Magic, divination, and astrology
Magic, sorcery, divination, oracles, and astrology. Part of Paganism.
Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.
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- Didache 3.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Omens, spells, astrology, and magical purifications lead to idolatry.
- To the Ephesians 19.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Christ's coming broke the power of magic and evil and began the defeat of death.
- First Apology 30Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin will prove Christ is not a magician but the Son of God from prophecies fulfilled.
- Acts of John 9Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John drinks poison unharmed before Domitian; a second recension has a magician prepare it.
- Oration to the Greeks 9Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The zodiac and fate are the demons' invention; Christians are above fate, and the constellations are absurd honors given to myths.
- Oration to the Greeks 10Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The gods of myth change shape for their lusts, and the constellations honor adulterers and even the dead favorite Antinous.
- Oration to the Greeks 17Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Magic and amulets work only as signals the demons have agreed to answer; God made nothing for evil use.
- Oration to the Greeks 18Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Healing by drugs belongs to the demons' art; the demons cause illness and then “heal” to win worship, like robbers who kidnap for ransom.
- Oration to the Greeks 19Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The philosophers' contempt for death is a pose; the Cynic Crescens plotted against Justin and Tatian. Oracles serve human greed; God alone should be followed.
- 17Anonymous · ca. 161–180 or 249–251 · The devil explains pagan oracles: he foretells wars he himself prepares.
- Martyrdom of Peter (Greek Acts of Peter) 3Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Simon the magician, exposed by Peter, boasts that he will fly up to God; after his fall he is carried to Terracina and dies.
- Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 17Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter tells how in Judea he exposed Simon's theft of the rich widow Eubula's gold, which led to Eubula's conversion and Simon's flight.
- Exhortation to the Greeks 2.11Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The famous oracles (Delphi, Dodona, Ammon, and others) have fallen silent; all divination is madness and deceit.
- Exhortation to the Greeks 11.115Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God asks only a little faith in return for the whole creation and heaven; let the Word, not amulets, be bound on us, and let the light shine in the heart.
- Against Heresies 1.23.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Simon of Samaria, the magician of Acts 8, tried to buy the power of the Spirit and later presented himself as the supreme power, Father, Son and Spirit.
- Against Heresies 1.23.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Simon's followers practise magic, worship images of Simon and Helena, and are the source of the 'knowledge falsely so called'.
- Against Heresies 1.25.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Carpocratians practise magic and, sent by Satan, bring the Church's name into disrepute, though true Christians share nothing with them.
- Hortatory Address to the Greeks 37Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The author describes the Sibyl's cave at Cumae and argues that Plato's praise of inspired prophets refers to her.
- Prophetic Extracts 55.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The stars, governed by angels, do not cause events but signify past, present, and future.
- Prophetic Extracts 55.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The stars signify but do not cause.
- Excerpts from Theodotus 69.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Fate is the combined action of invisible, conflicting powers that govern the stars.
- Excerpts from Theodotus 71.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The zodiac and planets, moved by the powers, indicate births and changes of fortune.
- Excerpts from Theodotus 75.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They say Fate is real for others, as fulfilled predictions and astronomy show.
- Excerpts from Theodotus 78.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They say Fate holds until baptism; after it astrology is no longer true.
- Miscellanies 7.4.24Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Superstitious people read omens in every trifle; Clement quotes comic and philosophical jokes that expose the folly.
- Miscellanies 7.4.26Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Superstitious people fear inscriptions and magical purifications, but God counts as holy only a righteous character; Diogenes and the comic poet Diphilus mock such practices.
- Book of the Laws of Countries 22Anonymous · ca. 196–235
- Book of the Laws of Countries 26Anonymous · ca. 196–235
- Book of the Laws of Countries 33Anonymous · ca. 196–235
- Book of the Laws of Countries 42Anonymous · ca. 196–235
- Book of the Laws of Countries 43Anonymous · ca. 196–235
- On Idolatry 9Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · Astrology was taught by the fallen angels and is a form of magic; the magi's visit to Christ ended its license, as the fate of Simon Magus and Elymas shows.
- Octavius 26.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Octavius turns to the Roman auspices Caecilius praised.
- Octavius 26.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Oracles were invented or biased and faded as people became less credulous.
- Apology 35Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians are called public enemies for refusing riotous imperial festivals, yet the conspirators and assassins of emperors have all come from the pagans who kept those festivals.
- Apology 43Tertullian · ca. 197 · Only pimps, assassins, magicians, and astrologers lose by the Christians, who more than repay any loss by their protection.
- On Christ and Antichrist 35Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation of Isaiah's oracle against Babylon continues to its end.
- On the Medium of Endor (spurious fragment)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On 1 Sam 28: Samuel did not truly come up at Endor; a demon showed his likeness and, guessing from God's anger, foretold Saul's defeat and death.
- Pistis Sophia 15Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 18Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 20Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 21Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 27Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 137Anonymous · 3rd century
- Pistis Sophia 148Anonymous · 3rd century
- Against Marcion 1.18Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god has no works by which to be known and no prophets to proclaim him; if Marcion simply devised him, he is no more a god than the deities invented by Roman kings and emperors.
- On the Soul 57Tertullian · ca. 210 · Magic's claim to summon the dead is demonic deceit, as with the witch of Endor; no soul returns from the underworld except when God raises the dead bodily.
- On First Principles 1.0.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The church teaches judgment of the soul after death, the resurrection of the body, and free will against astrological fatalism, but has not settled the origin of the soul.
- On First Principles 3.3.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The wisdom of the rulers of this world may be instilled by hostile powers, as in the arts of poets, magicians and diviners who give themselves over to demons.
- Eclogae on Exodus-Judges, column 575Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Numbers 16–22: the censers; tithes and the priests' poverty; Moses' hidden grave; Israel wars by prayer, Balaam by curses; God, good by essence, cannot work evil.
- Eclogae on Exodus-Judges, column 577Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Balaam: God came to him to avert the demons; God's power defeats magic; sacrifices were allowed to end sacrifice to demons; the donkey loosed by Christ's disciples; Peor and the two summits.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 51Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen opens his treatment of Gen 1:14 by showing that astral fatalism abolishes free choice, judgment, faith, and the whole work of Christ.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 53Origen · ca. 220-254 · Fatalism makes God the author of vice; those who posit a higher good God beside the creator cannot escape the problem either.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 55Origen · ca. 220-254 · Fatalism makes prayer pointless; the one who foretells an event, like a prophetic book about Judas, is not its cause.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 61Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen sets out four problems: foreknowledge and free choice, stars as signs not causes, the limits of human astrology, and why God made the signs.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 69Origen · ca. 220-254 · God made us seeing toward the present and blind toward the future (Exod 4:11); free choice works within circumstances we do not control; a configuration cannot cause what happened before it.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 71Origen · ca. 220-254 · Astrologers claim to read a person's parents and past from the birth chart, but a present configuration cannot have caused what preceded it, so at most stars signify.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 73Origen · ca. 220-254 · The heavens are like God's book, containing signs of the future without causing it; and one event can be read from many people's nativities, so no single chart causes it.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 75Origen · ca. 220-254 · If many nativities contain one man's violent death, no single chart causes it; national customs like circumcision cannot be explained by the stars.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 77Origen · ca. 220-254 · If stars caused what they foretell, so would birds and entrails; and astrologers require a precision in reading the heavens that human beings cannot attain.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 79Origen · ca. 220-254 · Astrologers cannot fix the hour of birth precisely enough, the precession of the zodiac shifts the signs, and they cannot calculate the blending of the stars' influences.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 81Origen · ca. 220-254 · Isaiah mocks the astrologers; Jacob read the heavenly tablets only because he was more than human, as the Prayer of Joseph shows; Origen turns to why God made the signs.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 85Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen quotes Clement's Circuits, where Clement shows his father that astrologers can explain any outcome after the fact and cannot see free choice.
- Fragments on Genesis, column 123Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Gen 26–30: Isaac's forbearance; Jacob's voice and the fragrance of virtue; fleeing persecution like Jacob; Leah's opened womb read of the soul and of the synagogue; Laban's omens.
