L'harmonie est le bien le plus précieux, éviter les discordes doit être le but de tout l'homme. 1

"Constitution in Seventeen Articles", VIIth century

Wherefore they divide their entire science [of the heavens] into three branches... the subjects of which are the three principal things of the universe i. e. sky, earth and man... 2

João Rodrigues Tçuzzu, XVIIth century

History relates that after assuming control of the governance of Japan, Prince Shôtoku-taishi (574-622) was responsible for composing the first text to base the sovereign's political power on the following concept: human order is a reflection of natural order; in the same way that the ordering of the universe is lodged with the heavens, inasmuch as the latter is the active principle in relation to which the earth functions as the passive element, so also must human society obey the fixed control of the sovereign.

The text in question, codified in the "Constitution in Seventeen Articles", partakes of the process of sinicization imposed by the élite, and employs Chinese cosmological theories as an archetype which legitimizes the reinforcement of the sovereign's power with a view to securing the harmonious ordering of society. It goes without saying that the Chinese roots of the moral character of political thought in ancient Japan cannot be explained solely in terms of the interest in and knowledge of the Chinese classics attributed to Prince Shôtoku-taishi. 3 Certainly, an all-round understanding of this question would require in-depth analysis of relations between China and Japan, but that does not detract from the validity of directing one's attention, within the confines of the present study, towards a number of related issues from the first half of the seventh century.

We can verify that after a gap of more than a century, relations between China and Japan were resumed in the year 600, and up to the middle of the ninth century numerous embassies were undertaken between the two countries. In the field of astronomy, the labours of the Japanese court, dating back to the middle of the sixth century, were beginning to bear fruit together with the Korean kingdoms: in 602, Kudara monks arrived in Japan, specialists in cosmogony, astronomy and calendrical science, equipped with the books and instruments necessary for teaching these subjects. Two years later, the Chinese calendar, which had been in use in Japan from at least the fifth century, was definitively adopted. As of the seventh century, the Japanese court (like the Chinese) went on to consider it an essential duty to preside over the compiling of the calendar. It was in this same epoch that, dividing time into sixty-year cycles, an official chronology of the history of Japan was first conceived. 4

Reflection on these facts brings to light two considerations essential for grasping the approach taken in Tçuzzu's work to the theme of the Japanese calendar.

Firstly, these facts indicate the precise moment when the Japanese court definitively opted for the division and computation of time according to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, demonstrating the way in which this measure presupposed the consolidation of knowledge in the field of cosmology and astronomy. The source which it behooves us here to analyze -the História da Igreja do Japão - also portrays these as closely-related elements. Father João Rodrigues, the author, dedicates seven chapters to an exposition of astronomy and the conception of the universe (heaven and earth), which was still associated with astronomy in twelfth-century Japan. Only thereafter does he proceed to an explanation of the origins and basis of the calendar, in a lengthy chapter which is followed by a brief incursion into the field of astrology. These nine chapters therefore constitute a self-contained whole which needs to be viewed in its entirety if the internal logic is to be understood. 5

In the second place, the aforementioned facts raise a series of questions examined in some form or other by João Rodrigues' text. As a keen observer of the country in which he lived for more than thirty years, he did not confine his exposition of these subjects to a description of the principles and workings of the calendar; rather he embellished his discussion with comments on the men and society whence this calendar issued and took shape.

Which sources of inspiration did Japanese civilization draw on for the subjects in question? What instruments (materials) were employed to perfect them? What were the fundamental characteristics informing their conception of time? What mental categories are to be found in the relation between the natural and social environment? These are some of the issues addressed in what follows, in the light of the text of Father João Rodrigues.

In order to convey implicitly or explicitly the author's perspective, one must begin by considering those details of his biography conducive to a deeper understanding of the contents of the selected chapters and their contextualization in a work which, in the final count, aims at examining the História da Igreja do Japão.

THE SOJOURN OF JOÃO RODRIGUES IN THE EAST

João Rodrigues lived in Japan for an uninterrupted stretch of thirty years, having arrived in 1577 at the age of sixteen. He commenced his Jesuit training there, entering the recently-established novitiate of Usuki in 1580. It is of little importance here to follow the fits and starts of an education constantly interrupted and resumed on account of factors such as the political and religious instability of the epoch or the various tasks with which João Rodrigues was entrusted. 6 More to the point is the way in which his studies in the humanities, philosophy, theology, arts, sciences and Latin, integral to a Christian education, were enriched by others as diverse as the Japanese language and customs or Chinese literature.

This aspect of his studies corresponds to a missionary enterprise, that of cultural accommodation or adaptation, which was a source of great debate and was favoured by only a minority of Europeans. It was, nevertheless, staunchly defended by Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), Visitor of the Province of India, who imposed it on Japan at the time of his first visit to the Archipelago between 1597 and 1582. During this period, he established close contacts with João Rodrigues, who cannot have been averse to his proposals. 7 Valignano was of the opinion that to facilitate its spread in the East, Christianity had to divest itself of its European trappings. Thus he appealed for an awareness of Japanese customs and way of life, and for the kind of adaptation that would render the missionaries and their religion less alien to the native population.

A substantial number of missionaries in the East expressed similar feelings, amongst them Pedro Gómez, who was to become the Vice-Provincial of Japan between 1590 and 1600. In his capacity as professor in Funai [Oita] College from 1583, he insisted that equal weight be given to knowledge of the Japanese language, Latin and the Arts. 8 Gómez followed the path of João Rodrigues for more than ten years, and emerges as a particularly decisive figure in the formation of the youthful João Rodrigues. This is reflected, on the one hand, in the fact that our author did indeed become a distinguished expert in the language, customs and people of Japan; and, on the other, in that it was through Pedro Gómez the teacher, author of the first book on Western astronomy, to be published in Japan (1594), 9 that João Rodrigues first discovered cosmology, astronomy, meteorology and the natural sciences in general. The central core of these studies was the classic treatise of Johannes Sacrobosco De Sphaera (thirteenth century), which constitutes one of the most frequently-cited sources in the História da Igreja do Japão.

