xxi. 21, Esarhaddon is said to have divined by teraphim as well as by

belomancy; and in Zacharias (x. 2) the teraphim are stated on occasion to have deceived their inquirers, “simulacra locuta sunt inutile,” “the idols have spoken vanity.” Notwithstanding this it is obvious from Osee (Hosea) iii. 4, that divination by teraphim was sometimes permitted: “Dies multos sedebunt filii Israel sine rege, et sine principe, et sine sacrificio, et sine altari, et sine ephod, et sine teraphim.” “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.”

The learned Cornelius à Lapide glossing on Genesis xxxi writes: “Idola, _teraphim_ quod significat statuæ humanæ siue humaneas formas habentes ut patet, I. Reg. xix.” The allusion is to the deception practised by Michal on Saul’s messengers, when putting one of the teraphim in bed and covering it with quilts she pretended it was David who lay sick. “Secundo,” continues à Lapide, “nomen _theraphim_ non appropriatum est in eas statuas, quæ opera dæmonorum deposci debent, ut patet Judicum, xviii, 18,” the reference being to the history of Micas. Calvin very absurdly says: “Theraphim sunt imagines quales habent papistæ.”

Spencer[34] is of opinion that these teraphim were small images or figures, and the point seems conclusively settled by S. Jerome, who in his twenty-ninth Epistle, _De Ephod et Teraphim_, quotes 1 Kings xix. 15, and uses “figuras siue figurationes” to translate μορφώματα of Aquila of Pontus. This writer was the author of a Greek version of the Old Testament published _circa_ A.D. 128. About eight years before he seems to have been expelled from the Christian community, by whom he was regarded as an adept in magic. The work of Aquila, who studied in the school of Rabbi Akiba, the founder of Rabbinical Judaism, is said by S. Jerome to have attained such exactitude that it was a good dictionary to furnish the meaning of the obscurer Hebrew words. The Targum of Jonathan commenting upon Genesis xxxi. 19, puts forward the singular view that the teraphim, concealed by Rachel, consisted of a mummified human head.

In the book Tobias we have a detailed and important account of exorcism, and one, moreover, which throws considerable light upon the demonology of the time. Tobias, the son of Tobias, is sent under the guidance of the unknown Angel, S. Raphael, to Gabelus in Rages of Media, to obtain the ten talents of silver left in bond by his father. Tobias, whilst bathing in the Tigris is attacked by a monstrous fish, of which he is told by his Angel protector to reserve the heart, liver, and gall; the first two of these are to prevent the devil who had slain seven previous husbands of Sara, the beautiful daughter of Raguel, from attacking him. They arrive at the house of Raguel, and Tobias seeks the hand of Sara. She, however, is so beloved by the demon Asmodeus that seven men who had in turn married her were by him put to death the night of the nuptials, before consummation. Tobias, however, by exorcism, by the odour of the burning liver of the fish, and by the help of S. Raphael, routs Asmodeus, “Then the Angel Raphael took the Devil, and bound him in the desert of upper Egypt.” The story which must be accepted as fact-narrative was originally written during the Babylonian exile in the early portion of the seventh century, B.C. It plainly shows that demons were considered to be capable of sexual love, such as was the love of the sons of God for the daughters of men recorded in Genesis (vi. 2). One may compare the stories of the Jinns in Arabian lore. Asmodeus is perhaps to be identified with the Persian _Aëshma daêva_, who in the _Avesta_ is next to Angromainyus, the chief of the evil spirits. The introduction of Tobias’s dog should be remarked. The dog accompanies his master on the journey and when they return home “the dog, which had been with them in the way, ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail.” Among the Persians a certain power over evil spirits was justly assigned to the faithful dog.

The New Testament evidence for the reality of magic and divination is such that cannot be disregarded by any who accept the Christian revelation.

In the Gospels we continually meet with possession by devils; the miracle wrought in the country of the Gerasenes (Gergesenes) (S. Matthew viii. 28-34), the dumb man possessed by a devil (S. Matthew ix. 32-34), the healing of the lunatic boy who was obsessed (S. Matthew xvii. 14-21), the exorcism of the unclean spirit (S. Mark i. 23-27), the casting out of devils whom Christ suffered not to speak (S. Mark i. 32-34), the exorcism in the name of Jesus (S. Mark ix. 38), the demons who fled our Lord’s presence crying out “Thou art Christ, the son of God” (S. Luke iv. 41), the healing of those vexed with unclean spirits (S. Luke vi. 18), and many instances more.

