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Document Details : Title: Sorcerers, Witches and Weasels Subtitle: Grigor Tat'e-wac'i's Definitions of the Magical Arts Author(s): LA PORTA, S. Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 28 Date: 2001-2002 Pages: 171-213 DOI: 10.2143/REA.28.0.505079 Abstract : Throughout its existence, the Armenian Orthodox Church has condemned magical practices. Refutations of the magical arts have circulated in Armenian from the beginning of its literature in the fifth century. Two treatises have been attributed to the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, Mesrop Mastoc? (5thc.): The Canon of Grigor the Illuminator and the very brief Discourse Against Augurs. The former text, which Adontz has argued to be a source for Eznik’s Against the Heresies, responds to questions about the efficacy of sorcerers, the abilities of demons, and the reality of mythical creatures. The Discourse Against Augurs warns that despite Christ’s victory on the Cross, Satan can still conduct men to their destruction through augurs, talismans, potions, etc. It further instructs that dreams, augurs, talismans, nonsense, divinations, spells, oracles, sleights of hand, potions, omens, and the like have been anathematized by the Church. |
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