Astrology After the Fall of Rome

Constantine's acceptance of Christianity in 312 CE (Whitfield 77) was to be a symbol of monumental significance concerning the direction that the astrological tradition would take in the Early Middle Ages. As the Roman Empire continued to fall apart due to invasions from all sides and moral and economic instabilities from within, Christianity (along with its general hostility to many forms of classical knowledge, especially astrology) rose to power and dominated the spiritual and intellectual life of the period. Culminating in the closing of the remaining pagan schools by Emperor Theodosius in 392 CE (Grant 2), it was clear that all forms of learning had to subscribe to the tenets of Christianity above all else. Since classical knowledge was mainly written in Greek, the ascent of the Latin language put a further damper on all intellectual pursuits in Western Europe, leading to a mostly illiterate populace and a general decline in learning. Without astronomical knowledge such as planetary calculation routines, astrological practice became exceedingly rare, and astrology could therefore not even survive at a popular level. Of the few authorities on astronomy at the time, Macrobius was the most influential. (Tester 113) With continued decentralization of political power, it became even more difficult to administer effective education.

Despite the attacks on astrology from the Christian Church and the loss of knowledge necessary for the existence of practicing astrologers, astrology did not completely die out, thanks in part to the work of Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150 Ð'- ca. 215) and his disciple Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185 Ð'- ca. 254). (Grant 3) These two Christian philosophers made compromises between astrology and Christianity leading to the eventual acceptance of those forms of astrology which did not impinge on the freedom of the human spirit, such as natural and medical astrology.

While there was little literature on astrological topics and virtually no evidence of astrological practice (except perhaps in the case of Alcuin of the 8th century) (Campion 56) in Western Europe at the time, astrology survived at a low ebb in the Byzantine East, where Greek continued to be the main language. (Holden 95) While the "high" sciences such as astronomy and mathematics were widely taught (thus those texts have been relatively well preserved), the "low" sciences were seldom officially