Firmicus Summary

A brief synopsis of the text will help coordinate the discussion of Firmicus’ account of conversion. Formally, De errore is composed of twenty-nine chapters that can be read as three movements: the first movement, which constitutes the majority of the text, offers an encyclopedic account of pagan declaration and practice (1-17); the second movement discusses six pagan formulas and contrasts them with Christian doctrine (18-27; and the concluding third movement presents Firmicus’ explicit theological appeal for the eradication of paganism (28-29). Throughout, Firmicus’ offensive features relentless internal critiques—which call out conflicting, false, and multiple genealogies of pagan gods—and external critiques—which show the inferiority of pagan religion in comparison to Christian religion.

As Quinn observes, for Firmicus as for Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, and Arnobius, all Christians have the ability to exorcise. “Lo, that demon whom you worship, when he hears the names of God and His Christ, trembles and can hardly put together stammering words,” he writes in another place. The devil, who as the prince and “procreator” of demons, is the chief target of the attack on paganism. Quinn rightly comments that Firmicus’ understanding of the gospel message in terms of exorcism has its roots in Jesus’ message. This is evidenced in Firmicus’ citation of the Gospel of Matthew’s story of Jesus casting out a devil into a heard of pigs as paradigmatic for the exorcizing task. From this text, it seems as if exorcism in De errore means the casting out of unclean spirits through the invocation of the name of

Above we observed Firmicus’ traditional conviction that the power of exorcism is given to every Christian. Again, in the first statement on exorcism, he affirmed that all Christians are called to the task of exorcism and conversion. But in the medical passage he narrows the scope. The emperors are uniquely called to serve as the agents of eradicating paganism. They are summoned to the task of exorcism and must realize that it is better to “save [pagans] against their will than to let them follow their wishes into