Superstition

SUPERSTITION. - From Lat. superstitio (cf. Gk. ἐκαταχύς) "to stand outside or above," in religious ethnology it designates the state of isolation from the surrounding world, by virtue of a special emotion or impulse; among the Romans it has the meaning of excess, exaggeration, superfluous observance (cf. Lucretius, V, 56-59; Isidore, Etym., VIII, 3; Nonius Marcellus, De comp. doctrina, V, 36; the popular etymology of Cicero, De nat. deorum, II, 28, is to be excluded).

The term superstitio in the Vulgate translates two different Greek expressions; in the Acts (17, 22; 25, 19) it corresponds to the word ἐκαταχύς, which means religious belief in deities poorly known; in the letter to the Colossians (2, 23), it translates the expression ἐδελφόρυστα, which designates special practices rather than a purely religious sentiment. These two scriptural terms continue to have different meanings among the Greek Fathers (cf. Clement of Alexandria, Protrept.: PG 8, 224; Strom., I, VII, 1 and 4: PG 9, 408, 428; Origen, Contra Cels., I, II, 2: PG 11, 800; Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 12; Basil, Const. monast., 25: PG 31, 1412; Epiphanius, Adv. haer.: PG 41, 172, 1040; Theodoret, Epist., 161: PG 83, 1460). For the Latin Fathers, s. is a counterfeit of the true religion, a simulated religion, which is that of the pagan cults (cf. Lactantius, Div. instit., IV, 28: PL 536; in particular St. Augustine, Enarrat. in Ps. XCV, n. 5: PL 38, 377-78; De Civ. Dei, IV, 30: PL 41,

136-38). The Middle Ages limits itself to coordinating, under the theological aspect, all the preceding notions, namely that s. is a vice, an excessive, capricious, vain and pagan deformation of the virtue of religion (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 92, a. 1). Finally, Suárez (De relig., t. III, l. II, cap. 1; ed. Vives, t. X, III, Paris 1861, p. 469 ff.) provides a minute and subtle psychological analysis of s.

Under the name of s., which the Scholastics call cultus vitiosus veri vel falsi numinis, must be included the worship of the true God, but in an erroneous manner (undue worship), and the worship paid to a creature (worship of a false God; v. IDOLATRY).

In the false worship of the true God - true in its aspirations and false in its applications - two elements are distinguished: the esteem one has for the person one wishes to honor, and the sign used to pay worship to him. An element of truth and goodness is not lacking: the esteem of the true God. The error lies in the material part of the worship, that is, in employing procedures or means in no way suited to honoring God (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 93, a. 1). Therefore s. is based either on the false meaning of a sign or on the false intention of the one who performs the act of religion, e.g., honoring God with the ceremonies of the Old Testament, etc.

Even the superfluous worship of the true God is right in its orientation, but excessive, superfluous and useless in its objective part. Superfluous here does not mean a quantitative excess, because nothing can be excessive in divine worship, inasmuch as everything man does or can do is always below what is owed to God. Interior generosity must be supreme, and the only limit is set by human strength. The excess or the superfluous consists in the circumstances of the practices of worship, which, like every moral virtue, must observe the golden mean. And therefore superfluous is whatever does not correspond to the ends of worship, inverting the order of the factors, quia in exterioribus solum consistens, ad interiorem Dei cultum non pertinet, or else not following the prescriptions or customs recognized by the Church (ibid., q. 93, a. 2; q. 81, a. 5 ad 3; q. 92, a. 1). Thus, for example, adding, contrary to the rubrics, particular ceremonies, prayers, etc., to the sacred functions.

The false worship of the true God, whose disorder is grave ex genere suo (cf. St. Augustine, Contra mendacium, cap. 3), is injurious to God, who cannot be adored with falsehood and lies, and is harmful to religion, because it renders it suspect of error. In the superfluous worship of the true God, moralists generally find matter of venial sin, inasmuch as no grave irreverence or bad will is discerned in it, but rather levity, superficiality. It is added, however, that propter contemptum vel praeceptum grave sin can be recognized. These excesses must not, therefore, be considered as insignificant things, on the pretext that they are not an obstacle but a help to the true worship of God, because «every disorder in religious matters is important». Moreover, the culpability of these cultic s. varies, according to the attachment one has to them, the origin one attributes to them, the efficacy one ascribes to them and the diffusion one wishes to give them.

The CIC (can. 1251) recognizes in the local Ordinaries the duty of watching over, so that divine worship, in all its various manifestations, is kept pure from any s.

