Chapter IV.
Luminaries have been made into signs, but not of birth. The knowledge of mathematicians is useless and impossible. How ineptly it transfers the properties of terrestrial animals to celestial ones, and of these to humans. How ridiculously it asserts that the stable state of life depends on erratic signs. How impiously it attributes qualities to them that harm the innocent. How foolishly it finally presents clearly false things and supplies an excuse for malice and inertia.
12. Therefore, He made the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and established for them the measures of time, the daily courses of the sun, the nightly courses of the moon and the stars, so that the sun may increase the grace of the day, and they may illuminate the shade and darkness. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years (Gen., I, 14). The divided times have equal measurements for the monthly cycles of the sun and the moon with the stars, and they are for signs. We cannot deny that some signs are gathered from the sun and the moon; for the Lord Himself also said: And there will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars (Luke XXI, 25). And when the Apostles asked for a sign of his coming, he answered: The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (Matthew, XXIV, 29). He said these things would be the signs of the coming end: but it is fitting that the measure of our care be observed.
13. Finally, some have attempted to determine the qualities of the future based on one's birth, which is not only pointless but also useless for those seeking and promising this impossibility. For what could be more useless than each person convincing themselves that they are meant to be what they were born as? Therefore, no one should change their life, status, or habits and strive to become better, but rather remain in this belief. Neither can you praise the virtuous nor condemn the wicked, who appear to respond to the necessity of their birth. And how does the Lord propose rewards to the good and punishments to the wicked, if necessity determines discipline and guides the movement of the stars? And what else is it but to strip man of man if nothing is left of morals, education, or pursuits? How many people do we see, once guilty of crimes and sins, now converted to a better state! The Apostles were redeemed and gathered from sinners: not at the hour of their birth, but the coming of Christ sanctified them, and the hour of the Lord's passion redeemed them from death. The condemned thief, the one who was crucified with the Lord, passed to eternal paradise not by the benefit of his birth, but by the confession of his faith. Jonah did not escape the sea by the power of his birth, but by the hidden divine command he was thrown overboard, and a whale received him, vomited him out after three days as a sign of future mystery, and reserved him by the merit of prophetic grace. The angel of Christ saved Peter from impending death in prison, not by the order of the stars. A little blindness turned to grace, and being struck by a snake, and being troubled by shipwreck, their own merits of devotion, not the remedies of birth, saved them. What shall we say about those who, by their prayers, rose again from death? Did their own birth or the apostolic grace revive them? What need was there for them to commit themselves to fasts and dangers, if they could have attained the benefit of birth wherever they wanted? But if they had believed, while they waited for the necessity of fate, they would never have attained such great grace. Therefore, that belief is useless.
14. What about the fact that it is also impossible? For let us take something from their discussion, for the sake of refutation, not persuasion: they say that nativity has a great power, and that it should be inferred from certain precise moments; and unless it is inferred more accurately, it signifies a great difference. For the nativities of the poor and the wealthy, the needy and the rich, the innocent and the guilty, are said to differ by a short atom, a small moment; and often at the same hour, long life is born and childhood dies, if the remaining differences are unequal and distinct by a certain point. In order to collect this, let them answer. Determine the birth of a woman; when the midwife first recognizes it, she investigates the cry by which the life of the newborn is gathered, she observes whether it is a male or a female. How many moments do you think pass besides these delays? Put forth a prepared mathematician. Can a man participate in childbirth? While the midwife is carrying out her duties, the Chaldean listens, sets the horoscope; the fates of one newborn have already migrated to another, the fate of the other is being sought, and the birth of the other is proposed. Put their true opinion about the necessities of birth, it cannot be a true collection. Points pass, time flies irreparably. There is no doubt that time is in an atom and in the blink of an eye. I am led to believe, when we are all resurrected in an atom, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, as the Apostle testifies saying: Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall all indeed rise again; but we shall not all be changed, in an atom, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed (I Cor., XV, 52). Among the outpouring, and reception, and deposition of the pledge, among his weeping and the message, how many atoms have passed! And I have simply woven these things together. For they themselves divide the vital twelvefold circuit of signs into twelve parts: and because in thirty days the sun completes the twelfth part of its sphere, which is considered incomprehensible, in order to complete the circuit of the sun's year, they divide it into thirty portions, which the Greeks call μοίρας, and they distribute each one of those portions into twelve divisions; they also divide that portion into sixty parts. Once again, each of those sixty-sixty times divides. How incomprehensible it is that the sixtieth portion of the sixtieth moment of birth constitutes, and who the movement or appearance of each sign is in the birth of the newborn! Therefore, since it is impossible to comprehend such subtle minutiae of time, and yet a small alteration brings about a universal error, the whole task is full of vanity. The disputants of what is their own do not know how they know what is foreign? They do not know what is imminent for them, how they can announce to others what is to come for themselves? It is ridiculous to believe that, because if they could, they would provide for themselves first.
