and over-curious asks how it was that Job was afflicted with this disease by the devil without the aid of some sorcerer or witch, let him know that he is merely beating the air and not informing himself as to the real truth. For in the time of Job there were no sorcerers and witches, and such abominations were not yet practised. But the providence of God wished that by the example of Job the power of the devil even over good men might be manifested, so that we might learn to be on our guard against Satan, and, moreover, by the example of this holy patriarch the glory of God shines abroad, since nothing happens save what is permitted by God.
With regard to the time at which this evil superstition, witchcraft, appeared, we must first distinguish the worshippers of the devil from those who were merely idolaters. And Vincent of Beauvais[1] in his Speculum historiale, quoting many learned authorities, says that he who first practised the arts of magic and of astrology was Zoroaster,[2] who is said to have been Cham[3] the son of Noe.
And according to S. Augustine in his book Of the City of God, Cham laughed aloud when he was born, and thus showed that he was a servant of the devil, and he, although he was a great and mighty king, was conquered by Ninus the son of Belus, who built Ninive, whose reign was the beginning of the kingdom of Assyria in the time of Abraham.
This Ninus, owing to his insane love for his father, when his father was dead, ordered a statue of his father to be made, and whatever criminal took refuge there was free from any punishment which he might have incurred. From this time men began to worship images as though they were gods; but this was after the earliest years of history, for in the very first ages there was no idolatry, since in the earliest times men still preserved some remembrance of the creation of the world, as S. Thomas says, Book 2, question 95, article 4. Or it may have originated
- ↑ “Vincent.” Little is known of the personal history of this celebrated encyclopaedist. The years of his birth and death are uncertain, but the dates most frequently assigned are 1190 and 1264 respectively. It is thought that he joined the Dominicans in Paris shortly after 1218, and that he passed practically his whole life in his monastery at Beauvais, where he occupied himself incessantly upon his enormous work, the general title of which is “Speculum Maius,” containing 80 books, divided into 9885 chapters. The third part, “Speculum Historiale,” in 31 books and 3793 chapters, brings the History of the World down to a.d. 1250.
- ↑ “Zoroaster.” Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXX, ii, says of magic: “Sine dubio illic orta in Perside a Zoroastre, ut inter auctores conuenit. Sed unus hic fuerit, an postea et alius, non satis constat.” Apuleius, “De Magia,” XXVI, mentions Zoroaster and Oromazus as the inventors of sorcery. “Audistisne magiam…artem esse dis immortalibus acceptam…a Zoroastro et Oromago auctoribus suis nobilem, caelitum antistitam?”
- ↑ “Cham.” “A.V.” Ham. Lenglet du Fresnoy in his “History of the Hermetic Philosophy” repeats an old tradition: “Most alchemists pretended that Cham, or Chem, the son of Noe, was an adept in the art, and thought it highly probable that the words ‘Chemistry’ and ‘Alchemy’ are both derived from his name.” Lactantius, “De Origine Erroris,” II, says of the descendants of Cham: “Omnium primi qui Aegyptum occupauerunt; caelestia suspicere, atque adorare coeperunt.”
“Realité de la Magie et des Apparitions,” Paris, 1819 (pp. xii-xiii), has: “Le monde, purgé par le déluge, fut repeuplé par les trois fils de Noé. Sem et Japhet imitèrent la vertu de leur père, et furent justes comme lui. Cham, au contraire, donna entrée au démon dans son coeur, remit au jour l'art exécrable de la magie, en composa les règles, et en instruisit son fils Misraim.
“Cent trente ans après le déluge, Sem habitait la Perse. Ses enfans pratiquaient la religion naturelle, que Dieu mit dans le coeur du premier homme; et leurs vieillards se nommaient mages, qui veut dire “sages” en notre langue. Dans la suite, les descendans de Cham se partagèrent, et quelques-uns passèrent en Perse; Cham, qui vivait encore, était à leur tête. Il opéra tant de prodiges par ses charmes et ses enchantements, que les Bactriens lui donnèrent le nom de Zoroastre, c’est-à-dire, ‘astre vivant’; et transportèrent a ceux de sa secte le nom honorable de “mages,” que les adorateurs du vrai Dieu abandonnèrent, dès qu’ils le virent ainsi profané: et c’est de là que nous est venu le nom de ‘magie,’ pour signifier le culte du démon.
“Cham, ou Zoroastre, fut encore l’inventeur de l’astrologie judiciaire; il regarda les astres comme autant de divinités, et persuada aux hommes que tout leur destin dépendait de leurs bonnes ou mauvaises influences. Ainsi l’on commença à leur rendre un culte religieux, qui fut l’origine de l’idolâtrie. La Chaldée fut le premier théâtre de ces égaremens; et alors, ‘Chaldéen, astrologue et magicien’ étaient trois mots synonymes.”
