Precautions for Prosecutors (Cautio Criminalis)

header: [continued from previous: Are there more witches in] Germany than elsewhere?
sig: B 3
meta: catchword: & ma- [this refers to the beginning of the next page's text]

...doing or saying anything (for necessarily certain things must have always preceded, coincided, or followed), we summon it to blame with a sinister interpretation and, such is the malice of our nature, we stir up suspicion through the entire neighborhood. Hence it is no wonder if, within a few years, a growing rumor makes us quite wealthy In this context, the author likely means "wealthy" in the sheer number of accusations or the confiscated property of the accused. This is especially true since neither the preachers nor the spiritual men stir themselves here; rather, they are often caught in the same fault themselves. Nor has any Magistrate been found in Germany, as far as we know, who has unsheathed his zeal against these most pestilential whisperings original: "susurrationes," referring to the quiet, toxic spreading of gossip and rumors that fuel witch hunts, concerning which more will be said below in Doubt 35.

Other nations are more cautious, and it is a disgrace that we are surpassed by them in this regard. For among them, if some boy or a head of cattle wastes away from disease, if a tree is struck or the harvest suffers a calamity, if a wind causes ruin, or a locust or mouse devours the field, they trace the entire origin of the evil back to God or to nature. They do not ascribe such things to sorcery (original: maleficiis) unless those events are clearly reprehensible, and the learned judge them to exceed the laws of nature.