216 THE OCCULT SCIENCES. 



in the centre of an earthenware or metal pitcher, against the sides of which, 

 swinging to and fro, it struck, emitting a number of sounds which were 

 taken to be predictions and oracles. Pyromancy, or the art of divination by 

 fire, varied according to the substances consumed, the smoke of which 

 announced, by its density and colour, what was to be expected of the future. 

 Thus, when a donkey's head was roasted upon live coal, the rotary move- 

 ment of the fetid vapours emanating from it had a prophetic signification. 

 Geomancy, which served to establish a correspondence between material 

 beings and the elementary spirits, was connected with the sternest combina- 

 tions of cabalism. 



Other processes, which seemed to have a religious character, but which 

 the Church none the less condemned as dangerous superstitions, were also 

 resorted to in the Middle Ages in order to forecast the future. The Angelic 

 Art, which consisted in an invocation of the guardian angel, and the 

 Notorious Art, which addressed itself directly to God, in order to obtain 

 immediate information as to the future, did not consist of a body of 

 doctrines, but merely of a few prayers and secret ceremonies, by virtue of 

 which the operator believed that he could obtain the Divine Presence. To 

 St. Jerome was actually attributed the authorship of two books in which were 

 indicated the practices of the Notorious Art and of the Angelic Art. Other 

 prophetic books, to which a not less marked importance was attributed, became 

 popular, so generally were they read, towards the close of the fifteenth century. 

 One, entitled "Enchiridion Leonis Papse" ("The Manual of Pope Leo"), the 

 other, "Mirabilis Liber," attributed to St. Csesarius, contained nothing to 

 justify these singular pretensions. Moreover, to obtain what were called the 

 spells of the saints, a text was taken from the Holy Scriptures and printed in the 

 frontispiece of the book. Gregory of Tours, in his " History of the Franks," 

 relates that he himself practised this kind of divination. In 577, Merovee, 

 son of Chilperic, having taken refuge within the basilica of St. Martin at 

 Tours, to escape the pursuit of his father and the vengeance of his step- 

 mother, Fredegonde, entreated the holy bishop to tell him what he had 

 to hope or to apprehend. The Bishop opened the Book of Solomon, and read 

 this verse : " Let the eye which looks at its father be pecked out by the 

 crow." This was a sinister omen. Merovee did not understand it, and 

 was anxious to interrogate for himself the spells of the saints. He placed 

 upon the tomb of St. Martin the Books of Psalms, of Kings, and the 