There was no lack of missionaries respected for their knowledge of astronomy, yet in specific reference to the exposition of Eastern astronomy (of Chinese origin), João Rodrigues is not readily equalled considering the sheer depth and solidity of the data he provided. 10

One would be hard-pressed to understand how João Rodrigues acquired this knowledge if one did not bear in mind that, in the course of his voyages, and given his frequent services as interpreter to the most high-ranking dignitaries of the Japanese court, the author had occasion to acquaint himself with the intellectual and political élite. This situation undeniably allowed him direct access to sources past and present for mastering the sciences alluded to above, not to mention the fact that the court monopolized the compilation of the calendar. At the same time, his long periods of residence at court11 provided a privileged opportunity for securing the virtually clandestine support central to the survival of Christianity from 1587 on.

The final years of João Rodrigues' life were spent in China, after a brief stay in Macau (1610-1612) at the beginning of his exile. 12 To all intents and purposes, his expulsion from Japan appears to have been the result of excessive involvement in political, administrative and commercial issues and circles, considered 'temporal' rather than 'spiritual' occupations. This sparked off comments and accusations from the Japanese, Spanish and Dutch (who vied among themselves and with the Portuguese for influence at court), as well as from the Jesuits themselves. 13 It was not the most fortuitous moment for reconciling diplomatic and apostolic work.

Once in China, João Rodrigues returned to missionary activities whilst simultaneously partaking in and appraising the task conferred on the Jesuits by the court at Peking: the revision of errors detected in the calendar (regarding the prediction of the eclipses) and latitudes recorded for the different parts of the empire.

Written some years later, around 1620-1621, the História da Igreja do Japão points to some "errors" which were still under correction, on the basis of more accurate calculations. However, the author sought above all to emphasize the deceptive nature of the superstitions that sprang from these errors in the calendar, superstitions which ran contrary to Christian doctrine. Once again, it was of cardinal importance to avoid discord between the celestial, earthbound and human sciences.

THE ORIGINS OF THE JAPANESE CALENDAR

The year 1685 saw an important methodological change in the division and computation of time: for the first time, the calendar is not a simple transportation of Chinese labours, it is based on calculations and observations made in Japan. 14 In view of the errors that had been detected and the improvements to the calculations (regarding the movement of the stars), the Edo Government recommended the court adopt a more precise calendar - that of the "Jôkyô era".

Prior to the revision of the Japanese calendar at the height of the Tokugawa era, in effect what existed was the wholesale transportation and adoption of the Chinese canons for measuring time.

The Chinese calendar prevailed in Japan for nearly ten centuries without major alteration. Given the history behind this adoption, which issued in a depth-rooted and long-lasting assimilation, the origins of the Japanese calendar must be traced back to ancient China.

This entails going back to the third and second centuries B. C., to the moment in which history and time began anew. 15 After the introduction of alterations in the solstice dates in 113 B. C., the new Calendar was declared (104 B. C.). In the course of the Han epoch (206 B. C. - A. D. 220), the essential principles of the calendrical time are established, and in this form they were 'imported' by Japan. This took place via exchanges originating in China (and also in Korea, functioning as a kind of 'intermediary') which continued at least until the beginning of the ninth century, although in a somewhat uneven form. 16

Some authors claim that the first Chinese calendar known to Japan dates from A. D. 554 17, but others refer to earlier signs of its use, in the previous century. 18

As mentioned earlier, the seventh century was of prime importance. After mastering a certain bedrock of knowledge in the field, the Chinese calendar was officially accepted, with its sexagesimal cycles and complex articulation of the courses of the celestial bodies (especially the Sun and Moon) observed from the Earth. In A. D. 676, the court took into its own hands the task of compiling the calendar, and furnished the time specialists with an astronomic observatory. Increasingly precise measuring instruments appeared, which rendered it possible to apply the 'law of numbers' to the observation of the sky19 and record, for example, the hours. 20

The consequences of the work undertaken in the Astronomical and Calendrical fields came into full view in the ninth century: between 821 and 824 the "Senmyôreki" Calendar21 received its finishing touches and from A. D. 861 would be published repeatedly surviving without modification until the end of the eighteenth century.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were characterized by revisions influenced partly by European astronomy and partly by a political force which sought to keep track of trends there. Amongst other things, attempts were made to abandon the lunisolar calendar and make the division of time less dependent on natural rhythms. These measures were not well-received by the population, which meant that the ancient calendar was officially tolerated until twentieth century, and is used even today to establish liturgical and holiday dates, especially in rural areas. 22

THE TESTIMONY OF JOÃO RODRIGUES

Discussing the context in which the História da Igreja do Japão was written and the themes broached therein, Michael Cooper observes in the sequence dealing with the liberal and mechanical arts, that although João Rodrigues promises to discuss poetry, instead he includes a substantial amount of strange information on Eastern astronomy and astrology. 23

I would like to begin by disagreeing with this claim by Michael Cooper. Not, of course, his observation about the absence of the planned chapter on poetry as it is a fact that the promise was not fulfilled. Rather, what cannot fail to surprise us is the classification of the passages on Astronomy and Astrology (which Cooper nevertheless describes as long, complex, detailed and indicative of the author's indepth knowledge) as 'foreign' or 'contrary' to the parameters of the framing work.

João Rodrigues' own words are the best justification for the inclusion of these chapters: Japan took from China its letters, sciences and many other political customs that they have, and in the same way they took many liberal and mechanical arts that they have, mainly mathematics, to wit, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. 24

In accordance with a systematization common in the medieval West, he included the exposition on astronomy within the four arts that constitute the quadrivium.

In so doing, he chose a two-fold affiliation for the theme he was about to embark upon. On the one hand, the predominantly Christian tradition of the West; on the other, an Eastern civilization whose learning issued from a Chinese matrix. Throughout his text, João Rodrigues refers continuously to these two dimensions of the knowledge under consideration. 25 To this end, he bases himself on a vast array of sources and authors frequently cited26, revealing in the process a copious knowledge of Latin, Chinese and Japanese. 27

It is of interest to note that in relation to the issues in question, João Rodrigues concentrates on harmonizing the two dimensions referred to above. Correspondingly, he traces them back to a common origin and guarantor of truth: Thus it seems certain that in accordance with what we were saying, judiciary astronomy and astrology have solid foundations going back to the first fathers before the flood".28 He proceeds to explain that one hundred and thirty years after the flood (that is, around 227 B. C., at the time of the confounding of tongues 29, this learning, preserved by the sons of Noah, must have been dispersed across the various continents, in order that throughout the world there be agreement among men. 30 (This accounts for its similarity among the Hebrews, Europe-ans, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Chinese, and Japanese). He adds, further, that the isolation which immediately characterizes the history of China must have safeguarded the preservation of memory and science at this end of the world: from its very inception it has remained intact until now, without mixing with other nations or being dominated and corrupted in its antiquity. 31

It is only possible to incorporate astronomy and the "good astrology" of the East within a background compatible with the West if one possesses a sound knowledge of both traditions.

