§9Animaduertimus inter artes etiam professiones quasdam obnoxias idololatriae.
We observe among crafts also certain professions that are subject to idolatry.
de astrologis ne loquendum quidem est.
Of astrologers there is not even a need to speak.
sed quoniam quidam istis diebus prouocauit defendens sibi perseuerantiam professionis istius, paucis utar.
But since someone in these days challenged us, defending for himself the perseverance of that profession, I will use a few words.
non allego, quod idola honoret, quorum nomina caelo inscripsit, quibus omnem dei potestatem addixit, quod propterea homines non putant deum requirendum praesumentes stellarum nos immutabili arbitrio agi: unum propono, angelos esse illos desertores dei, amatores feminarum, proditores etiam huius curiositatis, propterea quoque damnatos a deo.
I do not allege that he honors idols, whose names he has inscribed in heaven, to whom he has assigned all the power of God, and that therefore men do not think God is to be sought, assuming that we are driven by the immutable will of the stars. I propose one thing: that those were the angels, deserters of God, lovers of women, and also betrayers of this curiosity, and for that reason also damned by God.
o diuina sententia usque ad terram pertinax, cui etiam ignorantes testimonium reddunt! expelluntur mathematici, sicut angeli eorum.
O divine sentence, persistent even to the earth, to which even those who are ignorant bear witness! Mathematicians are expelled, just like their angels.
urbs et Italia interdicitur mathematicis, sicut caelum angelis eorum.
Rome and Italy are forbidden to mathematicians, just like heaven to their angels.
eadem poena est exilii discipulis et magistris.
The same penalty of exile applies to disciples and teachers.
sed magi [et astrologi] ab oriente uenerunt. scimus magiae et astrologiae inter se societatem.
But "the magi [and astrologers] came from the east." We know the alliance between magic and astrology.
primi igitur stellarum interpretes natum Christum annuntiauerunt, primi munerauerunt.
Therefore, the first interpreters of the stars announced the birth of Christ, and were the first to present gifts.
hoc nomine Christum, opinor, sibi obligauerunt.
By this title, I suppose, they put Christ under obligation to them.
quid tum? ideo nunc et mathematicis patrocinabitur illorum magorum religio? de Christo scilicet est mathesis hodie, stellas Christi, non Saturni et Martis et cuiusque ex eodem ordine mortuorum obseruat et praedicat.
What then? Will the devotion of those magi now patronize the mathematicians also? Today, of course, mathesis is about Christ; it observes and preaches the stars of Christ, not of Saturn and Mars and of any other from the same class of the dead.
at enim scientia ista usque ad euangelium fuit concessa, ut Christo edito nemo exinde natiuitatem alicuius de caelo interpretetur.
But indeed, that science was permitted up to the Gospel, so that, once Christ was brought forth, no one from then on should interpret anyone's birth from heaven.
nam et tus illud et myrram et aurum ideo infanti tunc domino obtulerunt quasi clausulam sacrificationis et gloriae saecularis, quam Christus erat adempturus.
For they offered that frankincense, myrrh, and gold to the infant Lord at that time as a conclusion of sacrifice and of secular glory, which Christ was about to take away.
quod igitur isdem magis somnium sine dubio ex dei uoluntate suggessit, ut irent in sua, sed alia, non qua uenerant, uia, id est, ne pristina secta sua incederent, non, ne illos Herodes persequeretur, qui nec persecutus est, etiam ignorans alia uia digressos, quoniam et qua uenerant ignorabat, adeo uiam sectam et disciplinam intellegere debemus.
Therefore, that the dream, without doubt by the will of God, suggested to those same magi that they should go to their own country, but by another way, not by the one they had come—that is, that they should not walk in their former sect, not lest Herod should pursue them, who did not even pursue them, being ignorant indeed that they had departed by another way, since he did not even know by which way they had come—to that extent we must understand "way" as a sect and discipline.
itaque magis praeceptum, ut exinde aliter incederent.
And so it was commanded to the magi that from then on they should walk otherwise.
sic et alia illa species magiae, quae miraculis ope. ratur, etiam aduersus Moysen aemulata patientia dei traxit ad euangelium usque.
So also that other branch of magic, which works with miracles, emulated even against Moses by the patience of God, dragged on up to the Gospel.
nam exinde et Simon Magus iamiam fidelis, quoniam aliquid adhuc de circulatoria secta cogitaret, ut scilicet inter miracula professionis suae etiam spiritum sanctum per manuum inpositionem enundinaret, maledictus ab apostolis de fide eiectus est: alter magus, qui cum Sergio Paulo, quoniam isdem aduersabatur apostolis, luminum amissione multatus est.
For from then on, Simon Magus, though already a believer, because he still thought something of the mountebank sect, so that among the miracles of his profession he might even trade the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, was cursed by the apostles and cast out from the faith. Another magus, who was with Sergius Paulus, because he opposed those same apostles, was punished with the loss of his sight.
hoc et astrologi retulissent, credo, si qui in apostolos incidisset.
This also the astrologers would have brought back, I believe, if any had run into the apostles.
attamen cum magia punitur, cuius est species astrologia, utique et species in genere damnatur.
Yet, when magic is punished, of which astrology is a species, surely the species also is condemned in the genus.
post euangelium nusquam inuenias aut sophistas aut Chaldaeos aut incantatores aut coniectores aut magos, nisi plane punitos.
After the Gospel, you will nowhere find either sophists or Chaldeans or enchanters or interpreters of dreams or magi, unless clearly punished.
ubi sapiens, ubi litterator, ubi conquisitor huius aeui? nonne infatuauit deus sapientiam huius saeculi? nihil scis, mathematice, si nesciebas te futurum Christianum.
"Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" You know nothing, mathematician, if you did not know that you would become a Christian.
si sciebas, hoc quoque scire debueras, nihil tibi futurum cum ista professione.
If you knew it, you ought to have known this also, that nothing would remain for you with that profession.
ipsa te de periculo suo instrueret, quae aliorum climacterica praecanit.
Itself should have instructed you of its own danger, which foretells the critical years of others.
non est tibi pars neque sors in ista ratione.
You have no part nor lot in this matter.
non potest regna caelorum sperare cuius digitus aut radius abutitur caelo.
He cannot hope for the kingdom of heaven whose finger or radius abuses heaven.