PRESAGES, PRODIGES, PRESENTIMENTS, ETC.
The common opinion of comets being the presages of evil is an old pagan
superstition, introduced and entertained among Christians by their
prejudice for antiquity; and which Mr. Bayle says is a remnant of pagan
superstition, conveyed from father to son, ever since the first
conversion from paganism; as well because it has taken deep root in the
minds of men, as because Christians, generally speaking, are as far gone
in the folly of finding presages in every thing, as infidels themselves.
It may be easily conceived how the pagans might be brought stedfastly to
believe that comets, eclipses, and thunderstorms, were the forerunners
of calamities, when man's strong inclination for the marvellous is
considered, and his insatiable curiosity for prying into future events,
or what is to come to pass. This desire of peeping into futurity, as has
already been shown, has given birth to a thousand different kinds of
divination, all alike whimsical and impertinent, which in the hands of
the more expert and cunning have been made most important and
mysterious tools. When any one has been rogue enough to think of making
a penny of the simplicity of his neighbours, and has had the ingenuity
to invent something to amuse, the pretended faculty of foretelling
things to come, has always been one of the readiest projects. From hence
always the assumption of judiciary astrology. Those who first began to
consult the motions of the heavens, had no other design in view, than
the enriching their minds with so noble a knowledge; and as they had
their genius bent on the pursuit of useful knowledge, they never dreamed
of converting astrology or a knowledge of the stars to the purpose of
picking the pockets of the credulous and ignorant, of whose blind side
advantage was taken by these sideral sages to turn them to account by
making them believe that the doctrine of the stars comprehended the
knowledge of all things that were, or are, or ever shall be; so that
every one, for his money, might come to them and have their fortune
told.
The better to gull the world, the Star-gazers assert that the heavens
are the book in which God has written the destiny of all things; and
that it is only necessary to learn to read this book, which is simply
the construction of the stars, to be able to know the whole history of
what is to come to pass. Very learned men, Origen and Plotinus among the
rest, were let into the secret, and grew so fond of it, that the
former,[122] willing to support his opinion by something very solid,
catches at the authority of an Apocryphal book, ascribed to the
patriarch Joseph, where Jacob is introduced speaking to his twelve sons:
"I have read in the register of heaven what shall happen to you and your
children."[123] But comets were the staple commodity that turned
principally to account. In compliance, however, with the impressions of
fear which the strangeness and excessive length of these stars made upon
mankind, the Astrologers did not hesitate to pronounce them of a malign
tendency; and the more so when they found they had, by this means, made
themselves in some degree necessary, in consequence of the impatient
applications that were made to them as from the mouth of an oracle, what
particular disaster such and such a comet portended.
Eclipses furnished more frequent occasions for the exercise of their
talent. From this worthy precedent of Judicial Astrology, others took
the hint and invented new modes of divination, such as Geomancy,
Chiromancy, Onomancy, and the like; till the world by degrees became so
overrun with superstition, that the least trifle was converted into a
presage or presentiment; and the more so when this kind of knowledge
became the business of religion; and when the substance of divine
worship consisted in the ordinances of Augurs who, to make themselves
necessary in the world, were obliged to keep up and quicken men's
apprehensions of the wrath of God, took special care to cultivate
comets, and bring it into a proverb, that "so many comets so many
calamities." They knew, as Livy expresses it, that it was best to fish
in troubled waters, where, speaking of a contagious distemper, which,
from the country villages, spread over the city, occasioned by an
extraordinary drought in the year of Rome 326, he observes how, at last,
it infected the mind,[124] by the management of those who lived in the
superstition of the people; so that nothing was to be seen or heard
except some new fangled ceremony or other in every corner. "The devil,"
as Bayle says, "who had a hopeful game on't, and saw superstition the
surest way to get himself worshipped under the name of the false gods,
in a hundred various ways, all criminal and abominable in the sight of
the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, never failed, on the appearance
of any rare meteor, or uncommon star, to exert his imposing arts, and
make idolaters believe, they were the signs of divine wrath, and that
they were all undone unless they appeased their gods by sacrifices of
men and brute beasts."
Politicians have also lent a helping hand to give presages a reputation,
as an excellent scheme, either to intimidate the people, or to raise
their drooping spirits. Had the Roman soldiers been free thinkers,
Drusus, the son of Tiberius, had not been so fortunate as to quell a
desperate mutiny among the legions of Pannonia, who utterly refused to
obey his commands; but an eclipse, which critically intervened, broke
their refractory spirits to such a degree, that Drusus, who managed
their panic fear with great dexterity and address, did what he liked
with them.
