On the Illusions of Demons

DEDICATION

...some Germans have written: but with what judgment they did so will become clear by a comparison with our work.

Furthermore, besides many serious reasons which drove me to dedicate these reflections of mine (whatever their worth) to Your Highness, this one especially influenced me: that since I have now been Your Highness's physician for thirteen years, and have often heard various opinions in Your Highness's court regarding the power and incantations of the "witches" original: "Lamiarum"; Weyer uses this specific term for those he believes are mentally ill rather than truly magical now reappearing in your vast territories; yet I am forced to admit, whether I like it or not, that I have heard from almost no one an opinion more certain, more in harmony with my own, or more deeply drawn from the fountains of truth than that which I have several times received from Your Highness's own mouth with these very ears.

Namely, that witches cannot harm anyone through any malicious will, dire curse, or evil eye; but rather, their imagination being corrupted through the hidden tunnels original: "cuniculos"; a metaphor for the subtle, subterranean ways the Devil infiltrates the mind of the demon, and being agitated by melancholy, they convince themselves that whatever evils are actually inflicted by Satan himself, or arise from natural causes through God's hidden plan, were instead committed by them. For when the methods of their actions are brought to the scales meaning to be weighed or judged carefully, and their instruments are observed with more careful investigation, the vanity and falsehood of the matter soon becomes clearer than light to everyone's eyes.

Your Highness learnedly, prudently, and piously concedes that "poisoning" original: "Veneficium" is done harmfully to the destruction of humans and animals only by pharmakeia the Greek term for both poisoning and sorcery, emphasizing the use of physical drugs or "pharmaceuticals" or poisoners, using poison that is either drunk or applied. Hence it happens, that not of many mo...

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