“I believe in one God,” the Nicene creed proclaims, but this was more than a mere utterance in church; the Papal inquisition, established in 1229, made any breakage from ecclesiastical dogma a crime that would risk inquisition, censorship, and death. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) lived through the consequences of a Papal investigation after the publication of Three Books of Life, in which he advocated for natural magic. However, there has been scholarly neglect when it comes to questioning how the mere threat of inquisition may have been influenced his other, less explicitly magical, works.
In my presentation, I want to assume Ficino’s fear of inquisitorial investigation and argue that it led him to cloak his polytheistic cosmology, which was the foundation for his magical praxis. The occult properties in his magic system emanated from Olympian Gods. The key to understanding this aspect of Ficino is not found in his “magical” work, in which he exerted extra caution to prevent condemnation, but rather in Platonic Theology, published seven years earlier. I argue that in Book One of Platonic Theology, Ficino presented a cosmological model of the 'One' God - not the monotheistic God of the Christian Creed, but rather the Platonic concept of 'One-ness,' a metaphysical principle used by Plato and his successors to explain the unity of all existence, while preserving the distinct potency and autonomy of each deity in Greek polytheism.
Furthermore, I demonstrate that Ficino supported the concept of a Platonic ‘One’ by employing the Orphic hymns - prayers dedicated to Greek Gods. Ficino used the characteristics of various ancient deities to explain divine nature. It is worth noting that Ficino elevated not only pater Gods, such as Jupiter and Saturn, but also Goddesses such as Nature and Nemesis. Cognizant of inquisitorial scrutiny, Ficino more explicitly compared pater Gods and the Christian Father God, while concealing references to Goddesses. This suggests that Ficino was aware of the need to censor deities that directly challenged Christian conceptions of God and yet still found ways to include them. Additionally, Ficino preserved the original Greek language of the Orphic Hymns in his Latin translations because he understood the importance of the original languages in ancient worship. Iamblichus, a platonic pagan philosopher, emphasised the need to preserve indigenous language in prayer. Ficino, having translated Iamblichus’ On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, would have been well acquainted with this idea. This inclusion of Greek served as a subtle nod to those familiar with Iamblichan theurgy while likely going unnoticed by those less attuned to Platonic theory.
Understanding the polytheistic nature of Ficino’s work is crucial not only for studying Ficino but also for reapproaching the legacy of Platonism. Ficino reintroduced Plato to the West at a time when polytheism was punishable by death. To avoid persecution, Ficino used the Christian God as a framework to introduce the polytheistic Platonic ‘One.’ While we no longer live in the age of the inquisition, scholars continue to frame Platonism as proto-Christian and proto-modern - fulfilling the mythic narrative of Western exceptionalism. By reinterpreting Plato and Ficino through the lens of polythestic religiosity, we can provincialize European philosophy and place Platonism within a global context that includes religions such as Hinduism, Vudon, and Candomblé. This approach allows us to reframe Ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy not as pinnacles of Western civilization but as periods in which individuals gave voice to their mystical encounters with a tapestry of diverse and independent Gods.
In this presentation, I explore how Marsilio Ficino’s fear of inquisitorial scrutiny influenced his portrayal of polytheism. Ficino was subjected to Papal investigation after he published Three Books of Life due to the work’s portrayal of magic. This paper argues that the threat of inquisition led him to obscure his polytheistic cosmology, central to his magical praxis, particularly in his Platonic Theology. Ficino based his cosmological model on Plato’s concept of the 'One,' which preserved the autonomy of Greek deities. However, Ficino aligned his language with Christian monotheism to avoid persecution. His inclusion of Orphic hymns and his treatment of gods and goddesses, such as Jupiter and Nemisis, demonstrates Ficino’s cautious integration of ancient polytheism in a Christian intellectual theater. I hope to reframe Ficino’s work within the context of polytheism. I urge a reconsideration of the legacy of Platonism and challenge the traditional Christian-centric interpretation of the philosophy.