- Refutation of All Heresies 1.25.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Druids foretell the future by Pythagorean number lore and practice magic.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.1.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Astrologers speak of stars in trine and square aspects, and of sympathy between heaven and earth.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.2.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus will briefly show that Chaldean astrology is vain and harmful.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.2.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Because the Peratae rely on astrology, Hippolytus first refutes astrology itself.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.3.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · All astrological prediction rests on fixing the horoscope, the rising sign.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.3.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Without the horoscope the whole Chaldean method collapses.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.3.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · None of the three requirements for a horoscope can be met.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.4.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Chaldeans claim to know the hour of birth but cannot.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.5.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The rising sign looks different from different places, so predictions cannot be precise.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.5.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · People born at the same time live very different lives.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.5.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · If birth under a sign meant a violent death, thousands slain in one battle could not all share it.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.6.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Astrologers claim that people resemble the sign under which they are born.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.7.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Astrology unnerves kings and emboldens commoners to reckless ventures.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.7.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Astrologers say a configuration returns only after 7,777 years, beyond any human observation.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.13.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Number-diviners deceive the simple by boasting of their rare successes.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.15.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus turns to physiognomy, divination from the face.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.15.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Physiognomists describe the appearance of those born under Aries.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.27.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus begins to refute astrological physiognomy.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.27.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The names of the constellations were chosen for convenience and say nothing about human character.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · After a gap, Hippolytus describes a magician's trick with a written question.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The magician feigns possession and chants incantations in Greek and mock Hebrew.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.32.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The magician invokes Asclepius with a hymn in the dark.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.33.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · A fiery Asclepius and the gods appear in a basin of water.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.35.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Accomplices in a hidden room below appear as gods through the glass-bottomed basin.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.35.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The magician prepares his audience to see Hecate fly through the air.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.41.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · A talking skull is made of wax and caul, with a hidden speaking tube.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.42.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The heresiarchs imitated the magicians' techniques of secrecy and display.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.44.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Amulets and herbs are chosen for their number values.
- Refutation of All Heresies 4.50.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The star names are human inventions, much later than the stars, and prove nothing.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus begins to show that the Peratae took their teaching from the astrologers, who divide the cosmos into the fixed sphere of the zodiac and the sphere of the planets.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The astrologers say the lower world draws power from the upper, and Hippolytus will quote their own words.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Chaldeans taught that births below are caused by the outflow of the stars, the seven planets acting and the zodiac assisting.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The zodiac is divided into twelve signs of thirty degrees, each degree into sixty minutes.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The signs are classed as male or female, double-bodied or not, and turning or fixed.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Signs alternate male and female, which Hippolytus thinks led the Pythagoreans to call odd numbers male and even numbers female.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Some astrologers subdivide each sign into twelve parts and apply the same male–female alternation.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus lists the double-bodied signs and the four turning signs where the sun marks the seasons.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Astrologers speak of zones where planets are stronger, of harmful and helpful planets, and of their aspects to one another.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Stars are said to be in aspect by their spacing, and earthly things are said to feel with the heavenly as the body with the head.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Peratae took over Chaldean star lore and passed it off as Christ's teaching under new names such as “toparchs” and “suburbans.”
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus will set Peratic writings beside astrology to show they come from astrologers, not from Christ.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.15.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus concludes that the Peratic system is astrology with new names.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.15.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They teach that earthly things arise, perish, and are ruled by the stars' outflow.
- Refutation of All Heresies 5.15.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Peratae turned the astrologers' cardinal points into God (the center) and left and right powers.
- Refutation of All Heresies 6.7.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Simon of Gitta, a magician refuted by the apostles in Acts, tried to make himself a god, and later sects took their start from him.
- Refutation of All Heresies 6.20.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Simon's disciples practice magic and worship images of Simon as Zeus and Helen as Athena.
- Refutation of All Heresies 6.52.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus judges Marcus's system to be astrology and Pythagorean arithmetic, not godly knowledge.
- Refutation of All Heresies 7.32.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Carpocratians practice magic, claiming power over the world's rulers and all their works.
- Refutation of All Heresies 9.4.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Contents: Elchasai, who claims to keep the law but practices Gnosticism, astrology, and magic.
- Refutation of All Heresies 9.14.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Elchasaites practice astrology, magic, and incantations for dog-bites and demon possession.
- Refutation of All Heresies 9.16.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book prescribes repeated cold baths for the sick and possessed, and teaches that some stars are evil.
- Refutation of All Heresies 9.16.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book warns against beginning work or baptizing on days ruled by evil stars.
- Refutation of All Heresies 10.29.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Elchasaites use incantations, baptisms invoking the elements, astrology, and magic.
- Commentary on John 28.130Origen · ca. 230–248 · The slave girl with a Pythian spirit also bore witness to the apostles.
- Homily on Isaiah 7Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen expounds Isa 8:18–20: all believers are Christ's little children, even the prophets and apostles knew only in part, and Christians must not seek ventriloquists and demons, or teachers who speak from the belly, but the Law and the Word made flesh.
- Homilies on Exodus 7.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The commandments were given to test a murmuring people and bring death to those who do not keep them, but, sweetened by the cross and understood spiritually, they are commandments of life that free us from the “Egyptian sicknesses” of worldliness, astrology, and pleasure.
- Homilies on Joshua 5.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Baptism, the second circumcision, removes the reproach of Egypt, but sin after baptism, especially sexual immorality and the superstitions of astrology and omens, brings back a heavier reproach.
- Homilies on Numbers 1.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only the strength of Israel, taught by God through Scripture, counts before God, and Israel was counted only after it had been tested, fought, and received the law.
- Homilies on Numbers 13.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak turned to the sorcerer Balaam rather than to arms because words can do what force cannot, and because he had heard that Israel conquered by prayer; magic can harm but, unlike God's power, cannot restore.
- Homilies on Numbers 13.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak sought Balaam's curses to counter Israel's prayers; magic works through evil demons, which no holy angel obeys, and those who can call on Christ must never call on demons.
- Homilies on Numbers 13.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak's claim that Balaam's blessings take effect was flattery, since magic can only curse; when Balaam consulted his divining instruments, God drove away the demons and came himself to forbid the curse.
- Homilies on Numbers 16.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak, dismayed by Balaam’s blessings, takes him to another place, and God meets Balaam there in spite of the pagan sacrifices so that the Gentiles might believe through their own seer.
- Homilies on Numbers 16.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen explains augury and divination as the work of demons, illustrated by the Philistines’ test of the ark and Manasseh’s sins, recalls the law’s prohibitions, and says the people of God must learn the future only from God through his prophets.
- Instructions 1.7Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Astrology is folly, for the planets bear the names of adulterous mortals, and Commodian once believed it himself.
- Instructions 1.16Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The pagan gods and goddesses, the fates, and the amulet-demons worn around the neck are all empty.
- Instructions 1.17Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Pagan seers and the frenzied priests of Bellona feign possession to get money.
- Against Celsus 1.24Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says the name of God does not matter, but Origen holds that names have real power, so the Hebrew divine names cannot be swapped for Zeus or the names of other nations' gods.
- Against Celsus 1.25Origen · ca. 248 · Divine names carry meanings and power—the angels' names, and above all the name of Jesus—so Christians rightly die rather than call God "Zeus."
- Against Celsus 1.36Origen · ca. 248 · God gave Israel prophets, even for small matters, so that they would not turn to pagan divination, which the law forbade.
- Against Celsus 1.68Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus likens Jesus' miracles to street magic, but magicians never call anyone to moral reform or the fear of God, as Jesus' works and life did.
- Against Celsus 2.49Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows that Jesus warned not against wonder-workers in general but against false christs, and that his warning, far from reducing his own miracles to sorcery, presupposes their divine character.
- Against Celsus 2.51Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that if magic worked by demons exists, genuine miracles by divine power must exist too, and that the two are told apart by the life of the worker and the moral fruit, as the nations formed by Moses and Jesus show.
- Against Celsus 2.53Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows that every objection Celsus's Jew raises against Jesus' warning about false wonder-workers can be turned against Moses, who gave a similar warning in Deuteronomy.
- Against Celsus 3.25Origen · ca. 248 · Origen argues that healing and prophecy do not prove divinity, since Apollo's oracles honored a boxer and the licentious poet Archilochus, and the Pythia's inspiration was indecent, unlike anything Christians hold of Jesus.
- Against Celsus 3.36Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's comparison of Jesus with Hadrian's favorite Antinous, whose cult was set up by royal command and sustained by Egyptian sorcery, whereas God himself commended Jesus, whose name still drives out demons.
- Against Celsus 4.33Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus obscurely mocks the Jews' descent from “sorcerers”; Origen notes that the patriarchs' names, in the formula “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” are used even by pagan magicians against demons, showing their holiness.
