1. 7.And Ovid, in his “Amores”:
Charms change corn to grass and make it die:
By charms are running springs and fountains dry.
By charms mast falls from oaks, from vines grapes fall,
And fruit from trees when there’s no wind at all.
Why might not then my sinews be enchanted,
And I grow faint as with some spirit haunted?
And Vergil says: Poisonous snakes burst at a witch’s chant. And Lucan:
With no more venom than a magic song
They turn man’s sounder judgment out headlong.
Touching this matter the Romans made a law: “That he who hath bewitched the fruits of the earth shall be punished; and that it shall not be lawful for any person soever to remove the corn from one man’s field to another by enchantment.” We know the verses which make it impossible to churn butter; Ecl. VIII. 77and for those who “tie the points” (causing sexual impotence and frigidity) Vergil says:
Three strands of divers colours, in three knots
Knot them; and say: “Here bind I Venus’ fetters.”
Nec mirum. 8. Magi. 26. q. 5.The Canon also allows that witches can cause injury by their mere words.
But now are we to account for the fact that even when they praise and compliment you, they injure you? Yet this is no new thing; for there