Very early in the Apostolic ministry appears one of the most famous figures in the whole history of Witchcraft, Simon, who is as Simon Magus, sorcerer and heresiarch. At the outbreak of that persecution (_circa_ A.D. 37) of the Christian community in Jerusalem which began with the martyrdom of S. Stephen, when Philip the Deacon went down to Samaria, Simon, a native of Gitta, was living in that city. By his magic arts and by his mysterious doctrine, in which he announced himself as “the great power of God,” he had made a name for himself and gained many adherents. He listened to Philip’s sermons, was greatly impressed by them, he saw with wonder the miracles of healing and the exorcisms of unclean spirits, and like many of his countrymen was baptized and united with the community of believers in Christ. But it is obvious that he only took this step in order to gain, as he hoped, greater magical power and thus increase his influence. For when the Apostles S. Peter and S. John came to Samaria to bestow upon those who had been baptized by Philip the outpouring of the Holy Ghost which was accompanied by heavenly manifestations Simon offered them money, saying, “Give me also this power,” which he obviously regarded as a charm or occult spell. S. Peter forthwith sharply rebuked the unholy neophyte, who, alarmed at this denunciation, implored the Apostles to pray for him.

Simon is not mentioned again in the New Testament, but the first Christian writers have much to say concerning him. S. Justin Martyr, in his first _Apologia_ (A.D. 153-155) and in his dialogue _Contra Tryphonem_ (before A.D. 161), describes Simon as a warlock who at the instigation of demons claimed to be a god. During the reign of the Emperor Claudius, Simon came to Rome, and by his sorceries won many followers who paid him divine honours. He was accompanied by a lewd concubine from Tyre, Helena, whom he claimed was Heavenly Intelligence, set free from bondage by himself the “great power.”

In the _Pseudo-Clementine Homilies_ (probably second century) Simon appears as the chief antagonist of S. Peter, by whom his devilish practices are exposed and his enchantments dissolved. The apocryphal _Acts of S. Peter_, which are of high antiquity,[35] give in detail the well-known legend of the death of Simon Magus. By his spells the warlock had almost won the Emperor Nero to himself, but continually he was being foiled and thwarted owing to the intercession of the Apostle. At last when Cæsar demanded one final proof of the truth of his doctrines, some miracle that might be performed at midday in the face of all Rome, Simon offered to take his flight into the heavens—a diabolical parody of the Ascension—so that men might know his power was full as mighty as that of Him whom the Christians worshipped as God.

A mighty concourse gathered in the Forum: Vestal Virgins, Senators, Equites, their ladies, and a whole rabble of lesser folk. In the forefront of a new Imperial box sat the Lord Nero Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, on one side his mother, Agrippina, on the other Octavia his wife. Magic staff in hand the magician advanced into the midst of the arena: muttering a spell he bade his staff await his return, and forthwith it stood upright, alone, upon the pavement. Then with a deep obeisance to the ruler of the known world Simon Magus stretched forth his arms, and a moment more with rigid limbs and stern set face he rose from the ground and began to float high in air toward the Capitol. Like some monstrous bird he rose, and hovered fluttering in space awhile. But among the throng stood S. Peter, and just as the sorcerer had reached the topmost pinnacles of the shrine of Juno Moneta, now Santa Maria in Aracœli, where brown Franciscans sing the praises of God, the first Pope of Rome kneeled down, lifted his right hand and deliberately made a mighty Sign of the Cross towards the figure who usurped the privileges of the Incarnate Son of Mary. Who shall say what hosts of hells fled at that moment? The wizard dropped swift as heavy lead; the body whirled and turned in the air; it crashed, broken and breathless, at the foot of the Emperor’s seat, which was fouled and bespattered with black gouts of blood. At the same moment with a ringing sound the staff fell prone on the pavement. The flag upon which S. Peter kneeled may be seen even until this day in the Church of Santa Francesca Romana. For, in order to commemorate the defeat of the warlock, Pope S. Paul I (757-767) built a church upon the site of his discomfiture, and in 850 Pope S. Leo IV reconstructed it as Santa Maria Nova, which gave place to the present fane dedicated in 1612.

