t "Jesus Christ being come into the world, all kinds of divination,
and all the deceits of idolatry, lost their efficacy; so that the
Eastern magi understanding that a Son of God was born who had
destroyed all the power of their art, came to Bethlehem."

Theophilus of Alexandria, in his Paschal Letter addressed to the
bishops of Egypt, and after him St. Jerome, who has given us a Latin
translation of this letter, says that Jesus Christ by his coming has
destroyed all the illusions of magic. They add, "Jesus Christ by his
presence having destroyed idolatry, it follows that magic, which is
its mother, has been destroyed likewise." They call magic the mother
of idolatry, because it transfers to another the confidence and
submission which are due to God alone. St. Ambrose says, "The magician
perceives the inutility of his art, and you do not yet understand that
the promised Redeemer is come." I could bring forward here many other
passages from the fathers if I had the books at hand, or if time
allowed me to select them.

XIV. But why amuse ourselves with fruitless researches? What I have
said will suffice to show that this opinion has been that of not only
one or two of the fathers, which would prove nothing, but of the
greater number of those among them who have discoursed of this matter,
which constitutes the greater number. After that it is of little
import if in after and darker ages a thousand stories were spread on
the subject of witchcraft and enchantments, and that those tales may
have gained credit with the people in proportion to their rudeness and
ignorance. You may read, if you have any curiosity on the subject, a
hundred stories of that kind, related by Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus
Magnus. You will find also in Lucian and in Apuleius, how, even in
their time, those who wished to be carried through the air, or to be
metamorphosed into beasts, began by stripping themselves, and then
anointing themselves with certain oils from head to foot; there were
then found impostors, who promised as of old to perform by means of
magic all kinds of prodigies, and still continued the same
extravagances as ever.

A great many persons feel a certain repugnance to refusing belief in
all that is said of the prodigies of magic, as if it was denying the
truth of miracles, and the existence of the devil; and on this subject
they fail not to allege, that amongst the orders in the church is
found that of exorcists, and that the ritual