[82] _Forsitan quis quaerat, quid causae sit, ut merum fundendum sit genio_, non hostiam faciendam putaverint.... _Scilicet ut die natali munus_ annale genio solverent, manum a coede ac sanguine abstinerent.--Censorin. de Die Natali, c. 2. Vide Taffin de Anno Saecul. [83] Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21. [84] Zech. i. 10, 13, 14, 19; ii. 3, 4; iv. 1, 4, 5; v. 5, 10. [85] Rev. i. 1. [86] Rev. x. 8, 9, &c.; xi. 1, 2, 3, &c. [87] Heb. ii. 2. CHAPTER VI. THE APPARITION OF BAD ANGELS PROVED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES--UNDER WHAT FORM THEY HAVE APPEARED. The books of the Old and New Testament, together with sacred and profane history, are full of relations of the apparition of bad spirits. The first, the most famous, and the most fatal apparition of Satan, is that of the appearance of this evil spirit to Eve, the first woman,[88] in the form of a serpent, which animal served as the instrument of that seducing demon in order to deceive her and induce her to sin. Since that time he has always chosen to appear under that form rather than any other; so in Scripture he is often termed _the Old Serpent_;[89] and it is said that the infernal dragon fought against the woman who figured or represented the church; that the archangel St. Michael vanquished him and cast him down from heaven. He has often appeared to the servants of God in the form of a dragon, and he has caused himself to be adored by unbelievers in this form, in a great number of places: at Babylon, for instance, they worshiped a living dragon,[90] which Daniel killed by making it swallow a ball or bolus, composed of ingredients of a mortally poisonous nature. The serpent was consecrated to Apollo, the god of physic and of oracles; and the pagans had a sort of divination by means of serpents, which they called _Ophiomantia_. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshiped serpents, and regarded them as divine.[91] They brought to Rome the serpent of Epidaurus, to which they paid divine honors. The Egyptians considered vipers as divinities.[92] The Israelites adored the brazen serpent elevated by Moses in the desert,[93] and which was in after times broken in pieces by the holy king Hezekiah.[94] St. Augustine[95] assures us that the Manichaeans regarded the serpent as the Christ, and said that this animal had opened the eyes of Adam and Eve by the bad counsel which he gave them. We almost always see the form of the serpent in the magical figures[96] _Akraxas_ and _Abrachadabra_, which were held in veneration among the Basilidian heretics, who, like the Manichaeans, acknowledge two principles in all things--the one good, the other bad; _Abraxas_ in Hebrew signifies _that bad principle_, or the father of evil; _ab-ra-achad-ab-ra_, _the father of evil_, _the sole father of evil_, or the only bad principle. St. Augustine[97] remarks that no animal has been more subject to the effects of enchantment and magic than the serpent, as if to punish him for having seduced the first woman by his imposture.