João Rodrigues might have had a variety of reasons for attempting to establish the meeting points between the two. For example, that of facilitating a Western appreciation of these Eastern sciences, rendering them at the same time less foreign, more accessible and more credible. Or perhaps it was simply the outcome of a Jesuit having studied and lived there, one who seems to have taken missionary work in the East to imply an awareness of and close contact with the customs of the population being converted. In this sense, it is important to remember that isolating common traits is inherently a task of rapprochement, but it may also lead to a more defined demarcation of differences.

That is to say, when considering João Rodrigues' position on these questions, it is not enough to recognize that he was deeply marked by his 'orientalizing' experience there, and that he furnishes us with a privileged testimony of the history and societies with which he grew acquainted in the course of thirty three years spent in Japan and twenty three in China. One must also bear in mind that he never abandoned his apostolic endeavours. As he himself was wont to claim, his activities in the court were without any other goal beside that of honouring God and the well-being of the Society. 32

Later we shall see how he vilified whatever hindered his goal of firmly establishing Christianity, but from a conciliatory standpoint, it is only understandable that a human error capable of rectification should be taken as an aberration.

This constitutes a further reason for viewing the nine chapters under consideration here as a selfcontained whole: if the entire chapter on the division of time exemplifies a means used by man to harmonize the science of the heavens with that of the Earth, the following chapter reveals how man, in João Rodrigues' opinion, can be a source of discord between heaven and earth, committing many wrong doings, and many offences against God, tempted by the devil"33

THE SCIENCE OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Given that Astronomy treats the machinery of the upper world and the lower34, its workings (speculative astronomy) as well as its effects (applied astronomy), it is important to begin by clarifying precisely which 'world' is at stake. The necessity of this rests with the fact that, at least in appearance, the existence of a plurality or even an infinity of worlds was advanced by various 'pagan' authors (such as the philosophers of ancient Greece), as well as by Indian Buddhism and those 'sects' that adhered to the doctrine of Buddha Sakyamuni, whom the author referred to as "Xaxa" or "Xekia".35

Resolving this incompatibility insofar as it refers to cosmology, João Rodrigues pointed out that despite references to "many worlds", the literature of Buddhism and of antiquity held that only one of them is inhabited by men, animals and plants, and only one has a sky, Sun, Moon and Stars. All the rest were mysterious and metaphorical fables, concerning what happens within man, their representation in these texts being that of enigmatic and symbolic worlds. 36 Hence, he underpinned the conception (as proven by the voyages)37 of a single circular world.

Having established a more clearly-defined notion of the world, the author dedicates himself to its working. He begins with the "upper machine" or "celestial sphere", where he includes a study of the sky. The latter he represents as the active masculine principle, the universal efficient cause of all created and corruptible things38, whose body is composed on the one hand of the twelve zodiac signs, the stars and the planets (of which the Sun, hot and dry, and the Moon, cold and wet, are the source of the elements), and on the other, of all the phenomena that occur by dint of the movement influencing the celestial sphere. 39 It was an ordered cosmos, a 'machina' functioning as a totality in which each part gravitates towards its "natural inclination" and the conservation and permanence of the whole. 40 For this reason it was possible to determine the general laws that regulate its movement. The reference points for measuring (in degrees) that movement correspond to the courses of the sun and moon. 41The Chinese calendar is based precisely on observing these two movements and their conjunctions.

The "science of the heavens" comprised only one aspect of the basis for the division of time. The later would be incomprehensible without taking into account its connection with the "science of the earth". The earth is characterized as the passive principle, whose role it is to receive and give sustenance, and thus it is called the female mother. 42 It is the common receptacle which receives into its lap all the influences of the sky. 43 Specific divisions in the calendar are legitimized by the empirical expression, in the natural world, of alterations recorded in the position of the planets and the constellations of the stars in the course of time. A case in point is that of the seasons of the year: the four periods of the year seem more suited to this form as regards its effects, and they partake better of the qualities attributed to it. 44 More 'suited' because they begin and end at the very point when the whole of nature sends forth 'infallible signs' of change - from the temperature and the winds through to the trees, the flowers and the behaviour of the animals. This allowed the farmers to use the calendar as an almanac, in order to plan the timing of agricultural work according to climacteric predictions. 45

A 'natural' and 'proper' correspondence was established among the conjunctions of the celestial bodies and their effects. Hence there existed a fruitful harmony between the seasons and human undertakings46, as the Chinese and the Japanese verify by ample reasoning and experiences they have observed across 4000 years up till now. 47 João Rodrigues repeatedly calls attention to reason and renewed daily experience as the basis for the division of time48, which thus emerges both as an activity accessible to all (he who experiences and notices it, infallibly feels it49) and an ancient and complex learning, restricted to the calendar specialists. Computing time and compiling the annuaries, which included information on applied astronomy, was a pursuit that tended to remain within certain families, so much so that it was prohibited to anyone who did not have a royal prerogative consenting to this office. It is interesting to consider the author's rationalization of this position: because they have the means to conquer the kingdom through the knowledge and science that they have, on account of their predictions and judgments. 50 Such a fear only made sense if the Calendar was seen to exceed the mere ordering of the times of the year (solar and lunar), the determining of the solstices and equinoxes, and the months, days and years. In effect, the Sino-Japanese calendar was also invested with a divinatory dimension which transcended the natural world. Its extension into the field of human activities conferred on it a certain sacred, mysterious and powerful character: therein its restriction to a limited body of specialists, under the auspices of the court.

THE SCIENCE OF MAN (TIME, HISTORY AND POWER)

The Sino-Japanese tradition presented "heaven" and "earth" as first causes, whose interaction was responsible for the "creation" and "corruption" of all matter. Heaven and earth thus constituted two vital forces which created a balance perceptible in the natural world through the harmonizing of the opposite poles encompassed within them.

