Question I. What it is
A definition is given.
Question II. What kind of sin it is
When it is mortal; when venial; examples of each; when it is no sin.
Question III. How many kinds there are
From the final cause it is shown to be fourfold. If the goods expected are considered, they concern fortune, the body, the soul, or supernatural things.
Question IV. How one can discern when there is vain observance of this kind
Section I
What is to be said when it is not evident that a cause has power over this supernatural effect from God. What is to be said when it is evident that the effect is natural or divine, but various circumstances are added. Examples are given for each.
Section II
It is shown in particular cases that there is vain observance.
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When faith in a human being is required.
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If an effect is attributed to a seal, character, figure, words, and the like, which were rejected in Book I.
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When sacred words or pious works are turned aside toward vain things; and why such things are to be censured. Why this matter indirectly concerns the honor of God. Cajetan’s opinion is explained and limited concerning those who act from mere devotion.
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To expect some result through certain voluntary fasts and prayers not instituted or approved by the Church for this purpose. On the Notory Art, its rite, and a full refutation of it; likewise on the Pauline Art and the Angelic Art.
Section III
- On those who carry relics, the Gospel of Saint John, and similar pious things. What is necessary for these things to be lawful. Augustine’s opinion on these matters is explained, along with old canons:
illud, 26 q. 2;non liceat, 26 q. 5;ne observetis, 26 q. 7. A passage of Cassiodorus is explained.
Section IV
On omens generally there is a broad discussion, and their various kinds are enumerated from Saint Augustine. On salisatores; on ringing in the ears; a passage of Catullus and of another uncertain poet. Shoulder-blade divination. Sneezing. From a name, with Augustine’s example concerning Nicopolis. From words spoken by chance. On things that happen at home, oikoscopica; on things outside, ta enodia. Examples and a passage of Saint Augustine. Omens are mentioned in Sacred Scripture: 3 Kings 20:33. The vanity of them all. The deed of Saint Mark; a passage of Peter of Blois and Judith 8:33.
To ask a sign from God is sometimes lawful; various examples of this are given: Abraham’s servant, Gideon, Jonathan, Saint Augustine, Gregory VII, and King Clovis. To observe all things is unlawful. A passage of Cajetan is noted. The omen of a struck foot is noted in Gracchus, Crassus, Protesilaus, and Tibullus. On the omen of sneezing, from Theocritus, Aristotle, and Propertius.
Section V
On New Year’s gifts, whether there is vain observance in them, and when it is lawful to send them. On the Kalends of January and their celebration. Canon 1 of the Council of Auxerre is explained, along with ne observetis, non licet, si quis Kalendas, 26 q. 7, canon 10 of the Fourth Council of Toledo, a passage of Burchard, and the Irish custom of wolf-chasing.
Section VI
On the superstition of times for cutting wood, gathering herbs, and similar things. Those who observe certain feast days as messengers of fair weather or rain, or as days of greater natural efficacy for herbs, bloodletting, and similar matters, or as unlucky and ominous. What the Egyptian days are in ne observetis and quis existimaret, 26 q. 7. Passages of Saint Augustine. Galatians 4:10. What posterum means in Ambrose and Augustine. Those who think that blessed water has more power on one Sunday than on another. Those who think that Good Friday has a power for extinguishing fire.
Section VII
Vain and foolish observances for diseases and for repelling various harms. When the practice is considered as an offering from alms, or as a cross bought from alms. Those who mix hairs or locks of a sick person with the wax of an offering; those who immerse images in water; those who use certain bindings; those who use a betrothal ring as a charm; those who place a pig’s trough on the neck; those who measure the girdle of the sick; those who divide straw with a double axe; those who pass animals through fire for lustration; those who bake the cake of Saint Lupus, and so forth; bindings for livestock, with a passage of Burchard.
Those who use absurd forms of prayers. On the cure of wounds, frequent among Spanish soldiers: the formula is given and discussed.
Section VIII
The superstitious treatise of Felix Malleolus of Zurich is discussed and refuted. When healing diseases is pious and when it is not. When it is lawful to bless animals and when not. When it is lawful to exorcise and excommunicate brute animals. Examples of saints: Saint William cursed eels; Blessed Pruminius cursed poisonous worms; the Bishop of Lausanne cursed blood-sucking Swiss worms; the people of Chur cursed insects; Lauffkaffer. What forms of exorcisms may be lawfully used in this matter. The example of the Apostles and of Saint Hilarion. How Saint Blaise blessed animals. On Saint Anthony’s pigs, and why they are fattened for him. Colossians 3:17. How all things are to be done in the name of Jesus. The law eorum, in the Code, On Malefactors. Azo and others following that law are censured.