An eclipse of the moon put the army of Alexander the Great into such a
consternation, some days before the battle of Arbela, that the soldiers,
under the impression that heaven was against them, were very reluctant
to advance; and their devotion turning to downright disobedience,
Alexander commanded the Egyptian astrologers, who were the deepest
versed in the mystery of the stars, to give their opinions of this
eclipse in the presence of all the officers of his army. Without giving
themselves much trouble to explain the physical cause which it was their
interest to conceal from the people, the wise men declared that the sun
was on the side of the Grecians, and the moon for the Persians; and that
this planet was never in an eclipse, but it threatened them with some
mighty disaster: of this they quoted several ancient examples among the
kings of Persia, who, after an eclipse, had always found their gods
unpropitious in the day of battle. "Nothing," says Quintus Curtius,[125]
"is so effectual as superstition for keeping the vulgar under. Be they
ever so unruly and inconstant, if once their minds are possessed with
the vain visions of religion, they are all obedience to the soothsayer,
whatever becomes of the general." The answer of the Egyptian astrologers
being circulated among the soldiers, restored their confidence and their
courage.
On another occasion Alexander, just before he passed the river
Granicus, observing the circumstance of time, which was the month
Desius, reckoned unfortunate to the Macedonians from all antiquity, it
made the soldiers melancholy; he immediately ordered this dangerous
month to be called by the name of that which preceded it, well knowing
what power and influence vain religious scruples have over little and
ignorant minds. He sent private orders to Aristander his chief
soothsayer, just offering up a sacrifice for a happy passage, to write
on the liver of the victim with a liquor prepared for that purpose, that
the gods had "granted the victory to Alexander." The notice of this
miracle filled the men with invincible ardour; and now they rent the air
with acclamations, exclaiming that the day was their own, since the gods
had vouchsafed them such plain demonstrations of their favour. The
history, indeed, of this mighty conqueror, affords more such examples of
artifice, though he always affected to conquer by mere dint of bravery.
But what is still more extraordinary, this very hero, who palmed so
often such tricks upon others, was himself caught in his turn, as being
well as exceedingly superstitious by fits. We say nothing of
Themistocles,[126] who, in the war between Xerxes and the Athenians,
despairing to prevail upon his countrymen by force of reasoning to quit
their city, and betake themselves to sea, set all the engines of
religion to work; forged oracles, and procured the priests to circulate
among the people, that Minerva had fled from Athens, and had taken the
way which led to the port. Philip of Macedon, whose talent lay in
conquering his enemies by good intelligence, purchased at any price, had
as many oracles at command as he pleased; and hence Demosthenes justly
suspecting too good an understanding between Philip and the Delphian
priestess, rallied her with so much acrimony upon her partiality to that
prince. It is equally obvious how the same reasons of state, which kept
up the popular superstition for other prodigies, should take care to
encourage it with regard to comets and other celestial appearances.
Panegyrists have also done their parts to promote the superstition of
presages, as well as the flattering of poets and orators. When a hero is
to be found and extolled, they exclaim, that _all nature adores him;
that she exerts her utmost powers to serve him; that she mourns at his
misfortunes, promises him long before hand to the world; and when the
world, by its sins, is unworthy to possess him longer, heaven, which
calls him home, hangs out new lights, etc._ With this hyperbole M.
Balzac regaled Cardinal Richelieu, adding, that _to form such a
minister, universal nature was on the stretch; God gives him first by
promise, and makes him the expectation of ages_. For this he was
attacked by the critics, but he defended himself; alleging, that other
panegyrics had gone some notes higher: he, for example, among the
ancients, who said of certain great souls that _all the orders of heaven
were called together to fancy a fine destiny for them_, and that
illustrious nation who wrote that _the eternal mind was wrapt in deep
contemplation, and big with the vast design, when it conceived such a
genius as Cardinal Hippolito d'Este_. Why could not this same writer
have thought of one example more, such as that of the priest who told
the Emperor Constantine that _divine Providence, not content with
qualifying him for the empire of the world, had formed virtues in his
soul, which should entitle him to reign in heaven with his only son_.
Thus have flatterers seized the most surprising natural effects to
enhance their hero's glory, and make their court to great men. The poets
of the time of Augustus vied with each other in persuading the world
that the murder of Julius Caesar was the cause of all the prodigies that
followed. Horace, for instance, in one of his odes, attempts to prove
that the overflowings of rivers were reckoned among bad presages; and
pretends that the Tiber had not committed all those ravages, but in
complaisance to his wife Ilia, who was bent on the death of his kinsman
Caesar; and that all the other calamities which subsequently afflicted
or threatened the Roman empire, were the consequences of his
assassination. If Virgil may be credited,[127] the sun was so troubled at
the death of Caesar that it went into deep mourning, and so obscured his
beams, that the world was alarmed lest it never should appear again. In
the mean time, no sooner was the comet observed, which followed this
murder, than another set of flatterers pretended that it was Caesar's
soul received into the order of the Gods; and they dedicated a temple[128]
to the comet, and set up the image of Caesar with a star on his
forehead.
