on, or even fitted on in some way, not for tempering the body but for certain significations, either hidden or even open; these they call by the gentler name of physica [natural remedies], so that they may seem not to entangle [people] in superstition but to help by nature: such as earrings at the top of each ear, or little rings of ostrich bone on the fingers, or when you are told, when you have hiccups, to hold your left thumb with your right hand.

31. His adjunguntur millia inanissimarum observa. tionum, si membrum aliquod salierit, si junctim ambulantibus amicis lapis, aut canis, aut puer medius intervenerit : atque illud quod lapidem calcant, tanquam diremptorem amicitiae, minus molestum est, quam quod innocentem puerum colapho percutiunt, si pariter ambulantibus intercurrit. Sed bellum est quod aliquando pueri vindicamur a canibus : nam plerumque tam superstitiosi sunt quidam, ut ctiam canem qui medius intervenerit, ferire audeant, non impune; namque a vano remedio cito ille interdum percussorem suum ad verum medicum nitit. Hinc sunt etiam illa, limen calcare cum ante domum suani transit; redire ad lectum, si quis dum se calceat sternutaverit; redire domum, si procedens offenderit ; cum vestis a soricibus roditur, plus tremere suspicio- lIe I futuri mali, quam præsens damnum dolere. Unde illud eli ganter dictum cst Catonis, qui cum esset consultus a quodam, qui sibi a soricibus erosas caligas diceret; respondit non esse illud monstrum, sed vere monstrum habendum fuisse, si sorices a caligis roderentur.

31. To these are added thousands of utterly empty observances: if some limb twitches; if, when friends are walking side by side, a stone or a dog or a child comes between them. And their treading on the stone, as if it were the breaker of the friendship, is less objectionable than their striking an innocent child with a cuff, if he runs between them as they walk together. But it is a fine thing that children are sometimes avenged by dogs: for some people are often so superstitious that they dare to strike even a dog that has come between them, though not with impunity; for the dog sometimes quickly sends its striker from an empty remedy to a real doctor. From this source come also these: to tread on the threshold when one passes in front of one's own house; to go back to bed if one sneezes while putting on one's shoes; to go back home if one stumbles on setting out; when a garment is gnawed by mice, to tremble more at the suspicion of some future evil than to grieve over the present loss. Hence that elegant saying of Cato, who, when he was consulted by someone who said that his boots had been gnawed by mice, replied that this was not a portent, but that it would truly have had to be considered a portent if the mice had been gnawed by the boots.

37. Quae omnia tantum valent, quantum praesumptione animorum quasi communi quadam lingua cum dæmonibus foederata sunt.. Quae tamen plena sunt omnia pestiferae curiositatis, cruciantis sollicitudinis, mortiferae servitutis. Non enim quia valebant, animadversa sunt; sed animadvertendo atque signando a tactum est ut valerent. Et ideo diversis diverse proveniunt secundum cogitationes et præsumptiones suas. Illi enim spiritus qui decipere volunt, talia procurant tuique, qualibus eum irretitum per suspiciones et consensiones ejus vident. Sicut enim , verbi gratia, una figura litteræ X quæ decussatim notatur, aliud apud Graecos. aliud apud Latinos valet, non natura , sed placito et consensione significandi; et idco qui utramque linguam novit, si homini Græco velit aliquid significare scribendo, non in ea significatione ponit bane litteram, in qua eam ponit cum homini scribit Latino: et Beta uno eodemque sono, apud Graecos litterae, apud Latinos oleris nomen est; et cum dico, Lege, in his duabus syllabis, aliud Græcus, aliud La- tinus intelligit: sicut ergo hæ omnes significationes pro suae cujusque societatis consensione animos movent, et quia diversa consensio est, diverse movent; nec ideo consenserunt in eas homines, quia jam valebant ad significationem, sed ideo valent, quia consenserunt in eas: sic etiam illa signa, quibus perniciosa daemonum societas comparatur, pro cujusque observationibus valent. Quod manifestissime ostendit ritus augurum, qui et antequam observent, et posteaquam observata signa tenuerint, id agunt ne videant volatus, aut audiant voces avium; quia nulla ista signa sunt, nisi consensus observantis accedat.