But the fame of Simon Magus as a wizard has been swallowed up in his ill repute as a heretic; so early do heresy and magic go hand in hand. He was the first Gnostic, whose disciples the Simonians, an Antinomian sect of the second century, indulged the sickest fantasies. Menander, the successor of Simon, proclaimed himself the Messiah and asserted that by his baptism immortality was conferred upon his followers. He also was regarded as a mighty magician, and the sect which was named after him, the Menandrians, seems to have lasted for no inconsiderable time.

In his missionary journeys S. Paul was continually combating Witchcraft. At Paphos he was opposed by the sorcerer Elymas; in Philippi a medium, “a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination,” “spiritum pythonem,” followed him along the streets crying out and naming him as “a servant of the most high God,” until he exorcized the spirit; at Ephesus, a hotbed of sorcery and superstition, he converted many diviners and witches, who cleansed their souls by the Sacrament of Penance, and burned their conjuring books, a library of no mean value. It amounted indeed to fifty thousand drachmas (£2000), and one may suppose that in addition to manuscripts there were amulets of silver and gold, richly wrought and jewelled. In Ephesus, also, had foregathered a large number of vagabond Jews, exorcists. The chief characteristic of a Jewish exorcism was the recitation of names believed to be efficacious, principally names of good angels, which were used either alone, or in combination with El (God); and, indeed, a blind reliance upon the sound of mere names had long been a settled practice with these amateur sorcerers, who considered that the essence of their charms lay in the use of particular names declaimed in a particular order, which differed on several occasions. It was this belief, no doubt, that induced the seven sons of Sceva, who had witnessed S. Paul’s exorcisms in the name of Jesus, to try upon their own account the formula “I conjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth,” an experiment disastrous to their credit. For in one case the patient cried out “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?” and leaped upon them with infernal strength, beating and wounding them, so that they fled for safety from the house, their limbs bruised and their garments torn, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood.

For the fact of demoniac possession the authority of Christ Himself is plainly pledged; whilst Witchcraft is explicitly ranked by S. Paul with murder, sedition, hatred, and heresy (Galatians v. 20-21). S. John, also, twice mentions sorcerers in a hideous catalogue of sinners. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the reality of Witchcraft is definitely maintained by the New Testament writers,[36] and any denial of this implicitly involves a rejection of the truth of the Christian revelation.

Among the Jews of a later period, and probably even to-day, various diseases are said to be induced by demons, who, it is instructive to notice, haunt marshy places, damp and decayed houses, latrines, squalid alleys, foul atmospheres where sickness is bred and ripened.

Josephus (_ob._ A.D. 100) relates that God taught Solomon how demons were to be expelled, a “science useful and sanitative to men.” He also gives an account of Eliezar, a celebrated exorcist of the time, whom, in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian, the historian actually saw casting out evil spirits. The operator applied to the nose of the possessed a ring having attached to it a root which Solomon is said to have prescribed—“Baaras,” a herb of magical properties, and one dangerous for the uninitiate to handle. As the devils came forth Eliezar caused them to pass into a basin filled with water, which was at once poured away. It may be noticed also that demonology plays an important part in the Book of Enoch (before 170 B.C.). Even in the Mishna there are undoubted traces of magic, and in the Gemara demonology and sorcery loom very largely. Throughout the Middle Ages Jewish legend played no insignificant part in the history of Witchcraft, and, especially in Spain, until the nineteenth century at least, there were prosecutions, not so much for the observance of Hebrew ceremonies as is often suggested and supposed, but for the practice of the dark and hideous traditions of Hebrew magic. Closely connected with these ancient sorceries are those ritual murders, of which a learned Premonstratensian Canon of Wilthin, Adrian Kembter, writing in 1745, was able to enumerate no less than two-and-fifty,[37] the latest of these having taken place in 1650, when at Cadan in Bohemia, Matthias, a lad of four years old, was killed by certain rabbis with seven wounds. In many cases the evidence is quite conclusive that the body, and especially the blood of the victim, was used for magical purposes. Thus with reference to little S. Hugh of Lincoln, after various very striking details, the chronicler has: “Et cum exspirasset puer, deposuerunt corpus de cruce, et nescitur qua ratione, euiscerarunt corpusculum; dicitur autem, quod ad magicas artes exercendas.” In 1261 at Forcheim in Bavaria the blood of a murdered boy was used to sprinkle certain thresholds and doors. In 1285 at Munich a witch was convicted of selling Christian children to the Jews, who carefully preserved the blood in curious vessels for secret rites. In 1494 at Tyrnau twelve vampires were executed for having opened the veins of a boy whom they had snared, and having drunk his warm blood thence whilst he was yet alive. A deed of peculiar horror was discovered at Szydlow in 1597 when the victim was put to death in exquisite tortures, the blood and several members of the body being partaken of by the murderers. In almost every case the blood was carefully collected, there can be no doubt for magical purposes, the underlying idea being the precept of the Mosaic law: Anima enim omnis carnis in sanguine est:[38] For the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof.