It appears from the sermons of the ancient fathers, that the Christians
of that time believed they gave great relief to the moon in an eclipse,
by raising hideous shouts to the skies, which they imagined recovered
her out of her fainting fit, and without which she must inevitably have
expired. St. Ambrose, the author of the 215th sermon _de tempore_, bound
up with those of St. Austin, and St. Eloy, Bishop of Noyon, declaim
particularly against this abuse. It appears also from the Homilies of
St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, St. Austin, and others, that the Christians
of their days drew several kinds of presages from persons sneezing at
critical times; from meeting a cat, a dog, or an ill-looking (squinting)
woman, a maiden, one blind of an eye, or a cripple; on being caught by
the cloak on stepping out of a door, or from a sudden catch in one's
joint or limb.
St. Eloy tells his people plainly, that whoever pays attention to what
he meets at his first going out or coming in, or to any particular
voice, or to the chirping of a bird, is so far a Pagan. Indeed, all
these, and innumerable others of the same description of superstitious
among Christians, are remnants of ancient paganism; as they have been
denounced by the censures of popes, provincial councils, synodical
decrees, and other grave authorities. And, though there were not such a
cloud of witnesses, there would be no difficulty in proving the disease
of pagan origin. For, independent of those who preached the gospel of
our Saviour, having never promulgated such notions, we learn from
several ancient authorities, that the Gentiles had all these
superstitions in the highest regard. It was one general opinion among
them, that the eclipses of the moon were the consequence of certain
magic words by which sorcerers could wrench her from the skies, and drag
her near enough the earth to cast a frothy spittle on their herbs--one
of the principal ingredients in their incantations. To rescue the moon
from the supposed torture she was in, and to frustrate the charm, it was
necessary to prevent her from hearing the magic words, by drowning in
noise and hideous outcries, for which purpose the people used to
assemble during an eclipse of the moon with _rough_ music, such as
frying pans, brazen vessels, old tin kettles, etc. According to Pietro
della Voile, the Persians keep up the same ridiculous ceremony to this
day. It is likewise, according to Tavernier, observed in the kingdom of
Tunquin, where they imagine the moon to be, at that time, struggling
with a dragon. It is to the same source that we owe the imaginary raging
heat of the dog-star--the pretended presages of several evils ascribed
to eclipses, and all the allusions of astrology.
In a treatise written by Abogard, Bishop of Lyons, in 833, composed to
undeceive a world of people, who were persuaded that there were
enchanters who could command thunder, and hail, and tempest, to destroy
the fruits of the earth; and that they drove a great trade by this
mystery with the people of a certain country called Magonia, who came
once a year, sailing in large fleets through the air, to freight with
the blighted corn, for which they paid down ready money to the
enchanters. So little was this matter doubted, that one day the bishop
had enough to do to save three men and a woman from being stoned to
death, the people insisting they had just fallen overboard from one of
these aërial ships.
We do not here examine whether, in those days, the people literally were
more superstitious and credulous than in the days of paganism. It is
enough to say, that they were of very easy belief; and hence men began
to write their histories in the style of romance, mixing up a thousand
fables with the deeds of great men, such as Roland, nephew to
Charlemagne; which so suited the taste of the age, that no book would
afterwards go down in any other style--witness, for instance, the Manual
of Devotions by James de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa, composed towards
the latter end of the thirteenth century; and in which Melchior Canus, a
learned Spanish bishop, is so scandalized in his eleventh book of Common
Places. Another doctor of divinity,[129] speaking of the depraved state of
the times, says, "It was the error, or rather folly, of some of the
ancients, to think, that in writing the actions of illustrious men, the
style must sink, unless they mixed up with it the ornaments, for so they
called them, of poetical fiction, or something of this sort; and,
consequently, thus blended truth with fable." This being the prevailing
fashion of the times, we are inclined to believe, that in the histories
of the crusades, many apocryphal subjects are introduced, which ought,
consequently, to be read _cum grano salis_. This is decidedly the
opinion of Pere Maimbourg,[130] who, after the relation of the battle of
Iconium, won by Frederick of Barbarossa, 1190, says, "What was chiefly
wonderful after this battle, was the conqueror's sustaining little or no
loss, which most people ascribed to the particular protection of St.