15. Now, how foolish is it that if someone says they were born under the sign of Aries, they should be considered the most excellent in advice because they stand out in a flock of such animals, or richer because they have a natural wool and make a profit from selling it every year, and their familiar possessions seem to be sources of income! Similarly, they argue about the signs of Taurus and Pisces, that the movements of the heavens and the interpretation of signs can determine the powers of lowly animals. Therefore, food provides for our living, and our nourishment, that is, sheep, cattle, and fish, imprint the customs of behavior upon us. Therefore, how do they call forth for us the reasons of things and the substance of this life from the heavens, when those same celestial signs impart the causes of their own movement from the qualities of cheap food? They say that one born under the sign of Aries is generous, because the ram willingly sheds its fleece: and they prefer to attribute this power of a cheap animal to nature rather than to the heavens, from which both serenity shines upon us and rain often descends. They are diligent and patient in their service, which the bull looks upon at their birth, because the hardworking animal willingly submits its neck to the yoke of voluntary servitude. Also the archer, whose birth is accompanied by the scorpion in its own constellation, and vomits forth the poisons of malice, because it is a venomous animal. So why do you claim authority for your way of life by pretending to the dignity of celestial signs, and take as evidence for your argument certain trivial matters? For if the characteristics of such customs are impressed by the movements of the heavens onto animals, and it seems that they are subject to the power of a beastly nature, from which they received the causes of vital substance to impart to humans. But if this is contrary to the truth, much more ridiculous is it to summon belief in their argumentation, being devoid of support from the truth.
16. Then let us consider that which they call the planets, of which they claim our life's necessities are formed by their movements. Therefore, whether, as the name implies, they always wander, or, as they themselves say, they are carried by swift motion and change their varied appearance in their countless revolutions ten thousand times a day, it lacks credibility that they determine for us the fixed and immovable substance of living, and our destiny, in such a wandering and rapid error. They say, however, that the movements of all [celestial bodies] are not equal, but that some have faster, and others slower, revolutions; so that in the same hour they often see each other, and often hide, while one passes by another.
However, they say that it matters a great deal whether the born receive beneficial signs or malevolent and harmful ones; and in this is the difference of the birth, that the aspect of beneficial signs contributes greatly, while malevolent and harmful ones cause the most harm. For in this way, they have accustomed themselves to call the same signs that they worship. For I must necessarily use their names, whose assertions I use, lest their arguments be remembered as unknown rather than refuted and destroyed. And so, when they cannot grasp his wandering and swift movement, it often happens that they attribute to that subtlety the appearance of a beneficial sign, when a heavy and harmful offense is about to occur. And why is it surprising if people are deceived there, where harmless signs are blasphemed? And if these signs are believed to be harmful by nature, then the highest God is thus accused, if he made what is evil, and was the operator of wickedness. But if indeed they are thought to have assumed voluntarily what harms the innocent and those who are still unaware of any wicked deed, to whom punishment is assigned before guilt; what can be more irrational, surpassing even the savagery of irrational beasts, than to attribute the use of fraud or favor to men who do not deserve it, but rather to the movements of the stars? 'He committed no offense,' it is said, 'but a harmful star came upon him.' The planet Saturn encountered him: it turned away for a moment, took away his trouble, and absolved him of the crime.
18. But their wisdom is compared to the web of a spider, into which if a gnat or fly falls, it cannot free itself; but if it seems that any stronger kind of creature has fallen into it, it passes through, breaks the weak snares, and dissipates the empty traps. Such are the nets of the Chaldeans, that the weak get entangled in them, while those with stronger senses are unable to be offended. Therefore, you who are stronger, when you see the mathematicians, say: They have woven a spider's web, which can have no use or bonds if you do not fall into it as if you were a gnat or fly by the slip of your weakness: but as if you were a sparrow or dove, with the swiftness of your flight, you destroy the weak snares. For who among the wise would believe that the movements of the stars, which often change and recur in many ways, bear the insignia of power? For if it were so, how many royal births would be indicated by the stars each day? Therefore, kings would be born daily and the succession of the royal power would not be passed on to sons, but rather they would always arise from a different state, acquiring the right to imperial rule. So, who then determines the birth of a king's offspring, if the power is owed to him, and does not transfer the succession of the kingdom to his own descendants by his own decision? We read that Abia begot Asa, and Asa begot Josaphat, and Josaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Oziam (Matthew, I, 7 et 8); and so on, the succession through the kings of the same royal lineage and honor extends until the captivity. But just because they were kings, could they control their movements by celestial signs? For who among men can have dominion over these things?
Then, if they refer to the genital necessity, not to the established customs of our actions and deeds, why have laws been proposed, and also promulgated rights, by which punishment is decreed for the wicked, or security is granted to the innocent? Why is pardon not given to the guilty, when, as they themselves say, they have committed wrongs not by their own consent, but out of necessity? Why does the farmer labor and not rather wait to bring in the unlabored fruits into the repositories of the granaries by the privilege of his birth? If someone is born in such a way that wealth flows to them without any effort, surely they should wait for spontaneous income to spring forth from the earth without any sowing. They should not plow the fields with a plow, not bring their hand close to the curved sickle, not undergo the expense of picking the grapes for harvesting, but rather, freely flowing wines should pour out for them without any provocation, and the wild olive berry should sweat oil for them without any pruned branches. They should not be anxious about the danger of crossing the vast sea, nor should the merchant concerned for their own safety, whom a certain lucky chance, as they say, in their idle generative power can let the treasure of wealth fall into their lap. But this is not the opinion of everyone. In fact, the industrious farmer, with his plow pressed down, splits the earth, naked he plows, naked he sows, naked he threshes the toasted grain in the scorching heat of the sun in the field: and the impatient merchant, with the wind blowing, often plows the sea with his gaze. Therefore, condemning their impudence and recklessness, the prophet says: Be ashamed, O Sidon; the sea has spoken (Isaiah 23:4), that is, if dangers do not move you, let shame suppress, let modesty confound. Blush, Sidon, in which there is no place for virtue, no concern for salvation, no young men dedicated to the defense of their country in war, trained in arms, but rather all worry is about profit, all effort is for trade. 'The seed of merchants,' it is said, 'is like a harvest.' (Ibid., 3) But what reward does a Christian man have if he arranges his cares and works not according to his own will, but out of necessity? For where there is a decreed necessity, there is dishonored industry.