If the effects engendered by the celestial and terrestrial movements are to be observed, this duality must widen to embrace a third element: Man. His condition as subject to seeking to comprehend the aforesaid interaction awakens the desire to find his own place in the cosmos, inspiring him to create instruments that allow him to partake of the universal order without disturbing but rather collaborating with it.

In view of this, it is understandable that João Rodrigues refers to sky, earth and man as the three principle things of the Universe, devising a trinity which would be naturally compatible with the categories of Christian thought.

Turning to an analysis of the "science of man", the author describes in detail how the division of time in China and Japan was arrived at. Inscribed in temporality, an inherently human dimension, João Rodrigues was at once led to a brief incursion into the method of organizing the memory of time, history, intimately bound in with the founding of political power.

The calculations referring to the division and computation of time were systematized in the annual calendar of time which is made each year and distributed throughout the entire kingdom, 51 in the form of printed sheets.

The 'greater year', similar to the platonic year of the West, was superimposed on the 'lesser year'(solar and lunar), presented as a referential unit. They considered the 'greater year' to be composed of twelve periods corresponding to the succession of the twelve the signs throughout 10,800 years. As a consequence they attributed to it a total of 129,600 years, in the course of which one cycle of the passage from chaos to cosmos was completed, returning once again to chaos. Cosmogony and the division of time were therefore based on a circular theory describing a movement whereby the creation of the sky, earth, man and the remaining things (oriented in the direction of perfection) was followed by the passing of times characterized by the corruption of the universe in the direction of chaos. 52

The cyclic conception of the evolution and involutional movement of the universe (they held the belief that from nothing, nothing comes 53 - pervades the remaining divisions of time in the calendar. It is manifest in the sixty year periods that make up the sexagesimal cycles, formed in turn by the combination of ten celestial elements with twelve terrestrial animals. 54 Grouped into units of 1,260 years as of the seventh century by the "masters of the calendar", they constituted another kind of 'greater year'.55

All these cycles enlisted the unit of the year, which was based on both the apparent movement of the Sun around the Earth and the revolutions of the moon. The solar year was attributed a duration of 365 days and 25 minutes or a quarter of a day, which is equivalent to three of their hours, and six of ours. 56 They subdivided it into four parts equivalent to the four seasons of the year, and the middle of each of these was marked by an equinoctial point (spring or autumn) or a solstitial one (summer and winter). 57 The different parts of the year (each subdivided into six parts lasting fifteen of our days) were ascribed three animal signs (or 'mansions') of the zodiac cycle, and numerous climacteric properties, corresponding to natural agricultural rhythms. The information contained in João Rodrigues' text can be compiled as in Table C, in combination with what is found in Theodora Lau. 58

A duration of 354 days was conferred on the lunar year, or more precisely, 354 days, 8 hours, 40 minutes and 33.6 seconds59, extending across twelve months of 29 and 30 days. To render the lunar year compatible with the solar one, an 'intercalary year' was inserted every two and half years, which eventually assumed a duration of 384 days, that is, it eventually became a year with an added month, itself intercalary also. 60

João Rodrigues twice made the claim that this ordering of time and this structuring of the solar and lunar years and the corresponding months, was the work of the first antediluvian fathers, subsequently passed down to the Hebrews, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. 61 The same holds for the separation of the months62 into weeks, and the latter into days and hours.

A distinction was made between a "natural day"(which lasts "twenty four of our hours", or "twelve of their hours") and an "artificial day", the "common and popular day of human affairs" equivalent to "six of their hours"(and "twelve of ours") during which the Sun is visible. 63 They further divided each hour into quarters and ascribed them the names of animal signs64, as they did with the months and years. Why were these particular signs chosen? Legend has it that Buddha summoned all the animals before he departed from Earth: only twelve came forward to bid him farewell, and they arrived in the order which has been followed ever since in the division of time, beginning with the Rat and ending with the Pig. 65 But this is not the only approach to designating and counting the hours of the day: the author asserted that the Japanese in addition to this method have another very ordinary one similar to the Hebrews and also the Chaldeans, and the ancient Chinese, which the Church also now employs for the canonical hours. 66

After touching upon the division of time such as it is presented in the História da Igreja do Japão, and in view of João Rodrigues' invariable concern for "avoiding discord" between Eastern and Western "speculative astronomy", it would be interesting to establish some of the fundamental traits of the conception of time under scrutiny.

In Chinese and Japanese society there was clear evidence that people lived according to astronomic time (cyclical, repetitive, circular). Astronomic time was divided by the successive periodic repetition of rhythms in nature: the seasons for sowing and harvesting, the weather conditions that augur the beginning and end of the yearly seasons. In broad terms, this way of living and experiencing time, typical of rural societies in general, was very much at odds with another which was burgeoning in urban societies, i. e.. the Christian West, as a consequence of the specific demands of city life and labour, but also as a consequence of the evangelizing endeavours of the Church. Indeed, this institution was largely responsible for the spread of the Judaic conception of linear time, quantifiable and progressive. 67

The chapters analyzed here give some grounds for supposing that, as in the West, the Church in Japan followed a path conducive to firmly establishing this conception of time. From this angle, one can understand the criticisms levelled at a cosmogonic conception postulating a cyclical movement from chaos to cosmos and back to chaos once again, since salvational time is necessarily progressive and linear. In the same way, one can comprehend the minute detail and the precision invested in the calculations for the division of time and the description of the instruments that coordinate this knowledge, since the astronomical sciences, the compilation of the calendar and the technology for constructing the equipment all served and legitimized a notion of time which was specific, quantified and instrumental. Lastly, the aforementioned parallel between luni-solar calendar hours and canonical hours can be contextualized within a process of firmly establishing a conception of quantifiable time, where this process perhaps reflects an increasing need to measure the time of human work.

The way society organizes itself in a temporal schema (or its experience of historicity) is directly related to a mode of perceiving time. In a discussion of "time and the Eastern man"68 centred essentially on Chinese civilization, Joseph Needham argues for the simultaneous existence of historiographic accounts based on "partitioned time" and "continuous time".69 He maintains that the middle of the 2nd century B. C. saw the beginning of a partitioning which used the division of the years into dynasties and reigns as its principle yardstick; and he couples this practice with the cyclical time advanced by Taoist,Buddhist and Neo-Confucianist thinkers. His understanding is that this latter method for narrating history is superseded during the sixth and seventh centuries by another which only became dominant at this point but which nevertheless can be detected earlier. This partitioning can be perceived in narrations which establish causal relations in areas such as the history of civilizations or of governmental institutions, and so forth. Such narrations would issue from the theoretical ruminations of a certain more erudite Confucianism and the investigations of civil servants in the departments of astronomy and chronology at court. Scored by an increasing rejection of ex-nihil creation, these narrations would have led to the development of linear time, progressive, evolutionist and mechanical. He concluded that China was, in sum, nearer to the Irano-JudaicChristian culture than to the Indo-Hellenic culture. 70 Would he say the same of Japan? Would Clio don the same as readily in Japanese trappings?

