and stars were Gods and gouernors of the world whereas gouernance doth only and truly belong to wittie and reasonable thinges as to God who is soueraigne wisdome To angels as the wisest of his creation to men as illuminated by his spirits But vnreasonable bodies aboue are only instruments of Gods gouernance and therefore cannot but indirectly be called guides and disposers Such iudiciall Astronomy also is comdemned by the law 26. q. 6. Igitur and in many other places of scripture also S. Paule likewise misliketh such practicke in Aronomy where he saith You kéep holy daies and yeares as heathen people do I am therefore affraid quoth he that I haue trauailed about you in vaine to conuert you all and on the same place the glosse reprehendeth the craft of Astronomie very earnestly Such sciences likewise are reproued in Pauls Epistle to the Corin. 10. I shall saith God destroy the wise man and the slight of the subtill and of them that trust so much in their cunning Where also Saint Paule saith Where is now the wise man that setteth so much by his owne wit Where is now the man of law with all his slights Where is now the searcher of nature and the course of kind God saith he hath turned the wisdome of the world into folly I count said Metrodorus that this deuining of things to come which onely depend on the wil of God and mans industries are méere and great follies For no Astronomer by his cunning can tell me my thoughts nor resolue me in succéeding purposes nor how I shal lead my life they know not my counsailes although they sée and speake with me how should they then know Gods will since they neither sée him nor speake with him Themselues cannot foretell or beware of their owne mischiefes and how may he rightly know a star so farre oft that cannot warely escape a pit hard at hand so that as far as I sée the more they worke by their craft the worser they spéed Now trust me said Anthony I like thy present reasons to shew their further arrogance I will thus prosecute my purpose wherby you shall espy their wonderous folly and find that the more they trust in their secrets the lesse they trust in God There will no wiseman as you know write his hid secrets and yéerely busines in the roofe of his hal nor about the wals therof least al men might read them and know them no more will God write what he thinketh to doe in the firmament that therein all fooles might discerne his secrets and forepointments For Christ hid many things from his apostles and said to them Non est vestra nosce tempora vel momenta quae pater posui in sua potestate It longeth not to you to know the times and moments which the father of heauen hath receiued into his power and by the Prophet Esay he said Secreta meū mihi secretum meum mihi I kéepe my secrets to my selfe and since he kéepeth such counsails from his friends much more obscureth he his secrets from his enemies They say that by the secrets of Astronomy they may lawfully tell and deuiue of faire and drie wether of raine and of tempests for they fall by common course of nature quoth Asterius and therefore they may be foreknowne and foretold Asterius answered Anthony as I haue said before the course and kind of planets dependeth on Gods will only and are méerely at his owne disposition as the instrument stands on the workemans hand and in his will to doe there with what he will So that Astronomers by their cunning cannot certainely foretell either drought raine or succéeding tempest neither censure the same by stars as the materiall causes of the same but by the celestiall bodies as by tokens they may know the successe of frost haile snow wet drought and such other things and that knowledge hath the shéepheard in the field the shipman on the sea the bird in the aire the fish in the water and the beasts in the wood far better then all the Astronomers in the world How then may bodies aboue bée tokens of things and not causes said Asterius The falling of soot quoth Anthony in the chimney is a token of succéeding raine but not the cause of raine but the raine rather is cause of the soot falling For when the aire wareth moist then doth the soot through the moisture thereof wax heauie and so falleth downe and in so falling is a token of the moisture of the aire So swetting of water out of the stone is a token of raine yet is it no cause thereof but the raine moisture of the aire is cause of the swetting of the same The melting also of salt when it turneth to water is a token of raine but not the cause Smoake in the house when it passeth not out readily is a token of raine and the blew glowing of fire a token of frost but none of both causes of either The Halo likewise about the Moone a token of wind but no cause al such tokens showing the disposition of the aire but not the cause and in like manner superiour constellations by their light and manner of shining are tokens of wet and drought and such like And as the light of the Sun sheweth the disposition of glasse when it shines vpon it whether it be white or blacke red or gréene and yet is not the cense of the same colors and the Moone in one lunacion and in the same time sheweth in one countrie great tokens of raine and 20 miles off showeth great tokens of drought and so it falleth out yet it is the same Moone and the same lunacion and therefore the same cause in diuersitie is not in the Moone