The mediæval attitude toward astrology : particularly in England

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YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH

ALBERT S. COOK, Editor

LX

THE MEDIEVAL ATTITUDE
TOWARD ASTROLOGY

PARTICULARLY IN ENGLAND

BY

THEODORE OTTO WEDEL

Instructor in English in Yale University

A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School

of Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

MDCCCCXX

:! HE INSTITUTE OF ft?FDIAFVAI. STUDIES

10 tlLMSLEY PLACE

TORONTO 5, CAN^.OA.^

n<?4

PREFACE

Mediaeval astrology has long suffered a neglect which,
judged intrinsically, it deserves. Little more than a
romantic interest now attaches to a complex divinatory art
that for centuries has been looked upon as one of the
aberrations of the human mind. When viewed historically,
however, astrology is seen to have occupied a place in art
and philosophy which many a later science might envy, and
which, consequently, it is not well to ignore. Ancient
astrology, indeed, has already received in recent years close
and appreciative study. The poem of Manilius has never
lost its appeal for the classicist; and the prominence of
astrological thought in ancient philosophy and ethics has
frequently aroused the curiosity of scholars. A history of
mediaeval astrology, on the other hand, still remains to be
written.

Yet for the men of the thirteenth century, even more than
for the poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome, the
rule of the stars over human destinies was an indisputable
fact, entering into their every conception of the universe.
In that sudden revival of Aristotelian and Arabian learning
which, in the twelfth century, heralded the scholastic age,
astrology was hailed as the chief of the sciences. Although
a long warfare with theology had to precede its acceptance
by mediaeval orthodoxy, its final triumph was complete.
Theologians dared to credit the stars with a power second
only to that of God himself. When Chaucer, in lines
echoing Dante's Inferno, exclaims

O influences of thise hevenes hye !

Soth is, that, under God, ye ben our hierdes,

he is expressing the conviction of the best mediaeval
thinkers. Astrology, offering, as it did, a reasoned explana-

iv Medieval Attitude tozvard Astrology

tion of an infinite diversity of physical phenomena, and
inckiding in its scope psychology and ethics, made possible
even in the Middle Ages dreams of a universal science.

I have endeavored in this dissertation to trace the devel-
opment of mediseval thought concerning astrology from
Augustine to the fifteenth century, and to interpret refer-
ences to it in mediaeval English literature. The larger
purpose was a direct outgrowth of the second — a summary
of astrological passages in Old and Middle English proving
barren without an interpretative background. It will be
easily recognized that the treatment of mediaeval astrology
as a whole is cursory and incomplete. A field so little
explored as that of Arabian and Jewish science offers
countless difficulties to the novice. But the general trend
of astrological opinion in the Middle Ages seemed not
impossible of discovery, and called for at least a tentative
explanation.

The recent investigations of several scholars have
encouraged my interest in the present work. Professor
Tatlock's studies on the astrology of Chaucer were respon-
sible for my first intelligent view of the problem. Some
twenty pages of incidental exposition in his Scene of the
Franklin's Tale' Visited constitute the most suggestive
monograph of mediaeval astrology with which I am
acquainted. The earlier volumes of Duhem's Systeme dii
Monde also aided me in matters bibliographical, and in out-
lining the evolution of scientific ideas from Aristotle to
modern times. Although my introductory discussion of
ancient astrology is based upon Bouche-Leclercq's Astrol-
ogie Grecque, I have endeavored to interpret the early his-
tory of the science in the light of its later development. The
principal contribution of the present study, in fact, will be
found to consist in an attempt to explain the mediaeval
attitude toward astrology as the result of a combat between
an ecclesiastical hostility, inherited from the ancient Church,
and the increasingly insistent demands of Arabian science.

Preface v

My thanks are due to the officials of the Library of Yale
University, who secured for me many of the books here
cited; to Professor J. S. P. Tatlock, of Leland Stantord
University, and Professor T. F. Crane, of Cornell Univer-
sity, for courteous replies to queries ; and to Professor C. C.
Torrey and Professor Williston Walker, of Yale University,
for aid in solving problems of Oriental bibliography. My
gratitude to Professor Albert Stanburrough Cook, under
whom this dissertation was written, must be left largely
unexpressed. Professor Cook helped me everywhere,
always ungrudging of his time, and always ready with
sympathetic counsel.

A portion of the expense of printing this thesis has been
borne by the Modern Language Club of Yale University,
from funds placed at its disposal by the generosity of the
late Mr. George E. Dimock, a graduate of Yale in the
Class of 1874.

Yale University,

November, 1919.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER P-'^GE

I. Ancient Astrology i

11. Astrology in the Early Mediaeval Centuries 25

III. Astrology in Old English Literature 42

IV. Arabian Astrology 49

V. The Mediaeval Acceptance of Astrology . . 60

VI. Astrologers in Mediaeval England 90

VII. Astrology in the Mediaeval Romances .... 100

VIII. Astrology in Middle English Literature .. 113

IX. Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 132

Bibliography 157

Index 161

CHAPTER I

ANCIENT ASTROLOGY
I

Little is definitely known of the history of astrology
before its advent in the Greek world at the time of the
Alexandrian empire. Arising somewhere in the Chaldean
East, and spreading early over Egypt, it won its first foot-
hold in the West in a school of astrologers founded by
Berosus on the island of Cos. Astrological divination
among the Babylonians seems to have been of a primitive
sort, confining itself to eclipses, and to general prophecies
concerning kings and realms. It was in the hands of the
Greeks that astrology developed into that intricate science
of divination, fortified by the best philosophical thought of
the time, which we encounter in the classic texts of Manilius
and Ptolemy.^

Though astrology entered the Greek world late, it found
a soil prepared for its reception. Popular superstitions
regarding lucky and unlucky days have been current among
all peoples; Hesiod had sung of them in his Works and
Days. Astrology, furthermore, won ready converts among
the philosophers. Though the contemporaneous Stoic
school was the first openly to espouse its doctrines, astrology
discovered many points of contact in the systems that had
preceded. Pythagoreanism, with its mystic numbers, seemed
expressly made for the new science. The four elements of
Empedocles found here a new home. And of the utmost
importance for its later history were the relations which
astrology formed with the philosophical systems of Plato

^ The authoritative study of Greek astrology is Bouche-Leclercq's
L'Astrologie Grecque, Paris, 1899. Chaldean astrology is dis-
cussed on pp. 35-72. The best short account of ancient astrology
is the article Astrologie by E. Riess, in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-
encyclop'ddie der Classischen Alterthumswisscnschaft (Stuttgart,
1896) I. 1802-28.

2 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

and Aristotle. With Platonism, astrology experienced little
difficulty. The Timccus became in later times a veritable
breviary, not only for astrologers, but for teachers of magic
of all sorts. The myth of the Demiurge, creating the world
as a living organism, every part of which was intimately
related to every other, presented the very principle that with
the Stoics became the comer-stone of the ancient faith in
divination. Man, as a microcosm, the Stoics said, merely
reflected the great world about and above him. Moreover,
the picture in the TimcBus of the soul descending from the
upper heavens by way of the planetary gods, each endowing
it with its proper gifts, was admirably fitted for astrological
interpretation at the hand of the commentator.^ To be sure,
when astrology later allied itself with astronomy, and took
on a more scientific aspect, Platonism, with its myths, was
found less adaptable. So simple an astrological doctrine as
that concerning the evil influence of the planet Saturn
baffled the philosophers. How could a beneficent planetary
god be the source of evil? The Neoplatonist, Plotinus,
solved such difficulties by saying that the stars were not
causes of anything, but signs only. This easy explanation
became general among Platonists. It is found as late as
the scholastic, William of Auvergne, and the Renaissance
philosopher, MarsiHo Ficino.

While astrology discovered a ready ally in Plato, it found
only an indifferent one in Aristotle. To those familiar with

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 9-25. The commentaries on the TimcBus
by the Neoplatonists, Porphyry and Proclus, contain much astro-
logical matter. By way of Chalcidius and Macrobius (see below,
p. 26), these astrological explanations of the Timcsus became acces-
sible to the early Middle Ages. The mediaeval popularity of the
TimcFus itself is well known. The Platonic myth of the descent
of the soul, together with its astrological interpretation, found its
way, in the twelfth century, into the De Mundi Universitate of
Bernard Silvestris. Chaucer drew upon this work for a stanza
in the Man of Law's Tale (99-106). See below, pp. 33-5, 146.

Ancient Astrology 3

mediaeval astrology, this seems strange indeed. In the
scholastic writers of the thirteenth century, the cosmology
ristotle furnished the very axioms of the science ; it
.dS the authority of Aristotle, more than anything else,
that caused its theoretical acceptance by the Church. Thus
Aristotle's theory of the fifth essence, teaching that the
substance of the stars was of a nobler order than that of
the sublunary sphere, was found admirably fitted to form
the ' is of a science ascribing to the stars the arbitrament
.. human destinies. This view also found support in
Aristotle's physics of motion. All the transformations
undergone by physical bodies here on earth, it taught, trace
their origin to the local motion of the imperishable beings
which constitute the fixed stars. It is this motion, received
"by the heavens from the Prime Mover himself, and trans-
mitted to the lower spheres, that causes all earthly growth
and change. 'The earth,' says Aristotle,^ *is bound up in
some necessary way with the local motions of the heavens,
- that all power that resides in this world is governed by
that above.' And in the locus classicus for mediaeval
astrology — the tenth chapter of the second book of the
De Generatione et Corruptione — Aristotle develops this
theory even further. The motion of the heavens, to which
all change on earth is due, is twofold, and has a twofold
effect on sublunary matter. The perfect diurnal motion
of the fixed stars from east to west constitutes the principle
of permanence and growth ; whereas the motion of the
planets, running their annual courses at irregular paces
from west to east, athwart the diurnal motion of the fixed
stars, constitutes the principle of earthly change. When
once interpreted astrologically, Aristotle's physics of motion
was all that was needed to fasten upon the Middle Ages
that exaggerated belief in the importance of the stars which
lay at the basis of the faith in astrology.

^ Meteorologica i. 2.

4 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

There are signs that even in the ancient world the pos-
sibilities of the Aristotelian cosmology as a fundamental
postulate for an astrological science had begun to be recog-
nized. The Peripatetics, Alexander Aphrodisias and
Adrastus, based upon it their faith in stellar influence;
and when Claudius Ptolemy, in the second century of our
era, gave to astrology its final definition as a science, he
employed several Aristotelian doctrines. It was Aristotle
who had formulated the theory of the four elements — the
hot, the cold, the dry, and the moist — which constituted
the basis of Ptolemy's physics. By placing these four
qualities under the sway of the various planets and con-
stellations, Ptolemy could explain scientifically the mani-
festations of stellar influence. From the Peripatetics, too,
Ptolemy borrowed his masterly solution of the problem of
scientific determinism, which, as we shall find, disarmed
many critics. Ptolemy, approaching astrology from the
side of astronomy, and not from that of mysticism and
religion, could in general claim kinship with the spirit of
Aristotelian science. But one looks in vain in Ptolemy's
proof of the existence of stellar influence^ for a mention
of Aristotle's theory of motion. He speaks on the subject
with no such dogmatic sureness as did the scholastic
writers twelve centuries later.^

Ptolemy, however, comes at the close, not at the begin-

^ Tetrabiblos i. 2.

^Astrology and early Aristotelianism are discussd by Boll, in
Studien iiber Claudius Ptolem'dus, pp. 156-162 {Jahrhiicher fiir
Philologie und Pddagogik, Supplement 21). For Ptolemy's debt to
the Peripatetics, see Boll, p. 161, and Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 26-7.
Bouche-Leclercq takes Boll to task for the statement that Aris-
totelianism was in itself favorable to astrology. Platonism, he says,
was much more so. From the point of view of ancient astrology,
Bouche-Leclercq is probably right. But the history of mediaeval
astrology proves, I think, that the alliance of astrology with Aris-
totelianism was the more permanent. It discarded the astrological
mythology of Plato, and substituted for it a rational explanation
of the universe which captivated the best scientific minds down to

Ancient Astrology 5

ning, of the history of Greek astrology. In the earlier
centuries, no necessity manifested itself of basing astrology
upon a scientific conception of the universe. Astrology
looked for its first support, not to science, but to philosophy
and to religion; and the Chaldean diviner found his first
friends, not among the astronomers, but the soothsayers
and oracle-mongers. Ptolemy was the first astronomer of
note to pay serious attention to astrology. To the Stoics —
the one philosophical school that became its staunch ally —
astrology was merely a form of divination, accepted and
defended along with augury and oracles. In that long
controversy of the schools on the subject of divination
which is preserved in such writings as Cicero's De Divina-
tione, little mention is made of cosmological principles.
The physical influence of the stars, it is true, played a part
in the argument. Cicero tried to deny the stars the power
to influence human life by saying that all celestial bodies
above the sun and moon were too distant.^ Astrology made
answer that the sun and moon were distant, too ; yet
their influence was manifest. The power of their rays
differed only in degree from that exerted by the other
heavenly bodies. Ptolemy, preserving for us the arguments
of Posidonius, the most important Stoic defender of astrol-
ogy, points to the influence of the moon upon the ocean,
and that of the sun upon the seasons, and then leaves the
matter with the assertion that the other heavenly bodies
act in a similar manner.^ Some influence of the stars upon
human life was usually taken for granted, and the war was
fought out on other issues. The central principle with the
Stoics was that of the solidarity of the universe, the resem-

the time of Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The influence of the Aris-
totelian cosmology upon the later centuries is clearly traced in P.
Duhem's Le Systeme du Monde: Histoire des Doctrines Cosmolo-
giques de Platon a Copernic (5 vols., Paris, 1913-7) ; see especially
I. 164; 2. 277, 300, 334, 368 ff., 389; 3. 248, 342, 351.

"^De Divinatione 2. 43.

^ Tetrabiblos i. 2.

6 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

blance of the part to the whole, the unity of microcosm and
macrocosm. With this principle they could defend, not only
astrology, but likewise augury from the flight of birds and
the entrails of animals, and the various kinds of omens
which played so large a part in the superstitious beliefs
of the ancients.

The defense of astrology by the Stoics, therefore, con-
cerned itself, not so much with astrology, the science, as
with astrology, the art. Their chief opponent on the sub-
ject of divination appeared in the person of Carneades
(219-126 B. c), a member of the New Academy. Car-
neades launched against astrology a series of arguments
which remained standard for centuries. These were
repeated again and again by the Sceptics, were taken over
almost bodily by the Church, and reappear unchanged in
Petrarch and Pico della Mirandola. The attack, clever
though it was, can not be termed wholly successful, and the
followers of Carneades were slow to fashion new weapons.
An able defender of astrology appeared with the Stoic,
Posidonius (135-50 b. c.) ; and when Ptolemy had finally
undertaken its justification in the sane and moderate open-
ing chapters of the Tetrahihlos, very few of the arguments
of Carneades remained unanswered. Philosophers and
theologians of the opposing school, however, content with
the brilliant dialectic of Carneades, remained oblivious of
these new developments. The work of Carneades himself
is no longer extant, but his attack on astrology has been
preserved by many later writers — in the second book of
Cicero's De Divinatione , in the fifth book of Augustine's
De Civitate Dei (based upon a lost portion of Cicero's
De Fata), in the writings of the late Sceptic philosopher,
Sextus Empiricus, and in the excerpts from the rhetorician
Favorinus found in the Noctes Ambrosiance of Aulus
Gellius.^

^For the attitude of Stoicism to astrology, see Bouche-Leclercq,
pp. 29-34, 593 ff- The Stoic defense of divination, as a whole, is

Ancient Astrology 7

The opponents of the Stoics were concerned above all
with combating astrological fatalism. Their weapons were
plain assertion and the dictates of common sense. They
even went far in admitting a rule of the stars over externals,
so long as the inner citadel of man's free will remained
inviolate. Favorinus declares it intolerable that any one
should dare to impute to the heavens the power to intervene
in the acts of our own free choice, and to transform
man from a reasoning being into a marionette. Closely
allied to the argument that astrology was unethical, was
the one that it was useless as well. Tf ,' says Sextus Empiri-
cus, 'human events are ruled by three things — necessity,
chance, and free will — it is useless to foresee what must
necessarily happen anyway, and impossible to foresee what
is dependent upon chance and the will of man.'^ But to
assert the uselessness and the impiety of astrology was not
to discredit it as a science. The Stoics, in fact, faced astro-
logical fatalism without flinching, and dismissed in short
order the contention that astrology was useless. According
to Posidonius — whose argument is preserved in the third
chapter of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos — prophecy is naturally
welcome when the thing foreseen is pleasurable; when, on
the other hand, the thing foreseen is painful, its predic-
tion prepares the soul to bear misfortune with equanimity. -

discussed in the same author's Histoire de la Divination (i. 59 ff.).
A study of the controversy between the Stoics and the New Acad-
emy on the subject of divination has been made by A. Schmekel, in
Die Philosophie der Mittleren Stoa (Berlin, 1892). Sextus Empiri-
cus, Favorinus, and Cicero, and their joint dependence on Carneades,
are discussed on pp. 321-3. Ptolemy's dependence on the Stoic
school, and on Posidonius in particular, has been proved by Boll
{op. clt., pp. 131 ff.).

^ Bouche-Leclercq, p. 596; Schmekel, pp. 156, 159.

" *Sed prsevisio futurorum animum componit et moderatur medita-
tione absentium tanquam praesentium, et praeparat ad excipienda
Ventura cum tranquilitate et constantia' (Tetrabiblos i. 3: Claudii
Ptolcmcui Oinnia qucc extant Opera, Basel, 1551, p. 381).

8 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

Ptolemy himself adds another argument to the one just
quoted, in which the utility of astrology is even better
defended. Only the movements of the stars themselves,
he says, are under the rule of necessity. Happenings on
the earth are variable, and subject to other influences, in
addition to those exerted by the heavens. A great physical
catastrophe, such as a flood or an earthquake, may upset
the predictions of a thousand horoscopes. Ptolemy draws a
parallel between the astrologer and the physician. The
latter may in certain cases be assured that a disease is
incurable ; in others he may admit the possibility of improve-
ment, if medicines are applied in time. The magnet fur-
nishes another illustration. The law that a magnet always
attracts iron is universally accepted ; but it is none the less
true that if the magnet be rubbed with a piece of garlic,
it will refuse to work. Ptolemy argues, to be sure, that if
the science were perfect, and if all factors involved in human
affairs were known, a predicted destiny would be ines-
capable. In more general prophecies, indeed, such certainty
is already attainable. No one supposes that a prediction of
the approach of summer or winter admits of modification.
But this does not prevent men, even at the coming of cold
weather, from preparing to mitigate its rigors. And if
such general predictions are so eminently useful, why
should not minute predictions be equally welcome? Does
the countryman or the sailor disdain to regulate his daily
tasks according to the phases of the moon?^

^ Claudii Ptolem<Bi Opera, pp. 381-2. A short outline of the
astrological system of Ptolemy will serve as a convenient key to
the technical terms used in the following pages. Astrology is
divided by Ptolemy into two main parts: i. That which deals
with general predictions {to KadoXiKov) regarding war, pestilence,
earthquakes, floods, storms, hot and cold weather, and fertility; 2.
That which deals with predictions regarding the individual (t6
yev€6\La\oyLK6v) , his parents, brothers, length of life, health, riches,
profession, marriage, children, and friends. For the purpose of

Ancient Astrology g

While, with respect to its philosophical principles, astrol-
ogy placed itself in an increasingly impregnable position,

general prognostications, the earth was divided into seven 'climates,'
each of which was governed by its particular constellations and
planets. Thus the advent of an eclipse or a comet could be said to
forebode evil for this or that country, according to the constellation
in which it first appeared. Ptolemy asserted that the system of
general predictions was the surest part of his science. In practice,
however, its importance was far less than that which undertook
prophecy regarding the fate of the individual. For this genethlialog-
ical astrology, the planets were divided into good (Jupiter and
Venus) and bad (Saturn and Mars), while Mercury varied his nature
as he stood near a good or a bad neighbor. Some planets ruled over
the day (Sun, Saturn, Jupiter), others over the night (Moon, Mars,
Venus) ; some were classed as masculine (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
Sun), others as feminine (Moon, Venus). Mercury was variable
in each case. The signs of the zodiac were divided into masculine
and feminine (alternately beginning with the masculine Aries).
Constellations and planets were also characterized as cold or hot,
dry or moist. The constellations stood to one another in various
relations — in conjunction, opposition, sextile, quadrature, and trine.
Some of these 'aspects' were held to be lucky (e. g., sextile and
trine) ; the rest unlucky. The planets, in their courses along the
zodiac, could stand similarly in good or bad relations to one another.
To each planet a constellation was assigned as its 'house' (donii-
cilium), another as its 'exaltation' (altitudo),, still another as its
'fair or 'dejection' (dejectio). Each sign of 30°, furthermore,
contained a number of smaller divisions (faces, terms, decans),
which were allotted to the planets as so many miniature 'exaltations'
and 'dejections.' The horizon and the meridian were also of
importance; their points of intersection were called the four pivots:
I. the ascendant, i. e., the point of the ecliptic on the eastern horizon
at a given moment (the Greek name for this point, upoaKoiros, has
come to be applied to the whole process of determining the
fate of an individual at birth) ; 2. the intersection of the ecliptic
with the lower meridian (imum caelum) ; 3. the culminating point
(medium ccelum), or intersection of the ecliptic with the upper
meridian; 4. the descending point (occidcns, occasus), or the
point of the ecliptic vanishing on the western horizon. The arcs of
the ecliptic contained between these pivots were each divided into
three equal parts by means of circles of declination; the ecliptic was

lo Mediccval Attitude toward Astrolos:^

i^j

it was not so successful with respect to its practical details.
The inherent absurdity of many of its doctrines was, in
fact, only too evident. 'What,' says Sextus Empiricus,
'have the arbitrary names given to the constellations of the
zodiac to do with the actions and habits of man? What
possible connection can exist between the celestial Lion
and a warrior's bravery, or between the Virgin and a white
skin? Can anything be more absurd than to make of the
Bull a feminine sign?' Astrology had to admit that the
names of the constellations were arbitrary. The name,
astrology contended, served as a metaphor to indicate the
nature of a constellation's influence — and this, in turn, had
been discovered in the course of long experience.^ Such
an answer, however, stumbled against another embarrassing
question: What about the vaunted age of the science?
Astrologers claimed for it centuries of careful experiment,

thus composed of twelve sections, called the twelve celestial houses,
which formed the basis of every astrological calculation. The
astrologer, in reading a horoscope, first determined the position of
the planets and constellations at the exact moment of birth, with
reference to these twelve celestial houses — a task of no slight
difficulty, since a planet shifts from one house to the succeeding one
in the space of two hours. Each house ruled over a particular phase
of man's life; one represented wealth, another sickness, another
marriage, and so on. If, for instance, an evil planet (Saturn or
Mars) stood in the house which represented wealth, the astrologer
would have to predict poverty for his client, or at least advise
thrift. If a beneficent star, such as Venus, happened to stand in the
house of marriage, he might prophesy that riches would come by
way of a dowry. The complex relations which planets and con-
stellations were supposed to hold toward one another at a given
moment, and the infinite variety of interpretations to which any
horoscope could be subjected, served admirably for maintaining
that judicious vagueness characteristic of all astrological predic-
tion, which prevented it from being submitted to a final pragmatic
test.

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 579-80. To ridicule the names given to the
constellations became the fashion with the Church Fathers. See
below, p. 20.

Ancient Astrology ii

and named as its founders the gods themselves. 'Some
pretend,' says Cicero, 'that the Chaldean astrologers have
verified the nativities of children by calculations and experi-
ments over a period of 470,000 years.' This, he maintains,
is clearly impossible. 'Had they been in the habit of doing
so, they would never have given up the practice. But, as
a matter of fact, no author remains who knows of such
a thing being done now, or ever having been done.'^ Still,
assertion could be met by assertion, and there was no dearth
of astrologers who were willing to cite texts of any desired
mythological age. Before the tribunal of an uncritical
public their word was seldom questioned.

Nowhere could the critics find a more alluring oppor-
tunity to attack the doctrines of astrology than in connec-
tion with judicial^ astrology itself. An art founded upon
wrong axioms must of necessity fail in the execution;
hence astrology, when practised commercially, has always
tempted the satirist. The opponents of astrology con-
fronted the reader of horoscopes with the bold assertion
that his art was impossible. How, it was asked, could the
astrologer ascertain with sufficient exactness the moment
of birth, or the precise point of the heavenly sphere appear-
ing above the horizon? To determine both of these to the
minutest fraction was surely necessary: how else explain
the unlike fates of twins? If the heavens moved so swiftly
that twins could be born under totally different horoscopes,
was it not clearly impossible to cast any nativity whatso-,
ever? And if the moment of conception, as the astrologers
asserted, had an importance only second to that of birth,,
the question of twins became in itself puzzling.-"^ Again,

^ Cicero, De Divinatione 2. 45.

^The term usually applied to the practical art of predicting the
future from the configuration of the stars at birth.

• Schmekel, pp. 156, 159 ff. ; Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 588 ff. The
argument concerning twins was exceedingly popular. It is found

12 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

why limit predictions by the stars to the human race? 'If/
says Cicero, 'the aspect of the stars influences the birth of
every human being, it should, by parity of reasoning, deter-
mine the fates of beasts as well; yet what can be more
absurd?' Sextus Empiricus pictures the discomfiture of
an astrologer faced by a man and an ass, both born under
the same sign; and Favorinus smiles at the consistent
astrologer casting the horoscopes of mice and flies.^

None of these objections, however, greatly embarrassed
the defenders of astrology. The difficulties of observation,
no one more willingly conceded than the astrologer him-
self. He was thereby assured an escape when his predic-
tions failed, and a double glory when he was successful.
Ptolemy frankly admitted that the practice of judicial
astrology was difficult, but contended, too, that the mistakes
of charlatans should not be laid at the door of the science.
The question of twins, furthermore, troubled only the
theorists. For the popular mind it was enough that a
double birth deserved a double horoscope. The attempt,
finally, to ridicule astrology by demanding that it extend
its functions to include the animal kingdom, was only a
proof of the critic's ignorance. Astrology in time extended
its sway, not only over the animal kingdom, but over the
vegetable and mineral as well.^

One criticism directed against judicial astrology by
Carneades and his followers remains to be considered. It
occupied an important place in the argument, and was after-
wards employed efifectively by the Church. It asked of
astrology this question: If the destinies of all men are
determined by the stars, how explain the similar fates of
large groups of individuals born in the most various cir-

in Cicero (Divin. 2. 43), in Favorinus (Aulus Gellius 14. i. 26).
and in Sextus Empiricus. We shall find it again in Augustine
(Civ. Dei 5. 6), who popularized it for the Middle Ages.

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 585-6 ; Cicero, Divin. 2. 46.

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 586, 591.

Ancient Astrology 13

cumstances? 'Were all those who perished at the battle of
Cannae/ demands Cicero, 'born under the same star?'
'Were all the barbarians killed at Marathon,' asks Sextus
Empiricus, 'born under the arrow of Sagittarius, and all
the heroes drowned at Salamis, under the sign of the
Water-carrier?' Again, if the constellation Virgo bestows
upon those born under its domain a white skin, must one
conclude that no Ethiopian is born in the month of August?
These questions were perplexing — astrology did not answer
some of them successfully until it had embodied in its
doctrine a system of astrological ethnology, such as is
found in the second book of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos. We
have already seen that, in his introductory defense of
astrology, Ptolemy claimed for general catastrophes an
unequivocal precedence over all individual destinies. And
in the second book, a solution is offered of the geographic
problem as well. Ptolemy placed the various divisions of
the globe under the dominion of separate planets and con-
stellations, and these geographic influences he pronounced
of greater potency than the horoscopes of the individual.
In favor of his system, Ptolemy cited precisely the black
skin of the Ethiopian, and the white skin of the Teuton and
the Gaul.i

Like Hydra or Proteus, astrology remained after each
assault stronger than ever. In truth, its foundations had
been hardly shaken. Belief in astrology could be destroyed
only by an attack on its source — either by proving that an
influence of the stars on human life did not exist, or by
demonstrating that such an influence was unknowable. The
opponents of astrology, by expending their energies in
assaults on the outposts, and failing to attack the citadel,
only strengthened the belief that the latter was uncon-
querable.

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 581 ff.; Schmekel, p. 157; Cicero, Diviti.
2. 44 ; Claudii Ptolemcci Opera, pp. 392 ff. On Ptolemy, see also
Boll, pp. 181 ff.

14 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

During the first centuries of our era, while Christianity's
attack upon it was still in preparation, astrology spread
everywhere through the Roman world.^ Emperors from
Augustus to Alexander Severus consulted the Chaldeans,
and among the common people its vogue was universal.
None of the ancient arts of divination remained free from
its taint. Poets from Juvenal to Ammianus Marcellinus
satirized the extravagant worship paid to it by the fashion-
able public. Astrological ideas were in the air. Cicero,
who as philosopher fulminated against astrology, as
rhetorician subscribed to its principles. When, in the
Somnium Scipionis, he calls Jupiter *a star that brings
health and prosperity to the race of men,' and Mars 'a
planet red, and feared on earth,' he accepts the very axioms
of the science.^ Seneca, being a Stoic, is naturally a firm
believer in astrology; Tacitus, though he satirizes the
astrologers of the court, is only half convinced that astrol-
ogy itself is a deception.^ And when, in the second century,
it won as a convert the greatest astronomer of the ancient
world, little was left for it to conquer ; with Ptolemy ancient
astrology found its last and most famous spokesman. The
late prose writer, Firmicus Maternus, though he has left
in his Mathesis the longest ancient treatise oh astrology,
and contributes — especially in the first and eighth books —
to our knowledge of the philosophical defense of the science,
really offers nothing new.

With the almost universal theoretical acceptance of
astrology was joined, however, a general distrust of the
astrologer himself. The commercial practitioner stood low
in the social scale, and was often a mere charlatan. Astrol-
ogy in practice, furthermore, was seldom dissociated from
necromancy and vulgar magic, and the astrologer in time

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 146-80.
^ Somn. Scip., chap. 4.
^Annates 6. 22.

Ancient Astrology 15

became a public nuisance. As early as Augustus, laws were
enacted against the Chaldcei and the mathematici, and suc-
ceeding rulers issued decrees of increasing severity. An
emperor might himself wish to make use of the astrologer,
but feared him when in the employ of new candidates for
the throne. At times a distinction was made between the
practice and the science — professionem eorum, non notitiam,
esse prohibitum, reads one enactment^ — but after the close
of the third century the absolute interdiction of astrology,
formulated by Diocletian, and embodied in the Theodosian
code, remained permanently on the statute-books.^ In the
eyes of the public, of course, persecution of the astrologer
only enhanced the value of his art, and in itself implied
belief in its efficacy. The strange inconsistency of the
ancient attitudes toward astrologers is best preserved, per-
haps, in the famous sentence of Tacitus, in which he calls
them 'dangerous to princes, and a fallacious reliance to
ambitious subjects— a race of men which in our state will
ever be both shunned and retained.'"

II

So it was that when Christianity, at the close of the
second century, began to assume a position of prominence
in the social and intellectual life of the Roman Empire, it
found astrology everywhere, battening on the superstitions
both of populace and kings. The Church attacked astrology
with all available weapons. The reasons for its hostility
are fairly obvious. As a part of paganism, the practice
of all divinatory arts was forbidden the Christian ; and, in
the writings of the earlier apologists, astrology is hardly

^ Bouche-Leclercq, p. 566,
'Ibid.

^Tacitus, Hist. i. 22: 'Genus homiiium potentibus infidum, speran-
tibus fallax, quod in civitate nostra et vetabitur semper et rctincbitur.'

1 6 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

differentiated from soothsaying, oracles, and magic. In its
philosophical dress, astrology was even less acceptable. The
fatalism implied in the belief that the stars are arbiters of
human destinies never found more unyielding opponents
than the Church Fathers. The methods of attack varied
somewhat through the centuries, and the conclusions arrived
at by the Western Church differed considerably from those
reached by the writers of the more scientific East. The
Christian apologists, moreover, seldom satisfied the demands
of strict logic itself ; the reader is often surprised to find
astrology readmitted into orthodox doctrine by some
unguarded concession. But the war, though often waged
with naive and unscientific arguments, was always per-
sistent; and its success was such that after Augustine, in
his trenchant condemnation of astrological divination, had
finally formulated the doctrine of the Western Church,
astrology virtually disappeared from the social and intel-
lectual life of western Europe for eight centuries.^

The Christians maintained, in general, that all divinatory
arts, and, above all, astrology, were inventions of the devil,
and could be carried on only by the aid of demons. This
theory arose early, and remained throughout the Middle
Ages the argument of last resort. A belief in the power
and prevalence of demons was universal in primitive Chris-
tianity. Paul identifies the fallen angels (i Cor. 20-1)^
with the heathen gods; the Old Testament stories of Saul
and the witch, and of the Egyptian magicians, were cited as
proof that they were concerned in occult arts. It was an
easy saving of argument, therefore, to admit at the outset
the possibility of astrological prediction, and, at the same

^The final pages of Bouche-Leclercq's L'Astrologie Grecque (pp.
609-27) contain a concise discussion of the combat of the early
Church with astrology. On the attitude of Christianity toward
ancient divination as a whole, cf. Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire de la
Divination i. 92-104.

^Cf. Lev. 17. 7; Deut. 32. 17; 2 Chron. 11. 15.

Ancient Astrology 17

time, to prohibit its use by asserting that it could only be
accomplished through diabolic aid.^

But danger lurked in pushing this theory too far; for
how could even demons read the future in the stars unless
it was written there? And how distinguish between a pre-
diction through the help of evil spirits and one sanctioned
by God?^ The first chapter of Genesis (i. 14) could be
cited to prove that the heavenly bodies were placed in the
sky for the express purpose of serving as signs ; and there
were examples in Biblical history where God himself had
made use of astrological predictions : witness the miracle
of Hezekiah's pillar, the star of the Magi, the darkening
of the sun at Christ's death, and the celestial signs which
were to announce his return. The star of the Magi, in
particular, was a stumbling-block, and many were the
attempts to explain it. The early Fathers, Ignatius and

^ The texts are many. Lactantius (Divinarum Institutionum 2. 17)
affords a convenient quotation : 'Eorum [daemones] inventa sunt
astrologia, et aruspicina, et auguratio, et necromantia, et ars magica,
et quiquid praeterea malorum exercent homines, vel palam vel
occulte' (Migne, Pair. Lat. 6. 336). According to Tatian (Oratio
ad GrcBcos, chap. 9), demons, impersonating the heathen gods, made
people believe that they had been carried to the sky, and were
embodied in the planets and constellations. Origen {Comment, in
Matth. 13. 6) explains the apparent success of cures effected by
medical astrologers as due to demons, who watch the phases of the
moon to enter their victims. We shall meet the theory fully devel-
oped in Augustine; see below, p. 23. Cf. Bouche-Leclercq, p. 610.

^A belief, arising among certain Christian sects, that there were
good demons as well as bad, rendered the Church doctrine extremely
dangerous. The Priscillianists — a sect of the fourth century — made
patriarchs of the signs of the zodiac, and angels of the planets.
A special canon at the council of Braga, in 561, was directed against
them. In the Middle Ages, the magic of the Jewish Cabala and
the learned necromancy of the Moors rested upon a similar belief
that the world of spirits could be rendered innocuous. Cf. Bouche-
Leclercq, pp. 623-4 ; La Ville de Mirmont, L'Astrolo^^ic chcc Ics Gallo-
Romains, p. 113 {Biblioth^que des Univcrsites du Midi, Vol. 7).

1 8 Mediccval Attitude tozvard Astrology

Tertullian. did not deny that it went far toward sanction-
ing astrology. According to their theory, all divinatory
arts had been permitted by God until the coming of Christ,
when an end was put to the rule of demons over the world.
In the persons of the Magi, therefore, astrology had come
to abdicate at the cradle of the Redeemer; the return of
the Magi to their home by a different route indicated that
henceforth its employment was forbidden.^

But the orthodoxy of TertuUian's naive admission became
suspect in the later centuries, and more uncompromising
arguments were deemed necessary. In the Church of
the East — especially in the writings of Basil and Chrysos-
tom — a new exegesis was put forth, in which it was asserted
that the star of the Magi was no ordinary star at all, nor
even a planet or comet. Chrysostom cleverly turns against
the astrologers their own doctrines. It is the task of
astrology to predict the destinies of the child after it is
born, not to prophesy the birth itself. The appearance of
the star, he says, was a miracle, and outside the normal
course of events. Proof that it was no common star con-
sisted in the fact that it moved, not from east to west, but
from north to south — the way Palestine lies with regard
to Persia.^

^Ignatius, Epist. ad Ephes. 19; Tertullian, De Idolatria, chap. 9:
*Sed magi et astrologi ab Oriente venerunt. Scimus magise et
astrologise inter se societatem. Primi igitur stellarum interpretes
natum Christum annuntiaverunt, primi muneraverunt. Quid tum?
Ideo nunc et mathematicis patrocinabitur illorum magorum religio?
De Christo scilicet est mathesis hodie ; Stellas Christi, non Saturni
et Martis et cuj usque ex eodem ordine mortuorum observat et
praedicat At enim scientia ista usque ad Evangelium fuit concessa,
ut, Christo edito, nemo exinde nativitatem alicujus de caelo inter-
pretaretur' (Migne, Pair. Eat. i. 672). The last sentence of this
quotation constitutes a portion of Isidore's definition of astrology
(Etyniol. 8. 9. 23). It was repeated many times through the Middle
Ages. Cf. below, pp. 27-8, 30-2.

^ Basil, Horn. 25 ; Chrysostom, Horn, in Matth. 6. For other
citations, see Bouche-Leclercq, p. 613, note i.

Ancient Astrology 19

The Eastern Church, in general, formulated a more
scientific doctrine concerning astrology than that current in
the West. Origen, together with the Gnostics, even effected
a compromise between astrology and Christianity, so that,
when purged of fatalistic doctrines, it was allowed to exist
without interference. Origen's one concern was to disprove
a deterministic influence of the stars ; even divine fore-
knowledge, he maintained, did not abrogate free will. That
the stars cannot be the cause of human destinies, Origen
proved by an ingenious argument. It is the characteristic
of every cause that it precedes its effect. Now, inasmuch
as the configuration of the stars does not precede, but is
at best concomitant with, the birth over which it presides,
how can the stars be the cause of the child's fortunes?
Origen accepts with no remonstrance, however, the Neo-
platonic doctrine that the stars, though not causing human
events, constitute the signs by which they can be foretold.
This theory, developed fully by Plotinus, goes back through
Philo to an astrological interpretation of the fourteenth
verse of the opening chapter of Genesis. Origen, to be
sure, like the Neoplatonists, was wise enough not to attempt
its proof. ^

Origen and the Gnostics did not yield to a compromise
with astrology before they had exhausted the ancient store
of arguments against it. We meet again the dispute con-
cerning twins, the argument that astrological observation
is impossible, and the contention that the judicial astrologer
takes no account of geographic and racial considerations.
The last argument even received a clever enlargement —
perhaps the one contribution of Christian writers to the

'The fullest statement of Origen's attitude toward astrology is
found in Eusebius' Prccparatio Evangclica 6. 11 (Migne, Patr. Gr.
21. 478 flF.). Plotinus' compromise with astrology (Bouche-Leclercq,
p. 600; Zeller, Phil, der Griechen 3. 567) tempted many Church
writers. See below, pp. 22, 38, 57.

