Summa Theologica 2.2.96.1–4, translation T. F. O'Meara and M. J. Duffy

The Summa Theologica (ST) of the Italian Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas (b. ca. 1225; d. ca. 1274), intended as a manual for students of theology, is one of the most important theological and philosophical texts from the Middle Ages. Often considered as the masterpiece of Scholasticism, the Summa is divided into quaestiones (“questions”) that are disputed by measuring arguments and counter-arguments in order to arrive at a conclusion that is in accordance with Christian doctrine. This dialectical structure also underlies the passage presented here -namely, Articles 2 to 4 of quaestio 96 on “superstition in various practices” (we omit Article 1 on a specific mediaeval text called Ars notoria); it belongs to the “Second part of the second part” (Secunda secundae) of the Summa Theologica dealing, in general, with morality and, in particular, from quaestio 57 to 122, with “justice”; quaestiones 80 to 100 specifically deal with (Christian) “religion” and its various aberrations.

In the excerpt, Thomas frequently refers to Augustine's City of God and On Christian Doctrine (see Chapter 4). Like Augustine, Thomas assigns “magic” to the superordinate concept of super-stitio and ascribes it to the workings of demons. By way of example, Thomas discusses fortune-telling (ST 2.2.96.3), amulets (ST 2.2.96.4) and “astrological images” (ST 2.2.96.2); with the latter term, Thomas refers to talismans, most likely inspired by Latinized Arabic works on the topic.