Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 11.--Of Porphyry's Epistle to Anebo, in Which He Asks for Information About the Differences Among Demons.

It was a better tone which Porphyry adopted in his letter to Anebo the Egyptian, in which, assuming the character of an inquirer consulting him, he unmasks and explodes these sacrilegious arts. In that letter, indeed, he repudiates all demons, whom he maintains to be so foolish as to be attracted by the sacrificial vapors, and therefore residing not in the ether, but in the air beneath the moon, and indeed in the moon itself. Yet he has not the boldness to attribute to all the demons all the deceptions and malicious and foolish practices which justly move his indignation. For, though he acknowledges that as a race demons are foolish, he so far accommodates himself to popular ideas as to call some of them benignant demons. He expresses surprise that sacrifices not only incline the gods, but also compel and force them to do what men wish; and he is at a loss to understand how the sun and moon, and other visible celestial bodies,--for bodies he does not doubt that they are,--are considered gods, if the gods are distinguished from the demons by their incorporeality; also, if they are gods, how some are called beneficent and others hurtful, and how they, being corporeal, are numbered with the gods, who are incorporeal. He inquires further, and still as one in doubt, whether diviners and wonderworkers are men of unusually powerful souls, or whether the power to do these things is communicated by spirits from without. He inclines to the latter opinion, on the ground that it is by the use of stones and herbs that they lay spells on people, and open closed doors, and do similar wonders. And on this account, he says, some suppose that there is a race of beings whose property it is to listen to men,--a race deceitful, full of contrivances, capable of assuming all forms, simulating gods, demons, and dead men,--and that it is this race which bring about all these things which have the appearance of good or evil, but that what is really good they never help us in, and are indeed unacquainted with, for they make wickedness easy, but throw obstacles in the path of those who eagerly follow virtue; and that they are filled with pride and rashness, delight in sacrificial odors, are taken with flattery. These and the other characteristics of this race of deceitful and malicious spirits, who come into the souls of men and delude their senses, both in sleep and waking, he describes not as things of which he is himself convinced, but only with so much suspicion and doubt as to cause him to speak of them as commonly received opinions. We should sympathize with this great philosopher in the difficulty he experienced in acquainting himself with and confidently assailing the whole fraternity of devils, which any Christian old woman would unhesitatingly describe and most unreservedly detest. Perhaps, however, he shrank from offending Anebo, to whom he was writing, himself the most eminent patron of these mysteries, or the others who marvelled at these magical feats as divine works, and closely allied to the worship of the gods.

However, he pursues this subject, and, still in the character of an inquirer, mentions some things which no sober judgment could attribute to any but malicious and deceitful powers. He asks why, after the better class of spirits have been invoked, the worse should be commanded to perform the wicked desires of men; why they do not hear a man who has just left a woman's embrace, while they themselves make no scruple of tempting men to incest and adultery; why their priests are commanded to abstain from animal food for fear of being polluted by the corporeal exhalations, while they themselves are attracted by the fumes of sacrifices and other exhalations; why the initiated are forbidden to touch a dead body, while their mysteries are celebrated almost entirely by means of dead bodies; why it is that a man addicted to any vice should utter threats, not to a demon or to the soul of a dead man, but to the sun and moon, or some of the heavenly bodies, which he intimidates by imaginary terrors, that he may wring from them a real boon,--for he threatens that he will demolish the sky, and such like impossibilities,--that those gods, being alarmed, like silly children, with imaginary and absurd threats, may do what they are ordered. Porphyry further relates that a man, Chaeremon, profoundly versed in these sacred or rather sacrilegious mysteries, had written