20 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

discussion. Astrology had explained similarities of race
by means of a system of astrological geography, placing
each country under the sway of separate planets and stars.
But, said the Christian writers, are racial characteristics
really dependent upon geography? The Jews circumcise
on the eighth day in Rome as in Palestine; have they
carried the Judaean stars with them, or have they been
freed from their influence? And the Christians, are they
not scattered over all the globe, and yet suffer the same for-
tunes? It is not worth while to ask how astrology might
have replied to these new questions. Inasmuch as Origen
and the Gnostics ended by virtually accepting astrology, a
refutation was, perhaps, deemed unnecessary.^

In the Western Church, the one great opponent of astrol-
ogy was Augustine. Coming in contact with astrologers
early in life7~as hie tells us in his Confessions, he was at
first attracted to them, preferring them to the soothsayers,
because they invoked no spirits. Even the warning of a
physician, who told him that astrology was a fraud, passed
unheeded. Only after a friend had set him to pondering
over the astrological problem concerning twins did Augus-
tine, too, decide that astrological divination was a mere
matter of chance.^ Henceforth astrology had in him a
sworn enemy. Again and again he attacked it in his writ-
ings, repeating the dialectic of Carneades,^ and adding the

^The discussion of astrology by the Gnostic Bardesanes (Euse-
bius, PrcBp. Ev. 6. lo: Migne, Pair. Gr. 21. 467 fi.) parallels that
of Origen almost throughout. It is Bardesanes who asks the
question concerning the Jews (Migne, Patr. Gr. 21. 475). A third
series of similar arguments is found in the Recognitiones of Clement
(9. 12 — ID. 13). Cf. Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 534-5, 615-6.

^ Confessions 4. 3, and 7. 6.

^ Augustine points to the absurdity of putting faith in the arbitrary
names given to the constellations (De Doctr. Christ. 2. 21) — an
argument found in other Christian writers; cf. Tatian, Oratio ad
GrcBcos, chap. 9; Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium Hceresium 4. 24;
Basil, Ham. in Hex. 6. 6. Augustine also questions the right of

Ancient Astrology 21

vehemence of his own rhetoric. Especially did he never
tire of illustrating the problem of twins ; one is compelled
to smile at the seriousness with which he employed this
mediocre argument. He confronts the astrologer with the
historic case of Jacob and Esau, and asks him how the
heavens can be held to account for the enormous difference
in the destinies alloted to two children born so nearly at
the same time. He ridicules the theory that the movement
of the spheres is swift enough to make of the one a desert-
wanderer, and of the other the father of a mighty people.
Twins, again, are sick at the same time. The fact is
explained by the physician, Hippocrates, as due to a simi-
larity of temperaments, and by the Stoic, Posidonius, as
due to an identity of horoscopes. Augustine sees here an
opportunity to confute the astrologer with his own doctrine.
'Why,' he asks, 'were they both sick of the same disease,
and at the same time, and not the one after the other in
the order of their birth, inasmuch as they could not have
been born simultaneously? Or, if the fact of their having
been born at different times does not necessarily imply that
they must be sick at different times, why do the astrologers
contend that the difference in the time of their births was
the cause of their difference in other things?'^ It is not
necessary to examine the score of ways in which astrology
might have answered Augustine's questions. In general,
it probably refused to quarrel over such minutiae, and might
have considered it a sufficient answer to ask Augustine, in
turn, whence, if not from the stars themselves, could come

astrologers to deny horoscopes to animals (Civ. Dei 5. 7). He has
something to say on the star of the Magi in Ad Faustum (2. 5).

^ Civ. Dei 5. 4-5 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 41. 144); cf. De Gencsi ad
Litteram 2. 17 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 34. 278). A. Schmekel {Die
Philosophie der Mittleren Stoa, pp. 162 ff.) has proved that the
refutation of astrology found in the first chapters of Augustine's
De Civitate Dei is based on a lost portion of Cicero's De Fato, which,
in turn, like the De Divinatione, goes back to Carneades ; see
above, p. 6.

22 Mcdiccval Attitude toward Astrology

that general similarity of temperament which, in the
alternative theory of the physician, he himself accepted.

What end, one may ask, did Augustine have in view in
his struggle against astrology? Was it the same as that
of the pagan Sceptics and Origen — to defend the freedom
of the human will? It may appear so at first. Augustine,
too, maintains that the actions of man are free from the
arbitrary rule of the stars, and praises the pagan philoso-
phers for defending the ethical responsibility of man.^ But
it soon becomes clear that his purpose is only that of replac-
ing astrological fatalism by an even more stringent deter-
ministic doctrine — the theory of predestination and divine
foreknowledge. Those who, like Cicero, deny prediction of
the future altogether, receive at the hands of Augustine
a more violent condemnation than the astrologers them-
selves.^ So occupied, in truth, is Augustine with combating
fatalism, that he is almost ready to accept astrology when,
in the Neoplatonic form, it rids itself of this noxious doc-
trine. He objects to the theory of Plotinus, however, on
the score that no astrologer actually accepts the stars as
mere indicators of events, and that it, too, does not
obviate the practical difficulties involved in the matter of
twins. ^

In spite of his denunciation of astrology as a fatalistic
science, and his contention that it is impossible in practice,
Augustine never seriously defends the scepticism once
expressed in the Confessions. After exhausting his dia-
lectic powers in destroying astrology as a legitimate art,

^ Ad Faustum 2. 5 ; De Genesi ad Litteram 2. 17; Civ. Dei 5. i.

''Augustine {Civ. Dei 5. 9) mentions Cicero by name. He detested
him . even more than the Stoics, simply because, in denying the
possibility of divination, he denied the existence of God: 'MultO'
sunt autem tolerabiliores qui vel sidera fata constituunt, quam iste,
qui tollit prsescientiam futurorum. Nam et confiteri esse Deum,
et negare prsescium futurorum, apertissima insania est' (Migne, Patr^
Lat. 41. 149).

^ Civ. Dei 5. i (Migne, Pair. Lat. 41. 142).

Ancient Astrology 23

he ends by accepting the possibiHty of astrological predic-
tions if made by the help of demons. 'All these things
considered' — so Augustine closes the discussion — 'we have
good reason to believe that, when the astrologers give very
many wonderful answers, it is to be attributed to the occult
inspiration of spirits, not of the best kind, whose care it is
to creep into the minds of men, and to confirm in them false
and noxious opinions concerning the fatal influence of the
stars, and that it is not due to their marking and inspecting
of horoscopes, according to a kind of art which in reality
has no existence.'^ With Augustine, in fact, the discussion
of astrology in the early Church returned to its point of
departure. For Augustine, as for Tertullian and Lactan-
tius, astrology was merely one of many nefarious practices
with which the hosts of fallen angels tried to cheat mankind.
In a special treatise — the De Divinatione Dccmonum —
Augustine crystallized the doctrine of the early Church
regarding the powers of demons, and laid the foundation
for those mediaeval superstitions which bore malignant fruit
in the magic and witchcraft of the fifteenth century.
Astrology, refused the name of a science, was forced to
live under its ignominious stigma until, in the thirteenth
century, it forced a revision of the Church's verdict. -

An observant eye, however, might have discovered even
in the De Civitate Dei the germs of that new compromise
between Christianity and astrology which was to find
expression in the Siimma Theologice of Thomas Aquinas
and the Divina Commedia of Dante. In his preoccupation

^ Civ. Dei 5. 7 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 41. 147).

^ Bouche-Leclercq, L'Astrologie Grecque, p. 623 ; Bouche-Leclercq,
Histoire de la Divination i. 99 flf. The De Divinatione Dccmonum
(Migne, Patr. Lat. 4a 581) explains how the demons obtain knowl-
edge of the future by reason of their superior spiritual powers,
and by permission of God himself. On the importance for later
witchcraft of the Church-doctrine concerning demons, see J. Hansen,
Zaubcrwahn, Inquisition, und Hexcnprocess im Mittclalter (Munich
and Leipzig, 1900).

24 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

with the practical details of astrology as a divinatory art,
Augustine failed to note his own unconscious concessions
to it as a physical science — concessions which could be made
the basis for an almost complete rehabilitation. Into the
midst of his discussion of the astrological dilemma con-
cerning twins, he inserts this passage : It is not altogether
absurd to say that certain sidereal influences have some
power to cause differences in bodies alone. We see, for
instance, that the seasons of the year vary as the sun
approaches and recedes, and that certain things are increased
or diminished in size by the waxings and wanings of the
moon, such as sea-urchins, oysters, and the wonderful ocean-
tides. But it does not follow that the wills of men are
subject to the configuration of the stars.'^ Though in the
form of a negative statement, this passage contains in
embryo the solution of the astrological problem as it was
formulated by the theologians of the thirteenth century.

^ Civ. Dei 5. 6 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 41. 146). An admission that the
stars influence the atmosphere, and consequently may produce
modifications in the physical constitution and habits of man, is made
also by Sextus Empiricus (Bouche-Leclercq, p. 595, note i). On
the basis of such a concession, a clever psychologist could restore
almost the entire science.

CHAPTER II

ASTROLOGY IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL CENTURIES

In the general decline of learning which overtook West-
ern Europe during the first mediaeval centuries, no science
suffered a more complete eclipse than astrology. Even in
its popular manifestations, astrology was a learned super-
stition, and demanded a high state of civilization for its
development — a condition which manifestly could not exist
at a time when barbarians ruled the Roman Empire. Chris-
tianity, moreover, through the efforts of the Church Fathers,
had set itself directly against all divinatory arts, and the
newly Christianized peoples of the North could not be
expected to object to the Church's verdict. Astrology's
legitimate sister, astronomy, fared much better during the
Dark Ages. The needs of daily life, and the exigencies
arising out of the Paschal controversy, gave to astronomical
studies a fair impetus, which bore fruit in such scientific
writings as those of Bede. The revival of astrology, on
the other hand, like that of pagan philosophy and literature
itself, was a much more gradual one. Not until the twelfth
century, with its discovery of Aristotle and the science of
the Moors, did astrology regain a position of prominence
in the intellectual life of Europe.

The slight knowledge of astrology which the Middle Ages
preserved out of the wreckage of the ancient world was
drawn, in the first instance, from the writings of the Church
Fathers themselves. Astrology had played so prominent
a part in the struggle of early Christianity against paganism
that it could not but find its way into those popularizations
of patristic learning which constituted the chief literary
product of the first mediaeval centuries. Here and there,
throughout the Middle Ages, discussions on astrology con-
tinued to appear in connection with an exegesis of the

26 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

star of the Magi or a sermon on fatalism, even though the
writers might entertain for astrology itself merely an aca-
demic interest. It is thus in a homily on the Epiphany that
Gregory finds occasion to discuss astrology. He directs
his attack particularly against the Priscillianists,^ a Gnostic
sect of Spain accused of magic. He repeats the classic
argument of twins, using Augustine's illustration of Jacob
and Esau, and points again to the impossibility of squaring
judicial astrology with ethnological influences.^ Yet one
feels at once that with Gregory astrology is no longer a
living issue. Even Priscillianism dated back to the time of
Augustine and Ambrose. Astrology had fallen on evil days,
and it was mentioned only by way of literary reminiscence.
Cassiodorus speaks of it briefly in two passages, calling it
a 'slippery error,' and citing Augustine and Basil as proof
that its doctrines lead to heresy.^ Boethius, in whose Con-
solation of Philosophy one might expect to find a full dis-
cussion of astrological fatalism, honors it with one slight
allusion.* And Macrobius exhibits veritable embarrassment
when he is called upon to explain the passage of the
Somniiim Scipionis where Cicero describes the astrological
characteristics of the planets.^ He is able to discuss the

^ See above, p. 17.

'Gregory, Homilia XX: In Die Epiphania (Migne, Patr. Lat.
y6. iiii). In illustrating his second argument, Gregory asks the
astrologers why, if Aquarius produces fishermen, no children are
born under that sign in Getulia, an inland country, and why
there are many peoples without bankers, if Libra is the constellation
of the money-changers.

^Cassiodorus, Expositio in Psalterium CXLVIII (Migne, Patr.
Lat. 70. 1047) ; De Artibus ac Disciplinis Liberalium Litterarium,
chap. 7 (Migne, Patr, Lat. 70. 1218).

* Boethius, Cons. Phil. 4. 6.

° Macrobius, Somn. Scip. i. 19. 20 (ed. Janus, Leipzig, 1848,
p. 70). Macrobius became in the eleventh century an important
authority on astronomical questions (see below, p. Z^). He and
Chalcidius, whose commentary on the Timcuus was based on one
by Posidonius, even preserved the Aristotelian doctrine that the

I

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 27

philosophical aspect of astrology at some length, and even
gives an outline of the Platonic myth of the creation of man
by the planetary gods ; but when he tries to expound the
astrological facts themselves, he is clearly puzzled. He con-
fesses that the only treatise he has ever read on the subject
is Ptolemy's Harmonia, and he proceeds, accordingly, to
explain the evil influence of Saturn and the benevolent
character of Jupiter by means of a complicated system of
numbers.

No writer did so much to fasten upon the Middle Ages
the patristic condemnation of astrology as the encyclo-
paedist of the seventh century, Isidore of Seville ; and the
several passages of the Etymologic^ and the De Natura
Rerum that bear on astrology deserve careful scrutiny.
Important, first of all, is his definition of astrology itself.
Astrology, he says, is partly naturalis, and partly siiper-
stitiosa. Natural astrology is only another name for
astronomy. Superstitious astrology, on the other hand,
*is that science which is practised by the mathematici, who
read prophecies in the heavens, and who place the twelve
constellations as rulers over the members of man's body
and soul, and who predict the nativities and dispositions of
men by the courses of the stars. '^ The mathematici and
genethliaci reappear in a later chapter of the Etymologice
in company with many other representatives of magic.
Here again Isidore refers to their art as superstitious,
and identifies them with the Magi of the Gospel — 'cuius
artis scientia usque ad Evangelium fuit concessa, ut, Christo
edito, nemo exinde nativitatem alicuius de c?elo interpre-
taretur.' The last sentence of this definition Isidore quoted

double movement of the heavens causes generation and corruption
on earth (Commoitarius in TiuKuuin, chap. 75: ed. MuUach,
Fragmcnta Philosot>Jiorum, Paris, 1881, 2. 198) ; cf. Switalski, Dcs
Chalcidius Commcntar zu Platos Timccus, Miinster, 1902, pp. 28 ff.
(in Biiumker's Beitrdge 3. 6).
^ Etymol. 3. 27 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 82. 170).

2 8 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

from Tertullian, though with Httle understanding of its
context. It remained throughout the Middle Ages an
integral part of the stock definition of astrologers.^ But
Isidore's logic is hardly equal to his learning. Several
curious bits of astrological lore smuggled themselves into
his writings, and became the common property of the suc-
ceeding centuries. Astrological medicine, for example,
which Isidore condemns in his definition of superstitious
astrology, he accepts, in part at least, in a later chapter.^
The good physician, he says, will study astronomy as well
as his own art, inasmuch as it is well known that our bodies
change with the varying state of the weather and the stars.
In the De Natura Rerum, Isidore ascribes to the moon an
influence over fruits, over the brains of animals, and over
oysters and sea-urchins. He even refers to it, in a phrase
of unmistakable astrological coloring, as the dux humentium
substantiarum.^ The dog-star is said to be a cause of sick-
ness.* As for comets, Isidore accepts them without reserve
as the prognosticators of revolution, war, and pestilence.^

Isidore and the elder Pliny are the principal sources for
the scientific works of Bede, and are severally responsible
for two of the slight astrological references discoverable in
his writings. It is upon Pliny that Bede draws for a chapter
on the planets in the De Natura Rerum. Probably with no

^ Etymol. 8. 9. 22, (Migne, Pair. Lat. 82. 313). Cf. above, p. 18.

^ Etymol. 4. 13. 4 (Migne 82. 198).

'^De Nat. Rer. 18. 6; 19. 2 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 83. 992). Isidore
borrowed the passage from Ambrose's Hexaemeron (4. 7. 29-30 :
Migne, Pair. Lat. 14. 215).

^De Nat. Rer. 16. 14 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 83. 1000).

® 'Haec cum nascitur, aut regni mutationem f ertur ostendere, aut
bella, aut pestilentias surgere' (De Nat. Rer. 26. 13: Migne, Pair.
Lat. 83. 1000). The astrological significance of comets seems to
have been accepted generally in the early Church; cf. Bouche-
Leclercq, p. 623; J. H. Robinson, The Great Comet of 1680: A
Study in the History of Rationalism (Northfield, Minn., 1916),
pp. 5-6.

Astrology in the Early MedicBval Centuries 29

consciousness that he is trespassing upon the domain of
astrology, he follows his author in characterizing Saturn
as cold, Jupiter as temperate, and Mars as glowing. It
is curious to note, however, that he stops here, and omits
Pliny's astrological description of Venus as the planet which
nourishes all things on earth.^ Isidore, in turn, is respon-
sible for Bede's chapter on comets. There is, in fact, evi-
dence in several of his works that he was a firm believer
in their prophetic virtue. In the Ecclesiastical History, for
instance, the comets of 729 are connected with the inroad
of the Saracens into Gaul, and with the deaths of king Osric
and the holy Egbert.^

One condemnation of astrology proper is found in Bede's
works. Its source I have not discovered. It occurs in a
passage of the De Temporum Ratione, which comments on
the division of time into hours, minutes, and seconds. The
mathematici, says Bede, continue the division to still smaller
units. Since, however, their science is vain, and contrary
to the Christian faith, he will refrain from using their
terminology.^

Isidore is again a source for the encyclopaedist of the
ninth century, Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Fulda. The
latter's chief scientilTc work, the De Universo, contains a
chapter on magic which is a literal transcript of that in
Isidore's Etymologies. Astrologi and mathematici are
classed, as in the latter, among necromancers and augurs ;
and Rabanus subscribes to the Tertullianist doctrine that

^Bede, De Nat. Rer., chap. 13 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 90. 211); cf.
Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2. 6.

' Bede repeats Isidore's description of comets word for word (Dc
Nat. Rer., chap. 24: Migne, Patr. Lat. 90. 243). Comets are spoken
of in the Historia Ecclesiastica 4. 12, and 5. 23, 24 (ed. Plummet,
Oxford, 1896, I. 118, 349, 356).

^Bede, De Temp. Rat., chap. 3 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 90. 305). Cf.
the mild rebuke of astrology which is found in a letter of Aldhelm
(Bishop of Sherborne, 640-709), quoted by William of Malmesbury
(Anglia Sacra 2. 7.).

30 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

astrology, though permitted till the birth of Christ, was
thenceforth a forbidden science.^ Isidore's chapter on
magic was copied in another work of Rabanus, the De
Magicis Artihus, the longest treatise on divination which
had appeared since Augustine.^ Rabanus presents the gen-
eral views of the Church Fathers on the subject of demons,
and the role they were supposed to play in divination. This
treatise, in fact, was destined to exert an important influence
on the growing body of Church law on the subject of
sorcery and magic." Christianity, from the time of its
introduction among the barbarian peoples of the North,
had proceeded to combat pagan magic and witchcraft. The
early Penitentials are replete with references to occult
practices. It was probably in answer to a demand for a
systematized doctrine on the subject that such treatises
as that of Rabanus were written. And when the great
canonists of the succeeding centuries came to deal with the
subjects of sorcery and magic, they followed the lead of
Rabanus Maurus, also basing their utterances on the doc-
trine of demonology formulated by the early Church. The
Decretiim of Burchard, Bishop of Worms in the first quar-
ter of the eleventh century, quotes freely from the works
of Augustine and Isidore — particularly from the former's
De Divinatione Dcemonum. Astrology is found again in
the list of magic practices borrowed from Isidore,*
Burchard's Decretum, as is well known, was embodied with
little change in the collections of Church law of Ivo of
Chartres and Gratian. On the subject of astrology, all
three are in virtual agreement. Gratian, it is true, adds an
excerpt from Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana, and
quotes a Church law against observing the stars for the
purpose of planting seed or contracting a marriage. But

'^De Universo 15. 4 (Migne, Pair. Lat. iii. 423).
^De Magicis Artibus (Migne, Pair. Lat. no. 1098).
^Hansen,, Zauherwahn im Mittelalter, p. 38.
* Burchard, Decretum 10. 43 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 140. 841).

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 31

Isidore's chapter on magic, with its definitions of the mathe-
matici and genethliaci, still constitutes the longest reference
to astrology.^

It is very doubtful whether any mediaeval writer thus
far cited had anything more than a literary acquaintance /
with astrology. The haruspices, augurs, and astrologers,
so faithfully defined in every treatise on sorcery and magic
from Isidore to Gratian, were probably as foreign to the
actual life of the tenth and eleventh centuries as the religion
of pagan Rome itself. But citations from the Fathers that
might apply to the simple sorcery of the northern peoples
were hard to find, and the canonists contented themselves
with what lay ready to hand. The fact that the canon law
classed astrology among the diabolic arts, or even discussed
the subject at all, was probably, in the first instance, an
accident. It became a matter of consequence only when
the Church, in the course of the twelfth century, was again
called upon to deal with astrologers in the flesh.

Even before the sudden arrival of Arabian science in
the schools of Italy and France had brought the Church
once more face to face with astrology, the latter had begun
to find channels of literary transmission less narrow than
those leading down through Isidore. The eleventh and
twelfth centuries witnessed in France a general renaissance
of Latin literature, and many a gleaning of scientific fact
was made in the course of a promiscuous reading that did
not have to wait for the rediscovery of Aristotle.^ This
newly awakened humanism found its best representatives

Mvo of Chartres, Decretum 10. 68 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 161. 762) ;
Gratian, Decretum 2. 26. 3-5 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 187. 1342 ff.). The
list of the mediaeval writers who repeated Isidore's definition of
astrology is, of course, not exhausted. It is found in the Dc
Divinis Officiis, ascribed to Alcuin (Migne, Patr. Lat. lOi. 1178),
and again in a twelfth-century treatise on cosmology, ascribed to
Bede (Migne, Pair. Lat. 90. 908).

"Taylor, The Mediceval Mind (London, 1914) 2. 144.

32 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

in the famous school of Chartres.^ From the time of Ful-
bert to that of John of SaHsbury, the Chartres school was a
leader in liberal and scientific studies, and even astrology-
was not omitted from the range of its interests. The
curiosity of the mediaeval classicist must have been aroused
by many an astrological allusion in Lucan, Persius, or the
writings of the Fathers. John of Salisbury, in repeating
Isidore's traditional definition of astrology,^ takes evident
pleasure in illustrating it with choice bits quoted from the
Latin satirists. In addition to such indirect information on
astrological matters as they found in the Latin classics, the
writers of the twelfth century had in their hands two direct
sources for ancient astrology, the Mathesis of Firmicus,
and the repositories of astrological Platonism, Chalcidius
and Macrobius. Add to this the fact that the Chartres
school, in the early half of the century, was already in
possession of the first scientific treatises to reach northern
Europe from Mohammedan Spain, and it is not surprising
that astrological discussions became frequent.

As early as the year looo — if the chronicles are to be
believed^ — Pope Sylvester II had studied Firmicus in Spain.
A hundred years later there are indubitable traces of his
presence in England. And, at the opening of the twelfth
century, Firmicus Maternus is cited by name in a poem by
Marbodus, who, as Bishop of Rennes, was connected indi-
rectly with the school of Chartres. In the poetic discussion
of astrology which constitutes a portion of his Liher Decern
Capitulorum, Marbodus attacks Firmicus Maternus vigor-
ously, repeating some of the stock arguments of the Fathers,
and asserting particularly that his fatalistic doctrines destroy
all ethics and all social order.^ The influence of Firmicus

^Clerval, Les Ecoles de Chartres au Moyen Age (Chartres, 1895).

^ Policraticus i. 12 (ed. Webb, Oxford, 1909, i. 52).

^Higden, Polychronicon (ed. Lumby, Rolls Ser.) 7. 68; William
of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum 2. 167 (Migne, Patr,
Lat. 179. 1 138).

* Marbodus, Liber Decern Capitulorum, chap, 6 : De Fato et
Genesi (Migne, Patr. Lat. 171. 1704). Curiously enough, Marbodus

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 33

on the writers of the Chartres school itself can be clearly
proved in the case of William of Conches (1080-1154),
whose cosmological treatise, De Philosophia Mundi, couples
his name with Ptolemy.^ His influence is apparent, too, in
the De Mundi Universitate of Bernard Silvestris, a work
of mingled prose and verse, composed between 1145 and
1 1 53. The eighth book of the Mathesis of Firmicus opens
with a striking passage, in which man's superiority over the
animal kingdom is illustrated by the fact that he walks
erect, and can lift his eyes to the stars. Bernard, before
describing the creation of man at the hands of four god-
desses, puts into the mouth of one of them a forecast of
what the finished product is to be. Among man's charac-
teristics is that noted by Firmicus :

Bruta patenter habent tardos animalia sensus,

Cernua dejectis vultibus ora ferunt;
Sad majestatem mentis testante figura,

Toilet homo sacrum solus ad astra caput,
Ut coeli leges indeflexosque meatus

Exemplar vitae possit habere suae.^

seems to have borrowed a part of his attack on Firmicus from
Firmicus himself. In the opening chapters of the Mathesis, Firmi-
cus, in fairness to the adversaries of astrology, rehearses some of
their arguments before proceeding to refute them, and discusses
at some length the contention that astrology subverts laws and
morals (cf. Matheseos Libri VIII: ed. Kroll and Skutsch, Leipzig,
1897-1913, I. 6-8). It is this passage which finds an echo in
Marbodus. The latter presents in general a curious problem for
the hunter of sources. He asks the astrologer, for example, to
explain why the astrological influence of Mars does not seem to act
among a law-abiding people like the Brahmins, and why the Jews
do not change their customs when they leave their native land —
illustrations that are identical with those used by the Gnostic
Bardesanes (Eusebius, Prcsp. Ev. 6. 11: Migne, Patr. Gr. 21. 475) ;
cf. above, p. 20.

^ See below, p. 61.

^Quoted in Cousin's Ouvrages Incdits d'Abclard (Paris, 1836),
p. 634.

34 Medicuval Attitude toward Astrology

The last lines of this quotation lead the reader to suspect
that, for Bernard Silvestris, Firmicus was not only a source
of information on matters of astrology, but a seducer as
well. A reading of the whole of the De Mundi Universitate
confirms this suspicion. In the person of Bernard Silves-
tris, in fact, astrology could boast one of its first mediaeval
champions. Yet it is not the scientific astrology of Ptolemy
and the Arabians that finds expression in his work. It is
rather the philosophical astrology of the Neoplatonic com-
mentators, Chalcidius and Macrobius. The second half of
the De Mundi Universitate is little more than a version of
the Timsean myth of the creation of man. The goddess
Urania conducts the human soul down to earth by way of
the planets, and discourses to her companion-goddesses on
the benign influences of some, and the evil powers of others.
With a complete abandonment of the orthodox views on the
subject, Bernard breaks out into a panegyric of the won-
derful science of the stars :

Prsejacet in stellis series quam longior setas

Explicet, et spatiis temporis ordo suis
Sceptra Phoronei, fratnim discordia Thebis,

Flamma Phaetontis, Deucalionis aquae,
In stellis Codri paupertas, copia Croesi,

Incestus Paridis Hippolytique pudor.
In stellis Priami species, audacia Turni,

Sensus Ulixeus, Herculeusque vigor.
In stellis pugil est Pollux et navita Typhis,

Et Cicero rhetor, et geometra Thales.
In stellis lepidus dictat Maro, Milo figurat,

Fulgurat in Latia nobilitate Nero.
Astra notat Persis, ^gyptus parturit artes,

Graecia docta legit, prselia Roma gerit.
Exemplar specimenque Dei virguncula Christum

Parturit, et verum ssecula numen habent.^

Bernard Silvestris is a unique figure in the Middle Ages.
Though his work was very popular — the passage just quoted

^The Benedictine editors of the Hist. Litt. de la France, who quote

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 35

is the source of a stanza in Chaucer's Man of Law's
Tale'^ — it in no wise represents the orthodox thought of
his century. The De Mundi Universitate is almost purely
pagan, and might have been written by a humanist of the
sixteenth century. Possibly its glorification of astrology
already shows the influence of the science of the Moors.^
Bernard is interesting as the principal representative of
Neoplatonic astrology in the Middle Ages. Except for
the use made of it by poets like Dante, Neoplatonic astrology
was to have no future.

For an expression of the orthodox attitude of the twelfth
century toward astrology, one must look to men like Abe-
lard, Hugh of St. Victor, and, best of all, to John of Salis-
bury. Abelard, the great innovator in mediaeval thought,
has only a philosophic interest in the science. He discusses
it at some length in his Analytics, in connection with the
problem of free will, his purpose being to disprove the
existence of absolute necessity. Belief in fatalism he calls
impossible in the face of actual experience and common
sense. Even Nature herself could not predict future hap-
penings contingent upon chance. Hence it is surprising
that any one should claim for a science like that of astrology
the power of prophecy.^ Hugh of St. Victor's short
notice of astrology in the Didascalicon repeats the passage

this stanza (12. 270), greet the impiety of the last lines with a cry
of horror; see also the edition of the De Mundi Universitate by
Barach and Wrobel (Innsbruck, 1876), p. 16.

"^ Man of Law's Tale 99-105; cf. Skeat's note (Oxford ed. 5. 147).

^ Cf. the sentiment of the above stanza with the passage quoted
below (p. 50) from Adelard of Bath.

^ Analytica Priora III: 'Mirum est quod dicunt per astronomiam
quosdam horum quoque futurorum praescios esse. Quod enim
naturae inopinatum est atque incognitum, quo modo per artem
naturalem cognosci possit, aut quo modo ex aliqua rei natura certi
esse possimus de eo quod naturae quoque incognitum est?' (Cousin,
Ouvrages Incdits d' Abelard, Paris, 1836, p. 285.) Abelard, how-
ever, seems to have assented to the mediaeval view of magic as

36 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

of Isidore's Etymologue which distinguishes between astron-
omy and astrology. Hugh of St. Victor introduces, how-
ever, a modification in the phraseology of Isidore which
will bear close scrutiny, inasmuch as it is prophetic of that
new attitude which was beginning to seek expression. Isi-
dore, in making a distinction between natural and super-
stitious astrology, had given to the former a definition
practically identical with that of astronomy, reserving for
the latter the accusation that it was a diabolic art. In Hugh
of St. Victor, though superstitious astrology stands con-
demned as in Isidore, the definition of natural astrology
reads as follows : 'Natural astrology deals with the influence
of the stars upon our bodily complexions, which vary
according to the state of the celestial sphere, as in health
and sickness, good and bad weather, fertility and drought.'^
To admit the influence of the stars over sickness and health
was a concession of great importance. Although implied in
certain statements of Isidore and Augustine, it had rarely
been so clearly acknowledged. In truth, if this modification
is owing to Hugh of St. Victor himself, it marks him as a
pioneer in the development of the scholastic doctrine con-
cerning scientific astrology.

For the maturest expression of the orthodox attitude
toward astrology in the twelfth century, one must look to
John of Salisbury. An Englishman by birth, educated in

possible when carried on by the aid of demons. And with char-
acteristic perversity he even defends the study of necromancy and
magic. He inserts a plea for it into his defense of dialectic. Knowl-
edge even of evil serves some good; only the practice is to be
condemned. God himself knows what the devil is about (Analytica
Posteriora I: Cousin, p. 435).

^ Didascalicon 2. 11 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 176. 756): 'Astro-
logia autem quae astra considerat secundum nativitatis et mortis, et
quorumlibet aliorum eventuum observationem, quae partim naturalis
est, partim superstitiosa. Naturalis in complexibus corporum, quae
secundum superiorum contemperantiam variantur, ut sanitas, aegri-
tudo, tempestas, serenitas, fertilitas, et sterilitas.'

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 37

France, and living in Paris, Canterbury, and Chartres, John
of Salisbury is the best representative of that incipient
humanism which had grown up in the school of Chartres,
and which was soon to give way before an age of science
and theology. The philosophical problems connected with
astrology and fatalism had for John of Salisbury a peculiar
fascination, and he discusses them at great length in the
Policraticus, written about 11 59. Although John of Salis-
bury was unusually sane and enlightened in the matter of
mediaeval superstitions,^ he subscribed fully to the patristic
doctrine of demonology. The Church Fathers, he says,
rightly denounced all forms of magic — species mathe-
maticce — inasmuch as all of these pestiferous arts spring
from an illicit pact with the devil. ^ The various kinds of
divination he defines as does Isidore, reserving the usual
place for the astrologi and mathematici.^

But the kinship between astrology and the diabolic arts
of divination is little emphasized when John of Salisbury,
in the second book of the Policraticus, deals with astrology
in its philosophical and scientific aspects. He admits at
the outset that some power may reside in celestial bodies,
since God has created nothing without its proper use.^
Astronomy, indeed, is a glorious science ; only when it 1
bursts its proper bounds does it become impious. A dis-
tinction is to be made between the legitimate science —
mathesis — and the illegitimate divinatory art — ma thesis.^

^ See particularly his chapters on omens (Pol. 2. i ff.) and on
dreams (2. 14 ff.) ; cf. Hansen, Zauberwahn, p. 128.

'^ Pol. I. 9: 'Eo quod [Patres] omnia haec artificia vel potius
maleficia ex pestifera quadam familiaritate daemonum et hominuni
noverint profluxisse' (ed. Webb i. 49).

^Pol. 2. 12 (ibid. I. 53). John of Salisbury includes Tertullian's
statement that astrology was a permitted science until the time when
the Magi worshipped at Bethlehem; see above, p. 18.

*Pol. 2. 19 (ibid. I. 107).

"John of SaHsbury probably found this distinction in Hugh of
St. Victor (Didasc. 24: Migne, Patr. Lat. 176. 753). It occurs

3^ MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

The latter, in attempting to foretell the future, usurps the
prerogatives of the Creator of the stars himself.^ John
of Salisbury proceeds to make mild fun of the astrologers'
doctrines.^ Departing from the ways of true science, he
says, they divide the signs of the zodiac into masculine and
feminine, and would probably have the constellations con-
tract marriages in the sky, were they not too far separated
in space. Saturn the astrologers characterize as cold and
wicked; he spares from harm scarcely the astrologers
themselves.^ John of Salisbury, however, quite forgets his
sarcasm in the portion of his exposition where he describes
the astrological powers of the sun. If astrology, in fact,
were only content with moderate claims, and occupied itself
with sober predictions of the weather, all would be well.
But when the astrologers make broad their philacteries, and
enlarge the borders of their garments in ascribing every-
thing to the stars, they do injury to God's sovereignty.*
They even teach that feats of magic can be performed by
the aid of the stars, and that a human image can be brought
to life, gifted with the power of prophecy. With such
nefarious arts the Christian can have nothing to do.^ The
doctrine of Plotinus, to be sure, which holds that the stars
are used by God himself to give to men signs of future
events, is fairly plausible. Are not birds and other things
the instruments through which God transmits to men knowl-
edge of what is to come?*' Still, under the honey of such

also in Roger Bacon {Opus Majus 4. 16: ed. Bridges, London,
1900, I. 238).

^Pol. 2. 19 (ed. Webb i. 108).

^ Ibid. His information seems to come from Firmicus Maternus.

^ Omnibus ergo inimicus vix suis etiam scolasticis parcit' {ibid.
I. 108).

^Pol. 2. 19 {ibid. I. III).

'Ibid.

^ Ibid. The editor of the PoUcraticus is puzzled as to where John
of Salisbury got his information about Plotinus. If one puts
together a passage of Macrobius {Somn. Scip. 1. 19. 8) and one from
Augustine {Civ. Dei 5. i), I think there is no need to look further.

Astrology in the Early Mediceval Centuries 39

a theory poison lurks. For, under pretext of showing
reverence to God, the philosophers impose a fatalistic rule
upon the course of human events. And fatalism, other than
that implied in the doctrine of God's foreknowledge, is as
hateful to John of Salisbury as it was to Augustine. He
expounds at great length the Church-doctrine concerning
predestination and free wilP ; and when he again returns
to astrology, it is only to attack it more fiercely than ever
with theological arguments. Taking his cue from Abelard.
he denies that man can gain any knowledge of the future
whatsoever. Has the astrologer obtained access to the
secret counsels of God himself?^ Does not the story of
king Hezekiah prove that God can alter even his own
prophecies?'^ John of Salisbury does not deny that God
may at times indicate future events by the sun and moon;
but he is persuaded, on the authority of reason and the
concurrent opinions of many other philosophers, that a
science foretelling the future either does not exist, or is
unknown to men.*

Clearly, John of Salisbury's attitude toward astrology is
that of the Church Fathers in mediaeval dress. Living
at a time when Arabian science was already filtering into
western Europe by way of Latin translations, he was still
oblivious of its presence. His own countryman, Adelard
of Bath, had already made a journey of exploration into
Saracen lands ; and in his own school of Chartres, traces
of Arabian astrology can be found in the cosmological
writings of William of Conches, who died five years before
the Policraticiis was written.^ But there are no proofs
that John of Salisbury knew Adelard of Bath; and his

^Pol. 2. 20-24 {ibid. I. 113-33).

^Pol. 2. 24 {ibid. I. 136).

^Ibid.; cf. 2 Kings 20. i.

*Pol 2. 25 {ibid. I. 136).

"Adelard of Bath and William of Conches will be discussed in a
later chapter (see below, pp. 49, 61). The latter died in the year
1154; the Policraticus was written 1159-60.

4© Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

interest in the scientific studies for which the Chartres
school of the early half of the century was famous, seems
to have been of the slightest.^ John of Salisbury, in eflfect,
saw in astrology little more than a dangerous philosophical
doctrine. He is distinctly at a loss in dealing with it as a
science.^ He would probably have been unable to define
exactly where he drew the line between a legitimate science
of astrology, useful in predicting the weather, and that
impious mathesis which he condemns with rhetoric as force-
ful as that used by Augustine. His concessions to astrology
as a physical science are hardly in advance of those found
in the De Civitate Dei.^

John of Salisbury stands at the close of the first period
in the history of mediaeval astrology. From the time of
Isidore to the middle of the twelfth century, astrology, it
may be said, lived only in the form of an academic dis-
cussion. Even astrological texts, other than Firmicus
Maternus, were unknown to the Latin world. John of
Salisbury probably had little more acquaintance with actual
astrologers than did Burchard of Worms, or Rabanus
Maurus.* A century and a half was still to elapse before

^This point is made by Schaarschmidt {Johannes Saresheriensis,
Leipzig, 1862, p. 151). Clerval {Les Ecoles de Chartres, p. 317)
furnishes proof of the fact that quadrivial studies in the Chartres
school no longer occupied in the latter half of the twelfth century
the position of prominence which they had held in the first.