To evaluate the extent to which these forms of conceiving time and history were established in Chinese and Japanese civilization, one would have to study at length testimonies from various quarters. Such sources would have to proceed from a variety of epochs and originate in different areas (rural and urban) and social strata. Given that such is not the objective of the present study, it is sufficient merely to ascertain what relevance these conceptual tools have vis-à-vis our source, i. e. the nine chapters selected from the História da Igreja do Japão.

Availing himself of the sources of information about Japanese history, João Rodrigues came upon a record of events typical of the conception of time analyzed above. The author points out some the characteristics pertaining to this kind of record, such as its subject matter, how it was passed on, the counting units on which it is based, and the inherent motivations for preserving memory.

He begins by focusing on the kind of happenings singled out for record, and verifies that they corresponded to anything that disturbed the normal rhythm of daily life. A case in point was the cataloguing, in the "public almanacs of the kingdom", of the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses, as something noteworthy, or of other wondrous happenings, such as the appearance of comets. 71

As regards the way in which this data from the past was handed down, João Rodrigues discovered orality to be its original medium. In line with this, and in reference to the wonders alluded to above, he claimed that the science of computing the eclipses of the Sun and Moon is ancient among the Chinese from whom the Japanese received it, citing the invention of many fables among the common people as is usual. 72 He was aware, however, that the perennial transmission of memory was dependent upon transfer to written form. To illustrate the importance of the written medium, he once again availed himself of the computation of eclipses, referring to errors in the calendars that included predictions of these phenomena. These errors, which were widespread throughout Japan, João Rodrigues put down to calculations made for the ancient metropolis of China, and he drew attention to the reason why this poor theoretical framework had survived: it seems that their forebears had perfect knowledge of this, their books having perished in fire at the behest of tyrannical Chinese king 210 years before Christ Our Lord in order to extinguish the memory of antiquity and perpetuate it in his family. 73 In other words, the author places the responsibility for the rupture of the handing down of knowledge on the disappearance of the written medium.

Another interesting aspect of this excerpt rests with the precision with which João Rodrigues situated the "burning of the books" in the year 210 B. C., a precision indicative of his conception of a rigorously quantified linear time. His remarks, however, are inseparable from his awareness of a feature deeply ingrained (whether dominant or not) in the historiography of China and Japan: the counting unit of a record based on biology and generations, which corresponds to the third characteristic of the historiographic discourse under analysis. In effect, chronological accounts based on cyclic time frequently substituted reference to a well-known person, normally a king, for precise dates. João Rodrigues alluded to this when he affirmed that since they lack eras, or their eras are the name of the king who presently reigns, they have as many eras as kings, if not more. 74 According to Francine Herail, 'reigns' (calculated from the enthronement of each emperor) and 'eras' were the most common year-counts, embellishing the division of sexagesimal cycles75Throughout the course of the history of Japan, the proclamation of new eras was the privilege of the emperor76, and from the very beginning, this privilege went hand in hand with the charting of the official history of Japan. To understand what this means in practice, it suffices to recall that the Chronicles of Japan, compiled in the seventh century, cited the year 660 B. C. (the official year of the enthronement of Jimnu-tennô, who in fact lived in the third century A. D.) as the point of departure for its history.

From a very early stage, therefore, a close relationship was apparent between the emperor and historiography. At this juncture, it is important to fathom the reasons behind the pressures brought to bear by the sovereigns vis-à-vis the fixing of the memory of the past, in order to round off the fourth characteristic of Japanese historiography such as can be observed in the account by Tçuzzu. As we saw at the beginning of this paper, this fixing coincided with the elaboration of the Constitution in Seventeen Articles, a text which served the centralizing objectives of the sovereign power and which made the court responsible for the elaboration of the calendar. 77 The court had specialized civil servants (the royal mathematicians) under its charge and organized a series of rituals and ceremonies to usher in the times prescribed by the calendar. 78 As a consequence, the sovereign assumed titles such as "son of the heavens", "master of time" and "sole master of the calendar".79

In the História da Igreja do Japão, Joao Rodrigues confirmed this structural and structuralizing trait of the societies he observed. He affirmed that they created their entire moral and civil doctrine in imitation of the actions of the sky and the earth, universal parents, whose first-born were the original man and woman, head and trunk of the rest, whose legitimate successor was their king, and thus he is called son of the sky. 80 The social and political ordering of the natural world had for its paradigm the celestial order, inscribed in the foundations of astronomy as the harmonizing science of sky and earth. In the same way that this harmonizing activity was only possible by dint of the mediation of a fixed ordering principle, centralized and perennial (the sky), so the order of the inferior world (human societies in their relation with the natural environment) would only be viable when kings seek in the sky the principles of their conducts. 81 Such principles had to be translated into "moral and civil laws", of which society functioned as the "receptacle". This duty, globally deemed perpetual, was perforce inscribed in temporality. It was divided by periodically renewed time, as annually promulgated among the population by means of the calendar. This is the case in relation to present time (and also future, by virtue of the divinatory practices), but with regard to the past they had a different means at hand: history does not differ from a calendar illustrated by generic images82, given that history is also born of "speculation" as to the division of time.

In conclusion the sovereign employed the time of the world to oversee the time of men, all in the name of harmonizing the society of man and averting discord amongst its elements and in the face of the universal order.

THE FALSE SCIENCE

In the course of eight chapters, João Rodrigues has accustomed us to a discourse geared essentially to reconciling the Western and Eastern traditions. In the field of "speculative astronomy", and even dealing with cosmology, he chose to highlight those traits that corroborated a historical continuum. When he found himself confronted with patently contradictory data, as is the case with the "form and unity of the world", he argued for the deceptive nature interpretation of the metaphorical meaning. In other cases, he detected in the Eastern science "of the sky, earth and man" genuine imprecisions and errors, but he dealt with them with deference... and passed onto other questions.