- Against Celsus 4.86Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says snakes and eagles are wiser than humans because they know natural remedies, but they act by instinct, while humans discovered and use the same remedies by reason.
- Against Celsus 4.88Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus claims birds and elephants know God better than humans because they give omens and keep oaths; Origen notes that even the philosophers dispute whether augury exists at all.
- Against Celsus 4.89Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus should have proved bird-divination before claiming birds know God better than people; on his view birds outrank Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, and he should take them as his teachers.
- Against Celsus 4.90Origen · ca. 248 · Even granting that augury exists, birds that could foresee the future would avoid snares and arrows, so they cannot be wiser or more divine than humans.
- Against Celsus 4.91Origen · ca. 248 · Homer's own omen stories, of a snake devouring sparrows and an eagle wounded by a snake, show that the animals themselves foresee nothing; on the poet's view a god sends the sign.
- Against Celsus 4.93Origen · ca. 248 · Moses wisely declared unclean the very animals pagans use for divination, since particular demons are linked with particular animals; it is unclean spirits, not God, that move them.
- Against Celsus 4.95Origen · ca. 248 · True foreknowledge comes through God inspiring pure human prophets, not through animals; Moses forbade augury, and Christians guard their hearts so that only God's Spirit shapes their imagination.
- Against Celsus 4.97Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus's claim that animals are dearer to God and hold holier conversations than humans would rank them above Socrates and Plato; any real bird-omens are demonic deceptions.
- Against Celsus 5.38Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus's rule fails when people of different customs meet: must an Ethiopian among Arabians die or betray his gods? The Egyptian gods are nature allegories, and Sarapis a recent magical invention.
- Against Celsus 5.45Origen · ca. 248 · Against Celsus's view that divine names are interchangeable, Origen argues that names have power by nature, not convention: 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' works against demons, but translated or replaced names do not.
- Against Celsus 6.39Origen · ca. 248 · Origen disputes Celsus's claim, taken from Herodotus, that different nations merely give different names to the same gods, and declines to answer for magic charms that have nothing to do with Christians.
- Against Celsus 6.41Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says magic cannot touch philosophers, but Origen notes that philosophers fell under Apollonius's spell, whereas Christians who pray faithfully are protected by God's angels from magic and demons.
- Against Celsus 7.3Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus prefers the Greek oracles to the Hebrew prophets, but Origen argues that even if the oracles are genuine they come from evil spirits, since the Pythian priestess received her spirit in a shameful way and prophesied in frenzy.
- Against Celsus 7.40Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus confuses Christians with the Ophite sect, whose magical names for the doorkeepers of the heavens Christians reject; those sectarians do not die for their faith, as Christians do.
- Against Celsus 8.45Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus lists the benefits and punishments said to come from pagan oracles and shrines; Origen asks why these should be believed and the biblical miracles called myths, when even Greek philosophers doubted the oracles.
- Against Celsus 8.59Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus would have Christians turn from God through Jesus, at whose name every knee bows, to thirty-six Egyptian demons invoked by magicians; but Jesus has spread true worship through the whole world.
- Against Celsus 8.60Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus himself warns that service of the earthly demons, bound to blood and incense, leads to love of the body and forgetfulness of higher things; Origen concludes it is better to trust God through Christ and to seek healing from medicine or, better, from prayer.
- Against Celsus 8.62Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus finally admits that oracles are works of earthly demons bound to blood and incense, as Christians said; Christians would rather be sick and unfortunate with a pure conscience than healthy through serving demons.
- Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 99Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The great armed crowd came because his enemies thought Jesus could escape by magic, as he had once escaped at Nazareth, and so Judas told them to hold him carefully; today too false doctrines fight against Jesus with spiritual swords and clubs.
- Commentary on Matthew 13.6Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains epilepsy not by the moon but by an unclean spirit that times its attacks to the moon's phases so as to slander God's creation, and rejects astrology.
- To Quirinus 3.82Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Taking omens and augury are forbidden.
- Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 14Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · From Saul and the medium of Endor Pionius argues that demons, not the dead, appear at necromancy, and urges the lapsed to repent.
- On Rebaptism 16Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · Heretics descended from Simon Magus claim a perfect baptism in which fire appears on the water, a trick or magic; believers who accept it lose what they had.
- Symposium 8.13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The dragon's seven heads are vices to be conquered for seven crowns and its ten horns the sins against the ten commandments; humans are free and not ruled by the stars, and Thecla turns to refute astrology.
- Symposium 8.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Thecla describes the astrologers' spherical cosmos and zodiac and mocks its mythical origins: if the signs came from later myths, earlier people lived without any fate of birth.
- Symposium 8.15Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · If birth-fate came from later constellations, earlier people had none, yet lived better and longer; and stars that caused human evils would be more wretched than humans.
- Symposium 8.16Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · A series of arguments against astrological fate: the stars and God cause no evil, laws presuppose freedom, and blame and praise would be meaningless if fate made people what they are.
- Apostolic Church Order 10Anonymous · ca. 300 · Avoid augury, enchantment, astrology and purifications, which lead to idolatry.
- Canon 6Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Killing by sorcery is punished by refusal of communion even at death, because sorcery involves idolatry.
- Against the Nations 1.43Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius rejects the charge that Christ was a magician, since no magician ever did what he did without spells or rites.
- Against the Nations 1.52Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius challenges the famous magicians of legend to do, even with all their arts, what simple Christians did by bare command.
- Against the Nations 4.11Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · If any gods exist, the pagans' absurd inventions would offend them; and the answers given by soothsayers are often false.
- Against the Nations 4.12Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Even if omens are real, deceiving spirits may answer in the name of the gods invoked, as the magi themselves admit.
- Church History 2.13.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The devil brought Simon Magus to Rome, where his sorceries led many astray.
- Church History 3.26.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Menander taught that his magic and baptism gave immortality even in this life.
- Church History 3.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The devil used such sorcerers to discredit Christian teaching on immortality and resurrection.
- Church History 4.11.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus describes Marcus, a magician of the same period, and his rites.
- Church History 7.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · An Egyptian chief magician turned Valerian against the Christians and toward human sacrifice.
- Church History 8.14.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Maxentius practiced cruel magic, including the murder of pregnant women and infants, hoping to win victory by it.
- Church History 8.14.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Maximin outdid Maxentius in wickedness, honoring magicians and doing nothing without oracles.
- Church History 9.3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Theotecnus set up a cult image of Zeus Philios at Antioch and claimed its oracle ordered the Christians expelled.
- Church History 9.11.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Licinius had the priests of Theotecnus's idol tortured, exposed the oracle as a fraud, and executed Theotecnus and his accomplices.
- Homilies 1.5Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Clement plans to seek proof of immortality through necromancy in Egypt but is dissuaded by a philosopher.
- Homilies 2.26Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Aquila reports that Simon claimed to have used the soul of a murdered boy for his magic and to have made a man out of air.
- Homilies 4.2Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Clement reports that Simon, beaten at Caesarea, is slandering Peter in Tyre as a magician and deceiver.
- Homilies 5.3Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Clement pretends to be lovesick, and Appion tells how an Egyptian magician's spell once won him the woman he loved.
- Homilies 5.5Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Appion explains magic as a chain of command: demons obey angels, and angels adjured by magicians obey for fear of the higher power.
- Homilies 9.4Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Nebrod (Nimrod), whom the Greeks call Zoroaster, forced the evil ruler's star by magic to give him kingship, and was answered with fire.
- Homilies 9.16Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Oracles and cures do not prove the gods divine, since demons prophesy and know medicine and time their prescriptions to take credit for natural recoveries.
- Homilies 9.18Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Many oracles and cures are frauds, perjuries, or magic, and prophecy or healing does not prove divinity.
- Homilies 14.4Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter answers that advice is pointless if genesis rules all, and that even if genesis exists the Lord of the stars, not the gods, is to be worshipped.
- Homilies 14.5Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter offers to prove providence by healing incurable infirmities through prayer, and argues that fatalism blasphemes God by making him the author of all sin.
- Homilies 14.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Faustus admits that he truly believes in astrology, taught him by the Egyptian Annubion; Peter replies that astrologers' successes may be mere chance.
- Recognitions 2.6Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Aquila, also a former disciple of Simon, offers to tell Peter how Simon performs his wonders.
- Recognitions 2.9Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Aquila recounts Simon's love for Luna and his boasts of the magical wonders he could perform.
- Recognitions 2.13Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Aquila tells how Simon claimed to work his magic through the soul of a murdered boy, and how Niceta challenged him with the coming judgment.