that the famous Egyptian mysteries of Isis and her husband Osiris had very great influence with the gods to compel them to do what they were ordered, when he who used the spells threatened to divulge or do away with these mysteries, and cried with a threatening voice that he would scatter the members of Osiris if they neglected his orders. Not without reason is Porphyry surprised that a man should utter such wild and empty threats against the gods,--not against gods of no account, but against the heavenly gods, and those that shine with sidereal light,--and that these threats should be effectual to constrain them with resistless power, and alarm them so that they fulfill his wishes. Not without reason does he, in the character of an inquirer into the reasons of these surprising things, give it to be understood that they are done by that race of spirits which he previously described as if quoting other people's opinions,--spirits who deceive not, as he said, by nature, but by their own corruption, and who simulate gods and dead men, but not, as he said, demons, for demons they really are. As to his idea that by means of herbs, and stones, and animals, and certain incantations and noises, and drawings, sometimes fanciful, and sometimes copied from the motions of the heavenly bodies, men create upon earth powers capable of bringing about various results, all that is only the mystification which these demons practise on those who are subject to them, for the sake of furnishing themselves with merriment at the expense of their dupes. Either, then, Porphyry was sincere in his doubts and inquiries, and mentioned these things to demonstrate and put beyond question that they were the work, not of powers which aid us in obtaining life, but of deceitful demons; or, to take a more favorable view of the philosopher, he adopted this method with the Egyptian who was wedded to these errors, and was proud of them, that he might not offend him by assuming the attitude of a teacher, nor discompose his mind by the altercation of a professed assailant, but, by assuming the character of an inquirer, and the humble attitude of one who was anxious to learn, might turn his attention to these matters, and show how worthy they are to be despised and relinquished. Towards the conclusion of his letter, he requests Anebo to inform him what the Egyptian wisdom indicates as the way to blessedness. But as to those who hold intercourse with the gods, and pester them only for the sake of finding a runaway slave, or acquiring property, or making a bargain of a marriage, or such things, he declares that their pretensions to wisdom are vain. He adds that these same gods, even granting that on other points their utterances were true, were yet so ill-advised and unsatisfactory in their disclosures about blessedness, that they cannot be either gods or good demons, but are either that spirit who is called the deceiver, or mere fictions of the imagination.

Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XI: De epistula Porphyrii ad Anebontem Aegyptium, in qua petit de diuersitate daemonum se doceri.

Melius sapuit iste Porphyrius, cum ad Anebontem scribit Aegyptium, ubi consulenti similis et quaerenti et prodit artes sacrilegas et euertit. et ibi quidem omnes daemones reprobat, quos dicit ob inprudentiam trahere humidum uaporem et ideo non in aethere, sed in aere esse sub luna atque in ipso lunae globo; uerumtamen non audet omnes fallacias et malitias et ineptias, quibus merito mouetur, omnibus daemonibus dare. quosdam namque benignos daemones more appellat aliorum, cum omnes generaliter inprudentes esse fateatur. miratur autem quod non solum di adliciantur uictimis, sed etiam conpellantur atque cogantur facere quod homines uolunt; et si corpore et incorporalitate di a daemonibus distinguuntur, quomodo deos esse existimandum sit solem et lunam et uisibilia cetera in caelo, quae corpora esse non dubitat; et si di sunt, quomodo alii benefici, alii malefici esse dicantur; et quomodo incorporalibus, cum sint corporei, coniungantur. quaerit etiam ueluti dubitans, utrum in diuinantibus et quaedam mira facientibus animae sint passiones an aliqui spiritus extrinsecus ueniant, per quos haec ualeant; et potius uenire extrinsecus conicit, eo quod lapidibus et herbis adhibitis et adligent quosdam, et aperiant clausa ostia, uel aliquid eiusmodi mirabiliter operentur. unde dicit alios opinari esse quoddam genus, cui exaudire sit proprium, natura fallax, omniforme, multimodum, simulans deos et daemones et animas defunctorum, et hoc esse quod efficiat