All this changes with the exposition on "applied astronomy". His tone becomes clearly and willfully accusatory. João Rodrigues was not slow to point out the divergencies that separated the Western, Christian conception (whose defense he assumes) from the vain superstitions of the judiciary one, which depends on the aspects of the planets, the stars, and other various sorts that they have of his genre. 83

He begins by investigating the historical origins of "applied astronomy", and he finds them in the "first antediluvian fathers" (similar, hence, to what he had established for "speculative astronomy"). At that time, it corresponded to the science that teaches the effects that the movements, conjunctions and aspects of the celestial bodies have upon these inferior things: the said science is natural, founded on natural reasoning acquired by experience. 84 It was, in short, a "well-founded judiciary astrology" with a "good end".85

Subsequently, a corruption of this science came about which passed immediately to China after the "evil sons of Cain" transmitted it to the Chaldeans. 86

It was by dint of this that the Chinese and Japanese acquired this "vain astrology", "judiciary" and "prognosticative".87 The author of the História da Igreja do Japão identifies three major types of "judiciary" astronomy. He refers firstly to "natural magic", understood to be a way of predicting the nature and destiny of each individual on the basis of the astral conjunction registered at the moment of conception and birth. By asserting that they are very much deceived by this vanity of inevitable fate88, João Rodrigues seeks to combat a conception contrary to the fundamental notions of Christianity, such as the "freedom of man" as a creature of God.

The same criticism of the decisive influence of the celestial bodies on "personal destiny" surfaces when he addresses the second judiciary type: "prognosticative astronomy".89 Applying an identical rationale to daily life, they sought to determine the auspicious and ill-starred days for specific activities. 90 In a dialogue with Honda Masazumi, a follower of Zen Buddhism, Father João Rodrigues expresses with ample simplicity and clarity his opinion of these practices: an ill-starred day for a Christian was one in which he was leaving on a voyage and was stricken in the middle of a rain storm. 91

Lastly, he considers the overall "judiciaries of the things of the earth". In its capacity as a geomantic system applied to dwellings, tombs and other buildings, it aimed at discovering the places where benign influence prevailed, and in the case of the contrary, modifying the environment by artificial means, in order to achieve propitious results. 92 This reflected a pantheistic conception of nature and a vision of the cosmos as a continuous whole in which reciprocal effects established themselves between the three elements of the cosmic trinity (heaven, earth and man). As analyzed above, this conception of the universe, rejecting ex-nihil creation (hence, God as creator), was unacceptable to Christianity.

According to João Rodrigues, five was the number of "errors" inculcated by "judiciary astrology": about God, the creation of the universe, the spiritual substances and the soul of man, and inevitable fate. 93 This resume reveals just how far these "errors" ran contrary to Christianity in the very heart of its doctrine, and the force and even the hostility of the language of our author94 should not come as a surprise. His language is a perfect gauge of two factors. On the one hand, the sheer extent to which these beliefs and practices were operative in Chinese and Japanese societies. This was in large part due to the incorporation of information essential to these practices in the calendars printed yearly and distributed among the population. On the other hand, his language is a measure of the efforts João Rodrigues channeled into his apostolic work. The latter entailed, hence, as vital features for understanding the other to be converted, two impulses which were only seemingly contradictory: the harmonizing of outdoors and the demarcation of "orthodoxy", of doctrinal purity, as pristinely as allowed for by the degree of involvement with the culture and people amongst whom the mission was founded.

IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE

In his relation with the world, man is limited by temporality. Any human activity, confronted with the reality of time, is prone to evince the necessity of measuring that very time.

Whether in the domain of life experience in the present, or in the domain of account (past and future) that renders such a present, it is necessary to find the reference points and division units that most successfully translate the form taken by the relationship with the cosmos.

Since it is essentially based on the movement of the celestial bodies, the sun and moon (the time of the sky), as well as on the effects that these bring to bear on the terrestrial world (time of the earth), the division of time expressed in the Calendar (time of man) surfaces as an organizing synthesis in the universal order.

The História da Igreja do Japão offers a precious testimony of how the calendar used in Japan and China constituted an instrument for harmonizing the "three principal things of the universe i. e. sky, earth and man". Precious because it is the fruit of in-depth knowledge, acquired in the course of extensive contact with the Chinese and Japanese language and culture. Precious, finally, because it links to life experience profound erudition the analytic exposition of which does not forego constant reference to the sources of the information transmitted.

In João Rodrigues, therefore, one finds a felicitous meeting of conditions that paved the way for intuiting some of the structuralizing categories of the thought of Eastern man. This task is facilitated by traits shared with the original, Western Christian tradition - an ancient learning "based on reason and experience".

The author contextualized the conceptions about the universal order within concrete projects and actions observed in the human order. From this perspective, he concluded that the division of time in the calendar had a "moral and civil function", encapsulated in the two-fold linking to the construction of political power and of historical memory, the latter also related, in its official aspect, with the reinforcement of the identity and the power of the State.

In the chapters analyzed, the probing and the emphasizing of the historical continuities between different traditions enters into a dialectical relation with the demarcation of difference. They remit to the isolation of the "other", where that manifests itself in the superstitious divinatory practices whose rules are inscribed in the calendar.

These issues are, hence, inseparable from the intention, clearly assumed by João Rodrigues, of denouncing and combating the many offences against God (...) with which the devil has brought this miserable and blind people, tormented by the temporal things of the present life.

One may conclude, then, that the harmonious ordering of Heaven and Earth, which the author himself identified and defended, assumed in the final instance a religious, apostolic and evangelical meaning.

Thus the internal coherence of the selfcontained whole constituted by the chapters on astronomy, the division of time and astrology is justified, as well as its inclusion in the História da Igreja de Japão.

NOTES

1 Cit. in Francine Herail, Histoire du Japon. Des Origines à la fin de Meiji. Matérieux pour l' étude de la Langue et de la Civilization Japonaise. Paris, Publications Orientalistes de France, 1986, p. 60.