Victor and St. George, names oftenest invoked in the Christian army,
which many of them said they saw engaging at the head of the squadrons.
Whether in reality there might be something in it extraordinary, which
has often happened, as the Scriptures inform us; or whether, by often
hearing of celestial squadrons appearing at the battle of Antioch in the
first crusade, warm imaginations possessed with the belief, and
penetrated with these ideas, formed new apparitions of their own, but
sure it is, that one Louie Helfenstein, a gentleman of reputation, and
far from a visionary, affirmed to the emperor, on his oath, and on the
vow of a pilgrim devoted to the holy sepulchre and the crusade, that _he
often saw St. George charge at the head of the squadrons, and put the
enemy to flight_; which was afterwards confirmed by the Turks
themselves, owning that they saw some troops in white charge in the
first ranks in the Christian army, though there were really none of that
livery. No one, I know, is bound (continues P. Maimbourg) to believe
visions of this kind, subject for the most part to notorious illusion:
but I know too, that an historian is not of his own authority, to reject
them, especially when supported by such remarkable testimony.
"And though he be at liberty to believe or not, yet he has no regret, by
suppressing them, to deprive the reader of his liberty, when he meets
with passages of this kind, of judging as he thinks fit." This
reflection (says Bayle) from so celebrated an historian, not suspected
of favouring the Hugonot incredulity, is a strong presumption on my
side.
The abuse of presentiments has been carried to the very Scriptures. We
are told, that the manner of Tamerlane giving his blessing to his two
sons, by bowing down the head of the elder, and chucking the youngest
under the chin, was a presage of the elevation of the latter in
prejudice to the former, was grounded on the 48th chapter of Genesis,
where Jacob is represented laying his right hand on the head of the
younger, forseeing by inspiration that he would be the greater of the
two. Meanwhile there is a difference between the two benedictions. The
Tartar, wholly destitute of the knowledge of future events, did not
diversify the motion of his hands, on purpose to establish a presage;
and God never vouchsafing this knowledge to infidels, did not guide his
hands in a particular manner to form a presage of what should befal his
children;--whereas Jacob, on the contrary, filled with the spirit of
prophecy, whereby he saw the fortunes of his children, directed his
words and actions according to this knowledge; by which means both
became presages.
Presages, presentiments, and prodigies, might be multiplied ad
infinitum. Whoever reads the Roman historians will be surprised at their
number, and which frequently filled the people with the most dreadful
apprehensions. It must be confessed, that some of these seem altogether
supernatural; while much the greater part only consist of some of the
uncommon productions of nature, which superstition always attributed to
a superior cause, and represented as the prognostications of some
impending misfortunes. Of this class may be reckoned the appearance of
two suns;[131] the nights illuminated by rays of light; the views of
fighting armies; swords and spears darting through the air; showers of
milk, of blood, of stones, of ashes, or of fire; and the birth of
monsters, of children, or of beasts who had two heads; or of infants who
had some feature resembling those of the brute creation. These were all
dreadful prodigies which filled the people with inexpressible
astonishment, and the whole Roman empire with an extreme perplexity; and
whatever unhappy event followed, repentance was sure to be either caused
or predicted by them.
FOOTNOTES:
[122] Euseb. Praep. Evang. l. 6. c. 9.
[123] Legi in tabulis coeli quaecunque contingent vobis et Feliis
vestris.
[124] Nec corpora modo affecta tabo, sed animos quoque multiplex
religio, et pleraque externa invasit, novos ritus sacrificando
vaticinandoque, inferentibus in domos, quibus quaestui sunt capti
superstitione animi. L. 4, dec. 1.
[125] Tacit, Annal. lib. 1, et ib. 4, cap. 10.
[126] Plutarch in his life.
[127] Georg. l. 1.
[128] Suetonius in vita Caesaris.
[129] Petseus, in Galfredo Monimetensi.
[130] Hist. Crusade, l. 5.
[131] Nothing is more easy than to account for these productions, which
have no relation to any events, no more than comets, that may happen to
follow them. The appearance of two suns has frequently happened in
England, as well as in other places, and is only caused by the clouds
being placed in such a situation as to reflect the image of that
luminary; nocturnal fires, inflamed spears, fighting armies, were no
more than what we call aurora borealis, northern lights, or inflamed
vapours floating in the air; showers of stones, of ashes, or of fire,
were no other than the effects of the eruptions of some volcano at a
considerable distance. Showers of milk were only caused by some quality
in the air condensing and giving a whitish colour to the water, etc.