THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
very early period, although it reached its zenith only to be crushed by Christianity. Among the
Celts, in like manner, religion was
8. Among strongly infused with magic elements
Teutons which had reached a degree of refine-
and Celts, ment and complexity unknown to
the popular Teutonic witchcraft. This was due in great part to the organized priesthood of the Druids (q.v.), who were especially skilled in medical magic.
In Greece magic was an important religious factor even in the Homeric and early post-Homeric periods, as is clear from the story of Media in Argonautic legend, Circe in the Odyssey, the magic goddess Hecate, Hermes the protecting herald of the gods and giver of dreams, and all other patron deities. That these ancient Hellenic traditions of magic were native in origin and not borrowed from
the East is shown by abundant evi-
g. In dence, especially that which alludes
Greece, either to Thrace or Thessaly as the
early home of witchcraft. Yet at an early time foreign magic found its way into Greece both from Egypt and Babylonia or Persia. Nor did the refinement of Greek civilization prevent the warmest welcome and the most varied imitations of the magic arts of oriental " barbarians." The medical magic of Egypt found no bar to its entrance, and neither the rationalism of the followers of Hippocrates nor the mockeries of Lucian could shake the pseudo-philosophy of the wizards of the Nile who flocked to Greece in increasing numbers. Equally successful was the divination of Persia and Babylon. All forms of prophecy, by astrology, the raising of the dead, psychomancy, invocation of the gods, clidomancy, hydromancy, lecanomancy, and anthropomancy, were in constant use; while the defense of " Persian " magicians as priestly sages by Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom, Apuleius, and Celsus shows the esteem and influence enjoyed by these adepts of eastern occult art among the Greeks during the dynasty of the Diadochi and the Roman period. Rome also possessed its magic and divination, which in their beginnings reached back to the regal epoch and were domiciled among the tribes living on the banks of the Tiber. The Etruscans introduced the cult of the Dii Averrunci and all forms of auguries into Rome, although other neighboring peoples, such as the Marsi, likewise contributed
their quota. The introduction of 10. In eastern magic was bitterly opposed by Rome. legislation as early as the reigns of
Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius, while Caracalla condemned magicians to be burned alive or thrown to the beasts. Nevertheless the occult wisdom of the East was irresistible, and the diatribes of Pliny and Tacitus proved unavailing. Even the emperors favored magic; Nero accepted invitations to magic feasts, and Otho was a pronounced patron of magic, while Vespasian, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius were at least tolerant toward it and Alexander Severus gave it official subvention. In the reign of the latter and his immediate predecessors ma^ic reached its climax in Rome, and not till the triumph of Christianity was it checked, and even then not extirpated.
The early Church was at times not unfavorable to magic. Thus Origen, in his commentary on Genesis (cited in Eusebius, Prceparatio Evangelica book VI., chap, xi., Eng. transl.,i. 280 sqq., Oxford, 1903), drew a distinction between divine and demonic astrology, and in his polemic against Celsus ascribed a certain reality and justification to the power of those who healed through magic. It was especially the Christian Alexandrians who expressed such views, following, on the one hand, such Hellenistic predecessors as Philo, and, on the other, such neo-Platonic philosophers as
ii. Magic Iamblichus and Synesius, one of the
and the earliest sources of this nature being Early the philastrological dialogue known as
Church. Hermippus (Anonymi Christiani Hermippus de astrologia dialogus, ed. W. Krolland P. Viereck, Leipsic, 1895), which probably dates from the fifth or sixth century. The New Testament, however, except for the reference to the " wise men from the East," which was regarded as the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy (Ps. lxxii. 10, 15; Isa. be. 1 sqq.), was unfavorable to magic. Thus the Samaritan Simon is characterized as a false prophet, as is the Jew Bar-jesus, who is termed a "child of the devil" (Acts viii. 9-11, xiii. 6-11). The tractate of " The Two Ways " at the beginning of the Didache (q.v.) and at the close of the epistle of Barnabas contains an explicit warning against magic, which is ranked with witchcraft, idolatry, drunkenness, impurity, and infanticide. After the middle of the second century the Gnostics were condemned by the Church Fathers as the representatives of accursed magic arts, and Irenseus traced all heretical Gnosticism back to Simon Magus. The same charge of magic was made against Menander, the Carpocratians, the Marcosians, the Elkesaites, the Ophites, and heretics of every description. Side by side with this gnostic magic ran the ancient pagan belief in the power of witchcraft. After the beginning of the fourth century influential heads of the neo-Platonic school sought to extend both theurgic and mantic magic, and the opposing measures of such Christian emperors as Constantine, Valentinian I., Valens, and Theodosius I. had but temporary efficacy. Even during the centuries of the barbarian wars the aid of Tuscan magicians was repeatedly sought, despite the fulminations of Church Fathers like Ephraem Syrus, Isaac of Antioch, Chrysostom, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Isidore of Seville.
Throughout the Middle Ages the conflict continued. In the East collections of oracles and Apocrypha ascribed to Zoroaster, Daniel, Methodius, Leo the Wise, and other famous names were multiplied and formed the basis of commentaries of Psellus the Younger, Roger Bacon, and Albertus Magnus, and also of such protagonists of the Renaissance as Pletho and Ficinus. The Cabala added its quota to occultism, furnishing the
12. Medi- magic pentagram, the Shemha-Mephoeval Magic, rash, and the Agla. Innumerable ecclesiastical prohibitions failed to crush magic, though the early disapproval of witchcraft as a foolish superstition gradually developed, after the period of the crusades, into attacks upon a