Compendium Maleficarum (illustrated witchcraft manual)

face of a friend, so that he may deceive, because he has a thousand arts of harming and uses innumerable ways, superstitious and curious arts, so that he may lead the souls of mortals away from God and draw them to his own foolish inventions; all of which he exercises wondrously through fascinations original: "fascinationes" and sorcery original: "sortilegia". Therefore, that this malice of his, disseminated for many centuries through himself and his members to the ruin of both bodies and souls, is sufficiently evident through the works of Magi sorcerers/magicians, Maleficae witches/harm-doers, Sortiarii spell-casters, and Sagae wise-women/witches, of which the present volume brings forth a sample, from the observation of which truth will sprout. But so that everyone may be able to take counsel for himself, let him read and peruse this series, to which I have given the name Compendium Maleficarum Compendium of Witches; and just as there are diverse arts of harming evident through examples, so too are there diverse remedies contrary to them, so that once the contrary is known, the remedy may also be applied. If, therefore, Reader, there is anything in the reading of these examples upon which you can reflect, and from there also draw a cure, with hands raised on high, give thanks to God, who for His own glory, the confusion of demons, the exercise of souls, the perfection of the just, and the punishment of the damned, permits demons to run wild in such a way for the doctrine and instruction of all.