but in the aire In one countrie sheweth wind and tempests in another far otherwise some is made whote by the reuerberation of the sun in another countrie not so but far different In one day also it gloweth in another it fréezeth The sunne showeth his light one time of the day another time it doth not which diuersities stand not on the sunne but on the aire and other causes For the sun of it selfe as Philosophers say is alwaies of one certaintie and shineth euer alike It is not whoter one time then it is at another time But such diuersitie falleth by the diuersitie of the aire and other meanes and causes surpassing mans capacitie Sometimes such aduentures of hunger pestilence tempests drought and inundacions fall out by the ordinance of God for mans sinne and to expresse his might and power Sometime without meane only at his will Sometime by the working of good or euill angels at Gods bidding Sometime by the working of the supernaturall bodies at his bidding For as I first said he may doe with the planets what he will and he may doe without them what he list And therefore by the course of the planets we may know such aduentures and casualties not as being causes thereof
thy selfe by thy selfe whereupon Seneca in his Epistles writeth Consider thy selfe inwardly and beléeue not other what thou art it more concerneth thée to know what thou séemest to thy selfe then what thou art estéemed by others For it is a wise mans part rather to iudge himselfe than his neighbour And touching acceptance in taking counsaile in time of prosperitie thus saith Seneca in his book de formula honestas vitas Then when thou art in prosperitie ask counsaile as if in danger and rather feare faire spéech then bitter good counsailes For an euill man that speaketh faire is the net of the innocent and there are none so secret treasons as those that are coloured with the office of dissimulation or vnder the name of friendship It is therefore better to receiue the stripes of a freind then the kisses of a flatterer Be not therefore moued with the faire swéet and choice words of a flatterer but regard thine owne affaires and examine their discourses A wise man respecteth the matter not the oratorie for he that speaketh truth his spéech is plaine and vnpolished And although thou thinke thy selfe a wise man yet trust not thine owne purpose but with deliberate iudgement séeke wisdome from another man For Cassiodorus councelleth to séeke wisdome in another man in whom is greatnesse of science for to doubt and to aske councell of the wise is neither vnprofitable nor immodest The counsaile likewise of those men is to be eschewed who in times past were thine enemies and are afterwards reconciled for no man safelie returneth into fauor with his enemie For which cause Esope said neither trust or discouer your secrets to those with whom you haue béene at debate and contention Nulla fides hosti tibi sit qui talia noste Prorsus hostilis tibi sit persuatio vilis For as where fire bath béen long time there neuer wanteth vapour so where ancient enmities haue béene continued there cannot be true loue neither may there euer bée default of suspect Thine enemie will wéepe in thy presence and when he spies his time be imbrued with thy blood associat thée not therefore with thine enemies when thou maist find other friends for the euils thou hast done them they will not forget and the fauours thou offerest them they will suspect Their counsaile like wise is to be eschewed who not for loue but feare shew loue and dilection for they are not friends but odious enemies For Tully saith in his Offices amongst all things there is nothing more apt to maintaine riches and retaine them being compassed then loue neither any thing more fond then to be feared For men deadly hate those whom they feare and whatsoeuer a man earnestly hateth he desireth to sée perished And y t no wealth may withstand many mens hate though before it were vnknowne yet now is it manifest doc not therefore think that either counsailor or freind may be gotten by feare for no man is faithfull to him he feareth and therefore Martiall long Inuitas vero nemo coactus amat And good counsel and friendship is not only not retained or attained by feare and terror but euery kingdome likewise maintained by feare doth soone come to perdition For as the Philosopher saith he ought to feare many when manie feare and as Seneca concludeth No terrible man can bée secure in his monarchie The riotous mans counsaile also must be eschewed for how can he be trustie in thy secrets who is a traitor to his owne bodie They likewise that pretend one thing priuately and protest another openly are to be reiected for it is a certaine kind of harme and iniustice to speake one thing secretly and make shew of another thing openly Flie likewise the councell of the euill and suspected For he that is euill in himselfe neuer deliuereth good counsaile from himselfe and where the heart is fraught with impietie the tongue vttereth nothing but dissimulation and subtilty young men in counsaile likewise are déepely to bée suspected for they haue ripe wits and yong desires Woe saith the wise man to that land whose king is a child and whose Princes eat early It followeth now in what sort how thou oughtest to examine counsaile For in it there needeth great circumspection and discretion that both