There are certain places in divine Scripture where, although the signification of the words is open, yet no sense seems to be present, either because of an unusual mode of speaking, or because of some circumstance which impedes the reader's understanding, as is, for example, that which Isaiah says: 'Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying: We will eat our own bread, and be clothed with our own garments; only let your name be called upon us, take away our reproach.' The words are plain and open. You understand well enough: 'Seven women shall take hold of one man.' You understand: 'We will eat our own bread.' You understand: 'We will be clothed with our own garments.' You understand: 'Only let your name be called upon us.'
You understand: 'Take away our reproach.' But perhaps what all this together is meant to signify, you cannot understand. What the prophet meant to say—whether he promised something good or threatened something evil—you do not know. Hence it comes about that you believe it must be understood only spiritually, since you do not see in what manner it was said according to the letter. You say therefore that the seven women are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which shall take hold of one man, that is, Christ, in whom it pleased every fullness of grace to dwell, because He alone received the Spirit without measure, who alone takes away their reproach, so that they may find one in whom they may rest, no other living one as the gifts of the Holy Spirit were demanding.
Behold, you have interpreted spiritually, and you do not understand what it is to speak according to the letter. Yet the prophet was able through these words to signify something even according to the letter. For because he had spoken above of the slaughter of the transgressing people, he now adds that so great a calamity will come upon that same people, and the race of men will be destroyed to such a degree, that scarcely seven women will find one man, whereas now one woman is wont to have one man. And whereas now women are wont to be wooed by men, then, the custom being reversed, women will woo men. And lest perchance one man should dread to take seven women at once, since he would have nothing wherewith to feed and clothe them, they say to him: 'We will eat our own bread, and be clothed with our own garments.'
'You need not be anxious about us; only let your name be called upon us, that you may be called our husband, and may be so, lest we be said to be rejected, and barren, and die without seed'—which at that time was a great reproach. And this is what they say: 'Take away our reproach.' You find many things of this kind in the Scriptures, and especially in the Old Testament, said according to the idiom of that language, which, although they are open there, seem to signify nothing among us. Concerning the deeper meaning. The divine deeper meaning can never be absurd, never false; but although in the sense, as has been said, many contrary things are found, the deeper meaning admits no contradiction: it is always congruous, always true.
Sometimes of one statement there is one meaning, sometimes of one statement there are several meanings; sometimes of several statements there is one meaning, sometimes of several statements there are several meanings. Therefore when we read the divine books, in so great a multitude of true understandings which are drawn out of few words and fortified by the soundness of the catholic faith, let us above all love that which it clearly appears the one whom we read intended. But if this is hidden, then certainly that which the context of Scripture does not impede, and which agrees with sound faith. But if even the context of Scripture cannot be examined and discussed, then at least that alone which sound faith prescribes.
For it is one thing not to discern what the writer above all intended, and another to err from the rule of piety. If both are avoided, the reader's fruit is complete. But if both cannot be avoided, then even though the writer's will be uncertain, it is not useless to have drawn out a meaning congruous with sound faith.
Likewise, in obscure matters most remote from our eyes, if we read any writings thereon, even divine ones, which can—faith being preserved—give birth to one or another meaning, let us not cast ourselves by precipitous affirmation into any one of them, so that, if perchance the truth more diligently examined should overthrow it, we fall along with it—contending thus not for the meaning of the divine Scriptures but for our own, in that we would wish that to be the Scriptures' which is our own, whereas we ought rather to wish that to be our own which is the Scriptures'. Concerning the manner of reading. The manner of reading consists in dividing. Division is made both by partition and by investigation. We divide by partitioning when we distinguish things that are confused.
We divide by investigating when we unlock things that are hidden. That meditation must here be passed over. And now the things which pertain to reading have been explained, as lucidly and concisely as we were able. But concerning the remaining part of doctrine, that is, meditation, I omit to say anything at present, because so great a matter needs a special treatise, and it is more worthy to be wholly silent on such a thing than to say something imperfectly. For it is a matter exceedingly subtle and at the same time delightful, which both instructs beginners and exercises the perfected, as yet untried by the pen, and therefore to be pursued further.
