Albert has no doubt either in his scientific or religious writings that marvels can be worked by magic. It is true that one of its departments, praestigia, has to do with illusions and juggleries in which things are made to appear to exist which have no reality. But it also performs actual transformations.[1813] But even the actual performances of magic are deceptive in that demons by their means lead human souls astray, which is far worse than merely to deceive the eye.[1814]
Magic due to demons.
Albert affirms in his theological Summa that it is the consensus of opinion that magic is due to demons. “For the saints expressly say so, and it is the common opinion of all persons, and it is taught in that part of necromancy which deals with images and rings and mirrors of Venus and seals of demons by Achot Graecus and Grema of Babylon and Hermes of Egypt, and invocations for this purpose are described in the book of Hermogenes and Philetus, the necromancers, and in the book called the Almandel of Solomon.”[1815] In his Commentary on the Sentences[1816] Albert declares that to make use of “magic virtues” is evil and apostasy from the Faith, whether one openly resorts to “invocations, conjurations, sacrifices, suffumigations, and adorations,” or to some simple operation which none the less requires demon aid for its performance. One must beware even of “mathematical virtues,” that is, of astrological forces, especially in “images, rings, mirrors, and characters,” lest the practice of idolatry be introduced. In commenting upon the passage in the gospel where the Pharisees accuse Christ of casting out demons through the prince of demons, Albert admits that necromancers are able to cast out demons and to restrain them from doing external damage, but holds that they cannot like Christ restrain the evil spirits from inciting inward sin.[1817]
Magic and miracle.
Albert will not admit, however, that the marvels of magic compare with divine miracles. For one thing, feats of magic do not even happen as instantaneously as miracles, although they occur much more rapidly than the ordinary processes of nature. But except for this difference in speed the works of magic can usually be explained as the product of natural forces, and by the fact that the demons are aided in their operations by the influence of the stars. To change rods into snakes, for instance, as Pharaoh’s magicians did, is simply hastening the process by which worms generate in decaying trees. Indeed, Albert is inclined to believe that the demons “produce no permanent substantial form that would not easily be produced by putrefaction.”[1818] The magic power of fascination is after all only analogous to the virtue of the sapphire in curing ulcers or of the emerald in restraining sexual passion. Albert adds the comforting thought that neither fascination nor the magic art can harm anyone who has firm faith in God, but for us the most important thing to note is that even in his theological writings he has associated magic with natural forces and the stars as well as with demons. In this he resembles William of Auvergne rather than the early Christian fathers.
Good magic of the Magi.
Like some other Christian commentators, Albert exempts the Magi of the gospel story, who followed the star to Bethlehem, from the category of magicians in the evil sense that we have just heard him define magic. In his commentary upon the gospel by Matthew he asserts that “the Magi are not sorcerers (malefici) as some wrongly think.” He also affirms that there is a difference between a Magus and a mathematicus or an enchanter or necromancer or ariolus or aruspex or diviner. Like Isidore Albert adopts the incorrect etymology of connecting Magus and magnus. But for him the Magi are not so called on account of the magnitude of their sins. “Etymologically the Magi are great men” whose knowledge of, or conjecture from, the inevitable processes of cause and effect in nature often enables them to predict or produce marvels of nature. In his commentary on the Book of Daniel Albert quotes Jerome’s similar description of them as “masters who philosophize about the universe; moreover, the Magi are more particularly called astronomers who search the future in the stars.” It is interesting to note that this view of the Magi still persists among Roman Catholics; the recent Catholic Encyclopedia still insists concerning the wise men who came to Bethlehem, “Neither were they magicians: the good meaning of μάγοι, though found nowhere else in the Bible, is demanded by the context of the second chapter of Matthew.” But here is a still more interesting point to note: Albertus Magnus does not deny that the Magi were magicians. To contend that Magi were not magi was a contradiction of terms that was probably too much for his common sense. All that he tries to do is to exculpate them from the practice of those particular evil, superstitious, and diabolical occult arts which Isidore and others had included in their definitions of magic. From evil witchcraft and necromancy and fatalistic astrology, from augury and liver divination, from the arts of sortilegi and pythones, of enchanters “who by means of certain incantations perform certain feats with beasts or herbs or stones or images,” or of diviners who employ geomancy or “the chance of fire” or hydromancy or aerimancy: from all such practices he acquits them. “They were not devoted to any of these arts, but only to magic as it has been described. And this is praiseworthy.”[1819] Thus Albert not merely defends the Magi, he praises magic; and we begin to see the fitness of the epithet, Magnus in magia, as applied to him.
Natural magic.
But how does this praiseworthy magic differ from the magic which he condemned in his Summa and commentary on the Sentences? Presumably in that its objects are good not evil, and that it does not make any use of demons. It would seem to resemble closely the natural magic of William of Auvergne. It is like evil magic in that both employ the forces of nature and the influences of the stars, but it is unlike it in that it employs them exclusively and is free from any resort to demons and also apparently from the use of incantations or the superstitious devices of geomancers and other diviners.
Attitude in the scientific treatises.