haec omnia quae uidentur bona esse uel praua; ceterum circa ea, quae uere bona sunt, nihil opitulari, immo uero ista nec nosse, sed et male conciliare et insimulare atque inpedire nonnumquam uirtutis sedulos sectatores, et plenum esse temeritatis et fastus, gaudere nidoribus, adulationibus capi, et cetera, quae de hoc genere fallacium malignorumque spirituum, qui extrinsecus in animam ueniunt humanosque sensus sopitos uigilantesue deludunt, non tamquam sibi persuasa confirmat, sed tam tenuiter suspicatur aut dubitat, ut haec alios adserat opinari. difficile quippe fuit tanto philosopho cunctam diabolicam societatem uel nosse uel fidenter arguere, quam quaelibet anicula Christiana nec cunctatur esse, et liberrime detestatur. nisi forte iste et ipsum, ad quem scribit, Anebontem tamquam talium sacrorum praeclarissimum antistitem et alios talium operum tamquam diuinorum et ad deos colendos pertinentium admiratores uerecundatur offendere. sequitur tamen et ea uelut inquirendo commemorat, quae sobrie considerata tribui non possunt nisi malignis et fallacibus potestatibus. quaerit enim cur tamquam melioribus inuocatis quasi peioribus imperetur, ut iniusta praecepta hominis exsequantur; cur adtrectatum re Veneria non exaudiant inprecantem, cum ipsi ad incestos quosque concubitus quoslibet ducere non morentur; cur animantibus suos antistites oportere abstinere denuntient, ne uaporibus profecto corporeis polluantur, ipsi uero et aliis uaporibus inliciantur et nidoribus hostiarum, cumque a cadaueris contactu prohibeatur inspector, plerumque illa cadaueribus celebrentur; quid sit, quod non daemoni uel alicui animae defuncti, sed ipsi soli et lunae aut cuicumque caelestium homo uitio cuilibet obnoxius intendit minas eosque territat falso, ut eis extorqueat ueritatem. nam et caelum se conlidere comminatur et cetera similia homini inpossibilia, ut illi di tamquam insipientissimi pueri falsis et ridiculis comminationibus territi quod imperatur efficiant. dicit etiam scripsisse Chaeremonem quendam, talium sacrorum uel potius sacrilegiorum peritum, ea, quae apud Aegyptios sunt celebrata rumoribus uel de Iside uel de Osiri marito eius, maximam uim habere cogendi deos, ut faciant imperata, quando ille, qui carminibus cogit, ea se prodere uel euertere comminatur, ubi se etiam Osiridis membra dissipaturum terribiliter dicit, si facere iussa neglexerint. haec atque huiusmodi uana et insana hominem dis minari, nec quibuslibet, sed ipsis caelestibus et siderea luce fulgentibus, nec sine effectu, sed uiolenta potestate cogentem atque his terroribus ad facienda quae uoluerit perducentem, merito Porphyrius admiratur; immo uero sub specie mirantis et causas rerum talium requirentis dat intellegi illos haec agere spiritus, quorum genus superius sub aliorum opinatione descripsit, non, ut ipse posuit, natura, sed uitio fallaces, qui simulant deos et animas defunctorum, daemones autem non, ut ait ipse, simulant, sed plane sunt. et quod ei uidetur herbis et lapidibus et animantibus et sonis certis quibusdam ac uocibus et figurationibus atque figmentis, quibusdam etiam obseruatis in caeli conuersione motibus siderum fabricari in terra ab hominibus potestates idoneas uariis effectibus exsequendis, totum hoc ad eosdem ipsos daemones pertinet ludificatores animarum sibi met subditarum et uoluptaria sibi ludibria de hominum erroribus exhibentes. aut ergo reuera dubitans et inquirens ista Porphyrius ea tamen commemorat, quibus conuincantur et redarguantur, nec ad eas potestates, quae nobis ad beatam uitam capessendam fauent, sed ad deceptores daemones pertinere monstrentur; aut, ut meliora de philosopho suspicemur, eo modo uoluit hominem Aegyptium talibus erroribus deditum et aliqua magna se scire opinantem non superba quasi auctoritate doctoris offendere, nec aperte aduersantis altercatione turbare, sed quasi quaerentis et discere cupientis humilitate ad ea cogitanda conuertere et quam sint contemnenda uel etiam deuitanda monstrare. denique prope ad epistulae finem petit se ab eo doceri, quae sit ad beatitudinem uia ex Aegyptia sapientia. ceterum illos, quibus conuersatio cum dis ad hoc esset, ut ob inueniendum fugitiuum uel praedium conparandum, aut propter nuptias uel mercaturam uel quid huiusmodi mentem diuinam inquietarent, frustra eos uideri dicit coluisse sapientiam; illa etiam ipsa numina, cum quibus conuersarentur, etsi de ceteris rebus uera praedicerent, tamen quoniam de beatitudine nihil cautum nec satis idoneum monerent, nec deos illos esse nec benignos daemones, sed aut illorum quod dicitur fallax, aut humanum omne commentum.