187Chapter XVII.—Astrological Lore.⁸⁴²⁸⁴²    Ch. 17 and ch. 19–29 are taken in an altered form from the writing ascribed to Bardesanes, De Fato.  [These chapters have no parallel in the Homilies, but the argument of the old man respecting genesis implies the same position; comp. Homily XIV. 3–7, 11.—R.]

“In short, when Mars, holding the centre in his house, regards Saturn quarterly, with Mercury towards the centre, the full moon coming upon him, in the daily Genesis, he produces murderers, and those who are to fall by the sword,⁸⁴³⁸⁴³    Conjectural reading, “to kill with the sword.” bloody, drunken, lustful, devilish men, inquirers into secrets,⁸⁴⁴⁸⁴⁴    That is, violators of the sacred mysteries, which was regarded as one of the most horrid of crimes. malefactors, sacrilegious persons, and such like; especially when there was no one of the good stars looking on.  But again Mars himself, having a quarterly position with respect to Venus, in a direction toward the centre, while no good star looks on, produces adulterers and incestuous persons.  Venus with the Moon, in the borders and houses of Saturn, if she was with Saturn, and Mars looking on, produces women that are viragos, ready for agriculture, building, and every manly work, to commit adultery with whom they please, and not to be convicted by their husbands, to use no delicacy, no ointments, nor feminine robes and shoes, but to live after the fashion of men.  But the unpropitious Venus makes men to be as women, and not to act in any respect as men, if she is with Mars in Aries; on the contrary, she produces women if she is in Capricorn or Aquarius.”