On Witches

...marcellus, and many were carried off by those joined to them by blood or marriage. It was even said that money was given to poisoners original: "veneficis." The term implies both a poisoner and a sorcerer. for the sake of securing inheritances. But when they had killed the brother and only son of a certain man named Necius, and hardly anyone was dying except the masters of houses or their sons; and at the same time, when they noticed that a person of ambiguous gender original: "Androgynam." This likely refers to an accomplice perceived as having both male and female characteristics, or perhaps a specific individual's name. was slipping into houses, and that those whose homes this person entered were the ones most likely to die: the conspiracy was uncovered, and all were put to death with the most exquisite tortures. They even confessed that they had planned to slaughter the entire citizenry by smearing the benches during a famous procession of a certain Saint, and that more than twenty jars of poison had been prepared for this purpose.

Later, several people attempted the same thing at Geneva and were punished. It is also well known that others in Milan anointed the door-bolts During plague outbreaks, "anointers" (untori) were often accused of spreading the disease by smearing infected ointments on surfaces. in a similar way; but when they were subjected to interrogation, they confessed to nothing, and since no one had died, they were released. Bassianus Ladius writes that at Padua, a certain monk conspired repeatedly with many others during a time of plague to secretly throw infected linens into houses so that the contagion would spread to many; they also suffered the death penalty. Surely this situation deserves the mention of those lines from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1:

—The guest is not safe from his host,
Nor the father-in-law from the son-in-law; affection between brothers is rare.
The husband looms over his wife’s destruction, and she over her husband’s.
Terrible stepmothers mix the gleaming aconite Aconite is a highly toxic flowering plant, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane.,
And the son inquires into his father’s years before his time i.e., the son consults astrologers to see how much longer his father will live so he can inherit..

Poisoners are to be punished by death.

The Law of Moses decreed that these poisoners be removed from life in Exodus 22, with this decree: Mekhashefah lo tekhayyeh, that is, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch original Hebrew: מְכַשֵּׁפָה. While modern bibles say "witch," the author argues here it means "poisoner." to live." For the name

Mechassepha.

Mechassepha, which the law uses, is derived from Chasaph To practice sorcery or use potions.. It is placed in the feminine gender, as the interpreters say, not because the law wishes men to go unpunished, but because that sex, due to its natural simplicity, is more frequently open to the snares of the demon. Therefore, the Greek translation, which we attribute to the seventy elders The Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible., rendered that decree more freely: "You shall not allow poisoners to survive" original Greek: φαρμακὸς οὐ περιβιώσετε. Note that the Greek "pharmakos" can mean both a magician and a poisoner.. In this way, the masculine gender includes the feminine.

It should be noted that the aforementioned word Chasaph, and those derived from it, are hardly ever explained in the aforementioned Greek translation as anything other than "poisoning." That is, they use these Greek words: pharmakos, pharmakeus, pharmaka, and their various forms. I will not lightly allow the reliability of the Septuagint translation to be snatched away or belittled by most people. Without doubt, those translators were most skilled in the Hebrew idiom and were gathered for such a holy work by the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that they do not easily deserve the mark of error due to their great number. Therefore, greater faith should be given to them than to Elias Levita A famous 15th-century Hebrew scholar. or certain more recent writers who interpret Mechassepha as "Lamiæ" Mythological female demons or witches., or in German as Zauberinn Witch or sorceress..

For when the name pharmakon is used in a bad sense, it is always taken by Dioscorides, Galen, and all Greek antiquity to mean a poison or a poisonous drug. Those who strive to do harm with such drugs are said to "practice poisoning" or are called "poisoners." Furthermore, Flavius Josephus supports our opinion. A Hebrew by nation, by his fourteenth year he had achieved such praise from his study of literature that he was consulted by the High Priests and the leaders of the city of Jerusalem regarding the deeper meaning of the laws. He explained the sense of this same law in the Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4, Chapter 8, with these words: "Let no Israelite possess a poison, whether it be deadly or prepared for other harms. If any be caught possessing it, let him be put to death, suffering that which he would have inflicted upon those for whom the poison was prepared." That is,