Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology

...and by conjunctions, and the Christian law, miracles are announced; so much so that Roger Bacon, a great defender of astrology, uses the testimonies of no writer more willingly, unless perhaps he prefers Artephius, who completely lays out other countless secrets. Such as that which, once inspected—not by astrology, but by washing—[reveals that] the capacity of a man and his condition, in short all things, can be foreknown. Thus, how much faith he puts in that ethical philosopher whose book on cosmography is said to have been translated by Jerome! Yet the reading is so ridiculous that none is more so, but it is frequently cited by our Roger in his epistle to Clement, in such a way that he almost brings forth a little book composed by him, titled On the Errors of Students of Theology, in which volume he particularly accuses the error that our theologians confirm the mysteries of religion more from Aristotle and other philosophers than from the authors I have just named: the ethical [philosophers], Artephius, Ovid On the Old Woman, and similar poets. Indeed, the book is ascribed to Albert, but most mendaciously, since he never mentioned these dreams in his theological writings; but it seems it should rightly be referred to Bacon, whose other writings easily declare that he was of that opinion, by the testimonies and oracles of those authors, and if he could believe them, it is no wonder if he could also believe in astrology. Indeed, this kind of man has so brazened their foreheads that, under the title of Thomas, they circulate books about necromantic images, so that it is now less surprising that they fabricate I know not what books on rings by Ptolemy, and even astrological books by Aristotle which Ptolemy never wrote. With such rashness or ignorance, many even attribute the work of some Eboracensis to Albert, and the books of Hippocrates On the Prognostics of Sickness from the Course of the Stars, which I think Hippocrates was ignorant of, since he wrote books of prognostics explained by Galen and celebrated throughout all Greece; or if he knew them, he kept them as secrets to be shared with those pure and duly initiated. I pass over what Alchindus and others mention regarding rain and questions, following the Pythagoreans and Aristotle, and what is inscribed as Aristotle’s book On Regimens, so they speak of the celestial [realms], which I wish they had not referred to holy men as well, and had not made divine Jerome the interpreter of a certain book On Incantations. For if they [are] angels [who] instructed them, men can easily [do so], while they say these ravings were delivered by Adam's angel, those by Solomon's, and others by the guardian of Tobias. But let us return to the astrologers, omitting the magi, to whom the communion of error leads us as if they were neighbors. Aristotle indicated in one word what he felt about this kind of man, when in his Problems he classified the astrologer with the mime and the charlatan. But you will say: if these philosophers did not write such things, those who did write them were philosophers—such as Albumasar, Ptolemy, Haly, Abenragel, Julius Firmicus, and countless others, both Latin, Greek, and barbarian authors of astrology, men both learned and most excellent in talent. You have opportunely admonished me not to say only that I neglect astrology against you, but also that whoever wrote about it, either philosophized badly...