2 João Rodrigues, História da Igreja do Japão, chap. 10.

3 Cf. Francine Herail, op. cit., pp.58-65.

4 Cf. ibid., pp. 20-21.

5 The nine selected chapters correspond to the ones which begin in fol. 156v and end in fol. 181 (Chap. 8, fols, 156v-160: "Das Artes da Matemática de Japão Donde os Japões as receberam"; Chap. 9, fols. 116v-162: "Da Astrologia Sínica, e japoa, em particular"; Chap. 10, fols. 162-164v: "Do céu em particular, e graus em que o dividem"; Chap. 11, fols. 164v-166: "Dos graus, e Signos em que repartem o Céu, e da Equinocial, e Eclíptica"; Chap. 12, fols. 167-167v: "Dos eclípses do Sol, e Lua"; Chap. 13, fols. 168-170v: "Das estrelas e Constelações que põem Número de Estrelas, e ordem como as distribuem em seu globo celeste"; Chap. 14, fols. 170v-172: "Da terra, e água, sua figura em graus de elevação em que dizem estar"; Chap. 15, fols 172v-179: "Divisão do tempo que fazem os Japões, e Chinas"; Chap. 16, fols. 179-181: "Da Astronomia Prática Judiciária destas nações, e várias superstições que nisto têm").

6 Cf. Michael S. J. Cooper, Rodrigues, The Interpreter. An Early Jesuit in Japan and China, Weatherhill, New York - Tokyo, 1974, pp.54-67.

7 M. Cooper advances the hypothesis that João Rodrigues left Portugal in 1574 on the same fleet as A. Valignano when he departed for India. They would later cross paths in Japan where João Rodrigues landed in 1577 and the Visitor in 1579. Cf. ibid., p.52.

8 Cf., Idem, ibid., p. 59.

9 Cf. Armando Martins Janeira, O Impacto Português sobre a Civilização Japonesa. Seguido de um epílogo sobre as relações entre Portugal e o Japão de século XVII aos nossos dias, 2nd edition, Publicações D. Quixote, 1988, p. 171.

10 M. Cooper, op. cit., p. 308.

11 According to M. Cooper, João Rodrigues may have served as interpreter to Hideyoshi in the years 1586-1587. However, Tçuzzu's long periods of residence at court (under Hideyoshi and Ieyasu) began in 1591 and were only concluded in 1610 with his expulsion from Japan. Cf. ibid., pp. 67, 73, 94, 104, 105, 253,263, 267. João Rodrigues' linking of apostolic work with his function as interpreter and diplomatic is registered, for example, in the "Catálogo dos Padres e Irmãos de Japão repartidos pollas Casas e Residências em que cada hum delles reside" (October 1607) which refers to the author as follows: "Father João, who is with the Court"- Monumenta Historica Japoniae I, Textus catalogorum Japonaie (1533-1654), Rome, 1975, p.505.

12 Cf. M. Cooper, op. cit., pp. 273 ff.

13 Cf. ibid., pp. 253-263.

14 F. Herail, op. cit., p.21

15 Marcel Granet, La civilization Chinoise. La Vie Publique et La Vie Privée, Ed. Albin Michel, Paris, 1988, pp. 48-58.

16 Cf. Edwin O. Reischauer, Albert M. Craig, Japan: Tradition and Transformation, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo, 1978, p. 13. Bear in mind that China and Korea were for many years kingdoms of which "the Japanese had notice of" and with whom they maintained relations. João Rodrigues, op. cit. chap. 14.

17 Cf. A. M. Janeira, op. cit., p. 70.

18 Cf. F. Herail, op. cit., p. 20.

19 Cf. Marcel Granet, op. cit., p. 22.

20 João Rodrigues offers a very detailed description of the 'artificial' clocks used by the Japanese to tell the time (chap. 15). Although they are not "ordinary clocks", they fulfill their function: fire-clocks, sun-dials, water-clocks; and charged to the bonze in the temples or the civil servants at court in the cities; endowed with a greater or lesser precision, they were a means to informing the population. It would be interesting to ascertain how this form of perceiving and announcing the time brought with it changes in the way time (and probably work) was experienced by the population along the same lines manifest in the studies carried out in reference to the West by authors like Jacques Le Golf or E. P. Thompson.

21 Cf. F. Herail, op. cit., p.21.

22 Cf. ibid., pp.21-22.

23 M. Cooper, op. cit., p. 308.

24 João Rodrigues, ibid., chap. 8.

25 See Chap. 8 (regarding the courses of the stars and the liberal and mechanical arts); chap. 9 (regarding cosmogony and cosmology); chap. 13 (regarding the stars and constellations; the effects on earth of the various conjunctions of the stars and the planets; and further summarizing the aforementioned aspects and adding the forms of division of time); chap. 15 (also regarding the division of time).

26 By way of example he refers to the extended passages of the Holy Scriptures, which he cites in Latin, of Chinese tales and of Graeco-Latin authors such as Cleisthenes, Aristotle, Pliny, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Ptolemy and Mani.

27 Throughout the entire text the author presents a constant paralleling of Chinese and Japanese terminology.

28 João Rodrigues, ibid., chap. 13. As regards the reference to "well-founded judiciary astronomy", let it be understood to be that not based on "vague superstitions", that is, dealing with the effects of the "celestial world" and the "natural world", without incurring such "errors" as natural magic, the belief in "inevitable destiny" or idolatry. These questions are dealt with later on.

29 These calculations are based on the information presented in chapters 8 and 15. There is a gap of seventy years between the figures contained in the passages referred to: in the first the author refers to the "confounding of tongues" as having taken place 3892 years prior to the year 1620 whilst in the second he places it 3822 years prior to that date. In the table which follows (Table A) he chose the first reference, because this one alone agrees with the statement, repeated in the two passages, that 5682 years had passed between Adam and the year 1620. Naturally, João Rodrigues uses the Holy Scriptures as his source.

30 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 13.

31 Ibid, chap. 13.

32 M. Cooper, op. cit., p. 250.

33 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 13.

34 Ibid., chap. 9.

35 According to João Rodrigues the ancient Greeks and the Chaldeans were influenced in their conception by Sakyamuni's doctrine. In chap. 9 a very detailed description of these cosmogonic and cosmological theories can be found.

36 Ibid., chap. 9.

37 Cf. M. Cooper, op. cit., p. 101. With regard to the question of the "shape of the world", the contrast prevailed between the Christian view (in which the world was circular) and the Confucian theory which claims that the sky is round and the earth square. Note that Chinese Confucian cosmology was current in Japan until the beginning of the Tokugawa era. A. M. Janeira, op. cit., p. 170.

