The Misogyny of Witchcraft

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

In what are arguably his two most important works, Summa contra gentiles and Summa theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas condemned magic as evil and the work of demons, and its practitioners as criminals who were perpetrating illicit deeds like adultery, theft and homicide; that only God could perform miracles; that the power of magic did not come from nature, but from “bidding”; and that any unnatural occurrence came from demons. In the Summa theologica, secunda secundae (Part 2b), Aquinas, in Question 96 and its replies, discusses magic and concludes that it is unlawful and futile.

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