^ It is perhaps significant that John of Salisbury, though he bases
his statements largely upon Augustine, does not once make use of
the ancient arguments of Carneades.

^Some light is shed upon John of Salisbury's attitude toward
astrology by his views regarding signs in general. He believes
firmly that God makes use of signs to forecast important events
(Pol. 2. 1-4) : 'Infidelitas namque signorum argumentis erigitur, et
fides tenera eisdem roboratur.' He gives a long description of the
signs that preceded the fall of Jerusalem (ibid. 2. 4 ff.), and does
not doubt the prophetic virtue of comets (ibid. 2. 13).

* It is perhaps going too far to say that John of Salisbury had no
acquaintance with astrologers, particularly in view of his own state-

Astrology in the Early Medicsval Centuries 41

the Church burned at the stake its first astrological heretic,
and it was still two centuries before Petrarch could hold
up to scorn the astrologers of the Milanese court. But
already at the time when John of Salisbury was writing his
learned defense of free will, the scientific works of Aristotle,
and the astrological treatises of Ptolemy and Albumasar,
were beginning to find their way into the schools of France
and Italy. With their discovery, a new chapter opens in
the history of astrology, as in that of mediaeval philosophy.

ment to the contrary: Tlurimos eorum audivi, novi multos, sed
neminem in hoc errore diutius fuisse recolo, in quo manus Domini
condignam non exercuerit ultionem' (Pol. 2. 26: ed. Webb i. 143).
But any personal contact he may have had with astrologers has left
no other trace in his argument.

CHAPTER III

ASTROLOGY IN OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

Astrological learning, as we have seen, was almost
extinct in Europe during the Dark Ages; hence we need
not expect to discover more than occasional signs of its
existence in northern vernacular literature. All astrological
science among the Teutonic peoples, indeed, must be termed
a foreign importation — even the popular astrology of the
almanac goes back to Greece and Rome. Certain primitive
superstitions among the Teutons and Gauls, it is true,
offered points of contact for simple astrological notions.
Caesar, describing the religion of the Germans, says that
they worshipped as gods only those whose power they
could easily recognize, namely the Sun, Vulcan, and the
Moon.^ Tacitus, in the Germania, informs us that the
Teutonic tribes held their assemblies on stated days — 'either
at the new or the full moon, which they account the most
auspicious season for beginning any enterprise.'^ In the
English laws of Cnut, a statute is included which forbids
all heathenish practices, and, incidentally, the worship of
sun or moon.^ The Penitential of the English archbishop,
Theodore of Canterbury (died 690), furthermore, contains
slight references to superstitions regarding the moon.* An

' Caesar, De Bello Gallico 6. 21. Students of mythology are puzzled
over this reference; cf. R. M. Meyer, Altgermanische Religions-
geschichte (Leipzig, 1910), p. 105.

^Tacitus, Germania, chap. 11.

^ Cnut's law reads : 'HS>enscipe by6 >3et man idola weorSige,
J?aet is >3et man weorSige hseSene godas, and sunnan otSSe mdnan, fyr
oSSe flod. . . .' See Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachen
(Halle, 1903) I. 312; or Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of
England (London, 1840), p. 162. Similar to this law of Cnut is a
passage in ^Ifric's Homilies (ed. Thorpe i. 366).

* Theodore, Liber Poenitentialis, chap. 27 (Thorpe, Anc. Laws,
p. 292).

Astrology in Old English Literature 43

entire chapter in this work is devoted to magic and sorcery —
an interesting commentary on the popular beliefs of the
time. Augury from the flight of birds is found in the list
of malpractices/ as are also necromancy, and the consult-
ing of witches.^ Observance of New Year's Day according
to heathen customs is forbidden.^ Last of all, the arch-
bishop warns against the attempt to stop an eclipse by
means of enchantment, and prescribes a year's penance for
any one 'qui in honore lunae pro aliqua sanitate jejunat.'"^

The observance of lucky and unlucky days seems to be
the nearest approach to astrology in the superstitions of
the ancient Celts. Several accounts are on record of Druids
who predicted a child's future according to the day on which
it was born.^ There also existed among the Druids a form
of cloud-divination, and the corresponding Celtic word,
neladoracht, is at times applied to astrology and divination
in general.^ Certain puzzling references to astrology proper
which appear in the Christian literature of Ireland — one
passage, for example, relates how a diviner scans the
heavens, and tells the foster-father of St. Columkille that
the time is propitious for his son to begin his lessons — are
hardly sufficient to prove the existence of an indigenous
astrological science."^

The pagan worship of sun and moon, and the observance
of lucky and unlucky days, though they cannot yet be called

^ Liber Poen. 27. 7.
. ^ Ibid. 27. 13, 20.

^Ibid. 27. 24.

*Ibid. 27. 25, 26.

° Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland (2 vols., London, 1903)
I. 233.

° Neladoracht glosses pyromantia (divination by fire) in an old
Irish treatise on Latin declension {ibid. i. 229).

''Ibid. I. 230. A more elaborate proof of the fact that the ancient
Druids were ignorant of astrology is given by La Ville de Mirmont.
in L'Astrologie chea les Gallo-Romains, pp- 7-20 {Bibliothcquc dcs
Univer sites du Midi, Vol. 7).

44 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

astrology, constitute a foundation upon which it can build.
Accordingly, we find in Old English a series of treatises,
translated from Latin or Greek originals, which appealed
to such primitive beliefs. Some of these treatises — a
number of them have been printed by Cockayne in his col-
lection of Old English Leechdoms^ — belong to the realm of
medicine, and indicate the days in each month which are
favorable or unfavorable for the letting of blood.^ Another
consists of meteorological prognostications, according to
the day of the week on which Christmas falls. 'If the mass-
day of midwinter is a Sunday,' one prophecy reads, 'then
there shall be a good winter, and a windy spring, and a dry
summer, and good vineyards; and sheep shall thrive, and
honey shall be sufficient, and peace shall be kept well
enough.'^ Still another contains miscellaneous predictions
for each day of the lunar month. For the thirteenth, the
treatise prophesies: 'The thirteenth day is perilous for
beginning things. Dispute not this day with thy friends.
The fugitive will quickly be discovered. A child born

* Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Star craft of Early
England (Rolls Sen) 3. 150-229.

^ Ihid. 3. 152, 182,

^ Ibid. 3. 162 ff. An article by Max Forster, Die Kleinliteratur des
Aberglaubens im Altenglischen {Archiv no. 346-58), in discussing
these astrological texts, proves that they belong to the learned, not
the popular literature of the time. Forster is able to cite the
Greek or the Latin sources for most of them. Several Latin
parallels are found in Migne's Patrologia Latina (90. 951 ff.),
ascribed to Bede. The Prognostica Temporum (Migne, p. 951)
corresponds to the treatise just referred to in Cockayne. The
De Minutione Sanguinis (Migne, p. 959) furnishes the source for
part of an Old English medical text (Cockayne 3. 76). The De
Divinatione Mortis et Vitcz (Migne, p. 963) is a Latin vulgarization
of a famous Greek treatise on divination, dating from the Alexan-
drian period, current under the name of Nechepso and Petosiris. In
its mediaeval form, it still preserves much of the Greek terminology.
Cf. Sudhoff, Jatromathematiker, vornehmlich im 15. und 16. Jahr-
hundert (Abhandl. zur Gesch. d. Medizin, 1902), pp. 6-7.

Astrology in Old English Literature 45

this day will be plucky, having a mark about his eyes, bold,
rapacious, arrogant, self-pleasing, and will not live long.
A maiden will have a mark on the back of her neck or on
the thigh; she will be saucy, spirited, daring of her body
with many men: she will die soon. A man fallen sick on
this moon will quickly recover, or be long ill. A dream will
be fulfilled within nine days. From the sixth hour it is a
good time for blood-letting.'^

It is only by courtesy, of course, that compilations like
these are allowed to claim kinship with the science of
Ptolemy and Manilius. Primitive as they are, they belong
to the learned literature of the day, and trace their origin
to foreign, not to native, sources. In the course of cen-
turies, this learned superstition became the common property
of the uncultured, and the stock in trade of the maker of
almanacs. A popular song, found in a manuscript of the
fifteenth century, predicting the weather for the year if
Christmas falls on a Sunday, exhibits an exact counterpart
of one of the texts printed by Cockayne.^

The homilies of ^Ifric furnish evidence that even the
belief in lucky and unlucky days met with the hostility of
the English Church. The observance of so-called 'Egyptian
days' had been forbidden as early as Augustine,^ and
^Ifric was therefore on orthodox ground when he attacked
such popular superstitions in a sermon for New Year's.
After exhorting against divination in general, he rebukes
those in particular who 'regulate their journeys by the
moon, and their acts according to days, and who will not
undertake anything on Mondays.'*

^ Cockayne 3. 190.

^Denham, A Collection of Proverbs and Popular Sayings (Percy
Society, 1845), p. 69; cf. Cockayne 3. 162.

^ Super Epist. ad Galatos, chap. 4. Tliis passage was taken up into
the Church law; cf. Ivo of Chartres, Dccretum 9. 15 (Migne, Pair.
Lat. 161. 750).

^Thorpe, Homilies of jElfric (2 vols., London, 1844) i. 100. A
similar denunciation of the belief in unlucky days, as of augury

46 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

Probably the only extended reference in Old English to
astrology proper is to be found in ^Ifric's homily on the
Epiphany. ^Ifric, following the lead of Gregory, connects
with the story of the Magi^ a discussion of destiny and
free will. 'We are also to know/ ^Elfric says, 'that there
were some heretics who said that every man is born accord-
ing to the position of the stars, and that by their course his
destiny befalls him.' The manner in which ^Ifric thus
introduces the subject shows clearly how foreign it must
have been to his English hearers ; the mere use of the past
tense is significant. And when he continues with an
elaboration of the ancient argument of twins, utilizing
Augustine's illustration of Jacob and Esau, his words can
have aroused in his hearers little more than a historical
interest.^

Although England, like the rest of Europe, had to con-
tent itself during the early mediseval period with the mere

and witchcraft in general, is found in ^Ifric's poetic Lives of
Saints (No. 17: EETS. 82. 370). ^Ifric himself was not altogether
free from the astrological superstitions of the time. In his vernac-
ular version of Bede's De Temporibus (its authenticity is no longer
doubted; cf. C. L. White, ^Ifric, Boston, 1898, p. 124), he sub-
scribes to the belief in the moon's influence over growing things,
and in comets (Cockayne 3. 269, 272,', cf. Thorpe, Homilies i. 610).
One may note, however, that ^Elfric's version of Alcuin's Inter-
rogationes Sigeulfi, in which Bede is the source for a description
of the planets, omits Bede's references to the 'coldness' of Saturn
and the 'heat' of Mars (Anglia 7. 14-5) •

^^Ifric translates the Latin magi with the Old English tungol-
witigan (Thorpe i. no).

^A. Fischer (Aberglaube unter den Angel-Sachsen, Meiningen,
1891, p. 22) is surely wrong when he takes this homily, as well as
the texts printed by Cockayne, as proof that astrology was 'still'
current among the English in the tenth century. In reality, yElfric's
reference is nothing more than a literary allusion. In applying it
to the belief in Fate, he had his hearers, of course, directly in mind.
Cf. Fischer (p. 21) for references in Old English to Wyrd. See
especially Alfred's Boethius 39. 8 (ed. Sedgefield, Oxford, 1899,
p. 131)-

Astrology in Old English Literature 47

rudiments of an astrological science, it was destined to
play an important role in the scientific movement of the
later centuries. Even before the days of the new science,
there can be found in England traces of that revived inter-
est in astrology which culminated in the De Mundi Uni-
versitate of Bernard Silvestris, and the philosophical writ-
ings of John of Salisbury. A curious story is told by
William of Malmesbury, which shows that Firmicus
Maternus, discovered on the continent during the eleventh
century, must have traveled to England shortly after the
Norman Conquest. The chronicle relates how Gerard,
Archbishop of York from iioo to 1108, who was reputed
to have meddled with magic, was refused burial by his
canons because a copy of Firmicus was found under his
pillow at his death. ^ In the first quarter of the twelfth
century, we also meet with a reference to astrology in
Geoffrey of Monmouth. At the close of the seventh book
of the Historia Re gum Britannice, and as a part of the
famous prophecies of Merlin, there occur a series of obscure
astrological allusions^ — a passage which puzzled Geoffrey's
followers, and did not find an interpreter until the fifteenth
century, when the French chronicler Waurin explained it
as referring to the day of judgment.^ Although the
prophecy is probably little more than a jumble of classical
reminiscences — one of its sources, apparently, was Lucan's
Pharsalia^ — it indicates that astrological ideas were already

^ Gesta Pontificum Anglorum 3. 18 (ed. Hamilton, Rolls Ser., pp.
259-60). The story is told also by Higden in his Polychroiiicon (ed.
Lumby, Rolls Ser., 7. 420).

'^ Historia Regum Brittanice (ed. Schulz, Halle, 1854), pp. loo-ioi.

'Waurin, A Collection of the Chronicles and Ancient Histories of
Great Britain 2. 57 (ed. Hardy, Rolls Ser., i. 250 flf.).

* Viktor Rydberg, Astrologien och Merlin, Stockholm, 1881. Most
of Geoflfrey's allusions are only vaguely astrological. Such phrases
as 'the amber of Mercury' and 'Stilbon of Arcady' may mean
anything or nothing (Stilbon, the Greek name for Mercury, is
found in Martianus Capella). The most definite astrological allu-

48 Medieval Attitude toward Astrology

in the air. Adelard of Bath, indeed, was Geoffrey's own
contemporary. With the second quarter of the century, in
effect, we are on the threshold of that new age of mediaeval
science which was to honor astrology as the chief of the
seven arts, and to make of astrologers the confidants of
popes and kings.

slons occur in his references to the 'malignity of Saturn* and the
houses of the planets. Two other slight references to astrology
occur in Geoffrey's Historia. In the first (9. 12), it is stated that
many astronomers lived at Arthur's court. The second passage
(12. 4) relates at greater length how, in the reign of king Edwin,
a Spaniard, Pelletus, came to the English court, and employed the
arts of astrology and augury to guard the realm from foreign inva-
sions. Both Wace and Layamon follow Geoffrey in these two
notices.

CHAPTER IV

ARABIAN ASTROLOGY

Little is known of the life of Adelard of Bath, the pioneer
student of Arabic science and philosophy in the twelfth
century, and 'the greatest name in English science before
Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon.'^ Born in England,
probably before iioo, he traveled in the East as far as
Syria, and, on his return, occupied himself with making the
astronomy and geometry of the Arabs available to the Latin
world. In addition to several independent works, there can
be ascribed to him with confidence a treatise on the astrolabe,
translations of Euclid's Elements and of the astronomical
tables of Mohammed ben Musa al-Khuwarizmi, and, in
particular, a version of the Isagoge Minor of Albumasar,
one of the standard text-books of Arabian astrology.^

One of the earliest of Adelard's independent works, the
DeJEodem et Diverso,^ concerns itself principally with a
description of the seven liberal arts, figured successively as
seven virgins. Astronomy closes the procession. 'She
appears, surrounded by a shining splendor, her body all
eyes. In her right hand she holds a quadrant, in her left,
an astrolabe. Her science describes the whole form of the
world, the courses of the planets, the number and size of

^Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria (London, 1842-6) 2. 94.

^Raskins, Adelard of Bath (Engl. Hist. Rev. 26. 491-7). Cf.
Wiistenfeld, Die Ubersetzungen Arahischer Wcrke in das Latein-
ische (Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft dcr Wissenschaften zu Got-
tingen 22. 21), and Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der
Araber {Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik 10. 11),
two works which in general supplement the chapters on the trans-
lations out of Arabic into Latin of Jourdain's Rcchcrches Critiques
sur I' Age et I'Origine des Traductions Latines d'Aristote (Paris,
1843, pp. 97 ff.).

"Written, it may be, as early as 1109 (Haskins, p. 492).

50 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

their orbits, the position of the signs; she traces parallels
and colures, and measures with sure hand the twelve divi-
sions of the zodiac; she is ignorant neither of the magni-
tude of the stars, nor of the position of the poles, nor of
the extension of the axes. If a man acquire this science
of astronomy, he will obtain knowledge, not only of the
present condition of the world, but of the past and future
as well. For the beings of the superior world, endowed
with divine, souls, are the principle and cause of the inferior
world here below. '^ Such was to be the naive faith of the
new age in the science of the stars ! Astrology and astron-
omy, so carefully confined to separate compartments by
Isidore of Seville, were again united. For several cen-
turies, the latter was destined to be the mere servant of the
former.

The De Eodem et Divers o gives evidence that Adelard
of Bath was connected in some way with the school of
Chartres^ ; it was among its students that Adelard's voyage
of discovery into the Orient found its first imitators. Peter
the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, while traveling in Spain in
1 141, met Herman of Dalmatia, a pupil of Thierry of
Chartres, and Robert of Retines, an Englishman, both
engaged in the study of astronomy (astrology).^ Peter
the Venerable persuaded them to turn aside for a time
from their main pursuit, and to make a Latin version of
the Koran. But in 1143 they were again occupied with their
astrological translations. Among the several fruits of their
labors, not the least in importance was the version made by
Herman of the Introductorium in Astronomiam of Albu-
masar.* No other astrological text-book, as we shall see, did

^Des Adelard von Bath De Eodem et Diverso. Zum ersten Male
herausgegeben und historisch-kritisch untersucht von Dr. Hans
Willner, Miinster, 1903 (in Baumker's Beitrdge 4. i. 31-2).

^ See Duhem, Le Systeme du Monde 3. 169.

• Clerval, Les Ecoles de Chartres, p. 189.

* Duhem 3. 174.

Arabian Astrology 51

more to make astrology acceptable to the Church of the
succeeding century.

At about the same time that Herman of Dalmatia and his
friend Robert were devoting themselves to the translation
of astrological texts in Spain, others were engaged in the
same task. By the middle of the twelfth century, in fact,
most of the important works on astrology had found their
way into Latin. In 11 38 Plato of Tivoli translated
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (henceforth to be known by its Latin
name as the Quadripartitum) .^ Not much later appeared a
version by John of Seville (also known as Johannus
Hispanus, or Lunensis) of the famous Centiloquium — a
series of one hundred astrological aphorisms falsely attrib-
uted to Ptolemy. To John of Seville are also due versions
of Albumasar's Liber Conjunctionum Siderum and Flares
Astrologies, as well as astrological texts of the Arabian,
Alchabitius, and the Jew, Messahala.- The prince of trans-
lators appeared finally in the person of Gerard of Cremona
(11 14-87), to whom some seventy translations from the
Arabic can be ascribed. Among these were the famous
versions of Ptolemy's Almagest, and of two hitherto
unknown works of Aristotle, which play an important role
in the history of astrology — the Meteorologica and the De
Generatione et C ormptione .^

What, it may be asked, was the nature of this new astrol-
ogy, which, like the new Aristotle, had been made accessible
to Latin readers in the space of a few decades? To answer
this question, it is necessary to glance at the history of
Arabian astrology in general — a history which it is diffi-
cult to trace. Astrology had been introduced into the
Mohammedan world in the eighth century, at the time when
Caliph Al-Mansur, calling to his aid the learned Jew, Jacob

^Wiistenfeld, p. 40.
^ Ibid., pp. 25 ff.
'Ibid., p. 67.

52 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

ben Tarik, founded at Bagdad a school for the mathematical
sciences. It was in this school that, in the ninth century,
the greatest of Arabian astrologers, Albumasar, received
his "training. From its introduction, down to the time when
the West became acquainted with it in the Saracen schools
of Toledo and Cordova, astrology won the allegiance of a
host of Arabic and Jewish scientists. Among the noted
astronomers whose names appear in the Latin literature of
the Middle Ages, were Messahala, Albategnius, Alpetragius,
Alchabitius, and Abenragel.^

Arabo-Judsean astrology was a jumble of systems and
doctrines. The Jewish scholars who introduced it into the
Moorish schools were versed, not only in the pure astrology
of Ptolemy, but also in that of other Greek masters, such as
Vettius Valens, Dorotheus Sidoneus, Teucer, and Antiochus,
who themselves had amalgamated the most diverse theories.^
This Greek astrology, furthermore, had been contaminated
with the demonology and magic of the Talmud, and the
mysticism of the Cabala.^ Throughout the Middle Ages,

^Jewish Encyclopcsdia 2. 244; Catholic Encyclopcedia 2. 21.

^ EncyclopcBdia of Islam i. 495 (article Astrology, by C. A.
Nallino).

=^The Book of Enoch (R. H. Charles and W. R. Morfill, The Book
of the Secrets of Enoch, tr. from the Slavonic, Oxford, 1896),
appearing about the time of the Christian era, is the best evidence
that astrological doctrines had early found their way into Jewish
circles. Even St. Paul's reference (i Cor. 12. 2-4) to his being
carried to the seventh heaven is a reminiscence of this work
(Bouche-Leclercq, p. 607). From the time of the Book of Enoch
to the appearance, in the thirteenth century, of the great Cabalistic
text, the Zohar, the influence of astrology upon Jewish mysticism
was on the increase (see Jew. Enc. 3. 456; 2, 244; Pick, The
Cabala, Chicago, 1913). The magic of Cornelius Agrippa, and
of the Jews of the later centuries, can be conveniently studied in
the German translation published at Stuttgart in 1855 (Heinrich
Cornelius Agrippa, Magische Werke, 5 vols.)- The Jewish treatise
of Arbatel (5. 95 ff.) is characteristic. The seven planets are
identified with seven master-spirits, and directions are given for

Arabian Astrology 53

astrology constituted an integral part of the necromancy
and divination of Jews and Moors alike — a relationship
which proved embarrassing when astrology tried to win
converts in Christian lands, where intercourse with demons
was not tolerated.^ Fortunately, this contaminated astrol-
ogy was left largely to the practitioners of necromancy and
magic proper. The standard astrological text-books, written
usually by astronomers, remained free from it.

But the scientific treatises of Albumasar, Abenragel, and
Alchabitius present a marked contrast to the classic astrol-
ogy which we have already encountered. The Tetrabiblos
of Ptolemy had confined itself almost exclusively to judicial
astrology — the prediction of the future according to the
configuration of the stars at birth. In the astrological texts
of the Arabians, judicial astrology occupied a position of
distinctly minor importance. Its place was taken by two
other systems, current at the time of Ptolemy, which he had
deliberately ignored — the so-called interrogationes and elec-
Hones. The system of interrogationes, as its name implies,
consisted of a series of rules by means of which the astrol-

the utilization of their powers (5. 11 1 &.). Arbatel distinguishes
between good and evil spirits, and maintains throughout an orthodox
tone. Cf. above, p. 17.

^ Belief in the power of jinns was not forbidden by Islam (Ency-
clopcedia of Religion and Ethics 4. 818). This accounts for the
fact that the black arts flourished in Moslem countries as much
as did pure astrology. The two were taught side by side in the
famous schools of Toledo and Cordova (J. W. Brown, Life and
Legend of Michael Scot, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 187). Few text-books
of Arabian magic and necromancy have been preserved, since the
ecclesiastical censorship of the Middle Ages dealt with them much
more severely than with astrological treatises. The Encyclopccdia
of Religion and Ethics (4. 817) gives an account of one treatise
on magic, the famous Goal of the Sage of the eleventh century,
and Brown's Life and Legend of Michael Scot (pp. 183 ff.) dis-
cusses in some detail the magic of mediaeval Spain. Notes on many
books concerning magic now lost are found in the Speculum Astro-
nomies, ascribed to Albert the Great (ed. Jammy, 1751, 5. 656-66)).

54 MedicEval Attitude toward Astrology

oger answered questions regarding the discovery of a thief,
a lost treasure, the trustworthiness of a friend, or the wealth
of a prospective bride.^ The system of electiones, on the
other hand, determined the propitious moment for under-
taking any act of daily life. The rules of this system, too,
were elaborated in great detail, even to the extent of
naming the proper time for the cutting of finger-nails, the
writing of a letter, or the boarding of a ship.^ The system
of electiones was particularly favorable to the development
of medical astrology, and was in general merely a scientific
elaboration of the common belief in lucky and unlucky

^An excellent example of the system of interrogationes is fur-
nished by the astrological work of Abenragel, the most complete
of the Arabic texts which were translated into Latin (the copy
in the Yale Library is entitled: PrcBclarissimus Liber Completus
in Judiciis Astrorum, quern editit Alhohazen Haly Filius Abenragel,
Venice, 1485). The first half of this work, consisting in all of
eight books, and numbering some three hundred pages in the Latin
translation, is devoted to answering such minute questions as those
enumerated above (see fols. 14^, 28^ 55^). Abenragel lived from
1 1 16-52, and therefore comes at a period when Arabian astrology
had been fully developed. His work was not translated until 1256
(cf. Suter, p. 100), and did not influence Western writers as did the
treatises of Albumasar, His text, however, furnishes better oppor-
tunities for study than the much shorter Introductorium of Albu-
masar (New York Public Library) or the Isagoge of Alchabitius
(Columbia University Library).

^Abenragel, fols. 113% ii6^ Many Arabian astrologers adopted,
as part of the electiones, the Indian system of twenty-eight lunar
mansions, which afforded an opportunity for more minute calcula-
tions than that of the twelve houses (Abenragel, fols. 126^ ff.; cf.
Enc. of Islam i. 496). This system of lunar mansions could easily
serve for magical purposes, and seems to have been in bad odor
with Church writers. In the Speculum Astronomies, ascribed to
Albert the Great, the twenty-eight lunar mansions are expressly
connected with diabolic arts (Alberti Magni Opera, ed. Jammy,
175I) 5- 656). The clerk of Chaucer's Franklin's Tale employs
these lunar mansions. See Tatlock's article in Kittredge Anni-
versary Papers, Boston, 1913, p. 348.

Arabian Astrology 55

days.^ In truth, the system of electiones enjoyed a distinct
superiority over the rival doctrines of judicial astrology.
Confining itself to a definition of favorable or unfavorable
conditions, and not attempting to predict the future itself,
it avoided the fatalism which was an inevitable element
in the astrology of Ptolemy. As a part of medical astrol-
ogy, it had little difficulty in finding a welcome at the hands '
of the Christian scientists of the thirteenth century.

On its philosophical, no less than on its practical side,
astrology received modifications at the hands of the
Arabians which facilitated its acceptance by Christian
theologians. Concomitant with the introduction of Ptolemy
into the Mohammedan world had been that of the scientific
works of Aristotle; and the cosmology of the Metcorolog-
ica and De Generatione et Corruptione had, in course of
time, formed an inseparable part of astrological theory.
When Aristotle, therefore, became for the Latin scholars
the 'master of those that know,' it was inevitable that
astrology should likewise meet with a friendly reception.

One of the first astrological treatises to be carried north
from Spain, as we have seen, was the translation of Albu-
masar's Introductorium in Astronomiam, made by Herman
of Dalmatia. No work was better suited to bring to the
knowledge of the Christian schools the philosophical prin-
ciples of Arabian astrology.

Albumasar, after dividing the science of the stars into
its two main divisions, undertakes, in the second chapter,
a defense of astrology. He begins by enunciating the
Aristotelian doctrine of the fifth essence: The substance
of the astral bodies does not consist of one of the four
elements of this world, nor of a combination of these ele-
ments. If it were formed of the elements of this world,
it would suffer growth and decay, dissolution, and the other

^ Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 458 ff. The system of electiones was
logically incompatible with judicial astrology. Ptolemy accordingly
made no place for it in his system.

56 Medicsval Attitude toward Astrology

changes to which earthly things are subject. Since all this
is foreign to the celestial world, one must conclude that
the substance of the stars consists of a certain fifth essence.
The stars are spherical bodies, transparent, and endowed
with a perpetual motion. This motion of the stars is
circular, the one motion which is perfect and eternal.^

Circular motion is found also in the sublunary sphere. It
is circular motion that is seen in the processes of growth
and decay — in the concomitant generation of one substance
and the destruction of another substance. Now this process
of growth and decay is a cyclic motion, which decomposes
one substance, and transmutes it into another substance,
changing the latter, in turn, back into the former. Its
cause is none other than the eternal circular motion of the
stars. The motion of the upper sphere acts upon the world
below, and brings about that mingling of element with ele-
ment which is necessary for all generation and corruption.
Hence the Philosopher declared^ that the inferior world
was in some necessary way bound up with the superior
world, so that the sphere of the stars, in revolving with a
natural motion, carried with it the world below. But
generation and corruption are at the foundation of all
motion and change on earth. One may conclude, therefore,
that the celestial essence exerts an influence on everything
that takes place on the mundane sphere.^

Aristotle, in affirming the dependence of the lower upon
the upper spheres, had drawn a distinction between the
uniform motion of the fixed stars and the irregular motion
of the planets, and had made of the first the principle of

^ Introductorium in Astronomiam Albumasaris Abalachi, octo
Continens Lihros Partiales, Augsburg, 1489 (copy in New York
Public Library), unpaged, bk. i, chap. 2: sig. a5^.

'^ Met. I. 2 (see above, p. 3).

^ Introductorium, sig. a6*.

Arabian Astrology 57

permanence, and of the second the principle of change.^
Albumasar formulates a similar doctrine as follows: All
that is born and dies on earth depends upon the motion of
the constellations and of the stars. . . . Now the seven
wandering planets march along the zodiac more swiftly
than do the constellations, often changing from direct to
retrograde. They are, therefore, better adapted than the
upper sphere to produce the effects and the motions of the
things of this world. To the sphere of the constellations
is assigned a general rule; whereas to the wandering stars
belongs the care over the details of earthly life. . . . The
more rapidly a planet moves, and the stranger the course
which it follows, the more powerful will be its influence
on things below. The motion of the moon is swifter than
that of any other planet; it has, accordingly, more to do
than any other in regulating mundane affairs. The fixed
stars govern what is stable in the world, or what suffers
gradual change. The celestial sphere of the fixed stars
encircles the earth with a perpetual motion ; the stars never
alter their pace, and maintain invariable their relative dis-
tances from the earth. The seven planets, on the contrary,
move more rapidly and with diverse motions, each running
its own variable course. ... As the motions of these
wandering stars are never interrupted, so the generations
and alterations of earthly things never have an end. Only
by observing the great diversity of planetary motions can
one comprehend the unnumbered varieties of change in this
world.^

The Intro due torium in Astronomiam, in undertaking a
general defense of astrology, touches also upon the philo-
sophical question involved in astrological fatalism. It is

^De Gen. et Cor. 2. 10 (see above, p. 3).

^ Introductorium, bk. 3, chap, i (ed. in New York Public Library,
sig. hy^). Albumasar elsewhere (i. 2: sig. a6^) gives an outline
also of Plotinus' doctrines, according to which the stars are only
indicators of future events; cf. Duhem 2. Z7~-Z- See above, p. 2.

5 8 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

worth while to listen with care to Albumasar's solution of
the problem. The Intro due torium in Astronomiam already
points the way to that compromise between Christianity and
astrology which we shall soon meet in the writings of Albert
and Thomas Aquinas.

Some there are, says Albumasar, who solve the problem
of astrological fatalism by denying the existence of con-
tingent actions altogether, admitting only the necessary and
the impossible. But so complete a denial of freedom runs
counter to the evidence of experience. Contingent things
can be proved to exist. The statement of a necessary fact
holds good for the future as for the past or the present.
We know that fire burns, that it has burned, and that it
will burn ; that fire is not cold, that it never was cold, that
it never will be cold. Contingent facts admit of no such
prediction. We know that a man is writing or has written,
but we do not know whether he will or will not write in
the future. The contingent can be proved to exist, more-
over, by the fact that we deliberate about it. No delibera-
tion ever takes place concerning the necessary or the
impossible.^

A disproof of fatalism, however, does not involve a denial
of stellar influence over contingent things. Albumasar pro-
ceeds to show that the power of the stars is seen in the
realms both of the necessary and of the contingent.

The process by which the elements, and the bodies which
they compose, resolve one into the other, the growth and
diminution which even human bodies undergo, come under
the rule of the necessary. Since it is certain that the stars
govern the alterations of sublunary bodies, it is seen that
all necessary things are dominated by the celestial sphere.

Now man is composed of a reasoning soul and an ele-
mental body. The reasoning soul exercises its powers in
deliberation and choice; it rules over the body, and the

^ Cf. Aristotle's De Interpretatione, chap. i.

Arabian Astrology 59

latter serves to carry out the soul's commands. The stars
have also, according to the teachings of the Philosopher,
a reasoning soul and a natural motion, and consequently
possess the power to modify the harmony existing between
man's body and his soul. Hence the power of the stars
directs contingent acts, as well as those which fall within the
realm of the necessary.^

The theory of Albumasar at this point is not easy to
understand, and is at best not clear. The leaning toward
a deterministic science, indeed, noticeable throughout the
treatise, was as little to the liking of the Church as the
fatalistic philosophy of the Arabs in general.^ But the
linking up of astrological theory with Aristotelian cos-
mology, and the specious reasonings on the subject of
contingent actions, could not fail to prove alluring to Chris-
tian scientists. The Introdiictorium ad Astronomiam served
as one of the agents of compromise between the Church and
the new astrology of the Moors.

* Introductorium, sig. a8^ ff. The Latin in this portion of the
treatise is very difficult. I have been guided by the paraphrase
given by Duhem (2. 375-6).

^ It is doctrines such as those of Albumasar concerning the stellar
souls that are repeatedly inveighed against in the edict against
heresy published by the University of Paris in 1277. See Denifle-
Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1889)
I. 543 ff. The stellar souls are referred to in the passage quoted
above (p. 50) from Adelard of Bath.

CHAPTER V

THE MEDIEVAL ACCEPTANCE OF ASTROLOGY

By the middle of the twelfth century, practically the entire
range of Greek and Arabian science had been thrown open
to the Latin world. The appropriation of this treasure was
a slow process. The Christian scholars of the twelfth cen-
tury were too much occupied with the quarrel between
y realism and nominalism to interest themselves in problems
Y* of Aristotelian cosmology.^ We have seen that John of
Salisbury was quite oblivious of the new learning which
had already crossed the borders of Spain. Not until the
thirteenth century did the science of Aristotle acquire that
position of prominence which it was destined to maintain
throughout the remainder of the mediaeval era.

The first signs of the new interest in Arabian astrology
may be found in the school of Chartres, that centre of learn-
ing with which Adelard of Bath had formed connection,
and which had sent out the first explorers into Moham-
medan Spain. Evidence for this fact is found in a list —
given by ClervaP — of the astronomical books in possession
of the Chartres school after Herman of Dalmatia and his
fellow-adventurers had returned. Among the number
appear several works of Adelard of Bath, and a treatise on
judicial astrology by Alchabitius, translated by John of
Seville. Traces of Arabian astrology can also be found
in the writings of William of Conches,^ a member of the
school of Chartres in the middle of the century.

In the volume of Migne's Patrologia Latina devoted to
the writings of Honorius of Autun appear two treatises
on mediaeval cosmology, of neither of which Honorius of
Autun is the author. The first, entitled De Philosophia

^Jourdain, Recherches, pp. 227-8.
^ Les E coles de Chartres, p. 239.
^ See above, pp. Z3, 39-

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 6i

Mundi, is a work of William of Conches; the second,
entitled De Imagine Mundi, that of an obscure Honorius
Inclusus, who lived about the year iioo.^ The De Imagine
Mundi is a typical encyclopaedia of the early mediaeval cen-
turies, like those of Bede and Rabanus Maurus, containing
naive descriptions of the planets and the constellations,
with no mention of their astrological significance. It affords
an excellent contrast to the later work of William of
Conches, in which traces of the new science are plentiful.
Saturn is here described as cold, and Jupiter as tem-
perate ; Mars is nociva, and the indicator of war and
bloodshed.^ Venus is the goddess of luxury, 'quia confert
calorem et humorem, et in calidis et humidis viget luxuria.'
In William of Conches we even find a curious inversion of
the Isidorean definition of astronomy and astrology — an
inversion which reappears in Roger Bacon, and which cer-
tainly can be traced to an Arabian source.^ As typical
representatives of what he calls astronomia — the science
which, according to his inverted definition, deals with stellar
influences — William of Conches names Firmicus Maternus
and Ptolemy.*

One of the first mediaeval Latin writers to mention an

^Migne, Patr. Lat. 172. 42-102, 122-88. The De Imagine Mundi
is the principal source for the vernacular L'Image du Monde of
Gautier of Metz (ca. 1247), one of the most popular encyclopaedias
of the later mediaeval centuries. On Honorius Inclusus, see Duhem
3. 24 ff. ; on William of Conches, Duhem 3. 87 ff.

^ Migne, Pair. Lat. 172. 63 : 'In proeliis dicitur dominari, quia
calorem confert et siccitatem, ex quibus est animositas. Calidi enim
et sicci animosi sunt.'

'Vincent of Beauvais {Speculum Doctrinale 17. 46), after quoting
the definitions of astronomy and astrology according to Isidore,
also gives them inversely — that is, defining astrologia as astronomy,
and astronomia as astrology — quoting as source for the latter
definition the Arabian, Alphorabius. Cf. Roger Bacon, Opus Majus
(ed. Bridges i. lviii).

* Migne, Patr. Lat. 172. 59.

62 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

Arabian astrologer by name was Alanus de Insulis. In a
description of the seven liberal arts, which constitutes a
portion of that curious poetical compendium of knowledge
entitled the Antic laudianus, astronomy is no longer differen-
tiated from astrology. Alanus names Albumasar as one
of the representatives of the double science^ :

Illic as'tra, polos, coelum, septemque planetas
Consulit Albumasar, terrisque reportat eorum
Consilium, terras armans, firmansque caduca
Contra coelestes iras, superumque furorem.

Alanus de Insulis, the mediaeval Doctor Universalis,
belongs to the close of the twelfth century. One of his con-
temporaries was the Englishman, Alexander Neckam, the
author of a prose treatise, the De Naturis Rerum. The
belief in the astrological influence of the planets and con-
stellations had, by the time of Alexander Neckam, already
become a fixed part of scientific doctrine. But Neckam
still considers it necessary to safeguard his orthodoxy by
means of a caveat. *Let it not be supposed/ he says, *that
the planets decide things here below by any inevitable law
of necessity, either by their conjunctions, or by their being
in this or that domicile. For the divine will is the unalter-
able and primal cause of things, to which not only the
planets show obedience, but also created nature as a whole.
It must be understood that, although superior bodies have
some influence over inferior ones, yet the arbitrium animce
is free, and is not impelled by necessity either this way or
that.' It is possible that Alexander Neckam is paraphrasing
the Intro due torium in Astronomiam of Albumasar.^ The
discussion of astrology in the De Naturis Rerum is cer-

^ Anticlaudianus 4. i (Migne, Pair. Lat. 210. 521).

