Part I, chapter 3.

q “Bel.” “Daniel”? xiv.
BK. I. CH. I.
thing that they do, but that all is done by pure skill and dexterity. Ulricus Molitor * states that the devil is able to make one thing seem as if it were another; and Nider f tells us that many other tricks are practised by conjurers. For this prestidigital art was taught by the giant demons before the Flood, and from them Ham ¢t learned it, and from him the Egyptians, then the Chaldaeans and Persians, and so in succession. S. Clement in his Recognitions (IV) says: Zoroaster was the first of the Chal- daeans, and he was struck by light- ning as a fit reward for his deeds.
*
Examples.
A certain virgin of Cologne was said to have performed in the pres- ence of the nobles wonders which seemed to be due to magic art: for she was said to have torn up a nap- kin, and suddenly to have pieced it together again before the eyes of all; she threw a glass vessel against the
* “Ulricus Molitor.” A learned lawyer of Constance, who being consulted by Sigismund of Austria on various problems of witchcraft published in January, 1489, his famous trea- tise *‘De lanits [sic] et phitonicis muliertbus.”” Molitor died in 1492.
+ ‘“Nider.” Fean Nider, O.P., prior of the important Dominican house at Basle, papal in- quisitor and Rector of the University of Vienna. He died in 1438. His work is very famous and there are constant appeals to his authority. The edition of the ‘‘Formicarius’? (or ‘‘Formicar- ium”) which I have used is that of Douat, 1602.
t “Ham.” Cf. “‘Malleus Maleficarum,”’