the beginning progresse and end be very diligently examined First therefore in discerning counsaile both generally suppresse in thy selfe and remoue from thy counsailers ire pleasure desire hast the arch enemies of all deltheration Secondly respect the beginning of thy affairs for the law tieth a man to circumspection in nothing more then the entrance and therefore the Prouerbe saith He that hath begun well hath halfe happily finshed For all examples haue had their springs from good beginnings and in al good things thou shalt continually find a double euill in the beginning therefore thou oughtest to feare because of the double euils which accompany euery thing For if in good beginnings there is a doubt of double harme much more in things badly begun and improuidently disposed is there danger For they sildom or neuer haue good ends which haue badly begun The beginnings are in our owne powers but the euents in fortunes hands wisely therefore and with great discretion examine thou thy counsailes for it is the propertie of a prudent man to prie into euery thing to auoid credulitie and to preuent falshood In examining thy counsaile likewise obserue these circumstances that in euery thing thou respect that which is true and sincere what conuenience or consequent and whence matters take head and what is the cause and reason of euery thing Thou must therefore be respectiue to the truth because truth is only to be regarded which only maketh men like to God because God in himselfe is perfect truth as appeareth by Christs words Ego sum via veritas vita I am the way the truth and the life and therefore require I sincerity as Tully did in counsaile because pure and sincere veritie is to be respected and mendacious and subtill lying is earnestly to be auoided For as the Philosopher saith veritie is perfect when it is not intermedled with falshood and the wise man saith Rather is a theefe to be beléeued then an assiduous and common lier to be heard And where I annex a cōuenient regard in affairs it is for this cause because in all thy counsailes thou must haue this regard that they be conuenient and agréeable with reason Thou must likewise respect who they be that consent to the affairs wil and counsails and who contradict the same that by this thou maist know whether thy businesse or determination will sort to good or no Thou must likewise examine and foresee whether thy purpose consent or stand with possibilitie and in all the foresaid be so prouident in examining y t thine appetite may agrée with reason vtility and possibility Touching consequence also haue diligent care in examining whether thou shalt obtain good or euil hate fear or
agent who hauing power to finish the affaire in good sort would notwithstanding misdoe the same For he that requireth an oth from an infidel wil not that he sweare by false Gods for then he should sinne but he only requireth him to sweare and if the choice were in him he rather would haue him sweare by the true God then draw the false to testimony In like sort also may it be answered of the curat for without sinne may he minister if he repent himselfe before the administration Touching your third question I hold it wholy vnlawful for this cause and reason induced by Augustine vpon Genesis because the Diuell as it oftentimes falleth out in such like superstitious rites and ceremonies insinuateth himselfe into mens actions contrarie to their knowledge and oftentimes against their will for men and fond women especially vse these rites words and remedies in cure of infirmities and doubtlesse the Diuels are assistant in their working to the end they may deceaue and persuade them to trust in vain and superstitious things and this is that faedus tacitum or secret league which is said to be had with Diuels Thus briefly haue I resolued thée Asterius setting little by my labor so I may profit thée greatlie Thou séest now the vanitie scope and issue of this bodie of curiòsitie here is nothing in it but deceit nothing but blasphemie no meanes but wicked flie it therefore and be rather glad that thou knowest how bad it is then sorrie to haue forsaken that which is preiudiciall to thy soule Thou mouest me Anthonie quoth Asterius for whom authoritie and reason cannot moue his sicknes is desperate and iudgement peruerted and I begin to loath Magicke onlie the delights of Astrologie secrets of Astronomy if they in thy iudgements be permissible are the marks I shoot at and the studies I would be exercised in Astronomy and Astrologie quoth Metrodorus Why these are but customes of antiquitie and apparances of Idolatrie fruits of presumption instructions of vaineglorie supererogating deceits the bug-beares of the simple For the professors hereof are waxt so peremptorie as they ascribe more to the Sunne the Moone the Stars and plannets and their owne astronomicall calculations then either to the blessed angels or to Gods maiestie That is true said Frumentarius for they faine to pull God from his kingdome defraud him of his Maiestie and make him more bound to the starres then euer were creatures to man For they will be Gods priuie counsailers dispose of his doomes determine his works and by their corrupt wits and course of the planets presume more then man should practise They say that all sicknesse or health riches or pouertie good or bad wisdome or follie