His frequent citation of books of magic and necromancy.
The fact, however, that the church disapproves of magic and “vituperates” it, does not restrain Cecco from frequent citation of books of magic, such as the Liber artis magicae of Apollonius,[2996] nor from retailing to his students much information concerning spirits in the sky and necromancy. Thus when Sacrobosco mentions the four points of the compass, Cecco is reminded of a statement in the Liber de ordine intelligentiarum of Hipparchus that certain princes of the demons “occupy the four parts beneath the sky. For expelled from heaven, they occupy the air and the four elements.”[2997] When Sacrobosco speaks of the zenith and poles in a purely astronomical way, Cecco again quotes Hipparchus as saying, “O wonderful zenith and godlike nature,”[2998] etc., after the manner of an invocation, and Solomon in the Liber de umbris idearum as exclaiming, “O arctic Manes! O antarctics propelled by divinity! Why do natures so great and noble seem to be enclosed in mineral species?” This last remark, Cecco explains, refers to the responses given by these spirits in metal mirrors.[2999] When Sacrobosco treats of climates, Cecco remarks that the word may be understood necromantically as well as astronomically. Zoroaster, the inventor of the magic art, uses the word in the necromantic sense when he says, “For those climates are to be marveled at, which with flesh of corpses and human blood give responses trustworthily.” “By this,” continues Cecco, “you should understand those four spirits of great virtue who stand in cruciatis locis, that is, in east, west, north, and south, whose names are Oriens, Amaymon, Paymon, and Egim,[3000] spirits who are of the major hierarchy and who have under them twenty-five legions of spirits each. Therefore because of their noble nature these seek sacrifice from human blood and likewise from the flesh of a dead man or cat.[3001] But this Zoroastrian art cannot be carried on without great peril, fastings, prayers, and all things which are contrary to our Faith.”[3002]
Necromancy employs evil spirits.
This last word of warning may seem a bit belated and perhaps somewhat perfunctory, but shows Cecco still consistent in recognizing that magic and necromancy are contrary to the Christian religion. In other passages he calls these spirits demons and diabolical,[3003] and affirms with Augustine that “spirits who are outside the order of grace” cannot truly transmute bodies, nor raise the dead, nor do any marvels and feats of magic except those which can be accounted for by the occult virtues of nature.[3004] And in speaking of a demon named Floron, who was mentioned by Solomon in the Book of the Shadows of Ideas, who was of the hierarchy of cherubim, who was confined in a steel mirror by a major invocation, who knew many secrets of nature, and who deceived King Manfred and others by ambiguous oracles in modern times,—Cecco concludes, “So beware of these demons because their ultimate intention is to deceive Christians to the discredit of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Cecco tells a story of a man of Ferrara who consulted this demon Floron as to hidden treasure and was told that he would find enough in a certain spot to last him for the rest of his life. He dug in the cavern indicated and uncovered only four ounces of gold, but as an avalanche crushed him immediately afterward, the oracle was fulfilled.[3005] Yet on the next page we find Cecco giving the instructions already mentioned for making an astronomical image in order to obtain responses from a spirit. And several pages further on he cites a response of this same Floron as to the time when demons are least liable to deceive one and when as a consequence it is best to consult them, and again as to the divinity of Christ, of whom this demon Floron said, “He took upon Him human flesh that all flesh through Him might be saved.”[3006]
Cecco unduly curious rather than heretical in this regard.
Thus, much of Cecco’s work seems less a commentary upon Sacrobosco’s text than a manual of astrological necromancy. His citations from the books of magic and necromancy well illustrate those relations between astronomy, magic, and necromancy to which we have before had allusions in the writings of Albertus Magnus and elsewhere. We remember the distinction drawn in the Speculum astronomiae between commendable works of astronomy and injurious works of necromancy, and we wonder if the cause of Cecco’s condemnation may not have been that instead of sticking to the field of astrology he made these dangerous excursions into the subject of necromancy. It might well be held that he was leading his students into temptation by the numerous references to demons, the magic art, and astrological necromancy in his Commentary on the Sphere. At the same time it must be remembered that such pillars of the Christian Faith and learning as William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus had read and cited books of magic and necromancy. Cecco’s passages concerning astrological necromancy are almost all quotations or citations from other authors. When he speaks in his own name it is usually to declare magic and necromancy contrary to Christianity and to censure the passages which he has just cited. Moreover, the notion of hierarchies of spirits, of their presence in sky and air and elements, of their power to work marvels,—all these were orthodox enough Christian doctrines. And Cecco does not, like William and Albert, hint at a natural variety of magic apart from demons which is not idolatrous and unchristian. Of indiscreet curiosity concerning such matters and undue mention of them he might be found guilty, but scarcely of any direct heresy so far as his extant written works are concerned.
Was Cecco’s death due to personal enemies?
If neither Cecco’s astrology nor his citation of books of magic and necromancy seems sufficiently extreme to account alone for his condemnation by the Inquisition, we may perhaps find the clue in the hypothesis of personal enemies, which has already been more than once advanced by writers on Cecco. That he would have made bitter personal enemies one can well imagine from the sharp personalities in which he indulges in his works. That such personalities were not unwelcome to the taste of that time, however, is indicated by Dante’s frequent allusions to the recent dead in his Inferno. Cecco with less discretion directed his gibes against the living. Thus he states that the head and tail of the dragon are the intersections of circles, and not stars forming the shape of a dragon in the sky “as a certain physician of ours of Ascoli (?) argued together with his mother who was as big a fool as himself.”[3007] We have already mentioned Cecco’s insulting words concerning the physician Gualfridinus, who seems the same as Dino del Garbo. Now while Villani tells us that Cecco attributed his arrest at Florence to the chancellor of the duke, in the very next chapter, in mentioning the death of Master Dino del Garbo, whom he calls a very celebrated physician and a man learned in natural science and philosophy, who wrote “several noble books” at the request of King Robert of Naples, Villani adds that Dino “was a great cause of Cecco’s death, attacking as erroneous the book from which he had lectured at Bologna; and many said that he did this through envy.”[3008] Padre Appiani, a Jesuit who wrote an apology for Cecco in the seventeenth century, attributed his persecution at Bologna to the son, Tommaso del Garbo, and that at Florence to Dino.[3009] Tiraboschi in the eighteenth century came to the conclusion that “envy had no small part in the condemnation of this unhappy astrologer, and that he would not have perished so wretchedly if he had not had powerful enemies who conspired to his ruin.”[3010] Nothing is said by Villani of Cecco’s having offended the duke of Florence, Charles of Calabria, and so forfeited his favor and protection, but this would seem likely, though of course it would account only for his second sentence at Florence.
His execution of little significance.
The condemnation of Cecco, therefore, may be a good example of the way in which the Inquisition could be manipulated for private ends, but it does not seem a sign of any general attack by the church and Inquisition on astrology or on learned men who showed an interest in occult science. The charges repeated, or invented, against Cecco by Villani and the late manuscripts are loose and exaggerated. Why Cecco d’Ascoli was burned at the stake is a problem that has puzzled more than one investigator, and none of the explanations offered is entirely satisfactory. It is, however, fairly evident that the process against Cecco was a failure as an attempt to check his teachings and simply advertised him and his writings. It came late in the medieval period and apparently was not soon repeated. Everything tends to indicate that his execution was an exceptional and sensational, but not especially significant event. The attitudes toward astrology of Thomas Aquinas, whom the church canonized, and of Albertus Magnus, who was beatified, are much more important and more characteristic of medieval ecclesiastical culture.