the book of ceremonial magic contents - Yankeeclassic.com

specific difference between the prayers which incorporate them and the Invocations
which swarm in the Rituals. It may be added that the use of such Divine Names is
supported by a mendacious reference to the Angelical Theology of Dionysius.
The prefatory matter ends at this point. The prose of the Gospel of St. John follows, with
versicles and a prayer. Next come the Seven Penitential Psalms, with the Litany of the
Saints, after which are the Mysterious Prayers of Pope Leo, followed by a multitude of
others not less mysterious, and prevailing against human fragility, and so forth. There are
prayers for voyages, prayers addressed to the Cross, and then under the Tau symbol,
commencing with the curious exclamation, Per signum Domini Tau, libera me, there
follows a long
p. 45
conjuration, as express as anything in Magic, designed to prevent the petitioner from
injury by any steel weapons whatsoever. Forming part of this ceremony is the pseudoepistle
addressed by Jesus Christ to King Abgar, explaining why our Saviour could not
come Himself to that monarch, and promising to send His disciple Thaddeus when He
had fulfilled the work given Him by His Father. It goes on to say that Christ has written it
with His own hand, and that wheresoever the recipient shall be, in house or field, by sea
or stream, sive in prætio Paganorum seu Christianorum--such is the stultification thereof-
-his enemy shall never prevail over him. 1 The king received the epistle with many tears
and prayers, all which being duly described, the conjuration of the baculi, gladii, lanceæ,
enses, cultelli, sagittæ, claves, funes, et omnia alia genera armorum, is continued.
As it is difficult to say where the original Enchiridion actually begins, so it is uncertain
where it ends. A variety of miscellaneous prayers are, however, attributed to well-known
saints quite outside the Carlovingian period, and to Innocent IV. and John XX., without
prejudice to a further orison of the great Pope Leo himself. Then come the "curious
secrets"--to conciliate and discover one's proper genius, to become invulnerable, to
prevent a gun from going off, to behold a future husband or wife, all effected by means of
formal prayers--a kind of royal road to the chief ends of Magic, without apparently
exceeding the devotional discipline of the Church.
To complete the analysis of this curious collection, its most important practical part is
here added, namely:--
Footnotes
42:1 This appears more evidently in the last Roman edition, which pretends to be based
on all those which preceded it, including impressions published at Parma, Ancona and
Frankfort which are now generally unknown. The editor has, moreover, altered and
rearranged, omitted and added at choice. He has supplied also a Key to the whole work,
which is a short process for the government of evil spirits.