^De Naturis Rerum i. 8 (ed. Wright, Rolls Ser., pp. 39-40).
Alexander Neckam's allegorizing tendencies get the better of him
even in his dealings with astrology. He identifies the astrological
influences of the several planets with the seven gifts of the Holy
Spirit — wisdom, intellect, counsel, bravery, science, piety, and fear
(pp. 41-2).

The Mediceval Acceptance of Astrology 63

tainly one of the earliest attempts to bring the new science
of the stars into conformity with Christian thought. Alex-
ander Neckam clearly points the way to the scholastic
definition of orthodox astrology formulated in the thirteenth
century.

The deciding factor in the development of the scholastic
doctrine on the subject of astrology was Aristotle himself.
The complete Aristotelian canon had been made accessible
in Latin translations between the years 1210 and 1225.^
Although the treatises on natural science were proscribed
several times by Church councils and papal legates, they
were gradually purged of the noxious doctrines with which
they had become tainted while in the hands of Neoplatonic
and Arabian commentators, and by 1255 were accepted as
a part of the standard curriculum of the University at
Paris.^ Albert the Great already refers to Aristotle as the
'regula veritatis, in qua natura summam intellectus humani
perfectionem demonstravit.'^

This general acceptance of Aristotle as the arbiter of
human knowledge could not fail to augur well for astrol-
ogy. No scholastic theologian dared any longer question
the Peripatetic teaching that the processes of earthly growth
and change depended for their existence upon the stellar
spheres. Aristotle's doctrine of the Prime Mover, endowing
the heavens with a motion which they in turn impart to the
lower spheres and to the earthly elements, fitted easily into
a Christian scheme of the universe. Although differing
considerably in detail,* all of the mediaeval interpreters of
Aristotle, from Avicenna"^ and Averroes*^ to Albert the

^Uberweg, Geschichte der Philosophie (Berlin, 1915) 2. 408.
^ Ibid. 2. 410.
^De Anima 3. 2. 3,

* The various cosmolosical systems are studied in Duhem's Le
Systeme du Monde; see, in particular, 3. 342, 351 ; 4. 226. 233, 494.
''Carra de Vaux, Aviccnne (Paris, 1900), pp. 251 ff.
° Commentum in De Generatione et Corruptione 2. 10 (Aristotclis

64 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

Great,^ Bartholoniaeus Anglicus,^ Thomas Aquinas,^ and
Dante,* accepted the Aristotelian theory of motion as a
fundamental postulate. And astrological theory had, since
the days of Ptolemy, become so inseparable a part of Aris-
totelian cosmology that the Christian theologians, in wel-
coming the one, were inevitably compelled to offer a
favorable reception to the other.

A modification of such importance in the traditional doc-
trine of the Church could not take place without a struggle.
Since the days of Isidore and Augustine, the mathematici
and readers of horoscopes had been branded as servants of
the devil, and their fatalistic philosophy had been denounced
with fiery rhetoric. The casting of nativities had, in fact,
been defined as a superstitious art as late as the Summa
TheologicB of Alexander of Hales (1245).^ The scholastic
writers of the thirteenth century themselves subscribed to
the teachings of the Fathers on the subject of demons and
magic.® In effecting a compromise, therefore, between the
verdict of the early Church and the new astrology, Albert
the Great and Thomas Aquinas faced a problem of no
slight difficulty.

The theologians of the thirteenth century discovered the
clue for its solution in that passage of the De Civitate Det^

Opera, ed. 1550, 5. 174) ; Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes
(Halle, 1912), p. 173,

^De Generatione et Corruptione 2. 3. 4 (ed. Jammy 2. 65);
Metaphysicorum 11. 2. 25 (ed. Jammy 3. 389-90), De Ccelo et Mundo

2. 3. 5 (ed. Jammy 2. 113) ; cf. Werner, Die Kosmologie des Roger
Baco (Vienna, 1879), p. 52.

^De Proprietatibus Reruni 8. iff. (Batman uppon Bartholome,
London, 1582, fol. 121^).
^De Coelo et Mundo 2. 12. 18, 19 {Opera Omnia, Rome, 1888-1906,

3. 194, 198) ; Summa Theologies i. i. 115. 3 {ihid. 5. 542).
*// Convito 2. 15.

^ Summa Universes Theologies, Quaestio 166. 2 (ed. 1622, 2. 751).

" Hansen, Zauberwahn, pp. 156 ff.

' Civ. Dei 5. 6 (Migne, Pair. Lat. 41. 146) ; cf. above, p. 24.

The MedicBvah Acceptance of Astrology 65 V

in which Augustine had admitted the existence of an influ-
ence of the stars over human bodies, and had demanded
merely that the freedom of the human will should be main-
tained inviolate. Medical ast^rology, as well as the Arabian
system of electiones, easily sq\iared itself with this doctrine.
The judicial astrology of Ptolemy, even, with its careful dis-
tinction between general and individual predictions, and its
denial of Stoic fatalism, might have had little to fear at
the hands of Augustine himself. The defense of astrology,
furthermore, found in Albumasar's Intro due torium, offer-
ing as a substitute for a vulgar divinatory art a reasoned
science, based on simple cosmological principles, disarmed
even the most orthodox. Theologians were so occupied in
combating the outspoken determinism of Arabian philosophy
that they were more than willing to compromise on all but
the essential issues. The Church, accordingly, accepted
astrology as a science, at the same time saving appearances
with the patristic doctrine by reasserting its hostility to
magic, and condemning judicial astrology whenever it
adhered to fatalistic theories, or assumed the role of an
arbitrary art of divination.

The Speculum Naturale of Vincent of Beauvais cites
Albert the Great as the source of a series of chapters which
define the influence of the stars upon nature and man.^
A compromise between the cosmology of Aristotle and
judicial astrology is here seen to be clearly in the making.
Albert, quoting from Augustine's De Civitate Dei,^ takes for
granted that the stars govern the material elements. The
anima vegetabilis of plants and the annua sensibilis of
animals, inasmuch as they are immediately dependent upon
matter, also stand under this necessary rule of the heavens.

^Speculum Naturale 4. 34 ff. (ed. in New York Public Library,
fol. 64^). I have as yet been unable to fnid, in the works of Albert
the Great himself, the passage quoted by Vincent.

'Ibid., fol. 65^

66 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

The human soul, on the other hand, is dependent upon ele-
mental matter not directly, but secundum quod. A gather-
ing of blood about the heart, for example, inclines the soul
to wrath, but anger is not a necessary consequence. Hence
the stars govern the soul's actions only indirectly and not
simpliciter. They can influence the human will, but only
by way of the body.^ Albert cites in support of his defense
of free will the same passage of Aristotle's De Inter pretor
tione^ which Albumasar had employed in a similar connec-
tion; and he makes it clear, by means of references to the
Fathers, that he does not wish to be accused of leanings
toward fatalism.

Albert the Great's concessions to judicial astrology,
guarded though they were, sufficed to change the traditional
hostility of the Church into an attitude of tolerance. Con-
crete evidence for this is furnished by Albert's own com-
mentary on the second chapter of Matthew, that story of
the Magi which had served so many of the Fathers as a
text for a sermon against the astrologers. Albert, in
defining the meaning of the word magus, ^ takes occasion
to discuss the magic arts in general. When he comes to the
mathematici, he divides them into two groups, according
as they represent the pure science of mathematics (mathe-
sis), or the more dubious practical art of astrology

^ Ibid., f ol. 64^ : 'Sic ergo, secundum quod animus hominis inclina-
tur, et dependet ad naturam et complexionem, sic etiam habet in eo
vim constellatio, videlicet secundum quod et non simpliciter. . . .
Quod autem superiorum corporum virtus imponat necessitatem
libero arbitrio, etiam contra philosophum est ponere, nisi per hunc
modum: quo dicimus inclinari et mutari hominis animum.*

^ See above, p. 58.

*This definition itself sounds strange to ears accustomed to
patristic exegesis : 'Magus proprie nisi magnus est, quia scientiam
habens de omnibus ex necessariis, et effectibus naturarum conjec-
turans, aliquando mirabilia naturae praeostendit et educit' (ed. Jammy
9. 24).

The Medicsval Acceptance of Astrology 67

{mathesis)} On the latter he has this to say: *If anyone
prognosticates by the stars concerning those things only
which are subject to natural causes, . . . and to that
primal order of nature which exists in the configuration of
the stars and heavenly circles, he does not commit a fault,
but rather serves a useful purpose, and saves many things
from harm. He, however, who predicts the future 1
arbitrarily (won consideratis omnibus), and concerning
future things other than those defined above, is a deceiver,
and is to be shunned.'^ Underneath this carefully worded
definition, one can feel a real enthusiasm for the science of
Ptolemy and Albumasar.

Thomas Aquinas, in crystallizing, finally, the orthodox
attitude toward astrology of the later mediaeval centuries,
follows the lead of Albert the Great. Like his predecessor,
he accepts the cosmology of Aristotle,^ and finds equal
comfort in the passage of Augustine which admits a rule
of the stars over corporeal bodies. He does not hesitate
to declare that the employment of astrology for meteoro-
logical purposes, and in medicine, is entirely legitimate.*
As with Albert, the real debate centred in judicial astrology;
and Thomas Aquinas, like his predecessor, begins the dis-
cussion with a psychological analysis. The human intellect

^ This distinction, it will be remembered, is found in John of
Salisbury. See above, p. 37.

* Ed. Jammy 9. 24.

^ Summa Theologice i. i. 115. 3 (Opera Omnia, ed. Rome, 5. 542).

*De Judiciis Astrorum (Opuscula Omnia, Paris, 1634), P- 39^:
*Et ideo si aliquis iudiciis astrorum utatur ad praenoscendum cor-
porales effectus, puta tempestatem, et serenitatem aeris, sanitatem
vel infirmitatem corporis, vel ubertatem et sterilitatem frugum, et
similia, quae ex corporalibus et naturalibus causis dependent, nullum
videtur esse peccatum. Nam omnes homines circa tales effectus
aliqua observatione utuntur corporum coelestium, sicut agricolae
seminant et metunt certo tempore. . . . Medici circa aegritudines
criticos dies observant, qui determinantur secundum cursum solis et
lunae;' cf. Summa 2. 2. 95. 5 (9. 319).

68 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

and will, he says, are not corporeal; consequently they
escape that influence which the stars necessarily exert over
matter. Indirectly, however, and by accident, the influence
of the heavenly bodies does affect intellect and will, inas-
much as both intellect and will are intimately connected
with corporeal organs. The intellect, in truth, is necessarily
affected whenever man's physical processes are disturbed.
The will, on the other hand, does not follow of necessity
the inclination of inferior appetite, although the irascible
and the concupiscent in man incline the will toward this
or that choice.^ The majority of men, in fact, are gov-
erned by their passions, which are dependent upon bodily
appetites; in these the influence of the stars is clearly felt.
Few indeed are the wise who are capable of resisting their
animal instincts. Astrologers, consequently, are able to
foretell the truth in the majority of cases, especially when
they undertake general predictions. In particular predic-
tions, they do not attain certainty, for nothing prevents a
man from resisting the dictates of his lower faculties.
Wherefore the astrologers themselves are wont to say *'that
the wise man rules the stars," forasmuch, namely, as he
rules his own passions.'^

But Thomas Aquinas is not prepared to set aside entirely
the patristic teaching that astrology is a diabolic art of
divination. He accepts judicial astrology so long as it can
prove itself a part of natural science, and he goes just as
far as he dares in freeing it from the restrictions with which
it had become encumbered in earlier Church doctrine.
Nevertheless, there was still remaining a narrow margin
of astrological theory which could not be brought within
the pale of a reasoned cosmological science. This portion

^ Summa i. i. 115. 4, Respondeo (5. 544).

^ Summa i. i. 115. 4, Ad Tertium (5. 544). The phrase 'sapiens
homo dominatur astris' recurs many times in the astrological litera-
ture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (see below, pp.
135 ff.).

The Mediceval Acceptance of Astrology 69

of judicial astrology Thomas Aquinas condemns in the
language of the Church Fathers. If any one,' he says,
'employs the observation of the stars for predicting fortui-
tous events, or such as happen by chance, or even for pre-
dicting with certainty {per certitiidinem) a man's future
actions, he does so falsely. In this sort of prophecy the
activity of demons is called into play.'^ As for astrological
magic, this finds no place in Thomas Aquinas' system.
Necromancers, he admits, invoke demons according to the
configurations of the stars, but not by reason of any com-
pulsion which the heavens exercise over the fallen angels.
The demons come, when thus called, in order to lead men
into a belief in the divine power of the stars, and because
under certain constellations corporeal matter is better dis-
posed for the result for which they are summoned.^ Astro-
logical images and charms, such as are employed in medi-
cine, are also under the care of demons. As a proof of this,
Thomas Aquinas cites the fact that such images are never
efficacious unless inscriptions are written on them, which
tacitly invoke the aid of evil spirits.^

The long warfare of science with theology, carried on
from the days of Tertullian and Augustine, had resulted
in a distinct victory for science. Astrology had successfully

^ Summa 2. 2. 95. 5 (9. 320).

' Summa i. i. 115. 4, Ad Secundum (5. 544), Thomas Aquinas
firmly believes in the possibility of magic and necromancy.

^ Summa 2. 2. 96. 2 (9. 332). Thomas Aquinas here begs the
real question at issue. Other scientists — Roger Bacon, for example
(see Brewer, Opera Qiundam Hactenus Inedi'a, Rolls Sen, p. 531) —
did not take it for granted that inscriptions were necessary for
astrological images. It is also interesting to see the Renaissance
commentator of Aquinas, Cajetan (his commentary accompanies
the text in the Leonine edition), take issue with his master on this
point. He cites certain marvelous stories of Guido Bonatti and
other astrologers to prove that if images are made at certain hours,
they can be used to produce feats of magic without the intervention
of demons.

70 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

divested itself of the stigma of illegitimacy which it had
borne for centuries. Although condemnations of judicial
astrology continued to appear in later writers, they were
usually in the nature of belated borrowings from Augustine
and Isidore. The definition of Thomas Aquinas also left
room for differences of opinion in particular cases. It
might have been possible to level against almost any pro-
fessional astrologer the accusation that he was indulging
in predictions per certitudinem, but the burden of proof

jt would have been laid upon the accuser. As a matter of fact,
after the middle of the thirteenth century a sane science
had no longer anything to fear at the hands of the Church.

J Indiscriminate denunciations, such as had found their way
into the canon law of Ivo and Gratian, ceased to appear.
An indication of orthodox opinion in the last quarter of the
century is furnished by a list of proscribed works on the
occult arts, which formed a part of a decree against heresy
issued in 1277 by Bishop Tempier of Paris.^ A work on
geomancy — a form of divination by means of figures drawn
haphazardly by the questioner, and interpreted astro-
logically — is singled out for condemnation, and a general
prohibition is made of all books dealing with the invoca-
tion of demons. The decree also takes issue with certain
Averroistic doctrines denying the freedom of the will.^
But a sober astrology is not attacked. A similar pronounce-
ment on superstitious arts, made a century later (1398) by
the same University of Paris, is equally lenient.^ It

^ Denifle-Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris,
1889) I. 543 ff.

^ No. 162. 'Quod voluntas nostra subjacet potestati corporum
celestium.'

No. 207. 'Quod, in hora generationis hominis in corpore suo
et per consequens in anima, que sequitur corpus, ex ordine causarum
superiorum et inferiorum inest homini dispositio inclinans ad tales
actiones vel eventus. — Error nisi intelligatur de eventibus natural-
ibus, et per viam dispositionis.'

^Ibid. 4. 32 fi.

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 71

denounces the use of magic in all forms, even for good
purposes, and terms it blasphemous to believe that there
are good demons as well as bad, and that the former can
be enclosed by magic rites in stones or vestments, and thus
made to serve man. It even calls *true astrology' to witness
that it is contrary to natural science to believe in images
of brass or wax, which, when consecrated on certain days,
posses marvelous virtues.^ Astrology itself is inveighed
against only when it teaches that the actions of the human
intellect and will are under the necessary governance of
the stars. ^ ^

In truth, the demands made on judicial astrology by
Thomas Aquinas, instead of being condemnatory of its
fundamental principles, were rather suggestions for im-
provement similar to those which scientists were themselves
advocating. The best instances of this fact are furnished
by the writings of Aquinas' own contemporary, Roger
Bacon. England, during the early part of the thirteenth
century, had begun to assume a position of prominence in
European science. Robert Grosseteste, Bacon's own
master, and a leader at the new University of Oxford,
already shows an enlightened interest in astrology. Grosse-
teste's writings on the subject would have been exactly to
the liking of Thomas Aquinas. He gives a full outline of
astrological theory regarding the influences of the planets
and constellations,^ urging the employment of astrology

^ 'Quod ymagines de ere vel de plumbo vel auro vel de cera alba
vel rubea vel alia materia baptizate, exorcizate, et consecrate seu
potius execrate secundum praedictas artes et sub certis diebus
habeant virtutes mirabiles, que in libris talium artium recitantur.
Error in fide, in philosophia naturali, et astrologia vera' {ibid. 4. 35).

" 'Quod cogitationes iiostre intellectuales et volitiones interiores
immediate causentur a celo, et quod per aliquam traditionem
magicam tales possunt sciri, et quod per illam de eis certitudinaliter
judicare sit licitum. Error' (ibid.).

^ De hnprcssionibus Aeris seu de Prognosticatione (Baur, Die
Philosophischen Wcrke des Robert Grosseteste, Miinster, 1912, pp.
41 ff.).

72 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

for meteorological predictions, and in chemistry, medicine,
and agriculture.^ He also discourses at length upon the
astrological significance of comets.^ But of judicial astrol-
ogy he says not a word. Roger Bacon, like his predecessor,
sees in the new astrology something more than a divinatory
art. He says expressly that even if judicial astrology were
abolished altogether, enough would be left to constitute a
science of immense value.^ All the great masters from
Aristotle* to Albumasar, he asserts, repudiated its vulgar
practitioners, especially those who contaminated it with
necromancy.^ In the matter of judicial astrology, Ptolemy
himself made a distinction between general and particular
prognostications. Only in the former can certainty be
attained. In predicting the future, the true astrologer does
not prophesy necessary events, but merely indicates motives
and tendencies.® Prognostications of particular human
actions, to be sure, often prove successful, since character
and morals depend largely on bodily health. General pre-
dictions, he suggests, can be of great service to the Church
itself. He cites as an example of a legitimate prophecy the
horoscopes of the various religions of the world, instituted

^De Artibus Liheralihus (Baur, pp. 5 ff.). Grosseteste enumerates
three practical uses of astronomy (astrology) : 'vegetabilium plan-
tatio, mineralium transmutatio, segritudinum curatio.'

'De Cometis (Baur, pp. 36 ff.).

^ Opus Majus, Pars Quarta (ed. Bridges, London, 1900, i. 248).

* Bacon assumed that Aristotle was the author of the Secretum
Secretorum {ibid. i. 246).

^ Ibid. I. 240. The Speculum Astronomi<B, ascribed to Albert the
Great, but probably written by Bacon (see below, p. 102), says
that many books of magic try to assume a scientific air by clothing
themselves in astrological language: 'Scintillationis gratia, sibi
mittunt quasdam observationes astronomicas, ut sic se reddant ali-
quatenus fide dignos' (Alberti Magni Opera, ed. Jammy 5. 658).

® Opus Majus I. 249, 252. Bacon asserts that it was only fatalistic
astrology that had been reprehended by the Church Fathers, and
cites passages to prove that they accepted the true science (i. 246).

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 73

by Albumasar.i According to the latter, a major conjunc-
tion of Jupiter with one of the other planets signified the
rise of a new religion. The conjunction of Jupiter with
Saturn had brought about the Hebrew religion; that with
Mars, the Chaldean ; that with the Sun, the Egyptian ; that
with Venus, the Mohammedan; and that with Mercury
the Christian. The conjunction with the Moon, signifying
the religion of Antichrist, was still in prospect. According to
Bacon's slightly unorthodox chronology, the Mohammedan
religion would soon have completed its course — a hope for
which he finds additional warrant in the mystic numbers of
the Apocalypse. He therefore breaks out into a panegyric
on the wonderful science which thus corroborates the Chris-
tian faith, and predicts the overthrow of its enemies :
'Propter quod laudandus est Deus, qui philosophis dedit
lumen sapientiae, per quod lex veritatis confirmatur et
roboratur, et per quod percipimus inimicos fidei destrui
debere.' Roger Bacon, indeed, exhausts his eloquence in
praise of astrology, emphasizing above all its utility in
medicine.^

Roger Bacon probably overstepped the bounds of con-
servative opinion on the subject of judicial astrology only
in the enthusiasm with which he applied it to sacred

^Ibid. I. 253-66.

^ Ibid. I. 266. The editor of the 0 pus Majus (Bridges 1.269) com-
ments on Bacon's belief in astrology in a passage that is worthy
of quotation : To a believer in a limited and spherical universe,
with a terrestrial centre, nothing could seem more valid as a work-
ing hypothesis for explaining physical changes on the earth's sur-
face than that alterations of the directions in which the planets
were seen should be followed by corresponding alterations of terres-
trial objects. The combinations of planetary bodies, as seen in
conjunction, in opposition, or in intermediate positions, offered a
wide field of speculation, which became practically boundless when
to the apparent relation of these bodies to one another were added
their apparent relations (also ever varying) with the fixed stars.
Human and terrestrial events, complicated as they might be, were

74 MedicEval Attitude toward Astrology

things.^ In the matter of astrological magic, he undoubtedly
progressed beyond the limits set by Thomas Aquinas.
Bacon condemns magic by the aid of demons, holding the
view that most of it is fraud anyway^; but magic that
simply utilizes the marvelous influences of the stars finds
in him an enthusiastic supporter. Images and verbal
charms, if made under the proper constellations, are
endowed with unusual powers, because they store up the
mysterious energy of the stars and of the human spirit.^
Bacon quotes in all earnestness a story, told by Josephus,
in which Moses escapes from a compromising love-affair
with an Ethiopian princess by giving her a ring causing
forgetfulness.* Many of the miracles of saints, he says,
were performed by means of magic words, spoken at the
proper astrological moment.^ In his Speculum Astronomice,^
and his Epistola de Secretis Natures,'^ he even ventures to

paralleled by equal complication in the play of celestial forces. It
may be said, on the whole, that so far from belief in astrology
being a reproach to Bacon and his contemporaries, to have dis-
believed in it would have been in the thirteenth century a sign of
intellectual weakness. It conformed to the first law of Comte's
philosophia prima as being the best hypothesis of which the ascer-
tained phenomena admitted.*

^ He almost undertakes, in one passage, to write the horoscope of
Christ himself (ibid. i. 267).

^ Brewer, Opera Inedita, p. 523.

' Opus Ma jus I. 395-7-

*Ibid. I. 392.

^Ihid. I. 395-

° A work until recently ascribed to Albert the Great. Mandonnet,
in an article in the Revue Neo-Scolastique (17. 313-35), has fairly
proved — to the satisfaction of so recent a scholar as Duhem (3. 216),
at least — that it was written by Roger Bacon, probably shortly after
Bishop Tempier of Paris had issued his decree against books on
magic and geomancy. The Speculum is found in the Opera of
Albert the Great (ed. Jammy 5. 656 ff.) ; in part, also, in Catalogus
Codicum Astrologorum Gr^corum (Brussels, 1898-1906) 5. 85 ff.
Cf. above, p. 53.

'Brewer, p. 532.

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 75

defend certain condemned books on magic, maintaining
that some of them are merely thought to be bad, but really
contain useful scientific facts. In books on geomancy,
especially, he sees no harm, since he finds that this divina-
tory art employs scientific methods — 'confidit Saturno et
domino horse. '^ In utterances like these Bacon was cer-
tainly indiscreet. Geomancy was among the arts of
divination upon which the Church permitted no compro-
mise.^ It is possible that Bacon's own imprisonment, at
the hands of the Minister General of the Franciscan order,
followed as a direct result of the publication of the
Speculum Astronomies.^

The Church, fearing perhaps that it had dealt too
leniently with astrology in theory, gave evidence that it
could be all the more severe with it whenever in practice
it meddled with magic or with fatalistic doctrines. It
was ostensibly on these two accounts, at any rate, that
the Inquisition condemned to the stake its first astrological
heretic, Cecco d'Ascoli, professor of astrology at the Uni-
versity of Bologna in the first quarter of the fourteenth
century. The author of an encyclopaedic poem, the Acerba,
of an astronomical commentary on the Sphcera of Sacro-
Bosco, and of several minor astrological texts, Cecco
d'Ascoli has in recent years aroused much historical inter-
est.* His execution at Florence, in 1327, following upon

^ Spec. Astr., chap. 16 (eel. Jammy 5. 660).

^Aquinas, Summa 2. 2. 96. 3.

"Mandonnet, p. 334.

* According to Soldati {La Poesia Astrologica nel Quattrocento,
Florence, 1906, p. 65), whose judgment of the controversial litera-
ture on the subject is recent and mature, the best of the many
biographies of Cecco is that of Bariola, Cecco d'Ascoli e VAcerba,
Florence, 1879. Two excellent short articles are those by Boffito:
Perche fu Condannato al Fuoco I'Astrologo Cecco d'Ascoli (Studi
e Doc. di. Stor. e Diritto 20. 3^6 f(.), and // 'De Principiis Astrolo-
guF' di Cecco d'Ascoli (Giorn. Stor. di Lett. It., Suppl. 6). I have

76 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

a previous condemnation of his teachings at Bologna, and
involving the usual amount of Italian intrigue, is still
something of a mystery. According to Giovanni Villani,
our best authority, he was found guilty by the Franciscan
inquisitor of three heretical doctrines: First, that in the
aerial spheres there existed malign spirits which could be
constrained, by means of enchantments performed under
certain constellations, to perform many marvelous things.
Secondly, that he had ascribed a necessary influence to the
heavens. Thirdly, that Christ's birth, poverty, and death
had been according to the rule of the stars.^ There can be
no doubt that Cecco was guilty on the first count — that
of having had dealings with the necromancy of the Jews
and Moors.^ He is, in fact, an excellent representative of
that scientific magic which was spreading over Europe from
the Orient, and which was making its first important home
in Italy. The second and third counts upon which Cecco
stood accused are more difBcult to substantiate. His
works contain a liberal sprinkling of pious phrases and a
long discussion of Ptolemy's theory of free will.^ Cecco
is careful to quote the application of astrology to Christ

not seen the biography of Cecco by G. Castelli (Bologna, 1892),
nor the recent edition of the Acerba by P. Rosario (Lanciano, 1916).

^Giovanni Villani, Croniche 10. 40 (ed. Florence, 1823, 5. 55-6).
A similar astrological interpretation of the life of Christ is found
in a work of the Italian lawyer, Lignano (died 1383) ; see Fantuzzi,
Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi (Bologna, 1796) 5. 39. Cf. also
the article on Lignano by Professor A. S. Cook, Rom. Rev. 8. 371.

^ Bofifiito, Perche fu Condannato, p. 375 ; Bariola, p. 9. In the
Acerba is found a small manual of the black arts (4. 4: ed. Venice,
1820, p. 203; cf. Gower, Conf. Am. 6. 1261 flf.), which closes with
the advice to the listener that he should prove their efficacy for
himself. Passages in his prose works are frequent which show
that Cecco not only believed in the possibility of diabolic magic —
a thing which the Church never denied — but advocated its practice.

' See the philosophical defense of astrology in his prose com-
mentary of the De Principiis Astrologies of Alchabitius (Giorn.
Stor., Suppl. 6, p. 4).

The Mediceval Acceptance of Astrology 77

at second hand.^ But the general tone of his writings,
even as we have them, can be legitimately suspected of
heresy. Astrology was assuming in Italy a much bolder
tone than in the universities of France and England. Cecco
d'Ascoli came, too, at a time when the Church, under the
guidance of Pope John XXII, was unusually energetic in
its persecution of magical practices.- Cecco d'Ascoli has
frequently been ranked very high as a scientist. He him-
self presumably believed in his own teachings, and the story
goes that he preserved at his trial and execution a mag-
nificent calm.

Cecco d'Ascoli atoned for the sins of many; his death
forms an almost isolated instance in the history of the
Inquisition. The boldness of his utterances, his lack of
official patronage, and the fact that he was exposed to the
calumny of powerful rivals, subjected him to dangers from
which lesser and greater men were exempt. Italy, in fact,
during the course of the thirteenth century had become the
great European centre of astrology outside of Moham-
medan Spain. At the universities of Bologna, Padua, and
Milan, the list of professors of astrology is continuous from
the early thirteenth to the sixteenth century, boasting the
names of such famous scientists as Pietro d'Abano,
Giorgio Peurbach, and Regiomontanus.^ Bologna is
credited with the possession of a chair of astrology as early
as 1 125.* At the courts of Emperor Frederick II and
Eccelino da Romano, Moorish and Jewish astrologers

^ Boffito, Perche fu Condannato, p. 380.

'See the several papal letters which Pope John XXII wrote on
the subject of magic between the years 1313 and 1331, published in
J. Hansen's Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexen-
wahns und der Hexenverfolgung (Bonn, 1901), pp. 2-7.

^Gabotto, L'Astrologia ncl Quattrocento (Riv. di FU. Scient.
8. 378ff.).

*Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (loth ed.,
Leipzig, 1908) 2. 240.

78 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

practised the most mercenary of arts. In the service of
the former was a certain Theodorus, and Michael Scot,
the translator of Averroes. Besides some astrological
texts, Michael Scot furnished the emperor with a work
on physiognomy,^ and he is also known as the author of a
treatise on geomancy.^ Whatever be the final verdict on
this man as a philosopher or scientist, he was famed in
his time as a vulgar magician,^ and Boccaccio calls him
*gran maestro in nigromanzia.'* Frederick's contemporary,
Eccelino — so the chronicles tell us^ — surrounded himself
with a host of necromancers, astrologers, and magicians:
'Master Salio, a canon from Padua, Riprandino of Verona,
Guido Bonatti, and Paul, a Saracen with a white beard,
who came from Baldach in the remote Orient, and who, by
reason of his origin, aspect, and actions, deserved the name
of a second Balaam/

Perhaps the most famous professional astrologer of the
thirteenth century was Guido Bonatti. Although in the
intellectual and social scale he stood above most of his
fellow-craftsmen — he is the author of one of the popular
mediaeval text-books on astrology — his science, neverthe-
less, would hardly have met with full approval on the part
of Thomas Aquinas. As an example of the kind of ser-"
vices he rendered his masters, Filippo Villani^ relates that
while in the employ of Guido de Montefeltro, he would
mount the campanile to observe the stars at the outbreak
of any military expedition. At the first striking of the bell,
the count and his men would put on their armor; at the

^Wiistenfeld, p. 100.

^J. W. Brown, Life and Legend of Michael Scot (Edinburgh,
1897), p. 190.

^ See Scartazzini, Divina Commedia (Leipzig, 1874) i. 220.

*Decam. 8. 9.

^Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. 8. 705, 344; 14. 930.

* Quoted by Boncompagni, in Delia Vita e delle Opere di Guido
Bonatti (Rome, 1851), p. 6.

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 79

second stroke, they would mount their horses; and at the
third, spur their steeds to a gallop. Experience testifies,
says Villani, that by this means the count won many a
victory.

That Guido Bonatti was credited with having dealt with
magic, one can readily understand.^ Even more contrary
to the orthodox opinion of the time, however, was his
philosophical defense of the science. In his AstronomuB
Tractatus Decern, he virtually denies Ptolemy's distinction
between general and particular predictions, as well as the
Christian doctrine of free will. *A11 things,' says Guido
Bonatti, 'are known to the astrologer. All that has taken
place in the past, all that will happen in the future — every-
thing is revealed to him, since he knows the effects of the
heavenly motions which have been, those which are, and
those which will be, and since he knows at what time they
will act, and what effects they ought to produce.^ A pas-
sage like this shows why the scholastic theologians insisted
upon reservations before accepting the science of the
Moors.

Guido Bonatti did not, like his successor Cecco d'Ascoli,
pay for his heresy at the stake. But he met a condemna-
tion, in the eyes of later centuries no less effectual, at the
hands of Dante. As the poet and his guide descend to
the fourth chasm of the eighth circle, they meet a people
coming silent and weeping. The face of each is turned
to the loins — 'because he wished to see too far before him,
he now looks behind and goes backward.'^ Among the
last, Virgil points out two of Dante's countrymen:

* Boncompagni, p. 6.

^Decern Continens Tractatus Astronomie i. 3 (copy in Boston
Public Library), Venice, 1506, sig. a2^ The treatise is prefaced,
to be sure, by a pious address to God and the Virgin. The
thirteenth chapter of the first book (sig. as^) attempts to prove
that the Church Fathers, and even Christ himself, employed
astrology.

'/w/. 20. 38-9.

8o Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

Quell altro, che ne' fianchi e cosi poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
delle magiche frode seppe il gioco.

Vedi Guido Bonatti . . .^

But Dante, condemning astrology in the Inferno in so far
as it is a diabolic art, restores it to its proper place in
Christian cosmology and ethics in the Ptirgatorio and
Paradiso. For Dante, the influence of the stars upon
human life was indeed an awe-inspiring fact. The heavens
are the instruments of God.^ It is to them that the First
Mover has delegated the power to mould the destinies of
the world^; they are the hammers, earth the metal*; they
are the seals, and earth the wax.^ Were it not for the
influences of the stars, children would be exactly like their
parents. Dante, in effect, reverses the Augustinian argu-
ment concerning twins, by pointing to the heavens as the
only possible cause of Jacob's differing from Esau.^ The
Platonic myth of the Timceus is employed in the symbolism
which assigns the saints to their different spheres."^ His
own arrival in the constellation Gemini he explains on the
ground that it rules over his nativity.^ Can Grande's noble
character is due to the fact that he was stamped at his
birth by the strong star of Mars.^ According to Brunetto

^ Ibid. 20. 1 1 5-8: 'That other who is so small about the flanks was
Michael Scot; and of a truth he knew the play of magic frauds.
See Guido Bonatti — .'

^De Monorchia 2. 2: 'Instrumentum eius [Dei], quod coelum
est.'

"De Mon. 2. 2; 3. 2; 3. 16; Ep. 5. 133-5; Pctr. 2. 121; 8. 97-9;
Conv. 3. 15. 159-61.

*Par. 2. 127-9.

'Par. 2. 130-2; 13. 73-5; 8. 127; I. 41, 42.

'Par. 8. 130-5.

■^ This symbolism is not rigorously carried through. The fact that
the unfaithful are in the moon has no astrological significance.

^ Par. 22. 112 ff.

*Par. 17. 76-8.

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 8i

Latini's advice to the poet, obedience to one's horoscope
becomes a positive duty.^ The ethical problem involved in
the belief in an astrological cosmology, Dante solves as does
Thomas Aquinas. Marco's speech to the poet in the six-
teenth canto of the Purgatorio^ might be regarded as the
final expression of the orthodox doctrine concerning
astrology :

Voi che vivete ogni cagion recate
pur suso al ciel, cosi come se tutto
movesse seco di necessitate.

Se cosi fosse, in voi fora distrutto
libero arbitrio, e non fora giustizia
per ben letizia, e per male aver lutto.

Lo cielo i vostri movimenti inizia ;
non dico tutti : ma, posto ch'io il dica,
lume v' e dato a bene ed a malizia,

E libero voler, che, se fatica
nelle prime battaglie col ciel dura,
poi vince tutto, se ben si nutrica.

A maggior forza ed a miglior natura
liberi soggiacete, e quella cria
la mente in voi, che il ciel non ha in sua cura.

Pero, se il mondo presente disvia,
in voi e la cagione, in voi si cheggia,
ed io te ne saro or vera spia.

Dante's condemnation of the astrologers and diviners in
the tw^entieth canto of the Inferno indicates as yet no dis-
belief in the efhcacy of their art, though in the case of

^ Inf. 15. 55. M. A. Orr, in Dante and the Early Astronomers
(London, 1914), points out that Dante nowhere mentions such
details of practical astrology as the houses or aspects of planets,
or the division of signs into masculine and feminine, mobile and
stable. See this work for a full list of Dante's references to
astrology.

^ Purg. 16. 67-84 (ed. Moore, Oxford, 1892, p. 75).

82 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

Michael Scot some scepticism is implied when he is accused
of 'magic frauds.' The crime of the diviners was one of
impiety, not charlatanism. Since the time of the Church
Fathers, in fact, the practitioners of divination had not
been refuted with rationalistic arguments. It was enough
for Dante and Thomas Aquinas, as for Augustine and
Tertullian, that magic was wicked; after deciding that it
was wrong, logic had done its duty.^ With rare excep-
tions the writers of the Middle Ages took astrology, even
in the vulgar manifestations which it classed with necro-
mancy, quite seriously. It was not because it might be
less successful that Thomas Aquinas condemned astro-
logical prediction per certitudinem, but because it had to
do with demons. Benvenuto da Imola expresses the
mediaeval view when he gives as a reason for the truth
of Michael Scot's prophecies the very fact that he mingled
necromancy with astrology.^

It remained for the arrival of the modern spirit, and
especially of its first great representative, Petrarch, to join
to the scorn shown to the necromancer by mediaeval piety
the laughter of the satirist. Petrarch, living at the court
of the Visconti at Milan, had, indeed, an excellent oppor-
tunity to observe the professional astrologers at their worst.
The astrologer-necromancer of the time was an ignorant
fellow, who knew little of his own science, and nothing
of astronomy proper, who employed simple tables for his
calculations, and who would have been quite unable to
discourse on the philosophical problems involved in his
profession.^ Petrarch, who was in general quick to see

^Tatlock {The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited, Chaucer
Soc, 1914, p. 34) characterizes the Middle Ages similarly.

^ Commentum (Florence, 1887) 2. 88: *Et nota quod Michael
Scottus admiscuit nigromantiam astrologise; ideo creditus est dicere
multa vera.'

^ Soldati, in La Poesia Astrologica nel Quattrocento (pp. 109 ff.),
gives a good characterization of the astrologers of the fourteenth

I

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology ^z

through the pretenses of the pseudo-learned/ makes sport
of his fellow-courtiers. In a letter on the subject of
astrology, written to Boccaccio in the year 1363, he relates
a number of amusing stories regarding them.^ Galeazzo
II, consulting his astrologers on the occasion of a cam-
paign against Pavia, held back his army for many days
in order to await the favorable astrological moment. When
he was finally permitted to march out, the weather, which
had been dry during the time of waiting, turned suddenly,
and a fierce rain spoiled the whole expedition.^ The
astrologers suffered another discomfiture in connection
with the installation into office, in 1354, of the three sons
of Giovanni Visconti. Petrarch himself had been asked
to deliver an oration, but was interrupted by the astrol-
ogers, who were awaiting the exact point of time at which
the stars would be most propitious. When this had finally

and fifteenth centuries; and Gabotto's charming essay, L'Astrologia
nel Quattrocento (referred to on p. jy)., cites historical documents
illustrating their charlatanry. Cf. also Burckhardt, Die Kultur der
Renaissance in Italien 2. 238 ff.