- Recognitions 2.15Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Simon boasts that he once made a boy out of air, which his hearers understand to refer to the murdered boy whose soul he uses.
- Recognitions 3.55Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter compares the testing of this age to the contest between Moses and Pharaoh's magicians, whose signs seemed equal but were not.
- Recognitions 4.27Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · After the flood Ham handed magic to his son Mesraim, called Zoroaster, who sought divine honors through star-magic until a demon burned him up.
- Recognitions 4.29Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Nimrod, called Ninus, became the first king through magic, the magi spread astral cults, and Zoroaster's ashes were carried to the Persians and worshiped as heavenly fire.
- Recognitions 8.53Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Every good has its counterfeit—false prophets, false philosophers, imitated circumcision, rival baptisms, magic healing and necromancy—so the old man should choose the side of order that proves providence.
- Recognitions 9.12Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Astrologers attribute to the stars what demons do, inventing “climacterics” to cover their failures, but repentance and baptism cancel the death they predict.
- Recognitions 9.16Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The old man sums up Clement's argument but rejects it, holding from experience that the configuration of the stars makes some people murderers or adulterers and others chaste.
- Recognitions 9.17Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The old man cites astrological configurations that supposedly produce murderers, incestuous adulterers, and women who act like men and men like women.
- Recognitions 9.19Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement begins his catalogue of national laws with the Seres, among whom law, not the stars, prevents murder, adultery, theft, and idolatry, though Mars rises over them daily.
- Recognitions 9.25Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The customs of Medes, Indians, Germans, and others follow their laws, not the stars, proving that free will obeys law and overrides birth-fate.
- Recognitions 10.7Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement answers from astrology itself: the union of earth and water is fruitful, like lawful marriage, while harmful mixtures of elements are like adultery.
- Recognitions 10.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement suggests testing astrologers by reporting the same date as unlucky to one and lucky to another, since their system always lets them find a configuration to explain any outcome.
- Prophetic Extracts 4.0Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Introducing the extracts from Isaiah, Eusebius argues that the prophets were truly inspired, since Israel accepted them as prophets because of their fulfilled predictions, wisdom, boldness, and lives.
- Divine Institutes 2.7.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The augur Attus Navius cut a whetstone with a razor at Tarquin's challenge.
- Divine Institutes 2.14.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Magicians work by demons who deceive the eyes.
- Divine Institutes 2.16.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Demons invented astrology, divination, oracles, and magic, all of them false.
- Divine Institutes 2.16.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sorcerers summon demons by their true angelic names.
- Divine Institutes 2.16.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Through oracles demons take credit for victories and deliverances.
- Divine Institutes 2.16.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Demons foresee God's plans and claim credit for them in exchange for worship.
- Divine Institutes 4.13.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · An oracle of Apollo called Christ mortal in the flesh, a wise wonder-worker who was crucified.
- Divine Institutes 4.13.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Apollo then claimed Christ's miracles were magic.
- Divine Institutes 4.15.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Magic only deceives the eyes; it could not do this.
- Divine Institutes 4.27.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Necromancers can summon the gods from the underworld, proving they were dead men.
- Divine Institutes 5.3.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · By Hierocles' logic, Apollonius would be the better magician.
- On the Workmanship of God 19.7Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Even if the stars have influence, God made them and does all things; it is foolish to credit his works instead.
- Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement urges his readers to abandon the famous oracles of Greece and Egypt.
- Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The famous prophetic springs have fallen silent.
- Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement lists the useless oracles of the Greeks.
- Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · All kinds of diviners and necromancers should be abandoned as schools of error.
- Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Even trained goats and ravens are used for divination.
- Preparation for the Gospel 3.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Egyptian priests explained everything by the stars and fate and worshipped the gods as deliverers from fate.
- Preparation for the Gospel 3.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius turns to the third, civic theology, with its oracles and healings.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.1.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Some explain the oracles as human trickery and natural causes, not even demons.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.1.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The skeptic attributes oracular wonders to natural substances, drugs, stage effects, accomplices, and the credulity of worshippers.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.1.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The credulity of the crowd and the cunning of the oracle-mongers explain much.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Most unambiguous oracles have proved false; the rare successes are chance or guesswork.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Oracle-mongers publicize rare successes and hide failures, like marveling at a coincidence in a lottery.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Even in their prime, the oracles showed no divine power, but caused many deaths in strife and war.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · In wartime the oracles proved powerless, deceiving inquirers with ambiguity and even inciting wars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Oracles promised cures, took fees, and were exposed as sorcerers when the sick did not recover.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Pagan priests themselves, under torture in Roman courts, confessed the oracles were trickery.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · One might conclude that oracles are human fraud, not gods or demons.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.2.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Peripatetics, Cynics, and Epicureans themselves rejected the oracles as false and harmful.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Chrysippus argues in a circle, proving fate by divination and divination by fate.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Occasional fulfillment shows chance, not a science of divination.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.3.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Diogenianus concludes that divination is both unreal and useless.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.3.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Greek philosophers raised in the ancestral religion laughed at the oracles.
- Preparation for the Gospel 4.22.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry says all sorcery is worked through the evil demons and their leader.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Greeks admit that their oracles failed after the coming of the gospel.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius will show that demons died and oracles ceased after Christ's appearing.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · An oracle of Hecate claims truth and power and calls for binding rites.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry says Hecate is invoked for love magic.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry says the oracles confirm that the gods come under compulsion.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.8.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Hecate says she comes down compelled by the magician's words.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.8.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Hecate complains that magicians drag gods down against their will.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's spell summons the god with sacred figures.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.9.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Beings compelled by sorcerers are neither gods nor good demons.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.10.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · It is absurd that a man should threaten the sun and moon to make them speak truth.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The magicians' threats against the gods are mad, and the gods' fear of them abject.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.10.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Either the rites are sorcerers' tricks, or men misunderstand the divine.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.10.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The demons themselves taught men sorcery.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.10.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christians neither know nor wish to know magic; Porphyry is cited as witness.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo prescribes planetary invocations devised by the magus Ostanes.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.14.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry's collection reveals the demons' snares, not divine wisdom.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.14.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Magic and images contribute nothing to a happy life, unlike virtue and philosophy.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.16.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's oracles admit that most oracles have perished and Delphi has fallen silent.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plutarch's dialogue opens with the decline of a famous oracle.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.16.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Demetrius notes that nearly all oracles have failed.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.20.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's ambiguity gave him an escape whatever happened.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.20.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's tricks are never exposed, because desire blinds his clients.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.21.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The 'mule' oracle about Cyrus shows prophecy that does not prophesy.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.25.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo exploited the Greeks' fear and credulity.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The oracles contain nothing true or divine.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.27.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Oracles have misled rulers from ancient times to Eusebius's own.
- Preparation for the Gospel 5.27.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The oracles always fail as in ancient history.
- Preparation for the Gospel, Book 6, preface 3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius introduces Porphyry's admission that the gods foretell only by reading the stars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry: the gods' predictions come from the movement of the stars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry cites an oracle of Apollo predicting a girl's birth from the stars at conception.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The oracles show the gods predict only as astrologers do, with no higher power.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry cites an oracle prescribing magic to escape what nature and fate had bound.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.4.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry concludes that the gods gave magic to undo fate.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry admits that some daemons do not know the stars exactly and so lie.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry blames false oracles on the state of the atmosphere and the persistence of inquirers.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry cites Apollo announcing that he will speak falsely.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry quotes a god refusing to prophesy because of the stars, explaining oracular falsehood.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.6.52Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · To blame the stars for human wrongdoing is impious.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.9.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius turns to Bardesanes' arguments against astrology.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The stars do not compel the Seres to murder or adultery, though they are born under every configuration.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Law and custom, not nativity, rule each people; each uses freedom, though subject to nature through the flesh.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A companion objects that the seven planets rule seven climes and their laws.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Bardesanes replies that laws are countless, not seven or twelve.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Laws change by human action without any change in the stars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Fatalism would subject even Christ and the faith of believers to the stars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · If these heretics are subject to the stars, their own doctrine came from the Creator's stars.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The stars serve as signs read not by humans but by heavenly powers.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.55Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A present configuration cannot cause past events, since causes precede effects.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.56Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Astrologers claim to read past events from a birth configuration.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.58Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Astrologers claim to read even the parents' circumstances from a child's horoscope.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.59Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Origen asks how a present configuration could have caused earlier events.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.60Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · If the stars cannot cause the past, they at most signify, not produce.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.62Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · They must admit that the stars only signify, as prophecy does.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.63Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The heavens are like God's book, containing the future without compelling it.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.66Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Origen's second argument: one man's fate is supposedly read from many horoscopes.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.68Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · No reason can be given why one horoscope causes and the others only signify.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.71Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · People inconsistently treat omens as signs but horoscopes as causes.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.74Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Astrologers require positions to the minute and second of arc.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.77Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Twins born moments apart differ, yet no one can measure such intervals.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.78Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The precession of the zodiac makes the true sign nearly impossible to determine.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.79Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The 'blending' of planetary influences cannot be computed even by astrologers.
- Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.81Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Isaiah mocks the Chaldean astrologers as unable to foretell God's purposes.
- Preparation for the Gospel 9.4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Mosollamus mocks divination: the bird could not foresee its own death.
- Preparation for the Gospel 9.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Numenius mentions Jannes and Jambres opposing the Jews in Egypt.
- Preparation for the Gospel 9.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Numenius: the Egyptian magicians countered Moses ('Musaeus').
- Preparation for the Gospel 10.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Oracles abounded among the Greeks.
- Preparation for the Gospel 10.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Astrology and augury came from barbarians.
- Preparation for the Gospel 10.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Sacrificial and dream divination came from barbarians.
- Preparation for the Gospel 14.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry’s Philosophy from Oracles admits that Apollo credited barbarians, including Hebrews, with the truth.
- Epitome of the Divine Institutes 23.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Demons invented astrology and divination and make them seem true.
- Epitome of the Divine Institutes 23.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Demons are behind magical illusions.
- Epitome of the Divine Institutes 23.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Demons work through necromancy, oracles, and false wonders in temples.
- On the Deaths of the Persecutors 10.1Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Diocletian, anxious about the future, consulted the entrails of sacrificed animals.
- On the Deaths of the Persecutors 11.7Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Diocletian consulted Apollo's oracle at Miletus, which answered against the Christians.
- Canon 24Anonymous · 314 · Those who practice divination, sorcery, or pagan purifications do five years' penance.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.78Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius will now answer unbelievers who call Jesus a sorcerer, first treating him as a man and then showing his divine power.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.4.31Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s wonders are confirmed by continuing signs and by reasoning against those who deny them or call them sorcery.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · A teacher of such virtue cannot have been a sorcerer, since sorcerers act for base gain.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus worked by divine power and reverence for the Father; his followers reject amulets, spells, and magic cures.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians do not use amulets or charms.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · No Christian has been found a sorcerer, even under torture.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Acts records that former sorcerers burned their magic books.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius turns to the pagan oracles quoted by Porphyry, the Christians' enemy, as witnesses to Jesus' piety.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 4.10.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Deuteronomy forbids child sacrifice, divination, and sorcery as abominations of the nations.
- Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Pagans claim that their oracles are as much gifts of God as the Hebrew prophets.
- Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · They claim augury, dreams, and other signs are God’s gifts equal to Hebrew prophecy.
- Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 5, preface 8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The oracles fell silent from the time of Christ’s coming.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 6.20.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The pagans consult oracles and demons against the Christians, but in vain.
- Demonstration of the Gospel 9.14.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ bids believers from the nations not to consult demonic oracles, since they have received a saving law; next, more from Isaiah.
- On the Incarnation 11.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Magic, oracles, and astrology spread among humankind.
- On the Incarnation 46.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Demons and magic lost their power when the Word appeared on earth.
- On the Incarnation 48.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The sign of the cross and the name of Christ put demons, oracles, and magic to flight.
- On the Incarnation 53.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ alone has overcome idolatry, demons, magic, and Greek wisdom, so that magicians burn their books and the wise turn to the Gospels.
- On the Witch of Endor 2Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius retells how Saul, after banishing the mediums, was abandoned by God and in terror of the Philistines sought out the woman of Endor, and argues that divination forbidden by God cannot yield true testimony.
- On the Witch of Endor 3Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that no demon or medium has power to bring up any soul from Hades, that Origen wrongly attributes the woman's words to the Holy Spirit, and that the text says only that Saul inferred from her description that it was Samuel.
- On the Witch of Endor 9Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius adds the example of Pharaoh's magicians, of whom Scripture says they did “likewise”, arguing that their wonders were illusions and that the narrator's words do not make magic equal to God's signs.
- On the Witch of Endor 11Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that Christians put demons to flight, as Paul did the spirit of Python at Philippi, so no demon could summon Samuel, and that a real Samuel would first have rebuked Saul for consulting a medium against the law.
- On the Witch of Endor 24Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius ridicules Origen for denying a demon power to prophesy while granting it power to bring up souls and angels, notes that even Caiaphas prophesied unwittingly, and cites the laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus condemning mediums, reading in Deut 13:3 the Father and the Son.
- On the Witch of Endor 25Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that the law would not command the stoning of mediums if they truly brought up souls and foretold the future, and that the Scriptures consistently condemn them, as in the accounts of Manasseh and Josiah and in Isaiah's rebuke of those who consult the dead.
- Theophany 2.69Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 2.79Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 3.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 5.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 5.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 5.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Theophany 5.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
- Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.3Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The oracles flattered rulers with predictions but could not foresee their own ruin.
- Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.4Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · No oracle, not even Apollo's, foretold Christ's coming or their own overthrow.
- Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · No pagan prophet foresaw Constantine's Christian reign or the destruction of the shrines.
- Life of Constantine 1.27.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Because Maxentius relied on sorcery, Constantine sought divine help above military strength.
- Life of Constantine 1.36.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Maxentius practiced cruel magic and brought famine on Rome.
- Life of Constantine 2.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine took bishops with him; Licinius mocked this and consulted diviners, who promised him victory.
- Life of Constantine 2.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Licinius did not repent but turned again to sorcery; like Pharaoh, his heart was hardened.
- Life of Constantine 2.50.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine recalls an oracle of Apollo complaining that “the righteous on earth” prevented true prophecy.
- Life of Constantine 2.54.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The persecutors perished without descendants, misled by the oracles of Apollo.
- Canon 36Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Clergy may not practice magic or astrology or make amulets, and those who wear amulets are expelled.
- Catechetical Lecture 4.37Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Closing warnings: flee the devil’s works, divination, magic, licentiousness, greed, pagan shows, amulets, Samaritan and Jewish observances, and heretics; guard the soul by fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and Scripture.
- Catechetical Lecture 9.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Darkness and night are good gifts of the one Creator, and the stars, clouds, rain, snow and the fruits of the earth all display his wisdom.
- Catechetical Lecture 19.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The devil's "worship" is idolatry, divination, and magic; those who return to them after baptism are like Lot's wife, while the faithful flee to Christ.
- Life of Antony 33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Pagan oracles were demonic guesswork, like a physician’s or a farmer’s forecasts; foreknowledge has no value for salvation, which depends on faith and keeping the commandments.
- Homilies on the Psalms 45.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains the title of Ps 46 (the end, the sons of Korah, the hidden things) and begins on its first verse: everyone needs a refuge, but the devil confuses the choice of a savior; Christians too seek health or wealth that may harm them, and run to enchanters, amulets, doctors and dream-interpreters instead of to God, the one refuge.
- Commentary on Galatians 4.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · By saying “under the elements of the world” instead of “under the law,” Paul shows that both Jews and Gentiles lived under worldly laws and the necessities of the stars, from which faith in Christ frees believers, so the Jewish law must all the more be left behind.
- Oration 39.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The list continues: Pelops, Hecate, the oracles, Magian and Chaldaean divination, Thracian and Orphic rites, Mithras, Osiris, Isis, Apis and the Nile; none of these is what Christians celebrate.
- Tractates 2.43.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno reinterprets the twelve signs of the zodiac as Christ, the Testaments, the church's warfare against the devil, and baptism, which makes Jews and Gentiles one people.
- Hexaemeron 6.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Basil refutes astrology: the precise moment of birth on which horoscopes depend can never be fixed.
- Hexaemeron 6.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Astrological character readings drawn from the zodiac's animal names are absurd, like spiders' webs that hold only the weak.
- Hexaemeron 6.7Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · If the stars determined virtue and vice, God would be the author of evil, kings would be born daily, and laws, judges, work, and Christian hope would all be pointless.
