De peste quaestiones duae explicatae

Resp. 3.

Resp. 4.

Moreover, I profess myself to be one of those who so execrate μαντικὴν divinatory and superstitious astrology, and that of the genethliacorum those who cast horoscopes, and other impious predictions of that kind, that I would even wish the old edicts of Princes on that matter to be renewed and strictly observed. But to remove natural constitutions of the air, and the effects that depend upon them in our bodies, from the various conjunctions of the stars—as if stars were placed in their orbits only for contemplation or the distinction of times—would be, I think, the sign of no judgment but rather of extreme obstinacy. This is especially true since the very peasants know this daily, and the storms themselves cry out the same, and the fact itself convinces us that temperature, intemperance, and even contagion itself can be predicted at least to some extent by skilled astrologers.

Resp. 5.

Furthermore, come now, let us concede that those plagues whose examples are brought forward from the Sacred Scriptures were sent by angels, and therefore lacked contagion. Why, however, would it be less absurd to conclude from that, that no plague is sent except through angels, than if I were to contend that no hail, no rain, no lightning is produced in the natural order, since I