Chapter XI: Book IV: c. 4, passim, especially the device for making sheep cut

off their own heads by rubbing their necks against a sword, or for
producing an earthquake by burning upon coals the dung of an ichneumon
mixed with magnetic ore (pp. 99, 111, Cruice). Tertullian, _de
Praescript._ c. 43, accuses the Gnostics of frequenting magicians and
astrologers.

Footnote 348:

_Philosophumena_, Bk IV. c. 15, pp. 112, 113, Cruice.

Footnote 349:

Paisley, 1896, pp. 277-284.

Footnote 350:

_Hypnotisme et Spiritisme_, Genève, 1890, _passim_.

Footnote 351:

_L’Automatisme Psychologique_, Paris, 1899, _passim_.

Footnote 352:

This is treated more fully in Chap. X, _infra_.

Footnote 353:

Cf. “Cerinthus and the Gnostics” in the _London Quarterly_, Oct. 1886,
p. 132.

Footnote 354:

Thus Epiphanius had been a Nicolaitan, St Ambrose of Milan a
Valentinian, and St Augustine a Manichaean before joining the Catholic
Church.

Footnote 355:

So Hippolytus objects not only to the astrology of his time, but to
the arithmetical calculations on which it was professedly based. The
estimates attributed to Archimedes of the relative distances of the
earth from the sun, moon and planets are marked out by him for special
condemnation. Cf. _Philosophumena_, Bk IV. c. 1, pp. 67-76, Cruice.

Footnote 356:

P. Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, Strassburg, 1890, pp. 140
_sqq._ and especially p. 295.

Footnote 357:

See the tablets made for this king and published by Sir Henry
Rawlinson in the _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, vol. III.
Many of these are translated by Sayce in “The Astronomy and Astrology
of the Babylonians,” _Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ vol. III. (1874), pp.
145-339. I have taken the lowest date for Sargon, on the authority of
Mr King, _Chronicles of Early Babylonian Kings_, 1907, I. p. 17,
although the well-known text of Nabonidus would make him a thousand
years earlier. The origin of Babylonian astronomy is discussed by
Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, chap. XXIII. The immense
antiquity attributed to the Babylonian observations by the classical
authorities quoted in Sayce’s paper may be considerably reduced if we
substitute lunar for solar years; yet there seems little doubt that
the star worship which arose from them went back to the “oldest period
of Babylonia.” Cf. Sayce, _Gifford Lectures_, 1902, p. 480.

Footnote 358:

Jastrow, _op. cit._ pp. 365 _sqq._

Footnote 359:

Among modern German archaeologists Winckler and Jeremias have pushed
the effect of this “astral theory” of the universe beyond all limits.
Their position is at once exposed and refuted by Rogers in _The
Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, 1908, pp. 212 to end. Yet such a
view of the universe as is given in the text was undoubtedly held by
many during the six centuries here treated of, and can be seen as it
were underlying most of the religions of the time. That it had its
origin in Babylonia seems most probable. See Cumont, _Astrology and
Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, 1912, pp. 1-26, and authorities
there quoted.

Footnote 360:

Cumont (work last quoted), p. 18. The idea appears plainly enough in
astrological works like Ptolemy’s _Tetrabiblos_. It was not confined
to Babylonia, for the Egyptians thought the earthly Nile corresponded
to a heavenly one.

Footnote 361:

Cumont’s _Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum_ of which 10
volumes have been published will be of great use in this respect. See
also Kroll’s _Vettii Valentis Anthologiarum Libri_, 1908.

Footnote 362:

Cumont, _Astrology and Rel._ pp. 12, 13. Cf. Theon of Alexandria’s
_Commentary on the IIIrd book of the Almagest_ (Abbé Halma’s ed.),
1813, t. I. p. 1.

Footnote 363:

In the _Pistis Sophia_ (for which see Chapter X, _infra_) the soul of
a sinless man who has not found the mysteries has to wait until the
planets Jupiter and Venus come into a certain aspect with the sun,
“Saturn and Mars being behind them.” It is then reincarnated and wins
for itself life eternal, pp. 387, 389 (Copt.).

Footnote 364:

Pliny, _N.H._ Bk II. c. 4. Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, Bk I. cc. 18-23.

Footnote 365:

Goblet d’Alviella in _Rev. Hist. Rel._ LXV. (May-June, 1912), p. 381.

Footnote 366:

Aurelian and Diocletian each instituted a worship of the sun-god, the
deity of the second Flavian family.

Footnote 367:

Cumont, _Astrology and Rel._ pp. 28, 29. He is probably right when he
points out that irregular phenomena like comets and shooting stars
gave a loophole for the opponents of a rigid predestinarianism of
which they were not slow to avail themselves.