- Hexaemeron 6.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The moon governs weather and tides; no syllable of Scripture is idle; the moon's size is shown by its equal light everywhere; even sun and moon are tiny beside their Creator.
- Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Jews and gentiles alike scorn the idea that God has a Son, and astrologers and those who deny providence are made foolish by God's coming judgment.
- Commentary on Colossians 2:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who worship the stars, which Paul calls 'angels', keep souls bound below the heavens by the devil's work; turning back to Christ the head, creation grows for God.
- Commentary on Romans 8:38Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster takes each power in Rom 8:38–39 as one of the devil’s attempts to draw believers from Christ, death, worldly rank, false angels, false wonders like Simon Magus’s flight, terrors and illusions, none of which can separate them from God’s love in Christ.
- Question 27, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The figure raised by the witch of Endor was not Samuel, since a righteous man cannot be summoned by magic, but Satan in disguise, pretending to hold the righteous dead in his power.
- Question 63, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The magi, following Balaam’s prophecy of a star from Jacob, recognized an extraordinary star as the sign of the Jewish king, so that astrologers, usually enemies of truth, bore witness to Christ.
- Question 115, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Astrology contradicts God’s law, for if people were born good or bad, the law would be pointless and God unjust in punishing.
- Question 115, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Fatalism, Satan’s device, removes both guilt and merit, contradicting the baptismal renunciation of Satan and making praise and blame meaningless.
- Question 115, section 38Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Astrological predictions come true for those who believe them because demons bring them about, but God does not let them harm those who trust in him.
- Question 115, section 50Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christians who envy the prosperous or listen to astrologers show weak faith, since God made the world a testing ground and promised Christians their reward in heaven, not on earth.
- Question 115, section 82Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ’s promises to those who ask and believe show that the will is free; faith, present in human nature only as a seed like fire in flint, must be roused and exercised, and astrology destroys it.
- Letter 78.38Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the thirty-seventh station, Oboth ('magicians' or 'wineskins'), as the snares of magic and demons, against which the heart must be guarded.
- Letter 92.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus charges Origen with tolerating magic, denying that the Word himself took flesh, and teaching that Christ will suffer again for demons.
- Letter 96.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus condemns Origen's statement that magic is not evil, arguing that magic and idolatry stand or fall together.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 3.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Astrology and magic are ascribed to Nimrod-Zoroaster, though the two lived at different times.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 3.1.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Writers borrowed Egyptian myth, the source of sorcery and magic.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 16.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Pharisees used astrology with Hebrew names.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 16.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius lists the names not to endorse astrology.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Simon, a sorcerer from Gitta, deceived the Samaritans.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 24.7.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Basilides borrowed astrological schemes.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 27.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Carpocratians practice magic and love charms.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.7.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They used magic to help him seduce women.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · His companions prepared stronger magic.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sorcerers performed rites in the tombs.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.8.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sign of Christ protected the woman and the magic failed.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.12.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Jews tried to bind the kiln fires by magic.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus, a skilled magician, attracted men and women.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus used conjuring tricks and magic.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · His followers cannot see that it is magic.
- Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 53.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Followers used the women's dust and spittle as amulets.
- Apostolic Constitutions 2.62.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Theatres, processions and all forms of divination and magic are forbidden.
- Apostolic Constitutions 7.3.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Magic and sorcery are forbidden.
- Apostolic Constitutions 7.6.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Augury leads to idolatry and is forbidden.
- Apostolic Constitutions 7.6.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Enchantments, omens and divination are forbidden.
- Theological Oration 2 (Or. 28), On the Doctrine of God 30Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The sun, the seasons, the moon, and the stars remain mysteries; astrologers who read human destinies in them turn creation against its Creator.
- Against Fate, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory asks whether fate is a God ruling all or the servant of a higher cause; since fate follows the movement of the stars and would not exist if they stood still, it cannot be master of all; the philosopher replies that fate is not a being but the result of the universe's sympathy, the stars' powers mixing like drugs.
- Against Fate, part 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The philosopher explains that the stellar outflow changes every instant and stamps each newborn like a seal in wax; Gregory ridicules the idea that a lifeless, partless instant could rule living, choosing beings, and argues that neither the star nor the child can be said to lead, since both are already in motion.
- Against Fate, part 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · If births followed the ever-moving stars, births would never cease; Gregory reduces to absurdity the astrologers' fine divisions of the hour, each a supposed all-powerful portion, and contrasts the man who lives a happy century with the infant strangled at birth.
- Against Fate, part 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · If the motion of rivers, ships, or travellers makes no fates, neither does that of the stars; Gregory mocks the astrologers' signs (the servile Bull, the beneficent Ram) and argues that if the stars' properties are themselves fated, an infinite regress of fates follows.
- Against Fate, part 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The philosopher appeals to the success of horoscopes; Gregory replies that predictions of lifespan from bodily constitution are the physicians' conjectures, not fate, and that medicine can reverse them, as with Herodicus in Plato, and that a prediction of what may go either way is no proof of necessity.
- Against Fate, part 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Mass disasters, biblical (the flood, Sodom, the Red Sea, the Assyrians) and recent (the destruction of Nicomedia and of Thrace), kill people of every age and rank together, which refutes fate by birth; and fate cannot be assigned to a ship, whose building happens in many stages at different times.
- Against Fate, part 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Neither cities nor nations have a moment of birth to which fate could be tied, and conquerors like Hannibal, Caesar, and Alexander brought one fate on all; earthquakes strike uninhabited places as well, and since Moses says the earth was made with, indeed before, the stars, its local disasters have other causes than the stars.
- Against Fate, part 11Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Demons sweeten their deceit with predictions and cures, as poisoners use honey; every kind of divination, from livers, birds, dreams, the prophetic water and the Pythian vapour, comes from the same demonic source and none proves fate; astrologers hedge their predictions, as when a usurper under Valens was encouraged by a horoscope and ruined; the whole aim is to turn people from God.
- To Theodosius on the Witch of Endor, part 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Answering Bishop Theodosius, Gregory rejects the view that the medium of Endor really brought up Samuel's soul, since the gospel's chasm cannot be crossed between the righteous and the wicked, and explains divination of every kind as the deceit of demons.
- Book of Heresies 21.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · They used charms and amulets that the law forbade.
- Book of Heresies 29.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Simon Magus, a Samaritan magician, claimed to be the highest power of God.
- Book of Heresies 103.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Scripture gives few names of stars; pagans multiplied them.
- Book of Heresies 103.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Job names a few stars; God alone names them all.
- Book of Heresies 123.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some say birth is governed by the zodiac.
- Book of Heresies 123.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The zodiac signs are really regions and climates.
- Eleven Tractates 1.28Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · They condemn as worthy of death the magical consecration of first fruits and ointments that Ithacius read out against them; for Christians, the Scriptures' unicorn, rock, and cornerstone are Christ.
- Eleven Tractates 6.105Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The true 'first month' is the day of rebirth in baptism; the moon's phases show that the heavenly bodies have no power of their own.
- On the Complaints of Job and David 3.12Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Astrologers who blame the stars set their mouths against heaven; yet God reserves for Israel a return through the fullness of the church.
- On the Life of Moses 307Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The narrative continues with the signs of the rod and the hand, the meeting with Aaron, Pharaoh’s harsher demands, the contest with the magicians, and the first plagues, from which the Hebrews are spared.
- On the Life of Moses 325Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The historical outline ends: the passage through foreign lands, Balaam’s failed curse turned to prophecy, the sin with foreign women stopped by Phinehas, and Moses’ death after viewing the promised land.
- On the Life of Moses 421Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Balaam the augur, taught by his donkey, learned that Israel could not be overcome, as the demons confessed Christ; the curse turned to blessing shows that reproach cannot touch the virtuous; so the devil turned to pleasure.
- Against the Academics 1.17Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Licentius objects that by this definition the dissolute Carthaginian soothsayer Albicerius, who gave astonishingly accurate answers, would have to be called wise.
- Against the Academics 1.18Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Licentius adds further examples of Albicerius's divination and argues that, on the proposed definition, he possessed knowledge of things human and divine and so was wise.
- Against the Academics 1.19Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Trygetius replies that knowledge must be certain and unshaken, whereas Albicerius and all diviners often answer falsely.
- Against the Academics 1.21Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Trygetius recalls Flaccianus's scorn for such divination, which he ascribed to a contemptible spirit, and his advice to prefer the liberal disciplines that raise the mind above the demons.