Angelo Criscito

SUPERSTITION IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The Fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine, had already severely condemned superstitions; but they had not succeeded in making them disappear. When the barbarians converted to Christianity, they provided a new contribution to popular beliefs, so much so that in the Middle Ages superstitions took on a singular momentum. The expansion of the Cathar doctrine seems to have raised the stakes in the 13th and 14th centuries. The bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (5 Dec. 1484) testifies that witchcraft had taken on a considerable extension, which made necessary the sanctions issued by Innocent VIII (cf. Magnum Bullarium Romanum, ed. C. Cocquelines, III, part 2, p. 191). Of the superstitions that flourished in the early Middle Ages in Germany, an enumeration is found in the Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum (PL 89, 810-18) and in P. Lacroix, Superstitions, croyances populaires, moyen âge et Renaissance (I, part 2, Paris 1848, ch. 24). Here only the principal ones will be indicated.

In the Middle Ages certain persons passed as being provided with the power to keep a private demon in their service, which effectively helped them in their good or evil undertakings. In this way, the jurists in the pay of Philip the Fair, exploiting the credulity of their contemporaries, falsely accused Boniface VIII of keeping one at his side. It was also said that pacts were made with the demon, in which the renunciation of Jesus Christ and of the Virgin was specified in a particular manner and an oath of fidelity was imposed, which very often was then broken by those who had sworn it, once they had attained their goal. Worse still, it was believed that demons could have carnal commerce with men and even procreate monsters. Satan counted sorcerers and witches among his most faithful servants. The latter were recruited especially among old women, who, on the Sabbath day, straddled a broom handle or climbed onto the back of a demon transformed into an animal and crossed the sky invisibly until they reached a place of sacrilegious gathering, where worship was rendered to Satan, who often took the forms of a cat or a goat. During the assembly licentious scenes took place.

Sorcerers and witches had the power to cast the evil eye, to cause illnesses or to cure them with incantations, to set off epidemics, to kill domestic animals, to destroy crops, to provoke hailstorms, to concoct love potions for public use, to bring good fortune. Witches proved more cruel than sorcerers; it was said that they were greedy for the flesh of children; it was believed that they carried off newborn infants not yet baptized in order to consecrate them to the demon.

The belief in witchcraft was so widespread among the medieval people that the inquisitors, beginning, it seems, in the 14th century, assimilated it to the crime of heresy and abandoned to the secular arm those who gave themselves over to this nefarious art. Based on the confessions wrested from sorcerers and witches, the Dominican Giacomo Sprenger composed his Malleus maleficarum, maleficia et eorum haeresim ut framea potentissima conferens (Cologne 1487), aimed at facilitating the task of the inquisitors, and offering at the same time an overall picture of the superstitions raging in the lands of the Empire.

But it was not only sorcerers and witches who practiced the art of black magic; against some enemy, wax dolls were prepared, which were made to be baptized by a priest or a deacon, then strips of paper with the name of this or that person written on them were attached to them, then with a pin the point corresponding to the heart was pierced, pronouncing the formula: "Peter... John, die!" At other times the belly of the figurine was exposed to fumigations for the purpose of causing in the adversary a visceral illness that would carry him to the grave. The most famous trials, which procured for the accused condemnation to the stake, took place at the beginning of the 14th century: those of a group of Gascons who had cast a spell on Pope John XXII (cf. E. Albe, Hugues Géraud et l'affaire des poisons, Paris 1903) and of Guichard de Troyes, falsely accused of having practiced the magical art to win the favor of Queen Joanna, wife of Philip the Fair (A. Rigault, Le procès de Guichard, évêque de Troyes, Paris 1896).

The death of the adversary was also sought by means of harmful powders, composed of the most bizarre substances: animal hairs, remains of toads, flesh of a hanged person, mixed with a consecrated host. The men of the Middle Ages seem haunted by the terror of drugs prepared by magicians. Great personages had in their service tasters of the wine and foods prepared for their table; stones in the shape of a serpent's tongue were also used, which were hung in banquet halls and which had the virtue of revealing poison. The fear of the evil eye drove populations to use amulets, wrapped in cabalistic formulas. Nails, the horseshoe, amber, coral, brought good luck. Bands of cloth or woven herbs, wrapped around arms and legs, protected against bad luck. St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 96, a. 4) mentions fragments of Gospels impressed on lead or tin or written on parchment, which were worn suspended from the neck with cords and which had the same purpose. Necromancy was also practiced. Certain mediums claimed to be in constant communication with the dead; they spoke with them and undertook to convey to their friends particular commissions, consisting, for the most part, in making amends for wrongs committed by them during their earthly life or in asking for Masses for the repose of their souls. The necromancers also undertook to give relatives news of their dead and to inform them about their fate (cf. J. M. Vidal, Une secte de spirites à Pamiers en 1320, in Annales de St-Louis des Français, 3 [1898], pp. 285-345).