Formulae in which it is said, “If Blessed Mary gave birth, etc., let this happen,” and similar forms are shown to be unlawful, even if you understand them as a sign or as a cause. It is never lawful to use the works of demons, not even for good, as in the deed of Theodore, Bishop of Sitten, who used the service of a demon in moving a bell. How God’s command concerning sparing enemies is to be understood.
No usurious contracts were ever lawful; the contrary is an error.
Whether a rhyme or verse is superstitious. Absurd and unnecessary rites, not approved by the Church, are a sign of superstition. The rite of Christ the Lord in healing the blind man. A certain little fable concerning Saint Mark. The rite of the prophet Elisha in raising the boy. The rites of Baptism.
No revelation exists concerning those common formulae. On Anania’s remedy it is taught that a magical and idolatrous word is composed from Hebrew. Magical words are very often taken from Hebrew. How serpents were removed by the Apostles. Charmers of serpents are not tolerated by the Church.
One who uses a stronger form obtains the same effect when no pact is present. Why transubstantiation occurs through wicked priests when the form of consecration is preserved, but does not occur through good priests when it is not preserved. It is not lawful to seek healing from a demon.
A formula is not lawful merely because each of its words is from Sacred Scripture. In what way healing and the performance of miracles are promised to faith. In doubtful matters, the more benign interpretation is to be followed; what is doubtful here and what is certain. A useful distinction between doubt concerning the thing and doubt concerning the person.
A thing can be illicit, and the person doing it not sin, and conversely. When the safety or danger of souls is at issue, one must judge not by what is milder, but by what is safer and more secure for the soul.
Section IX
Examples of various formulae of vain observance: “Spadix, Spadix, if you labor,” and so forth; “Anteparante,” and so forth. To bind a horse to a barren stool. To encircle the arm with a woolen cord. “It is finished.”
To place nine barley grains in a glass vial. To draw a thread through chrism. To hide an earthen image under the altar. To touch the teeth during Mass, and so forth. To wash the hands with the sick person, or to take his hand with certain words. To inscribe something on three loaves used at Mass. On Friday, to lead the sick person toward the east, and so forth. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” and so forth. To stop blood, to drip a fixed number of drops into a cup of cold water, and so forth; likewise to say certain prayers or verses from the psalms, or “Chunrat, cara, sarite,” and so forth. For three days before sunrise, to say certain words over a horse. To find a thief, to make a cross in crystal with oil and write the name Helena beneath it, and so forth.
Likewise, pebbles collected from running water according to the number of suspects and carried home are put into the fire, and so forth. Likewise, to strike out the eye of a thief, to say a certain terrible prayer and strike a copper nail with a cypress hammer, and so forth. Likewise, to cut a hazel branch on the Sabbath before sunrise, and so forth.
The false and fictitious prayer that they attribute to Saint Adalbert; it seems rather to belong to Adalbert the heretic, condemned long ago.
To read Psalm 180 according to a certain distribution of verses otherwise than it appears. To cure harmful magic, to take three measures of violet oil, to stand facing the sun before sunrise, and to pronounce the name of the sick person and of his mother, and the glory of the angels, and so forth. Likewise, to carry written names of the three kings with certain little verses; or unknown and absurd words, as among the ancients, “Danata, Daries,” and so forth; among the more recent, “Abrac, Amon,” and so forth; or these written on bread: “Irioni, Khiriorhi,” or “Hax, pax, max,” and so forth, against the bite of a rabid dog.
Or against toothache: “Strigiles, fulcesque,” and so forth; or “Galbes,” and so forth; “Galdes,” and so forth. Likewise “Gibel, Got,” and so forth. Or, in catching fish, Constantine’s formula, “Iao Sabaoth.” This is to abuse the names of God. The books of Bamachius and Cartachir; to join parallel rods at their middle parts by the force of certain words, and so forth. To hang round wood on the chest with a certain murmur. Two Brabantine superstitions: to place salt in the hand of a sick person, or to stand naked in the sun. The superstition of immersing sacred statues; Levinus Crucius’s book is noted. The feared death of a certain prince, a lover of superstitions.
I join the latter subject to this one, since fewer and less difficult things occur to us to be said about it.