The Decline of Mass Astrology in the 16th and 17th Centuries

The confirmation or criticism of metaphysical theories or systems was an essentially unprecedented fact for the era and yet destined to have great fortune. The rejection by intellectuals of divinatory Astrology. While this is true, it must also be said that apart from a few isolated and extremist cases, intellectuals in general never really proved to be antagonistic to the idea of judicial astrology as much as to its interpretation. IV. The True Reason for the Collapse of Mass Astrology in the 16th and 17th Centuries Having therefore briefly analyzed some points and secondary influences in the process, let us try to identify the primary ones. One of the elements that played a fundamental role in the collapse of judicial astrology was the massification of astrology which on various occasions became an incredible media instrument. The print distribution of astrological works gave space to a series of prognostications and prophecies that had an ever-growing impact on the population. A typical example of this phenomenon was the sensational case of the Universal Flood predicted for 1524, as well as the case of Christ's return calculated by Stifel for October 19, 1533 at 8 o'clock in the morning. The Flood of 1524 Before the advent of Torricelli's first barometer and the establishment of the first meteorological detection network by Ferdinando II de' Medici, weather prediction was derived from various forms of divination among which astrology prevailed. The relationship between climate changes and planetary cycles was therefore much studied at the time and constituted an entire sector of investigation. To this field, in a certain way, can be attributed the episode relating to the universal flood predicted by Johannes Stöffler in 1499 for 1524. He was the author of some commented ephemerides that spanned a time interval from 1499 to 1551 and which for 1524 predicted: "[In the year 1524] we will have neither solar nor lunar eclipses. But during the year some extraordinary planetary configurations will occur. In fact, in the month of February there will be twenty conjunctions, small, medium and large. Sixteen of them will be in a water sign. They will announce changes and modifications and alterations in the entire world, in all regions, kingdoms, provinces, states, classes, for all terrestrial and marine animals, and all creatures of the Earth - changes such as we have never seen in all previous centuries, as neither the books of historians nor our ancestors have ever spoken." The alarm spread so much in Europe that between 1501 and 1530 about ten thousand different editions of pamphlets were printed with print runs that generally reached a thousand copies for a total of about 10 million pamphlets for a population of 12 million inhabitants. Cardano tells of this madness in one of his astrological aphorisms: "[Stöffler] Thinking that the stars threatened a flood in a period when the weather was completely clear, announced a great calamity to mortals. Many fled to the mountains. I, however, who was twenty years old, predicted to our sovereign, Francesco Sforza, that there was nothing to fear. In reality it was the announcement of a plague, a very rare event, which occurred that year in our city." Also Agostino Nifo, seeing many Italians who had begun to build boats following Noah's example, felt morally compelled to refute the prophecy of the Flood with a book that nevertheless did not reassure the people. In the same style must be attributed the prophecy of the noted mathematician Michael Stifel who in 1532 predicted in his Booklet that Christ would return on "October 19, 1533 at 8 o'clock in the morning". The Confessional Struggles In 1508 the abbot Tritemius in his writing on Secondary Causes declared a prophecy that had a strong influence in the immediately following period, so much so as to promote the publication of the work which otherwise would have remained in private edition. At the end of the work he dealt with the end of the kingdom ruled by the spirit of Mars Camael and for the North predicted the rise of a new religion that would break the Unity of the Church before 1525, the date of the end of the angel's government. "[North...] During the first reign of Samael Mars announced the Flood; during the second, the ruin of Troy; towards the end of the third there will be the breaking of Unity; indeed, after the previous ones, one can deduce what will derive: This third period of Mars will not be completed without the prophecy being fulfilled, and a new religion being established." When in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses giving rise to the schism of 1521, the prophecy of the now deceased abbot Tritemius (1462-1516) attracted public attention, catalyzing discussion and astrological debate on the legitimacy of the Reformation. At the origin of the true astrological debate centered on Martin Luther's chart was the Prognosticatio of Johannes Lichtenberger published in 1488 in which the astrologer found himself having to interpret for November 5, 1484 an extremely rare configuration estimated as very powerful, such as to rule several years to follow. To the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, already notable in itself according to the rules of Mundane Astrology, were added in Scorpio two other planets like Mercury and Venus that joined it on the day of the lunation in Scorpio which was also an eclipse and to which Mars opposed at the end of Aries. This conjunction was inserted within an astrological context in which one of the "three Arab judges", Abu-Masar, in his book on the Great Conjunctions declared the future arrival of the "little prophet", a religious reformer coming from a nation of the sign of Scorpio. Abu-Masar's position, together with the physical description of the little prophet, is taken up by the pontifical astrologer Paulus von Middelburg in 1486 who in his writing declares that the little prophet would be born in 1503 and would leave his native country in 1522. Middelburg's work was then taken up by Lichtenberger whose book had better fortune being published in no less than ten thousand copies in 1499. In this prognostication Lichtenberger affirmed that after 1485 would arrive a...