On Witches

...they deplore with diligent meditation night and day. Infinite examples could be gathered here, where you see all the senses corrupted in many ways from that single humor or the smoky vapor of black bile original: "atrae bilis" — one of the four humors, thought to cause depression and hallucinations when in excess. infecting the seat of the mind, from which it is certain those fantastic monsters are procreated.

Galen, in his work On the Differences of Symptoms, teaches that the imaginative power is also sometimes entirely corrupted and dissolved by other humors, just as in catalepsy A physical state of trance or seizure with rigid muscles.; but for the most part, it is corrupted as in delirium; or it is deficient and weakened, which happens in a lethargy. For this reason, why should the same not be permitted to the devil, acting as a spirit (with God’s connivance), so that he may insinuate himself into the sensory organs? He might stir up humors or vapors convenient to himself, or apply suitable air—making a choice based especially on temperament, age, sex, or some other internal or external cause. From this, new appearances are conceived in the imaginative power, and are for the most part communicated even to the visual spirit original: "spiritui visorio" — in period medicine, a subtle fluid that traveled through the optic nerve to enable sight. through the optic nerve. Thus, people dare to affirm, even at the risk of death, that they have seen or performed things which they never saw, and which nature itself does not allow. Slight evidence of this matter appears in a cataract original: "hypochymate" — a blurring or obstruction of vision., a fault of the eyes. Justly, therefore, Thomas Thomas Aquinas. frequently cites that passage of Augustine from his Book of 83 Questions:

This evil of the demon creeps through all the sensory passages; it gives itself to figures, adapts itself to colors, clings to sounds, subjects itself to odors, and pours itself into tastes.

The imagination is like a Proteus A sea-god in Greek mythology capable of changing his shape at will. or a chameleon; Aristotle says it is a kind of treasury of forms received through the senses. He records the same regarding dreams: that the images which appear in sleep are carried to the head and the sensory organs, just as the images of clouds are raised up. Diverse faces of animals are represented in watery or earthy vapor, which is carried from the earth by the sun’s heat to the middle of the air; so also the images of dreams...

...take on diverse shapes, following the elevated breaths. Thus, a choleric Relating to yellow bile; associated with fire, anger, and heat. vapor, hot and dry, seems to stir up flames. However, the phlegmatic breath that rises is recognized by its sweetness when it flows to the organ of taste, and it produces dreams regarding water. But from a black, melancholic vapor, something horrible appears, almost like 10 an image of demons. Therefore, the devil—not unwillingly—insinuates himself into this material as if it were most suitable for his mockeries. Furthermore, that which ascends from burnt choler original: "cholera adusta" — yellow bile that has been "scorched" by heat, turning it into a toxic form of melancholy., which is an accidental melancholy, is felt as something biting, wounding, sharp, and imbued with the bitterness of gall. So also, that which evaporates from pure blood appears beautiful and 20 delightful: such as the sight of roses or flowers, dances, music, and whatever pleasures are joined with vanity. In this manner the illusion occurs, so that according to the quality of the images driven more firmly during sleep by the breath of the humors, the things thus seen are believed to be true.

Indeed, having obtained the power by divine permission to form appearances of this kind and to imprint them upon the animal spirits In 16th-century physiology, these were subtle fluids that acted as messengers between the brain and the body., the demons show 30 people forms that are sometimes happy—eating, drinking, dancing, singing, or practicing lust—and sometimes sad forms, where they do or suffer nothing but evil. Sometimes they appear in human form, sometimes as beasts; sometimes they are oppressing, sometimes flying; and the sense of the soul is fixed upon these as if they were real things. From this it happens that a person sometimes seems to himself to be an ass covered with a sack, or sometimes to fly out through the chimney, or 40 to be transferred from place to place with a gathering of little women original: "muliercularum coetu" — a dismissive reference to the "Witches' Sabbath.", to lead dances, to wander on long journeys, and to be present at any other such ravings. Therefore, such things frequently happen to them in dreams and at night, but not in the same way during the day, except for certain melancholics and the insane, who suffer the same while awake,