37. All these things have force only insofar as they have been agreed with demons by the presumption of [people's] minds, as if in a kind of common language. Yet they are all full of pestilent curiosity, tormenting anxiety and deadly servitude. For they were not noticed because they had force; rather, it was by noticing and marking them that they came to have force. And so they turn out differently for different people, according to their own thoughts and presumptions. For those spirits who wish to deceive procure for each person such things as they see him entangled in through his own suspicions and assents. For just as, for example, the single shape of the letter X, which is marked crosswise, has one value among the Greeks and another among the Latins, not by nature but by agreement and consent in signifying; and so one who knows both languages, if he wishes to signify something in writing to a Greek, does not put this letter in the signification in which he puts it when he writes to a Latin; and beta, with one and the same sound, is among the Greeks the name of a letter and among the Latins the name of a vegetable; and when I say lege, in these two syllables a Greek understands one thing and a Latin another: just as, then, all these significations move minds according to the consent of each one's own society, and, because the consent differs, move them differently; and men did not agree on them because they already had force to signify, but they have force because men agreed on them: so too those signs by which the pernicious fellowship of demons is acquired have force according to each person's observances. This is shown most plainly by the rite of the augurs, who, both before they observe and after they have secured the signs observed, take care not to see the flights or hear the cries of birds; because these are no signs at all unless the consent of the observer is added.

45. Est eliam narratio demonstrationi similis, qua non præterita, sed præsentia indicantur ignaris. ln quo genere sunt quæcumque de locorum situ, naturisque animalium, lignorum, herbarum, lapidum, alio- rumve corporum scripta sunt. De quo genere superius egimus, eamque coguitionem valere ad ænigmata Scripturarum solvenda docuimus: non ut pro quibusdam signis adhibeantur, tanquam ad remedia vcl machinamenta superstitionis alicujus; nam et illud genus jam distinctum ab hoc licito et libero separavimus. Aliud est enim dicere, Tritam istam herbam si biheris, venter non dolebit; et aliud est dicere, Istam herbam collo si suspenderis, venter non dolebit. Ibienim probatur contemperatio salubris, hic significatio superstitiosa damnatur. Quanquam ubi præcantationes, et invocationes, ct characteres non sunt, plerumque dubium est utrum res quae alligatur, aut quoquo modo adjungitur sanando corpori, ut naturæ valeat, quoa Iibcre adhibendum est, an significativa quadam obligatione proveniat, quod tanto prudentius oportet cavere christianum, quanto cfficacius prodesse videbilnr. Sed ubi latet qua causa quid valeat, quo animo quisque utatur interest, duntaxat in sanandis vel temperandis corporibus, sive in medicina, sive in agricultura.

45. There is also a kind of narrative resembling demonstration, by which not past but present things are made known to those who do not know them. To this kind belongs whatever has been written about the situation of places and the natures of animals, trees, herbs, stones or other bodies. We dealt with this kind above, and showed that this knowledge is of value for solving the riddles of the Scriptures: not that these things should be used as kinds of signs, as if for the remedies or contrivances of some superstition; for we have already set that other kind apart, as distinct from this lawful and free one. For it is one thing to say, ‘If you drink this herb ground up, your stomach will not ache’, and another to say, ‘If you hang this herb round your neck, your stomach will not ache.’ For in the first a healthful mixture is approved; in the second a superstitious signification is condemned. And yet, where there are no incantations, invocations or characteres [magical signs], it is often doubtful whether the thing that is tied on, or in some way attached, to heal the body works by its nature, in which case it may be used freely, or whether it succeeds by some binding compact of signification; and the more effectively it seems to help, the more prudently a Christian ought to beware of it. But where it is hidden by what cause a thing has its effect, what matters is the intention with which each person uses it, at least in healing or tempering bodies, whether in medicine or in agriculture.