^ Petrarch's treatment of physicians is especially illustrative of
his attitude toward astrologers. The medicine of his day was hate-
ful to Petrarch, because it was founded upon the writings of the
Arabs, for whose literature and science he had as much disdain
as for its unchristian philosophy, exemplified in Averroes (cf.
Seniles 12. i, 2: ed. 1581, pp. 905, 913). Petrarch wrote an entire
treatise, the Contra Medicos, against the physicians of his time, in
which he indulges in virulent satire of their quackeries {op. cit.,
pp. 1091, 1093, 1 100). He admits that the science itself is possible,
at least in the mind of God, but that in its present form it is a
fraud (Sen. 12. 2: ibid., p. 906). He even obtained a confession
from a physician 'quod medicinse notitia delectabilis est, ut reliquarum
omnium quae arte et regula continentur; operari autem secundum
medicinam a casu est. I tu, nunc,' he says to his friend Donatus,
*et casui fidem habe!' (Sen. 5. 5: ibid., p. 801.) Cf. Henschel,
Petrarca's Urtheil Uber die Medicin und die Arste seiner Zeii
(Janus, Zeitschr. fiir Gesch. und Lit. dcr Med. i. 183-223).

""Sen. 3. I (ibid., pp. 765 ff.).

" Ibid., p. 769.

84 MedicBval Attitude tozvard Astrology

arrived, the astrologers presented the three brothers suc-
cessively with a sceptre, but paused so long with the first
two that when they finally approached the third, the
original happy configuration of the stars must have long
since gone by. A year, however, had not passed, says
Petrarch, before Matteo Visconti, the eldest of the three,
the one who had received the sceptre at the favorable
astrological moment, lost his rule, and, shortly after, his
life. The other two lived in prosperity ten years longer.^
Petrarch, in a conversation with one of the astrologers of
the Milanese court, obtained from him the confession that
his art was vain, but that the necessity of supporting his
family forced him to continue the fraud.^

Strange to say, when Petrarch turns from satire to
dialectic, and attempts to refute astrology in theory, he no
longer employs rationalistic arguments, but the ancient
theological rhetoric of Augustine.^ Petrarch's attack on
astrology as a whole is divided between satirical comment
on the quacks who lead the populace by the nose, and
fierce denunciation of the astrologer's impiety. Like John
of Salisbury, he asserts that the future is known to the
Creator alone. Astrology would shift the blame for
wrong-doing upon God himself. 'Why,' he asks the
astrologer, 'do you thus make weary heaven and earth,
and vex mankind in vain? Why do you burden the lucid
stars with your empty laws ? Why do you turn us, who
were born free, into slaves of the insensible stellar spheres ?'*
And he sums up his advice to Boccaccio in the words:
'Close your eyes to tricksters, and your ears to magicians ;

'Ibid.

^ Ibid. Pio Rajna (Giorn. Stor. lo. 104 fl.) identifies this astrologer
with Mayno de Maytieri, who is known to have lived at the court
of the Visconti at this time.

^ Fam. 3. 8 (pp. 611 ff.); De Remed. utr. Fortun. i. 112 (pp.
94-6).

*Sen. I. 7 (p. 749).

The MedicBval Acceptance of Astrology 85

shun physicians, flee astrologers; those destroy your life,
these your soul.'^

Petrarch seems to have known little of the astrological
science of his own day. As representatives of astrology he
does not name the Arabian masters, nor the more modern
authorities, but Firmicus Maternus and Ptolemy.^ He does
not attack astrology as a cosmological science, nor does
he take notice of the scholastic teachings on the subject.
He admits, in passing, that there may be some power in
the constellations, and advises the astrologers to pre-
dict the weather.^ As a poet, too, he frequently subscribes
to astrological doctrines.* In a letter to Emperor Charles
he mentions with pride a prediction that he would be upon
terms of intimacy with almost all of the great princes of
his age.^ Petrarch even has to admit that he is not
altogether free from the popular astrological superstition
regarding the climacteric years, nine and seven. On the
occasion of his sixty-third birthday (a multiple of the two
unlucky numbers), he writes to Boccaccio,^ scorning such
puerile beliefs. A year later, however, referring to the
same subject, he confesses that he wrote the former letter
more to strengthen the faith of his friend than because he
himself was entirely without apprehension. A curious
insight into the mind of this great humanist is afforded

^ Sen. 3. I (p. 770) : 'Claude oculos prsestigiis, aures magis, vitam
medicis, astrologos fuge: illi corpora, hi animos laedunt'
'Sen. I. 7. (p. 748).
''Sen. 3. I. (p. 767).
* Rime 7. 5-6 (ed. Carducci e Ferrari, p. 9) :

Et e si spento ogni benigno lume
Del del, per cui s'informa umana vita.

Cf. Rime 4. 4 (p. 6), in which he describes the configuration of the
stars at the birth of his mistress; and 128. 52 (p. 197), where he
attributes the sad state of Italy to a malignant star.

^ Fam. 23. 2 (tr. Fracassetti 5. 10).

"Sen. 8. I (ed. 1581, p. 829: tr. Fracassetti i. 442).

86 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

by his statement to Boccaccio: *To say the truth, the
security which I expressed in my former letter sprang, not
so much from a feeling of scorn for the threats of the
astrologers, as from a desire to continue my meditations
on the necessity of death and the folly of fearing it/^

Petrarch's attitude toward astrology — on the one hand
reminiscent of the conservatism of the early mediaeval
centuries, and, on the other, pointing ahead to the time
when astrology would be universally laughed to scorn —
was founded, in the first instance, upon indifference to
science as a whole. ^ In his own and in succeeding cen-
turies, his religious abhorrence of astrology was shared
by numerous philosophers and theologians. His own friend,
Coluccio Salutati, although paying some respect to the
scholastic cosmology of Thomas Aquinas, follows Petrarch
in denouncing astrology as an empty science and a vain
art.^ He even rehearses some of the ancient arguments of
Carneades, such as that concerning twins.* Gerard Groote,
the Dutch reformer of the fourteenth century, condemns the
entire science of astronomy, as one that is hostile to God
and to the teachings of Augustine.^ This revival of the

^Sen. 8. 8 (ed. 1581, p. 843: tr. Fracassetti i. 494).

^ Petrarch's attitude toward medicine is again illustrative.

'A. Martin, Mittelalterliche Welt- und Lebensanschauung (Munich
and Berlin, 1913), pp. 105-18.

* Martin, pp. 112-3; cf. above, pp. 11, 20, 46.

^ Groote is writing to dissuade a friend from bringing out a book
which would refute the heresies of Albumasar, and substitute a
true astronomy. Groote argues that the whole science is so bad
that it had best be left alone altogether: 'Ad ejus igitur destruc-
tionem plus proficit quod falsi sunt libri quam quod accuratse
veritati appropinquarent. Quid mihi profuit magis, creditis, vel
Albumasaris et similium error, vel palliata frons Ptolemsei ad
astronomiam dimittendam?' (Acquoy, Gerardi Magni Epistolce
XIV, Amsterdam, 1857, p. 117). The letter furnishes good evidence
of the fact that astrology in the fourteenth century was much
contaminated with magic (see pp. 118 ff.).

The Mediceval Acceptance of Astrology 87

patristic hostility toward astrology culminated in the last
quarter of the fifteenth century in the Adversus Astrologos
of Pico della Mirandola. Spurred on by a religious con-
viction, this Platonic philosopher, himself an enthusiastic
believer in the Jewish Cabala, attacked astrology with all
the weapons which the centuries of warfare since the days
of Cicero and Sextus Empiricus had invented.^

The polemic carried on against astrology by Petrarch
and the theologians of the later centuries, restricting itself
largely to religious and ethical arguments, failed to deal
astrology a mortal blow. A distrust of the vulgar astrol^
oger, it is true, came in time to be shared by every one.
Literary satire in the later centuries found in the profes-
sional diviner a favorite victim — a fact for which Ariosto's
// Nigromante,^ Rabelais' Pantagruel, and Swift's famous
joke on the astrologer Partridge, stand witness. Ben-
venuto da Imola probably gives expression to the attitude
of many in Petrarch's own century, when he says: 'Certe
fateor quod astra non mentiuntur, sed astrologi bene men-
tiuntur de astris.'^ At a time when astrological predictions
were freely bought and sold, and when princes could bribe
astrologers to write damaging horoscopes of their enemies,*
many an employer must have suspected the honesty, if
not the art, of his own hireling. But this scepticism ot tne
practitioner did not impair the universal faith in astrology
itself. Its theological opponents failed, in particular, to
convince the scientist; and it was with the scientist that
the final verdict rested. No astronomer of note, down to

^ Pico della Mirandola is fully discussed in Soldati's La Poesia
Astrologica nel Quattrocento (pp. 217-25).

^ See especially a discussion of Act II, Scene i, by Marpillero, in
Giorn. Stor. 2,3- 307.

"Quoted by Burckhardt (2. 371).

* Several amusing illustrations of this are found in Gabotto's
essay {Riv. di Fil. Scient. 8. 382 fif.).

88 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

the time of Kepler/ dared to question the reahty of
astrology. Most astronomers, in fact, carried on their
studies as an adjunct to the more lucrative trade of read-
ing horoscopes. John of Saxony, a Parisian astronomer
of the fourteenth century, felt it necessary to defend the
publication of a purely astronomical work by emphasizing
its utility for the practical science of judgments.^ In
time, to be sure, astronomers made more and more of a
distinction between general and particular predictions, and
became sceptical about the latter.^ Francis Bacon, in the
sane astrology which he commends in his De Augmentis
Scientiarum,^ abolished prognostications of single events
altogether. But science never refuted the fundamental
principles of astrology. Men of letters, too, were often
its enthusiastic supporters. Boccaccio, to whom Petrarch
had addressed many of his diatribes, was a firm believer in
stellar influence.^ When, in 1410, Poggio brought to light
the first manuscript of Manilius, humanists vied with one
another in producing commentaries.^ Poggio himself was

^ Herz, Kepler's Astrologie, Vienna, 1895. Even Galileo wrote
horoscopes at the Medicean court (Soldati, p. 117, note).
^Duhem 4. 84.
^Soldati, p. 116.

* Spedding and Robertson, The Philosophical Works of Francis
Bacon (London, 1905), p. 464.

* Boccaccio's belief in astrology is discussed in some detail in
Tatlock's The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited (pp. 24, 28) ;
of. A. Graf, Miti, Leggende, e Superstizioni del Medio Evo (Turin,
1893) 2, 169-95. Boccaccio espouses such astrological doctrines
as that Venus produces acute intellects and liberal dispositions {De
Genealogiis Deorum, It. tr., Venice, 1580, fol. 52^) ; that Mars causes
wars and failures of crops (ibid., fol. 146^; cf. fols. 14^, 53 ff.) ;
that the ancient belief in gods arose from a deification of the
planets (Vita di Dante, ed. Moutier, p. 52; cf. pp. 29, 81); and
that only the existence of stellar influence can account for the
infinite diversity of human talents (Commento sopra Dante, ed.
Moutier i. 71-2; cf. 2. 55-6).

* Soldati, p. 130 ff.

The Medicoval Acceptance of Astrology 89

a convert to astrology.^ So were Tasso^ and Pontano. The
De Rebus Coelestihus of Pontano, written in refutation of
Pico della Mirandola's attack, is judged by a recent critic^
to be a masterpiece of logical reasoning. It constitutes,
perhaps, the culmination of that philosophical defense of
Christian astrology which had been in the making since the
time when Albert the Great boldly accepted the new science
of the Moors.

But to trace the history of astrology through the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries is not our task. During the Renais-
sance, astrology enjoyed once more that universal reign
which it had held in the Roman Empire. In the long war-
fare between theology and the science of the stars, the
latter had fairly conquered. The final disproof of astrol-
ogy was never written. So long as the cosmology of
Aristotle, and the geocentric astronomy of Ptolemy, held
sway in mediaeval schools, a refutation was impossible.
With the arrival of the new astronomy of Copernicus, it was
no longer necessary.

^Epist. 9. 16 (ed. Tonelli, 1859).

^ Belloni, // Seicento (Milan, no date), p. 8.

^ Soldati, p. 253.

CHAPTER VI

ASTROLOGERS IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

Italy, peculiarly exposed by reason of its geographical
position, had early become infested with a host of astrolo-
gers and magicians, which she, in turn, transmitted to her
northern neighbors, France and England. This process
of migration was, however, a slow one. In the study of
scientific astronomy, indeed, the universities of Paris
and Oxford were in advance of those of Bologna and
Padua.^ But the sober scholars of the North, practising
astrology as a part of the accepted astronomical science
of the day, were still at a far remove from the profes-
sional necromancers in the employ of an Italian prince.
It seems that not until the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury could the royal court of France boast an astrologer
of the type of Guido Bonatti. And in England, which
was separated by a further degree from contact with the
Moorish East, astrology never acquired that position of
prominence which it occupied in southern Europe. The
[vernacular literature of England before 1350 affords few
'references to it that do not go back to literary sources.
Even after that date astrology probably remained a thing
more talked about by the learned and the literary than seen
in practice.

All the greater interest, therefore, attaches to those few
indications which do exist of the presence in mediaeval J
England of actual astrologers. At the University of Oxford, "
of course, the science was well known, although it did not
occupy nearly so exalted a place in the curriculum as at
the universities of Bologna and Padua.^ Robert Grosse-

^ Cf. Duhem 4. 182-5.

'The list of text-books on astrology at Oxford, given by Rash- |
dall (Universities of Europe, Oxford, 1895, 2. 458), contains no *=

Astrologers in MedicBval England 91

teste and Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century, and Brad-
wardine and WycHf^ in the fourteenth, were thoroughly
versed in matters astrological. Traveling scholars, further-
more, like Adelard, Robert de Retines, and Alexander
Neckam, must have fostered scientific studies. Of Adelard,
for example, we know that he made his home at Bath, and
that his treatise on the astrolabe was probably dedicated
to the English prince, Henry Plantagenet.^

We fortunately possess a concrete indication of the state
of astrological learning at the close of the twelfth century
in reports found in several English chronicles for the year
1 186. All Europe, it appears, had been cast into a
panic by reason of a prediction, published broadcast by
the astrologers, of an approaching conjunction of planets
in the constellation Libra. The fact that the conjunction
was to take place in an 'airy' or 'windy* sign was inter-
preted as signifying, in addition to many other evils, a
terrific wind-storm. A German chronicler relates that
people for very fear built themselves caves underground,
and that special services were held in many churches.^
The English chroniclers, Roger of Hoveden* (1174-1201)
and Benedict of Peterborough,^ repeat the prediction of an
astrologer Corumphira (his nationality is not indicated),
who prophesied an earthquake for some countries and a
terrific wind for others. Cities in sandy regions were to
be completely overwhelmed, and Egypt and Ethiopia were

specifically astrological works. The list for Bologna (Rashdall
I. 249), on the other hand, includes such well known texts as the
Isagoge of Alchabitius, Ptolemy's Quadripartitum, and the Tractatus
Astrolabii of Messahala, which is the treatise translated by Chaucer.

^ See below, pp. 124 ff.

^ Haskins, Adelard of Bath and Henry Plantagenet {Eng. Hist.
Rev. 28. 516).

^ Die Jahrbiicher von Marbach (ed. G. Grandaur, Leipzig, 1896),
p. 8.

* Chronica (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Ser.) 2. 290-2.

^ Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi (ed. Stubbs, Rolls Ser.) i. 324-5.

92 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

to become uninhabitable. 'Let each person be assured/
says Corumphira, 'that the conjunction about to take place,
whatever others may say, signifies to me, if God so wills,
the mutation of kingdoms, the superiority of the Franks,
the destruction of the Saracenic race, with the superior
blessedness of the religion of Christ, and its especial
exaltation, together with longer life to those who shall be
born hereafter.' In Hoveden's chronicle there is added
another prognostication by an English astrologer, William,
clerk to John, the constable of Chester. William is no more
restrained than his fellow-prophet in predicting the direst
happenings on all sides. His prognostication bristles with
technical jargon.^ 'Inasmuch as Mars is being scorched
by the orb of the Sun,' William concludes his prophecy,
'being thus impeded and embarrassed between two evils,
Saturn and the Tail of the Dragon, he becomes infected
with their nature, and signifies sorrows, contentions, alarms,
catastrophes, murders, and spoliation of property. The
Tail also signifies separations, losses, dangers, and diminu-
tion of possessions. Because Mars forms an evil con-
junction with the Tail in the ascendant, I do therefore
contradict the judgment pronounced by Albumasar upon
this figure in the Centiloqumm^: "Turn your eyes from the
figure in which Mars is at the greatest angle when Scorpio
or the Tail is in the ascendant." And as it is evident
to every astrologer that Saturn rules over this climate,
the Moon participating with him, I am of opinion that
this land cannot be considered exempt from the impending
evil. Wherefore, the only remedy remaining is for princes
to be on their guard, to serve God, and to flee the devil,
that so the Lord may avert their imminent punishments.'

^ Chronica 2. 292-3.

^The Centiloquium, of course, was not ascribed to Albumasar,
but to Ptolemy. William is in general pretending to more learning
than he possessed. The Centiloquium, as we have it, contains no
aphorism similar to that quoted.

Astrologers in Mediceval England 93

Hoveden asserts that terror was widespread at the
approach of September, when the conjunction was expected
to take place. Some comfort was gained from a more
reassuring prediction made by a Saracen astrologer, Phara-
mella, which he sent to John, Bishop of Toledo. Phara-
mella takes his northern colleagues to task for blundering
in their calculations. He accuses them, in particular, of
leaving out of account the respective situations of Mars
and Venus. Mars, he says, on the day of the conjunction,
will not be in Libra, but in the thirteenth degree of Virgo ;
while Venus in Scorpio, which is the house of Mars, will
entirely neutralize his evil influence.^ The fact that Libra
is a 'windy' sign, Pharamelta asserts, means nothing.
Gemini and Aquarius are also 'windy' signs, and yet the
recent conjunctions in those constellations produced no
harm. He advises the astrologers of the North to keep
abreast of the times in the matter of astrological literature,
and to read the tables of Hermes, Astales, and Albumasar.
He calls upon them to stop their dreaming and to relinquish
their false opinions, or else be converted to the religion of
Ishmael. And he ends his letter with the words : 'Accord-
ing to the judgment of Messahala and Alkindi, unless God
shall ordain it otherwise, there will be a scanty vintage,
crops of wheat of moderate average, much slaughter by
the sword, and many shipwrecks.'

Because of the positive tone employed by the Moorish
astrologer, the editor of Hoveden^ suspects that this letter
may have been written after the dangerous day had passed.
At any rate, very little out of the ordinary happened in
the year 1186. The French chronicler Rigord says that
the predictions of the astrologers were entirely discredited,^
and the author of the Annales Marbacenses adds the com-

^ Chronica 2. 297.
^ Chronica 2. 299.

^ Vie de Philippe-Auguste (in Guizot's Coll. dcs Mem. Relatif a
I'Hist. de France, Paris, 1825, 12. 63).

94 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

ment: 'ut probaretur saplentia mundi hujus stultitiam esse
apud Deum.'^ Other writers found some justification for
the astrologers' apprehensions in the victories of Saladin
in the Holy Land in 1187.2

Whether the astrological learning which William, the
clerk of Chester, was so eager to exhibit, represented a
widespread interest in the science among the English of
the time, it were hard to tell. Certain it is that other
references to astrology in the chronicles are few. One
short notice is to be found in the Miracula S. Thom<B
Cantuariensis, written by a monk, William, toward the close
of the twelfth century. William relates how an Italian
and his son, who were afflicted with the falling sickness,
and who ascribed their malady to the evil influence of the
stars, came for cure to the saint's tomb.^ William takes
occasion to preach a short sermon against astrology,
employing the well-known arguments of the Church
Fathers. Many diseases, he admits, vary in intensity
according to the moon, but this is no excuse for accusing
the stars of evil. All things made by God are good. Let
the lunatic rather accuse the spirits of evil, who observe
the phases of the moon to enter their victims.* From the
other historical records of the time, little indeed can be
gleaned except notices of comets and falling stars. A comet
was said to have heralded the arrival of William the
Conqueror in 1066^; another the death of Pope Urban in
1254.® In the year 1394, an unusually unlucky comet

^ Benedict of Peterborough, op. cit. i. 324, note.

^ Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (ed. Stubbs,
Rolls Ser.) i. 6.

^Materials for the History of Archbishop Thomas Becket (ed.
Robertson, Rolls Ser.) i. 165.

* The passage is an excellent indication that the patristic view of
astrology was far from disappearing immediately after the intro-
duction of the new astrology.

^ Eulogium Historiarum (ed. Haydon, Rolls Ser.) 3. 45.

Ubid. I. 391-

Astrologers in Mediceval England 95

appeared, which caused a drought, and was connected with
a defeat of the Franks in Turkey.^ Mention is also made
of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the year 1385,
which, as the chronicle maintains, was soon followed by a
great 'commotion of realms.'^

For the second half of the fourteenth century, the dearth
of information on the subject of astrologers in England
finds some compensation in a corresponding wealth of his-
torical notices for France. During the reign of King
Charles V, the Italian court-astrologer, migrating from the
South, had made himself at home in the households of
French noblemen. King Charles V himself was a patron
of astrology, and one of his prominent courtiers was an
Italian astrologer, Thomas of Pisa, who received at the
king's hands a monthly salary of a hundred francs.^ The
royal library of eleven thousand volumes contained many
astrological texts, among others the Quadripartitiim and
Centiloquium of Ptolemy, and works by Guido Bonatti and
Hali Abenragel.* The extravagances of astrological practice
at the royal court even called forth the satire of a con-
temporary poet, Phillippe de Mezieres. He advises the

^Ibid. I. 286-7.

'^ Chronic on Anglice 1328-88 (ed. Thompson, Rolls Ser.), p. 364.

^Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana (Venice, 1823-5)
5. 285. Christine of Pisa, the daughter of the Italian astrologer,
wrote a famous biography of Charles V, in which she praises him
for his patronage of the sciences, incidentally exhibiting her own
unbounded enthusiasm for her father's particular art: 'Et, en ce,
nous appert une prerogative d'astrologie vers les autres sciences;
car les choses dont elle considere sont naturellement a tous merveil-
lables, et naturellement tous hommes les desirent savoir; aussi, et
que, par elles sceues, on cognoist grant partie de la naissance des
choses de ga bas' (Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du Sage Roy
Charles V i. 77: Petitot's Coll. des Mem., Paris, 1825, 6. 128; cf.
5. 208; 6. 8).

*Lebeuf, De L'Astrologie qui avait Cours sous Charles V (Leber,
Coll. des Diss. 15. 402 ff.) ; cf. Jorga, Philippe de Mezieres et la
Croisade au XIV^ Steele (Paris, 1896), p. 419.

96 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

king, specifically, to avoid an abominable superstitious
belief of the English, who held, he says, that a man would
have bad luck all the week if some one made a face at him
on Monday.^ Nicolas Oresme, the great French economist
and Bishop of Liseux, wrote a series of treatises against
astrology, the purpose of which was to prevent Charles V
from placing too much confidence in his Italian advisers.^
But Nicolas Oresme, though he represents on the subject of
astrology the conservative scientific opinion of his time, and
though he was quite severe in denouncing magic and the
extreme forms of judicial astrology, was himself compelled
to accept astrology in theory. Consequently his polemic can
have had little effect.^

Simon de Phares, a chronicler of the late fifteenth cen-
tury, has left us a list of the prominent astrologers living in
France at the time of Charles V.* This document, besides
indicating the extent to which astrology was current at the
French courts of Paris and Orleans,^ contains a number of

^ Lebeuf, op. cit., p. 399.

^ Ch. Jourdain, Nicolas Oresme et les Astrologues de la Cour de
Charles V {Rev. des Quest. Histor. 10. 136-59).

'A summary of Oresme's vernacular treatise on divination is
given by Meunier (Essai sur La Vie et les Ouvrages de Nicole
Oresme, Paris, 1857, pp. 48 ff.). It affords the best possible proof
of the fact that even the most enlightened scientific minds of
Europe in the Middle Ages were powerless to rid themselves of
the belief in astrology. Oresme can, of course, condemn predictions
per certitudinem, and the system of electiones, when utilized for
magic, by appealing to the current Church doctrine on the subject.
But if the astrologers confine themselves to predicting the indi-
vidual's 'inclinations' and 'complexions,' Oresme exempts them
from censure. Oresme's best argument, in general, is that the
science of astrology is still too undeveloped to be worthy of much
confidence. Even in predicting the weather, mariners are more
successful than astrologers.

* Published in part by Lebeuf, in his article, De L'Astrologie qui
avail Cours sous Charles V (pp. 400-8).

^ The notices found in Simon de Phares on astrology at Orleans
may be of interest in connection with the clerk of Chaucer*s

Astrologers in Mediceval England 97

direct references to England, thus furnishing a valuable
historical background for that sudden interest in astrology-
shown by the English writers of the latter half of the four-
teenth century. The almost continuous wars between
France and England find frequent mention in Simon's
chronicle. Thus Maistre Michel de Jalongues is said to
have predicted the inundations of the Rhone, 'et I'eslevation
des Anglois et Bretons qui se misdrent sus pour expeller
les barbares qui furent desconfis devant Tan 1374/^ Maistre
Marc de Gennes, an astrologer of Paris, prophesied the
outcome of the battle of Rosebecque, and also predicted
the death of Edward the Black Prince.^ The battle of

Franklin's Tale, who, it will be remembered, was a 'bachelor of
lawe' at Orleans. The chronicle of Simon makes no mention of the
university, but indicates that the house of Orleans was a patron of
astrologers. Thus of Maistre Gilbert de Chasteaudun (Lebeuf,
p. 401) it is said that he was 'moult aprecie en la maison d'Orleans
pour la science des estoilles.' Again (p. 404), 'Messire Pierre de la
Bruyere fut en ce temps a Orleans moult estime des nobles et du
clergie, fist en son temps plusieurs instrumens servant a la theorie.'
Of still a third astrologer it is said that he retired to Orleans at
the close of his life: 'Cestui de Saint-Mesmin fut bien souffisant
astrologien, et composa de beaux traictiez ; mais en les viels jours
laissa la felicite mondaine et se rendit reclus a Orleans' (p. 405).
It would be interesting to know whether Orleans, in addition to
being a general haven for astrologers, also fostered the occult
sciences at the university. The poet Deschamps was a 'clerk of
Orleans,' and if the interpretation made by one of his editors
(G. Raynaud, editor of the last four volumes of Oeuvres Completes,
1882; see II. 148) of Balade 225 {op. cit. 2. 52) is correct, himself
practised astrology in his youth. Hoepffner (EnstacJie Deschamps:
Leben und Werkc, Strassburg, 1904, p. 28) doubts whether any
literal interpretation of the ballade is justified. These slight indi-
cations that Orleans was a centre of astrology may be added to
those mentioned by Professor Tatlock in The Scene of the Franklin's
Tale Visited (pp. 41-4).

^ Lebeuf, p. 401.

^ Ibid., p. 403 : 'Cestui aussi predit la mort du noble Edoard, prince
de Galles, qui puis fust roy d'Angleterre et d'Hybernie, qui trespassa
Tan 1376.'

98 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

Cocherel (1363), between the English and Bertrand du
GuescHn, was foreseen by Maistre Jacques de Saint-Andre.^
Of two astrologers, it is said expressly that they visited
England, one of them for the purpose of amusing King
John, then a captive at London:

Maistre Pierre de Valois, residant a Coucy, homme de singuliere
estude et moult aprecie des Anglois, et depuis du roy Charles le
Quint pour la science des estoilles. Cestui ala souvent en Angle-
terre pour plusieurs differants, et predist plusieurs choses comme
est assis par ses pronostications sur les revolutions de I'an 1360.
Cestui sur la revolution de I'an 1358, pronostica de la Jacquerie,
qui commenQa en Beauvoisin, par les communes sur les gentils-
hommes, le 28 jour de may, ou dit an, ce qui advint, car ils tuerent
tous les nobles et les femmes et les enfans.^

Maistre Guillaume de Loury, resident a Bourges, fut envoye
querir, pour son grant sgu et singulieres experiences de sa science
des estoilles, par les Anglois, et y ala voulentiers, pour que cestoit
pour desennuyer le bon roy Jehan, qui fut prins a Poitiers, le
lundy 19 de septembre 1356, comme il avoit predit. En son temps
pronostica ou mois d'avril 1351, et derechief, encore une autre fois,
I'an ensuivant fut encore resconfit li Anglois et Gascons. II
advertit aussi messire Charles d'Espaigne, connestable de France,
qui ne le voulut croire, et fut tue en une hostellerie, en la ville
de Laigle en Normandie, par les gens et du consentement du roy
de Navarre; predist aussi la desconfiture de Messire Robert de
Clermont, lieutenant du due de Normandie, et la mort de messire
Geffroy de Harecourt.^

Apart from the slight notices given by Simon de Phares,
the history of professional astrologers in mediaeval England
remains largely a matter of conjecture. It is indeed diffi-
cult to discover further traces of astrologers in the con-
temporary historical documents until the close of the
fifteenth century. In the year 1503, a follower of Edmund
de la Pole confessed at a trial that previous to following
his master to the continent, he had consulted an astrologer
regarding Edmund's probable future, but that he had

^ Ibid., p. 406.
^ Ibid., p. 405.
^ Ibid., p. 404.

Astrologers in Mediceval England 99

obtained no satisfactory reply because he was ignorant of
Edmund's hour of birth.^ At another trial, some years
earlier, a certain Bernard Vignolles tells how the traitor
Kendal, with two helpers, hired an astrologer in Italy to
do away secretly with Henry VII and his family^ — a plan
that was cleverly frustrated by Bernard himself. In the
sixteenth century — as the stories go to prove which gather
about the famous English astrologer, Dr. Dee — alchemists,
magicians, and astrologers plied their trade as freely in
England as in the rest of Europe.

^Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III
and Henry VII (ed. Gairdner, Rolls Ser.) i. 226 ff.

^ Ibid. 2. 318. The story is in itself amusing. Bernard was sent
by the Italian astrologer to England with a box of magic ointment
He found the stuff so foul-smelling that he threw it away and
bought a substitute at Orleans. Kendal, upon receipt of the box,
went through a lot of hocus-pocus, all of which, of course, came to
nothing.

CHAPTER VII

ASTROLOGY IN THE MEDIEVAL ROMANCES

Long before the astrology of the Arabs found a home
in the universities of Oxford and Paris, it had become
the subject of song and story in the hands of the gleeman.
The Crusades and the wars with the Moors of Spain had
early brought the West into contact with the Orient, and
stories of the learned magic of the East must have been
current among the people many decades before Adelard of
Bath and Herman of Dalmatia returned with the first
Arabian text-books. Already in the Chanson de Roland,
the Saracens are credited with the practice of diabolic
arts : Archbishop Turpin, in the battle of Roncesvalles, kills
the enchanter Siglorel, 'who once had been in hell, whither
Jupiter had led him.'^ In the Spanish epic, Fernan
Gongalez, the Moors are represented as astrologers in
league with the devil. ^ The romances of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries habitually connect astrology and
necromancy with the Moorish East. Chretien's Cliges, in
describing Fenice's skilful nurse, Thessala, names Thessaly
as the home of necromancy, and the land where the devil's
arts are taught, and where charms are made.^ In the
Floovent, a story of the wars between Christians and

^ Chanson de Roland 1390-3 (ed. Gautier, Paris, 1884, p. 126) :
*Et I'arcevesque lur ocist Siglorel,
L'encanteiir ki ja fut en enfer;
Par artimal Ti cunduist Jupiter.'

^Fernan Gongalez 473 ff. (Marden, Palma de Fernan Gongalez,
Baltimore, 1904, p. 69; cf. Comfort, The Saracens in Christian
Poetry: Dublin Rev. 149. 27).

^Cliges 3002-10 (ed. Forster, Halle, 1884, pp. 120-1) ; cf. Easter,
A Study of the Magic Elements in the Romans d'Aventure and the
Romans Bretons (Baltimore, 1906), p. 17.

Astrology in the Mediaeval Romances loi

Moors, an old pagan doctor, Jacob, possesses the power of
prophecy by reason of his astrological knowledge.^ The
Saracen maidens, furthermore, who appear so frequently
in the chansons de geste, rescuing the captive Christians,
are usually well versed in the magic sciences ; and since
they employ their talents in the service of true believers,
are rarely censured for their diabolic lore. Flordespine,
the daughter of the Saracen king, Machabre, although only
fourteen years old, knows how to speak Latin and
'Romance,' to play at chess, and to read the courses of the
stars and shining moon.^ Galienne, the betrothed of the
Christian Mainet, is similarly endowed with learning; it
is by foreseeing the future in the stars that she is able
to save her lover from a treacherous assault.^ In the
Ipomedon — a French romance of the last quarter of the
twelfth century, translated several times into English — a
king Adrastus comes to a tournament from Greece, and
brings with him his Eastern astrologer, Amphiaraus, who
unfortunately, however, gets his 'terms' confused, and
fails to foresee his master's defeat.*

^ Floovent 739 ff. (ed. Guessard et Michelant, 1859, P- 23). Floo-
vent dates from the twelfth century.

^ Gaufrey .1793 fi. (ed. Guessard et Chabaille, 1859, P- 55)- Gaufrey
is assigned to the thirteenth century.

^Mainet {Romania 4. 305 ff. ; cf. 329, 333). Mainet dates from
the early twelfth century. In the English Charlemagne-romances
the Saracen maiden, Floripas, feeds the captive Christians with the
aid of her magic girdle; cf. Caxton's Charles the Grete (EETS.
ES. 36. 123) ; The Sowdone of Babylone (EETS. ES. 38. 68).

* Ipomedon 5574-90 (ed. Kolbing und Koschwitz, Breslau, 1889.
p. 94). The earliest of the three English versions (all edited by
Kolbing, Breslau, 1889), Ipomadon, written about 1350 (Wells, p.
146), alters the names to Aryns and Anferas (4197, 4203). In
the OF. romance, Partonopcus de Blois (dated about 1188), Egypt
is referred to (7220: ed. Crapelet 2. 75) as a home of astronomy
and magic (the reference is not found in the ME. version, written
about 1450). The late OF. romance, Cleomadcs, introduces three
Eastern kings, who are versed in astronomy and necromancy (ed.
Hasselt, Brussels, 1895, pp. 52, 58).

I02 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

One of the early tales of the Roman de Renart (Branch
X, dating from the early thirteenth century) is particularly
interesting in that it alludes to the position held by astrol-
ogy in the medical schools of contemporary Italy. The
Fox, wishing to regain favor with King Noble, appears at
court in the role of physician, promising the sick monarch
a sure recovery. He wins the confidence of his client by
the pretense that he has just returned from a period of
study at the university of Salerno, and that he knows
astronomy.^ In a later continuation of the Roman (Branch
XXIII, dated about 1300), Renart actually does venture
abroad in search of learning, and becomes an adept in
necromancy at the famous school of magic at Toledo by
secretly watching a pagan conjurer at his work in a hidden
cell.2

Even more directly traceable to an Eastern source are
the astrological references in certain collections of Oriental
tales. The legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, popularized for
the West by the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus a Voragine
(1230-98), and found in three Middle English versions,
leads us back to a Greek text, written probably in Syria
in the eighth century.^ When in the course of the story —
itself based upon a long Oriental tradition — it is related
how an astrologer prophesied the future of the young
prince, Josaphat, an evident attempt is made by the author
of the Greek version to reconcile the incident with the
beliefs of the Christian Church. Thus spake the astrol-

^ Roman de Renart 10. 1524 ff. (ed. Martin, Strassburg, 1882,

I. 384).

^ Roman de Renart 23. 1172!?. (ed. Martin 2. 311).

^ The most recent summary of the investigations on the subject
of this legend (in the edition of John of Damascus by Woodward
and Mattingly, Loeb Class. Sen, London, 1914) ascribes the original
Barlaam and Josaphat (p. xii) with some confidence to John of
Damascus (died 754), among whose works it has often been printed.
On the ME. versions, see Wells, p. 806.

Astrology in the Mediceval Romances 103

oger/ he says, 'like Balaam of old, not that his star-lore
told him true, but because God signifieth the truth by the
mouth of his enemies.'^ All the many retellings of the
story preserve this pious comment.^ An exact parallel to
it, in fact, is found in the Dolopathos, one of the several
extant versions of the collection of Eastern tales usually
known by the name of the Seven Sages. Here the astrol-
oger who foretells the future greatness of the emperor's
son, Lucimien, is also compared to Balaam, and his prophetic
powers are said to be a direct gift from God, and not a
result of his science."^ The author of the Dolopathos, how-
ever, soon forgets to insert orthodox caveats, and the
Dolopathos, as well as the several versions of the Seven
Sages in French and English, is full of references to magic
and astrology.*

The romances of Alexander constitute another cycle of
tales that trace their origin to the East. All of the Western
versions go back to a Greek account, the Pseiido-Cal-
listhenes, written probably in the third century of our
era — a time when astrology was still current in the

^ Barlaam and Joasaph (ed. Woodward and Mattingly), p. 7.

^The three ME. versions are printed in Horstmann's Altenglische
Legcnden (Paderborn, 1895).

^Johannis de Alta Silva, Dolopathos (ed. Oesterley, Strassburg,
"^^73), P- 12; cf. the OF. version 1151 ff. (ed. Brunet, Paris, 1856, p.
41). The author of the Latin version lived about 1207-12; the
author of the French, about 1220-6. The Dolopathos is not repre-
sented in English.

*It is by looking 'unto the sternes and to J?e mone' that the
wise masters, in one of the English versions, discover the wicked
empress' design against their pupil, Florentine. The latter in a
similar fashion learns that if he can remain mute seven days he
will be saved {Seven Sages of Rome 400 ff. : ed. Campbell, 1907,
p. 14; cf. pp. 74, 89). Cf. also the version edited by Wright
(Percy Soc, 1845), pp. 11, 12, 64. The French version as a whole
contains more astrology than the imitations in ME. (cf. Brunet,
PP- 55, 66).

