Dissertation on the Natural Knowledge of Angelic Existence

protect witches and sorceresses, since he would not be forbidden from calling those judges, who inflict just punishment upon magicians and witches, executioners and butchers. His principal reasons are these: that pacts of this kind do not have anything of truth in them; that the demon is a spirit who does not have flesh and blood, and thus cannot hold out a hand, which, however, happens in those pacts, as he says the confessions of witches openly teach. That there is no need for a demon to employ the help of others, [as] he, powerful in many things, acts through himself without the help of others. That it is a trick of the demon, who, by perverting the mind and the senses, causes them to say things which are not, and which cannot be. Truly, however, the greater the number of those who desert Wierus in this part and convince his opinion of falsehood with valid reasons (i), the easier will be the response to these objections. It is therefore false that those pacts are mere illusions, for not oppressed by deep sleep, but waking and knowing, and having made a deliberation, they enter into a pact with the Devil and openly promise that they will be unfaithful to God and hostile to the human race. Indeed, because the Devil fears that those who have entrusted themselves to him will not keep faith, he sometimes impresses certain marks and stigmata upon them, so that they may have a perpetual sign of their servitude, and learn the laws of him whose examples can be seen both in others and also in Martin Delrio (x). Nor does Wierus rightly conclude from that, that a true pact with the Devil and witches does not intervene, [because] he is a spirit who does not have flesh and blood, and thus cannot hold out a hand, so that it appears they are mere illusions, and only the imagination is deceived, so that they report about things seen and done which, however, have nothing of truth in themselves. For first, it is indeed true that the Devil is a spirit who is not endowed with flesh and bones, nonetheless, however, it cannot be denied that he acts covered by some covering of a body as if he had a true body, by holding out hands, speaking, offering gifts, approaching, and receding. Nor are witches therefore to be excused from the atrocious crime, for they know that the demon lies hidden under that covering.