Let us therefore now beseech Wisdom, that she may deign to shine in our hearts and to enlighten us in her paths, that she may bring us in to the pure supper without living creatures. Division of the contents of philosophy. There are three things: wisdom, virtue, necessity. Wisdom is the comprehension of things as they are. Virtue is a habit of mind, consonant with reason after the manner of nature. Necessity is that without which we cannot live, but might live more happily. These three are remedies against three evils to which human life is subject: wisdom against ignorance, virtue against vice, necessity against infirmity.
For the rooting out of these three evils these three remedies were sought, and for the finding of these three remedies every art and every discipline was invented. For the sake of wisdom theoretical knowledge was invented; for the sake of virtue, practical; for the sake of necessity, mechanical. These three were first in use, but afterward, for the sake of eloquence, logic was invented. Although it is last in invention, yet it ought to be first in teaching. There are therefore four principal sciences from which all the others descend: theoretical, practical, mechanical, logical. The theoretical is divided into theology, physics, and mathematics.
Theology treats of invisible substances, physics of the invisible causes of visible things, mathematics of the visible forms of visible things. And this mathematics is divided into four sciences. The first is arithmetic, which treats of number, that is, of discrete quantity in itself. The second is music, which treats of proportion, that is, of discrete quantity in relation to something. The third is geometry, which treats of space, that is, of continuous immovable quantity. The fourth is astronomy, which treats of motion, that is, of continuous movable quantity. The element of arithmetic is unity. The element of music is the unison. The element of geometry is the point. The element of astronomy is the instant.
The practical is divided into the solitary, the private, and the public. The solitary teaches how each one may order his own life by morals and adorn it with virtues. The private teaches how household members are to be governed, and those who are kindred through the affection of the flesh. The public teaches how the whole people and nation ought to be governed by its rulers. The solitary pertains to individuals, the private to fathers of families, the public to rulers of cities. The mechanical treats of human works, and this is divided into seven. The first is fabric-making (wool-working), the second armament, the third navigation, the fourth agriculture, the fifth hunting, the sixth medicine, the seventh theatrics. Logic is divided into grammar and the art of reasoning.
The art of reasoning is divided into the probable, the necessary, and the sophistic. The probable is divided into dialectic and rhetoric. The necessary pertains to philosophers, the sophistic to sophists. In these four parts of philosophy such an order ought to be kept in teaching, that logic be set first, ethics second, the theoretical third, the mechanical fourth. For first eloquence is to be acquired; then, as Socrates says in the Ethics, through the study of virtue the eye of the heart must be cleansed, so that thereafter in the theoretical it may be able to be keen-sighted for the investigation of truth. Last of all follows the mechanical, which of itself is in every way ineffectual, unless it be supported by the reason of the preceding parts. Concerning magic and its parts.
The first inventor of magic is believed to be Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, whom some assert to be Ham, the son of Noah, but with his name changed. Afterward Ninus, king of the Assyrians, conquered him in war and slew him, and caused his books, full of the arts of evildoing, to be burned with fire. But Aristotle writes concerning this very man that his books transmitted, even down to the memory of posterity, up to two million two hundred thousand verses dictated by him about the magic art. Afterward Democritus enlarged this art, at the time when Hippocrates was held in distinction in the art of medicine.
Magic is not received into philosophy, but is something extraneous, of false profession, the mistress of all iniquity and malice, lying about the truth and truly harming souls; it seduces away from divine religion, persuades to the worship of demons, brings in the corruption of morals, and impels the minds of its followers to every crime and abomination. This, taken generally, embraces five kinds of evildoing: mantice, which sounds 'divination,' and vain mathematica (astrology), sortilegia (casting of lots), maleficia (sorcery), praestigia (illusions).