I04 MedicEval Attitude toward Astrology

Byzantine empire. Even in this, its earliest extant form,
the story had embodied the legend of Alexander's descent
from the Egyptian sorcerer, Nectanabus. Throughout the
early portion of the narrative, in which is related the
arrival of Nectanabus at the Macedonian court, and the
deceits by means of which he became the father of the
future king, astrology plays an important part. Succeed-
ing redactors of the legend dealt variously with these astro-
logical details. The Christian writers, one and all, took
delight in the closing episode of the story of Nectanabus,
in which the sorcerer, after having prophesied by the stars
that he would be killed by his own son, is thrown into a
ditch by Alexander, and taunted for his impious beliefs.^
In the more technical details of the story, imitators of
the Pseudo-Callisthenes were not always successful.
One curious misunderstanding of the astrological terms
of the Greek is already to be found in the Latin life
of Alexander, written by Archpresbyter Leo in the tenth
century, and known by the name of Historia de Proeliis.
The Pseudo-Callisthenes, namely, in describing an astrolabe
of Nectanabus, and picturing its various discs, had spoken
of one circle as representing the astrological 'decans*
(SeKavws).^ The Christian translator, in his ignorance,
understood the Greek to be SeVa vow, and translated it with
'decem intelligentias.' Some of Leo's followers, notably the
author of the Wars of Alexander, repeated this curious
mistake.^ The French versions of the legend are more

^ A taunt which in reality, of course, merely added to the dramatic
irony of the scene. The three English versions relate this portion
of the tale; cf. Wars of Alexander 708 ff. (EETS. ES. 47- 24);
Alisaunder 1072 ff. (EETS. ES. i. 212); Kyng Alisaunder 710 ff.
(Weber, Metrical Romances, Edinburgh, 1810, i. 34) ; cf. Wells,
p. 98 ff.

^ Divisions of the signs into ten equal parts.

^The Wars of Alexander speaks of 'twelve undirstandings' (274:
ed. Skeat, EETS. ES. 47. 9). Skeat defines the word simply as 'an
astrological term.*

Astrology in the Mediceval Romances 105

enlightened on matters astrological; the author of the
English Kyng Alisaunder, imitating the French Roman de
Toute Chevalerie, is able to refer to the mysterious instru-
ment of Nectanabus as an *ars-table.'^ When Gower,
finally, retells the story of Nectanabus in the Confessio
Amantis,^ the astrological possibilities of the story are
fully exploited. He describes the astrolabe of the sorcerer
with scientific detail, and airs his learning as he pictures the
magician's conjurings.

The astrology and magic of the East, finding their way
into the popular literature of France and England by
various channels, soon made themselves at home in the
whole realm of mediaeval romance. They easily established
friendly relations with the Celtic magic of the matiere de
Bretagne, and it was not long before the fairies and dwarfs
of Northern folk-lore were as learned as the daughters of
the Saracens.^ The precise point of time when the magic
of the East became mingled with the indigenous magic of
the West is, of course, difficult to determine. A work so

^ Kyng Alisaimder 287 (Weber, Metrical Romances i. 17). The
Kyng Alisaunder was written before 1330, and *ars-table' is probably
the first appearance of the word 'astrolabe' in English. The earliest
citation in the NED. is under the year 1366.

^ Conf. Am. 6. 1790 fif. (ed. Macaulay, Oxford, 1901, 3. 215 ff.).

' Several instances of fairies who are expert in the sciences of
magic and astrology will appear in the following pages. A few
more may be added here. The 'fairy of the white hands' in Le
Bel Inconnu has been instructed by her father in the seven arts,
and especially in necromancy and astrology (1918, 4846: ed. Hip-
peau, i860, pp. 68, 172). In the shorter English imitation, Libcaus
Desconus, although sorcery plays a part (cf. 1513, 1780, 1795: ed.
Kaluza, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 84, 99, 100; cf. Wells, pp. 71, 772),
astrology is not specifically mentioned. Melior, the fairy in the
English Partonope of Bids (about 1450; the French source is
dated about 1188), learned the marvelous arts of the East from her
father, the Emperor of Constantinople (5933: EETS. ES. 109. 225).
Cf, also Chanson d'Antioche (ed. P. Paris, 1848), p. 59; and
Dolopathos 9275.

io6 Medicoval Attitude toward Astrology

purely Celtic as the Mabinogion is still free from astrol-
ogy. So also are the lais of Marie de France, and, for the
most part, the Arthurian romances of Chretien de Troyes.
A reference to astrology is found in the Erec, but
Chretien is careful to state that he is borrowing from
Macrobius. Toward the close of the poem, Erec appears
in a robe made by four fairies, who had portrayed thereon
geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. The last of
these is called the chief of all the arts, and is described in
words that remind us of the similar panegyric of Adelard

of Bath :

La quarte, qui apres ovra,
A mout buene cevre recovra ;
Car la mellor des arz i mist.
D'astronomie s'antremist
Cele qui f et tante mervoille,
Qui as estoiles se consoille
Et a la lune et au soloil.
An autre leu ne prant consoil
De rien qui a feire li soit;
Gil la consoillent bien a droit.
De quanque ele les requiert,
Et quanque fu et quanque iert,
Li font certainnement savoir
Sanz mantir et sanz decevoir.^

In the romances dealing with the Tristan story, astrol-
ogy is already an integral part of the matiere de Bretagne.
The dwarf Frocin, who appears in the French version of
Beroul (i 190-1200), is an expert astrologer.^ When his
plans for enticing Tristan and Iseult to betray themselves
before the king have gone wrong, he is able to foresee his
threatened disgrace in the stars. The Tristan of Thomas,
on the other hand, though it also takes note of the tradition
that the dwarf was an astrologer, is sceptical about his

^ Erec 6777-6790 (ed. Foerster, Halle, 1896, p. 175); cf. above,
p. 50.
'^Beroul, Roman de Tristan 320 ff. (ed. Muret, Paris, 1913, p. 11).

Astrology in the Mediaeval Romances 107

having played the role of deceiver by the help of any such
easy means.^

The process by which the astrology of the Orient became
mingled with the simple magic of the Celts can be seen
actually at work by comparing with one another the suc-
cessive retellings of the Merlin legend. Although there
are some traces of astrology in Geoffrey of Monmouth, the
story of Vortiger's tower, and of the discomfiture of the
magicians at the hands of the child Merlin, is still quite
free from it. In the chronicles of Wace and Layamon,
too, the magi of the Celtic tradition are simply 'wise men'
and 'diviners.' When the legend, however, after having
traveled to France, reappears in England in such works
as the Arthour and Merlin (about 1325), and the prose
romance of the fifteenth century, the magi of Geoffrey have
turned definitely into astrologers. The Arthour and Merlin,
differing somewhat from other versions of the story, makes
a further curious use of astrology in the scene where
Merlin confronts the wise men with the charge that they
had sought to take his life. He exonerates them on the

^ Bedier, Le Roman de Tristan par Thomas (Paris, 1902) i. 192.
Bedier paraphrases Gottfried von Strasburg's version (14, 244 ff.)
as follows : *Ce nain savoit, dit-on, lire, dans les etoiles les choses
cachees, mais je ne veux rien rapporter de lui que ce que je
trouve dans la vraie histoire: qu'il etait adroit, ruse et bien emparle.*
On the question of dwarfs in mediaeval romances, see A. Liitjens,
Der Zwerg in den Heldendichtungen des Mitt clatters (Breslau,
1911), p. 6; and Wohlgemuth, Riesen und Zwerge in den Alt-
franzosischen Dichtungen (Stuttgart, 1906), p. 80 ff. Schoepperle
(Tristan and Isolt: A Study of the Sources of the Romance, Lon-
don, 1913, I. 249) thinks that the description of the dwarf in the
Tristan, though, perhaps, reminiscent of the dwarfs in Celtic tradi-
tion, is based largely upon the contemporary custom of maintaining
dwarfs at court. An interesting reference to astrology occurs in
the Tristan, where the hero tells Iseult that his parents do not know
of his whereabouts, since he had originally expected to go to Spain
to study astronomy and other sciences (Bedier i. 98).

io8 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

ground that the sky itself was to blame for misleading them
in their predictions :

]>t sky, J?at 30U schewed I'at,

It was ]>t fader, >at me bisat;

For he me hadde nou3t to his wille,

J?urch 30U he wald do me spille^ ;
Astrology is also mentioned in the romances of Merlin in
connection with the fay Morgain. Like the Mohammedan
enchantresses of the chansons de geste, she is versed in
astronomy and necromancy.^

The attitude of the romances toward astrology hardly
admits of logical analysis. A narrator was as little
hampered in the Middle Ages by questions of science or
of ethics as he is to-day. It may be said, in general, that
astrology, to the popular mediaeval mind, was a wonderful
science, vaguely defined, and seldom condemned, whose
omnipotence was proverbial. It is spoken of everywhere
as the chief of the seven arts, and was hardly distinguished
from necromancy and magic. The reality of its powers
was never doubted. By reason of its being a learned foreign
importation, as yet somewhat removed from the life of the
uneducated, and not subjected to the satire which it inevit-
ably encountered in practice, astrology could acquire a
fame in popular literature even exceeding that which it
held among the astronomers of the schools. The common
people who had not outgrown their faith in the simple
magic of the Teutons and Celts — witness the serious
defense of the belief in fairies, made by the author of the
Melusine^ — were not likely to be sceptical of the scientific

^ Arthour and Merlin 1583-6 (ed. Kolbing, Leipzig, 1890, p. 47);
cf. Prose Merlin (ed. Wheatley, EETS. 10. 39).

^ Prose Merlin {EETS. 21. 375) ; cf. Paton, Studies in the Fairy
Mythology of Arthurian Romance {Radcliffe Coll. Monographs,
1903), P- 46, note. The witch Carmile, appearing in the Arthour and
Merlin (Kolbing, p. 126), is an adept in necromancy.

^ Melusine, chap, i (ed. Donald, EETS. ES. 68. 2). The author
is Jean d'Arras, writing about 1382-94. In the English translation,

Astrology in the Mediceval Romances 109

magic, newly arrived from the Orient. A serious work like
the prose Lapidaire of Philippe de Valois could assert that
only fools doubted the existence of magic powers in stones,
herbs, and spoken words/ And the author of the famous
Image du Monde,- which retained its popularity down to
the time when Caxton translated it into English, undertakes
to defend both magic and astrology from the attacks of
the incredulous, as well as from those who ascribe all such
wondrous things to the devil. He introduces the subject
in connection with a description of Virgil as a magician"^ :

Virgyle dyde and made many grete mervaylles, whiche the herers
shold holde for lesynges yf they herde them recounted; ffor they
wolde not byleve that another coude doo suche thynge as theye
coude not medle wyth. And whan they here speke of suche maters
or of other that they see at their eyen and that they can not under-
stonde ne knowe not thereof, anon they saye that it is by thelpe
of the fende that werketh in suche maner, as they that gladly
myssaye of peple of recommendacion. And also saye it is good
not to conne suche thynges. But yf they knewe the science and
manere, they wold holde it for a moche noble and right werke
of nature, and without ony other espece of evyll. And whan they
know not ne understonde the thinge, they say moche more evyl
than well.

Certaynly who that knewe well astronomye, ther is nothyng in
the world of which he coude enquyre by reson but he shold have

made a century later, we read: 'And he is not wyse that suche
thinges supposeth to comprehende in his wit, and weneth that the
mervaylles that ben thrugh the universal world, may nat be true,
as it is said of the thinges that men calle ffayrees, and as it is of
many other thinges, whereof we may not have the knowleche of
alle them.'

^ 'Et nus sages homs ne doit douter que Diex n'ait mis vertuz en
pierres et en herbes et en paroles, et qui ce ne croit et 11 desdit, il
fait que pechierres' (Pannier, Les Lapidaires Frangais du Moyen
Age, Paris, 1882, p. 292).

* The work is dated 1266. There is a dispute as to whether the
author's name is Gautier of Metz or Gossouin of Metz ; cf. Prior's
edition of Caxton's translation {Mirrour of the World, ed. Prior,
EETS. ES. no, pp. ix-x).

^Caxton's Mirrour of the World 3. 13 (ed. Prior, p. 160).

no Mediceval Attitude tozvard Astrology

knowleche therof. And many thynges shold he doo that sholde
seme myracles to the peple whiche that knewe nothynge of the
science. I saye not but ther myght be wel don evyll by hym that
coude it; ffor ther is none so good science but that myght be
entended therin somme malyce/ and that he myght use it in evyll
that wolde so applye hym therto. God made never so good a gospel
but somme myghte torne it contrarye to trouthe; and ther is no
thynge so true but somme myght so glose that it shold be to his
dampnacion, who that wolde payne hym to do evyll, how wel it
is no maystrye to do yll.

As regards the ethical question involved in the employ-
ment of astrology and magic, the view just expressed by
the author of the Image du Monde is also that of the
mediaeval romances. Condemnations of astrology are
rare. Removed from ecclesiastical influence, and not called
upon to solve questions of right and wrong, the writer of
the tales did not censure magic practices except when a
condemnation was demanded by the story itself — that is,
when magic was used for manifestly evil purposes. The
dwarf in Beroul's Tristan is not spared a denunciation^ ;
and the wizard Maugis, in the Foure Sonnes of Aymon,
though he is willing to come to the aid of his friend
Renaud even after he has forsworn his art, realizes that
he may be damned for this in the end.^ But, despite the fact
that magic is often felt to be on the defensive, it is never
condemned outright. In the Aiol, a French romance of the

^ The Image du Monde elsewhere (2. 24: op. cit., p. 116) denounces
necromancy — which it defines properly as a conjuring of evil
spirits — in more vigorous terms : This is a scyence that, who that
gevyth hym therto to do evyl, hit gyveth hym the deth; ffor yf
he taketh no hede therof, he shal be dampned body and sowle.*
But one may note that here, too, it is only when used for evil ends
that black magic is condemned. The Image du Monde has many
other references to astrology; cf. i. 13 {op. cit., p. 40) ; 2. 33 (p.
128) ; 3. 8 (p. 144).

^Beroul, Tristan 643 ff. (ed. Muret, p. 19).

^ The Foure Sonnes of Aymon, chap. 24 (ed. Richardson, EETS.
ES. 44. 503). Cf. Wace's Roman de Rou 7S37'

Astrology in the Mediceval Romances m

twelfth century, even a pious hermit interprets a dream
by means of the stars.^ The Earl of Poitiers in the
Melusine, who is endowed with the power of astrological
prophecy, sings praises to God for bestowing upon man so
marvelous a gift.^ Fairies, as is well known, could be good
Christians. The fay Melusine, in the romance just men-
tioned, assures her lover that she 'is of God' and that her
belief is 'as a Catholique beleve oughte for to be.'^ The
hero in Partonope of Blois, defending his fairy love Melior
before the bishop, testifies that she always speaks reverently
of God.*

This general leniency shown by the romances toward
magic was not altogether to the liking of the Church.
There were not wanting, in the fourteenth century as in
our own, those who saw in the reading of novels a snare
of the devil. An interesting bit of proof of this is found
in a treatise against astrology^ — the Trilogium Astrologue
TheologizatcB — written by Gerson, the famous chancellor
of the University of Paris in the early fifteenth century.
Gerson laments the universal prevalence in his time of
superstitions regarding magic, and tries to define its cause.
This he discovers to be a general corruption of the popular

^ Aiol 390 ff. (ed. Normant et Raynaud, Paris, 1877, p. 12).

"" Melusine, chap. 4 (ed. Donald, EETS. ES. 68. 22).

^Melusine, chap. 6 {op. cit., p. 31); cf. Romans of Partenay
460 ff. (ed. Skeat, EETS. 22. 23).

* Partonope of Blois 5761 ff. (ed. Bodtker, EETS. ES. 109. 219).
In Melior are united the Celtic fay and the Oriental sorceress.
She herself confesses (5933) that she is the daughter of a Byzantine
emperor, from whom she acquired her knowledge of astrology and
necromancy.

'^Like the similar works of Nicolas Oresme, the treatise was not
really directed against astrology itself, but against magic. Gerson,
much as he probably wished it, was unable to disprove scientific
astrology, and consequently was powerless to do more than to
warn against charlatans, and to plead for moderation in the use of
the science. See Schwab, Johannes Gerson (Wiirzburg, 1858), pp.
714-7.

112 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

imagination, due in part to the tempting of the devil him-
self, partly to the persistence of pagan customs, and finally
to the reading of romances. Gerson defines romances as
'books written in the French tongue, relating in poetic form
the deeds of military heroes — stories which are fictitious
for the most part, and which serve rather to satisfy a
hunger for novelty and admiration, than to foster a
knowledge of the truth.'^

^ *Ex lectione quorundam Romanciorum, i. e., librorum compo-
sitorum in Gallico quasi poeticorum de gestis militaribus, in quibus
maxima pars fabulosa est, magis ad ingerendam quandam novitatem
et admirationem quam veritatis cognitionem' (Schwab, p. 717).
Is this the earliest definition of the novel?

CHAPTER VIII

ASTROLOGY IN MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE

However valuable the naive references to astrology in
the French romances of the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies may be for defining the popular mediaeval attitude
toward the magic of the East, they are of comparatively
small service in determining the state of feeling in Eng-
land itself. All the Middle English romances dealing
with astrology were translations from the French or Latin,
and very few even of these bear a date earlier than 1350.
For direct evidence concerning the attitude toward astrol-
ogy in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies, one must turn to the more indigenous literary
productions of the time, although these, too, afford only a
scanty gleaning. It is safe to assume, of course, that the
vulgar astrology of the almanac — whose importation into
England dates back to the time of ^Ifric^ — was already
widely current. ^ But all evidence points toward the con-
clusion that an interest in astrology proper did not become
general in the vernacular literature of England before the
age of Gower and Chaucer. Not until the fifteenth cen-
tury, in effect, are references to astrology as frequent in
English as they were in the literature of France one or
two centuries previous.

^ See above, pp. 44 fif.

^ The best proof of this can be found in the portions of a
popular calendar for the year 1349, published by A. Hahn (Archiv
106. 349-51)- In the manuscript, which contains, among other
things, the source for a portion of Rolle's Pricke of Conscience,
is found a poem of some thirty-nine lines on the influence of
planets, giving advice on undertaking any enterprise when this
or that planet rules the day or the hour. The astrology of the poem
is not much above the level of the Old English treatises which we
met in the Leechdoms (see above, p. 44).

b^

114 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

It may seem strange, in view of this generalization, that
one of the most enhghtened discussions of astrology in
Middle English is found in a work dated as early as the
latter half of the thirteenth century. It occurs in a frag-
ment on popular science, part of the Legend of Michael
in the Southern Legendary Collection} The lines which
bear particularly upon astrology are found near its begin-
ning, and constitute a paraphrase of the current Church
doctrine on the subject of stellar influence. After a general
cosmological explanation of the universe and an enumeration
of the seven planets, the poet continues :

Thurf gret wit of clergie here [the planets] names were furst

ifounde.
For ech of the sovene mai gret vertu an urthe do,
Bothe of weder and frut, as here poer is therto;
And also men that beoth ibore under here miste iwis
Schulle habbe diverse miste, and lyf, after that here vertu is,
Summe lechours, and summe glotouns, and summe other manere ;
Natheles a man of god inwit of alle thulke him mai skere :
For planetes ne doth non other bote 3eveth in manes wille,
To beo lither other god as here vertu wole to tille.
And 3yveth also qualite to do so other so,
And no3t for then by his inwit ech man may do.
For such qualite hath noman to beo lechour other schrewe.
That ne mai him witie ther a3en, ac natheles so doth fewe."

No source for any portion of this Fragment on Popular

^ The passage is at times referred to by its opening line as 'The
ri3te putte of helle.' The earliest manuscript dates about 1280-90
(cf. Wells, p. 294). The piece has been published several times:
in Wright's Popular Treatises on Science (London, 1841, pp.
132-40) ; in a reprint of the earliest manuscript {Laud 108 : EETS.
87. 311-22) ; in Jahrh. fur Rom. und Engl. Lit. (13. 150) ; and in
Matzner's Altenglische Sprachprohen (i. 136 ff.) ; cf. further. Wells,
p. 835.

^Matzner's Altenglische Sprachprohen (Berlin, 1867) i. 138. The
poem continues with a description of the astrological characteristics
of the days of the week. Tuesday and Saturday are pronounced
bad for beginning things.

Astrology in Middle English Literature

a

Science has yet been pointed out.^ The fragment, as
whole, shows evident affinities with the French Image du
Monde, probably written (1266) shortly before the Legend
of Michael itself, and with the scientific works of Alexander
Neckam (dated about 1200), upon which the Image is
partly founded.^ Neckam's discussion of astrological
fatalism and free will, or the corresponding passages of
the Image, may, indeed, have suggested the somewhat more
elaborated statement of the English poet.^ Only in the

^In Matzner's Altenglische Sprachproben (i. 137), a slight con-
nection is found to exist between it and Bede's De Natura Rerum.

"^ Several of the parallels between the Legend and the two foreign
works may here be enumerated: i. The statement of the Legend
of Michael (483, LETS. 87. 313) that the sun is 165 times as large
as the earth, is found in the Image (3. 18: Caxton, p. 170), and in
Neckam's De Naturis Rerum (i. 8: Wright, p. 44), where, however,
the number is 166. 2. When the English reads (397) '•

for the leste sterre i wis
In hevene, as the boc ous saith, more than the urthe is,

the Image (3. 19: p. 171) could again serve as model. 'There is
none,' says the latter, 'so lytil of them [the stars] that ye may see
on the firmament but that is gretter than all therthe is.' 3. The
English (530 ff.), in explaining the nature of thunder, employs the
illustration of a hot piece of iron giving off a hissing sound
when thrust into water. This goes back eventually to Neckam's
De Laudibus Divince Sapientice (3. 107 ff.), which, in turn, is copied
by the Image (2. 2B): p. 121). 4. The Middle English poem (493 ff.)
visualizes the distance between the earth and heaven by saying that
if Adam had started to make a journey to the sky, traveling forty
miles a day, he would to-day still be 'a thousand mile and mo'
from his goal. The same illustration is found in the Image (3. 19 :
p. 172) although the mathematical figuring is more exact (Adam
walks twenty-five French miles, or fifty English miles, a day, and
the distance by which he falls short is measured as 713 years).

^ The corresponding passage of Neckam's De Naturis Rerum has
been cited in an earlier chapter (p. 62) ; cf. especially the fol-
lowing: 'Sciendum etiam est quod, licet superiora corpora effectus
quosdam compleant in inferioribus, liberum tamen arbitrium animae
non impellunt in ullam necessitatem hoc vel illud exequendi.' Cf.
also Image 2. 32 (p. 126) ; 2. 33 (p. 129) ; and especially 3. 13

ii6 Mediccval Attitude toward Astrology

closing line, with its comment that few men make use of
their will-power in their struggle against evil, is there a hint
that the author was acquainted with the more recent views
on the subject of astrology, found in such works as the
Siimma Theologice of Thomas Aquinas.^ But whatever
be the final verdict as to its source, the passage must be
considered one of the earliest expressions in a European
vernacular of the scholastic doctrine concerning astro-
logical fatalism. In English, the subject is not again so
fully discussed until the time of Barbour's Bruce and
Gower's Confessio Amantis; and the somewhat similar
popularization of the orthodox teaching regarding astrology
and free will, found in Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose,
can at best have antedated the Legend of Michael by only
a few years. ^

While the reference to astrology in the Legend of Michael
represents the contemporaneous teachings of the learned,
other discussions of the subject in Middle English litera-
ture drew upon less modern sources. It is a common saying
that the learned science of one century becomes the popular
science of the next. The more popular the science, in fact,
the farther behind the times will it be. Side by side with
the most advanced views regarding astrology, there still
existed the ecclesiastical conservatism of the early mediaeval
centuries. The passages in Middle English literature,
dealing with astrology, present accordingly a considerable
variety of opinions — a variety which finds its explanation
only in the light of the whole history of mediaeval astrology.

(p. i6i) : 'Every man hath the power to drawe hym self to do well
or to do evyll, whiche that he wylle, as he that hath fre liberte of
that one and of that other.'

^ Cf. Summa i. 115. 4: 'Pauci autem sunt sapientes, qui huius modi
passionibus resistant. Et ideo astrologi, ut in pluribus vera pos-
sunt prsedicere, et maxime in communi. Non autem in speciali:
quia nihil prohibet aliquem hominem per liberum arbitrium pas-
sionibus resistere.'

• On the Roman de la Rose, see below, pp. 138 ff.

I

Astrology in Middle English Literature 117

It is important, therefore, in turning to the vernacular
discussions themselves, to keep the early history of mediaeval
astrology clearly in mind. As we have seen, this was
divided chronologically into two distinct periods. In the
first, extending to the middle of the twelfth century,
astrology was known only as a diabolic art, which had
been condemned by the Fathers of the early Church. Even
when it was treated as a formidable philosophical theory
by John of Salisbury and Abelard, it was denounced as a
manifestation of pagan impiety. The arrival of Aristotle
and of Arabian science changed all this. Astrology was
accepted by the scientists of the Church in theory, and
virtually in practice. The champions of astrology, however,
were not bold enough to confront the traditional teaching
of the Church with one diametrically opposed. Hence,
instead of attempting a substitution of doctrines, they con-
tented themselves with a superposition. The early Church
had made no distinction between a true and a false astrol-
ogy. The Church of the thirteenth century, by making
just this distinction, was enabled to entertain an enthu-
siasm for the moderate science of Ptolemy, and to preserve,
at the same time, pious scorn for astrological magic, and
that manifestation of judicial astrology which it loosely
defined as prediction per certitudinem. The vagueness
inherent in this definition of orthodox astrology gave rise,
in the later centuries, as we have noted, to plentiful con-
fusions. Enthusiasts for the science, like Roger Bacon
and Pierre d'Ailly,^ could make their appeal under cover

^ Pierre d'Ailly (1350-1420) is an excellent example of an important
Churchman — d'Ailly presided at the Council of Constance (1415) —
who was a firm believer in astrology. He even subscribed to
Albumasar's horoscopes of the various religions, which we met in
the writings of Roger Bacon. Pierre d'Ailly, to be sure, made an
exception in the case of Christianitj^ which, he said, was not ruled
over by the stars (Guignebert, De Imagine Mundi Ccterisque Petri
de Alliaco Gcographicis Opusculis, Paris, 1902, pp. 16-21).

ii8 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

of the same orthodoxy that served Petrarch, Oresme, and
Pico della Mirandola as an excuse for their attacks.

Now, in the discussions of astrology in vernacular litera-
ture, this situation was still further complicated. The
debate concerning astrology carried on by the learned could
at least boast of a continuous development. After Thomas
Aquinas had embodied the Arabian cosmology in his sys-
tem, no ecclesiastical writer — unless, like Petrarch, he
deliberately ignored these newer advances — dared again to
launch against astrology an indiscriminate polemic. But
the popular writings of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies were under no obligation to keep abreast of con-
temporaneous scientific literature.^ Isidore and John of
Salisbury did not cease to be read on the subject of astrol-
ogy, even though their conclusions had been superseded by
those of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.

An example of the persistence in the fourteenth century
of the hostility toward astrology characteristic of the early
Middle Ages, is found in the writings of Rolle of Hampole.
Himself an educated man, and at one time a student at
Oxford, he was in all probability acquainted with the astro-
logical science of the day. A passage of the Pricke of
Conscience even subscribes, vaguely though it be, to the
current cosmology of the scholastic scientists.^ Neverthe-

*A good illustration of this is the popular encyclopaedia, the
Image du Monde. Although it was contemporary with such Latin
encyclopaedias as those of Vincent of Beauvais and Bartholomaeus
Anglicus, it adopted as its principal source the Imago Mundi of
Honorius Inclusus, written more than a century and a half previous
(see above, pp. 6i, 109).

^Pricke of Conscience 7596-7617 (ed. Morris, Berlin, 1863, p. 205).
Rolle cites Bartholomaeus Anglicus as the source for a passage on
the starry and crystalline heavens. For the following lines, in
which he declares that the movement of the heavens is necessary
for life on earth, he names no authority, but it may well be that
for this again the original is the De Proprietatibus Rerum (cf.
Batman uppon Bartholome, fols. I2iaff.). Nassyngton {Religious

Astrology in Middle English Literature 119

less, when Rolle, in a treatise on the decalogue, deals with
astrology proper, he condemns it outright, and classes it,
as did the ecclesiastical writers from Isidore to Gratian,
with witchcraft and divination. The occult arts are
accused of transgressing the first commandment. 'Alswa
in J)is comandement,' says Rolle, 'es forbodyn to gyffe
trouthe till sorcerye or till dyvynynges by sternys or by
dremys, or by any swylke thynges. Astronomyenes
byhaldes ^e daye and l^e houre and J)e poynte JDat man es
borne in, and undir whylke syngne he es borne, and J)e
poynte Jjat he begynnes to be in, and by J^ire syngnes and
o})er J)ay say ]3at that sail befall l^e man afterwarde, bot
theyre errowre es reproffede of haly doctours.' The exposi-
tory tone employed by the author would lead one to suspect
that it was directed to a public still as ignorant of astrology
as that which had listened to ^Ifric's explanation of the
astrological problems of twins. ^

Poem 43-4: EETS. 26. 61) takes the scholastic cosmology similarly
for granted :

The firmament ]>o\i made movande,
To noresche all thyng J?areundire lyfande.
^ EETS. 20. 9; cf. above, pp. 11, 20, 46. An application of the
first commandment to divination and sorcery is common in Middle
English. It is found, for example, in the Lay-Folks' Catechism of
Archbishop Thoresby (1357), as well as in the Wycliffite adapta-
tion of this (EETS. 118. 34-5). The Latin of the Lambeth Canons,
upon which these catechisms were founded, is the earliest text
which I have yet discovered in which the first commandment is
thus interpreted. The Lambeth canons date about 1281. 'In primo
prohibetur omnis idolatria, cum dicitur, Non habebis Deos alienos
coram Me: in quo prohibetur implicite omnia sortilegia et omnes
incantationes cum superstitionibus characterum, et hujusmodi fig-
mentorum' (EETS. 118. 33-5). Cf. also Myrc's Instructions to
Parish Priests (EETS. 31. 27). In Robert of Brunne's Handlyng
Synne (571 ff. : EETS. 119. 21), an application of the first com-
mandment is made to the popular belief that three fairies foretell
the child's future at birth. For the 'lewed men' to whom Robert
of Brunne addressed his writing, this simple superstition probably

I20 Mediccval Attitude toward Astrology

The fear of transgressing the bounds of strict orthodoxy-
was also the probable cause of an argument against astro-
logical fatalism which Trevisa inserted into his translation
of Higden's Poly chronic on. In the third book of his
chronicle, Higden introduces the legend of Alexander the
Great, and repeats the story of the Egyptian astrologer
Nectanabus. The close of the episode, together with
Trevisa's orthodox comment, runs as follows^ :

In a day whan Phelip was absent, Alisaundre prayed Nectanabus
J>at he wolde teche hym his craft, and he grauntede; and whan
J?ey come in fere unto a deep water pitte, Alisaundre l?rew the
wicche in J^e same pitte; and whan he was in J^at pitte and deed
woundede, he axede of Alisaundre why he dede so. 'Thy craft,'
quod Alisaundre, 'is to blame, for he warnede l^e not what schulde
byfalle : J?ere J?ou liest nevelynge, and schuldest telle after J?ese
Jjynges of hevene.* The whiche answerede and seide, 'No man
may flee his own destayne. I knowe wel by J?is craft )>at myn
owne sone schulde slee me.' Trevisa. Nectanabus seide l?is sawe,
and was a wicche, and J?erfore it is nevere ]?e bettre to trowynge:
but it were a vile schame for a Cristen man to trowe l?is false sawe
of ]?is wicche; for from every myshap J^at man is ischape in Yis
worlde to falle ynne, God may hym save sif it is his wille.

We have seen, in our general survey of mediaeval astrol-
ogy, that the persistence of the early ecclesiastical fear of
the practical science was frequently coupled with a generous
acceptance of astrological theory. Such a juxtaposition of
opinions was already slightly noticeable in the writings of
Rolle of Hampole. It meets us fully in Piers Plowman.
In fact, the contradictions between the several references
to astrology in the poem have been employed as evidence for

held the place which astrology occupied in the beliefs of the more
learned. The fact that the Handlyng Synne, which in this con-
nection deals severely with fatalistic superstitions, does not mention
astrology, might be taken as added proof that the latter had not
penetrated to the common people of England in the early fourteenth
century (the Handlyng Synne was written about 1303).

^ Poly chronic on 3. 27 (ed., with Trevisa's translation, by Lumby,
Rolls Sen, 3. 401).

Astrology in Middle English Literature 121

its multiple authorship.^ To determine the attitude toward
astrology of the author of Piers Plowman, two passages
are of particular importance. One of these is found only
in the earlier two versions. In a speech of Dame Study
the poet is warned not to meddle with sorcery and magic,
and the alchemy taught by Albertus.^ Astronomy is named
among the list of evil practices, alongside of geometry and
geomancy :

Ac astronomye is an harde thynge and 5^el forto knowe,
Geometric and geomesye is gynful of speche;
Whoso thenkcth werche with the two thryveth ful late.
For sorcerye is the sovereyne boke that to the science longeth.

The 'astronomy' condemned by the poet, judged by the
company it keeps, can not have been of a very high order.
It is an astrology of quite a nobler kind that is referred to
by the author of the last of the three versions, in a later
passus of the poem.^ The influence of the stars upon man
at birth is here taken for granted. In illustrating the dif-
ference between learning (clergie) and common sense
(kynde witt), the poet says:

Clergie cometh bote of siht, and kynde witt of sterres,
As to be bore other bygete in such constellacion
That wit wexeth ther of and other wyrdes bothe,
Vultus huius sceculi sunt subiecti vultibus ccelestibus*

The fact that in the third version the earlier reference to
astronomy as a magic art is omitted may suggest that the
poet — whether the same as the one who wrote the earlier
version or a different one — thought the condemnation too
severe. It may be, too, that the general enthusiastic inter-

^This has been done by Professor Manly (Mod. Phil. 7. 126).

'Version A 11. 152 ff. (EETS. 28. 129); Version B 10. 207
(EETS. 38. 153).

'Version C 15. 28 ff. (EETS. 54. 248).

* In Version B, the contrast between clergie and ky)ide zvit is
given quite differently (12. 69-70: EETS. 38. 196) :
Of quod scimus cometh clergye and connynge of hevene.
And of quod vidimus cometh kynde witt; of si3te of dyverse peple.

122 Medi(Eval Attitude toward Astrology

est shown in astrology at the turn of the century by men
like Gower and Chaucer reacted upon the author of Piers
Plowman so as to cause him to change his views. The
denunciation of the mathematical sciences in the former of
the two passages is vague at best, and may imply simply a
general hostility to sorcery and magic. Even if the lines
had been retained in the last version, or if both had been
written at the same time, the contradiction between 'the
two would have been no greater than that found in the
works of Dante and many another mediaeval writer.^

The discussion of divination, found in the fourth book
of Barbour's Bruce, presents an attitude toward astrology
somewhat similar to that of Piers Plowman, although in
the Bruce the hostile point of view is that of a rationalist,
rather than that of a conservative ecclesiastic. Barbour
introduces the subject in connection with a prophecy made
by an old woman to the Scottish king, promising him ulti-
mate success in his fight against the British. The fact that
the prediction actually came true puzzles Barbour, and, by
way of comment on the general problem of prophecy, he
enters upon a lengthy excursus on astrology and necro-
mancy. The latter, of course, he denounces as a wicked art,
although he admits that demons can foretell the future.^

^ Even in the earlier two versions, astrology is in part accepted.
All three texts contain a reference to Saturn as a prognosticator
of famine and flood (A 7. 311; B 6. 327; C 9. 348); and in
Versions B and C (B 15. 352-64; C 18. 94-106) it is stated that
shipmen and shepherds formerly predicted weather by the stars,
and that the present failure of their predictions is a sign of
degenerate times. Cf. also C 10. 107-8; A 10. 142. Professor
Tatlock {The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited, p. 29) has
already suggested that the contradictions in Piers Plowman are not
so real as they at first sight appear.

^ Bruce 7A^-7A (EETS. ES. 51. 90). Earlier in the fourth book
(216 ff.), in relating the death of King Edward, Barbour cites a
legend to the effect that the English monarch himself had a demon
as a familiar, who, by means of an ambiguous prediction, had

Astrology in Middle English Literature 123

A pretended science like astrology, on the other hand, he
terms not only impious, but impossible. The Bruce, in
truth — almost alone in Middle English— expresses, in addi-
tion to a distrust of astrology on religious grounds, a
contempt for it as a mere fraud :

For thouch a man his liff haly
Studeit swa in astrology
That on the sternis his hed he brak,
Wis men sais he suld nocht mak,
His lifetime, certayne domys thre/

This is, however, as far as Barbour ventures in his criti-
cism. Indeed his conscious avoidance of dogmatic asser-
tion,^ and his subsequent marvel at the fact that the old
woman's prophecy regarding the king was successful, make
it appear that he was not very sure of his scepticism. And

tricked the king into a belief that he should die at Jerusalem.
Barbour calls the king a fool for trusting to even a friend's
prophecy. Demons, he says, know the future, but are eager to use
this gift to deceive those who consult them.

'^ Ibid. 709 ff. It seems that Barbour was led into the discussion,
in the first place, by a genuine wonder concerning the possibility
of foreseeing the future. He is evidently not at all sure that such
things are impossible, though he cannot understand how a prophet
can be relied on, except when he is directly aided by God.

As it wes wonderfull, perfay,
How ony mon throu steris may
Know the thingis that ar to cum
Determinably, all or sum,
Bot gif that he enspirit war
Of him, that all thing evirmar
Seis in his presciens.
As it war ay in his presens :
As David wes and Jeromy,
Samuell, Joell, and Ysay.

{Ibid. 674-83: EETS. ES. 55. 100. 'Determinably' probably trans-
lates the per certitudinem of the scholastic theologians).

'Ibid. 674: *As it wes wounderfull, perfay'; and 706: 'Bot me
think it war gret mastry.'

124 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

Barbour was too well informed on the subject of astrology
itself to attack more than the extreme manifestations of
astrological divination. His maximum claim is, after all,
that the astrologer cannot predict what will befall in par-
ticular cases. He admits that the 'constellations' can
incline a man to good or ill, and that the astrologer can
determine a man's natural disposition.^ With regard to
such general prognostications, Barbour merely makes the
familiar reservation that man's will remains free even here
to conquer his evil tendencies, if he so desires. He cites
Aristotle as a notable example of a strong man who over-
came his inclinations toward lying and covetousness. He
therefore concludes, in view of so manifest a proof of
man's power to shape his own destiny, that divination by
the stars is 'na certane thing.'^

It may be stated as a general principle that the enthu-
siasm for astrology shown by mediaeval writers varies in
direct proportion to their knowledge of the subject. While
many a popular religious writer might hold off from astrol-
ogy as a thing in itself evil, no such general distrust is
noticeable on the part of the more learned. At the opposite
pole, in fact, from the attitude of Richard Rolle, was that
of the great English theologian of the fourteenth century,
Bradwardine. The latter 's De Causa Dei, although written
in Latin, became widely known, and its discussion of pre-
destination and free will cannot well be overlooked in deal-
ing with astrology in the England of the fourteenth century.^

^Ihid. 706-8, 716-28.

