Part One is about the three elements that co-operate to bring about sorcery, namely, the demon, the sorcerer and the permission of God.
sounds like an erotica title to me for some reason, "the demon, the sorcerer and the permission of God."
lewd, kink
some of this is activating my corruption fetish
Chapter One is about the various methods by which demons entice innocent and respectable girls through sorceresses in order to increase this breach of the Faith.
like please tell me more 
re: lewd, kink
Chapter Four is about the method by which they subordinate themselves to incubus demons. In this chapter, there is also a treatment of how their numbers are increased as a result of them and whether it is always with an emission of seed that the incubus accosts the sorceress, and whether at one time rather than another, and like- wise about the location, and whether they visibly carry out these filthy acts, with greater or lesser sexual enjoyment, and whether incubi accost only women begotten of the filthy acts of sorceresses.
Apparently if a witch does a witchcraft to your marriage prior to you consummating it there is no way to undo the spell.
Though the latter happens very rarely in the Church since it has the meritorious Sacrament of Matrimony, they say that this happens among the infidels, since the demon perceives that he has a just title to them. For instance, in his Commentary on Pronouncements, Bk. 4, Peter de Palude tells a story about a man who betrothed himself to an idol and nonetheless contracted a marriage with a certain young woman. He was unable to know her because of the Devil, who always interposed himself in an assumed body.
Husband: I consent
Wife: I consent
Isn't there someone you forgot to ask?
Devil: I don't
There are also others who prey on the lives of the innocent through the magical art and turn the minds of women to lust
me irl 
cw: torture
Note that in the past such people were punished with two sorts of execution, either the application of claws to tear their bodies apart or exposure to the beasts so that they would be eaten alive. Now, however, they are burned alive, perhaps because of their being female.'
trying to figure out what being burned alive has to do with being female.
re: cw: torture
me, about to be burned at the stake: ah yes, this is very gender isn't it.
The author is responding to a passage of Canon Law known as "Canon Episcopi" and that too sounds lowkey fascinating.
Short version is this text is dealing with a supposed phenomena happening to witches in which they are led by the goddess Diana on horseback to some meeting place.
author has to deal with this text because it argues that witches don't actually do anything per se but that they merely get visions that they are doing things. and being an inquisitor that wants to persecute witches that view doesn't suit him obviously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Episcopi
Author has declared that clergy that disagree with his assessment on witches (either those that believe they don't exist, or those that teach they are harmless) are heretics.
But apparently there are three levels of suspicion in regards to heresy: light, heavy, and violent. and he seems reluctant to apply "violent" suspicion to clergy and is trying to logic out how much of a heretic these people are basically.
think he basically argues they should be removed from their positions unless they fall in line with this belief.
He also says that the reason magic practitioners are successful in summoning demons with their elaborate rituals is not because the elaborate rituals actually do anything. Its just that it suits the demons to play along because these elaborate rituals pull the magic practitioner further away from god by convincing them that the stars have power (and so they begin to worship the stars.)
curious what he is pulling from (apparently Aquinas) but apparently gold is created by the sun hitting a place where "the mineral virtue is strong"
There is a Dominican friar named Albertus Magnus who claimed that if you let sage rot a specific way and then throw it into a spring a storm will immediately break out.
a lot of this stuff is medieval christians getting high on Aristotle.
He seems to be arguing that demons need witches to actually do anything material.
Which, like, did we read the same books? Because in the bible they definitely do quite a lot of stuff without the use of a witch. Like what is this dude on about?
“And without any drinking of poison they destroy souls merely through the violence of their chant.”
this sounds so fucken metal.
I'm reminded of "the funniest joke in the world" skit from monty python
This skit
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Qklvh5Cp_Bs
Hence Lucan, too, says ‘Contaminated with no contagion from poison that has been drunk, the mind, being enchanted, dies.’
reading this line before unleashing a sick metal riff
that the first inventor of the arts of magic and astrology was Zoroaster
talked about this one before.
Not true
Greeks were just being weird because the Greek transliteration of his name has aster in it (star). So they started writing a bunch of magical and astrological texts in his name. (his name in his language actually means something like "Old camel man")
he goes on to claim that Zoroaster is the biblical character Ham
which, also no.