But mantice contains under it five species: the first, necromancy, which is interpreted 'divination in the dead'—for necros in Greek is 'dead' in Latin—whence necromancy, divination, which is done by the sacrifice of human blood, which the demons thirst for, and in which, when poured out, they take delight. The second is geomancy, that is, divination in earth. The third is hydromancy, that is, divination in water. The fourth is aeromancy, that is, divination in air. The fifth is divination in fire, which is called pyromancy. For Varro said there were four things in which divination consisted: earth, water, fire, air.
The first therefore, that is, necromancy, seems to pertain to the underworld; the second to earth; the third to water; the fourth to air; the fifth to fire. Mathematica (astrology) is divided into three species: into haruspicy, into augury, and into horoscopy. Haruspices are so called as though 'hour-inspectors,' that is, inspectors of hours, who observe the times in doing things; or haruspices as though 'inspectors of altars' (aras), who consider future things in the entrails and fibers of sacrifices. Augury or auspice sometimes pertains to the eye, and is called auspicium as though avispicium ('bird-watching'), because attention is paid to the motion and flight of birds; sometimes it pertains to the ears, and then it is called augurium as though 'the chattering of birds,' because it is perceived by the ear.
Horoscopy, which is also called constellation, is when the fates of men are sought in the stars, as the genethliaci do, who observe nativities, who were once specially called magi, about whom we read in the Gospel. Sortilegi are those who seek divinations by lots. Malefici are those who, through demonic incantations, or bindings, or any other execrable kinds of remedies, accomplish nefarious things by the cooperation and instigation of demons. Praestigia are when, through phantastical illusions concerning the changing of things, human senses are deluded by demonic art. There are therefore eleven all together: under mantice, five, that is, necromancy, geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy;
Under mathematics there are three branches, namely haruspicy, augury, and horoscopy; and afterwards three others, namely sortilege (divination by lots), maleficium (sorcery), and praestigium (conjuring illusions). It is said that Mercury was the first to invent illusions. The Phrygians invented auguries. Tages was the first to hand down haruspicy to the Etruscans. Hydromancy first came from the Persians. On the three modes of subsistence of things. Things have being in three modes: in act, in the intellect, and in the divine mind; that is, in the divine reason, in the reason of man, and in themselves. In themselves they pass away without subsistence; in the intellect of man they do indeed subsist, yet they are not immutable; in the divine mind they subsist without any mutability whatsoever.
Likewise, that which exists in act is an image of that which is in the mind of man, and that which is in the mind of man is an image of that which is in the divine mind. The rational creature was made after the pattern of the divine mind. The visible creature was made after the pattern of the rational creature. Therefore every movement and turning of the rational creature ought to be toward the divine mind, just as every movement and turning of the visible creature is toward the rational creature; as when a man, having conceived something in his mind, so that what is known to himself alone may also be made plain to others, paints an outward image of it. Afterwards too, for greater clarity, he sets forth in words how that which has been put forth as a pattern agrees with the idea of it.
So God, willing to manifest His invisible wisdom, painted a pattern of it in the mind of the rational creature, and then, making the corporeal creature, He showed to it outwardly what He held within. Therefore the rational creature was made first, after the likeness of the divine reason, with nothing intervening; but the corporeal creature was made after the likeness of the divine reason with the rational creature intervening. Hence it is that of the angels, under the name of light, it is said in Genesis: God said, Let there be light. And there was light. But of the other works of God it is said: God said, Let it be made. And it was so made. And then is added:
And God made it; because the angelic nature first existed in the divine reason by way of disposition, and afterwards began to subsist in itself through creation. But the other creatures first existed in the reason of God, then were made in the knowledge of the angels, and finally began to subsist in themselves. For what is said, God said, Let it be made, pertains to the divine mind; And it was so made, to the understanding of the angels; And God made it, to the actuality of things.