^ Ibid. 746. The reference to Aristotle (736-42) is curious. The
example of a man conquering his evil nature, usually cited in the
literature of the fourteenth century, was that of Hippocrates (see
below, p. 126).

^ The importance in the theological disputes of the fourteenth
century of the problem concerning free will, and the reflections
of this dispute in Middle English literature, are noted by C. F.
Brown, in The Author of The Pearl, considered in the Light of his

Astrology in Middle English Literature 125

As an indication of the view regarding the subject of astrol-
ogy current at Oxford, Bradwardine's treatment of the
subject is in itself valuable.

Bradwardine's orthodoxy on the question of astrology is
irreproachable. Inasmuch as the purpose of his chief work
was a defense of the Augustinian doctrine of predestination,
any rival theory of determinism found in him a stout
opponent.^ Harking back to the quarrel between the early
Church and the mathematici, he rehearses the historic con-
demnation of the ancient readers of horoscopes, by the aid
of plentiful quotations from Ambrose, Augustine, and
Gregory.^ The question of astrological fatalism once
thoroughly disposed of, however, Bradwardine shifts from
the attack to the defense. He makes no objections to the
science of his own day, accepting in full the moderate
astrology of Ptolemy and the scholastic theologians. Even
into his exposition of the patristic doctrine he inserts a
caveat to the effect that, when the astrologer indicates merely
tendencies and motives, his art is legitimate.^ The action
of the stars upon man's lower nature is explained according
to the familiar reasonings of Thomas Aquinas.'^ The

Theological Opinions {Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. 19. 115 ff.). Brad-
wardine is discussed at some length (pp. 128-34).

^ Bradwardine sharply distinguishes a necessitatio per causam
superior em and a necessitatio per causas inferior es. He subjects
the human will to the first, but defends its freedom over against
the second. The rule of the stars would, of course, fall under the
latter category; cf. S. Hahn, Thomas Bradwardinus und seine Lehre
von der Menschlichen Willensfreiheit (Miinster, 1905: Baumker's
Beitrdge, Vol. 5).

^Z)<? Causa Dei (ed. Savile, 1618), p. 265.

^Ibid.: 'Si tamen fatum siderum nequaquam necessitatem, sed
quandam dispositionem, et inclinationem in hominibus ad quosdam
actus importet, non videtur penitus abnegandum.'

*Ibid., p. 466: 'Pro iudiciis autem astrologorum, phisiognomoni-
corum, et caeterorum similium; advertendum quod stellae et virtutes
ccelestes multum disponunt, et vehementer inclinant corpus humanum

126 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

precepts of a 'sane astrology' are themselves made to serve
against the doctrines of fatalism. It is our duty, says
Bradwardine, to study the natural dispositions which have
been implanted in us by the heavens, and to foster our
good traits, so that they may in time conquer the bad.
Bradwardine draws upon Ptolemy's Centiloquium for the
advice that the wise man, like the shrewd husbandman, will
supplement the aid given by the stars, and that by looking
into the future he will fortify himself against an inevitable
evil.^ As an example of will-power conquering an evil
disposition, Bradwardine relates a story from personal
experience. He once met a rich merchant, he says, who
confessed that the ascendant at his birth was in the first
'face' of Aries — a constellation which normally would
have predisposed him to a life of homosexual lust. Brad-
wardine, on expressing his surprise that the man was
instead a respectable merchant, learned that the latter had
indeed been compelled to struggle against his inborn pas-
sions ever since he was a boy.^ Another instance of a
similar kind Bradwardine borrows from the Secretum
Secretorum, a work supposed to have been written by
Aristotle. According to the Secretum, students of the
Greek physician Hippocrates once took a picture of their
master to a famous teacher of physiognomy, only to be told

ad aliqua convenientia prosequenda, et contraria fugienda; et haec
dispositio est virtus seu vitium naturale, de qua multi philosophi
naturales, morales, et astrologi ssepe tractant' ; cf . pp. 450 ff.

^ Ihid., p. 467 : 'Nam sicut secundum Ptolomajum in Centilogio verbo
8 : "Anima sapiens adiuvat opus stellarum, quemadmodum seminator
fortitudines naturales"; sic secundum eundem supra eiusdem verbo
5: "Astrologus optimus multum malum prohibere poterit, quod
secundum Stellas venturum est, cum eius naturam prsesciverit" :
sic enim prsemuniet eum cui malum futurum est, ut possit aliquid
pati, sicut et testantur experimenta superius recitata.' These same
aphorisms of the Centiloquium and several others are used in a
slightly different connection on p. 450.

"" Ibid., p. 450.

Astrology in Middle English Literature 127

that it was the face of a deceiver and a wanton. Hip-
pocrates corroborated the findings of the physiognomist,
and informed his pupils that it was only through his power
of will that he had been enabled to attain to a virtuous
character.^

Bradwardine, in effect, although seriously opposed to
astrology as a fatalistic philosophy, was an enthusiastic
supporter of the legitimate science. In concluding his dis-
cussion of astrology in the De Causa Dei, he strongly
advises all theologians to study mathematics and astronomy. -
Astrology, inasmuch as it is the science of celestial things,
is nearest to the science of God. Bradwardine finds proof
in the Bible that the observance of heavenly signs is accord-
ing to the will of God. The general utility of astrology
is finally placed beyond doubt by additional citations from
Aristotle's Secretum Secretorum and the Church Fathers.^

In the writings of Wyclif, a conclusion is reached
regarding the astronomical sciences which is directly

^ Ibid., p. 451 ; cf. Three Prose Versions of the Seer eta Secretorum
(ed. Steele, EETS. 74. 113, 216). The poet Deschamps mentions
Hippocrates in the course of a glorification of free will; cf.
La Fiction du Lyon 11 56 ff. (Oeuvres Completes, Paris, 1882, 8. 283).
It may be that Barbour, when he mentioned Aristotle as a man
who had overcome his natural incHnations (see above, p. 124), had
in mind this passage in the Secretum, and merely confused names.

'^ De Causa Dei, p. 467: 'Quod insuper multum deceret, et
plurimum expediret theologos et perfectos Catholicos astrologiam
et alias tales scientias non nescire.' Bradwardine was famous as
a mathematician; cf. Cantor, Vorlesungen iiher Gesch. der Mathe-
matik (Leipzig, 1900) 2. 113; Curtze, in Zeitschr. fiir Mathematik
und Physik 13, Supplem. 81 ; Savile's introduction to the De Causa
Dei.

^De Causa Dei, pp. 468, 469. Some of the Biblical quotations
are already familiar; cf., for example. Gen. i. 14. Others are very
curious. Bradwardine interprets Matth. 16. i (*Ye know how to
discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of
the times' ; cf. Luke 12. 54) as implying that Christ approved of
general astrological predictions.

128 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

opposed to that of Bradwardine. Wyclif's negative attitude
was not so much one of hostility to astrology itself, as one
of indifference to science as a whole. To the English
reformer, as to the Fathers of the early Church, an interest
in astronomy seemed trivial compared with the eternal
issues for which he felt that he was battling. He already
exhibits that literal interpretation of the Scriptures which
found in the Bible an all-sufficient guide in matters secular
as well as religious, and which proved in later centuries to
be embarrassing to modern science.^

Wyclif did not formulate his conservative views on
astrology at the outset of his career ; nor were they founded
upon ignorance of the contemporary teachings on the sub-
ject. There is evidence in his writings that he was well
acquainted with the current astrological text-books; in his
earlier works he seems even to have subscribed to astro-
logical theory. There is extant a short treatise of his
on comets, in which Aristotle, Averroes, Haly, and other
Arabian masters are freely cited. ^ Again, in a curious
passage of the De Ente Prcedicamentali, which attempts to
give a phonological explanation of onomatopoeia, the influ-
ence of celestial bodies is tacitly taken for granted.^ In

^Wyclif has little use for any secular studies whatsoever. Even
law, grammar, and logic are to be shunned, because they are
employed for private gain {Polemical Works, ed. Buddensieg,
London, 1883, i. 221). In his De Veritate Sacrce Scriptures (ed.
Buddensieg, 1906, 2. 164), he exhorts priests not to spend their
time in worldly studies : 'Si igitur sciencie seculares sint post-
ponende, quia non directe ducunt ad pietatem, que est cultus Dei,
quanto magis artes contenciose et lucrative, que inducunt cultum
seculi et faciunt theologiam contempni!' (cf. also ibid. i. 22; and
below, p. 130).

^De Ente Prcedicamentali, Qusestio XII (ed. Beer, 1891, p. 297) :
'Utrum cometa sit de natura celi vel elementari.' The treatise
itself, which is a characteristic scholastic disputation, is unintel-
ligible to me.

^ Ibid., p. 17. Wyclif refers to celestial influence in several other
works, but his language is frequently so cryptic that it refuses to

Astrology in Middle English Literature 129

still another instance, however, where the power exercised
by the stars serves to illustrate the relation between God's
foreknowledge and man's free will, Wyclif already safe-
guards himself by stating that astrology is introduced
merely by way of example.^

Wyclif's mature judgment concerning astrology was dis-
tinctly unfavorable. He inveighs against it in his sermons,
in his English tractates, and especially in the Trialogiis,
the treatise which he wrote at the close of his life, and
which might be called his 'summa theologiae.' In all these
discussions, he emphasizes the futility of astrology. He
accuses the friars of practising sorcery,^ and of studying
Veyn sophistree and astronomye' instead of the Bible.^
Wyclif would banish, apparently, all astrology and astron-
omy from the schools, and substitute the pure Word of God.
In one of his Latin sermons, he asserts that in the verse
of the New Testament, Erunt signa in sole et hma, is
contained whatever of truth can be found in Ptolemy's
Quadripartitum, or in any other astronomical text-book.*
Wyclif even joins to this religious conservatism the scep-

yield clear sense. Thus in his De Blasphemia (ed. Dziewicki, 1893,
p. 62), it is apparently a conjunction of several untoward planets
that is taken as a sign of dissension in the Christian Church. In a
sermon on Luke 12. 25 ('Erunt signa in sole et luna et stellis'), the
mutual dependence of earth and heaven is quite clearly accepted
(Sermones, ed. Loserth, 1887, i. 9).

^ 'Quod ponatur gracia exempli' (De Ente 2. 7 : ed. Dziewicki
1909, p. 189). Wyclif is trying to answer the question whether
Peter had been free not to deny his Lord — a thing predicted before-
hand by Christ himself.

^ De Apostasia, chap. 2 (ed. Dziewicki, 1889, p. 41).

^The English Works of Wyclif (ed. Matthew, EETS. 74. 225).

* Sermo XII (Sermones i. 84) : 'Et sic intelligi potest Augustinus,
dicens quod in fertilitate scripture quclibct Veritas est inclusa.
Nam in illo Luc. XXI, 25 : Erunt signa in sole et luna intelligitur
quidquid veritatis quadripartitum Ptolemei vcl alia astronomia intel-
ligit.'

130 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

ticism of the rationalist. As in the case of Augustine, the
conviction that astrology was useless tempted him to attack
it with scientific arguments. An entire chapter is devoted
to astronomy and astrology — the two are never clearly dis-
tinguished by Wyclif — in the Trialogus} After a not
unsympathetic exposition of the doctrines of the double
science, Wyclif proceeds to find fault with them. He
objects, for one thing, to the Averroistic teaching that if ^
a single star were added to the sky, the whole universe
would cease moving.^ Joshua's causing the sun to stand
still, says Wyclif, would alone refute such a theory.
Against judicial astrology itself he employs, among others,
the patristic argument concerning twins. The astrologer
at least cannot predict the future 'certitudinaliter.' There
are many factors beside stellar influence which determine a
child's fate — heredity, nutrition, and exercise; yet what
astrologer takes account of these? It is clear that astrol-
ogers, like physicians, speak fiction as often as truth.^ After
Wyclif has again attacked astronomy proper, by pointing out
that it is unable to explain even the simplest difficulties —
whether, for example, angels regulate the motions of the
planets — Wyclif passes judgment upon the whole science
as follows* : *Ex multis talibus videtur mihi, quod pericu-
losum est nimis in somniis istius scientiae immorari,
specialiter cum fundatio illius scientiae sit incerta, et fidelis
posset longe melius in aliis exercitiis animae occupari. Nee

^Trialogus, chap. 15: De Ccelo et Astris (ed. Lechler, Oxford,

1879) pp. 123-7.

^ Trialogus, p. 125. Wyclif singles out Robert Grosseteste for
censure; cf., on the astronomy of Averroes, Renan, Averroes et
I'Averroisme (Paris, 1861), p. 121.

^ Trialogus, p. 126 : 'Et patet, quod sicut medici sic et astrologi
fingunt saepe sententias quas ignorant; et talis fallacia est in arte
alchimica et in multis similibus sophismatis fallaciter a trutannis.'

* Ibid., p. 127.

Astrology in Middle English Literature 131

dubium quin debemus Deo computum de omni occupatione
virium et temporis hie in via.'^

Clearly, on the question of astrology, Wyclif belongs,
with Petrarch, Groote, and Pico della Mirandola, to the
ultra-conservative party. Like the Fathers of the early
Church, these men saw in astrology a snare of the devil.
Indifferent to science as a whole, and unable, in an increas-
ingly secular age, to combat astrology with other than
religious arguments, they did little to decrease its popularity.

^ It may be remarked in passing that Wyclif shared the general
mediaeval belief regarding necromancy and magic; of. Polemical
Works I. 73; De Benedicta Incarnatione (ed. Harris, 1886), p. 140.

CHAPTER IX

ASTROLOGY IN GOWER AND CHAUCER

The literary interest in astrology, which had been on the

increase in England throughout the fourteenth century,

culminated in the works of Gower and Chaucer. Although

references to astrology were already frequent in the

romances of the fourteenth century, these still retained

I the signs of being foreign importations. It was only in

/ the fifteenth century that astrological similes and embel-

/ lishments became a matter of course in the literature of

j England.

Such innovations, one must confess, were due far more
to Chaucer than to Gower. Although Gower, too, saw
artistic possibilities in the new astrological learning, and
made prompt use of these in his retelling of the Alexander
legend,^ he confined himself, for the most part, to a bald
rehearsal of facts and theories. It is, accordingly, as a part
of the long encyclopaedia of natural science which he in-
serted into his Confessio Amantis, and in certain didactic
passages of the Vox Clamantis and the Mirour de VOmme,
that astrology figures most largely in his works. By reason
of this very fact, of course, it becomes all the easier to
determine Gower's personal attitude toward astrology.

Gower's sources on the subject of astrology, in so far
as these are at present known, were Albumasar's Introduc-
torium in Astronomiam, the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum
Secretorum, Brunetto Latini's Tresor, and the Speculum
AstronomicF ascribed to Albert the Great.^ It is largely
upon Albumasar and Brunetto Latini that the Confessio
Amantis draws for the exposition of astrology which forms

^ See above, p. 105.

^We have seen (above, p. 74) that this was probably written by
Roger Bacon.

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 133

a part of the seventh book (633-1236).^ The passage
describes at length the astrological influences of the various
planets and constellations, naming the climates which they
severally govern, and the various human dispositions which
they produce in those born under their rule. The passage
reads, in fact, like the summary of an astrological text-
book, enlivened here and there by bits of poetic description.
Of especial significance is the definition of astronomy and
astrology with which Gower opens the account — a defini-
tion for which he was largely indebted to the Secretum
Secretorvim} Ever since the introduction of Arabian sci-

^ Macaulay {Complete Works of Gower, Oxford, 1901, 3. 522,
524-6) has pointed out most of the parallels between the Confessio
and Latini's Tresor. These have been supplemented by Hamilton
in a recent article (Some Sources of the Seventh Book of Gower's j
Confessio Amantis: Mod. Phil. 9. 341-4). Gower mentions
Albumasar by name (1239). Hamilton points out (p. 20) that his
exact indebtedness to the Introductorium can only be ascertained
by a study of the complete text as it is found in manuscript, instead
of the abridged text of the incunabula. A parallel between this
portion of the Confessio and Mandeville's Travels has, I believe,
never been noted. In giving the astrological characteristics of the
moon, Gower says that she rules over men who roam from place
to place, and that she consequently has dominion over England,
since the English are great travelers (Conf. Am. 7. 749-54) :

And as of this condicion

The Mones disposition

Upon the lond of Alemaigne

Is set, and ek upon Bretaigne,

Which nou is cleped Engelond ;

For thei travaile in every lond.
The English are similarly placed under the rule of the moon by
Mandeville (Travels, chap. 15: ed. Layard, London, 1895, p. 199).

"Hamilton (Mod. Phil. 9. 326 ff.) has shown that Gower employed
not only a Latin text of the Secretum, but also a French translation
by Jofroi de Watreford. Middle English translations of both have
been published in Steele's Three Prose Versions of the 'Secretum
Secrctorum' (EETS. ES. 74). The translation from the Latin (pp.
41-118) dates from the time of Gower; that from the French of

134 MedicBval Attitude toward Astrology

ence, the distinction between astrology and astronomy had
become hopelessly confused; William of Conches and
Roger Bacon had even inverted the accepted usage. It
is interesting, therefore, to find the old Isidorean defini-
tions reappearing in Gower.^ Probably for the first time^
in English, astronomy and astrology are defined according
to the denotations which the words bear to-day.

The passage on astrology in the seventh book of the
Confessio Amantis seems to indicate that Gower accepted
in full the science of Albumasar. Yet he is at once hostile
to astrology when it assumes the role of a fatalistic
philosophy. He prefaces his exposition of astrological
theory with some thirty lines (633-63) in which he expounds
the orthodox doctrine of free will. To the assertion of
the 'naturiens' that all things are governed by the stars,
Gower opposes the belief in an overruling Providence:

Bot the divin seith otherwise,
That if men weren goode and wise
And plesant unto the godhede,
Thei sholden noght the sterres drede;
For o man, if him wel befalle,
Is more worth than ben thei alle
Towardes him that weldeth al.
Bot yet the lawe original,
Which he hath set in the natures,
Mot worchen in the creatures,
That therof mai be non obstacle,
Bot if it stonde upon miracle
Thurgh preiere of som holy man.''

Jofroi (pp. 119-248) was made in 1422 by James Yonge. The
translation from the Latin preserves the numbering of chapters
found in the original.

^Conf. Anu 7. 670-84 (Macaulay 3. 251). The French version
of the Secretum cites Isidore in a passage which emphasizes the
utility of astrology in medicine (Steele, p. 195).

^Cow/. Am. 7. 651-63. A very similar thought is that expressed
in the Mir our de I'Omme 26,737-48 (Macaulay i. 296).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 135

This view of celestial influence as a thing which was
indeed a powerful factor in human life, but which stood
nevertheless under the supreme guidance of the Creator,
and which the true Christian did not need to fear, is a
favorite one with Gower. It finds expression in the Mirour
de I'Omme, and is made the subject of a long chapter in
the Vox Clamantis} It is epitomized in the verse of the
Latin quotation prefixed to the discussion of astronomy in
the Confessio Amantis:

Vir mediante Deo sapiens dominabitur astris,

a line which occurs in a variant form in the Vox Clamantis:

In virtute Dei sapiens dominabitur astra,*

and which is freely paraphrased in the Mirour:

Des elementz auci je lis
Q'al homme se sont obeiz.^

This Latin phrase, found generally in the form *Vir
sapiens dominabitur astris,' has a long and curious history,
which is not without interest as affording numerous paral-
lels and contrasts with Gower's interpretation. The origin
of the saying is still unknown. Attributed to Ptolemy, and
even specifically to the Almagest, it is to be found in none
of his works, nor in the collection of proverbs which was
current under his name.** The nearest approximations to

^ Vox Clamantis 2. 217 ff. (Macaulay 4. 90-2).

" Vox Clamantis 2. 239 (ibid. 4. 91).

^Mirour 27,013-4 (ibid. i. 299).

^The collection was printed in the Venice edition (1515) of the
Almagest. 1 have examined the copy in the New York Public
Library. It is from this list of apothegms that Chaucer's Wife of
Bath (Wife of Bath's Prol. 182) derives the proverb which she
ascribes to Ptolemy; cf. Fliigel, Anglia 18. 134 ff.; Boll, Anglia 21.
229; Hamilton, p. 344. The editor of Deschamps (Ocuvres Com-
pletes II. 148) says that after a diligent search of Ptolemy's works,
he is unable to locate the quotation concerning the vir sapiens.

136 Mediaeval Attitude toward Astrology

the saying are two of the precepts of the Centiloquittm,^
which praise the utiHty of astrology. 'Potest qui sciens
est,' so runs one of them (No. 5), 'multos stellarum efifectus
avertere, quando naturam earum noverit, ac seipsum ante
illorum eventum prseparare.' The second (No. 8) reads:
'Sapiens anima confert coelesti operationi, quemadmodum
optimus agricola arando expurgandoque confert naturae.'^

Whatever be the ultimate source of the phrase, whether
it goes back to a commentary on the Centiloquimn, or was
arbitrarily ascribed to Ptolemy because of its similarity to
his teachings, there can be no doubt that it became known
early in its present form. We have already met it in the
Summa Theologies of Thomas Aquinas,^ who employs it
in an argument against predictions per certitudinem: 'Nihil
prohibet aliquem hominem per liberum arbitrium passionibus
resistere. Unde et ipsi astrologi dicunt quod sapiens homo
dominahitur astris, inquantum scilicet dominatur suis pas-
sionibus.' John of Saxony, a Parisian astronomer of the
fourteenth century, definitely cites Ptolemy's Almagest as
the source for the saying, and interprets it, by the aid of the
similar sentiment expressed in the fifth aphorism of the
Centiloquiiim, as implying that forewarned is forearmed.
The good astrologer, he says, is able to prevent many an
evil by knowing the future beforehand, and can fortify his
client to bear an inevitable misfortune with calmness of
mind.* Cecco d'Ascoli, in his Acerha, enlarges in like

^ See above, p. 51.

^Both of these (Nos. 5 and 8) have already been quoted above,
p. 126, note. See Claudii Ptolem<ri Omnia qucB extant Opera (ed.
1551), P-438.

^ See above,, p. 68.

*The passage constitutes the opening paragraph of John of
Saxony's commentary on the Isagoge of Alchabitius : 'Vir sapiens
dominabitur astris. Dicit Ptolemeus in sapientiis Almagesti. Et
potest declarari sic. Ille dominabitur astris qui effectus proventientes
ex ipsis astris potest impedire vel prohibere: sed hoc potest facere
ni sapiens. . . . Minor probatur auctoritate Ptolemei in quinta

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 137

manner upon the advantages of astrological learning.^ The
Secretum Secretoriim — at least the French version which
Gower knew — has a curious reference to the saying, in con-
nection with an exposition of physiognomy and astrology.
In the Middle English translation, made from the French
by James Yonge (1422), the passage reads as follows : 'And
therfor every man, of the begynnynge of his berth, by the
vertu of the sterris wych than have rewarde to hym, is
disposid dyversely to vertues and to vices. But soth hit is,
that every wyse man have vertu and will ; by which he may
kepe hym anent kynde, and vertues of steris as sayth
Bugusarus the Philosofre, in the begynnyng of the Centiloge
of Tholomewe.'^

In the course of time, Ptolemy's doctrine of the wise
man ruling the stars gathered about itself a whole litera-
ture.^ It found its chief popular embodiment in Jean de

propositione Centiloquii, ubi dicit : Optimus astrologus multum
malum prohibere potest quod secundum Stellas venturum est cum
eius naturam praesciverit. Sic enim praemuniet eum cui malum
venturum est ut cum venerit possit illud pati.' The copy of
Alchabitius which I have used is in the Columbia University
Library. Its full title reads: Libellus Ysagogicus Abdilazi, id est
Servi Gloriosi Dei, qui dicitur Alchabitius, ad Magisterium Juditi-
orum Astrorum, intcrpretatus a Johanne Hispalensi scriptumque
in eundem a Johanne Saxonie, Venice, 1485. This is evidently the
commentary of John of Saxony of which a short excerpt is given
by L. Delisle, in Bibliotheque Nationale: Manuscripts Latins ct
Frangais (Paris, 1891) i. 27; cf. Hamilton, p. 344.

^ Acerba 2. 2 (ed. Venice, 1820, p. 6).

^ Steele, Three Prose Versions, p. 216. This puzzling ascription
of authorship is not found in the Latin text, at least not in the one
published at Bonn, 1501 (copy in Harvard University Library,
fol. 18^).

^ Its popularity, in fact, continued throughout the later mediaeval
centuries and the Renaissance. Benvenuto da Imola quotes it in
his commentary (Commentum, Florence, 1887, i. 520). In the
letters of Robert Gaguin (1425-1502), it is cited in an argument
against astrologers (ed. by Thuasne, Paris, 1903, 3. 27). The

138 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

Meun's Roman de la Rose. Jean de Meun does not cite
Ptolemy by name, and it seems probable that he obtained his
knowledge from a secondary source, such as the Summa
Theologice of Aquinas, with whose discussion of astrology
the corresponding passage of the Roman de la Rose shows
general similarities.^ In the course of a long exposition of
stellar influence, predestination, and free will,^ Jean de
Meun recurs several times to the wise man who braves the
power of the stars by winning the victory over his own
passions. In each case his thought resembles that of the
Summa Theologies. To overcome the evil influence of the
constellations, Jean de Meun declares :

II suffit que sages se tiennent

Et leurs moeurs natives refrenent.^

Italian Ludovico Moro had the saying inscribed on a cross (Burck-
hardt 2. 243). It was even attributed by one writer to Virgil (ibid.) ;
and Villon (CodlcUle 71-3: ed. Longnon, Paris, 1842, p. 115; cf.
Hamilton, p. 344) names Solomon as the author. The precept was
popular as a convenient argument for an orthodox astrology as
late as the close of the seventeenth century; cf. Kittredge, The Old
Farmer and his Almanack (Boston, 1904), p. 50.

^ Cf. with the Summa Theologice (see above, pp. 67 f[.), in addi-
tion to the lines to be quoted shortly, Jean de Meun's assertion of
the freedom of the will (17,984: ed. Marteau, Orleans, 1879, 4- 79) >

Mais la fatalite je nie.

Tout ce que pent faire le ciel,

C'est leur donner moeurs et cceur tel

Qu'ils soient enclins a faire chose

Qui de leur trepas soit la cause,

Par la matiere domines

Dont les coeurs sont esclaves nes.
Langlois (Origines et Sources du Roman de la Rose, Paris, 1890)
names no originals for any of the astrological passages of the poem.
'Roman de la Rose 17,575-19,480. The passages which bear par-
ticularly upon stellar influence are 17,815-8, 17,865-82 (ed. Marteau
4. 67, 71). Jean de Meun's statement that in the ordinary course
of events, the stars govern everything (18,421-50), shows some
resemblance to the lines of Gower quoted above (p. 134).
^ Roman 18,000-2 (ed. Marteau 4. 79).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 139

Again, in glorifying free will, he says :

Ainsi peut rhomme, en sa sagesse,
Se garder de toute faiblesse,
Ou des vertus se detourner
S'il se veut vers le mal tourner,
Car de soi s'il a connaissance,
Franc- Vouloir a tant de puissance
Qu'il se peut toujours garantir,
S'il peut en soi-meme sentir
Quand le peche son coeur relance,
Et braver des cieux I'lnfluence.
Car qui savoir avant pourrait
Ce que le ciel faire voudrait,
Lui-meme s'y pourrait soustraire.^

Apparently no mediaeval writer, however, found such
frequent inspiration in the doctrine that the wise man is
master over the heavens as Gower's contemporary,
Deschamps. He refers to the saying, and to Ptolemy as
its author, at least four times in his writings.^ A firm
believer in astrology,^ Deschamps is an equally enthusiastic

^ Ibid. 18,491-503 (4. 109).

^ Chang ons Royaulx 372. 33 (ed. Queux de Saint-Hilaire and G.
Raynaud, Paris, 1882, 3. 124) ; Balade 289. 14 (2. 144) ; La Fic-
tion du Lyon 1120 (8. 281) ; ibid. 1262 (8. 284).

^ Deschamps affords an example of the ease with which a mediaeval
writer could combine a firm belief in stellar influence with a
religious abhorrence of it in practice, especially when it could be
suspected of the taint of magic. Deschamps himself wrote a
treatise against divination (Demonstracions contre Sortileges: op.
cit. 7. 192 ff.; of. II. 148), in which astrology is condemned several
times. The work contains a list of great rulers who came to grief
because they attempted to acquire a knowledge of the future by
means of divinatory arts. The other references to astrology in
Deschamps' writings, however, clearly show that he did not object
to a moderate use of judicial astrology; cf. especially L'Art de
Dictier {op. cit. 7. 268) ; Balade 1155 (6. 88). The editor (11. 148)
thinks that Deschamps wrote his treatise against divination at a
time of religious fervor.

I40 Medicuval Attitude toward Astrology

champion of free will. Again and again in his ballades, and
in his long poem, La Fiction du Lyon, he glorifies 'franc
vouloir.' It is not surprising, therefore, that Deschamps
also follows Thomas Aquinas in interpreting the Ptolemaic
phrase as implying the possession, on the part of the Vir
sapiens,' not so much of mere astrological wisdom, as of
the power of will to conquer his lower nature — that part
of man which alone is subject to celestial influence.^
• The original meaning of the Ptolemaic precept was
obviously quite different from that which is given to it in
the Roman de la Rose and the ballades of Deschamps. As
John of Saxony and Cecco d'Ascoli well understood, the
vir sapiens designated, in the first instance, no one but the
scientific astrologer, who could employ his superior knowl-
edge for his own ends. With Thomas Aquinas, who was
followed by Jean de Meun and Deschamps, the phrase
acquired an ethical interpretation. The Vise man' was
no longer the learned astronomer, but the man of character,
who had indirectly gained control over the influences of the
stars by mastering the inclinations inspired by them. Now
when we turn to Gower, we find that an even more religious
turn is given to the saying. It is not so much the man of

^One quotation (Changons Royaulx Z7^, stanza 4: op. cit. 3. 124)
may suffice as an illustration :

Mais li saige, ce nous dit Tholomee,

Les estoilles seigneurit de ga jus.

Resister puet, et est noble vertus,

A leur effect, et n'en faites doubtance ;

Car puis qu'il a d'elles la congnoissance,

II puet fuir leur male entencion,

Et convertir en bien leur mauveuillance

Par Franc Vouloir, selon m'oppinion.

Another poem in which Ptolemy is mentioned begins with the line:
'L'homme est la propre cause de ses maux,' and deals with exactly
the same idea that Gower expounds at length in his Mirour de
I'Omme {Mirour 26,605-27,360).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 141

character, as the man of prayer, who rules the stars. It is
only in virtute Dei and mediante Deo that the wise man is
freed from the power exercised by the heavens :

In virtute Dei sapiens dominabitur astra,
Totaque consequitur vis orizontis eum :

Circulus et ciclus, omnis quoque spera suprema
Sub pede sunt hominis quern iuvat ipse deus/

Both in the Vox Clamantis and the Mir our de VOmme, many
illustrations are given where God had set aside the laws of
nature in answer to a holy man's supplication. Joshua,
bidding the sun stand still in the vale of Gibeon, Daniel
in the lions' den, the miracle of the fiery cloud, and that of
Pharaoh's destruction in the Red Sea, all go to prove, says
Gower, that the elements are obedient to the God-fearing.^
Gower was probably not sufficiently interested in the
legal side of the question to tell us just where he drew the
line between a legitimate and an illegitimate judicial astrol-
ogy. He nowhere refers to the usual scholastic discrimina-

^ Vox Clamantis 2. 22,9-42 (ed. Macaulay 4. 91).

^Vox Clamantis 2. 238-80; Mirour 27,013-96 (ibid. i. 299-300).
Note the emphasis on prayer in the passage quoted above (p. 134)
from the Confessio Amantis. Only the 'prayer of som holy man'
(7. 663) can change the otherwise immutable influence of the
heavens. It is probably the Secretum which induced Gower to
place such emphasis upon prayer in connection with astrology. At
the close of a long defense of the utility of astrology, the author
of the Secretum says (Steele, Three Prose Versions, p. 65) :
'Wherfore yt ys mekyl worth to knowe J'ingys before, ffor men
mowe bettyr thole hem, and eschewe hem whenne I^ey knowe hem
to come. Wherfore men oghte wyth byse prayers bysek )?e heghe
destynour, }?at he by his mercy torne ]?e evyls J?at er to come, and
]?at he wille o]?erwyse ordeyne, and for J>at men awe to praye to
goddys pitee in orysouns, devociouns, prayers, fastynge, services,
and almesse and o)?er goode dedys, bysekand forgyfnesse of hir
trespas, and be rependant of hir synnes.' The French version
(Steele, pp. 196-207) has a long added chapter on the subject of
prayer, in which many of Gower's own examples are used (Joshua,
David, Jonah).

142 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

tion against predictions per certitudinem. On the subject
of magic he is more expHcit. In the Confessor's sermon
against sorcery as a means to win illicit fruits of love, full
note is taken of the fact that astrology formed an integral
part of the conjurer's ritual.^ Despite his general hostility
to the occult arts, however, Gower steps beyond the limits
set by orthodox doctrine in condoning the practice of magic
when employed for a good purpose :

For these craftes as I finde,
A man mai do be weie of kinde,
Be so it be to good entente.^

This emancipated view of magic, which had never been
sanctioned by the Church, and which was among the tenets
distinctly condemned in the important edict of Paris in
1398,^ Gower probably owed to his source, the Latin
Speculum Astronomice^ It was for just such a condona-
tion of magic, it will be remembered, that Roger Bacon,
the possible author of the Speculum Astronomies, very
likely was condemned to imprisonment at the hands of his
ecclesiastical superiors.^

In turning to Chaucer, it is refreshing to find the didactic
and controversial attitude toward astrology replaced by
that of the artist. Astrology for most mediaeval poets was
still too novel and dangerous a subject to be treated as a

^ Conf. Am. 6. 1338-50 (ed. Macaulay 3. 203-4) :

He makth writinge, he makth figure,

He makth his calculacions,

He makth his demonstracions ;

His houres of Astronomie

He kepeth as for that partie

Which longeth to thinspeccion

Of love and his affeccion (1344-50).
^Conf. Am. 6. 1303-5 {ibid. 3. 202).
^ See above, p. 71.
*Cf. Macaulay 3. 515.
* See above, p. 75.

Astrology in Gower mid Chaucer 143

matter of course, and with an unconcern for questions of
right and wrong. As is the case with any strange scien-
tific or philosophical doctrine, astrology only gradually
became so generally known and so freely accepted that a
writer could allude to it without running the danger, either
of being misunderstood on the part of the more ignorant,
or of offending against the orthodoxy of the more intel-
ligent, among his readers. It is just this stage in the
popularization of astrology, however, which is represented
in England by Chaucer.

Although Chaucer here and there pauses to comment on
the subject of astrology with apparent seriousness and in
his own person, his references are usually dictated by
dramatic or literary propriety only. His originality in
employing astrology for poetic purposes is incontestable,
and is, perhaps, unrivaled in the entire realm of mediaeval
literature. The ingenious humor of the Complaint of
Mars — this 'jeu d'esprit in versified astrology'^ — is cer-
tainly unique. The clever manipulation of astrology in the
Franklin's Tale is equally novel. While the Filocolo
of Boccaccio, which is the probable source of the Franklin's
Tale, employs only the vaguest kind of Ovidian magic,
Chaucer enriches his story with a large amount of the
astrological learning of his own day.- The subtle blending

^ Mather, Chaucer's Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Nun's Priest's
Tale, Boston, 1898, p. xxxiii. Manly (On the Date and Interpre-
tation of Chaucer's Complaint of Mars: Harvard Studies 5. 107 ff.)
calls the poem an 'exercise of ingenuity in the description of a
supposed astronomical event in terms of human emotion.' See
this article for a detailed interpretation of its astrology; cf. also
H. Browne, Notes on Chaucer's Astrology (Mod. Lang. Notes
23. 54) ; and see Hammond, Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual
(New York, 1908), p. 386.

^ The difference between the magic of the Franklin's Tale and
that of the Filocolo (Boccaccio, Op ere Volgari, ed. Moutier,
Florence, 1827-34, 8. 48-60), and the significance of the astrology
of Chaucer's story in giving to the poem a pagan air, is treated by

144 Mediccval Attitude toward Astrology

of the planet Mars with the heathen god of war in the
description of the Thracian temple in the Knight's Tale is
entirely due to Chaucer. The corresponding passages of
the Thebaid of Statins and the Teseide of Boccaccio con-
tain no hints of astrology.^ English literature also owes
to Chaucer the introduction of such astronomical peri-
phrases as that of the familiar lines of the Prologue (7-8),

the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,

a type of poetic embellishment which became a commonplace
in the fifteenth century.^

Yet the very fact that Chaucer is first and foremost
the literary artist makes it unusually difficult to ascertain
his own personal views on the subject of astrology. There
can be no doubt of his continued interest in the philo-
sophical problem of free will and predestination. In view
of the importance which was given to the question in the

Tatlock in The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited, pp. 19 ff. ; cf.

the same author's Astrology and Magic in Chaucer's Franklin's

Tale {Kittredge Anniversary Papers, Boston, 1913, pp. 339-50).

On the Filocolo as the source of the Franklin's Tale, see Rajna

{Romania 31. 40-7; 32. 204-67); Schofield (Publ. Mod. Lang.

Assoc. 16. 405-49) ; Tatlock, The Scene of the Franklin's Tale

Visited, pp. 55 ff.
"^ Knight's Tale 1117-92; cf. Teseide 7. 31 ff.; Thebaid 7. 34 ff.;

Hinckley, Notes on Chaucer (1907), p. 84. A similar mingling of

mythology with astrology is found in the lines of the Troilus

(3. 1202-4) :

But Troilus, al hool of cares colde

Gan thanken tho the blisful goddes sevene ;

Thus sondry peynes bringen folk to hevene.

^ Parallels for this figurative method of indicating time may be
found in Dante and Petrarch; cf. Dante's Inf. 11. 113, 24. 1-2;
Purg. I. 21, 2. 56-7, 32. 53; Par. 27. 68, 28. 117, 29. 2; and Petrarch's
Canzone 135. 88 (ed. Carducci e Ferrari, Florence, 1899, p. 217) ;
Trionfi d'Amore i. 4-7 (ed. Appel, Halle, 1901, p. 178).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 145

theological controversies of the time, this is not surprising.^
Chaucer recurs to the subject of fate again and again in
his writings, and even goes out of his way to insert refer-
ences to it where these are not called for in the least by
his originals.^ Although he seems never to have quite made
up his mind on the relation between foreordination and free
will, the references in which astrology is particularly men-
tioned point to the conclusion that he favored a kind of
determinism. A passage in the Man of Law's Tale — bor-
rowed in part from the De Mundi Universitafe of Bernard
Silvestris — expresses an outspoken astrological fatalism,
although it doubts that any science is able actually to
decipher the language of the heavens :

^ See the article by Carleton F. Brown in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc.
(19. 128-34). Tatlock discusses the subject of Chaucer's interest
in the question of foreordination in his article Chaucer and Wyclif
{Mod. Phil. 14. 265; cf. also Mod. Phil. 3. 370-2).

