Antikrisis: A Short Rejoinder and Defense

[seals and] talismans The Latin text begins mid-word with "nacula," the end of signacula (seals or talismans), referring to the magical objects used in the previous page's anecdote., why are herbs called upon? If you say that these things, when joined together, obtain this effectiveness, I object that this is mere superstition. Just as I wish to detract nothing from the wonders of natural things, I freely declare that absolutely nothing should be attributed to such little chants original: cantiunculis and seals.

Since those herbs do not work unless incantations and seals are applied to them, it follows that the herbs themselves possess none of that same power. If you respond that an effect actually follows, I tell you: it happens surely by the work of a Demon original: Dæmonis colluding by means of the seal or the song. He does this so that he may bind the unwary more tightly with such mockeries, deceive them more cautiously, and in no way actually help them.

One might exclaim here with Pliny Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), the Roman author of Natural History, who was famously skeptical of the "Magian" use of herbs.: would it not have been better for Scipio Aemilianus to open the gates of Carthage with a herb, rather than seeking to break the barriers with siege engines for so many years?

One might also exclaim with Weyer Johann Weyer (1515–1588), a Dutch physician and occultist who argued that those accused of witchcraft were often mentally ill and that "magic" was a demonic deception.: why do our Christian Princes burden themselves with such heavy expenses in breaking down the gates of towns with such a great number of heavy cannonballs shot by the power of infernal powder original: pulveris infernalis; a common historical term for gunpowder, here used ironically to contrast physical warfare with "magic."? For they would by no means blush to investigate even at the Acheron A river in the Greek underworld; used here to signify searching for solutions in the depths of hell or through demonic pacts., if anything in...