a name applied to the arts of the magician and enchanter in the early ages of the Christian Church. The Council of Ancyra forbade pharmacy, that is, the magical art of inventing and preparing medicaments to do mischief; and appointed five years' penance for any one that receives a magician into his house for that purpose. Basil's canons condemn such arts under the same character of pharmacy and witchcraft, and assigns thirty years' penance to them. Tertullian plainly asserts that never did a magician or enchanter escape unpunished in the Church. Those who practiced the magical art were sometimes termed pharmaci, and their magical potions pharmacce.