wholie depend on celestiall influences They ascribe faire weather or soul to the reuolutions of the heauens presume so much on their foreknowledge that no dissolution of Commonweale no mortalitie of sicknesse no tiranny of war can fall out but by their wits and the celestiall bodies For as they say the bodies aboue rule all things heare beneath Thus make they by their owne imaginations God more thrall and subiect then any Prince in his soueraigntie For a king in his authoritie hath power of a page to make a Prince of a poore man a Lord without leaue of the plannets Again if a man trespasse against him and be conuict of treason he hath power to attach him authoritie to iudge him and means to execute him he can depriue his heires of their heritage and from their prosperities condemne them to pouertie This power and fréedome hath a King wheresoeuer the planets be or in what signe aspect or constellation without either leaue of the planets or license of Astronomers much more then the King of heauen that made the Sun the Moone and all things of nought ruleth and guideth them by his wil and rewardeth punisheth euery creature after his deseruing may peremptorilie do what he list without either assistance of planet or councell of Astronomie That is true said Anthonie and I delight to heare it your reasons Frumentarius show your reading Metrodorus allegations his iudgement now therefore that Asterius may make one with vs in this resolution I will thus brieflie prosecute this subiect We find in Genesis 10. At the beginning of the world whē God made all things of nought the fourth day he made the Sun the Moone and stars and set them in the firmament to giue light to creatures here beneath Ordaining the Sun principally to illumine the day the moone and stars the night ordering them to distinguish the one from the other and to bée as tokens oftimes daies years He likewise placed them as marks and tokens how to deuide yeares from moneths months from daies and daies from houres aduising man when to sléepe and when to wake when to rest and when to trauel whē to plant and when to sow where to eare and when to reape and therefore saw Solomon that all things haue their times and all things passe away vnder heauen by the pace and space of time and so God made the firmament aboue with those bright bodies that are therein to serue mankind and all creatures in their kind and of light and time of light as a lanterne which may not be quenched of time as a clocke that may neuer faile he made them likewise for man and not man to serue them he gaue them also not to gouerne man but he gaue man and woman wit and discretion to gouerne themselues by that light and knowledge of time which he hath of the bodies aboue that by their light they may sée to work and by their stirring and their course they may know what time it is wherein they ought to labour and therefore saith the law 2. q. v. Non licet in gloss That the bodies aboue are tokens and not causes of things here beneath and as a lampe or clocke are necessarie for scholers by night to rule raise and guide them in their studies so do the bodies aboue serue men on earth that they may be enlightned by them and by their mouing know their times to serue God according to their degrées and his dignities and as the lampe or clocke in the colledge ruleth not the scholer but the scholers rule and order themselues by the clocke and candle the one aduising them when to rise the other fréely lighting them to read euen so man and woman beast and bied and al liuing creatures rule them by the bodies aboue and yet the celestiall and superior bodies rule them not they should not therefore be called gouernors of this world because they gouerne not the world but serue only as instruments of Gods power and gouernance For it fareth by God and the celestiall bodies aboue as it doth by the smith and his grindstone the carpenter his ax the clockmaker and his clocke Good Anthonie quoth Asterius explaine me these comparisons Thou séest apparantlie quoth Anthonie that
are fallible and their positions vncertaine It is inconuenient either to trust them or to put affiance in their follies for so may euery foole tell what he will and excuse his error Their manner of spéech then is but a coppie and coulor of subtiltie and vntruth a net to catch mens soules a sinfull excusation of sinne and a chaine to draw men from God and to tie them to fantasies wise they would be thought and are prooued ignorant secret and skilfull but they are known deceiuers and faine would they be thought of Gods counsaile but neither wot they how neither can they because they are so false For the better proofe whereof you shall vnderstand that there is but one sunne one moone and other fiue stars Saturne Iupiter Mars Uenus and Mercurie which with other stars whirle about the earth with the firmament euerie day naturall passing ouer all climats and countries water aire in foure and twentie houres which is called a day naturall from midday to midday and make no more abode ouer one then ouer another how should they then more incline in one land then in another Dispose one person more to vice or vertue then another or threaten one countrie more with warre or peace then another Because quoth Metrodorus to help Asterius some what amased some constellation or some coniunction some aspect or some