On Witches and Female Soothsayers

...wherefore we believe the devil has held greater power over such men. However, since we worship the God of heaven and believe in Christ, through whom we have been liberated from the empire of the devil, I do not think such things can happen to us.

A small pointing hand indicates the speaker Lunradus. Lunradus Furthermore, we have heard of a deed similar to these. For Apuleius Lucius Apuleius (c. 124–170 AD), author of the Roman novel The Golden Ass. narrates—just as Augustine St. Augustine of Hippo, who discusses Apuleius in The City of God. recounts it—that the ears of a donkey happened to him; and having taken a potion, while his human soul remained, he became a donkey.

Sigmundus I have already said there is a difference between those who worship idols and those who cultivate the God of heaven.

Lunradus Let us proceed, therefore, to those who worshipped the God of heaven, so that we may show them that such things happened equally by the poisonous art original: "venefica arte," referring to witchcraft or sorcery involving potions..

Sigmundus Proceed then.

Lunradus In the History of Clement The Clementine Recognitions, an early Christian romance attributed to Pope Clement I. it is recounted how the face of Faustinianus—who was the father of Saint Clement and lived with the blessed Apostle Peter—was transformed by Simon the Sorcerer Simon Magus, a figure mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a practitioner of magic.. For it is said in that same history that when the Emperor had sent Cornelius the Centurion to Antioch to capture the mages and sorcerers there, Faustinianus sought permission from the blessed Peter to greet Apion and Anubion. However, when this same Faustinianus had turned aside to the house of Simon the Sorcerer, Simon explained to Anubion and Apion how he wished to flee Cornelius the Centurion that very night, because he had heard that Cornelius wished to seize him by the Emperor's command. Wherefore Simon himself proposed to turn all his fury upon Faustinianus. "Only do this," he said, "make Faustinianus dine with you. But I," he said, "will meanwhile compose a certain ointment with which, after dining, he may smear his face; from this, he shall seem to have my countenance. You, however, prick your faces first with the juice of a certain herb so that you are not deceived by the imitation of his face. For I wish him to be seized by those who seek me, and that his sons—who left me and fled to Peter—may have grief." And so the face of Faustinianus was changed, so that no one recognized it except Peter; in such a manner, indeed, that he who [saw] Faustinianus...