Note 590 — Chapter VII · WITCHCRAFT. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Molitoris Dial. de Pythonicis Mulieribus c. 1, 10.
The absurd contrast between the illimitable powers ascribed to the witch and her personal wretchedness was explained under torture by the victims as the result of the faithlessness of Satan, who desired to keep them in poverty. When steeped in misery he would appear to them and allure them into his service by the most attractive promises, but when he had attained his end those promises were never kept. Gold given to them would always disappear before it could be used. As one of the Tyrolese witches in 1506 declared, “The devil is a Schalk (knave).” (Rapp, Die Hexenprocesse und ihre Gegner aus Tirol, p. 147.)