On Witches

It is well established that dangerous diseases with the most terrible symptoms can be stirred up by substances derived from plants, animals, or types of excrement, or from mixed compounds. These may be offered as drinks, smeared upon the skin, or hidden in a place so that they strike the victim with their vapor The belief that diseases or spells could be transmitted through "vapors" or "effluvia" from hidden objects was common in early modern medicine.. Some victims are driven into a wasting away of the body and a total weakness of their strength; in others, the very connections of their joints are dissolved. Some are tormented by various agonies that tear the flesh, while others are wracked by long-lasting sickness. In many cases, you may see a life cut short suddenly—as if the thread of life were abruptly snapped—sometimes accompanied by intolerable pain. Meanwhile, I am not unaware that under the name of poisoners original: "veneficorum." In Latin, veneficium refers to both the act of poisoning and the practice of sorcery or witchcraft., other types of evildoers are commonly included.

Book 4.

The things written by Antonius Sabellicus A 15th-century Venetian historian. concerning poisoners are horrifying, recorded in these words: "A shameful year followed during the consulship of Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Titus Valerius Flaccus (or Potitus, as others have written) This event occurred in 331 BCE., when many of the leading men of the Senate died of a similar disease and with the same outcome. A certain slave girl came to Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Curule Aedile, and claimed she would reveal the cause of this disaster if she were given a guarantee of safety—that her testimony would not bring harm upon her from her masters. After Fabius reported the matter to the Consuls, and the Consuls to the Senate, and the pledge of safety was granted by the consensus of that order, it was revealed that the calamity was caused by the fraud of women. She stated there were many women cooking poisons for the destruction of their husbands, and if they would go with her, they would catch many of them in the act of poisoning." Those sent to follow the slave girl found some women actually cooking the drugs, and found the substances hidden away in the homes of others. These substances were brought into the forum, and twenty matrons—among whom were Cornelia and Servilia of patrician families—were publicly summoned. When they insisted the substances were medicinal and healthy, they were ordered by the informant, who refuted them, to drink the concoctions. Having taken a moment for a private conference, they decided to swallow the draft; once the medicine was drunk in the sight of the people, they all perished to a woman. Following this, one hundred and seventy others were convicted of the same crime and suffered the death penalty. Before this, there had been no investigation into poisoning. The atrocity of the matter was held to be a bad omen, for until that day there had never been an investigation into poisoning in Rome; it seemed as though the crime had been committed by minds driven mad by fury.

There was also a woman who was the wife of that rebellious Roman, Crescentius John Crescentius, a Roman noble who rebelled against the Holy Roman Emperor.. Because of his rebellion, he was placed backward on a lowly pack-animal by Otto III, led through the city, and finally hanged at the gate. When the Emperor—a man most outstanding in virtue and wisdom—fell deeply in love with this woman, she saw that she had lost the hope of marriage as Otto prepared to return to Germany. She killed him with poisoned gloves in the year 1001, on the fifth day before the Calends of February January 28th..

The Emperor of the East, Romanus Argyrus—who had previously abandoned his first wife—was taken off by poison from his wife Zoe, a woman of most shameless and unrestrained lust, because she was madly in love with a certain Paphlagonian named Michael.

John Tzimiskes, Emperor of the East, was killed by a slow-acting poison by a certain eunuch named Basil, whom the Emperor had threatened to strip of his power.

Furthermore, there was the poisoning that occurred in the city of Casale, in the Salassi region of Italy, around the year of our Lord 1536. Men and women, nearly forty in number, conspired together—among whom was the executioner. Since the plague had previously raged and was beginning to subside, they conspired to manufacture an ointment. By smearing this on the bolts of the city gates, whoever touched the bolts would be infected. They also prepared a powder which they secretly sprinkled on clothes to cause harm. This scheme remained hidden for some time... The text ends mid-sentence as is common with catchwords at the bottom of pages.