On Witches

Soon obeying the command, Referring to Aaron’s rod/serpent from the previous context in Exodus 7:12. it attacked the Egyptian rods—which were crawling in the likeness of serpents—one after another, and devoured every last one of them. Truly, if a real serpent emerged from the magicians, it would have had to be transformed from a rod by the help of a demon. However, it is clearly evident to anyone that the material of a rod is entirely unsuitable to be transmuted into a living beast. Just as it is impossible to create from nothing, it is likewise not within the devil’s power to truly transform one essence into something vastly different or even contrary at his own whim.

Augustine confirms that corporeal matter is not subject to the power of a demon regarding its transformation into a form, Augustine, book 3, On the Trinity saying: "It is not to be thought that this matter of visible things serves these transgressing angels original: "transgressoribus angelis," referring to fallen angels or demons. at their whim, but God alone." It must be admitted, however, that demons can, with incredible speed, remove certain things and substitute serpents, dragons, or something else in their place. "The magicians seemed to perform signs rather than actually performing them," says Clement. Clement of Rome, book 2, Recognitions Iamblichus is correct here in On the Mysteries: "The things we imagine when bewitched original: "fascinati" have no truth of action or essence beyond the imaginings. For such is the end of the magic art: not to perform simply, but to extend imaginings to the point of appearance, of which soon (as they say) neither a trace nor a footprint remains."

The same must be thought regarding the remaining signs: that Moses, lifting his hand, struck the water of the river with his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it was entirely changed into blood; and with the fish dead, such a stench arose from the river that the Egyptians could not drink of its water, and all of Egypt overflowed with blood. The magicians of the Egyptians performed the same with their incantations, upon whom nearly all the Egyptian idolaters and suitable "instruments of Satan" depended. It was easy for a demon, by God’s permission, to fraudulently present a specter of any color or image to their eyes, so that the heart of Pharaoh (which God foresaw would be hardened) might, by God’s just judgment, grow calloused with greater hardness and he might finally pay his deserved penalty.

10 That the deed of the magicians was a prestige original: "praestigias." In Weyer’s time, this specifically meant a sensory illusion or a "sleight of hand" trick caused by demons to deceive the observer. is evident even from this: that the single river of Egypt, the Nile, had been converted into blood and its fish had rotted by the work of Moses, the servant of God. Furthermore, there was no remaining water in all of Egypt that was not tainted, so that all the Egyptians everywhere around the river had to dig for water to drink. From this, it must undoubtedly be concluded 20 that the magicians, by their songs or bewitchment, showed only a small amount of water (previously preserved in a vessel or dug up) with a red, deceptive appearance. As the Scripture testifies, this was done through the mocking operation of demons, who—by agitating the appropriate humors for this delusion—are able to imbue the optical spirit original: "spiritum opticum." In early medicine, this was a "fine fluid" thought to travel through the optic nerves to enable sight. with any images whatsoever.

30 We observe this very thing happening to many melancholics People suffering from "melancholy," which Weyer and his contemporaries believed could cause vivid hallucinations.. We also understand that in the beginning of hypochymatis original: "hypochymatis," a Greek-derived term for a cataract or "suffusion" in the eye. or a blurring of the eyes, due to the flow of humors to the organs of sight, things like tiny gnats seem to flit about; sometimes they appear as trailing little bodies, or often as dark mists before the eyes. To some, they appear like filaments of wool or spiders' webs, and to others, circles are seen around lamps. 40 Likewise, for many suffering from the royal disease original: "regio morbo," a historical name for jaundice., all things appear luteous and yellowish because of the spread of bile. These things happen more or less, in this or that form, according to the constitution of the humors and the visual spirits, as is well known and understood by those skilled in nature.