"The excursus in the Troilus (4. 958-1078) is the most conspicuous
example. This passage, obedient to the dramatic requirements of
the story, argues against free choice and for absolute necessity.
Professor Kittredge has remarked {Chaucer's Pardoner: Atlantic
Monthly 72. 829) that the idea of fate expressed in this long exposi-
tion 'is subtly insistent throughout the poem — it is perhaps even
the key to Cressida's character.' And Professor Carleton F. Brown
adds {Puh. Mod. Lang. Assoc. 19. 128) that 'it may be at the same
time a key to Chaucer's character.' For other discussions in Chaucer
of the problem of fate, see Nun's Priest's Tale 414-30, 518; Com-
plaint of Mars 218-26; Troilus 2. 621-3; 5. 1550-2, 1541-5; Legend
of Good Women 952; Knighfs Tale 250-1; 445-54, 2129 ff. (this
last is found in Boccaccio). These references include only those
which are not astrological. A passage in the Nun's Priest's Tale
(420-3) shows that Chaucer was at least superficially acquainted
with some of the names which figured in the controversies regarding
free will:

But I ne can not bulte it to the bren.
As can the holy doctour Augustyn,
Or Boece, or the bishop Bradwardyn.

146 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

For in the sterres, clerer than is glas,
Is writen, God wot, whoso coude it rede,
The deeth of every man, withouten drede/

In the Knight's Tale, the advice of Arcite to Palamon
accepts the rule of the stars over man's destinies as an
unavoidable fact, and merely counsels Stoic resignation :

For Goddes love, tak al in pacience

Our prisoun, for it may non other be;

Fortune hath yeven us this adversitee.

Som wikke aspect or disposicioun

Of Saturne, by sum constellacioun,

Hath yeven us this, although we hadde it sworn;

So stood the heven whan that we were born;

We moste endure it : this is the short and pleyn.^

Chaucer's frequent use of such deliberate references to
'aventure' or 'destinee' as

Were it by aventure or destinee,

(As, whan a thing is shapen, it shal be,)"

Were it by destinee or aventure.
Were it by influence or by nature,
Or constellacion,*

is also significant. In fact, it is difficult to find anywhere
in Chaucer's works an appreciable softening of this extreme
fatalistic philosophy. The clearest attempt to harmonize
astrological determinism with the belief in an overruling
Providence occurs in a passage in which Chaucer was

^Man of Lofu/s Tale 96-8. The lines borrowed from Bernard
Silvestris (cf. above, p. 34) are found in the stanza immediately
following (99-105). It is worthy of note that the suspicions regard-
ing the possibility of reading the future in the stars are additions
on the part of Chaucer (cf. 97, 104-5).

''Knight's Tale 226-33.

" Ihid. 607-9.

^ Merchant's Tale 722,-^; cf. Pro/. 844; Franklin's Tale 7^0. Tat-
lock {Mod. Phil. 3. Z7^) points to Dante {Inferno 15. 46, 47;
32. 76-8) for parallels.

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 147

influenced by Dante, particularly by the lines of the Inferno
where Fortune is pictured as an intermediary between God
and man:

But O, Fortune, executrice of wierdes,

O influences of thise hevenes bye I

Soth is, that, under God, ye ben our hierdes.^

Yet even here Chaucer gives no hint that man is free to
alter the decrees of this minister of destiny.

Although it would be rash, on the basis of these citations,
to call Chaucer a fatalist, and to conclude that he sub-
scribed to the astrological determinism of Bernard Silves-
tris, it is certainly surprising that he nowhere presents the
other side of the case. Practically every writer on the
subject from Alexander Neckam to Gower, while accepting
a rule of the stars over mundane affairs, had with equal
insistence asserted the freedom of the human will. Even
scientists, who were interested in pressing the claims of
astrology to the utmost, seldom espoused fatalistic theories.
After the Church doctrine on the question had been crystal-
lized by Thomas Aquinas, it was, in effect, unsafe to launch
any discussion on astrology without first pledging allegiance
to the orthodox teaching. Cecco d'Ascoli had been burned
at the stake for failing to satisfy the Inquisition on this
very point. By the close of the fourteenth century, the
subject of free will and stellar influence had gathered about
itself a whole literature. Yet we find Chaucer deliberately

^Troilus 3. 617-9; cf. Inferno 7. 68-88. Chaucer in several other
passages refers similarly to fortune and destiny as the servants of
a higher power, though he does not again couple them with stellar
influence. See Troilus 5. 1541-5; Nun's Priest's Tale 179-80; and
Knight's Tale 805-7:

The destinee, ministre general,

That executeth in the world overal

The purveyaunce, that God hath seyn biforn.

These references I owe to Professor Tatlock's article on Chaucer

and Dante (Mod. Phil. 3. 371-2).

148 Medicoval Attitude toward Astrology

ignoring all this ! That he should have lacked information
on the subject seems unlikely. Ptolemy and Alchabitius,
it is true, are the only prominent astrologers^ whom he
mentions by name; and the only originals that he is
definitely known to have used for his statements regarding
astrological fatalism are Dante and Bernard Silvestris. It
is strange, too, that the long discussion of the problem of
foreknowledge and predestination in the Troilus should
have limited itself to a paraphrase of Boethius, and should
have passed by entirely the more recent theories on the
subject.^ But these facts do not quite make plausible the
supposition that Chaucer's failure to mention the scholastic
views regarding free will was due to ignorance. The
Divina Commedia of Dante and the Roman de la Rose of
Jean de Meun would alone have sufficed to give him full
information. Is Chaucer's emphasis upon astrological
determinism, therefore, to be explained on the ground that
his mature judgment decided in favor of a fatalistic
philosophy? Or may it be, after all, that his interest in the
problem was dictated largely by artistic considerations, and
that when he had employed it for dramatic and narrative
purposes, he no longer cared to 'bulte it to the bren,' nor
to argue it out to a fair conclusion?

How difficult it is to generalize concerning Chaucer's
attitude toward astrology from the evidence furnished by
scattered passages in his tales, is plainly seen in connection
with his beliefs regarding judicial astrology and astro-
logical magic. We are, namely, able to check up these latter
by means of a work in which Chaucer unquestionably speaks
in his own person — his Treatise on the Astrolabe.

Judging from the references to astrology apart from

^ I ignore the list of physicians cited in the Prologue (430 ff.) in
connection with the Doctor.

"Jean de Meun, who also employs Boethius (18,015 ff.), is, in
general, much more modern.

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 149

those in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, Chaucer subscribed
to all the doctrines of the science as it was taught in his
day. Judicial astrology, in so far at least as it undertook
to define the individual's inclinations according to the con-
figuration of the stars at birth, is nowhere condemned. The
Wife of Bath ascribes her amorous disposition to her
horoscope :

Myn ascendant was Taur, and Mars therinne.^

Hypermenestra similarly derived her beauty and her char-
acter from Venus and Jupiter,^ and owed her death in
prison to Saturn.^ Criseyde, lamenting her fated departure
from Troy, accuses the 'corsed constellacioun' under
which she was born.* The astrological system of 'elec-
tions'^ is also taken for granted. The lusty children of
Venus are said in the Squire's Tale to dance when that
planet is in her exaltation.^ Troilus speeds well in love
because Venus is in her seventh house. "^ Pandarus chooses
a moment for delivering a message to Criseyde when the
moon, the patron of travelers, is 'in good plyt.'^ The
misfortunes of Constance in the Man of Law's Tale are
partly due to the fact that the voyage was undertaken under
an 'infortunat ascendant.'^ On the subject of magic, too,
Chaucer's characters hold opinions such as one might

^ Wife of Bath's Prologue 613.
^Leg. of Good Women 2584-8.
^ Ibid. 2597.

* Troilus 4. 745.

^ See above, p. 53.

^Squire's Tale 264-6; cf. 121-2, where the maker of the horse
of brass is said to have awaited the proper astrological moment.

"^ Troilus 2. 680-6.

^ Troilus 2. 74. Palamon (Knight's Talc 1359) goes to the temple
of Venus in 'her hour.' Damian is successful in his love-affair,
because the heavens stood in a fortunate 'constellacion' (Merchant's
Tale 725-6; cf. Franklin's Tale 53).

* Man of Law's Tale 204.

150 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

expect of mediaeval folk. The Parson denounces geomancy
and divination with the usual orthodox vehemence, although
he is willing to moderate his condemnation in the case
of medicinal charms, if they really accomplish cures.^
Chaucer's Franklin is likewise careful to guard himself
against the possible charge that he would countenance
occult practices. In commenting upon the astrological
magic of the Orleans clerk he seeks shelter with the ortho-
dox doctrines of Mother Church, although he also scoffs
at such things as perhaps not to be taken quite seriously in
these more enlightened days:

swich folye,
As in our dayes is nat worth a flye;
For holy chirches feith in our bileve
Ne suffreth noon illusion us to greve.^

There is nothing, truly, in any of these references to
practical astrology that is strikingly divergent from the
general tenor of enlightened opinion in the fourteenth cen-
tury. Although, in the persons of the Parson and Franklin,
Chaucer paid his dues to the ecclesiastical hostility toward
magic, he accepts a moderate judicial astrology, and the
system of 'elections,' without protest. It is, therefore, sur-
prising, in turning to the Treatise on the Astrolabe, to find

^Parson's Tale 600-10. Images made under fortunate heavenly
aspects form also a part of the Doctor's stock in trade {Prol. 418).
The reference to 'magyke nature!' in the Hous of Fame (1265 ff.)
is non-committal on the question of right and wrong.

^Franklin's Tale 403-6. The Franklin has just been speaking
of the emplojmient by the Orleans clerk of the twenty-eight mansions
of the moon. Professor Tatlock (Kittredge Anniversary Papers,
p. 348 ff.) has shown that these stood in bad odor with the Church.
Inasmuch as they belonged to the system of electiones (cf. above,
p. 54), they could with ease be put to illegitimate uses. The clerk
can probably be accused of dabbling in the black arts on other
grounds as well; see Tatlock (op. cit., p. 349), and cf. Chaucer's
own references to the clerk's art as 'japes and wrecchednesse' (543),
illusiouns' (564), and 'supersticious cursednesse' (544).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 151

him holding a view regarding astrology in practice that is
ultra-conservative. Certain astrological doctrines, which
had become an inseparable part of astronomical science, he
retains even here. He espouses such notions, for instance,
as the characteristics of the signs of the zodiac,^ the cor-
respondence between the constellations and the parts of
the human body,^ and the rule of the planets over the days
and hours. The prologue informs us that the work, when
completed, was to include tables of astrological houses, and
of the 'dignities' of planets, and 'other useful thinges.'
But all these admissions are more than offset by an
outright condemnation of judicial astrology itself. This
occurs in a chapter treating of the astrological 'ascend-
ant'^— a thing which, as Chaucer says, is greatly observed
by astrologers, 'as wel in nativitez as in questiouns and
elecciouns of tymes.' After discussing ascendants in gen-
eral, and the various 'aspects' which render the lord of the
ascendant favorable or unfavorable, Chaucer exclaims :

Natheles, thise ben observauncez of judicial matiere and rytes of
payens, in which my spirit ne hath no feith, ne no knowinge of hir
horoscopum; for they seyn that every signe is departed in 3 evene
parties by 10 degrees, and thilke porcioun they clepe a Face.

If Chaucer were to be held strictly to this statement,
it would go far to nullify all the positive declarations
regarding judicial astrology which can be found in any of
his works. To determine the nature of the ascendant was
necessary for even the simplest astrological observation.
The Wife of Bath uses the very word in speaking of her
horoscope, and wherever else the term occurs in Chaucer,
it is employed in an astrological sense.* Chaucer probably

'^Astrolabe i. 21.

'Ibid.

^ Ibid. 2. 4.

*The Doctor's Images (Pro/. 417) were made under fortunate
ascendants (cf. Hous of Fame 1268) ; see above, p. 150. The use of
the word in the Man of Laix/s Tale (204) refers to the observance
of the ascendant for the purpose of an 'eleccioun of tymes.'

152 Mediceval Attitude toward Astrology

did not intend that he should thus be put to a logical test.
But the passage shows unmistakably that many of the
astrological doctrines which he freely accepted in the role
of poetic narrator, he was forced to call impious when
writing in cold prose. ^ Perhaps he was particularly care-
ful to disclaim a belief in the more doubtful portions of the
science, because he was writing to 'lyte Lowys my sone.'

In any case, it is interesting to observe that all of
Chaucer's criticisms of magic and astrology — in the Frank-
lin's Tale, the Parson's Tale, and the Treatise on the
Astrolabe — object to it on religious grounds. The state-
ment of the Man of Law that men's wits are too dull to
read the language of the stars, and the Franklin's scoff
at astrology as something which might have been well
enough in pagan times, but which in our day is *nat worth
a flye,' do imply a certain scepticism of the astrologer's
arts. Yet the main argument is still a religious one. The
astrologer's notions are called rites of pagans in the Treatise
on the Astrolabe. Holy Church, not the sceptical scientist,
is appealed to in the Franklin's Tale in opposition to the
magician's practices. The conclusion, indeed, seems inevit-
able that Chaucer was still under the spell of the con-
servative attitude toward astrology which was characteristic
of the early Middle Ages, and which in England, as we
have seen, was still fully alive as late as the fourteenth
century.

Any attempt, therefore, to cite Chaucer's condemnation
of astrology as proof that he was of a sceptical turn of
mind^ must be viewed with suspicion. The tendency,
indeed, to consider early opponents of astrology as fore-
runners of modern enlightenment has long fostered a mis-
understanding of mediaeval science. From our point of

^We have noted a similar contrast between the opinion of the
artist and that of the philosopher in Cicero and Petrarch.
^ See Lounsbury's Chaucer (New York, 1892) 2. 497-8.

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 153

view, of course, critics of astrology, such as Cicero,
Petrarch, and Pico della Mirandola, appear emancipated in
an age of gross superstitions. From the point of view
of the Middle Ages, however, before the days of the
Copernican astronomy, these judgments deserve in many
cases to be reversed. Cicero and Sextus Empiricus opposed
astrology, not because they wished to replace it with a more
plausible theory of the universe, but because they happened
to be followers of the New Academy, and were sceptical
of all science.^ Petrarch's attack upon astrology — though
it deserves all praise for its clever satire of the Italian
necromancers — consists of little more than pious arguments
culled from Augustine. On its scientific side, it can not
endure comparison with a defense of astrology such as that
of Roger Bacon. From the point of view of tradition and
ecclesiastical discipline, the champions of astrology, rather
than its opponents, deserve to be called modern. The spirit
that enabled Cecco d'Ascoli to face execution was far more
emancipated than that which animated his inquisitors.
Chaucer was a bolder sceptic when he espoused astrological
fatalism than when he denounced the science of judgments
as rites of pagans. Like most intelligent men of his time,
Chaucer probably had his doubts regarding the ability of
the professional astrologer to accomplish all that his science
boasted. But he was concerned chiefly about the question
whether its practice was right or whether it was wrong.
This fact alone would prove that Chaucer, in his personal
attitude toward astrology, was still a man of the Middle
Ages.

The references to astrology in the literature of the
fifteenth century are of minor interest. The poetic possi-
bilities of astrology had been largely exhausted by Gower
and Chaucer, and the writers of the following decades

^ Cf. F. Boll, in Sitcungsbcr. dcr Pliilos.-Pliilol. Classc dcr Kaiser-
lichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1899, p. 103.

154 Mediceval Attitude tozvard Astrology

merely imitated their masters. In fact, the allusions to
astrology in the literature of the fifteenth century are
important for little more than their frequency. They indi-
cate that the popularization of Arabian science, which had
begun with Adelard of Bath, was, after three centuries,
virtually completed.

The dissemination of astrological learning was aided, at
the turn of the century, by such works as Trevisa's trans-
lation of the De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bartholomseus
Anglicus,^ and by' the several vernacular versions of the
Secretiim Secretorum? Astrological notions were at times
still taken quite seriously. Pecock's Repressor cites the fact
that the stars produce varieties of talents in the clergy as
well as in laymen as an argument for an ecclesiastical
hierarchy corresponding to that of a secular government.^
In the Ratis Raving, a youth is advised to consult a master
of astrology regarding his inborn abilities and inclinations.*
Robert Henryson, the Scotch poet, still harks back to the
early prejudice against astrology as a divinatory art, but
his strictures are plainly meant only for that astrology
which prophesies with a definite yea or nay regarding con-
y tingent actions.^ Although Lydgate, in dealing with the
stories of Amphiaraus and Medea, also indulges in a

^The English version was completed in 1398 (cf. Wells, p. 438).
The eighth book of the encyclopaedia contains an outline of astrol-
ogy, and is based upon Messahala, Albumasar, and others. A
convenient summary is given by Langlois, in La Connaissance de
la Nature et du Monde au Moyen Age (Paris, 1911), pp. 142-8;
see Batman uppon Bartholome, London, 1582, fols. 118^-41^.

^Besides the three prose versions printed by Steele (EETS. ES.
74), there is extant Lydgate and Burgh's Secrees of Old Philoso-
ffres (ed. Steele, EETS. ES. 66).

^ The Repressor (ed. Babington, Rolls Ser.), p. 450.

^ Ratis Raving i. 899 {EETS. 43- 5i).
\ Orpheus and Eurydice 571 fif. (ed. G. Smith, Scottish Text
Socieiy/igoS, 3. 85).

Astrology in Gower and Chaucer 155

polemic against astrological divination/ he appears, never-
theless, to have been a firm believer in celestial influence,
and to have recommended judicial astrology in practice.
According to Guido delle Colonne's Historia Destructionis
TroicB, Medea's failure to foresee her own sad future is a
sign that the art of astrology is wicked. Lydgate, on the
other hand, explains Medea's discomfiture as being due to
her faulty knowledge of the science, and declares it a pity
that her flight was not undertaken 'in good plite of {)e
mone.'^

The passages, however, in the literature of the fifteenth
century, in which it is possible to determine precisely the
author's views on the question of astrology, are compara-
tively few. The use of astronomical and astrological
embellishments was becoming a conventional literary
artifice, and references to astrological matters often implied
as little belief or disbelief as allusions to pagan mythology.
Hardly a poet from Lydgate to Spenser failed to imitate
Chaucer in the employment of astronomical periphrases in

^ The descent of Amphiaraus into hell {Siege of Thebes 4047 flf. :
EETS, ES. 108. 166 ff.) is the occasion for a sermon against
idolatrous astronomy. Lydgate's orthodox comments on Medea's
arts are directed, not so much to her astrology, as to her general
conduct and her magic {Troy-Book i. 1710 ff., 3616 ff. : EETS. ES.
97. 62, 119). One of Lydgate's comments on magic {Troy-Book i.
9071 ff.) is of interest as affording a parallel to the attitude of
Chaucer. Lydgate exhibits the same curious mingling of the
Christian fear of magic as something very real, though very wrong,
and the more modern sceptical view that the whole thing is
humbug. After describing Circe's metamorphosis of Diomedes and
his followers into birds, he adds :

But wel I wot, J>ou5 my wit be blent,
Jjat rote of all was fals enchauntement.
But of our feithe we 0U5te to defye
Swiche apparencis schewed to ]>e eye,
Whiche of j'e fende is but illusioun.
'Troy-Book i. 2929 ff. {EETS. ES. 97. 98); 3669 (p. 120); cf.
Guido delle Colonne, Hystoria Troiana (Strassburg, 1489), sig. bi*.

156 Mediccval Attitude toward Astrology

describing the seasons of the year.^ Lindesay,^ Henryson,^
and the late romancers — the author of the Scotch Lancelot
of the Laik is particularly characteristic* — exhibit an
abundance of meaningless astrological learning. Lydgate
veritably revels in astrological descriptions, borrowing from
Chaucer such tricks as the mingling of astrology with
mythology in his references to the pagan gods.^

As we approach the English Renaissance, the belles-
lettres cease more and more to furnish evidence regarding
what men actually thought on the subject of stellar influ-
ence. Although astrology still found champions in plenty
among the learned of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies, it was already beginning its descent in the intellectual
scale, and was becoming the monopoly of the maker of
almanacs. In polite literature, at any rate, the question of
stellar influence was seldom seriously debated. For Shake-
speare and the other Elizabethan dramatists, astrology was
principally a convenient source for figures of speech.

^ See Kingis Quair, stanza i (ed. Lawson, 1910, p. 2) ; Flower
and the Leaf 1 ff. {Chaucerian and other Pieces, ed. Skeat, Oxford,
1897, p. 361) ; Henryson, Testament of Cresseid 5 ff. (ed. G. Smith
3. 3); Lydgate, Temple of Glass 4 ff. (ed. Schick, LETS. ES.
60. i) ; Saying of the Nightingale i ff. (MacCracken, Minor Poems:
EETS. ES. 107. 221) ; Lindesay, Testament of the Papyngo 122-35
(LETS. 19. 227) ; Lancelot of the Laik 2471 (EETS. 6. 73) ; cf.
Schick (p. cxxii) for further references.

^Lindesay, Prolog to the Buke of the Monarche 153 ff. (EETS.
II. 6); Third Buke of the Monarche 3582 ff. (pp. 117-8) ; Dreme
386 ff. (EETS. 19.275).

'^ Henryson, Testament of Cresseid 148 ff. (ed. G. Smith 3. 8).

"" Lancelot of the Laik 335 ff., 445 ff. (a passage reminiscent
apparently of Gower; cf. Conf. Am. 7. 1450 ff.), 517 ff. (EETS.
6. II, 14, 16).

^Examples can be found in abundance in the Temple of Glass
(326, 328, 449, 715, 718, 835, 885, 1097, 1236, 1330, 1341, 1348, 1355) ;
cf. also Ave Maria 9 ff. (MacCracken, Minor Poems: EETS. ES.
107. 280) ; Siege of Thebes 2553 (EETS. ES. 108. 106).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The main purpose of this bibliography is to give a representative
list of such books and articles as deal directly with mediaeval
astrology. Many of these are of a general nature and have not
been cited in the notes.

TEXTS

ANCIENT

FiRMicus Maternus, Julius, Julii Firmici Materni Matheseos
Libri VIII. Ediderunt W. Kroll et F. Skutsch. 2 vols. Leipzig,

1897-1913.
PTOLEMiEUS, Claudius, Claudii Ptolemaei Omnia quae extant Opera.
Edita ab Erasmo Oswaldo Schrekenfuchsio. Basel, 1551.

MEDIEVAL

'Abdel 'aziz ben 'Otmanben 'Ali (Alchabitius), Libellus Ysagogi-
cus Abdilazi, id est Servi Gloriosi Dei, qui dicitur Alchabitius,
ad Magisterium luditiorum Astrorum, interpretatus a Johanne
Hispalensi scriptumque in eundem a Johanne Saxonie. Venice,
1485. (See Hain-Copinger, No. 617.)

BoNATTi, GuiDO, Decern Continens Tractatus Astronomie. Venice,
1506.

Ali ben abi-Rijal abu 'l-Hasan (albohazen haly filius aben-
ragel), Praeclarissimus Liber Completus in Judiciis Astrorum.
Venice, 1485. (See Hain-Copinger, No. 8349; Walters, p. 208.)

Ja'far ben Muhammed el-Balchi abu Ma'sar ( Album asar), De
Magnis Conjunctionibus Annorum Revolutionibus ac eorum
Profectionibus. Augsburg, 1489. (See Hain-Copinger, No. 611.)
Introductorium in Astronomiam Albumasaris Abalachi. Augs-
burg, 1489. (See Hain-Copinger, No. 612.)

CuMONT, F., Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum. 11 vols.
Brussels, 1898-1912.

HISTORY OF ASTROLOGY

ANCIENT

Boll, F,, Studien iiber Claudius Ptolemseus : Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte der Griechischen Philosophie und Astrologie (Jahr-
biicher fiir Philologie und Piidagogik, Supplement 21. 49-244).
Leipzig, 1894.

Bouch6-Leclercq, a., Histoire de la Divination dans I'Antiquite.
4 vols, Paris, 1879-82.

158 Mcdiccval Attitude toward Astrology

Bouche-Leclercq, a., L'Astrologie Grecque. Paris, 1899.

RiESS, K, in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopadie der Classischen

Alterthumswissenschaft 2. 1802-21. Stuttgart, 1896.
ScHMEKEL, A., Die Philosophic der Mittleren Stoa in ihrem Ge-

schichtlichen Zusammenhange. Berlin, 1892.

GENERAL MEDIEVAL

BoFFiTO, G,, Perche fu Condannato al Fuoco TAstrologo Cecco

d'Ascoli? (Studi e Documenti di Storia e Diritto 20. 370 ff.)-
Boner, E. G., La Poesia del Cielo da Guittone al Petrarca. Messina,

1904.
BuRCKHARDT, J., Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. loth edition.

Leipzig, 1908.
DiETERici, F., Die Naturanschauung und Naturphilosophie der

Araber im 10. Jahrhundert. 2d edition. Leipzig, 1876.
DiETERici, F., Die Naturphilosophie der Araber im 10. Jahrhundert.

Posen, 1864.
DuHEM, P., Le Systeme du Monde: Histoire des Doctrines Cos-

mologiques de Platon a Copernic. 5 vols, published. Paris,

1913-7.

Gabotto, F., L'Astrologia nel Quattrocento (Rivista di Filosofia
Scientifica 8. 378 flf.).

Graf, A., La Fatalita nelle Credenze del Medio Evo (Nuova Anto-
logia. Third Series 28. 201 ff.).

Graf, A., Miti, Leggende, e Superstizioni del Medio Evo. 2 vols.
Turin, 1892-3.

Hansen, J., Zauberwahn, Inquisition, und Hexenprozess im Mit-
telalter. Munich and Leipzig, 1900.

Langlois, Ch. v.. La Gonnaissance de la Nature et du Monde au
Moyen Age. Paris, 191 1.

La Ville de Mirmont, Henri de, L'Astrologie chez les Gallo-
Romains (Bibliotheque des Universites du Midi, Vol. 7). Bor-
deaux, 1904.

Lea, H. C., History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages 3. 419-549.
New York, 1888.

Lebeuf, J., De I'Astrologie qui avait Cours sous Charles V, et des
plus Fameux Astrologues de ce Temps (Leber, J. M. C., Col-
lection des Dissertations, Vol. 15). Paris, 1838.

Maury, A., Croyances et Legendes du Moyen Age. Paris, 1896.

Maury, A., La Magie et I'Astrologie dans I'Antiquite et au Moyen
Age, ou Etude sur les Superstitions Paiennes qui se sont Per-
petuees jusq'a nos Jours. 3d edition. Paris, 1864.

Meyer, C, Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters und der Nachstfol-
genden Jahrhunderte. Basel, 1884.

Bibliography 159

Orr, Mary Acworth (Mrs. John Evershed), Dante and the Early

Astronomers. London, 1914.
Pico delle Mirandola, Joannis Pico Mirandulse Concordise Comitis

Disputationum adversus Astrologos Libri XII. Venice, 1498.
SoLDATi, B., La Poesia Astrologica nel Quattrocento. Florence,

1906.
Suter, H., Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und

ihre Werke (Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol.

10). Leipzig, 1900.
Thorndike, L., The Place of Magic in the Intellectual History of

Europe (Columbia University Dissertation). 1905.
Werner, K., Die Kosmologie des Scholastischen Mittelalters, mit

Spezieller Beziehung auf Wilhelm von Conches (Sitzungsbericht

der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philophisch-

Historische Classe, Vol. 75).
Werner, K., Die Kosmologie und Naturlehre des Roger Baco.

Vienna, 1879.
White, A. D., A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology

in Christendom. New York, 1903.
WiJSTENFELD, P., Die Ubersetzungen Arabischer Werke in das

Lateinische seit dem XL Jahrhundert (Abhandlungen der

Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Vol. 22). Got-

tingen, 1877.

ENGLISH

Boll, F., in Hoops' Reallexikon der Germanischen Alterthumskunde

I. 132-6. Strassburg, 191 1-3.
Browne, W. H., Notes on Chaucer's Astrology. Modern Language

Notes 23. 53-4.
Easter, D. B., The Magic Elements in the Romans d'Aventure

and the Romans Bretons. Baltimore, 1906.
Fischer, A., Aberglaube unter den Angelsachsen. Meiningen, 1891.
FoRSTER, M., Beitrage zur Mittelalterlichen Volkskunde (Archiv

fiir das Studium der Neueren Sprachen 120. 43-52).
FoRSTER, M., Die Kleinliteratur des Aberglaubens im Altenglischen

(Archiv fiir das Studium der Neueren Sprachen no. 346-58).
Geissler, O., Religion und Aberglaube in den Mittelenglischen

Versromanzen. Halle, 1908.
Gerhardt, M., Der Aberglaube in der Franzosischen Novelle des

16. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1906.
Grimm, Florence M., Astronomical Lore in Chaucer (University

of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism,

Vol. 2). Lincoln, 1919.

i6o Medicoval Attitude toward Astrology

RuDiGER, G., Zauber und Aberglaube in den Englisch-Schottischen

Volksballaden. Halle, 1907.
Schroder, R., Glaube und Aberglaube in den Altfranzosischen

Dichtungen: ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters.

Gottingen, 1886.
Steele, R., in Traill's Social England 2. 74-82; 3. 330-1. London,

1894-5.
Tatlock, J. S. P., Astrology and Magic in Chaucer's Franklin's

Tale (Kittredge Anniversary Papers, pp. 339-50). Boston, 1913.
Tatlock, J. S. P., The Scene of the Franklin's Tale Visited.

(Chaucer Society Publications. Second Series, Vol. 51.) Lon-
don, 1 91 4.
Zender, R., Die Magie im Englischen Drama des Elisabethanischen

Zeitalters. Halle, 1907.

WORKS CITED FREQUENTLY BY SHORT TITLES

Archiv = Archiv f iir das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und
Literaturen, ed. Herrig. Eberfeld und Iserlohn, 1846 — , Braun-
schweig, 1849 — .

Bouche-Leclercq, a., L'Astrologie Grecque. Paris, 1899.

DuHEM, P., Le Systeme du Monde: Histoire des Doctrines Cos-
mologiques de Platon a Copernic. 5 vols, published. Paris,
1913-7.

EETS. = Early English Text Society. Original Series.

EETS. ES. = Early English Text Society, Extra Series.

MiGNE J. P., Patr. Gr. = Patrologise Cursus Completus. Series
Graeca. 166 vols. Paris, 1857-66.

MiGNE, J. P., Patr. Lat. = Patrologise Cursus Completus. Series
Latina. 221 vols. Paris, 1844-65.

Wells, J. E., A Manual of the Writings in Middle English. New
Haven, 1916.

INDEX

Abelard, 35, 117.
Abenragel, 52, 54, note, 95.
Adelard of Bath, 39, 49-5'0, 60, 91,

154-

Aelfric, 45-6, 113, 119.

Alanus de Insulis, 62.

Albert the Great, 58, dz-J. 89, 118,
121, 132.

Albumasar, 41, 49-53, 55-9, 62, 65-7,
72-3, 92, 132, 134-

Alchabitius, 51-2, 148.

Alchemy, 99, 121, 130, note 3.

Alexander romances, 103-5, 120,

Almanac, astrology of, 42, 113, 156.

Arabian astrology, 49-59, 76, 79,. 89,
154; accepted by Christian scien-
tists, 60-3 ; characteristics of,
51-9; contaminated with magic,
52-3, 17, note 2; fatalism of, 59.

Aristotle, 2-4, 55-7, dyj, and passim.

Astrology, Chaldean, i ; ethnolog-
ical astrology, 13, 20, 133; con-
demned in canon law, 30-1 ;
connected with demons, 16, 23, 69,
70, 81-2, 122; in Dark Ages, 25.
42; in Renaissance, 87-9; igno-
rance of, in England, 46, and note
2, 113, 119, 132, 143, 154; learned,
not popular science, 25, 42, 45,
108, 118; mediaeval attitude to-
ward, summarized. 81-2, 87-9,
116-8, 152-3; Ptolemy's system
outlined, 8, note; subject of
satire, 11, 14, 82-4, 87, 108. 123.

Augustine, 20-4, 45-6, 64-5, 67, and
passim.

B

Bacon, Francis, 88.

Bacon, Roger, 49, 61, 71-5, 91, 117,

134, 142, 153.
Barbour's Bruce, 116, 122-4.
Barlaam and Josaphat, 102-3.
Bartholom.-Eus Anglicus, 64, 118,

note 2, 154.
Bede, 25, 28-9, 44, 46.

Benvenuto da Imola, 82, 87.
Bernard Silvestris, 33-5, 47, 145,

147-8.
Boccaccio, 78, 83-4, 86, 88, 143-4.
Boethius, 26, 46, 148.
Bonatti, Guido, 78-9, 90, 95.
Bradwardine, 91, 124-8.

Cabala, 52, 87.

Canon law, 30-1.

Carneades, 6, 20, 40, note 2, 86.

Cecco d'Ascoli, 75-7, 79, 136-7, 140,

147, 153. . .
Celts, primitive astrology of, 43;

magic of, 105-8.
Centiloquium, attributed to Ptolemy,

51, 92, 95, 126, 136-7.
Charles V, King of France, 95.
Chaucer, 2, 35, 54, note 2, 96, note

5, 113, 122, 132, 142-53, 156.
Chretien de Troyes, 100, 106.
Christ, employed astrology, 79. note

2, 127, note 3; horoscope of, 74,

Cicero, 5, 12-4, 26, 87, 153.
Cockayne's Leechdoms, 44-5.
Comets. 28-9. 94.
Copernicus, 89.

D

Dante, 23, 64. 79-82. 122, 147-8.

Dee, Dr., 99.

Demons, connected with astrology,

16, 23, 64, 69-70. 122.
Deschamps, 96, note 3. 139-40.
Druids, 43.

E

Electioncs, astrological system of,
53-5, 65. 149.

F

Fairies. 105. 108, in.
Fatalism, 7, 19. 22. 35. 37. 39. 55. 59,
66, 76, 115. 125-7. 134 ff.. 145-8.

l62

Mediceval Attitude tozvard Astrology

Favorinus, 6, 7, 12.

Firmicus Maternus, 32-3, 40, 47, 61,

85.
Free will, 7, 19, 22, 35, 39, 62, 66,
68, 79, 84, 115, 124, 135 ff., 147-8.

General predictions, 8, 68, 72, 88.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 47-8, 107.

Geomancy, 70, 75, 121.

Gerson, 111-2.

Gower, 76, note 2, 105, 113, 116, 122,

132-42, 147, 153.
Gregory, 26, 46, 125.
Groote, Gerard, 86, 131.
Grosseteste, Robert, 49, 71-2, 90-1.

H

Henryson, Robert, 154, 156.

Hesiod, i.

Hippocrates, 21, 126-7.

Hugh of St. Victor, 35-6, Z7, note 5.

I
Ignatius, 17.
Image du Monde, 61, 109-10, 115,

118, note I.
Images, astrological, 69, 74, 150,

note I.
Indian astrology, 54, note 2.
Inquisition, 75-7.
Interrogationes, astrological system

of, 53-4.
Isidore, 27-8, 30, 36-7, 50, 61, 64,

I 18-9.

Jewish astrology, 17, note 2, 52, yG.
John of Salisbury, z^, 35, 36-41, 47,

60, 67, 84, 96, 1 17-8.
John of Saxony, 88, 136.
Judicial astrology, 11, 53, 65, 68, 130,

149, 155.
Juvenal, 14.

K

Kepler, 4, note 2, 88.

Lactantius, 17, note i, 23.
Leechdoms, see Cockayne.

Legenda Aurea, 102.
Legend of Michael, 114-6.
Lindesay, 156.
Lydgate, 154-6.

M

Macrobius, 26-7, 32, 34.

Magi, star of the, 17-8,, 27, 46, 66.

Magic, 16-7, 52-3, 64, 69, 71, 76,

105-8, 131, note, 142, 149.
Manilius, i, 45, 88..
Marbodus, 32.
Marie de France, 106.
Matiere de Bretagne, 105-8.
Medical astrology, 54, 65, 67, 72,, 83,

150.
Merlin romances, 107-8.
Messahala, 51-2, 90, note 2.
Michael Scot, 78.

N

Neckam, Alexander, 62-3, 91, 115,

147-
Necromancy, 53, 69, 72, 78, 82, 122,
131, note.

Oresme, Nicolas, 96, 118.
Origen, 19-20.

Orleans, 96, and note 5, 99, 150.
Ovid, 143.

P

Pecock, 154.

Petrarch, 6, 41, 82-7, 118, 131, 153.

Phillippe de Mezieres, 95-6.

Physiognomy, 78, 126.

Pico della Mirandola, 6, 87, 118, 131,

153.
Pierre d'Ailly, 117.
Piers Plowman, 120-2.
Plato, 1-2, 34, 80.
Pliny, the Elder, 28.
Plotinus, 19, 22, 38, 57.
Poggio, 88.
Pontano, 89.
Ptolemy, Claudius, 4-8, 13, 65, 67,

and passim.

Q

Quadripartitum, of Ptolemy, 51, 95,
129.

Index

163

R

Rabanus Maurus, 29, 40.

Ratis Raving, 154.

Religions, horoscopes of, 72-3, 117,

note.
RoUe Richard, 118-20, 124.
Romances, 100-13, 132; Alexander

romances, 103-5, I05) 120, 132;

attitude of, toward astrology,

108-12; Celtic romances, 105-8;

earliest definition of, 112, and

note; Eastern romances, 101-8;

Middle English romances, 113;

Spanish romances, 100.
Roman de la Rose, of Jean de Meun,

116, 137-40, 148.
Roman de Renart, 102.

Salutati, Coluccio, 86.

'Sapiens dominabitur astris,' 68,

126, 135-41-
Saracens, loo-i.
Science, warfare of, with theology,

15 ff., 2Z, 69 ff., 86, 89, 112, 1 16-9,

128-31, 152.
Secretum Secretorum, 126-7, 132-3,

137, 154.
Sextus Empiricus, 6, 7, 10, 87, 153.

Shakespeare, 156.

Simon de Phares, 96-9.

Spain, 55, 77.

Speculum Astronomiae, 53. note,

74-5, 142.
Spenser, 155.

Star of the Magi, see Magi.
Stoics, I, 5-7.

T

Tacitus, 14-5, 42.

Talmud, 52.

Tasso, 89.

Tertullian, 18, 23, 28-9, 69.

Theology, see Science.

Thomas Aquinas, 23, 58, 64, 67-9,

and passim.
Trevisa, 120,

Tristan romances, 106, no.
Twins, 1 1-2, 20-1, 46, 80, 130.

Vincent of Beauvais, 61, note 3, 65.
Virgil, 109.

W

William of Conches, ZZ, 39, 60-1,

134.
Wyclif, 91, 127-31.

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