influence in their swift passage and motion falleth vpon one land more then another as men are born vnder diuers constellations coniunctions aspects signs so are they inclined in diuors manners hauing their affections more appropriate to vice or vertue war or peace That is false quoth Anthony and thus I proue it when the kings sonne is born at one instant with the bondmans soune the time is one the constellations the sunne the aspects sighes and planets alike yet haue they not one inclination and disposition for the kings sonne is disposed by inheritance to be a king after his father and the bondmands sonne is disposed by his birth to bée a bondman all his life time as his father was a hundreth yeares before his creation no planet then could auoid this bondage or depriue the kings sonne of his right and inheritance In the same time with the same aspects vnder the same planets when one child is brought forth many other are borne yet haue they not all one inclination neither are they subiect to one dispositions For some of them are inclined to goodnesse and some to wickednesse some to sicknesse and some to health some to be wrathfull some to be mercifull some to be wise some to be fooles some foule some faire some rich some poore some long liuing some soone dying Esau and Iacob had both one mother and one father Isaac and Rebecca and both were begotten at once and yet were they diffident in manners for Iacob was a good man and Esau a bad Iacob beloued of God Esau hated for his wickednesse Iacob was smooth of bodie Esay full of haire Iacob was a true simple man Esau a prowd and malicious son so then it appeareth that such diuers inclinations of men and women depend neither on the planets or the time of their births What then are the causes of the diuersities said Frumentarius Forsooth quoth Anthony Adams originall sinne wherein we are conceiued and being so conceiued are to sin inclined and therefore God saith that mans heart thought is prone to euill euen from his youth Sensus cogitatio cordis generis humani in malum prona sunt ab adolescentia sua no man therefore may say of himself my heart is clean as who should say I am pure and cleane without sinne Some likewise are disposed to sicknesse some more and some lesse and that for diuers causes Sometimes for wicked sufferance because children are not chastised in their youth For as Salomon saith the child that is suffered to haue his will shameth his mother and his kinsfolke Some for wicked company they be in and wicked example of their elders and misinformation For as Salomon saith A man in his ould age hardly forsaketh the depraued customes of his youth And yet it is a prouerb qd Metrodorus Yong saint old deuil It is a sinfull prouerbe said Anthonie to draw men from science to sinne from vertue to vice and from God to the Diuell for Scripture saith Bonum est homini cum portauerit iugum suum ab adolescentia sua Happie is the man saith he that hath borne the yoake of our Lord from his youth And as the Poet saith Quod noua testa capit inueterata sapit Such as the vessell taketh when it is new such it sauoureth when it is old and therefore Saint Iohn Baptist Tobie Ieremy Sampson and Samuel with many others are praysed in sacred Scripture for their holinesse in youth For commonly they that are good in their young yeares in their reretired age make a happie end according to the Prouerbe Qualis vita finis ita And although for a time they be subiect to sinne and vanitie God suffereth them to fall therein least they should be prowd of their own goodnes take disdaine at others sinfull wretchednesse Some also is more enclined to sinne then another because he was gotten and conceiued in sinne more then another although they were both borne in wedlocke For husband and wife may sinne gréeuouslie together in misuse of their bodies or in distemperance if they either exceed measure or manner or default in time as in sicknesse or otherwise The sinne notwithstanding is in the asker net in the giuer They may like wise sinne by wicked intention or fulfilling the iusts of the flesh not to the intent to the wicked fornication nor to yéeld the debt of their bodies nor to bring forth children to the worship of God but only to their owne lust men also are enclined to sinne by their excesse meats and drinks and by the misgouernance of their fiue sences and for these causes one is inclined to sicknesse more then another For sinne oftentimes is a cause of bodely sicknesse and by misdiet of the mother when she is with child or by indisposition of the father or mother or both when the child is gotten and by miskéeping of the child in youth many sicknesses are fallen into for children in youth are apt to haue all things and by that meanes do oftentimes receiue that inwardly which altereth their complexions and peruerteth their natures God likewise smiteth them sometime with sicknesses and mischiefe for that their fathers and mothers sinne in too vnséemly cockering and affection Knowing their parents corrupt desires to be so great that to instruct their sonnes they will hazard their soules Sometime also he smiteth with sicknesse to shew his might and power as he did in him that was borne blind that the power of God might be showne in him in restoring his sight many other causes likewise there be which passe mans wit and are not subiect to our