§ 1. Among sincere and orthodox judges this argument is less firm than that which we drew from the sacred writings. Among pseudo-statesmen, however, who do not believe Sacred Scripture but do not dare altogether to deny the history of the human race, it must necessarily possess great weight. For if there is divination, then there is also the providence of some divine power; if there is providence, then the administration of affairs belongs to the divine power; human affairs are therefore governed not by chance or by human reason alone.
That prediction of future affairs exists is shown not only by the things we have discussed from the sacred writings, but also by many things which have happened in common life and still occur, which confirm it in such a way that no one can deny them unless he is altogether averse to every knowledge of humane learning and history.
§ 2. True prophecy and oracles, among whomsoever they are found, disclose contingently future things or manifest hidden things only when God speaks—things which no one except God alone could disclose. For unless a more excellent and divine light shines forth, we altogether remove natural prognostications—προγνώσεις—and the skill of conjecturing which we concede to statesmen, physicians, and philosophers from the predictions of which we are treating.
We detest as impious and frequently deceitful those who, with the aid of demons, abuse knowledge of hidden things or presentiment of certain future things. But we judge that those who thought—as found in Cicero, On Divination, Book II—that the minds of prophets were roused and enlivened for the presentiment of future affairs by some exhalation of the earth, although Plutarch too holds this in the book in which he asks for the causes why the oracles ceased, depart very far from true reason and almost rave. For what affinity, analogy, or relation of cause can the foul moisture of the earth or the stench of caves possess with those affairs which depend upon the will of God and the free choice of a human being?
I therefore exclude these things and that whole class of oracles which once afflicted the entire world. Yet from that very class we also infer divine providence. For if demons often possess true prophecies because they behold things separated by a great distance or know the hidden counsels of human beings and the certain causes of events, we also learn from this that the world is governed by providence. For since they are evil and maleficent spirits, yet provident, crafty, and strong, it is necessary that their force and wickedness should be restrained by a greater force and fear. This can be done by no human being but by God, since even one demon, with such agility, strength, knowledge of all natural things, and especially because it cannot be seen or wounded, could destroy all human beings. The superstitions of the gentiles generally depended upon the imposture of these spirits. But afterward their prophets, when their frauds became manifest, lost their authority and the prices paid for their lies; finally, the demons themselves were also made speechless.
§ 3. The Sibylline books possessed the chief authority; a more prudent and cultivated age rejected almost all the others. Suetonius, in Augustus: “Whatever prophetic books of Greek and Latin origin were commonly circulated under no authors or insufficiently suitable ones—more than two thousand gathered from every side—he burned. He retained only the Sibylline books, these too after holding a selection, and stored them in two gilded cases beneath the base of the Palatine Apollo.” Augustine mentions those same books in City of God, Book XVIII, chapter 22, when he proves that the Erythraean Sibyl also predicted many things concerning Christ the Lord.
God willed to admonish not only holy and pious persons concerning future things. Since they were few and among many peoples scarcely any, he used the voice of the impious, as that of Balaam in Numbers 22 and 23. Hence also among the gentiles there are innumerable true portents and indications concerning commonwealths and kingdoms, either to be newly established or to be changed. Examples occur in Lipsius’s Monita and in all writers, especially those of the later age, and above all in the various predictions of various events in the Constantinopolitan Empire.
The histories of the martyrs and holy Fathers, moreover, relate very many things. Although the profaneness of pseudo-statesmen is accustomed to laugh at them, nevertheless no one who prudently and without prejudice weighs the deeds and teaching of those men can suspect anything fraudulent or imposturous. Dominions and the victories by which they obtained them were certainly predicted to very many. It was said to Constantine the Great, “In this sign you shall conquer”; different things were predicted to others, and not without fulfillment.
An eagle, the emblem of dominion, overshadows Marcian while he sleeps; the thing happens again in Africa, so that the barbarians marvel and voluntarily grant the captive his liberty. Then, after Theodosius dies, he is soon adorned with an empress as wife and with the imperial power.
Admirable is what Lipsius, in Book I of the Monita, recounts after others. Compare with these what happened in the age of our fathers to LOUIS, king of Hungary. Suleiman, prince of the Turks, was preparing war against him, and he likewise was arming himself. He was dining in the citadel of Buda, the doors of the palace then being closed according to custom. At the gate stood someone with a human appearance, but lame, distorted, and foul in his remaining clothing and cultivation. With a sharp and shrill voice he cried out and demanded a conversation with the king. He was neglected, and they thought him a beggarly fellow. When he cried out more and more that it was necessary to meet the king and no other, the matter was reported to the king. The king sent one of the more splendid courtiers, who had been commanded to present the king’s name and person and draw out whatever this might be.
He came and addressed the lame man privately. After looking at him, the lame man denied that this was the king. “And since,” he said, “the king disdains to hear me, go and announce that he shall perish shortly and certainly.” With the words he vanished from the eyes of those standing there. The threat was all too true. The king, near the town of Mohács, was defeated in a great battle and, while fleeing, fell into marshes. As he struggled out, his horse collapsed upon him, and he was crushed or suffocated. He was in his twenty-first year.