According to Augustine (City of God [16.3, 10; 21.14]), he [Zoroaster] is the only man to have laughed when he was born, which was nothing but the work of the Devil.
this baby is laughing, must be satan.
Satan is playing peek-a-boo again
his argument for why demons were able to do stuff without a witch is because witches weren't invented yet. But now that they exist I guess they have to use them or something.
apparently witches have to have demons to do things with one exception. Old women are apparently able to give the evil eye to people through their own power.
(also apparently a pure mirror "gains impurity" when it sees a menstruating woman. which ok dude (I guess he gets that one from Aristotle))
In this way, then, when a soul is strongly impelled in the direction of evil, as happens to old women in particular, the sight of her is rendered poisonous and harmful in this manner
This is very gender
apparently non-harmful magic (he uses magic for acquiring "health or friendship" as an example) is not witchcraft but what he calls "observance of vanities". and is still heresy but he says he ain't gonna talk abt it because he is concerned with witches.
I guess this non-harmful magic too can be done without the explicit use of demons. (but he says it uses them implicitly)
Hence, sorcerers through no natural power and merely with the assistance of demons on the one hand, and demons by themselves with the help of some object like thorns, bones, strands of hair, pieces of wood or the like on the other, bring about the effects of sorcery when they insert or deposit some device, as will be explained in the following discussion.
Ok so demons can also do stuff through an object. But I suspect at any rate they'd need a witch to make sure the object is planted in the right place.
reading the book that was an influence in the witch hunts again, just so yall are ready for that lol
Let it also be noted that among other actions they [witches] must follow four practices that serve to increase that breach of the Faith: they renounce the Catholic Faith in whole or part with a sacrilegious speech, solemnly devote themselves in body and soul, offer babies not yet reborn [baptised] to the Evil One, and persistently engage in the Devil’s filthy deeds through carnal acts with incubus and succubus demons.
the whole "sex with demons" thing seems to be really important to this guy (he brings it up a lot). I'm thinking he is thinking of the Nephilim I'm guessing the author must also be very familiar with the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
He argues here that demons just go around collecting sperm
Also, Strabus’ gloss on Exodus 7[:11] (“Pharaoh summoned the wise men . . . ”) says that demons scatter throughout the world and gather various seeds and from the use of them different sorts of creatures are able to burst into existence
yep he brought up the Nephilim (fwiw I always thought that interpretation of Gen 6 was kinda iffy)
He also implies that people are beautiful because of demons so go thank a demon for that one when you get a chance
They [demons] change senses, pollute affections, disturb those who are awake, disquiet those who are asleep with dreams, inflict diseases, stir up storms, turn themselves into angels of light, always carry Hell around with them, and in their relations with sorcerers usurp God’s worship for themselves.
#Goals
I find this whole paragraph kinda fun tbh. cw: long quote about the characteristics of demons
... unreasoning rage, insane lust and perverse fantasy are inherent to them (understand this in terms of their spiritual sins: arrogance, envy and anger). For this reason, they are enemies of the human race and are rational in mind (though intelligent without running around), subtle in wrong-doing, desirous of causing harm, and ever novel in deceit. They change senses, pollute affections, disturb those who are awake, disquiet those who are asleep with dreams, inflict diseases, stir up storms, turn themselves into angels of light, always carry Hell around with them, and in their relations with sorcerers usurp God’s worship for themselves. The magical arts are carried out through them. They desire to gain lordship over the good and harass them more to the best of their abilities, are given to the Elect for their training, and always lie in ambush to attack man’s goal. Though they have a thousand methods and arts for causing harm, in that since the start of their own fall they have been trying to tear down the unity of the Church, to wound love, to infect the sweetness of holy works with the bile of envy, and in every way to overturn the human race and throw it into confusion, his power abides in the loins and navel (next to last chapter of Job), since it is through the debauchery of the flesh that they gain great lordship over men.
he cites a passage in Isaiah talking about how wild animals will dwell in Israel after its sacked by the Babylonians. But he interprets the goats to be demons.
Which is only funny to me because reading this way means that Israel will be inhabited with Ostriches and demons
“It will be a bedchamber of snakes, and pastures for ostriches and demons will appear”) an interlinear gloss says, “That is, demonic monstrosities intermingled.”
list of demonic monstrosities: demons, snakes, ostriches
Aster