- Against the Academics 1.22Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Trygetius argues that Albicerius did not know the truly divine things, and Licentius replies that divination implies some knowledge of divine things, so the definition includes too much.
- Letter 55.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes astrology, which he condemns, from observing natural seasons and from using creation as figures of sacred truths.
- Letter 55.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes legitimate uses of the stars in farming, navigation, and teaching from astrology's search for fated outcomes.
- Letter 55.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine disapproves of using the Gospels for fortune-telling by lot, though it is better than consulting demons.
- Letter 136.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Marcellinus writes to Augustine that Volusian has sent him questions on the incarnation, and asks him to answer the claim that Apollonius and Apuleius worked greater miracles than Christ.
- Letter 138.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Apuleius with all his supposed magic never gained high office and himself denied practicing magic, whereas David rose from shepherd to king without any such arts.
- Letter 138.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Magicians cannot be compared even with the prophets, still less with Christ whom the prophets foretold; Augustine invites further questions.
- Letter 143.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers Marcellinus's question how Pharaoh's magicians found water to turn into blood: perhaps sea water, or more likely water from the Israelites' region, which the plagues spared.
- Letter 245.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine condemns amulets and superstitious earrings as service of demons, and declines to advise ordaining a man baptized among the Donatists.
- Letter 246.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine promises Lampadius a fuller reply on fate and fortune, warning that the doctrine of fate leads people to defend their sins.
- Letter 246.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that all law and discipline presuppose that the will causes sin, and that astrologers themselves punish their wives rather than blame the stars.
- Letter 246.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that anyone who blames fate refutes himself by punishing and rewarding others, and promises a fuller book if Lampadius wishes.
- Homilies on Matthew 6.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 6 opens with Matt 2:1–2: Chrysostom rejects the claim that the star confirms astrology, and lists the puzzles of the magi's journey on any merely human account.
- Homilies on Matthew 37.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The theater breeds sorcery, licentiousness and the ruin of others, for which spectators share the blame; Christians should find their pleasure in gardens, martyrs’ shrines, wife and children, and flee the theater as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife.
- On 1 Cor 7:2, section 5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom describes the misery that a husband's unfaithfulness brings on his wife, warns of hell and of prostitutes' sorcery, contrasts the bitterness of the prostitute with the wife, and ends with 1 Cor 7:2–4.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.13Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Astrology destroys moral responsibility; the apostles, the thief, Jonah, Peter, and Paul were saved by grace and faith, not by their stars.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.14Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Astrology is impossible in practice: no one can fix the exact moment of birth among the tiny divisions they claim matter.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.15Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Astrologers derive human character from animal signs like the Ram, Bull, and Scorpion, which makes heaven subject to beasts.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.16Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The planets' wandering, rapid motions cannot fix an unchanging lot for human lives.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.17Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · If stars are maleficent by nature God is blamed; if by choice they punish the innocent; astrology removes guilt from men.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.18Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Astrology is a spider's web for the weak; royal succession by birth in one family refutes the claim that stars confer power.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.19Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · If fate governed acts, laws, labour, and rewards would be pointless; farmers and merchants themselves act as if they were free.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.20Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose ends his refutation of astrology and returns to the text.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.33Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Magic cannot draw down the moon, nor harm the church, whose enchanter is Christ, as Paul and Peter overcame magicians.
- Hexameron (Exameron) 4.34Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose rejects superstitious avoidance of the fourth day, the day of the sun and moon and of the Paschal fourteenth.
- Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.22.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Chaldeans stand for astrology and paganism; like Abraham we must flee them.
- Life of Hilarion 20Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Hilarion's blessed water helps the Christian Italicus win a chariot race at Gaza against a pagan rival's sorcery.
- Life of Hilarion 21Jerome · ca. 390–392 · A young man uses magic to make a consecrated virgin mad with love; Hilarion casts out the demon and rebukes her for giving it an opening.
- Sermon 4.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On the feast of the martyr Vincent, Augustine urges that the devil still persecutes: the sick person who refuses magical remedies and amulets wins a martyr's hidden victory.
- Sermon 9.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Avoid magic and the shows; small daily sins, deadly by their number, are cleansed by almsgiving, fasting and prayer, and perfect almsgiving includes forgiving those who hurt us.
- Sermon 190.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ chose the day of his birth, not as astrologers choose days but so that the lengthening daylight would signify his light; Christians keep it for the maker of the sun, not for the sun.
- Sermon 199.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The star of the Magi does not show that Christ was subject to the stars; it served him, leading the Magi to him, and astrology is refuted by its own consequences.
- Sermon 201.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The star was a tongue of heaven that confounded astrology and led the Magi to worship the king of the Jews as king of the ages.
- Sermon 286.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A sick believer who refuses amulets and incantations offered as cures conquers the devil and becomes a martyr in bed.
- Historia monachorum, chapter 28Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The two Macarii; Macarius the Egyptian makes a murdered man clear an innocent suspect, dispels the illusion of a girl turned into a mare, heals a diseased girl, and refutes a Hieracite heretic by raising the dead.
- On Continence 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Abstaining from one's wife in order to pursue adultery by magic is wickedness, not continence; true married continence moderates desire within marriage.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.20Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Superstitious institutions include idolatry, magic, divination, amulets, and countless empty omens, which Augustine illustrates with examples and a joke of Cato.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Astrologers who predict human actions from the stars are also superstitious; the stars are God's creatures, named arbitrarily by human beings.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.22Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The case of twins like Esau and Jacob, born under the same constellation but with very different lives, refutes astrology.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.23Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Divination sometimes succeeds through demons' deceptions, which God permits as judgment; all such arts are partnerships with demons to be shunned.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.24Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Superstitious signs have force only by convention, like the different meanings of letters and words in Greek and Latin, through a covenant with demons.
- On Christian Doctrine 2.29Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Natural knowledge of places, plants, and animals is useful if not turned to superstition; astronomy is legitimate but of little use for Scripture and close to astrology.
- Confessions 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine refused a soothsayer's offer to secure his victory in a poetry contest by animal sacrifice, but confesses he did so not out of love for God, since he was sacrificing himself to demons through Manichaeism.
- Confessions 4.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine confesses consulting astrologers, whose teaching that the stars cause sin removes human responsibility and blames the creator.
- Confessions 4.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · A wise physician and proconsul, Vindicianus, warns Augustine against astrology, having studied and abandoned it himself, and explains its correct predictions as chance.
- Confessions 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Despite the warnings of Vindicianus and his friend Nebridius, Augustine remained attached to astrology because he lacked a decisive proof against it.
- Confessions 7.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine's friend Firminus told him of two children, a free son and a slave, born at the same moment under identical horoscopes, whose lives turned out utterly different.
- Confessions 7.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · From the story of Firminus, Augustine concluded that correct astrological predictions come by chance, not by any art.
- Confessions 7.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The case of twins such as Esau and Jacob confirmed that astrology cannot predict lives, and Augustine attributes whatever the astrologers say truly to God's hidden and just providence.
- Confessions 10.56Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine has renounced theaters, astrology, and necromancy, but the enemy still tempts him to seek signs.
- Confessions 10.67Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Those who sought purification through angels and magic found only the devil, a false mediator who shares men's sin.
- Against Faustus the Manichaean 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine contrasts the Manichaean Christ bound in stars and food with the star of the magi, which served Christ’s birth rather than ruling it.
- Canon 21.15Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on belief in astrology.
- On the Trinity 3.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that magicians' wonders are done through fallen angels who have power only as God permits, to deceive the deceitful, to warn the faithful, or to test the righteous, as with Pharaoh's magicians and Job.
- The Harmony of the Gospels 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Those who claim Christ wrote books of magic betray their own desires, and cannot do from such books what they say he did.
- The Harmony of the Gospels 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The supposed books of magic were even said to be addressed to Peter and Paul, a forgery that even child readers can laugh at.
- The Harmony of the Gospels 1.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Christ could not have used magic to inspire the prophets who foretold him before his birth, or to make a whole nation prophesy him.
- The Harmony of the Gospels 1.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The pagans can produce no prophecy from their own seers against the God of Israel or the Christians, which shows their complaint of decline to be baseless.
- Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 4Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius distinguishes the classes of Babylonian diviners.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 1–3Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: why the orthodox are few if God abolished the old worship (the answer cites the few chosen and the narrow way); how prophets differ from pagan oracles (God foretold through both, but only the prophets' words about the true God came true); and what advantage the baptized Christian has if those who know God's will are punished more.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 18–19Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · “Son of God” and “Son of the Father” mean the same, since what belongs to the person belongs to its essence; and twitching or palpitations are bodily motions, not omens, and Christians should not read the future from them.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 24Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The talismans of Apollonius of Tyana worked by natural science and materials, whereas Christ's miracles came by divine authority without matter; Christ silenced the demon in Apollonius' statue and the other pagan gods.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 26Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The Egyptian magicians turned well water into blood after Moses had turned the river; Moses' miracles truly changed things, while the magicians' were demonic illusions.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 52Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Saul killed the mediums not from piety but to protect his throne from David; the apparition at Endor was a demon in Samuel's form, though God allowed the prophecy to be true, as he sent a lying spirit to Ahab.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 80–81Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Elisha's curse on the jeering youths was a deserved severity that taught their parents, who mocked Elijah's ascension, not to dishonor the prophets; and demons still deceive through mediums among unbelievers, since not all things are yet subjected to Christ.
- Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 145–146Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Blood is forbidden so that men may not be like beasts that lap up blood; and the Theban story of Menoeceus' self-sacrifice does not prove that pagan oracles have power, since the one God decides the outcome of wars, as with the Assyrian, the rod and saw of his anger, and the pagan tales of Tiresias and the Fates refute themselves.
- Literal Commentary on Genesis 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine sets aside speculation about the size and distance of the stars, rebukes astrologers’ claims about the sun, and holds to Scripture’s statement that the sun and moon are the two great lights.
- Literal Commentary on Genesis 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine rejects astrological fatalism, citing plants, animals and twins such as Jacob and Esau, and attributes true predictions to deceiving spirits, warning Christians to avoid astrologers.
- Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The serpent did not understand the words spoken through it, just as the possessed do not understand what demons say through them; snake-charming testifies to the old link between demons and serpents.
- Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Images shown by a good spirit always signify something; even people joking—fake astrologers and a dancer mimicking the possessed—have foretold true events; how angels communicate such images is hard to know.
- On the Divination of Demons 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · Augustine explains that the work records a discussion with Christian laymen about whether a demon's prediction of the fall of the Serapeum at Alexandria proves anything.
- On the Divination of Demons 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · The remaining question, whether divinations are so great that they must come from God, is deferred and answered in writing.
- On the Divination of Demons 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–411 · Demons mostly foretell what they themselves intend to do, or what they read from natural signs or from bodily signs of human thoughts.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The devil can do nothing unless God permits, and sufferings are a Father's training for an eternal inheritance; Christians who resort to charms and fortune-tellers give the devil a share in what Christ bought.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Better to lay the Gospel on an aching head than to run to amulets, and better still to let it heal the heart; health and sickness are in God's hands, and like Paul with his thorn we should trust the physician's knife.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, born of the Father without a mother and of Mary without a father, did speak these words to his mother; neither the Manichees, who deny her motherhood, nor the astrologers, who claim 'my hour' shows Christ was under fate, may exploit them.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against astrologers who claim 'my hour' shows Christ was subject to fate, Augustine cites Christ's power to lay down his life and take it up again; the maker of the stars cannot be under the stars, and no human being is subject to fate either.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who consult astrologers pay money to buy themselves masters among the planets, entering already enslaved by error and greed.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Even Christians' day is night compared with the light to come, so we need the sure word of prophecy, which also refutes those who call Christ a magician.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ was not under fate: he is the Word in whom all things existed before they were made, and the maker of the stars to which fate is ascribed.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 97.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Magic, divination, and the fables of heretics come from the same foolish boldness; heretics wrongly claim their inventions are what the disciples could not bear.
- Tractates on the Gospel of John 104.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ prayed aloud to teach us; the hour of his passion came not by fate or the stars but by the ordering of God, who with the Father fixed all times.
- City of God 2.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine recounts the omens and prophecies that promised Sulla victory, and notes that the gods foretold his success but never warned him against his crimes.
- City of God 4.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine shows that the augury promising Rome unshaken boundaries was proved false by defeats and by the cessions of Hadrian and Jovian.
- City of God 5.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects fate and astrology as the cause of Rome's greatness, attributes kingdoms to divine providence, and raises the problem of twins.
- City of God 5.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine prefers Hippocrates' medical explanation of twins falling ill together to Posidonius' astrological one, and shows that the horoscope cannot account for twins.
- City of God 5.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects Nigidius Figulus' potter's-wheel argument for the different fortunes of twins.
- City of God 5.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine cites Esau and Jacob, twins utterly different in life and fortune, against astrology.
- City of God 5.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine presses the astrologers with the contradictions between fates fixed at conception and at birth, using the case of twins who fell ill together.
- City of God 5.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine cites twins of different sex, one married and one a consecrated virgin, against the claim that the stars determine human lives.
- City of God 5.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine ridicules the choosing of lucky days and attributes astrologers' correct predictions to evil spirits rather than any real art.
- City of God 7.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine shows the confusion of identifying the gods with the planets and asks why the constellations of the zodiac received no worship.
- City of God 7.35Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that Numa learned the Roman rites by hydromancy from demons, and argues that the burning of his books shows how shameful their real causes were.
- City of God 8.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine analyzes Apuleius' definition of demons and concludes that their eternity, reason, and airy bodies, joined to passion, only make them eternally wretched and unworthy of worship.
- City of God 8.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues from Roman law, Virgil, and Apuleius' own defense against a charge of magic that magic is wicked, and that the demons behind it cannot be mediators of prayer.
- City of God 10.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine shows that Porphyry wavered on theurgy, granting it a limited purification of the soul while admitting that it cannot lead to God and involves envious powers.
- City of God 10.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine ridicules Porphyry's account of gods frightened by an envious theurgist and identifies theurgic visions with Satan's disguise as an angel of light.
- City of God 10.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reviews Porphyry's letter to Anebo, whose questions about compelled gods, threats, and magic expose these powers as deceiving demons.
- City of God 10.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine accuses Porphyry of placing human vices in the heavenly gods and sending the unlearned to theurgists, while Christ, whom even Porphyry's oracles called holy and immortal, purifies the whole man.
- City of God 18.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains reports of men turned into animals as demonic illusions acting on the human imagination, permitted by God, and not as real changes of body or soul.
- City of God 18.53Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine warns against calculating the date of the last persecution and Christ's return, and ridicules a pagan oracle claiming that Peter's sorcery had fixed the duration of Christianity at 365 years.
- City of God 21.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Some marvels, such as the inextinguishable lamp of Venus, may be human contrivance, magic, or the work of demons; if demons and human art can do such things, God can do far more.
- Commentary on Jeremiah 2.85Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God forbids Israel to fear the heavenly signs as the nations do, as if the stars ruled human affairs.
- Commentary on Jeremiah 5.52Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome rejects Origen's allegory of souls entering bodies, explains the kinds of pagan diviners, and shows Zedekiah given the same warning as the nations: willing service to Babylon is better than ruin (Jer 27:9–15).
- Commentary on Jeremiah 5.64Jerome · ca. 414-419 · False prophets and diviners in Babylon are not to be believed; figuratively they are those who twist Scripture, guess at the future, and sleep in error (Jer 29:8–9).
- Reminder concerning the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists 2Orosius · 414 · Orosius summarizes Priscillian's teaching on the soul's descent, astrology, the apocryphal Memoir of the Apostles, and a Trinity without distinction.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 3.22.3Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Papirius ignored the augurs and won.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.1.7Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The Delphic oracle misled Pyrrhus.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 5.4.11Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The soothsayers would have claimed credit had the timing suited them.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.15.11Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Appius consults the Delphic oracle.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.15.12Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The pagans blame Christians for the end of divination.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.15.13Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The oracle had failed long before Christ.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.15.14Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The Pythian Apollo was the chief of oracles.
- Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.15.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · If Apollo deceived, haruspices are no better.
- Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains how grace differs from astrological fate and turns the charge back on the Pelagians.
- The Conferences 8.21John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Spirits cannot have intercourse with women; the “sons of God” of Gen 6 were the righteous descendants of Seth, who married the daughters of Cain's line and were corrupted, turning Adam's natural wisdom to magic, which Ham preserved through the flood; their offspring were the violent giants.
- The Conferences 14.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Scripture’s meaning deepens as one grows: the command against sexual immorality applies literally to the carnal, and spiritually to idolatry and pagan superstition, to Judaizing observance, to heresy, and finally to any wandering thought away from God.