false boastings, and that their attempts were useless? "In evil
doings," says the law, "it is the will, and not the event, which makes
the crime." Also, Constantine wills that those amongst them should be
pardoned who professed to cure people by such means, and to preserve
the products of the earth. But in general these kind of persons aimed
only at doing harm; for which reason the laws ordain that they should
be regarded as "public enemies." The least harm they could be accused
of was deluding the people, misleading the simple, and causing by that
means an infinity of trouble and disorder. Besides that, of how many
crimes were they not guilty in the use of their spells? It was that
which led the Emperor Valentinian to decree the pain of death "against
whomsoever should work at night, by impious prayers and detestable
sacrifices, at magic operations." Sometimes even they adroitly made
use of some other way to procure the evil which they desired to cause;
after which, they gave out that it must be attributed to the power of
their art. But what is the use of so many arguments? Is it not certain
that the first step taken by those who had recourse to magic was to
renounce God and Jesus Christ, and to invoke the demon? Was not magic
looked upon as a species of idolatry; and was not that sufficient to
render this crime capital, should the punishment have depended on the
result? Honorius commanded that these kind of people should be treated
with all the rigor of the laws, "unless they would promise to conform
for the future to what was required by the Catholic religion, after
having themselves, in presence of the bishops, burned the pernicious
writings which served to maintain their error."

VIII. What is remarkable is, that if ever any one laughed at magic, it
must certainly be the author in question--since all his book only
tends to prove that there are no witches, and that all that is said of
them is merely foolish and chimerical. But what appears surprising is,
that at the same time he maintains that while in truth there are no
witches, but that there are enchantresses or female magicians; that
witchcraft is only a chimera, but that diabolical magic is very real.
Is not that, as it appears to some, denying and affirming at the same
time the same thing under different names? Tibullus took care not to
make nothing of these distinctions, when he said: "As I was promised
by a witch, whose magical operations never fail." While t