Compendium Maleficarum (illustrated witchcraft manual)

and I have willingly explained this class of knowledge to those who hunger for it, in this second edition much more copiously than in the first, so that not only may medicine be prepared for the sick according to the type of their illness, but also, so that once the wickedness of these heretics is known, the people may learn to flee from them as far as possible. For they are, as the Apostle says, wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness is reserved for eternity, and whoever follows their error, having lost the harbor of eternal salvation, must necessarily perish in a grave shipwreck. Therefore, when I had to choose a Patron (under whose auspices the book might go forth safely), I feared to undergo the judgment of a learned man; but because it had to be undergone by someone, I chose him who would be able to judge, since I love protection no less than censure, and it is dictated by nature and practice that I should feel more burdened to be taught and advised by the unskilled than to be applauded and praised by them. Therefore, I present to you, Most Illustrious Lord, with the humility that is proper, this collection of the wiles and cunning of witches and magicians gathered for human ruin (a work of no mediocre labor) as a sign of my singular respect for you. Nor is there any need for me to proclaim in writing your magnificence, splendor, learning, high station, bounty, piety, and the most outstanding virtues and praises of this kind, because to attempt this would be to add light to the sun with a torch, and to make the ocean swell with a drop of water, since each of these things by itself produces and displays as much splendor and brightness as would suffice to banish any densest darkness.