Absolute existence of religion—Essential distinction between science and faith—Puerile objections—Christianity proved by charity—Condemnation of Magic by the Christian priesthood—Simon the Magician—His history—His doctrine—His conference with SS. Peter and Paul—His downfall—His sect continued by Menander 176 CHAPTER III THE DEVIL The question considered in the light of faith and science—Satan and Lucifer—Wisdom of the Church—The devil according to the initiates of occult science—Of possessions in the gospel—Opinions of Torreblanca-Astral perversities—The Sabbatic goat—The false Lucifer 187 CHAPTER IV THE LAST PAGANS The eternal miracle of God—Civilising influence of Christianity—Apollonius of Tyana—His allegorical legend—Julian the apostate—His evocations—Jamblichus and Maximus of Tyre—Birth of Secret Societies for the forbidden practices of Magic 193 CHAPTER V LEGENDS The legend of St. Cyprian and St. Justin—Magical prayer of St. Cyprian—The Golden Legend—Apuleius and the Golden Ass—The fable of Psyche—Curious subtlety of St. Augustine—Philosophy of the Fathers of the Church 200 CHAPTER VI SOME KABALISTIC PAINTINGS AND SACRED EMBLEMS Gnosticism and the primitive Church—Emblems of the catacombs—True and false Gnostics—Profanation of the Gnosis—Impure and sacrilegious Rites—Eucharistic sacrilege—The Arch-heretic Marcos—Women and the priesthood—Montanus and his female prophets—Tertullian—The dualism of Manes—Danger of evocations—Divagations of Kabalism—Loss of the Kabalistic Keys 208 CHAPTER VII PHILOSOPHERS OF THE ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL Ammonius Saccas—Plotinus—Porphyry—Hypatia—Incautious admissions of Synesius—Writings of this initiate—More especially his tract on Dreams—The commentary of Jerome Cardan thereon—Attribution of the works of St Dionysius to Synesius—Their orthodoxy and their value 215 BOOK IV _MAGIC AND CIVILISATION_ CHAPTER I MAGIC AMONG BARBARIANS Rome conquered by the Cross—History of Philinnium and Machates—The Bride of Corinth—Philosophical considerations thereon—Germanic and Druidic theology—College of the Druids at Autun—Druidic transmigration of souls—Some Druidic practices 223 CHAPTER II INFLUENCE of WOMEN