![]() ![]() (See Deut., xviii, 11-12 Ex., xxii, 18, “wizards thou shalt not suffer to live”-A. ![]() “If a man”, it is there prescribed, “has laid a charge of witchcraft upon a man and has not justified it, he upon whom the witchcraft is laid shall *o to the holy river he shall plunge into the holy river and if the holy river overcome him, he who accused him shall take to himself his house.” In the Holy Scripture references to witchcraft are frequent, and the strong condemnations of such practices which we read there do not seem to be based so much upon the supposition of fraud as upon the “abomination” of the magic in itself. It will be sufficient to quote a short section from the recently recovered Code of Hammurabi (about 2000 B.C.). Both in ancient Egypt and in Babylonia it played a conspicuous part, as existing records plainly show. The belief in witchcraft and its practice seem to have existed among all primitive peoples. In the traditional belief, not only of the dark ages, but of post- Reformation times, the witches or wizards addicted to such practices entered into a compact with Satan, abjured Christ and the Sacraments, observed “the witches’ sabbath”-performing infernal rites which often took the shape of a parody of the Mass or the offices of the Church-paid Divine honor to the Prince of Darkness, and in return received from him preternatural powers, such as those of riding through the air upon a broomstick, assuming different shapes at will, and tormenting their chosen victims, while an imp or “familiar spirit” was placed at their disposal, able and willing to perform any service that might be needed to further their nefarious purposes. This is not an exhaustive enumeration, but these represent some of the principal purposes that witchcraft has been made to serve at nearly all periods of the world’s history. In such cases this supernatural aid is usually invoked either to compass the death of some obnoxious person, or to awaken the passion of love in those who are the objects of desire, or to call up the dead, or to bring calamity or impotence upon enemies, rivals, and fancied oppressors. But in witchcraft, as commonly understood, there is involved the idea of a diabolical pact or at least an appeal to the intervention of the spirits of evil. Both are concerned with the producing of effects beyond the natural powers of man by agencies other than the Divine (cf. It is not easy to draw a clear distinction between magic and witchcraft. ![]()
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