CHAPTER VII.

THE PROFESSION OF WITCHES IS refuted, and it is shown that the pact is deceitful, foolish, and of no weight. Chapter VII.

How inconsistent, discordant, and unworthy of even the slightest belief these things are, anyone will easily judge, provided they do not wish to be utterly devoid of sense. It is clearly recognized that the pact is deceitful original: "praestigiosum" — referring to "prestige" in the old sense of a conjurer's trick or illusion, forged and established either by a phantom original: "phantasmate" or imagination, or by a deceitfully appearing visionary body of a trickster spirit; or by a likeness craftily instilled into the optic or visual nerves—a form which Satan desires—by stirring up the appropriate humors humors: the bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) believed in ancient medicine to control health and temperament and spirits; or by a whistling, whispering, or murmuring in the organs of hearing, excited by the art of the evil spirit to correspond to the shapes of the corrupted image. From this, it is known to be of no weight, especially if the differing natures of those entering the contract, the form of the contract, its manner, and circumstances are inspected with a sharp mental gaze and weighed more exactly in the balance of our reason and faith.

Thus, it becomes clear that almost all actions hitherto attributed to the witch—which even the madwoman herself confesses to be hers—arise from the imaginative power corrupted by the deceiver original: "praestigiatore"; they belong not to the witch, but to Satan himself. He has very little need for the assistance of another in showing his power or declaring his actions, nor is he compelled by the will or command of anyone except God and His good ministers. Indeed, that malicious old deceiver original: "veterator" obeys not by compulsion, but spontaneously and quite willingly when God permits, although he may pretend and simulate otherwise (as Porphyry Porphyry of Tyre: a 3rd-century Neoplatonist philosopher who wrote about demons testifies), so that he may further ensnare us in his deceptions. It is not necessary that an imaginary pact, entered into deceitfully and falsely by the other party, be strictly binding, since it cannot happen otherwise with the trickster spirit and a person who is stunned and not sufficiently in control of their mind. Indeed, that the demon receives the witch with an

extended hand and a firm agreement original: "stipulatione" must be doubted by no one to be utterly false, since a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as Truth itself A reference to Jesus Christ, quoting the Gospel of Luke 24:39 testifies. Moreover, Tatian Tatian the Syrian: a 2nd-century Christian writer rightly writes here against the Greeks that all demons consist not of fleshly but of spiritual composition, such as fire and air; this constitution of bodies can be seen only by those who are fortified by the Spirit of God, and not by other men whom the soul governs.

D lu...

Furthermore, if this deceitful agreement—concocted especially for a destructive end, without witnesses or guarantees, and against the will of God—is to have so much weight that it cannot be rescinded by any means, and that by its power one is necessarily compelled to follow the will of the other and obey his command, why should that prior pact, truly sanctioned in baptism by the special will and mandate of God with solemn words, and indeed with sponsors original: "fideiussoribus" standing in, not outweigh it as a prerogative? There is surely a different firmness in a contract between the truthful God and people of sound mind. Whatever He stipulates and promises in His word, He performs faithfully and without doubt. He does not delude with a deceitful handshake, He does not dance, nor feast, nor wickedly deceive or madden those with whom He bargains using such playful things, as this imaginary fleshly lover lover: original "amasius," referring here to the "incubus" demon believed to have sexual relations with witches does here. I do not know what truth someone might admit if they deny this disparity.

F sti ne...

But you will object that the wretched old woman has here renounced the Christian faith. And we—as many of us as seek another way of salvation than Christ Jesus, while observing His precepts and following His footsteps with a living faith in Him working through love—likewise cast off faith, testifying to this in reality with a sound mind. Whereas she has done so either because she is dull with age, or inconstant in her sex, or unstable due to mental weakness, or despairing from a disease of the mind, or because she is an imaginary victim deluded by the art of the evil one.
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