A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our EraThorndike, Lynn
Religion
A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2): During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era
Thorndike, Lynn
Magic -- History; Science -- History
In connection with the fallen angels we find the stars regarded as
capable of sin as well as personified. In the Ethiopic version there
is more than one mention of seven stars that transgressed the command
of God and are bound against the day of judgment or for the space of
ten thousand years.[1534] One passage tells how “judgment was held
first over the stars, and they were judged and found guilty, and went
to the place of condemnation, and they were cast into an abyss.”[1535]
A similar identification of the stars with the fallen angels is found
in one of the visions of Saint Hildegard in the twelfth century. She
writes, “I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it
an exceeding multitude of falling sparks which with the star followed
southward. And they examined Him upon His throne almost as something
hostile, and turning from Him, they sought rather the north. And
suddenly they were all annihilated, being turned into black coals ...
and cast into the abyss that I could see them no more.”[1536] She then
interprets the vision as signifying the fall of the angels.
[Sidenote: Effect of sin upon nature.]
An idea which we shall find a number of times in other ancient and
medieval writers appears also in the _Book of Enoch_. It is that human
sin upsets the world of nature, and in this particular case, even the
period of the moon and the orbits of the stars.[1537] Hildegard again
roughly parallels the Enoch literature by holding that the original
harmony of the four elements upon this earth was changed into a
confused and disorderly mixture after the fall of man.[1538]
[Sidenote: Celestial phenomena]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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