The Hammer of Witches

...the things that were touched upon concerning the beginning of the magic art. And as for the third point regarding putrefied sage salvia original: "saluia." Sage was often used in folk remedies, but here it is described in a ritualized, "corrupted" state to cause harm thrown into a well; it is said that although a harmful effect may follow without the help of a demon, it does not happen without the influence of a celestial body the medieval belief that stars and planets influenced physical events on Earth. However, we are speaking of a "maleficial" maleficial from "maleficium," meaning harm caused specifically through witchcraft or sorcery effect, for which there is no similar natural explanation. To the fourth point, it is said to be true that demons cooperate with witches only for the sake of their perdition. And when it is inferred that they should not be punished because they act as instruments moved at the will of a principal agent rather than their own, the response is that they are "animate instruments" a philosophical term for tools that have their own life and will, like a servant or a trained animal acting freely. And although after an express pact has been entered into with demons, they may no longer be at their own liberty—as we have learned from the confessions of those wretched women original: "mulierculis abustis," literally "burnt little women," referring to those executed for witchcraft who are coerced into many evil deeds if they wish to escape the beatings of demons—nevertheless, they remain bound by the first profession by which they voluntarily subjected themselves to the demons.

Other arguments have been made in which it is proven that a maleficial effect can be procured by old women vetulae a common, often derogatory term in these texts for women suspected of folk magic without the help of demons. To this, it must be said that concluding a general rule from a particular reason is contrary to logic. And since in all of Sacred Scripture, as it seems, no such thing is found except here where it treats "fascination" fascination original: "fascinatōne," referring to the "evil eye" or the power to harm by looking or "vultuation" the practice of making a "vultus" or image (like a wax doll) to harm someone by old women, it is therefore not valid to conclude from this that it always happens this way. Furthermore, there is doubt even according to the gloss the standard medieval marginal commentaries on law or scripture whether such fascination can occur without the work of demons. From the glosses, it is gathered that "fascination" is understood in three ways. In the first way, it is called a "deception of the senses," which is done through the magic art and thus can be done by the service of demons, unless prohibited by God either immediately or through the service of holy angels. In the second way, it can be called "envy," as when the Apostle said: Who has fascinated you? Galatians 3:1. Original Latin: "Quis vos fascinauit." In English Bibles, this is usually translated as "bewitched."—meaning, who has pursued you with such great hatred? Thirdly, it can mean that from such hatred, a change for the evil occurs in the body of another through the eyes of someone looking upon them. Doctors learned theologians and philosophers commonly speak of fascination in this way, which is also how Avicenna and Algazel noted Persian philosophers whose works were central to medieval European science spoke, as is deduced in the arguments. For even Saint Thomas [Aquinas] explains this fascination in the First Part, Question 117 in this manner: "From a strong imagination of the soul," he says,

"the spirits of the joined body are changed. This transformation of the spirits occurs most notably in the eyes, to which the more subtle spirits reach. For the eyes infect the surrounding air up to a certain distance, in the same way that mirrors, even if they are new and clean, contract a certain impurity from the gaze of a menstruating woman," as Aristotle says in the book On Sleep and Waking. Thus, when a soul has been vehemently moved to malice, as happens most especially with old women, the result—according to the aforementioned method—is that her gaze becomes poisonous and harmful, especially to children who have a tender body that is easily receptive to an impression. He adds, however, that it is also possible that by God’s permission, or from some hidden deed, the malice of demons—with whom sorcerous old women have some pact—may cooperate in this.

But for a fuller understanding of these solutions, certain doubts are raised, through the resolution of which the truth will become more apparent. For first, it seems to oppose what was said above: that spiritual substances cannot transform bodies into any natural form except by the help of another agent. Therefore, much less could the imagination, however strong in the soul, be able to effect this. Furthermore, there is an article condemned in many universities, especially however in Paris Refers to the 1277 Condemnations at the University of Paris, which restricted certain philosophical and "magical" claims: that some "enchanter" could cast a camel into a pit by sight alone, based on the idea that just as higher intelligences imprint upon lower ones, so the intellectual soul imprints upon another soul and even upon the sensory soul. Likewise, there is a condemned article stating that external matter obeys a spiritual substance, if this is understood simply and regarding every mode of transformation. For in that way, as was shown before, matter obeys God alone. Having seen these things, it is declared how the fascination of which we speak is possible and how it is not. For it is not possible for a human being, through the natural power of their soul, to emit such power through the eyes that it works without the mediation of the transformation of their own body, nor...