We have hitherto found the practices of wearing amulets and repeating incantations apt to accompany the belief in occult virtues. Aquinas, in discussing “the suspension of sacred words about the neck” cautions that “in all incantations and suspensions of writings” what is written should be seemly, should not be an invocation of demons, should contain no unknown words which may have an evil meaning, and should contain no characters other than the sign of the cross. He quotes the decretal forbidding other observances in collecting medicinal herbs than the sign of the cross and repetition of the Lord’s prayer. And he concludes that “suspending divine words about the neck, assuming that they contain nothing false or doubtful, is certainly permissible, but it would be more laudable to abstain from such practices.”[2008]
Attitude to astrology.
Already a number of passages have shown incidentally that Thomas, like his master Albert, ascribed an important place in natural science to astrological theory. Although he refused to explain magic as worked by the stars, he accounted for the occult works of nature and for natural divination by astral influence. He grants the nobility and incorruptibility of the heavenly bodies but, although aware that Plato and Aristotle attributed souls and intelligences to them, insists that they are material substances. But he regards the stars as media between “the separate intelligences” and our material world and is inclined to answer affirmatively a question which was more than once put to him, namely, Do the angels move the stars?[2009] He also frequently affirms, both in the course of his chief works and in briefer answers to special inquiries that God rules inferior through superior creatures and earthly bodies by the stars.[2010] No wise man doubts that all natural motions of inferior bodies are caused by the movement of the celestial bodies.[2011] Reason and experience, saints and philosophers, have proved it over and over again. Aquinas then cites two passages from Augustine[2012] and Dionysius[2013] which do not seem so sweeping as his own assertion: Augustine affirming merely that “grosser and inferior bodies are ruled by subtler and superior ones according to a certain order,” and Dionysius saying simply that the rays of the sun aid in the generation of life and nourish and increase and perfect it. Indeed, throughout his arguments for astrology Aquinas, like Albert, seems to stretch authorities upon a Procrustean bed of citation and to make church fathers who are famed for their attacks on astrologers seem to favor the limited rule of the stars over all nature. Aquinas further deems an art of judicial astrology possible, asserting that, besides the crude prognostications which sailors and farmers make from the sky, it is feasible “by some other more occult observations of the stars to employ judicial astrology concerning corporeal effects.”[2014]
Extent of and limits to the influence of the stars upon man.
But Aquinas declares that the human will is free and that the soul as an intellectual substance cannot be coerced by corporeal substances, however superior. He also opines that many occurrences are accidental rather than due to the stars, “as when a man digging a grave finds buried treasure.”[2015] And “no natural agent can incline one to that which happens accidentally.” Aquinas like Albert is also aware, however, that the astrologers themselves agree that the wise man rules the stars, and conversely he himself recognizes that man is not purely an intellectual being, that he often obeys sensual appetite, and that even the mind derives its knowledge from the senses and consequently in a condition disturbed by phantasy. Thus the stars may indirectly affect the human intellect to a considerable extent.[2016] Aquinas is also ready to admit that astrologers often make true predictions in events where large numbers of men are concerned and the passions of the majority override the wisdom and will of the few who are able to resist such impulses. On the other hand, he holds that astrologers often err in their predictions concerning individuals.[2017] This perhaps refers only to prediction of nativities, for Peter of Prussia, in defending Albertus Magnus against the charge of indulgence in too curious arts, asserted that Aquinas “nowhere in his writings” reproved or attacked astrological interrogations.[2018]
Power of astrological images denied.
The question remains, to what extent can men voluntarily avail themselves of the celestial virtues? Aquinas takes the position that men can make use of such virtues only as they find them already existing in nature and that works of human art, as distinct from natural objects, receive no new virtue from the stars but only from the human operator,—“from the conception of the artificer.” It is for this reason that Aquinas refuses to explain many operations of magicians as produced by the aid of the constellations. In particular he denies that gems engraved with astronomical figures receive any more virtue from the stars than other gems of the same species without the carving. Figures and characters and human words are immaterial and do not exert force upon matter. If, therefore, astronomical or necromantic or magic images and characters seem to produce marvelous effects, it must be because they are illicitly employed as secret signs to demons who really achieve the results.[2019] In short, Aquinas’ position concerning images and characters is that of William of Auvergne rather than that of Albertus Magnus.
The Magi and the star.
Aquinas discusses the problem of the star of Bethlehem both in his Commentary on Matthew[2020] and in the Summa,[2021] and the interest which such subjects had for his contemporaries is further shown by these questions which were put to him, “Did the little hands of the infant Jesus create stars?” and “Did the star which appeared to the Magi have the shape of a cross or human form?”[2022] The first question was probably suggested by the apocryphal gospels, the second by the homily of the Pseudo-Chrysostom which we have already considered. Aquinas’ discussion of the star and Magi is somewhat fuller than that by Abelard but equally drawn from the fathers, especially Chrysostom and Augustine. [2023] Like them he contends that the incident lends no support to the doctrine of nativities. He saves the Magi, however, from the imputation of being workers of magic and dupes of the demons, adopting Jerome’s oft-repeated explanation that while in common speech magi are the same as enchanters, in the Persian language the word designates philosophers and sages. In this case Aquinas does not force his authorities at all; on the contrary he makes no attempt to improve upon their captious, sophistical, and unconvincing arguments.
Is the De fato spurious?