NOTES TO CHAPTER V

[1] _Khartummim._ The same word is used to describe the magicians whom Pharaoh summoned to interpret his dream, _Genesis_ xli. 8, where the Vulgate has _coniectores_. _Exodus_ viii. 11, the Vulgate reads: “Uocauit autem Pharao sapientes et maleficos.”

[2] It is perhaps worth mentioning that even the most modernistic commentators assign the history of Balaam to the oldest document of the Hexateuch, that they call the Jehovistic.

[3] In his commentary on the ninth chapter of the prophet Osee (Hosea), S. Jerome says: “Ingressi [sunt] ad Beel-Phegor, idolum Moabitarum quem nos PRIAPUM possumus appelare.” And Rufinus on the same prophet has: “Beel-Phegor figuram Priapi dixerunt tenere.” (They entered in unto Beel-Phegor, the idol of the Moabites, whom we may identify with PRIAPUS.... Beel-Phegor is said to have had the same shape as Priapus.)

[4] Balaam hariolus a Domino mittitur ut decipiat Balac filium Beor. _In Ezechielem_, IV. xiv. Migne, _Patres Latini_, XXV. p. 118. (Baalam, a soothsayer, is sent by God to deceive Balac, son of Beor.)

[5] Balaam fuisse prophetam non Dei, sed diaboli constat.... Fuit ipse magus, et dæmonis alloquium quærebat, eumque consulere.

[6] The word is usually found with _yidde ’onim_ (from _yada_, “to know,”) and they are generally considered to be identical in meaning. But W. R. Smith, _Journ. Phil._, XIV. 127, makes the following distinction: Yidde ’oni is a familiar spirit, one known to him who calls it up; the ’ôbh is any spirit who may be invoked by a spell and forced to answer questions.

[7] _Divination, et la science des présages_, Paris, 1875. p. 161 ff.

[8] _History of the People of Israel_, 3 vols., London, 1888-91. I. p. 347.

[9] Cf. Ovid, _Metamorphoseon_, IV, 412-3, of bats:

Conatæque loqui, minimam pro corpore uocem Emittunt; peraguntque leues stridore querelas.

[10] Josephus says that Samuel told the witch it was Saul.

[11] Migne, _Patres Græci_, LXXX. p. 589.

[12] Plerique putant Saulem signum accepisse de terra et de profundo inferni quando Samuelem per incantationes et artes magicas uisus est suscitasse. Migne, _Patres Latini_, XXIV. p. 106.

[13] ... inspirantur diabolico spiritu. Has autem dicunt Hebræi maleficis artibus eruditas per necromantias et pythicum spiritum qualis fuit illa quæ uisa est suscitare animam Samuelis. _Idem_, XXV. p. 114.

[14] Migne, _Patres Græci_, XLV. pp. 107-14.

[15] Δαίμονες γαρ ἦσαν οἱ κατασχηματίζουτες ὲαυτοὺς εἰς τὸ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ πρόσωπον. _Idem_, XXX. p. 497.

[16] Et credo quia [spiritus immundi] mendacio possunt; nec enim pythonico tunc spiritui minus liciut animam Samuelis effingere. (_De Anima_, LVII.) Migne, _Patres Latini_, II. p. 749.

[17] Ἀλλὰ γέγραπται, ὁτὶ ἔγνω Σαουλ ὅτι Σαμουὴλ ἔστι.

[18] ἐπεὶ οὐ δύναται ψευδέσθαι ἡ Γραφη. τὰ δε ῥήματα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐστὶν· Καὶ εἶδεν ἡ γυνὴ τὸν Σαμουήλ. (_In librum Regum._ Homilia II.) Migne, _Patres Græci_, XII. p. 1013.

