Precautions for Prosecutors (Cautio Criminalis)

Question II: Are there more witches in [Germany than elsewhere?]

...and malevolence, which I demonstrate in this way: there is no nation that will not admit that there are always certain individuals to whom God grants a more generous blessing in material goods. This might mean they sell their goods more quickly than others, or they buy with some more favorable fortune than others, and, to put it in a word, they increase and grow rich beyond their peers. Yet, when this happens in Germany among the common people, there are immediately some among the neighbors—whose own fortune lags behind—who put their heads together and, having cooked up a shared murmur, stir up petty suspicions of magic.

These suspicions then rise up more strongly if they see any of those whom they envy showing [extraordinary] devotion in churches, or perhaps wearing their festive wreath original: "sertum," likely referring to traditional folk or bridal garlands which could be viewed with suspicion if worn outside specific religious contexts elsewhere than in the church, or if they happen to find them naturally prostrated in prayer in a field or a bedroom, and similar things. I do not lack for many such examples, for which I am ashamed in the name of the Germans.

It is a truly shameful matter and plainly unheard of among other nations; because they have these two sources The "two sources" refer to the envy and malevolence mentioned by the author blocked, there are fewer sorcerers (original: malefici) among them than among us. Meanwhile, I would not say that there are no witches (original: sagas) among us. I conce...