Rome, though from the earliest time possess ing characteristic forms of divination and official diviners or augurs to foretell public dooms, added even less than Greece to the positive develop ment of magic. There were many (lark practices developed in the local Italian cults, conjuration of lemures, exorcism of lame, and other demono logical superstitions, to which without question the older Etruscan civilization contributed much; but the indigenous magic of Italy was of little importance compared with the assimilation of for eign beliefs in Imperial Rome. The city became the resort of magicians of every type and from every land. absorbing that multiplicity of superstitions which was to form a part of Western Europe's heritage of Roman civilization. It is true that in both Greece and Rome a few of the more en lightened minds rejected magic as pernicious non sense, and in this, as in a certain amount of proscriptive legislation, is evinced the intellectual advance of the classic peoples; hut the enlighten ment signified nothing for the mass of the people nor for the social organization. Magic was an integral part of their paganism and could not be eliminated until the pagan order should come to an end.
To understand the attitude of Christianity toward magic and its long struggle against magic arts, it is necessary to bear in mind the funda mental distinction between good and bad magic. Even the most primitive savages discriminate helpful and harmful magic, though with them the distinction is not in the kind of magic per se, hut in its use. Thus, bad magic or `medicine' is that which bewitches or injures self if it in jures one's enemies it is good. Similarly, the fetish which protects one from the machinations of an enemy is good, though if he use the like means for his own defense it is bad. This dis tinction naturally gave rise to the more abstract theory that magic capable of inflicting injury is controlled by malevolent spirits. while magic which protects or heals is controlled by benefi cent spirits. It was under the latter form that the Oriental and pagan beliefs of antiquity were organized, and in Egypt as well as in Greece and Rome, even though the State itself sanctioned the rites of beneficent magic, the use of malevolent magic (the aid of demons) was early proscribed by law. To the Christian Fathers, however, all pagan deities were conceived as demons (and few of them doubted the power of these demons), and hence the overthrow of paganism logically involved the destruction of all magic. fly the very attitude of Christianity it all became malevolent magic—the black art.
Unfortunately, magical beliefs were too thor oughly ingrained in human nature to he readily eradicated, and persisting in spite of the opposi tion of the Christian religion during the Middle Ages, it remained as a confused element in much of the mediaeval learning. There appear to he
three predominant strain: in the mediaeval devel opment. In its results the most important is that which gave rise to modern science. As already indicated, scientific elements were pres ent in ancient magic. most notably in astrology and healing magic. which formed true if imperfect sciences. In mediaeval times alchemy (q.v.) be came even more important: and. indeed, the chief business of the media-val magician was to find the secret of the 'philosopher's stone,' which should transmute base metals into gold, and the elixir of life, which should bestow eternal youth. It also embodied certain forms of phy sical experimentation. notably by Albertus; and eventually gave rise to the modern white or nat ural magic. See LEGERDEMAIN.
The black magic of mediaeval times derived its main source from that peculiarity of Oriental magic which laid stress upon the use of esoteric names of deities. This is manifestly a survival of the savage superstition which impels the sub stitution of nicknames for real names; but it is a superstition augmenting with the age of tradi tions and is possible in extreme form only to peoples who build upon abandoned cultures. For example. the Assyrians attached importance to the recitation of Accadian incantations or their inscription in Accadian characters; and very many of the patron divinities of ancient sorcery were deities of decaying or imported cults. In antiquity there were two main types of this magic of names, a Semitic and an Egyptian. lamblichus, early in the fourth century, noted that the invocations of Cha'lean magicians were addressed to gods and always assumed the form of a supplication, wherea s the Egyptians addressed their incantations to demons or lesser divinities, couched them in mandatory languiige, and fre quently accompanied them with threats. The Egyptians did this because of their superstition that knowledge of esoteric names gave control of spirit. The Chaltheans, while they believed that there is a name which could it be known would control the highest of the gods, held that knowl edge of it is possessed by only one deity. This belief persists among sorcerers to day, the supreme spell being pronounced "in the great and unknown name of Allah." In Europe, however, the Egyptian type prevailed, and the black art of mediaeval magicians consisted largely in a supposed control of demons by means of occult names. Often, however. the names of Jehovah and the Christian saints were used to command evil spirits, being supposed to inflict torment upon the demons and to serve as scourges by means of which the magician could control them. Connected with this use of names were all sorts of symbolical practices, assuming the likeness of Christian or pagan worship. See SATANISM.