240 OPERIS MAJORIS PARS QUARTA.
False matbc- matic ex- cindes free-will.
de hac scriptura et derivatione, tamen falsa mathematica est ars magica. Nam numerantur quinque species artis magicae, scilicet mantice, mathematica, maleficium, praestigium, sorti- legium. Mathematica ergo est sccunda pars artis magicae. Haec sibi usurpat considerationem coelestium characteribus, car- minibus, conjurationibus, sacrificiis superstitionis, et fraudibus variis deformatam. Et ponit per virtutem constellationum omnia de necessitate contingere, nihil ad utrumlibet, nihil a casu nec fortuna, nihil a consilio, de bonitate tamen essentiae, et in adjutorium constellationum efficacius ordinavit singulis constellationibus propria figmenta characterum et aliorum praedictorum. Et haec expresse asseruntur in libris magicis. Unde haec scientia ista omnia ponit per coelum de necessitate contingere, et praesumit per hanc necessitatem infallibiliter de omnibus judicare futuris. Sed ista mathematica damnata est non solum a sanctis, sed a philosophis, ut dicit Isidorus in tractatu astrologiae, asserens unam partem astronomiae esse superstitiosam, scilicet quae est magica, et dicitur mathe- matica falsidica. Unde Aristoteles et Plato, testante Isidoro, eam damnaverunt ; et Plinius per diversa loca Naturalis Historiae eam saepius percutiens propter errores quos haec fantasia scripsit in naturalibus et medicinalibus, tandem eam nimis abhorrens xxx libro originem illius aperit, et quo- modo totum mundum defocdavit evidenter ostendit. Tullius etiam in libro Divinationum magis in particulari ad ejus malitiam descendens ostendit quod cultum divinum destruxit, rempublicam violavit, et medicinam infccit ct naturalem philosophiam et omnes bonas artes subvertit. Ptolemaeus etiam et Aristoteles et Avicenna et Messehalac et Haly et 1 The introduction to the thirtieth book of Pliny's Natural History discusses the origin of magic. It arose, he says, at a very remote period of history, from the threefold root of medicine, religion, and mathematic. Every country was infested by it, but specially the East. Zoroaster may be looked upon as its founder. Osthanes introduced it into Greece at the time of the Persian war, when it spread like wild-fire; although Greek philosophers in the course of their travels had already looked into it. Pliny proceeds to trace its progress in Italy, Gaul, and Britain, For Cicero's account and criticism of Chaldaean astro- logy see De Divinatione, lib. ii. cap. 42-47-