38 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 10.

39 Oriental astronomy speaks of a movement from East to West, whereas in the West an inverse passage is postulated.' Ibid., chap. 10. The table which follows (Table B) attempts to summarize the contents of chap. 10.

40 Ibid., chap. 30.

41 It should not be overlooked that until the end the 18th century the geocentric theory prevailed in Japan. A. M. Janeira, op. cit., p. 170.

42 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 10.

43 Ibid., chap. 13.

44 Ibid., chap. 15.

45 Theodora Lau, The Handbook of Chinese Horoscope, Arrow Books, London, 1981, p. 3. Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the Western calendar with that of the East, the author also claims that in spite of the fact that the Western calendar, based on the movement of the sun, is more consistent and easier to understand, the lunar calendar of the East is more precise in recording the changes of the seasons and the growth of life in the universe - p. 3.

46 M. Granet, op. cit., chap. 191.

47 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 15.

48 In the chapters analyzed, the argument for "reasoning and experience" as the basis of the division of time and the calendar constitutes a theme which seems to return to origins and which is repeatedly invoked. It had already arisen, for example, in chap. 8.

49 Ibid., chap. 15.

50 Ibid., chap. 12.

51 Ibid., chap. 15.

52 Cf. Ibid., chap. 10. A more detailed explanation of this cosmogonic theory is to be found in the chapter "El Budismo Antiguo", of the work Las Religiones en la India yen el Extremo Oriente. Formación de los religiones universales y de salvación, (ed. Henry-Charles Puech), vol. 4, "Historia de las Religiones", Ed. Siglo XXI, n. d., pp. 214-215.

53 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 10.

54 Cf. Ibid., chap. 15 and F. Herail, op. cit., p. 18.

55 F. Herail, op. cit., p. 21. The author reminds us that this other type of "greater year" must have been the measure employed in the seventh century to regress 1260 years and set forth the year 660B. C. as the official point of departure for Japanese history.

56 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chaps. 8 and 15. One degree corresponded to each day and each degree to one hundred minutes; thus "a quarter of a day" was equivalent to twenty five minutes.

57 Ibid., chap. 8.

58 Cf. Ibid., chap. 15 and Theodora Lau, op. cit., p. 13.

59 Padre Avelino de Jesus da Costa, "Calendário" (1), in Diccionário de História de Portugal, ed. de Joel Serrão, vol. I, Lisbon, n. d., pp. 435-438.

60 João Rodrigues, ibid., chaps. 8 and 15.

61 Idem, ibid., chap. 15.

62 João Rodrigues proffers in chap. 11 a table which relates the names that the Japanese and Chinese attribute to the months to the Western calendar. (Table D).

63 Ibid., chap. 15.

64 The figures given in the História da Igreja do Japão (chap.15) are incomplete and somewhat confused. In general, they coincide with the division of hours contained in various bibliographies. F. Herail, op. cit., p. 20; Theodora Lau, op. cit., p. 12. These figures can be arranged as in the following table (Table E):

65 Cf. Theodora Lau, op. cit., p. 1.

66 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap 15.

67 These observations are indebted to the studies of authors such as J. Le. Golf or E. P. Thompson, and to the synthesis offered in relation to the West by Luís Krus, "A Vivencia Medieval do Tempo", in Estudos de História de Portugal, vol. I: X-XI centuries. Hommage to A. H. de Oliveira Marques, Editorial Estampa, Lisbon, 1982, pp. 343-355.

68 Joseph Needham, La Science Chinoise et l'Occident. Le grand titrage. Éditions de Seuil, Paris, 1973, pp. 155-203.

69 According to the author, this very 'amalgam' would be a constant in Western historiography, dominated by the notion of 'continuous time'. ibid., p. 203.

70 Ibid., p. 203.

71 In former times, the eclipses were recorded in the public annuaries of the kingdom as a notable thing in point of fact, in the same way that they take not of all the other celestial appearances of comets of two and three suns, op. cit., chap. 12. See also Marcel Granet, op. cit., p. 68.

72 João Rodrigues, ibid., chap. 12.

73 Ibid., chap. 12.

74 Idem, ibid., chap. 15.

75F. Herail, op. cit., p. 22-23. The author argues that by the eighth century, historiography increasingly had recourse to the use of' eras' rather than' reigns', the former corresponding to an adaptation of the Chinese custom of renovating time at noticeably regular intervals.

76 Cf. Ibid., p. 23.

77 Cf. Ibid., pp. 21-23.

78 Cf. João Rodrigues, ibid., chap. 12.

79 Cf. M. Granet, op. cit., pp. 22 and 408.

80 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 10.

81 Marcel Granet, op. cit., p. 59.

82 Ibid., p. 59.

83 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 16.

84 Ibid., chap. 13.

85 Ibid., chap. 13.

86 Ibid., chap. 8 and 13.

87 It deals with the good and bad days on which to act, and other contingent things which by the celestial appearances and aspects and the conjunctions of the planets among themselves and with the stars predict. Ibid., chap. 9.

88 Ibid., chap. 16.

89 The term is used in the sense we give to the word 'astrology'. João Rodrigues frequently uses the terms 'astronomy' and ' astrology' indiscriminately, a fact which is not altogether at odds with the intimate links between two concepts in the Chinese and Japanese mental structure.

90 Cf. Ibid., chap. 16. It also specified the auspicious and nefarious character of various units of time such as the hours or other period justified by particular situations. F. Herail, op. cit., p. 21; Theodore Lau, op. cit., p. 3.

91 A tale told by M. Cooper, op. cit., p. 251.

92 Ramón Lay Mazo, "Feng-Shui", in Review of Culture, Instituto Cultural de Macau, Nº 9,1990, pp. 50-54.

93 João Rodrigues, op. cit., chap. 8.

94 An example of the tone of the author's discourse is provided in passages such as: they wielded the influence of the heavens against all reason and experience in order that on this pretext they could commit many wrongdoings, and many offences against God tempted by the devil (ch. 13); or: with various ceremonies and hypocrisies and pretenses with which they deceive the poor wretches who run along most contented with the prediction or judgements with their money dangling from their bag; or even: and various other superstitions of this kind with which the devil leads this wretched and blind people tormented by the temporal things of the present life (ch. 16).

*M. A. in Medieval History (F. C. S. H.); I. N. I. C. T. scholarship