[19] καὶ ὅτι μένουσιν αὶ ψυχαὶ, ἀπέδειξα ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ καὶ τὴν Σαμουὴλ ψυχὴν κληθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐγγαστριμμύθου, ὡς ἠξίωσιν ὁ Σαουλ. (_In I. Regum._ XXVIII.) _Idem_, XII.

[20] Samuel post mortem, secundum Scripturæ Testimonium futura non tacuit. _I. Regum._ XXVIII. 17 _et seq._ (_In Lucam._ I. 33.) Migne, _Patres Latini_. XV. p. 1547.

[21] Imago Samuelis mortui Saul regi uera prænuntiauit. _Idem_, XXXIV. p. 52. And _De Cura_, XL. p. 606.

[22] Nam Samuel propheta defunctus uiuo Sauli etiam regi futura prædixit.

[23] Whiston’s translation. Ed. 1825. Vol. I, p. 263.

[24] So _1 Kings_ (_Samuel_) xv. 23: “Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel.” Heresy and rebellion are fundamentally the same.

[25] Schrader, _Die Keilenscheiften und das alte Testament_, Giessen, 2nd ed., 1883.

[26] ... raconta ses rapts d’enfants, ses hideuses tactiques, ses stimulations infernales, ses meurtres impétueux, ses implacables viols; obsédé par la vision des ses victimes, il décrivit leurs agonies ralenties ou hâtées, leurs appels et leurs râles; il avoua s’être vautré dans les élastiques tiédeurs des intestins; il confessa qu’il avait arraché des cœurs par des plaies élargies, ouvertes, telles que des fruits mûrs. _Là-Bas_, J. K. Huysmans, c. xviii.

[27] Healey’s translation, 1610.

[28] _De Magia_, XLVII.

[29] _The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_, Sven Nilsson. 3rd edition. 1868. p. 241.

[30] The original title is κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων ἔλεγχος. A Refutation of all Heresies. The first book had long been known; books IV-X, which had been discovered a short time previously, were first published in 1851 (Oxford) by Miller as the work of Origen, but edited by Duncker and Schneidewin as by Hippolitus, eight years later, Göttingen, 1859. The first chapters of the Fourth, and the whole of the Second and Third Books are still missing.

[31] Theocritus, II. 121. Κρατὶ δ’ ἔχων λεύκαν Ἡρακλέος ἱερὸν ἔρνος. Vergil. _Eclogue_ VIII, 61: Populus Alcidæ gratissima. _Æneid_, VIII, 276: Herculea bicolor quem populus umbra....

[32] Pliny (_Historia Naturalis_, XV. 86) says walnuts were thrown, and it appears from an inscription that this custom prevailed on birthdays as well as at weddings. But originally, at any rate, chestnuts were also used. In time the meaning became obscured, and as nuts were used in all kinds of games they merely became synonymous with playthings.

[33] The play is referred to in 1520 as _Messer Nicia_, and the first edition printed at Florence _circa_ 1524 has the title _The Comedy of Callimaco and Lucrezia_, but the Prologue definitely gives the name _La Mandragola_ (_The Mandrake_), and this is used in all later editions. The story has been imitated by La Fontaine; the play itself (which is still acted in Italy) has been repeatedly translated, at least six times into French and five times into German, but as yet no English version has been published.

[34] _De Legibus Hebræorum ritualibus earumque rationibus_, 2 vols., Tubingæ, 1732.

[35] Not later than A.D. 200. They were well known to Commodian, who wrote about A.D. 250.

[36] This is, of course, the view of the Fathers, and even later theological writers (e.g. Alfred Edersheim, Delitzsch, Rev. Walter Scott) accept this literal truth.

[37] In his book _Acta pro Ueritate Martyrii corporis, & cultus publici B. Andreæ Rinnensis_, Innsbruck, 1745. Blessed Andrew, a child, was killed at Rinn in the Tyrol, 12 July, 1462. A systematic investigation would, no doubt, wellnigh double the number of instances recorded by Kembter, and there are 15 for the eighteenth, 39 for the nineteenth century. In 1913 Mendil Beiliss was tried upon the charge of ritually murdering a Russian lad, Yushinsky.

[38] Leviticus xvii. 14.